Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Force

Science..... Force!



We read the book, Newton and Me by, Lynne Mayer. A book about a young boy and his dog discover the laws of force and motion in their everyday life.
Today the kids had two activities, one was with blocks and the other was with balls and string. Kids had to figure out how things moved by law of force. Something won't move unless a force makes it move. Or if you push something twice as hard, it will move twice as fast.
     

            
 

Language Arts......
We continue to work on reviewing books we've read. Monday we read our own books and as we read our books, we used sticky notes to put on pages because...
"What do readers do when they read to understand the story better?"
1.) find parts that are interesting
2.) want to learn words we don't know or understand.
3.) want to remember a part in the book.

A few kids shared their "sticky notes" and said...
Grady-"this was an interesting part."




Earl- "because I wanted to learn some of the words."
Mazie- "because Tip and Kip were both playing together. It was my favorite part."

We also learned that the letter "C" is magic!  Without "C" we wouldn't know how to write the letters;
O, Q, G.  We practiced writing these letters.




In math we are practicing one less.  The kids have some homework today that focuses on one less.  We played roll and write, we played finish my sentence and we played show me fingers all revolving around one less.  We are also working on the numbers 11-20. We did a really fun page that was all about the number 11!



Monday, January 23, 2017

Show and Tell

Last Friday's Royal Reader was Sheryl Platt! She works in our class with students throughout the day as well as in other classes. She read to us Zen Shorts by, Jon J. Muth. Muth combines a tale of Stillwater the panda's budding friendship with three children with three classic Zen talks. Still water is a wonderful creation, so warm and cozy, so calming, so wise--yet still great fun. 
Thank you Sheryl for sharing your favorite book with us!


SHOW AND TELL..... each day we have 4 kids who get to share something with the class. Below are today's student's who shared something with us. Nice job!

Dahlia shared a birds nest and her noise maker of sounds from wild animals to sounds in nature. 

McCartney shared her nest and her Robin's Egg.

West shared his toy from home that makes smoke.

Grady shared his fire truck.


SHOW AND TELL sharing schedule......
Monday: Grady, McCartney, West, Dahlia
Tuesday: Earl, Bodhi, Ethan, Fiona
Wednesday: Ryan, Eva, Eli, Willis
Thursday: Azza, Kamden, Molly, Max
Friday: Mazie, Ryder, Maddie, Evan


How old will you be in 10 years?  This was today's question on the morning meeting chart. Kids had to think about how old they are and count up 10 more to get their answer.  Many of the kids were very excited to count up to learn that in 10 years they were going to be 15 or 16 years old. Earl made me laugh, he said "I'll be 16!?" He laughed. Then he said, "I'll be in college or something!" And laughed again.


Today with our friend Ani, we talked about feelings and emotional control. Ani will be coming in once a week to work with us. Today we worked on "Zones of Regulation," putting feelings in different zones. There are four zones; Blue Zone: "Body is running slow." This zone you might feel tired, sick, sad or board. Green Zone: "Good to go!" You're happy, calm, focused. Yellow Zone: "Proceed with caution, slow down." This zone you might feel like you are starting to loose control, overwhelmed, excited, worried or anxious. Red Zone: "Extreme emotions, out of control." You might feel terror, uncontrolled anger, aggression, elated(so happy and excited you just can control your happiness.)
Willis finding where an emotion would go on our Zone Regulation. 








Thursday, January 19, 2017

Outside Art Class

Math class we worked on making sets, and adding one more. Kids rolled dice, whatever number they rolled they would put that on their white board, then add one more to complete the set. 
After that math fun, we worked with pattern blocks, making our own creations. 


It is so great to have sunshine and fresh snow at recess.  West, Max, Bodhi and Grady making ginormous snowballs for their fort. 





Please help your child stay healthy. Help your child to get a good nights rest, drink plenty of fluids, make healthy food choices, etc. Most sicknesses this week have been the nasty cough or even feverish. Remind them to wash their hands frequently, cover their mouth when they cough or sneeze and use a tissue to blow their nose.



We read a few books today...
The Shark Who Was Afraid of EVERYTHING!  by Brian James

Who's Afraid of the Dark?  by Crosby Bonsall

Dear Children of the Earth by Schim Schimmel
A very powerful letter from "Mother Earth" about her love for each and every child, all things living and asks for their love and appreciation in return.
This was the best of the three books we read today as it sparked lots of great conversation almost every page. It really made the kids think about things and what they can do to be "loving" to the earth and each other.


