Happy Thanksgiving!

I am so grateful to have my life's passion and work fulfilled so beautifully.  Thank you all for your support and the honor of working with your children! 

Math
We continue to work on our counting by 5s and practicing ways we use it in our daily lives.  We have enjoyed playing with clocks and practicing how to read the time (knowing how to count by 5s is so helpful!!).  We will move on from our focus on time but will keep a telling time activity as part of our morning calendar routine to keep us practicing (we will also revisit it again!).  We have also begun counting groups of nickels to see how much cents we have.  We will now move on to counting other coins and doing more work with money (along with our continued practice of addition).  Although, before we can do this, I do believe Mistress Wonka is scheduled for a visit, oh boy!

Language
We continue our work with baby vowels and word families.  Look for a change in spelling practice this week!

We all did a check in with sight words and it was so fun for the kids to see how many words they have learned to read since we started focusing on learning sight words!  They have learned so many and grown so much!  Everyone contines to grow stronger reading skills everyday.  I know all the support and practice they get at home has helped them grow and be successful! 


Kennedy Creek
What a wonderful trip!  The kids were so excited to see the salmon in the creek and observe their spawning behavior.  We were so lucky to see so many salmon displaying different parts of the spawning process...from fighting over a female to decomposing and adding nutrients to the soil.

Searching for salmon

Theme
We have left the country!  After careful packing (only the ten most important things we will need for our trip), preparing our passports and getting our tickets, we were finally ready to say, "Buen viaje!"  Most of our time in Ecuador will be spent exploring the incredible Galapagos Islands.  We took an exploratory "tour" last week and saw some interesting and unique animals that can only be found on these islands.  We took lots of pictures and samples to bring back to the ship to study further.  We will create a guide book of the animals we find, so look forward to seeing these as we learn more about the fauna of the Galapagos.

Ready to board! 

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!  We spent some time last week thinking of everything that we are thankful for in our lives...here are a few examples...

Be sure to check out our Thankful tree in our classroom!

Apples, Salmon and Orcras, Oh My!

It has been such a beautiful Autumn!  One of the many things that I appreciate during this time of year is the sweet music of the children singing our Autumn songs.  We have been singing twice a week with our younger friends and helping them learn the words.  We are now also singing once a week with our older friends.  Plan on hearing a concert of our favorite songs in December!

Math

We continue our work with addition facts, adding three or four numbers, or adding double digits through games and practice sheets.  Block It is a fun game that involves giving the pattern blocks value. Each time a block is added, the child gets to add up the value of all the blocks that it is touching.  Getting the biggest number possible is the goal, so it is fun to use some strategy.

 Block It

We have also begun working with counting by 5s.  We have been counting our number of days of school by 5s, passing our little pumpkin in our circle and counting by 5s as fast as we can, and playing games like the Swiper game.  To play, a child puts out all the cards from 5 to 100 in order by 5s.  Another child swipes a card but moves the other cards together so there isn't a hole giving away the missing card. The other child (who wasn't looking) needs to figure out what card was taken. 

 5s Swiper Game

We are now playing with recording and adding multiply groups of 5.  It has been fun to step into the world of multiplication!  We have played Tic-Tac-Toe with a Twist and Circles and Stars. Both give us experience in counting by 5s to solve multiplying situations.  For example, for 3x5 a child will think/say that it is three groups of 5 so 5, 10, 15...15 is the answer!

This week, now that we can all count by 5s so well, we will begin looking at the clock and learning how to read the time. Learning to read the clock takes time and lots of practice.  Having a analog clock at home or a watch is a great way to get more practice.   FUN!

Literacy
We continue with our study of baby vowels with "u" being our focus this week.  We are becoming pros at word sorts and learning other games to help us read and spell word families.  This week we learned "Shake a Sound" which involves shaking a carton that determines a rime (12 options, for example, _unk, _ump, _ock...) and the child then uses their sound board of beginning consonants and blends to determines what onset will create a word.

Joann (John's mom) has been a wonderful helper on Mondays during our literacy centers.  She is currently running a center that helps the children work with word families and changing beginning or ending sounds to great new words.  Thank you so much for your help, Joann!

