THRILLING THURSDAY 12-5-13

ASK ME ABOUT...

...the question on the Morning Message.

...where I went and what I did for Work Stations.

...how many days we've been in school.

...what we made to celebrate Zero the Hero day.

...what I did in Spanish.

...what I did in P.E.

...the story, Many Ways.

FREE CHOICE LEARNING~

 ZERO THE HERO~

Today we celebrated our 70th day of school!  Brett and his mom provided us with a great way to celebrate--making dream catchers!  Brett's mom explained to us what a dream catcher is and does and then the children got to work designing their own dream catchers.  Thank you for a great activity.  Sweet Dreams!

HOLIDAYS AND CELEBRATIONS~

Today we read the book, Many Ways.  This book was published in an effort to help young children become aware of the diversity of spiritual traditions and of the similarities and differences between their families' beliefs and the beliefs of others.  This book was useful as we are discussing many different holidays and celebrations that occur during this time of year.  At the end of the book, it mentions that no matter what your beliefs, celebrations, observances, etc., the following lesson is the same for all of us, "Love and care for one another and for our beautiful earth.".

WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY 12-4-13

ASK ME ABOUT...

...the question on the Morning Message.

...where I went and what I did for Work Stations.

...what letter we practiced writing in our handwriting books.

...what book Mrs. Arner read to us in the library.

...what book I checked out from the library.

...the people patterns we did.

 FREE CHOICE LEARNING~

Owen works on creating a gumdrop structure at the Creation Station.

 Children enjoy using the river rocks and artificial trees we added to the Construction Zone.

 

 Walker exercising his artistic skills painting at the easel.

 Vivian and Avery count to 100!

TERRIFIC TUESDAY 12-3-13

ASK ME ABOUT...

...the question on the morning message.

...the new greeting we did during our morning meeting.

...where I went and what I did for Work Stations.

...what I did in Music.

...the story, OOPS Beautiful!.

...what I drew in my book during Writer's Workshop.

NEW WORK STATIONS~

We started a new round of Work Stations today......

 

The activity pictured in the photo below is a spatial reasoning task using Geoboards.  The child copies the shape(s) on the card on to the Geoboard.

 The activity pictured below is a cube puzzle.  Children use the card as a pattern and turn cubes to match the pattern on the card.

 

 At the Writing Station, children trace 5 previous passwords in different colors.

 At the Overhead Station, children play a connect four game with our passwords.

 At the Project Station, children work together to copy a design from the card using the wooden puzzle pieces.

 At Games Galore, children use an I-Pad to play the game Rush Hour--a task involving problem-solving and strategy!

 

 At Math Magic, children choose numbers and then color them in on a 100-chart.  Some children are working on numbers 1-30, while other children are working on numbers 31 -100.

 

 Some children are using a chart with numbers 1-200 and cards representing base ten blocks.  Once a child counts the number of "cubes" on the card, he/she colors in the number on a chart.  The amount on the card pictured below is 101.

 

 At the Alphabet Station, children roll a die and then choose a password with the corresponding number of letters and record it on their paper.

 

FREE CHOICE LEARNING~

 Maya and Sophia work together to complete this magnetic mosaic picture of a fish.

WRITER'S WORKSHOP~

Today we read the story, Beautiful OOPS!.  This is a wonderful book about how to correct/fix your mistakes when engaged in various art activities (painting, drawing, coloring).  After reading the book, children drew in their "Drawing and Writing" Books and then shared their stories with a partner. 

 

MARVELOUS MONDAY 12-2-13

ASK ME ABOUT...

...the new activities at Free Choice time.

...what I did in Spanish.

...the new nursery rhyme we learned.

...the word, nimble, means.

...our new "Star of the Week".

...who my new Work Station partner is.

...the new password.

...the name of the new month! 

NEW FREE CHOICE ACTIVITIES~

Today we introduced many new activities at Free Choice time.  

At the Fine Motor, children can exercise their fine motor muscles by scooping or using tweezers to move marbles from one place to another.

 Also at the Fine Motor Station, children can exercise their fine motor muscles and their creativity by stringing beads on to pipe cleaners that are inserted into a styrofoam board.

 At the Discovery Station, children can connect and build a structure with pipes.

There are new kaleidoscopes to use at the Discovery Station.

 

 At Games Galore, children can play a Memory game by trying to match the photo card with the name card of their classmates.

 At Math Magic, children exercise their spatial reasoning skills by building cube structures.

 Kyndal visits a story that is an "old favorite", Silly Sally.  She reads the big book using a pointer.

 At the Alphabet Station, children practice the recognition of our passwords by following a maze.

 Sophia and Willa work together to count candle-shaped pasta in the counting basket.

 STAR OF THE WEEK~

Our new "Star of the Week" is Vivian!  Today we learned about some of Vivian's favorite things including, her favorite color (pink), her favorite dessert (popsicles), and her favorite place to visit (COSI).  Thank you for helping us learn more about you, Vivian! 

 

 NEW NURSERY RHYME~

We introduced a new nursery rhyme today, "Jack Be Nimble".  We discussed what the word nimble means and also discussed why it was important for Jack to be nimble and quick when jumping over the candlestick.   We then acted out the nursery rhyme (with an unlit candle) with each child getting a turn to have his/her name replace Jack's in the nursery rhyme.