We Went on a BEAR HUNT!!!

Last week we had so much fun with gingerbread stories. This week we surrounded ourselves with bears! We read and re-read the story, "We're Going on a Bear Hunt". We acted it out, created art work, and used it in our word study sentences. We almost hate to put our bear hunt props away!We worked with partners to create a story map of our bear hunt!

On Friday we read two stories about a bear named Corduroy and made our own Cordoroy bears....we added buttons and pockets, just like in the stories we read. 

We also brought our bears/stuffed animals to school and let them spend the night in our classroom!

We measured our bears with cubes....this snake was really long! 

When we came to school on Thursday, this is what we found them doing!!!! We had fun drawing our animals and writing about them and what they did! 

Report cards went home in folders on Wednesday. 

We worked on a new coping skill this week, and the kids had a great time talking about different situations they could use it for. The coping skill was called change your plan. This would be a great one to rehearse at home since plans often change and our children need to have a coping skill to help them with that. The picture I drew shows what happens when we can't go out to recess. It is similar to one we learned last year called change your thinking, but I think this is a little more concrete for our students.  

We welcomed a new student to our classroom this week - we are now a wonderful group of 14! 
Next week will be a four day week - and surely a busy and exciting one. Don't forget that we will serve breakfast to our class on Thursday morning! We will have plenty to eat for everyone! This is something we love to do for our students. And the students at Loon Lake may wear their pajamas to school that day as well!  We will be cozy and full that morning!
*** I also want to wish you all a wonderful holiday season and winter break. I am excited to see my children who live out of state. When we return in January we will be reading all about snowmen and winter! 

More Gingerbread Stories....

We read many more versions of gingerbread stories and learned that some authors changed the settings and others changed the characters...and we found out that the fox didn't always get to eat the gingerbread cookie! We practiced retelling the story, identified the beginning, middle and end of the story and wrote about some of the story events in our journals. Our classroom is filled with gingerbread art! 

We were successful last week naming, showing and writing about a coping skill...so this week we worked on teaching a coping skill! These girls showed us how to do deep breathing...

And this boy taught us how to do count and breathe...

Another classmate explained self-talk to us...

In our social skills lessons we how to identify emotions based on visual cues such as noticing how a friend's mouth and eyes look...are they smiling, are their eyes turned down, do they look happy or sad? This is an important skill in developing empathy and helps us adjust our behavior in response to how a friend might be feeling. 

Thank you to those of you who sent in canisters of Lysol/Clorox wipes - we appreciate having them on hand to wipe off tables, especially during cold and flu season. We can still use more! 

Next week we will return to bears - and we will have fun with both fiction and non-fiction books about bears. Your child should bring a stuffed bear or any stuffed animal to school next Wednesday, December 15. The stuffed animal will spend the night here! I will send a reminder note home next week - and if by chance your child forgets, I have several spare stuffed animals. We will be writing about our bears and their overnight adventures! 

We have added a few new centers for Center Time...here is a seasonal favorite of some children...

We have been very lucky to have had some extra help for about 2 hours each day from a third para-educator named Mrs. Snyder. She works in all three of our EI classrooms and has become a wonderful part of our room. Your children may have mentioned her to you. 

Bears and gingerbread stories

We started our week off learning a little about bears and hibernation. We made some sleeping bears for our den - we learned that bears eat ALOT of food before they go into their dens for the winter, and they are very hungry when they wake up in the spring! Sometimes baby bears are born during the winter too. We will come back to bears before the end of December. 

We also began reading some "gingerbread men" stories and we will continue this into next week. We made some cute gingerbread boys and girls for our classroom. The children will be exploring things that are the same and different as we read different versions of gingerbread stories. We will also work on retelling gingerbread stories, identifying main characters and the setting. Gingerbread stories are a fun way to learn these story elements. 

Our class has demonstrated real progress in their behavioral growth - this gave us a little extra time to work on a big group project! We cooperated and worked on a winter mural... we painted sky, we made trees and houses, and then we put it all together....we think it looks beautiful! 

We worked hard on being able to name a coping skill, show a coping skill and draw a picture in our journal about a coping skill. We have added "yoga" to our list of coping skills as well! 

This Friday is the end of our first trimester. I will send home a paper copy of your child's report card on December 14 in his/her folder. That copy is yours to keep. 