I hope you have been enjoying the word sort practice at home as well as the beginning of our spelling!  The "Blind Sort" is a fun way to practice and learn the spelling patterns we are focusing on in class. For the time being, our spelling list will continue to focus on sight words or high frequency words.

In Writing Workshop, we are all making sure to put spaces between our words,  We have begun building our writing tool kits to help us with our writing.  First tool, a "Space Girl/Boy" who helps remind us to put nice space between our words (they need some space!!).  The kids have really enjoyed using the tool.  I love it when they use it and pull it out for writing times even when it's not Writing Workshop!

Word Sorts

Theme
We are wrapping up our time in Washington.  After learning that our state fruit is the apple, we just had to have an apple feast!  I gathered up as many different varieties of apples I could find and we enjoyed a taste-testing session of the different varieties.  Yum!

Washington Apple Tasting 

Living in the Puget Sound, a look at Washington would not be complete without a closer look at salmon and Orcas.  We have learned about the life cycle of the salmon (everyone was especially drawn to the little alevin with their big "yolk" bellies) and the 4 C's salmon must have to survive.  See if your child remembers them (clean water, cool water, clear water, and consistent water). 

We had to know a bit about Orcas because who knows, we might see a pod as we travel out the Puget Sound and into the Pacific Ocean!  We are prepared with I.D. cards and a bit of knowledge, thanks to our friends at Killer Whale Tales.

We are leaving for Ecuador THIS week!!

Art
We are enjoying the colors autumn brings us and have been incorporating them into our artwork.  Check out our beautiful fall leaves we created with oil pastels.


Field Trips and Special Guests
At the end of October, we were invited to dig up all the potatoes in the garden for donation to the food bank.  Wow!  It was like digging for treasure!  The kids had so much fun finding big potatoes, small, potatoes, and every other shaped potato.  Yay, potatoes!

Potatoes!

Last week, I invited Killer Whale Tales for a visit to share their work and study of the resident Orca pods.  I was sad to miss out that day, but I have enjoyed hearing all about it from the kids.  I hope they shared it all with you, too!

47 Days of School!

Theme
Our studies of Washington state would not be complete without a unit on salmon!  We've had lots of fun learning about the life cycle of salmon, even though many of us felt pretty sad about the fact that baby salmon (otherwise known as alevin) never get to meet their parents.  We created life cycle games, used puppets to demonstrate the life cycle and acted out the life cycle pretending we were salmon!  It was hard work swimming upstream, especially since we were no longer eating!  Perhaps if asked your child will give you a special performance! This coming week we will be creating some salmon inspired art and will actually get the opportunity to see spawning salmon first hand on our field trip to kennedy creek on Friday!

On Thursday, we had a fellow come from Killer Whale Tales to teach us all about Orcas!  Jeff was AMAZING (he completely captivated all three classes for a total of 2 hours!)!  We learned about the work he does and about the Resident Pods that live in the Puget Sound.  Did you know that Orcas spend their lives living with their moms?  Or that the resident Orcas only eat Chinook Salmon?  Be sure to ask your child what he or she remembers from the presentation!  Jeff is conducting research about things we do at home that can make a difference in helping the Orcas.  He left surveys for each family to fill out as best they can.  When returned each child will receive more Orca trading cards! (5 extra cards for each child that returns their survey and if everyone returns their survey each child will get 10 extra trading cards!!!!)  Please return these as soon as possible!  After the Orca presentation we practiced following step by step instructions to draw our own Orcas!  Be sure to check these out by the door!

Math
Our current studies are focusing on counting, developing number sense, and even place value for some.  This week we've been comparing numbers and putting them in order from least to most.  We learned a game called compare that can be played at home...remember the card game War?  It's very similar, but with a new name and without the competition piece of collecting your opponents cards!  This can be played with a regular set of cards minus the face cards.  Each player turns over a card and the player with the larger card says ME!  After each round cards are placed in a discard pile.  Play continues until all cards are used.  For the next round the player with the smaller card says ME!  This helps in the recognition of numbers and also in grouping images together in our mind as we count the pictures on the card.  For students ready for a SUPER CHALLENGE turn over 2 cards and read them together as a 2 digit number.  Have fun!

