Welcome Back!

I'm learning a new trick for posting photos directly from my phone to my blog . This photo is a test taken right before the break.

With Gratitude and Happiness

If you had a chance to read this week's newsletter you might recall the discussion we had about the connection between gratitude and happiness. Turns out, people who regularly take time out to acknowledge the things they are grateful for are happier and healthier! The week before Thanksgiving seemed like the right time to build "being grateful" into our mindfulness practice.  Here is the link to the music video we watched.  ...AND learned some signs to go along!  

PLEASE NOTE THERE IS SOMETIMES AN ADD BEFORE THE VIDEO IF YOU ARE VIEWING WITH YOUR KINDERGARTNER!

gratitude by Empty Hands

And now for a look through our week... you can see a finished weaving taken off the [cardboard] loom, a look at Melissa's Candle Day (all about her love for rainbows), designing paper quilt squares and story writing with some traditional Native American picture symbols.

The Learning Deepens

In my last post I shared how we'd begun learning about differences between the past and present through stories, props, and crafts. This past week our look at how daily life has changed over the last two hundred (or so) years continued to "weave" it's way into our literacy learning and forest exploration. I hope you enjoy this look at the children embroidering during quiet time,learning to weave an over/under pattern on cardboard looms and dipping candles.

 

In this next picture you can see students working as a group to make a list of all the things they could remember the Ox-Cart Man packing up to take to Portsmouth Market.  In this activity we discussed how lists are a useful thing to be able to write and how when we say words slowly we can heard the sounds that different letters make and begin to spell.  Look carefully at the white board in the photo and you will see that the Ox Cart Man's items have been spelled inventively.  They've also been shaped out of modeling clay and loaded onto the carts!

Friday's forest exploration included some terrific teamwork and a bit of a mysterious happening.  Take a look at the children moving a long log in an effort to reinforce the bridge.  And, notice the small vertical hole that in the large tree?  We discovered that if you slip a small object in it the object will come out the hole at the bottom!

Everything Old is New Again

For the month of November several parts of our curriculum will converge around theme of "going back in time".  After reading Donald Hall's classic, The Ox-Cart Man, which tells the story of family life on a New England farm in the 1800's, the children's interest life long ago was sparked. Since then we've begun making candles, added embroidery as an option at quiet time, and created a special space to pretend with some old fashioned props.  Our fifth grade buddies helped us out with paper weaving as well!

 

During Literacy this week we talked about books that are "old favorites"- stories that are so good we want to read them again and again until we know them by heart.  In fact, many of these stories are SO good our parents and grandparents read them and know them too!  Here you can see readers fully engrossed in these stories and in reenacting one of them...The Three Billy Goats Gruff!  After making character puppets we partnered up to make bridges out of blocks so we could practice telling the story with the voices of the characters.

On Friday when we took to the forest, we discovered a partially constructed wooden bridge that spanned a low spot of the forest floor.  Immediately, there was a great team effort to haul more sticks to reinforce and continue the cross pieces.  And before you knew it, it was the perfect place to "trip trop, trip trop, trip trop"- just like in The Three Billy Goats Gruff !

Happy Halloween!

It's my hope in writing for this blog that it can both stand alone and provide a visual for some of the things I write about in the weekly newsletter.  This posting offers a glimpse into a daily routine of ours: the greeting during morning meeting.  Some days we stay seated and send a greeting around the circle and other days we use cards (names, photos, math equations, uppercase/lower case) to determine who greets who with a handshake, eye contact and the words "good morning _____".  

This week we talked about how writers can show what they know by including lots of details.  Labeled pictures, which children are used to seeing in books, are a super way for beginning writers to communicate with an audience.  Before asking the children to create a labeled picture on a topic of their choice, we warmed up by creating labeled pictures about Halloween using a word list.

I'm happy that many of you were able to join us for Friday's festivities.  The children had a great time making hanging bats, spooky spiders and knuckle printed pumpkins.  They enjoyed delicious, healthy foods and loved Halloween Bingo with Miss Jess!  A very heartfelt thank you to everyone who contributed.

Full On Fall !

While Frederick's friends gathered wheat, corn and acorns for the  harsh days of winter, Frederick's contribution was words.  He gathered words to create poetry about the good days in summer.  Frederick was able to recite this poetry for his friends when winter was almost too tough to bear.  We created a mural in Leo Lionni's style and saved some special words of our own. 

I hope you can get a sense of the focus children are bringing to their work these days.  Below you can see two friends copying the birthday wall- this was their decision when "white boards" was available as a literacy choice.  You can also see students concentrating on recording all the combinations of 10 that they could discover while manipulating two-colored pegs on a ten frame.

The last Leo Lionni story we read was Alexander and the Wind up Mouse.  Alexander Mouse used his one magic wish to turn his toy-mouse friend into a real mouse. Take a look at the attention these table mates are giving to collaging a picture of what they would wish for if they had a magic purple pebble.

It's important to know that we play as hard as we work in Room 28 so I will close this post with a look and friendship indoors and out!

What A Week!

In addition to the excitement of the circus, we found some time this past week to sink into some writing. Below you can have a look at the children putting together an "8 page book".  It's a literacy activity that has become familiar to the group. These books are made to support themes we are studying, feature "popcorn" words and emphasize using picture clues to read.  After the children complete the book with writing, drawing, cutting, putting the pages in order and stapling, they read it to a teacher and place it in their book box to re-read in the future.  As I taught the class in Reader's Workshop this week:  "when you're done, you've just begun".  Readers become even stronger and learn more when they go back and re-read!

Another important writing activity this week was the start of "write around the room" as a literacy choice.  Below you can see a student independently "copy writing" words that are important to her from around the room.  In this way children deepen their learning by connecting the way a word looks to the way it sounds and what it means.

 ...And to end the week we headed to the Pumpkin Patch!