It is colder out now - please send warm clothes for outdoor recess. 
We are in need of more tubs of Lysol or Clorox type wipes - we try to wipe down our tables daily to help keep germs out of Room 113! 

Our last day of school before Winter Break is Thursday, December 22. On that day, we will serve our students a holiday breakfast. This is our Winter Party. We will have pancakes, sausage, fruit and juice for your children - you can send them in a little hungry that morning!

Pilgrims and Native Americans

We continued to learn more about how the Pilgrims traveled to this country and what the voyage on the Mayflower was like. We also learned about the types of homes both the Pilgrims and Native Americans lived in. We did a lot of writing in our journals about our learning! Everyone now writes and draws in their journal! 

We combined a little science with our social studies learning when we made our own butter. We didn't have a butter churn like the Pilgrims did, so we shook our cream in a container for a LONG time! We were surprised when it finally turned into butter and we could eat it on some crackers. We called our crackers hard tack - this was the dry, flat bread the Pilgrims had on the ship. We learned that the Pilgrims did not have refrigerators or grocery stores or even schools when they first arrived. 

We are going to focus on a new learning target after the Thanksgiving holiday - I can name a coping skill.  We will practice every day, and your child can practice with you at home too. Here are some examples we have learned and that are on our board (there are others as well):
*deep breathing    * stop, think, choose     
*take a break      *ask for help
*ignore (someone who is not doing the right thing)      * self-talk 
*express your feelings      *move on     
 *use the coping skill tool box 
*count and breathe    *move away from a problem 

Next week is a 3 day week. I want to wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy the holiday weekend with your families! I am looking forward to having all 3 of my adult children home! We will finish up our Pilgrim and Native American Indian studies, and begin learning about hibernation and read a variety of gingerbread boy and girl books. 

 

Turkeys, Native Americans and Feelings

In our social skills lessons we are focusing on our feelings and the feelings other people might have. Many children now understand that sad or angry feelings don't feel very good, and are beginning to use coping skills or accept help from us so that they can get back in the green zone. We also talk about how others feel about us when we are angry acting - they don't feel comfortable around us when we are in the red zone. This is a positive step forward for our students - they are beginning to put together how their feelings impact their behavior, and how our behavior looks to other people. I know many of you are working on this at home too! We added a new coping skill... "Express your Feelings" with words, not tears or yelling. 

We worked on some turkey art, and had fun doing a turkey brain break on the big screen. We are also beginning to read some Native American stories and legends as we discuss how Woodland Indians and Pilgrims might have lived long ago. One of our social studies standards is to learn about how people lived long ago. We were especially proud that we could use large needles to sew beads on a special piece of artwork! 

We read the Native American legend of the "Loon's Necklace" and created some beautiful loons with q-tip painting. 

We ended the week by reading a Native American Cinderella story called "The Rough Face Girl". We learned about Native American birch bark canoes, looked at some real birch bark and created canoes with fishing poles in them! This was our trickiest project yet!

We worked hard on the focus skill "I can turn my work in with my name on it" and have started a new target.... "I can work quietly". These targets are all chosen because they will help your child be a better learner, and because they are skills that will be needed in general education settings as well. 

It was wonderful seeing so many of you on Conference Day or at recent IEPTs. Thank you for working so hard with us to help your children be successful! 

If you are sending in money for popcorn or lunches, it is very helpful if it is in an envelope or baggy with your child's name on it - much thanks!  

Firefighters and Halloween!

Last week Mr. Ellis came to tell us all about what firefighters do. We read some books about what happens at a fire station, and we learned about what some of the gear and equipment is called. Some students wanted to try on the gear too!

Halloween was a lot of fun! We worked and played in our costumes, and even had music with Mrs. Aaronson in our costumes! We all enjoyed walking in the parade and eating Halloween snacks afterwards. 

Now we have begun the month of November -in this room, we always say, "No problems in November!" By now, most of our students have learned many of the important "ready to learn" skills they need to participate appropriately at group time and during work task time. They all have learned a coping skill (or many!) that can be used to get calm and back in the green zone. This is the time of year we begin to raise the expectations just a little bit - your children are ready for this step! 

I look forward to seeing many of you on November 8 for Parent Teacher Conferences. I have a busy schedule that day, so I will try hard to keep right on time.