Sep
27
2012
Mrs. Argus
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Miss Weese and friends create the special dip.
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Lucas gives it a try!
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Beatrice and J’Den try the basil dip.
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Makenzi and Maria enjoy some dip!
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Mr. Henderson reads about monkeys in preparation for some discussion on Chunky Monkey.
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J’Den adds the Chunky Monkey strategy to our reading strategy poster.
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“Chunky Monkey chunks the words.”
Yesterday, one of our Block A students, Miss Weese, led an experience on the senses. She and a small group of students harvested basil and peppers from our garden and then created a dip to enjoy! The whole class got to taste the dip and talked about how it connected to their five senses.
It tasted like Basil! Regan
It tasted sweet! Addie
I think it smelled like cheese. Dylan
Its a different kind of smell- cheese and watery. Amiah
I hear the dipping. Addie
I heard the sounds of people crunching. And I heard a scrape when I dipped the pepper! Tajanaye
I think it feels good to make your own food. That way you can grow big and strong. J’Den
I also wanted to share something we have been spending a lot of time on during Reader’s Workshop- reading strategies. The past two weeks, we have been working on Ready Rooster (getting ready for the first sound in the word) and Stretchy Snake (stretching the word for all the sounds you hear). This week, we have been working with Chunky Monkey (finding word parts that are friendly to you and chunking them as you read). Mr. Henderson created this amazing and funny video on blabberize.com with a monkey talking with his voice. We have been projecting it on the big screen and having the kids do chunking activities with the Chunky Monkey. The kids LOVE it!
Tags: garden, project, reading
Aug
27
2012
Mrs. Argus
Today, Mr. Henderson read the class a story many of them know- Cinderella. Except today, this story had a twist- it was Bigfoot Cinderella! Basically, this was the same story but starring a Bigfoot Cinderella who wore wooden clogs instead of glass slippers. The kids loved the new twist. After the story, the kids were shown three shoes that they needed to help Mrs. Argus pick to go on a run. The first choice were a pair of first grade sneakers. We decided these shoes were way too small! The second pair we tried for Mrs. Argus were huge- size 10 men’s! We decided these were way too big! The third pair, low and behold, were absolutely perfect and fit Mrs. Argus just right- just like Bigfoot Cinderella’s missing clog! We talked about how shoes that fit just right are just like just right books- perfect for us! Some friends may have different just right books, just as their shoes fit us differently. We will continue to refer to this analogy throughout the year to encourage the children to decide whether or not a book is at their appropriate reading level. Later this week, we will start to talk about more of the traits that help us recognize whether or not a book is just right!
Mr. Henderson tries Mrs. Argus’ just right shoe- is it a fit?
Sascha tries out Mr. Henderson’s just right shoe!
Tags: reading, thinking
Mar
05
2011
Mr. Smith
Observational drawing of a Tulip Tree leaf
Many years ago, Loris Malaguzzi, the founder of the Reggio approach wrote a beautiful poem titled The Hundred Languages of Children. The message of this poem is that young children have many ways to express what they know about the world including drawing, painting, drama, sculpture, dance and many, many more. In many schools today, the capacity children have for showing what they know in a myriad of creative ways is overlooked in favor of expressing knowledge through only reading, writing and arithmetic. Continue Reading »
Tags: arithmetic, art, Malaguzzi, poem, reading, Reggio, writing