Language Arts
Writing Workshop continues as a time looked forward to!  Everyone is growing as a writer!  For some that means now writing their own name...for others it means incorporating simple sight words...for others it means sounding out the beginning and ending sounds of the words they are writing...and for others it means starting to incorporate long vowel patterns into their writing!  In phonics groups some continue to focus on the beginning consonant sounds, others on beginning digraphs like sh, ch and th and others on beginning blends.  If you would like to know specifically what your child is working on please feel free to ask!  We are playing alphabet BINGO again, but this time we are given a word and we have to look for the letter it starts with!  If you are inspired check out a BINGO game and try this version at home!  We have also begun reading groups!  Everyone now has at least 2 books that they can read!  Perhaps you might like to have your child read to you some morning?!  Thank you so much parent volunteers!

Baby Vowels, Doubles +1, and Pumpkins!

Can you believe we have had over 30 days of school?!  We have been so busy and have learned and grown so much together!  It feels great to be solid in our routines as we flow through our day.  Our time together is always so sweet!

Math
We continue working on our math facts and practicing different strategies to help us solve addition equations.  For example, if we know our 10 + __ really well, then 9 + ___ is just one less.  Or, if we know our doubles, 4 + 4 then 5 +4 is just one more.  Some are working on adding double digits and adding the ones before adding up the tens (which is a tricky habit to get into sometimes, since when we count, we add up our big 10s and then add on the little ones!).  We have been playing memory games, BINGO, making fact books, dice games, and working on our addition packets to help us strengthen these skills.

Language
In centers, we are working on our vowel key and have begun with the "baby" vowels (short vowels).  They are babies and make baby sounds (don't know how to say their name yet!) and always need a babysitter.  We went through our consonant sound board and found all the really good babysitters, those that sometimes have trouble, and those that should never ever babysit(!!).  Our time with the short vowels is focused on playing with different word families.  Some put beginning consonants in front of chunks (like __op) and other put in consonant blends to help find the words that belong in the family. This last week we focused on "o" and this week we will made flip books, will do our first word/sound sorts this week and play other word games that help us recognize sounds we hear at the beginning or ending of a word to make new words.

Special Guest
We had a wonderful student from Evergreen visit to share a few fun science experiments with us. We tested for sugar content in different drinks, played with acids and bases, and checked out how well we wash our hands (a great reminder to really do a thorough job!)

Theme
We had fun creating our own basic map of Washington (including major mountain ranges, largest rivers, big cities) the week before last.  This past week, we learned a few interesting fact about our state.  Ask your child if they know the state fruit, bird, insect, fish, vegetable, tree or flower. Or, what is our state's nickname or some of our state's industry (what we sell).

Art
Look for our art decorating the walls at Samhain!

Friday Workshops

Field Trip
Lattin's continues to be a favorite field trip!

We Love Bike Week!

The sounds of bike bells and horns filled the air last week during bike week and it was such a wonderful week!  We are so grateful for the rain holding off so we could use all our recess time outside on our bikes.  It is such a joy to watch our kids grow in their confidence on their bikes and support one another as they learn to ride. 

Math
In math, we have been working on strengthening our understanding of numbers and place value.  We are spending time here to help us build a strong foundation in number sense that will help us work with bigger numbers and utilize different strategies when solving addition/subtraction problems.  We also continue to work on our addition math facts.  Some are working on adding three numbers together and developing strategies to do this process easily (like finding two number that make ten, finding two number we already easily know the answer to, or adding smaller numbers onto a bigger number). 

Today, we had a special guest visiting our class and Brett's class.  Stephen brought in all sorts of math puzzles and building supplies that were super fun and really worked our brains!  I was so amazed watching the kids put together puzzles that I was still trying to figure out!

Language
Writing workshop continues to be a favorite.  We are adding words to our word wall to help us spell those common and sometime not so phonetic words.  Our spelling lists will be going home next week which will include these great words.

We have been working on an animal alliteration book during literacy centers.  The kids have been having fun creating artwork and sentences such as, "The leaping lizards like licorice lollipops." and "The zebras zip zucchini."  Fun!  We are also working on our lowercase letters and learning the strokes that are helpful for fluid writing.  Magic C got to sing her rap today about a, d, g, o, and q - ah yay!

