insects and spirals in nature - a day outside!

Nature

Thank you to Janice, Kirsten and Jen for spending Friday morning teaching us about insects! The children watched an engaging puppet show, sang a song about the parts of an insect, put the parts together and observed crickets and grasshoppers outside. It was an exciting morning and many children asked if we could have Nature every morning.

We are still looking for a third parent volunteer for our nature program. If you have time and flexibility in your schedule and would like to volunteer, please let me know.

 

  

 

Outdoor Classroom

On Friday afternoon we read the book Swirl by Swirl, Spirals in Nature and thought deeply about the swirls - and lines - we might see in the woods. We used our outdoor classroom time to go for a small hike, looking for different kinds of lines. As we walked children talked about the twisting roots and lines in the leaves, straight lines and zig zags! We stopped at a clearing and children recorded their findings before sharing their journal work with their reading partner. Visit again to see pictures of their drawings and labels in their nature journals.

 

 

 

 

counting and representing

Our morning message often has a question for children to respond to. As part of this, there are opportunities to count, compare, and represent. It is important for children to understand that there are many ways to show a number, to solve a problem, and to represent an idea. Our morning message work provides the context for conversation and reflection - viewing different ways to represent the same number challenges children to think differently or use a different lens.

Notice Ava, the problem solver, as she prints the number 18 by finding it on our math calendar and placing it on the morning message. This is a powerful example of how children can access the classroom environment to be independent learners.

 

We continue to work with the number 10 in different ways. Our math journals have already begun to show children's work counting and representing, answering questions and showing their thinking. Much of their initial work connects to our community and days in school as well as math read alouds.

We have read about and used dots in many different ways this week. We read the book Dot as part of our conversations around feeling stuck and growing within our learning community. We played "find your dot match" for morning greetings and read the book 10 Black Dots. In the below images you can see children finding their number (digit) and dots match.

If you have the number 9 on your card, you are looking for the peer with 9 dots on their card, then you sit elbow-to-elbow and knee-to-knee with your match on the green oval. Once we point, read, and check all of the matches, children turn and greet their partner.

One child said this was their favorite part in our day. We love find your match greetings!

 

Following our reading of 10 Black Dots, the children each thought of something they could make with 10 black dots. Then, they used all that they know about stretching words to write what they drew a picture of and record how many dots. I laminated their work and put the pages together for our first published class book! We connected our work to the work they are doing during writing workshop; thinking, planning, and drawing a picture. It was important to check in about remembering how to stretch our words and using our letter sheets from the literacy shelf - while children do this during writing workshop, it was a great opportunity to remind them that they have access to our letter sheets all of the time. Children counted and recounted, checking their work, just like mathematicians do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were many math and literacy elements to this experience, but perhaps the most powerful is the excitement and joy to read our book. On Friday, children took turns in small groups to read the book following snack, counting and checking the work of their peers. There was a shared feeling of empowerment amongst the math artists.

 

writing workshop

Children write throughout the day; in response to a morning message prompt, adding labels to their block structures, or including a sticky note next to their saved math work. The process of thinking, planning, writing and reflecting is ongoing and occuring in and outside of our designated workshop time. This is important to share, because in no way should the skills, strategies, and growth of the children be contained to one part in our day. When looking at their growth as writers over time,  I always consider two questions; Are they taking initiative of their learning and solving problems independently? Are they transferring their developing skills and knowledge, enriching their learning by applying skills in different content areas? 

A couple of weeks ago we began our writing workshop by celebrating that all of the children are writers - and they are. Every five and six year old I have ever known has loved to talk about what they are an expert in and tell stories. Children have been learning the logistics of the writing workshop while also learning about a specific kind of writing; informational. We have started the year writing teaching books, connecting the children's work to the teaching books they have been reading during reading workshop and the important community piece of getting to know more about our new community through their writing. Following Ana's recent share of her teaching book about caterpillars, one peer exclaimed, "I didn't know Ana knows about caterpillars! What does bad caterpillar mean? AND LOOK AT HER DRAWINGS!"

The children are not only individual writers, they are part of a writing community - sharing and reflecting with their peers. As you look at the small collection of photographs on this post, think about some of these questions; What am I learning about the child through their writing? What are they interested in and passionate about? What are their strengths? What is one thing they are working on?

One thing we have been working on during writing workshop is  s t r e t c h i n g  words and listening for all of the sounds. You will see children using a letter to show the starting sound in a word for their labels. You will also see children beginning to write on the lines below their drawings. We encourage this detail in their work, but only after they have thought about their piece and put their thoughts into drawings on their paper. The goal is not to spell words correctly, the goal is for students to listen and record the sounds (letters) they hear. We practice this skill when working on our class teaching book about the big playground and they practice in their individual teaching books. We are in the beginning of this process and I am sure this week children will be adding many pages to their books!

 

Practicing picturing the big playground in our minds and drawing and labeling what we see. What else can we add to our book? What are the important details about the playground we need to teach to our audience?

Ana is working on a teaching book about caterpillars. There are leaves and one chrysalis on the tree. There are different caterpillars on the ground and on the branch. She said the caterpillars on the ground are poisonous.

"How can you share that important detail?"

"I could try to write poisonous, but I'll write bad. Because it means they are bad. Don't touch them." 

Crosby is writing a teaching book about dragons. Every page has a fact about a different kind of dragon. Did you know rainbow dragons can spread rainbows?

Amelia is writing a teaching book about dinosaurs.

 Maeve is writing a teaching book about pet bunnies.

"In Winter the person is 12."

Her plan is to write about how a 12 year old person can take care of a 2 year old bunny. This is a very specific teaching book.

Dylan is teaching us about snakes.

Reagan is teaching us about her family. She is using the zones of regulation to label how her and her parents are feeling. When talking about her work, I must note her laughter and smile when saying dad is "in the yellow zone".

community celebration

The Kindergarteners have been working on making safe, kind, and responsible choices. They filled our bin with community bands and voted for their first celebration, choosing between opening the loft, playing on the big playground, and baking. During morning meeting on Tuesday, the children wrote their names on small sticky notes and put their name under their choice. We counted how many for each choice and recorded the number. Our morning message was full of authentic math work. Playing on the big playground had the most votes. Our time on the big playground was our most joyful moment this week!