Dr. Seuss activities

We began our Dr. Seuss author study this week and really worked on rhyming words. After reading, "The Cat in the Hat", we created cats and fish from the story. We also created pages in our Dr. Seuss rhyming book for the cat, "Fox in Socks" and "One Fish, Two Fish". I LOVE seeing your kids enjoy reading these books during book box time! 

We were surprised to learn that Dr. Seuss' name was really Theodore Seuss Geisel. Dr. Seuss was his "pen" name. When he wrote the "Cat in the Hat" he only used 236 words! Mrs. Ellis was one year old when it was first published!

We continued to work on "size of the problem" in our social skills lessons. Have your child teach you all about it at home. It will really help if you talk about this often so that your child has many opportunities to think about the size of the problem and then match their reaction to it. Don't be surprised if he/she initially says a problem is medium sized - remind them that medium sized problems involve slight injury (do they need a band aid?), several people and last for several days. This will help remind them that most likely, they have a "glitch" or small problem - no crying/big upsets needed! They are getting good at this at school! Remind yourself that problems are opportunities for learning and practice!

We couldn't resist adding some spring kites to our board this week - we hope spring will be here for good! 

Fairy Tales, Reading Month and Spring!

We completed our fairy tale unit with "The Little Red Hen", "The Princess and the Pea" and "Hansel and Gretel".  We listened to "The Little Green Witch" to hear a version of the Red Hen story that had different characters and setting, and a funny twist at the end. 

In preparation for Reading Month, we decorated our hallway bulletin board with a scene from a Dr. Seuss book, "The Cat in the Hat". We painted the raindrops and made our own Thing 1 and Thing 2's... we think we look pretty wonderful! We will begin our Dr. Seuss author study next week!

We talked about weather and made lambs and lions...we found out that March came in like a lion! 

We learned about a new coping skill this week, and will continue to work on it for awhile... "How big is the Problem?" We have been reading a social story that helps us understand if the problem is small (most are), medium or big. We are working on naming the size of our problem and matching our reaction to the problem. Small, or Level 1, problems can be solved easily, only involve 1 or 2 people and last a few minutes. Medium, or Level 2, problems may affect 3-5 people, could last for days or weeks, may involve a small cut or scrape and need an adult to help solve. Big, or Level 3, problems may affect many people, may last for weeks or months, involve damage or injury and can be tricky or take a long time to fix.

 We also each have an animal strip to help us when we have a problem...we have learned that most problems are glitches or small, the size of a mouse or cat. 

March is Reading Month at Loon Lake. Students may bring flashlights to read with every Friday this month. On March 29, they are able to bring books, flashlights and wear pajamas for our reading day.  Next Wednesday is Silly Sock day!

Castles

Right before break we created castles with royalty in them. We also discussed whether we would like to live in a castle or not - most people thought they would! We wrote about that in our journals. 

Our fairy tale this week was "The Three Billy Goats Gruff". We loved hearing about the troll and how the goats tricked him! We created bridges and puppets to retell the story. 

We will finish up our fairy tale unit next week, and get ready for some March activities. March is Reading Month, and we will begin with a Dr. Seuss author study, focusing on rhyming words. Rhyming is an important part of developing phonological awareness...and that helps us build strong reading skills!

We received some exciting news from the WL Foundation for Excellence! They awarded our program a generous mini-grant to use to fund a field trip to the WL Outdoor Education Center this spring. We love the Foundation for Excellence and the work they do to support our schools and students! Our field trip is scheduled for June 5! We can't wait!

Valentine's Day

Our Valentine's Day party was so much fun! We loved opening up each and every card! 

We continued our fairy tale unit with Rapunzel and the Three Little Pigs. We read a version of the three pigs called The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig and got a different perspective of the story. We also read a version that takes place in Arizona called The Three Little Javelinas. This helped us look at a different setting.  (This version is a favorite of mine since I have a son who lives in Tucson and has encountered javelinas!)We watched a video about all of the animals, including javelinas, who live in the Sonoran Desert and created some saguaro cactus like the ones in the book. 

 We learned that people can have different feelings about the same situation in our social skills lessons. Recognizing that people can feel and think different things about something is an important part of social perspective taking. Understanding that everyone doesn't feel the same as they do helps children build empathy. We also add a new coping skill called "Change Your Plan". We looked for ways we could change our plans when things didn't go exactly as we expected. 

Enjoy your Mid-Winter break! Hopefully, spring is on the way and the cold and flu germs are leaving us! We will return to school on Thursday February 22!

Fairy Tales and Global Day of Play!

We loved our Global Day of Play at Loon Lake. We had fun using our toys from home during our Center Time - it was fun to create new ways to play with our toys! 

We read some traditional Cinderella stories and also enjoyed a Cinderella story from the Spice Islands... that version had a grandmother crocodile instead of a fairy godmother in it! We used that book to help us understand about the setting in a story. 

We had so much fun creating our pumpkin coaches...

We made our Valentine's Day mailbags on Thursday - we're all set to begin passing out our valentines cards in readiness for our party on Wednesday! 

Fairy Tales

This week was the beginning of our Fairy Tale unit! We were on the look out for specific things that are found in fairy tales:  magic, talking animals, good/heroic characters and bad/evil characters, and happy endings. We started out by reading several versions of "Jack and the Beanstalk" and created our own beanstalk vines and giants. 

We discussed that the giant was the "bad" character in this fairy tale, but agreed that Jack was also wrong when he took things from the giant. We planted bean seeds in little "sprout houses" - we are hoping they are magic beans!

We wrote about our beans in our journals too.

Our next fairy tale was "Red Riding Hood". We read books that showed different endings, and were from different perspectives too. When we read "Red Riding Hood and the Sweet Little Wolf" we looked at things from the wolf's point of view. This is also an important social skill - understanding that two people can feel differently about the same thing. We watched several non-fiction videos about real wolves and learned that wolves do not really eat people!

We practiced the coping skill, "Count and Breathe" this week. This coping skill gives us time to calm down and process our reactions. We have also been talking a lot about the green zone - we want our students to really "feel" what that zone is like.