50's Day

Last Thursday we had a great time celebrating the 50th day of school!  We enjoyed dressing up like we were from the 50's, listening and dancing to 50's music and learning about the differences from the past and today.  Here is a Smilebox of pictures from our fun day!!

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"Fun" and "Safe" Switch

We have one of the most amazing guidance counselors around!  Mrs. Sitsch is definitely loved by all of the students in our class.  We are always so excited for her to come and visit us.  This time when she came to visit she brought three friends with her!  She used these friends to help demonstrate ways to take care of our bodies.  She used light switches to represent that we have a "fun switch" and a "safe switch".  She showed how the "safe switch" should never be turned off.  When explaining to the kids about this she talked about how if you get an "uh oh feeling", a feeling that you can get when you feel like something is not quite right, that there are two things that you need to do.  The two things students were advised to do when they get an "uh oh" feeling, that could result in feeling nervous, scared or confused, is say "no" and go (to get a trusted adult).  An example that Mrs. Sitsch used was kids knowing that they should not swim in the swimming pool without an adult.  The "safe switch" should stay on even if they are encouraged by another child to get in the pool without an adult.  They should say "no" to the child and then go to get an adult.  Here are some pictures!

Fall is Here!

Last week we really started to talk about weather and season changes.  Since we are moving into fall we talked about what fall looks like, feels like, etc.  One thing that students brought up was how the leaves on trees start to fall.  We then talked about how the colors of leaves on most trees change too.  We decided to take a leaf walk to get a closer look!  The kids loved seeing the signs of fall outside.  We also read poems and books about fall to connect our new learning.  Here are some pictures!

Dr. Doug!

We had so much fun at our in-school field trip with Dr. Doug!  We learned how to be great observers by using our senses.  We classified objects by their size, shape, pattern, color and more.  Here are some pictures.  We cannot wait for Dr. Doug to come back!

Labeling

This week we started learning about how to label our pictures during writer's workshop.  We learned how to stretch words like bubble gum to get down all of the sounds that we hear.  In order to get all of the sounds down we found that we had to say the word over and over again until we couldn't hear anymore sounds.  This has given the students more confidence that they can write down words all by themselves and that they do not need anyone to tell them how to spell words.  One activity that we did to help students learn how to stretch words out like bubble gum was we labeled one of our friends!  We had a GREAT time doing this as a class!

Grandparent's Day!

We had such a wonderful time spending the morning with our grandparents on Monday!  The kids loved showing their grandparents how they learn and play in centers.  They also enjoyed performing a special poem that they worked on especially for our grandparents.  The poem was called "You are Special".  Thank you grandparents for traveling near and far to see us!  Here is a Smilebox of pictures taken on Grandparent's Day!

Building Community

This week we have been discovering how to learn and interact as a community of learners by inquiring and studying ants.  We have had so much fun learning about ants and communities by reading books, looking at the life cycle and parts of ants, observing ants and so much more.  One of our favorite things that we did was when we went on our ant walk!  We were able to use magnifying glasses to search for ants and watch how they work as a community.  We did a great job not touching the ants and just using our sense of sight.  Here are some pictures!