Classroom Friends

Miss Qonja, our principal came in and read a great book to us today. She read "Goldi-socks and the Three Libearians". We loved the book and we were a good listening audience! Thank you, Miss Qonja!

Another friend we have is Mrs. Nancy. Mrs. Nancy is a retired second grade teacher who comes and works in our room one morning each week. Mrs. Nancy listens to us read, helps us complete our work and joins in with us at Center Time. We love to have Mrs. Nancy visit and are so appreciative of her help!

This week in our Skills for Living Lesson we learned that some actions are mistakes. We talked about what to do when we do something by accident. We looked at photographs of children and practiced saying, "I'm sorry. It was an accident. Are you OK?" We will continue to work on understanding that some things are NOT done on purpose and we do not need to become overly upset.

We read a great book today called "I Just Don't Like the Sound of No". We learned how to accept "NO" for an answer. We need to: *Look at the person, *Say "okay", *Stay calm, and *Ask why later. We will be practicing this at school and earning gold stars by our name when we demonstrate that we can safely accept "no". Please let us know if your child is accepting "no" at home too. It is actually good practice for your child to hear you say "no" and will help him acquire this important life skill. Children who are able to accept "no" appropriately at school have more positive peer interactions and increased learning opportunities.

People can have different feelings about the same things.... and penguins too!

Today in our Skills for Learning lesson we learned that sometimes two people do not feel or think the same way about something. In this photo, two friends are showing us how they each feel about a situation. We learned that these two friends felt the same way about some things (riding on a crowded bus, swimming in a lake), but they did NOT feel the same way about holding a pet mouse! Understanding that there are different perspectives, other than our own, helps us with our peer interactions.

We have been learning all about penguins and other polar animals. We did an experiment today with a blubber glove! First we put our bare hand in the icy water - it was so cold! Then we put our hand in the blubber glove and put it back into the ice water - no problem! We understand that penguins and polar bears are able to swim in the icy water because they have a thick layer of blubber to insulate them.

Angry feelings, empathy and being a peace keeper

This week our Sills for Learning lessons are about angry feelings. We've looked at pictures of angry faces and we've talked about times when we've felt angry ourselves. It is normal to feel angry sometimes, but feeling angry is uncomfortable, so we want to use our coping skills to help us calm down and solve problems. We also learned about the word "empathy". Empathy means we understand what someone else is feeling. We are going to practice identifying our own feelings and "reading" the feelings of others - this skill is especially helpful for children who act in an aggressive manner. When your child is able to name an angry feeling at home, REINFORCE their behavior with feedback such as : "I noticed you saying out loud that you are angry. You are really paying attention to how you feel."

We've had several discussions about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and today we made a chart of things that peace keepers do. Our list included: share, talk things out, have safe hands, use coping skills and save negative comments. We're working on more peace keeper activities this week and next in honor of Dr. King. The children all understand that he worked hard to solve problems peacefully, and we want to learn how to do that too.

The Loon Lake Student Council will continue the Pennies for Pasta fundraiser to help children with Leukemia. Children may bring in pennies, or other change, any day this week or next - the fund raiser ends on Jan. 20.

There is no school for students on Friday or Monday. I hope you all have a wonderful long weekend!

Snow Crystals and Feelings

Today we did a really neat experiment to help us learn about snow crystals. We used Borax soap and hot water to mix a saturated solution. We immersed pipe cleaner snowflakes in this solution and waited and watched. After awhile, crystals began to form on our pipe cleaners! They were so beautiful and so amazing. Right now we've voted to hang them up in our room - later on, we'll send one home with each student.
We also continued our Empathy Unit and looked at photographs of children who looked "interested" or "scared". We learned that good friends try to look interested when someone is speaking to us. We are getting better at identifying emotions based on visual cues, and we are beginning to understand that feelings are caused by different things. There is a Home Link for this lesson to work on over the next week at home.

Our Holiday Breakfast was fun!

We loved all of our yummy food - pancakes, sausage, fruit and snowmen donuts! Miss Qonja joined us for our breakfast and was able to visit with all of the kids. We LOVE wearing our pajamas too! Have a wonderful holiday and enjoy the time with all our your families!

Santa Snacks and Feelings

Yesterday, we made a yummy Santa snack. We had to watch and listen to the directions, and then we each worked on making our own cute Santa.

We began a new social skills unit about empathy. This week we are learning how to identify happy and sad faces and feelings. We've learned that we feel calmer and more comfortable when we are happy, and we usually will feel uncomfortable when we are sad. These are important skills for life - research shows that students who accurately identify emotions tend to be less aggressive and are more accepted by peers. Students who have high emotional understanding at age five are more likely than other children to show academic gains by nine. There is a home link for this lesson, but I will most likely send it home in January.

Don't forget... our Holiday Breakfast will be this Friday. It is also pajama day at Loon Lake, so your child may wear his/her pajamas if he/she wishes. I'd like to wish all of you a wonderful holiday season - it is exciting to see the gains your children have been making this year!

Being Assertive and More Holiday Fun!

This week we read, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and then wrote about how we would make a grinch grin. We discussed feeling grumpy and grinchy and what we can do when we feel that way. We also made some wonderful elves - we'll be sure to send our art projects home before the winter break.
Our Skill for Learning concept this week was being assertive. We learned that we need to stand up and use a calm, respectful voice. This is the best way to ask for help when we need it. It is an important skill for school - research shows that students who are too passive are at higher risk for being bullied, and students who are too aggressive in their interactions have fewer friends. Every day we put to use our new Skills for Learning - we see a wonderful improvement in behavior and work skills in ALL of the children. Your great follow through at home has been very helpful!
As we have gained new learning and behavior skills, I have begun to raise our expectations of our students (this is a great thing!) The children ALL understand that we will give a direction ONE time, we will give ONE verbal prompt/reminder, and then we expect them to follow through with the request. If they do not, the children understand that we will give a check mark and they will pay a 5 minute time out during Center Time. The time out is paid at their desk, with their head down, and with their body quiet and in control. ALL of them are able to do this easily now. This is huge progress, and really has allowed us to begin to teach new and important skills and curriculum. And more importantly, your children are so happy and proud of their improved behavior too! I hope you will also join me in raising your expectations for your children - they are wonderful little people, and they have so much potential!