We having begun meeting in our reading groups and reading together.  The books we read go into a "Fluency Bag" that the kids then get to pull from to help gain fluency in their reading. 

Buddy reading has begun!!  Most of the kids are in groups of three with one older and one younger buddy.  They take turns reading a book to the younger friend.  They LOVE buddy reading and look forward to it and get so excited when it is time to get their buddies.  I'll post pictures of this sweetness next week!

Theme
We have officially begun our theme!!!  Looking at the globe and a map of the world was a good start for us and we learned where the seven continents are located.  Ask your child if they remember the "Continents" song and the body actions!  We then looked at North America and the United States.  We had fun sharing the puzzle pieces of a U.S. puzzle and taking turns putting in the states that we each had.  Next, we will focus our attention on Washington state.

Art
Be sure to check out our cool spider webs!  We played with blending colors with chalk pastels.  We also learned a bit about spiders and just how exactly they make the silk thread to make their webs.  Ask you child how spiders do it!

Friday Workshops
I love the creativity the children bring with them for Friday Workshops.  It also warms my heart to witness the sweet, caring ways they teach their friends and the special attention they give their younger friends.  Here are a few shots from last week's workshops.

 See you all at conferences!  I'm looking forward to connecting with each of you!

Hello Fall!

This week it is really starting to feel like fall!  There's a chill to the air and we've been wearing raincoats out for recess!  In the classroom we've settled into routines and are setting goals for the year.  We look forward to sharing these with you at conferences!

We are deep into our pattern unit in math...this week I've seen more tricky patterns than ever!  There were even patterns with 5 or 6 colors!  Wow!  We continue to have fun with pattern games.  I've added some to the take homes...have fun!  Are there any patterns around your house?  Any small items your child can create a pattern with?  I'm sure they would love the opportunity to show you some tricky tricky patterns!

In language arts we've begun centers!  Thank you parent volunteers for making this possible!  We now have extra time for practicing our handwriting and phonics studies.  So far we've been sorting picture cards by the letter they start with or by the vowel they have (depending on the group) and playing alphabet BINGO.  Centers will vary from week to week but will generally include games to help develop phonics skills at many levels.  I know that the kids have really enjoyed our parent volunteers, and I so appreciate the help.  If you have the time, please consider signing up for a day!

Maps, maps and more maps!  Theme has begun with a look at maps and globes and differentiating between the land and water.  We each colored our own world map, showing both land and water.  Being that we live in the state of Washington our worldly travels will naturally begin here in Washington!  To start we are reading books, talking about and drawing the things that are common around our state... Orcas, lighthouses, apples, flowers, farmer's markets, trees, elk...ask your child what else they see around our lovely state!

It continues to be a joy spending my days teaching, learning and growing with your children!

An Amazing Start to the Year!

Hello Lovely Families!

So far the beginning of the year has been wonderful!  I am thoroughly enjoying getting to know your sweet children as we settle into a new school year!  Routines are being established, friends are being made and we are having lots of fun!

Math

We have begun our study of patterns!  We’ve learned some new games and have been building patterns with a variety of materials.  Can your child find or build patterns anywhere around home?  Perhaps a striped afghan or fancy socks…rugs, pajamas…we will soon be starting a list of patterns we find in everyday life, and I would love for you and your child to add to it!  Some of the new games we’ve learned will be added to the take home collection…please feel free to take games home anytime now! 

Language Arts

What a group of writers!  Writing workshop is already a success with everyone thinking of topics to write about and “writing” at his or her own level.  We have been exploring Language Arts choices…Alphabet BINGO, letter/word matching puzzles, beginning consonant games, letter hunts around the room, reading, name puzzles… We learned our first 2 letters in handwriting, F and E, using our special chalkboards for the first time…pretty exciting!  Next week letter studies will begin in small groups.

Theme

We have been busy with many activities getting to know each other better  and learning to use the 3 part message to help us solve problems peacefully.  

