February 22, 2010

Today Mr. Mark came to teach us. We love Mr. Mark on the account that he built our whole school. Also, when we write a note to ask him for something, things seem to get accomplished very quickly. We always give him our rapt attention.


We talked about how the plants outside are merely sleeping and NOT dead. We are expecting them to wake from hibernation very soon.


Mr. Mark and Ms. Kelsey made us signs with a picture of a sleeping baby plant for us to scatter among our own sleeping plants. We will see these signs and they will remind us to not step on the plants or bushes in our garden.


We went outside to plant the signs in the garden.




Our buddies came today and preformed a skit for us about Pennies for Peace - a fundraiser to buy books and supplies for students in Pakistan.



We also started our penny collection for Pennies for Peace. During centers, we took turns counting our pennies. Before we counted, we first estimated how many pennies we had in our pile. It took alot of persistence, concentration and patience to count our pennies. Some friends had over 100 pennies. We learned that 100 pennies equals $1.

During afternoon centers, we experimented with blubber. We put our gloved hands into a bowl of ice water. Our hands were freezing! We could only keep them in the water for a few seconds. If felt uncomfortable to put our bare hands in the water.




We then put our gloved hand into a bag of blubber. We dunked the blubber bag in the water. We could not feel the cold water through all the blubber! Most of us said we could keep our hand in the freezing water all day as long as it was surrounded by blubber!




We realized that if animals don't hibernate or migrate, they have to find other ways (adaptations) to survive the winter. Blubber is one of the ways animals in winter stay warm!

February 18th, 2010

We are making the morning math graph part of our daily routine. Today, Sam ran the math center in the morning and helped kids put up their math babies. Here is a video of Sam running the math center (again, sorry for the sideways!)

Our mathematical observations are getting stronger every day. First, we all think in our heads about what we notice about the math graph. Then, we share with a buddy our observations. Finally, mathematicians that choose to come up and teach the class about what they have noticed. The teacher then calls on another mathematician friend to share his or her thoughts!

Teacher Justin.

Teacher James.

Here is a video of Teacher Justin's mathematical observations.

At centers, we used our animals in winter vocabulary words and sorted them on our word wall by the first letter of each word. For example, hibernation went in the "H" category. This helps us not only expand our vocabularies, but also helped us with letter recognition and making the connection between letters and their sounds.

Today we read a story called Listen to the Wind. It is about children in Pakistan with no school and no school materials. We thought it would feel "bad" and "sad" to have no school and no materials. We also thought it would be very difficult to learn under those conditions. We brainstormed solutions to help children in disadvantaged areas. Some of us wanted to buy a window, some of us thought we could buy markers. We finally decided to work together with our friends to collect pennies all next week. We will give all the money we collect to Pennies for Peace, a group that works to help children with no schools or supplies. Together, we can make a big difference!

We looked up Pakistan on the globe. We estimated that it would be 40 hours away by plane.

We were very excited to work together to help the children in Pakistan.

Our big buddies from the community school came today. We worked together to write stories. Our buddies wrote down our words. Next time we have big buddies, they are going to bring our typed stories back for us to illustrate!

After we were done with our stories, we enjoyed the sunshine, got some exercise and honed our motor skills by playing outside with our big buddies!

We built a road and buildings in the sand...

We created music in the music garden...

We painted with water all over the walls and concrete...

And we worked together to build an obstacle course for all of us to enjoy!

February 11th, 2010

Blog Manager:
"We made cookies. We didn't do creative play today. The hardest part of valentines was putting glitter on it." -naomi

"We did happy valentines writing it. We had centers. We had snack. The hardest part of writing the valentines was writing our notes." -hhudson

Today we made valentines for our families. We developed our fine motor skills by cutting and gluing hearts to our cards. We also had to work very hard to shake the glitter on the glue and not use too much - we wanted there to be enough glitter for us all.



We also practiced writing Happy Valentine's Day, Mom, Dad, Love and Family. We practiced copying each word from the board. Recognizing words from our environment and knowing how to copy them is a very important skill for all writers.



Today we read a book about friends who share a batch of cookies. As more friends join, the group has divide the cookies further and further. We talked about how we would handle the problem of dividing a batch of cookies, and how sharing and considering others is a part of valentines day.

After we read the cookie book, we worked together to make our own cookies. We remembered so much from our bread unit! We read the recipe, worked carefully to measure each ingredient accurately, and took turns waiting patiently for our opportunity to help.







After the cookies baked, we sat together and enjoyed our cookies while we talked about what valentines day means to us. Some of us said valentines day means caring, others said sharing, some said thinking about other people. We also had to do some math problem solving to figure out how many cookies we each could have. We figured out that we each could have two cookies, with two cookies left over!

February 10, 2010

Today was picture day. We stayed clean all morning and were so adorable when we took our pictures.

Ms. Laurel came today, as well. It was fun to spend center time with her telling her about all we have been learning.


Today we completed a math graph. We answered whether we would rather hibernate or migrate for winter. Our mathematical thinking is becoming more complex everyday. We counted how many were in each column. We noticed that if we added one more math buddy to the hibernate column it would be the same height or "equal" to the migrate column. We are mathematicians!





We also made valentines in the atelier for our parents. We practiced our fine motor skills cutting hearts and putting glue exactly where we wanted it. We also used glitter! We have to practice pouring slowly and purposefully so we don't waste all the glitter.





We practice writing everyday as the opportunity arises. Today we made signs blocking people from bothering Ms. Katie while she did assessments. We are so helpful!



We also made a sign up sheet for the computer. We practiced writing our names in a list so we know who is waiting next for the computer.



Today we got to use the white boards to practice writing letters from our animals in winter word wall. We looked at the first letter in words like "Hibernation" and "Sea Turtle." We then practiced writing the letters on the white board. Some of us are able to make the actual letters and some of us just practice the strokes - all of us are writers!