Dec
14
2011
Mrs. Clark
The books we have read so far as a class...
Over the last two weeks our class has really been excited about chapter books! Each day, while the kids eat snack, we read a chapter or two from our book. This just started last week with Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the UFO. The kids were so into this they asked if we could read another one! By voting, we decided on our next book, The Magic School Bus, Voyage to the Volcano. The kids have loved learning about volcanic eruptions and what the words “molten lava” means! We are about finished with our Magic School Bus book so who knows what will come next!
Dec
13
2011
Mrs. Bucher
Today, I was capturing our friends being good friends to those around them! We are currently making a question…”What is friendship?” out of wire and beads, and then underneath it we will have pictures that I take of our friends being good friends to others. I was proud of our friends today, and I am excited to see more photographs of the children being good friends to each other.
I introduced planning books today in Writer’s Workshop. The thought behind these laminated books is that it is a good way to organize our thoughts and plan a book before we actually make it. Isaac today did a wonderful job of using a planning book to figure out what he wanted to write about. Then, he got a “real” book to start working on adding more detail and words to his book! I look forward to seeing how the planning of books will help our writers!
Sabra Logan is the Founder/Director of Iibada Dance Company. Not only is she the Founder of a dance company, but she has worked in other schools around the city helping children learn various dances. I am so excited because tomorrow morning she will be teaching an African dance called Funga which is a welcome dance from Liberia to our class. She will be in our class for about 45 minutes teaching the dance and a song to go with it. This is such a great experience because it is another way to get that movement that we love during the day! I am excited to show you the pictures tomorrow of our little dancers!
Makayla working hard to create her wire "h" for the question..."What is Friendship?"
Isaac using his planning book to help him organize his thoughts for his actual book!
Mekhi being a good friend to Malachi by listening to him while he is reading his book during Reader's Workshop!
Dec
13
2011
Mrs. Clark
Every Wednesday our class goes to the library. While each week we check out books, we leave them here at school by the request of the librarian. Today was a little different. The kids each got two books to take home to keep. Our school was given books by a program called Reading is Fundamental. So when they went to library today they each got to pick out two of their own books!
The kids were so excited to read their brand new books!
Dec
13
2011
Mrs. Argus
- Friends create pinatas with Miss Schmidt.
Each morning this week, several friends have been joining Miss Schmidt in the hallway to create some Mexican culture- pinatas! Our pinatas are formed around balloons, and then little strips of newspaper and tissue paper are glued around, similar to paper mache. While we don’t think we will be filling these pinatas with anything inside, we hope to have them displayed for our trip to Mexico, which is next Tuesday evening from 6-7. We hope you can come and see them!
Tajanaye tries out the drums.
Today during studio and explore, several children were drawn to a medium sized, wooden basket that recently appeared in our classroom. Inside, our friends found special instruments from Mexico and Central America that Mrs. Argus has collected on trips. The kids loved trying out the maracas, pan pipe, and drums, just to name a few! Messi and Monica organized a group of about six friends and started leading a band. They would say in unison, “5, 6, 7, 8” and then the rest of the friends would start playing. What a neat way to work together to create something. This teamwork was discussed during our closing meeting. After playing in unison for a while, Messi and Angela noticed that while the band was playing beautiful music, there were no dancers to enjoy it! Angela called to the rest of the class, “WE NEED MORE DANCERS!” and a slew of friends ran over to the band and started dancing, imitating the way we have seen people from Mexico dance in videos. We had a fiesta in our very own classroom!
Friends dance to our Mexican band,
- A jam session!
Tags: creative, creativity
Dec
12
2011
Mrs. Bucher
Hello hello! Happy Monday to you all. So, today I posed the question “What is friendship?” I heard many thoughtful responses like Jonah who said, “It is to not be not nice to people.” Many of the responses included to the words “nice” and “help” which I found interesting. We are going to continue to explore this idea of friendship and giving until the holiday break and maybe even after so I look forward to seeing their ideas grow about what friendship means.
We started to play this new game called “Burglar!” today during Math Workshop. The partner team first had to put cards in order 1-20. Then while one person closed their eyes, a “burglar” came and took three cards away. Then the other person opened their eyes and had to tell which three cards the “burglar” took. The children LOVED this game. I haven’t seen them this engaged in a math game in a while so it was fun to see them doing math in such an engaging way!
We played “Build-a-Man” today (usually referred to Hangman, but I don’t like that name of the game) as a transition activity today, and it was so fun that there were two groups of four that decided to play it the whole time during free choice today! How fun!
Some friends playing "build-a-man" today!
Geneva and Madeline working together to play "Burglar"