The 3 Part Message includes: Noticing (describing what you noticed or what happened), Feeling (telling how you feel), and Next Time (making a request for what you would like to see happen).  We spent a day on each part reading books to learn about it and using games to practice it.  Our feelings bean bag toss has been a big hit!  Be sure to ask your child about this one!  Finally, we used puppets to put all the parts together and practice using the 3 Part Message.  We have even had some real life opportunities to practice this message.  Sometimes we may say or do something in a grumpy way and then have a “rewind moment” and work on using this new method.  It is still new to the kids and will be something we work on throughout the year.  I am proud of the efforts they have put into learning how to use the 3 part message and extremely proud of those willing to try this in real life scenarios.  We have cards available in the classroom to help us remember each of the steps.  If you’d like one for home, let me know!

Inspired by projects we'd been working on for International Day of Peace, Cassius declared that he was going to work to end the war.  I asked what he was planning to do and he said "make posters".  I offered large paper and soon many friends had joined the cause!  Thanks for the idea Cassius!

Investigations

This is our end of the day choosing time.  There are so many ships to be built, picnics to be had, and books to be read!  It seems that this time of day has become a favorite for many.  I love taking a step back to watch the social interactions that occur as children explore various interests.  Free exploration offers a wonderful opportunity to grow as an individual and friend.  So far, favorite choices seem to be: tinker toys, the casita, reading, art, blocks and legos. 

I have rethought my request to have parents wait in the hallway until we clean up.  Investigations is actually a really neat time to come on in and interact with the kids.  So, as long as you think your child will still be able to participate in our community clean up (we all help to clean the whole classroom) at the end of the day, you are welcome to come on in and join us anytime after 2:30!  Please note: Wed is teacher planning day, so the afternoon schedule varies.

Thank you for sharing your wonderful children with me!  I cherish the time I get to spend with them and look forward to seeing them each day!  I am so thankful to have such an amazing group of kids to spend the year with! 

Our Beautiful Class!

What an amazing first two weeks of school!  It has been pure joy getting to know this sweet group of kiddos and creating community together.  We have been busy creating our class/school agreements, practicing how we like to communicate with each other and feeling out how we will work together as a group.  Here's what we have been up to at a glance (OK, maybe not a quick glance this time!  I promise a quicker one next time!):

Math: Addition games!  Reviewing and learning our math facts of 1-10 or 1-20.  Also, reviewing how we play math games so we can all learn our best by taming our dice and keeping voices low.  We are learning how to make choices that suit us as learners and help us grow our math brains.

Language: Writing Workshop and Literacy Centers!  Everyone was eager with stories ready to put onto paper in Writing Workshop.  We all like a quiet workshop to help us sound out our words, so we are working on creating this quiet space.  We started our Word Wall with our first word "are" so ask your child how to spell it!  We have been practicing going to Literacy Centers, managing our time at each one, and staying focused.  They are all doing amazing! We are ready for the real deal next week!  In handwriting, we reviewed our upper case letters and will begin our lower case letters next week.  Magic C will finally make an appearance (everyone is so anxious for her to come out and thinks she sleeps way too much!).

Afternoons: We spent this last week focusing on peace for International Day of Peace.  We read books about peace and thought about how we can help bring peace to our school, family, and community.  We also explored mandalas a bit and learning how there are mandalas all around us...a birds nest, a snow crystal, our eyes....we then created our own peace mandalas.  Look for these peaceful creations on our wall soon!  We will work more with peace next week by practicing peaceful communication (giraffe talk) and our solution wheel.  In P.E., we have been enjoying connecting with the older class and playing group games in the gym and outside. 

Reading Workshop:  We are practicing how to find a quiet spot, choosing books that we can read and help us grow as readers, and raising a hand when needing help. We are building up our reading time everyday!

Jobs:  Everyone is so amazing with their weekly jobs!  It warms my heart to watch the kids take care of our classroom in such a sweet, thoughtful, and caring way. 

Friday Workshop:  I love how eager the kids were to jump right in and teach a workshop on the very first Friday of school.  Thank you for teaching us how to make egg carton caterpillars, gak, and dressing up and acting out stories!

  

 I feel so grateful to get to spend the day with your children, to be their teacher, to learn from them, and to be a part of their lives.  Thank you for a wonderful start to a new school year!

Check Out These Amazing Presenters!!

Wow! These kids worked so hard researching, creating a poster and presenting to our class!! I loved witnessing nervous kiddos find the courage to present to the class, the class being supportive to each other and listening respectfully, giving and receiving compliments, and feeling so shiny and successful when they finished presenting. Thank you for all the support and encouragement you gave your children throughout this BIG project. Everyone did a fabulous job and we have all enjoyed learning from each other. We are busy making books about everything we learned!

