Robotics, Water Coloring, Gardening and MORE!!!

Happy Monday!

Here is a jam packed post with so many fun memories from our week together!  Enjoy and leave a comment below!

Open Choice Time:  

Our water color area has been a busy space this week with many friends making careful drawings from inspiring images found in books from our class.  I have been encouraging friends to give and receive feedback from their peers before adding color to their drawings to help make their best lines and shapes as well as adding details.  Be sure to come in to check out their work in progress.  Below you will see one example of a nearly finished piece of work!

In Construction, friends continue to inspire each other and share ideas, even connecting their work to make something completely different!

Our Ten Friends have been coming along and it's inspiring to see how much some friends have been pushing themselves to make their best number shapes.  Come check our work soon!

The Learning Extensions have been BOOMING!  Thank you to everyone who has been working with their child at home on fun and meaningful work so that they can come in to teach their peers about their excitement!  Come in to look at our Learning Extensions Wall to see what friends have documented about what their presenter shared with them.

Our Estimation Jar provocation has moved into Open Choice Time.  Friends, after making their initial estimation, display how many gems that would equal to see if they would like to change their guess to be more or less, or stay the same.  Their second guess is then written down on our group estimation page.

Here is what 20 looks like...

Here is what 15 looks like...

One friends' guess of 16 did not seem like the amount matched what was in the jar...

So she made a second guess of 21, which she felt was closer to the actual number.

Our history provocation has come up with many different responses as to whether the people in the photo are from the past, present or future.  Some of their reasons are some that I never would have thought of!  Come check out our History Wall when you can!

The Sensory Area is encouraging friends to use their inventive spelling to describe what sensations wheat is giving them.

This week, Clara introduced the class to Robotics!  Here, the class work in partnerships to find the different code combinations to make the motorized car go in the direction desired.  It's too complicated for me to explain, so please ask your Kindergartner--- they're the expert!

In Art with Niki, our friends have been continuing their exploration of sketching and using their imagination.  After studying how paints can give different effects, whether it make the image look flat, OR give it more of a effect of depth, the class tested different water colors and painting techniques.

Last week, the Loving Reading Scientists made a list of things they were still interested in learning about.  This week, we started investigating one of the ideas: roars.  Below is a web of ideas about why lions roar.  You can check out our journals anytime to see their initial ideas.  We later watched a video with some answers to our questions and discussed how our theories matched or differed from what we found in our research.

Here's a new large motor game I introduced to the class:  Steal the Bacon.  Do you know it?  If not, ask your child all about it!

We had our first All School Assembly this Friday.  The 4th Graders presented two videos of their adventures in the school's garden and cleaning up trash from the beach.

Speaking of the Garden, here are some snapshots from the class' first Friday with Beth, courtesy of Lea, our parent volunteer.  You can ask your child about the garden sights, sounds, smells, care, and vegetation that they experienced.  It looked like a beautiful day! 

Have a great week,

Love, Gaby