Oviparous Animals

We worked very hard on a book about oviparous animals this week. We completed pages about chickens, insects, arachnids, fish and reptiles!

We have been busy learning, practicing and reviewing our coping skills. We are trying to use them when we feel upset or frustrated. 
Here are two friends drawing out a coping skill (count and breathe)  at the Social Work Table...

And this classmate is showing what self - talk looks like. He is reminding himself what he needs to do at group time...

This is a great picture showing deep breathing...

At Center Time we work on using the equipment or toy the correct way. Here are some great examples of building during Center Time. 

Cleaning up quietly is an important part of Center Time too...

When Miss Marlowe came for music therapy we sang a great song about sunshine and wore sunglasses when we sang! 

Next week we will finish up our oviparous animal unit. We are expecting some insect eggs to arrive soon, and then we will begin learning about insect life cycles! We are finalizing our surprises for our Mother's Day Tea - we are looking forward to spoiling our moms on Friday, May 6 at 2:30! 

Rabbits and Oviparous Animals

We began and ended our week with rabbit books and activities. On Monday we read The Tale of Peter Rabbit. We learned that Beatrix Potter wrote this story as a letter to a little boy who was sick, and then it was turned into a book.  We used our "Say the Problem, Think of Solutions, Explore the Consequences, Pick a Solution" chart with Peter ... and we all agreed that he did not think about the consequences when he was naughty and went into the garden. We wrote in our journals, made some Peter Rabbits and even painted flowers using lettuce and celery. 

We started a new science unit about oviparous animals. We began learning about egg laying animals with some chicken and duck projects, but we know many other animals that lay eggs and are not birds. Ask your child to name some for you! Miss Marlowe helped us sing about oviparous animals on Wednesday...

In our social skills lessons we talked about different ways to play fairly with a friend. We learned about Sharing, Trading, and Taking Turns when two friends want to play with the same toys or equipment. 

On Thursday we splatter painted...we read a new book called Rabbityness and added rabbits to our splatter paint creations, just like in the book. 

We have sent home the field trip permission slips for our trip to the WL Outdoor Center on May 19. Due to the generosity of the WL Foundation for Excellence, the entire trip will be covered by their grant! Your child does need to return the permission slip and will need to bring a sack lunch and drink for the field trip. We will participate in science related activities with the Outdoor Center staff. 

I have also sent home the invitation to the Mother's Day Tea - Friday, May 6 at 2:30 in our classroom. Thank you for sending back the RSVP pages! 

Welcome Spring!

We returned from Spring Break ready to go! We finished up our zoo animal studies with a story about a flamingo and a tricky art activity...

We painted some springtime ducks to brighten our room and also had fun creating some puddle art!

 For the puddles, we blew paint with a straw...

We have continued to practice our coping skills, and have focused on using them BEFORE we become really upset. Many students are taking great pride when they use a coping skill and are able to move on with their day. We also had a discussion about problem solving - we talked about steps we could take when we need to solve a problem with our friends. 

You might wonder what we are doing in this photograph....

well, we can't tell you, but we'll give you a clue. We are doing something for our mothers  - you will find out at the Mother's Day Tea on Friday May 6 at 2:30 in our classroom. You are going to love it! 

And here are some pictures of awesome workers - notice that they are sitting up, focusing on their work and working neatly. 

On Thursday afternoon we went to the Leader of the Month assembly. The trait last month was for being a Loon Lake Learner and this month it is for resiliency. Here are the kindergarten award winners, including one from our room!

Welcome Spring!

We were very glad to have some spring weather for our Block Recess Tuesday afternoon. As the weather warms up, we will be able to take some quick, impromptu mini recess breaks. These are great rewards, and give us opportunities to move and socialize. Some of our physical education classes have been outdoors as well. Here's a picture of some of us at lunch...

We continued our zoo animal learning with monkeys, elephants and toucans this week. We also learned about koalas with Scholastic News, using our big screen. Many of our students recognized that koalas and kangaroos are both marsupials -they both have pouches for their joeys.

In our social skills lessons we made a chart to help us know what to do when we hear an adult say, "Stop". During our discussions, we began to understand that the word "stop" can be very helpful -it helps us change a behavior that can get us in to trouble. It is important that we stop our bodies and our mouths quickly so that we can get back to the green zone. The word "stop" does not mean debate, argue or ignore a direction.  Those behaviors get in the way of other positive things we want to do at school.