Cougar Mountain Zoo is amazing! We had a wonderful time with the lemurs, cranes, tigers, wallabies, macaws...all endangered animals!

Hello June!

We just can't believe it is June. Today in our morning meeting the kids discussed how it doesn't seem like June should be here yet and the year went by way too fast. I agree! I'm definitely not ready to say goodbye to this sweet and amazing group of kiddos. Luckily, I don't have to for a couple more weeks (13 days to be exact, still way too soon!).


We finished up fractions by looking at just one whole and fractioning it into pieces. The highlights were cutting a ginger cooking into sixteenths (with our fraction makers - isn't that what everyone calls a knife?) and eating it fraction by fraction. It was fun coming up with equivalent fractions and seeing the more we fractioned into pieces the more pieces we ended up with yet the bigger the number got on the bottom. And, of course, no math concept would be complete without a visit from Mistress Wonka. She asked her Oompas to make her candies using her special recipes, however, something got on her recipes, so they needed to figure out the missing quantities. With teaspoons and her magical dough, they set to work. She was, most definitely, impressed. We also had fun playing fraction bingo, fraction war, hexagon exchange (using pattern blocks to help us see fractions and build wholes), and the hex game (comparing fractions to help us get across the board). We also enjoyed creating art with patterned blocks and then finding the fractional value of the picture. Most worked with the hexagon equaling one and finding the value of the other blocks from there and then adding up all their shapes to find the total value. Some worked on assigning a different value to the hexagon (like 1/2 or 3) and finding the value of the other blocks. Tricky business! We also played with creating symmetrical designs using 1/2 or 1/4 of the triangles. Check them out on our wall! Some worked on adding and subtracting same fractions while others worked on adding and subtracting fractions with different denominators and finding common denominators. Some also worked on teaching the fractions manners and how to make them proper.


This last week we have been playing a little bit with algebra. Say what?! Didn't we do that in seventh grade when we were kids?? Yup, it's true and the kids are AMAZING and so ready to take it on. Using the image of a balance we can identify missing numbers that will help us figure out what would make each side equal. Some have even moved onto simplifying equations and solving problems like 4x-2x+8=2x+6+x. It has definitely put our adding and dividing skills to use like in x+x+x=12. Fun stuff!


This week we are playing with probability and statistics and how to make educated guesses using data from samples we take. We had fun today in groups of three sampling a bag of red and blue tiles and predicted which bag we had, the one with 25 reds and 5 blues, the one with 20 reds and 10 blues, or the one with 10 red and 20 blues. We took 20 samples altogether but after every 5 samples we made a guess as to which bag we thought we had. They definitely changed as they went so we all decided it is helpful to get a good number of samplings!


In language, one group finished reading "Green Man" and doing critical thinking and vocabulary work. It has been fun working with the dictionary and finding words so we have continued with our dictionaries to help us learn different Latin prefixes. We have done pre- and post-. We have enjoyed brainstorming words, finding their definitions and coming up with what we think the prefix means. We record the meaning of the prefixes, our favorite words, and then choose one to put in a sentence and illustrate. Some enjoyed creating new words by adding this handy meaning unit to words. For example, "Postlunch we will have teacher planning." We are making mini dictionaries so you will have to wait until the end of the year to see their great work. The other group is working on spelling patterns with word ladders and finding word power in chunks of words. We all made animal riddles this week which are a set of clues that are given to someone who tries to guess the endangered animal. We are hoping to share them with each other and our younger friends. Oh, have you heard we are doing cursive?! Yes, the kids have been anxious to learn cursive so we are ending the year with some fanciness.


We wrapped up our learning about wolves this week. We have learned about the pack dynamics, what they eat, how they survive, how they communicate, how packs interact and their territory, and how biologist study them and learn all of this information. Phew! We even watched a bit of a video about how wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone. Wolves hold such an important place and keep nature balanced. To illustrate how the loss of species affects all the other 33 million species of life, we played a revised version of Jenga. We took pieces out but did not place them on top. Each block taken away was a species becoming extinct. No matter how careful we were in taking them out, it still collapsed after 15 blocks. No! We do not want any more species to become extinct!


