Hello friends and families,
Enjoy these snapshots from this week's adventures and experiences together. Be sure to view them with your child to help gain more insight from them about their week.
Recess, Large Motor Exercise and Play
This week, we were introduced to a new playground tool: CHALK! Friends have been using them to draw things that they love, such as family, friends, nature, and more. They have also been decorating the inside of our yard's playhouses since the walls are covered in Chalkboard Paint!
Writing Skills
This week, we practiced a new song: Start Your Letters at the Top! This helps remind friends that whenever we write letters, shapes, or numbers, we start at the TOP! We used this tip in writing our names, as well as distinguishing between which letters are uppercase in our names, and which are lower case. You all can keep practicing this at home together!
Mat Man
To reinforce this concept of starting from top to bottom when writing, we also practiced a song called Mat Man. We worked together to build him to the music before going off to try drawing our own Mat Man on paper.
Rainy Days
This week brought lots of rain, so that meant that we had to stay inside and find new ways to channel our energy. I brought out our silk scarves and the students danced to music of varying speeds and tempos and were asked to "make their scarves dance" to the music. It sure was beautiful to watch! What do you like to do on rainy days to get your going?
Math Pairs
Throughout the year, friends will be provided with many opportunities to work intimately with different partners and find ways to work together. This week, friends were paired up and provided with a random supply of pattern blocks. Together, they were to make a collaborative creation using their blocks. Below are some of their examples.
Open Choice Time
Each day, friends will have the opportunity to work on different areas of the classroom to practice different skills and form a more well rounded week. Here are some things that they students have been studying in class.
Fine Motor Skills Practice
Games and Puzzles
Construction
Message Writing
Patterning
Dramatic Play
Observational Drawing
Fine Motor Skills Practice with Putty
Friends have been exploring the different putties available and noticing how the different colors have different levels of resistance, using words to describe them, such as soft, squishy, stretchy, and hard. They are also practicing making different shapes and teaching their friends how to match their idea when they get inspired by them. These are all opportunities for connection making, language skills development, fine motor muscle building, and fun!
Construction Area
Friends are enjoying collaborating together to make different structures using the many materials in class. Friends are experimenting to see which materials are difficult to balance depending on which side you stand them, which help create a sturdy structure, and which are really good for stacking. Friends are really interested in making shelters for the animals and nesting dolls! What materials would you use to build with?
Observational Drawing/Life Science
Games and Puzzles
This is a great time to practice inviting a friend to play a game with you and do something quiet together. The students are working together to respect the agreements of how to play the game, how to play with different personalities, and how to care for the materials. Which types of games do you like to play at home as a family?
Message Writing
Students have been excited to start writing messages to friends and family to show them that they love them and are thinking of them. This week, some students also started writing Thank You messages to Armando, the gentleman that we see everyday working hard on building beautiful things for our school. We found out that he helped to fix and paint the playhouses we enjoy so much.
Patterning Area
Friends have been excited to finish their collaborative pattern from last week's Game Day and start their own beautiful creations. Look at their use of symmetry and balance in their work...
Dramatic Play
This week, friends started testing the materials in our Dramatic Play Areas, creating costumes and personas to go with their new character and working together to create an imaginary story to tell together.
Art with Niki
This week, friends had their first session of Art with Niki. After getting to know her a bit and sharing what they new and loved about art, they started sharing knowledge about different insects, naming which ones could fly and which ones would crawl. They got got a chance to BE that insect before making their first attempts at drawing some on their own.
Outdoor Education with Coach Curry and and Coach Q
This Friday was our first Outdoor Education experience. We met Coach Curry (Rich and his wife April) and Coach Q. The three of them guided the children in various gross motor skill building activities, such as skipping, galloping, running, bear crawling, crab sliding, and more. Ask your child to demonstrate of a few for you!
Nature Studies with Mary
Our class also had their first session of Nature Studies with Mary. Here, friends generated agreements of what they could do when they are out in the field, investigating different things. They also journaled about something they were wondering about nature. Lastly, they were able to enjoy a story with Mary about a frog.
Cooking Day
This week, I offered the class the chance to work together in small groups to mix different ingredients together to make gluten free pancakes and have a small taste test. What were your child's thoughts?
Sea Monkeys
Our friend brought in her Sea Monkeys from home to share with us that they have been growing so much. She demonstrated how she cares for them and how she has been studying them by looking through the magnified viewfinders on their cage. Take a look!
Family Reader
Thank you to Fay for being our Family Reader this week!
Stories we read together this week include: I'll Love You Forever, If You Give a Moose a Muffin, AFRICA, Arthur Goes Camping, The Way I Feel, and Little Rabbit's Loose Tooth. This last story is still in progress because it asked "What will the Tooth Fairy do with my tooth?" So we pair shared our ideas with a partner before drawing our own theory on paper.
Journaling
This week we journaled about Number Sense: What is there only ONE of? Come in to check out Discussion Notes binder to see what some friends came up with and look at our journals to see their illustrated ideas.
We also journaled about the weather. After the rain, the next couple of days were so lovely. We came up with a brainstorm of how we could tell what kind of weather we would be having on any given day based on what our eyes could see and what our ears could hear. Check out the see their words and ideas in class.
Calendar and Journal
Our end of the day routine to check off the day of the week we've been at school from our calendar and adding another straw to indicate how many days we have been at school, has been something friends are very excited to do together. This has been helping us to practice learning the days of the week, addition skills, counting skills, and number recognition.
We also get a chance to reflect on our day and decide on what are new an special moments we want to share with our families. Be sure to check out their words in our Reflection Journal on the information table.
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