Getting ready for spring!

We concluded our fairy tale unit with "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" and "Chicken Little"... we had fun creating some of the characters from both stories.

Reading "Chicken Little" was a perfect time to introduce a new coping skill, called SIZE of the PROBLEM. When a little acorn fell on Chicken Little's head, he had a HUGE reaction - that reaction didn't fit the size of the problem. We began talking about little, medium and huge sized problems. We'll work on this more after break. 

We talked about the words, "April showers bring May flowers" and what that means...we changed those words up a bit to create a new bulletin board for the hallway! We needed some muddy feet for our board too!

We ended the week by reading "Peter Rabbit" and talking about the author, Beatrix Potter. We love how Peter was a little bit naughty! 

One of our parents gave our class mini whiteboards and expo markers - we have been busy writing three and four letter words, changing letters to create new words, and forming letters correctly - we love this! We even did some math!

Look at what we got to do with Mr. Ron!!

In yoga we created a story using Miss Kelly's special story cards.

Have a wonderful Spring Break next week! After Spring Break, we'll spend a few days on some rabbit and spring time activities, and then begin a new author study. 

More Fairy Tales...

We enjoyed hearing "Rapunzel" and "The Princess and the Pea" and had a lot of fun with several different versions of "The Three Billy Goats Gruff". 

With the warming temperatures and spring weather, we have been able to go outside for some "bonus" recesses. These are times when we can have a few minutes on the playground all to ourselves. We use these opportunities to work on positive peer interactions. We love having a chance to play outdoors!

Center Time is another favorite part of our day. We are working on playing with a toy correctly (not just banging it on the table), participating in Center Time quietly and calmly, and cleaning up quickly. These are real life skills that will transfer to other partner work in first and second grade. 

In our social skills lessons, we talked about identifying feelings of anger and frustration. Many students recognized that they may make an angry face or clench their fists when angry - this is the yellow zone and an important time to accept help from adults and to use a coping skill. Students named coping skills such as deep breathing/tumble breathing, take a break, change their plan and use calm words as possible things to try. As students successfully use a coping skill or accept help, we always take time to praise them and talk about how that worked for them...did it help them get back to the green zone? When students refuse to accept help or try a coping skill, we also help them reflect back on what happened...typically the problem got bigger and they may have made a poorer, red zone choice. We talk about how that worked for them as well. This is an important step for children as they begin to make more independent choices with their behavior. 

We practiced partner breathing during our yoga class on Friday. We learn so many new things that help us use coping skills and regulate our bodies. 

***Printed report cards will go home with your child next Wednesday. 

Giants, Beanstalks, Castles and Coaches...

On Monday we welcomed a new student to our class - we are now a class of 11 kindergarten boys!
We began our week with "Jack and the Beanstalk". We read and listened to several different versions of this story and had fun putting ourselves on some beanstalks too!

We looked at the story from the perspective of the giant and created some giants on Tuesday.We tried to figure out why the giant was always so grumpy, and in the yellow and red zone so often. We also decided that Jack should not have taken things from the giant. 

We enjoyed some fairy tales with princesses in them..."Snow White" and "Cinderella". We had no problem identifying who the villains were, and we enjoyed the happy endings in both. We used tiny jewels to create the magic mirrors in "Snow White" and we put ourselves in the castles we created. 

We have worked very hard on accepting feedback. We know that feedback is friendly and helpful, and I notice that more boys are listening to the feedback and making a change. That's a big step! As we move into the spring, we want to encourage more independence in making decisions about behavior - that means that students need to accept the feedback and think about ways to make the problem better, not worse. All decisions have consequences, and sometimes those consequences are the "nudge" that students need to make some changes. This takes time and patience, but all of the boys have shown that they can do this. 

We have been waiting for the cranes to return to our window, and were very surprised when they tapped on our window with their beaks!

We ended our week with yoga - we imagined different beach creatures while listening to the sound of waves. One of the poses we tried was the dolphin. 

Dr. Seuss, leprechauns and fairy tales!

We finished up our Dr. Seuss author study with some "Thing One and Thing Twos" from The Cat in the Hat.  We also read Fox in Socks, and worked on rhyming words. 

We enjoyed some leprechaun stories and made some funny leprechauns. 

We began our Fairy Tale unit by reading several versions of "Red Riding Hood" stories. We learned that fairy tales often have magic, talking animals, heroes and "villains" and happy endings. 

We had fun with Miss Marlowe during music therapy!

And while we were singing, these guys came and stood outside our window!

We introduced a new coping skill called "MOVE ON". This is a great coping skill to try when you are feeling mad and stuck...moving on helps us get back into the green zone. We feel better in the green zone and have more fun. Remember to give a lot of praise when your child chooses to use this coping skill! 

American Symbols and Dr. Seuss!

We have been learning about some of the symbols for our country. We created these amazing directed drawings of the Statue of Liberty - everyone did such a great job of focusing and following all of the steps! 

We also made Bald Eagles and learned about how eagles hunt. 

We talked about weather and made lambs and lions. We learned that sometimes spring has gentle "lamb" weather and sometimes it has blustery "lion" weather. We had a lot of fun creating our lions...

We began our Dr. Seuss author study with the "Cat in the Hat", "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" and "Green Eggs with Ham". We listened for rhyming words - rhyming words are an important reading concept. 

We have been working on becoming flexible thinkers. Flexible thinkers are real problem solvers...when something doesn't go their way, they "change their plan". You can encourage your child to think of alternate things if their plan doesn't work, and praise them when they are flexible thinkers!

Next week we will finish up our Dr. Seuss author study and begin a very big fairy tale unit! 

We were excited to learn that the WL Foundation for Excellence has awarded us a mini-grant to use for a field trip to the Outdoor Education Center! We are so appreciative and excited! 

***We are in need of more canisters of Lysol or Clorox type wipes. We use a lot of these to wipe off tables after lunch and at the end of the day. 

Valentine's Day Fun!

Even though this was a busy week full of Valentine's Day fun and the 100th day of school, we were busy learning and working hard every day. 

We made our valentines mailboxes on Monday, and worked on passing out our valentines cards all week long. 

We painted rainbows and clouds and made suns in order to create this fantastic bulletin board outside of our classroom. 

We all looked our best for picture day! It is amazing how far this group of boys has come this year!

Thursday was the 100th day of school and our Valentine's Day Party - we loved every minute of it! 

We ended our week with some relaxing yoga with Miss Kelly. We really focused on different kinds of breathing - ask your child to show you candle breathing, smile breathing and tumble breathing. Deep breathing is a great coping skill!

We also began a mini unit about American symbols. We learned about the United States flag and the Pledge of Allegiance today.

I hope all of you have a fun mid-winter break and week off of school next week. When we return from break, we'll be working on our American symbols, windy weather and we will start our Dr. Seuss author study!