We finished "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane" and we all loved the book and the ending. Edward learned so much in his life and we were happy to see him loved and loving another. We are now reading "Tall Tails," a diary of a dog who helps the Wright Brothers design the first flying machine. It's been pretty entertaining and they have even described body positions of the dog that with our knowledge of wolf body language, we can interpret!


We made our goal of reading 500 books this year!!! We are still going towards 600 as a bonus to for extra toppings on our ice cream. AND, we are so close to 1000 cranes! We should be there by the end of the week!

News from the Peeping Pandas!

Wow! When Spring comes around we get so busy with projects, learning, having fun that time really does flies! With all the projects, planning and enjoying of your children, it has been hard to sit myself down to update the blog. So much has been happening and we have all been sharing and growing in so many ways!

I hope you all had a chance to stop by Traditions to see your children's beautiful artwork in window. We had fun using Eric Carle's style of painting tissue paper and cutting out pieces to create an image of our favorite endangered animals. If you missed out, the artwork will be up in our classroom soon.

As you know, we are getting into our new theme of Endangered Animals. We have all picked out a favorite endangered/threatened animal which may potentially be the topic of our Spring research project (more info. coming soon!). We have learned about the different status levels of animals and what they mean for a species. We discovered the precious Gray Wolf had been removed and in learning the process of how this occurred... let's just say we have some very passionate and outraged kiddos! We will learn more about the Endangered Species act and how a species officially becomes listed. This week we are learning about the classification system of living things. We learned a little history along the way about Aristotle (ask your children how Aristotle organized living things. We definitely found some flaws in the system!) and how he classified animals and then Linnaeus organized it a bit more for us and developed the system we use today. We began with an overview of all the Kingdoms and we will then focus our time in the Animal Kingdom.

In math this past month, we worked on division and making fair shares with sometimes remainders. Mistress Wonka made an appearance as apparently her customers are constantly squabbling over leftover pieces of candy. She had her Oompas make family guide books so families know exactly what size boxes will work for them with no leftovers. The kids were amazing me with how quickly they picked up division and some were ready for the really big numbers. We looked at division through the glasses of sharing things as well as grouping things. A few olders worked on dividing REALLY big numbers using the "forgiving" method which means taking chunks of groups out (I call it whittling it down to a reasonable number) and then adding all our chunks together.

We have just begun fractions - FUN! It was great to hear the examples kids have of when they use fractions or when they might find themselves saying a fraction...money, time, sharing food, measuring, miles traveled...This week we are looking at fractions as a way to describe a group of things. For example, I have 6 tiles...2 are green, 3 are blue, and 1 is red...so 2/6 are green, 3/6 or 1/2 are blue and 1/6 is red. Check out your children's "Goofy Groups" in their Thursday Packet.

In language, we continue working on our stories in Writer's Workshop. We have also been working in our reading groups. One group is working on reading short pieces of literature and doing deeper thinking around the theme of the pieces. We are focusing on the idea of change and how characters change in a story. It has been great for us to really stop and think more about what something means or why we think something and how we can prove it from quotes in story. The other group has been working on syllables and putting them into their bodies. We made up a fun game to play...ask your child if they are in this group and how to play the game!

We have taken a break from word sorts and our spelling words are all coming directly from out writing workshop stories or a list of high frequency words. I noticed several writers using contractions in their stories but a bit confused on how to spell them and what the apostrophe was doing in the word. We all also played with contractions and what they are and how to write them. We actually became "word surgeons" and brought out our scalpels and band-aids to change words into contractions! Such excellent doctors!

We are almost to our goal of 500 books! We read a little over 400! Our initial goal was 600 books though we decided that if we do get to 600 that will mean extra toppings for our ice cream!

For our read aloud, the kids chose The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. We are all enjoying Edward so much! While we read we are tracking the things that happen to Edward and how he changes from the experiences he has with different people in his life. It has been a wonderful supportive text for our reading group who are focusing on the concept of change in literature.

On Earth Day we spent our afternoon helping out our tree friends in Watershed Park. We clipped, pulled and ripped ivy off the trees. We put in a lot of hard work and were very satisfied with our job well done!

