Our First Week!

Our first week was sure busy! We went to art, PE and music and to recess. Our actual schedule will be ready sometime next week. We learned how to be workers...

On our first day, we read a funny story called, "The Pigeon Has to Go to School!" by Mo Willems. We really liked the pigeon, and made some pigeons of our own! 

We introduced our first coping skill, Deep Breathing,  and we practiced this every day. Deep breathing helps our bodies calm down so that we can think and problem solve. 

We are also practicing some yoga and used our breathing for the astronaut and butterfly poses. 

We learned how to be good listeners at group time:

    * quiet voices  * eyes watching  * ears listening  *bodies still

We talked about the green zone - this is when our bodies feel calm, happy, focused and ready to learn. We are in control of ourselves in the green zone. Our friends feel comfortable around us. 

We had many opportunities to use some of the Centers and the Green Zone Tubs this week. 

We began an author study and read "Swimmy" and "Frederick" by Leo Lionni. We created a big fish out of many little fishes, just like Swimmy did. 

We also used paint crayons to create beautiful sunflowers for our wall!

I hope you all have a wonderful Labor Day Weekend! The beginning of school can be a big adjustment, especially for our youngest students. It takes time to learn the routines and to build stamina for a busy school day, but I think everyone did a great job this first week! Just a reminder that Curriculum Night for Parents only is on September 10 at 6:00 in our classroom. 

Room 1 is almost ready!

Our new school year is about to begin and Room 1 is almost ready! We have a new Sensory Path right outside our classroom - I can't wait for our students to 
give it a try! 

         

 Our Zones of Regulation Board is up, along with our Calendar area...

The book area near the window has boxes of books for us to enjoy. 

Mrs. Ellis filled the bird feeder on our window, and also had some visits from our friendly cranes! 

Mrs. Ellis has gotten her desk area all set for school, and can't wait to see all of the boys who are going to be in Room 1 this year! I hope many of you will be able to stop in anytime between 3:00 and 5:00 on Monday, August 26. Our first full day of school will be Tuesday, August 27. We have exciting things planned! 

Pirate Day - shiver me timbers!!!!

These scalliwags had a fantastic day! We worked, listened to pirate tales and played pirate games all day. Our morning greeter even wore a hook for pirate handshakes! 

We walked the plank in shark invested waters....

 We all got pirate tattoos ...sorry, moms!

We used hooks to pick up jewels...

We earned gold coins for our good work and behavior!

Thursday is a 1/2 day and then summer vacation begins! I hope you know how much we have loved working with your children this year. All of them have grown and made so many gains. When I look at pictures from September, I can hardly believe these are the same boys! I want to thank you for sharing your sons with me this year - it has been such a happy, wonderful school year. I have appreciated all of your help and support as we worked together. I would love to hear from you this summer to hear how your child is doing. 

Frog Day!!!

Everything we did on Tuesday was about frogs! We read, wrote, and created frogs all day long. We learned about the frog life cycle, metamorphosis and words like amphibian, gill and webbed feet. The best part of the day was when we made and ate frog floats! 

Coming up tomorrow...Pirate Day!

Zoo Animals

We continued our zoo animal learning this week with some mammals and a marsupial! We created lions, tigers, and monkeys and wrote about kangaroos and elephants. We will complete our Zoo Riddle Book next week and bring it home to show it to our families! 

We had a special yoga class with Miss Kelly on Thursday and a special guest reader! 

We have two special days planned for next week...
Tuesday will be Frog Day and Wednesday will be Pirate Day! We will learn all about frogs and the frog life cycle on Frog Day. Pirate Day is always a fun day- I will be sure to post a lot of pictures of our games and activities! 
I will send a print copy of your child's report card home next Thursday in their folder. These last few days can be a little challenging for some of the children, but we have many fun and low-stress activities planned for them. Remind your children that we are there to help them, and that our week will be a special one! 

Field Day Fun!

We started the day in the gym where we heard all about Field Day.

We had fun at many different games and stations.

 We sat with friends to watch the hula hoop contest. 

We went to the Kona Ice truck and played on the play structures. 

We loved our cool blue shirts!