We are also planning our Mother's Day Tea for all of the moms in our lives. This will be held on Friday, May 6 at 2:30 in our classroom. Moms might want to arrive at about 2:20. The children are very excited about this special party. If you are unable to come, please feel free to send a dad, a grandma or an aunt. In addition to being a treat for our moms, it is also an opportunity for us to plan and practice how to behave during a special event. We are practicing a special poem for our moms - we work on it every day...

I hope you all have a wonderful spring break, and some nice weather too! I am going to get to visit my youngest son in Tucson for a few days. It doesn't seem possible that we are already in our last marking period of the school year -the year has flown by! This marking period holds many special events - a field trip to the Outdoor Center, our Mother's Day Tea, field day, our insect life cycle unit. It is also a period of transition for students -moving up to Miss Ross' classroom, spring break and then summer vacation, weather changes and schedule changes. These can be challenging -please know we understand and plan for that. We have already out some extra supports in place to help your children feel calm, confident and successful. Your continued support, help and efforts are greatly appreciated by us! 

A short and busy week....

We continued our zoo animal learning... we read about lions and giraffes and compared our hands to the actual size of a gorilla hand...

On Tuesday we had a guest reader in our room! Mr. Hess came from the ESC and read a great book called "Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon". Miss Ross and her class came in to hear it with us - we loved hearing Mr. Hess read to us!

We spent a lot of time during our social skills lessons talking about what "angry" feels like and what we can do when we have this feeling. It is important for children to make the connection between the feeling of anger and the behaviors that follow it...will they engage in behaviors that make the problem bigger or will they engage in calming coping skills in order to solve the problem and make it smaller? There is quite a "leap" between knowing a coping skill (many children know 8-10!) and actually using a coping skill. One thing that is helpful is to have your child choose the coping skill they will use before you need to say "no" or give a direction - then praise them for using it! It is also helpful to remember that kids need a lot of practice with this - saying "no" and giving directions are opportunities for this practice!
This chart helps us remember what we need to do when someone gives us directions... 

I hope you all enjoy the long weekend! Next week we will learn more about zoo animals and the week of April 4-8 is Spring Break! The marking period ends today, Thursday March 24 - report cards for this past marking period will go home on April 13. 

Zoo Animals

This week we began learning about zoo animals. We read about tigers. kangaroos, snakes and giraffes. We learned that giraffes are "unique" because they have long, blue tongues. We learned that tigers are carnivores and eat meat and giraffes are herbivores. Both are mammals, but snakes are reptiles. This is a high interest topic, so you might want to consider a trip to the zoo over Spring Break.  We did a lot of writing about animals...

We created tigers and snakes and added marble painted squares to our board...

We learned that kangaroos are marsupials - mother kangaroos have pouches for their "joeys". We like to add diagrams and details to our animal pictures. 

When Miss Marlowe came for music we sang some Dr. Seuss music...

She also helped us sing a song about our recess chart...

We have been working on being safe and respectful at recess, and have been practicing listening calmly to adults when they need to give us directions. When children run off or tell adults they don't need to listen to them, the problem gets larger. We are practicing these steps when an adult is speaking to us:
  Stop    Listen    Say OK    Do It. 

We had a great parent support group meeting the other night. One of the parents offered to organize a play date at a local park over spring break. If you would be interested in sharing your email/phone/contact info, please send it to me and I will pass it on to her. 

Another Week with Seuss!

We enjoyed some more Seuss books this week, including "Green Eggs with Ham", a "Wocket in my Pocket", "One Fish, Two Fish" and "McElligot's Pool". After reading these books, we are pretty good at rhyming words! Here is some of our Seuss artwork...

We had so much fun with hat day and glow stick reading on Friday...

We also used our glow sticks at Center Time...

Next week we will begin a big zoo animal unit! 

Yesterday (Thursday) we had a substitute teacher for the entire day while I attended a district training. 
In our Social Skills lessons we talked about "worry". We brainstormed different coping skills that can help us when we feel worried or anxious, including deep breathing, positive self talk, expressing our feelings and getting adult help. Sometimes children feel anxious or worried, but their behavior is displayed in a way that looks aggressive or disruptive. Building skills to calm down when worried can help students cope with school and personal stresses in a more positive way. 
Next Wednesday, March 16, is our Parent Support Group Meeting - 6:00 in our classroom.