Our Field Trip to the WL OEC!

We had such a perfect day for our field trip to the WL Outdoor Education Center! It was a beautiful day for being outdoors, too! We are so appreciative of the WL Foundation for Excellence who was so generous with the mini grant that helped fund our trip today. 

Ms. Char drove us on the school bus. 

We learned about the tracks that different types of animals make in the woods. We were very careful when we touched the bear!

We looked for signs that birds had been eating here...we saw empty corn cobs and saw some feathers. 

We hiked into the woods ... all of the boys remembered the "group plan" we made and stayed together in our group. 

We even found some old deer bones in the woods! That was an exciting discovery! 

We learned how different animals are able to camouflage themselves to hide from predators. 

We worked with a partner to camouflage some potatoes and hid them in the garden - then we looked to see if we could find them again. 

 It was a fantastic trip, full of learning and friendship! When we returned to school, we drew our favorite part in our journals. 

Pilgrims and Native Americans

We learned more about the Pilgrim voyage on the Mayflower and how the Native American Indians helped them during the first difficult winter. We looked at pictures of the Mayflower and talked about how long 66 days would have been for that difficult journey. 

We enjoyed time with our friends this week during Center Time. These are great opportunities to use calm words, share, take turns and compromise. 

In our social skills lessons we worked on identifying emotions and looking at faces and bodies for clues. This week we looked at pictures of children who were happy and sad to notice things like smiles/turned down mouths and turned down eyes. Children who accurately identify emotions tend to be less aggressive and have improved social interactions. I am really happy that our students are beginning to resolve problems with calm words!

We have been having some extra fun acting out a book with music called, "A Soup Opera". We take turns with the different characters and costumes - ask your son to tell you about this funny story! 

We have been working on this poem this month - many of the boys know it by heart! 

** Our Field Trip to the WL Outdoor Education Center is Monday! Send a bag lunch and drink and dress for inside and outside activities. I will take a lot of pictures for you! 

**Please remember to send boots, snow pants and gloves or mittens for recess, and shoes to wear inside and into the gym. We go out to recess every day, and the boys want to enjoy the snow. You may also want to pack extra socks to change into if feet get wet. 

**Conference Day is on the afternoon/evening of Dec. 12 (this is an early release 1/2 day of school). Please schedule a conference time with me on skyward...or write me a note about the time of day that would work best for you, and I will go in and schedule one for you. Much thanks - I'm looking forward to seeing you that day!

Snow, hibernation and Native American Indians

We were finishing up our hibernation mini unit when the big snow came! We took some outdoor snow photos...

added paint, and turned them into snow globes!

We had fun painting some bears in snow on Friday. 

We added a new building toy to our centers...Kid K'nex. These boys really love to build and create! 

We began our Native American study with some great legends from the Woodland Indian tribes. We listened to "Rainbow Crow" and "The Loon's Necklace" and created art to go along with these legends. 

We also designed our Native American headbands and chose Native American names based on animals that live in the woods. We are earning feathers for our headbands. 

Finishing up nocturnal animals and a little look at hibernation!

We learned about bats this week and included them in some of our writing and drawing activities this week. We also began learning about hibernation and made some hibernating bears. 

We got our new November journals ready and began writing about our favorite nocturnal animals. 

We learned a new coping skill this week - Express Your Feelings with Calm Words. We practiced using calm words this week so that others would know what we want or need. 

Remember to send mittens and hats for recess.

Our field trip to the Outdoor Center is on Monday Nov. 25 - please return field trip permission slips. 

Nocturnal animals and Halloween Fun!

We continued to work on owls this week, and began to learn about bats for our Nocturnal Animal science unit. We wrote about what owls eat and where they live in our owl mini reports. 

We created a project to show the life cycle of an owl, from egg to owlet to fledgling to adult. 

We began learning about bats by discussing "facts" and "opinions" and created some cool tie dye bats. 

In our social skills lessons this week, we continued to work on the coping skill called self talk. We practiced using self talk when we did our work, and when we didn't get the toy we wanted at Center Time. 

We were very excited on Halloween, and our class got to lead the parade! We played some fun games and enjoyed some wonderful snacks! 

 

 Pumpkin bowling!

 We worked in teams to make mummies!

Thank you to all the parents for the wonderful treats! 

We have sent home the permission slips for our field trip to the WL Outdoor Education Center on Nov. 25. Please be sure to return the permission slip. We are asking for $5.00 to help cover the cost of the bus and trip. A mini grant from the Foundation for Excellence is also helping to cover the cost.