OUTSIDE ART CLASS.....Brilliant!!!
Heather saw an opportunity for some outdoor classroom learning, and took it! Not only was their fresh air, but this fresh snow made for great sculptures.

Azza- "I made two little tiny snowmen."

 
 Ryder - "I am making a bionacle."

Grady and West made "a baby and daddy snowmen." 

Eva, Molly and Bodhi - "we made a castle."
Eli - "I made a snow sculpture like a cave."

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Pushes and Pulls



In Language Arts, we are working on "text to text" connections.  We began our lessons with reading a book. Yesterday we read Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Williams.  We continued to make connections to other stories we have read. This strategy helps students comprehend and make meaning of the ideas in the text.  Kids were able to connect to other books by the same author such as the Knuffle Bunny.  In this story Trixie's dad didn't remember that she forgot her bunny. Trixie tried to express it, but her dad didn't understand and Trixie got really frustrated and angry. With the Pigeon in the other story, kids noticed that the Pigeon gets really frustrated and angry because the Pigeon can not drive the bus. That is a example of "text to text" connection.  Another well known story we looked at was The Gingerbread Man, which is told and retold by many authors. We have now found and compared "text to text" connections, with three different versions.


In math we are working on matching sets.  We played a game where kids rolled dice and had to draw x's and o's to match the number on the dice.  We also did an assessment called Grab and Count.  Children had to grab unifix cubes out of the bucket, count them and write how many they grabbed.  When we were done with our "work" we made pictures with pattern blocks.






Today we did a science lesson, continued from last week, about Pulls and Pushes. This unit talks about every day pushes and pulls. We have read about the different ways we use these forces, such as throwing a football, pulling a wagon, pedaling a bike, opening a door, etc. Today we walked around the school and found many different "forces" being used, including a school friend carrying his box, a girl carrying a tray of utensils. 

  
Some free choice activities....

Max-"I made a web shooter!" Ethan-"I made a castle."

 Earl- made a place for dogs. "We are playing dogs."

Bodhi - "I'm making a fan."
Maddie - "I made a bow for my head."


We are incredibly low on snacks! Please, if you can, bring in something to share for these growing, hard working children.  ( A box of cheerios, granola bars, pretzels, crackers, goldfish, etc) We appreciate you contributions. 


Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Ski/Ride Safty with Murphy Moose

A little late, but thought I would post, as I had started this but forgot to post.

We are a week away from starting the Ski/Ride program. In preparation for this exciting endeavor we had special guests from Sugarbush talk to us about being safe on the mountain, including Murphy!
Murphy High Fives the kids as they come in for the presentation. And Willis' dad, Mark, talks with kids about safety. 

Ski Patrol demonstrates what happens if you need First Aid attention.

Today in Language Arts we read the book Snowmen at Night.  We began by making predictions. Followed by craft projects of snowmen. 

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

It was great to have everyone back today. Lots of stories told about there time off.  Great to see all these smiling, friendly faces. 





In Language Arts we will continue to teach kids how to blend and read words.  When making words or reading we are "tapping" them out. That means the kids will tap the first letter using their pointer finger to their thumb, second letter with their middle finger to their thumb and third letter with their ring finger to their thumb. So when we say the word "map," kids will tap out each letter with their fingers and thumb. We are continuing with "read to self." We have organized books for kids so that they choose from the non-fiction, fiction, favorites box or author study boxes. We read Good Night Moon and made connections to the book. Kids will make connections because they have read the book before with a parent, looked at it because it was in the classroom, etc. These connections make us better readers!  Good Night Moon has many connections in it to other stories the kids have seen before. Such as the picture of the cow jumping over the moon. That is a connection to the riddle, Hey Diddle Diddle. This book opened up communication about how they do things similar things when they go to bed, like saying good night to their stuffed animals, etc. 


Today was our writers workshop. We have been working on making our own short story books. We are really working on writing about a real, true life story. As well as illustrating our own book to match our writing, making sure to add detail and color. There are a lot of good writers in this classroom.


In math we have learned about measuring the length and weight of objects and comparing objects.  Is this longer or shorter? Is this heavier or lighter?  Now we are moving on to capacity as another way to measure things.  Does this cup hold more or less than this pitcher?  We have a bin full of rice with measuring cups to practice comparing amounts!  
Kamden measuring


 Max - "We are sasquaches. Sasquaches don't really like humans, that's why we are up here."
Ethan - "Yeah!"

 Building with Willis, Ryan and Azza.

Ryder and Earl...future architects!

 It's Diego time. 

More Diego friends at play.


We also read Tacky the Emporer