April brought in the first round of book response and they were all absolutely amazing! Everyone worked so hard and did very careful and creative work. Here are just a few that I was able to capture....

With this book response the kids needed to work in groups of four (like the characters in the book) and create a club house using all the ideas. FUN!

K. sporting her t-shirt she designed from a Pixie Tricks book.

A scene in Z.'s book where a lot of action takes place!

We are almost to 600 cranes and the kids keep going and going and going...Thank you to all who have brought in origami paper! We hope to reach our goal by the end of this month or the beginning of next and send them with our wish to a school in Japan.

Happy Spring!

Yay, spring is here!! We've been enjoying daffodils and tulips in our room this past week and the kids have been antsy to sing spring songs. With the shift of seasons we will shift our theme focus next week!! The kids have already begun brainstorming ideas and posting topics on our theme chart. Hmmm..what will it be...microscopic organisms, ancient civilizations, electricity, ferocious animals....we will take votes this week, check in with our friends next door and announce the new theme this THURSDAY!!

Our final explorations in geology were in landforms. We made really neat pop-up books of different landforms. We also creating these beautiful pieces of artwork while also exploring warm/cool colors and foreground, midground and background.

We looked at the map of USA and located some major landformations like mountain ranges, hills and plains. It was fun to also look at all the states and where they are located and learn where some of the places we have heard about can be found, like the Grand Canyon, as well as get a sense of what some states may look like.

How we use rocks and minerals in our lives was our very last topic of conversation. We searched inside our room and outside for anything that was made from rocks and minerals. We found SO many things. We learned a bit about the process of getting the rocks/minerals from the Earth, quarries, and sometimes mountain top removal! Yikes, we did not like that! It was a good reminder for us to be mindful of everything we use (and recycle it if it can't be used anymore) as it all came from somewhere and has a price more than the $ we pay at the store.

You may remember, we played with homophones a few weeks ago and the kids were also finding great homonyms. We recorded and played with those a bit along with our weekly word sorts. We also played with limericks this week, which the kids loved and found to be quite hilarious. After hearing some examples and noticing the similarities and patterns in this form of poetry we learned the rules of a limerick and created one together. Are you ready...

There once was an old man named Fred,

he was silly and gooey on his head.

He ate a doughnut

and lived a hut,

all the while laughing with Ned!

Be sure to check out their individual limerick on our wall soon! Needless to say, Fred, Ned, and Ted all became quite popular!

Making traps with our younger buddies is always a highlight of this time of year. We had some clever traps this year...pictures of cute lady leprechauns to lure one into trap, ladders leading to yummy shamrocks only to get their feet and hands wet and be trapped...well, those clever leprechauns didn't fall for any of our tricks (although a few lost a hat in all their mischief making) and then they made a mess in our room along with some of their own tricks. Some of our posters were upside down, the calendar made no sense and they knocked over chairs, baskets, books....they did leave a few pieces of gold and shamrocks behind, thank goodness! Later in the day we had shamrock smoothies, yum! I made them with shamrocks and wild mushrooms (a leprechaun's favorite food!). No one seemed to believe me...

In math, we have continued to work on multiplication this last week. This week most of us will be revisiting subtraction and addition for a bit before moving on to division. Others will continue to work with multiplication and learning their times table.

In reading, we have been tuning in to interesting words to help us expand our vocabulary. As a group we have collected tarry, luxurious, ravenous and exquisite. Some kids are practicing finding words they don't know in their own reading during reading workshop. In finding these interesting words, we also thought about how to figure out what they might mean by what the sentence is saying and what makes sense. All our guesses were right on when we checked the dictionary!

In the afternoons, one day a week we have been focusing our energy on making our bodies stronger with P.E. which the kids have really enjoyed. We did some running around the gym and counted how many laps we could do in ten minutes -pant, pant! We purchases new jump ropes (reserved for jumping rope only!) and have begun practicing jumping rope on our own and learning how to coordinate our bodies and rope. Some of the kids have really gotten into it and want to practice every recess. And, everyday they are getting stronger and adding more techniques like jumping backwards or crossing the arms. Go jumpers!!

We will begin book shares next month, look for information in your child homework folder this week!