Finishing up our Rain Forest learning!

This week we completed our Rain Forest unit - we added jaguars, lizards, and crocodiles to our Rain Forest displays. 

We also created a hall display to help welcome spring - we all worked together to create the rainbow out of paper chains. We invited the kids from Miss Ross' class to help us build the rainbow chain!

Our social skills lessons focused on noticing when a friend is upset and offering help or kind words, and practicing what to do when we accidentally bump into someone or knock over their toy. We are working hard on developing empathy and expressing care for others - this is especially difficult in emotionally challenging situations.  We had a great assembly about kindness on Thursday morning featuring "Mr. Peace" - our class sat in the front row and did a great job! 

I hope you all have a wonderful Spring Break! We'll see you back on April 10! 

Rainforest Animals

This week we were busy every day reading and learning about the animals of the rainforest. We created monkeys, piranhas, anteaters, red-eyed tree frogs and Blue Morpho butterflies. We loved seeing videos of these rainforest animals on our big screen and reading about what they eat and how they live. We even learned that there are beautiful pink river dolphins in the rainforest!

We have been so busy writing in our journals this month that we may have to begin our April journals early! We are stretching our brains with our writing and drawing!

In our social skills lessons we have focused on ignoring. When a student is upset, we ask that other students not look at or talk with that student. We assure them that we are watching and handling the problem, and students are also able to see that a consequence is given when needed. 

Report cards were sent home on Wednesday and are yours to keep. WL switched to trimesters this year, so the last report card will come home with your child on the last day of school. 
We have had some special partner Center Times that have been very fun. We are working hard on sharing, turn taking and talking to our partners in a friendly way!

Reading and the Rainforest...

This week we learned all about sloths. We now know that they move slowly, they eat leaves, twigs and fruit, the sleep 20 hours a day and they use their claws to hang in the canopy of the rainforest. We wrote about them in our journals and made some sloths to hang in our classroom rainforest. 

Mr. Gutman came to visit our class and read a book to us. Miss Ross' class joined us. He read a great new book called The Smallest Girl in the Smallest Grade. This was a book about not being a bully - we had a good discussion about friendly and safe behavior at recess and at school. 

We made some leprechauns to get ready for St. Patrick's Day. We each got 5 gold coins to create an addition problem with.

We read about toucans on Friday. Their colorful bills are as long as their body! We made toucans too, and added them to our rainforest. 

Dr. Seuss

This week was all about Dr. Seuss....we read The Cat in the Hat, One Fish, Two Fish, Green Eggs and Ham, and several other fun, rhyming books. We created some great art to celebrate these books and wrote about some of them in our journals. 

Next week, Mr. Gutman, our superintendent, will come to read a book to our class for "March is Reading Month".We will start our Rainforest Unit, which is always very exciting. We began to get our ceiling ready this week! Don't forget...next Wednesday is a 1/2 day of school!

In our Social Skills lessons we are really working on naming our feeling - we want to catch ourselves in the yellow zone and use a coping skill right away. Many students are really getting good at suggesting coping skills to their friends. We have also reviewed the rules for the playground, including NO HANDS ON and NO PLAY FIGHTING. Please discuss this at home as well. I am very tough about this rule, and students who have hands on or fight do not go out for recess. 
Last week, we were surprised by the WL Foundation for Excellence with a generous mini-grant for our programs that will cover the cost of a field trip to the WL Outdoor Center in June! More info later in the spring!

Finishing Fairy Tales and Getting Ready for Spring????

Last week we enjoyed a Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale, "The Ugly Duckling" and we made swans afterward. 

We read several versions of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" and chose whether or not we would make Baby Bear, Mama Bear or Papa Bear, along with Goldilocks of course! 

This week we enjoyed "The Three Billy Goats Gruff", "The Little Red Hen" and a southwest version featuring an iguana called "Manana, Iguana".  

We talked about March weather and what it means when we say, "March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb"....don't our lions look great!!! 

In our social skills lessons, we have really been working on using our words and thinking about how we feel. Are we in the green zone, or are we maybe feeling upset and are in the yellow zone? The yellow zone is the place to use a coping skill - we always praise and reward our students when they will try a coping skill. We wrote about a coping skill that helps us feel calm in our journals.

Next week we'll enjoy some Dr. Seuss books and then we'll begin our big rain forest unit!

Valentine's Day, the 100th day of school and a new classmate!

Tuesday was exciting! We celebrated the 100th day of school and felt 100 days smarter!

We welcomed a new classmate - we are now a full class of 15!
And best of all, we celebrated Valentine's Day! We loved opening up all of our valentines cards. 

We finished up some Cinderella stories - we read a version that took place in the spice islands and had an alligator in it, and we read a cowgirl version of Cinderella.
We made castles and magic wands and wrote about our wishes. 

Reminder:  Thursday is a 1/2 day of school. We return from mid-winter break on Wednesday, February 22nd. 

Fairy Tales with Magic and Royalty...

We began our week by reading several versions of "Jack and the Beanstalk" and we created some awesome beanstalk art. Some of us felt that we would climb up a giant beanstalk, and some of us said we definitely would not!

We read several stories about royalty, including "The Princess and the Pea", "Rapunzel" and "Cinderella". We really enjoy hearing different versions of fairy tales, and we will read several more re-tellings of Cinderella stories next week. We were able to identify the fairy tale traits of magic, special powers and royalty in these stories. 

We continued to work on some social skills lessons about friendship and kindness. We made these fun bees and wrote about ways we can be a good friend.

 We made our Valentine Mailboxes, and they are all ready for us to deliver our valentines cards. Our party will be Tuesday!