Our Bowling Trip

We had so much fun on our bowling trip! The kids worked well with each other, and we were able to bowl for an entire hour! I overheard classmates saying encouraging words to one another - every child was a wonderful bowler! It was a great learning experience for us to take our coping skills outside of our classroom and into the community. We are grateful to the Walled Lake Foundation for Excellence who provided us with a mini-grant. We used funds from this mini-grant to pay for the school bus that took us to and from the bowling alley.

A busy week with Seuss, nouns and leprechauns...

Look who visited our classroom! We loved reading all sorts of Dr. Seuss books this week!

Our social skills lessons focused on using positive self talk to help with strong feelings like anger and jealousy. We practiced bumping out a upset/negative thought and bumping in a good/positive thought. Positive self talk engages the thinking part of the brain and helps divert student's attention from negative self-talk, which can escalate strong feelings. We are working hard on using coping skills instead of other things that may cause the problem to get bigger. We also are working hard to re-frame mistakes as opportunities to get feedback and make changes.
We learned that nouns are words that name people, places or things - we all identified some nouns in a  little bird book we made.
We also had time for some leprechaun fun...we even found little letters from a leprechaun outside our fairy door. Some days there were treats...and today there was a container full of magic powder! We were left a note that said to add milk and shake the container, repeating some leprechaun words. When we were done, we had a special treat to eat!

Our Animal Unit is Done!

Wow! We have finished our big animal research projects! This was a new process for our class, and a great learning experience. We read/looked at non-fiction books about animals, and learned how to find specific information  -   what the animal eats, where its habitat is, who are its predators etc. We learned how to write the information down neatly, and how to add illustrations and diagrams. This week we took time to share our  finished projects with one another -everyone felt very proud! We are bringing home our finished research projects this weekend -please let your child share his/hers with you. We will begin to send home our many animal art projects over the next week or so. They have brightened our walls and added to our learning!

During this unit we also worked in our science notebooks - we will bring these home in June. We sorted animals into categories (mammals, reptiles, fish, birds and amphibians), learned about animal coverings (scales, feathers, fur) and learned about different habitats.
We are excited about our upcoming field trip to Wonderland Lanes Bowling Alley, sponsored in part by a mini grant from the WL Foundation for Excellence.  We will go with Dr. Cohen's class on March 25. Please fill out and send back the permission slip. If possible, we are asking for $5.00 to help with the cost. This will be a wonderful opportunity to practice social skills and teamwork.
We are excited to welcome a new friend to our classroom! Now we have 14 children in Room 113! We love opportunities to practice turn taking, asking for help and sharing - here are some friends playing at Center Time together. This is not an easy skill for us - we practice staying at our center, cleaning up calmly and quietly, and talking to our partner.

We've been here for 102 days of school!

We have a new classmate! Now our class has 13 wonderful students in it!

We celebrated the 100th day of school on Wednesday, and continued to work on our animal research projects, science notebooks and animal artwork. We learned about the different ways animals protect themselves and how some animals disguise themselves from predators. We also learned that baboons are omnivores - they eat vegetables (leaves) and meat (fish and bugs). Many of us are omnivores too!

In our social skills lessons this week we talked about how to calm down anger. We learned that when we have a strong feeling, we need to Stop, Name our Feeling, and Breathe. These things can help our body feel calm - deep breathing helps to lower our blood pressure and heart rate, which calms the body. We learned a little poem too:

       Stop, Breathe, Think it through

       Make a Choice that works for you!

We are also practicing following directions the first time they are given. Often times children develop some avoidance behaviors when they hear a direction. These behaviors can quickly become habits that interfere with learning and socializing - we suggest that our students say, "OK" when a direction is given and then try to comply. We are always there with praise when we see those attempts! 

Happy Valentine's Day!

We learned about animal habitats this week, worked in our science notebooks and on our animal research, and had time for some great animal art projects! We read a great book titled "Actual Size" and used a tape measure to really see how big some animals are. We enjoyed holding our hands up to a print of a gorilla's hand.

We learned that it took 3 boys to equal the length of a Brown Bear! (13 feet)

Our loom has been a big hit -we find that weaving is very relaxing and easy to do. We enjoy using different yarns, ribbons and even strips of cloth to weave with.

In our social skills lessons we talked about how to recognize when we are feeling frustrated, and what we can do about it. I have been impressed with how often the children refer to their brains, and how they can use their pre-frontal cortex to help think through a problem and find a good solution, instead of just reacting.

On Monday, following mid-winter break, we will welcome a new kindergarten boy to our classroom!

We have had fun delivering all of our valentines cards this week, and had even more fun opening our cards up at our party! We enjoyed many yummy treats - thanks to all who contributed!

We've been working on animal research!

We have been working so hard on our animal research projects! Students read to find out what their animals eat - are they carnivores, herbivores or omnivores? We read a book about animal teeth, and learned that different teeth do different jobs. We read to find interesting facts about our animals and to learn what kinds of coverings they have on their body - feathers, fur, scales?  We are writing down all of our new learning on special paper....we hope to share these with you in a few weeks! This is something new for our students, and we are really exercising our brains!

Of course, we also found time to decorate our Valentine's mailbags - they look great! Your child only needs to sign his/her name on his/her card - we will deliver a card to each mailbag. You cannot believe how much our students enjoy opening all those cards on Valentine's Day!

Please remember that students go out for recess - they need gloves, hats, boots, and snow pants. You may send extra dry socks - feet often get cold and wet at recess. Sometimes our classroom feels chilly, so it is great for kids to bring an extra sweatshirt or hoodie to leave here.  We also welcome boxes of Kleenex and Lysol type canisters of wipes for tabletops -  thanks!

Worms!

We have begun our animal unit with a discussion about living and non-living things. We learned that living things need food, water and air. Living things grow and move. We had a lot of fun looking at some real worms and comparing them to some non-living gummy worms. We also talked about how we need to treat and care for living things.

Each student is reading and learning about an animal -they will become an animal expert! We will begin writing about the food our animals eat, and finding some interesting facts. The children are very enthusiastic about their animals.
We are also excited about our new loom - we have begun to weave different types of yarn in it. If you have leftover yarn at home, we will put it to good use!


Just a reminder - our Parent Support Group Meeting is next Wednesday at 6:30 in our classroom. All parents, grandparents and caregivers are welcome to join us!