Poetry, Partners, Power (of Yet) and PJs!

 The title of this post says it all!  There is so much to share...

Our poetry journals are works-in-progress that won't come home until the end of the year. Almost every week we make an entry as a way of using our snap words as stepping stones for reading. Poems are also a fun way to use memory, rhyme, and our growing knowledge of letter sounds.  Here you can see the children incorporating science learning about sunflowers and seasonal change into their illustrations.

Partner games are a favorite way to promote math reasoning AND friendship skills.  

Partners can play games together AND make art together!

Some things are fun to do on your own.  Like use the teacher's pointer while you build and feel the Power of Yet. As the song says, "perseverance is paramount"!

After all this work and play, a little relaxing in our PJs was well deserved.  Congrats to the crew for filling our Core Values Chart for the second time.

Building Structures, Building Skills

 As promised I have some catching up to do.  Looking over the past two weeks many of the photos highlight the incredible work the children are doing with designing and building. This is no surprise since we have a shape focus in Math, however the children tap into their design skills during Explore time as well.  Have a look:

During Math we used the book A Shape is Just a Shape as an inspiration to create our own pages about the shapes we see in the world.  A trapezoid can become a boat!

During Explore time children create in two and three dimensions.

Even the chalk became a building material in the courtyard one afternoon.

Once you start focusing on noticing shapes, you can't stop!

Exploring All Around Orchard School

 This past week we had a lot of fun with shapes.  Inside the classroom the children used pattern blocks to make different pictures and recorded how many of each shape they used.

We also went beyond our classroom to see what kind of shapes we could find all around Orchard school.  It was pretty cool to stop and think that the whole world is made of shapes.  Below you can see us finding a triangle, square, and circle.

There is learning to be done and fun to be had all around Orchard!  One of our favorite spaces is the courtyard.  On Friday we took sometime to pick and eat authentic "Orchard School Apples".  We also put our number writing skills to use making hopscotch games and designed and built fairy houses with natural materials.

Back in the classroom we took a few minutes to settle in with some books...the ones we've made and have been saving in our keep boxes!  

Growing Confidence, Growing Friendships

    A look back over this second week reveals how we are making connections through new experiences. Learning takes place in so many ways throughout the day- have a look!

 Below you can see new friendships forming and turn-taking skills strengthening as partners collaborate on different ways to build a hexagon in a math game.

Here you can see tablemates concentrating and sharing collective materials as they work on individual books for their "keepbox" collections.

In this group experience, Ms. Finn guided the children in completing their own copy of the class graph that showed the different ways classmates get to school in the morning.

Sometimes important discoveries are made quietly on your own. Watercolor painting provided this opportunity.

Reaching our goal of 100 apple cores for using Core Values earned us our first whole class celebration- extra recess! It was a great way to end the week.