Our Bowling Trip

We had a wonderful time at Wonderland Bowling Lanes. Everyone was able to bowl two games - we practiced taking turns, cheering our classmates on and following directions. It was a very successful field trip! The pictures tell the story...

 

 

 

 

 

We are amazed at the changes in our bean plants this week! We observed that they lean towards the window to get the sunlight and that different beans sprouted on different days.

Just a reminder...we are planning a celebration performance for June 2 at 2:00. We hope that many of you will be able to come see us share our learning about self regulation and coping skills. 

Fairy Tales and Field Trips

We are getting excited about our Field Trip to Wonderland Bowling Lanes next Tuesday morning. This will be a good opportunity for us to practice the behaviors and self control we have learned in our classroom while in a different setting. We will be sure to share many photos!
We are also beginning to work on an end of the year celebration that we will do with Dr. Cohen's class and Miss Ross's class.  We will be sharing some of our learning about coping skills and the zones of regulation on June 2 at 2:00. We hope you will all be able to join us!
We have continued with our fairy tale unit -we can identify many elements of a fairy tale, such as repeating phrases, magic, settings such as castles and forests, good and bad characters and animals who talk or are magical. This week we read "Rapunzel" and "The Princess and the Pea" among other tales. This class loves fairy tales! Here are our Jack in the Beanstalks...our own beans are beginning to sprout!

In our social skills lessons we worked on how to focus - we decided that we need to look at our work and to work quietly. We also need to sit up instead of turning around when we work. We learned that we need to "close the file" on things like video games when we want to focus on our work. We can tell ourselves that we can think about non-work things after we are finished. We can get our work done faster and smarter when we focus. Here are some students who are focusing on their work:

We also have been working on saying, "OK" when a direction is given, both at home and at school. We made a chart about the size of a problem and our reaction to a problem. We learned that when our reaction is much bigger than the problem, people around us feel uncomfortable. We are practicing thinking about the size of the problem in terms of how serious it is and how easy it could be to fix. 

Loon Lake is having a Slumber Read In on Thursday April 2 - your child may wear their pajamas to school that day. (Remember, we will have recess outside.) 

The marking period ends next week and report cards will be printed and sent home after spring break on April 15. 

Fairy Tales in room 113

We read several versions of Jack in the Beanstalk  and created beanstalk art of our own. We planted bean seeds and are anxiously waiting for them to sprout! We are learning that there are different versions of many fairy tales. We are working on identifying the main characters, the setting, the problem and the solution in the fairy tales we are reading.

We read several versions of Little Red Riding Hood  and The Three Little Pigs.  We worked in groups to create houses built of straw, sticks and bricks.

We also worked in groups to build a house that we thought the wolf could not blow down, using only the supplies given to our group. We had to cooperate with our team members and share ideas with each other. After we built the houses, we tested them with a "wolf" (Mrs. Ellis' hairdryer!) to find out whether our houses were sturdy or not!

We talked about our houses and how we felt about working in teams. We wanted to figure out why some houses were sturdier than others, and we wanted to learn how a team can work together. This kind of activity is called a STEM activity - Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. We'll do another STEM activity in a few weeks! 

Reading Month and a Bowling Field Trip...

Our class is participating in the door decorating activity that Loon Lake does for Reading Month. We talked about our favorite books, and decided that "Angry Octopus" by Lori Lite would be a good theme for our door. This is a great book that includes the coping skills of deep breathing/relaxation and accepting help - our class loves it! Here is a picture of our door - all of the students helped paint the octopus and sea child and everyone painted shells and fish.

In our social skills lessons, we continue to work on identifying triggers and things that may lead us to feeling upset. We know that if we identify a trigger, we can make a plan before we face that trigger. This plan can help us stay in the green zone! We also talked about what to do when someone accidentally bumps us, knocks us down or hurts us. When students assume that someone is behaving towards them with hostile motives, they are more likely to react with aggression, so we practiced how to calm down and talk things out. We can say, "That hurt. What happened? Was it an accident?" We also practiced apologizing when we accidentally do something. We can say, "I'm sorry. It was an accident. Can I help you?" We did lot's of role plays to practice this. 

We are excited about our upcoming Field Trip on March 24 to Wonderland Bowling. We will all be able to bowl two games. I am sending home a permission slip and we are asking for $4.00 to cover the bowling activity. We will use some of our grant money to pay for the bus. If the $4.00 is a problem, do not worry - just return the permission slip. 

Our class welcomed our new student and made him feel at home. What a great group of kids we have in Room 113! We are happy to be a group of 10 now! We were very excited to be awarded the PBIS class of the month sign for some whole class PBIS tickets that were written for us!

Next Tuesday evening at 6:00 we will meet in Room 114 for our Parent Support Group Meeting. Our topic will be the Zones of Regulation at school and at home. We hope you will be able to join us!

We finished up our Dr. Seuss unit and learned about teeth and wind. We made some kite art for our bulletin board in the hallway. Next week ...fairy tales!

Dr. Seuss and 100 Days of School!

We have enjoyed rhyming with some Dr. Seuss books and activities this week. Monday is Dr. Seuss' birthday, and students at Loon Lake are encouraged to wear red, black and/or white clothing, just like the Cat in the Hat. March is Reading Month, and there will be some special days for students at Loon Lake. Each Friday will be flashlight reading - I will have some flashlights on hand for reading with and students are also welcome to bring a flashlight from home.

We also talked about March weather - will it come in like a lion or a lamb? We are all anxious for spring weather so we can get back outside to play!

Here is our number line - we were excited to see it grow to the number 100 this week. We feel 100 days smarter too!

This shirt has 100 eyes on it!!!

We will have a new student start in our classroom on Monday, so we will become a class of 10!
I want to remind you that there is no school next Tuesday, March 3.
We are excited to let you know that our 3 special education classrooms received a generous grant from the WL Foundation for Excellence to help us fund some classroom field trips. We are looking forward to a field trip on March 24 to Wonderland Lanes for bowling and an outing in the spring to the WL Outdoor Center.  Thank you to Dr. Cohen for writing the grant for us! More info and permission slips will come for the bowling field trip.

We will have our Parent Support Group Meeting the following Tuesday, March 10 at 6:00. Our topic will be the Zones of Regulation. We use this new program with our students and have experienced a lot of success with it.

Learning about the United States

We have been practicing the Pledge of Allegiance and learning about our flag and other symbols for our country, including the Statue of Liberty and the Liberty Bell. We learned about President Washington and President Lincoln and also about the White House.

In our social skills lessons we talked about the feeling of disappointment and things we could do or say when we feel disappointed. We have also been talking about kindness - this is a very kind group of children, and I see daily acts of kindness right in our classroom. Developing empathy at such a young age is a wonderful thing, and they frequently attempt to look at things from another classmate's perspective. 

Miss Marlowe did some fun music with us on Thursday. We used instruments for some songs and followed her under a parachute rainbow for another. 

We loved everything about Valentine's Day - from making our mailboxes, delivering our valentines cards, and finally, opening them up during our party! What a great day it was!