Ezra Jack Keats author study

This week we enjoyed reading books by Ezra Jack Keats. We loved these stories that are about children who are a lot like us...we could relate to the things the children did in the stories and we could understand some of the problems they had. We worked hard on re-telling the stories too, which is an important reading concept. We read The Snowy Day and created snowy scenes with Peter in his red jacket...

We enjoyed listening to A Letter to Amy  and created artwork to go with the thunderstorm scene where Peter was trying to mail his letter...

We read a book called Hi, Cat! and created some cats of our own...

We wrote about our favorite characters in our journals...

Another Ezra Jack Keats book that we enjoyed was called Whistle for Willie about a dog named Willie. In this story, Peter wanted to learn how to whistle - he had to really work to learn how. 

We introduced a new coping skill called "Square Breathing". This is just like "deep breathing" except that it uses a visual to help children slow their breathing down. This slower breathing helps us slow our hearts down when we have strong emotions, and it gives our brains time to think and choose a calmer option. 

We had a new student join us this week, and another new student will join us next week for a total of 14! It is exciting to see how older student welcome and help newer students - many have become great role models for them. 

We completed our week by going into the computer lab and taking the iReady assessment. 

Next week we will begin our huge fairy tale unit! 

Arctic Animals

We learned all about Arctic animals this week by conducting a science experiment. We tested out ice cold water with our bare hands...

We retested the icy water again, but this time we wore a "blubber glove". This was actually some plastic bags filled with Crisco, or blubber. We could really feel the difference - the blubber kept our hands warm in the icy water!

We watched some short videos about walrus and polar bears, and used that information to write in our journals and create some art work. We also drew a diagram of the earth and located the Arctic and Antarctica. We know that penguins live in Antarctica, and polar bears live in the Arctic...they would never meet!     

We finished the week by creating a winter bird house project. 

Next week we will read books by the author Ezra Jack Keats! 

Snowmen and Penguins

We had a short week last week, but we are back into the swing of the New Year. We've been reading snow stories and creating snowmen and women. 

We've also been learning about penguins and had fun creating some big and small penguins. We wrote about penguins in our journals too. 

In our social skills lessons we have discussed how to look for "clues" to how someone feels by looking at their faces and listening to their words. Most of our students recognize when someone is in the yellow or red zone, and they realize they don't feel comfortable around them. Using coping skills helps us move back into the green zone - we know we feel better and people feel more comfortable around us when we are in the green zone. It is also how we show that we are ready to learn. Your children feel really proud when they are able to name their feeling or zone, use a coping skill, and move on with a good day at school. 

We read two favorite Jan Brett books, "The Mitten" and "The Hat". Both are great stories for re-telling, a skill we work on a lot in our room. We wrote about an animal that could be in our mitten. 

Reminders: No School on Monday, Jan. 15

                  Early 1/2 day on Thursday, Jan 18 for Conferences

Holiday Fun!

We were very excited to wrap up our special gifts for our families - we hope you will love them! 

We had a lot of fun at our Holiday Breakfast - we ate yummy food and then we each opened up a dinosaur book from our teachers. We also thought it was very funny to be wearing our pajamas today!

I wish you all a wonderful winter break! It was a fun day here with your children and all of the festivities today!  Enjoy this time with your families - I look forward to seeing everyone on January 3, 2018! 

Making special gifts

This week we worked very hard to create some special, top secret gifts for our families. We painted, and boxed them up and made special gift cards. Next week, we'll get them all wrapped up and bring them home.We think you will love our efforts! 

We loved all of the snow...but we need to remember to bring snowpants, mittens and boots. PLEASE practice putting winter mittens etc on at home - we go straight outside from lunch, and we want to be able to get ready without a lot of frustration and tears.  Some families choose to leave a pair of snowpants here at school - that is fine with us! It is a good idea to send extra socks too - sometimes feet get wet and cold at recess. 

We enjoy warm, cozy center time inside our classroom too - we are really working on working together, using calm words, and sharing our work spaces. Center time is a great opportunity to use coping skills too! 

With all of the snow outside, we decided to create some snowy window scenes. 

We also worked as a team to create this beautiful snow scene on our board. 

Next Thursday, December 14, will be our classroom Holiday Breakfast. This will be our party before the winter break. You may send your children a little hungry that morning! It is also pajama day at Loon Lake - so your children can wear their pajamas all day long! I will be sure to add photos to our blog that day!

Gingerbread Stories

This week we read many different versions of "gingerbread stories" so that we could compare characters, problems and endings. We wrote about the gingerbread man in our journals. Here are some of the books we read and projects we created...

In our social skills lessons we talked about looking at faces to figure out how someone is feeling. Children who accurately identify emotions tend to be less aggressive. We practiced really noticing how someone's face looks as a clue to how they are feeling.  We also introduced a new coping skill called MOVE ON. Children feel really proud when they are able to use a coping skill to get back in the green zone - "MOVE ON" helps us do that. We give a lot of praise when children are able to do this. 

We were excited to see some snow on Thursday - we created some snow art and wrote about the snow in our journals. 

Miss Marlowe helped us sing about hibernation and some of our coping skills. Ask your child to tell you about "Pickle Macaroni"!

We will have our Holiday Breakfast on Thursday, December 21 (our last day before break). We will cook and serve a pancake breakfast to our students - you may send them a little hungry that morning! This will also serve as our Holiday Party. 

Winter

We have been reading many books about winter and turning our classroom into a winter wonderland. Here are a few of our art creations...

We also learned about how some animals hibernate in the winter months. We made bears in a cave, read about bears, and wrote about bears in our journals. 

We learned about "self-talk" in our social skills lessons, and added "self talk" to our coping skill board. Self talk for learning can be a powerful tool to help students remember directions and to stay focused. Self talk is when we use positive words to remind ourselves about what we need to do. It can also be used to reassure ourselves when we feel anxious. Our class really enjoys "speech bubbles" and "thought bubbles"- we can put our self-talk into pictures to help remind us of what we need to say. 

In another social skills lesson we talked about HOW to ask for help. We need to ask for help assertively, but not too aggressively. Sometimes students hesitate to ask for help or are too passive. We practiced raising our hands and asking for help with a clear voice and no screaming or yelling. 

We added some new break time "Tubs" to our routine - most of these activities involving building and developing fine motor skills.