Snow, hibernation and Native American Indians

We were finishing up our hibernation mini unit when the big snow came! We took some outdoor snow photos...

added paint, and turned them into snow globes!

We had fun painting some bears in snow on Friday. 

We added a new building toy to our centers...Kid K'nex. These boys really love to build and create! 

We began our Native American study with some great legends from the Woodland Indian tribes. We listened to "Rainbow Crow" and "The Loon's Necklace" and created art to go along with these legends. 

We also designed our Native American headbands and chose Native American names based on animals that live in the woods. We are earning feathers for our headbands. 

Finishing up nocturnal animals and a little look at hibernation!

We learned about bats this week and included them in some of our writing and drawing activities this week. We also began learning about hibernation and made some hibernating bears. 

We got our new November journals ready and began writing about our favorite nocturnal animals. 

We learned a new coping skill this week - Express Your Feelings with Calm Words. We practiced using calm words this week so that others would know what we want or need. 

Remember to send mittens and hats for recess.

Our field trip to the Outdoor Center is on Monday Nov. 25 - please return field trip permission slips. 

Nocturnal animals and Halloween Fun!

We continued to work on owls this week, and began to learn about bats for our Nocturnal Animal science unit. We wrote about what owls eat and where they live in our owl mini reports. 

We created a project to show the life cycle of an owl, from egg to owlet to fledgling to adult. 

We began learning about bats by discussing "facts" and "opinions" and created some cool tie dye bats. 

In our social skills lessons this week, we continued to work on the coping skill called self talk. We practiced using self talk when we did our work, and when we didn't get the toy we wanted at Center Time. 

We were very excited on Halloween, and our class got to lead the parade! We played some fun games and enjoyed some wonderful snacks! 

 

 Pumpkin bowling!

 We worked in teams to make mummies!

Thank you to all the parents for the wonderful treats! 

We have sent home the permission slips for our field trip to the WL Outdoor Education Center on Nov. 25. Please be sure to return the permission slip. We are asking for $5.00 to help cover the cost of the bus and trip. A mini grant from the Foundation for Excellence is also helping to cover the cost. 

Owl Week

We began Owl Week with a great book called, "Owl Babies". It helped us understand that owls are nocturnal (night time) animals who hunt for prey. We learned that owls have sharp talons and beaks, and are covered with feathers. Owls lay eggs and are oviparous animals. We recreated a page from "Owl Babies" and wrote about owls being nocturnal animals in our journals. 

We learned how to label a diagram of an owl in our journals, using the words beak and talons. 

We learned what the science words "diurnal" and "nocturnal" mean. Next week we will continue to learn about other nocturnal animals. 

We used real leaves to make some leaf prints for the hallway. 

In our social skills lessons we introduced a new coping skill - "Self Talk". Students can use self talk to help themselves listen, follow directions and stay on task. Younger students might need to "talk out loud" when they use positive self talk, but eventually will be able to silently use self talk. We will continue to work on using this coping skill next week.

We had our second visit from Ms. Kelly, our yoga teacher! 

We are getting ready for Halloween - our parade and party is next Thursday morning. Remember that Thursday is also a 1/2 day. 

Pumpkin Week

This week was all about pumpkins! This big pumpkin greeted us on Monday, along with little mini pumpkins for everyone. We began a science experiment with one of the mini pumpkins...we cut it up and put it in a jar. Some kids predicted that it might "rot", "turn black" or "turn to compost". We're keeping a little science log to record what we see happen.

We learned all about how a pumpkin grows and what plants need. We created a pumpkin life cycle book to show our learning. 

On Friday we conducted a "Pumpkin Investigation". We measured our pumpkin, described it and put it in water to see if it would float! It did! 

We decided on a face for our pumpkin and carved it - we put it on our back porch! 

We did a fun pumpkin cooking activity - we made Pumpkin Pudding. 

We worked with a partner to design and build a house for a little ghost - there was a lot of good teamwork and ideas! 

In our social skills lessons we have been working on the "Group Plan". 

The group plan is the plan that everyone agrees on for the expected behavior. When someone doesn't follow the group plan, other people might feel uncomfortable. We wrote group plans for our group time, for center time, and for going to PE, art and music. 

                                                                    

You could make some group plans with your child for things you do at home too...maybe for bed time, getting ready in the morning, or even going to the store with you. When kids help create the group plan, they begin to understand what the "expected behavior" is, and which behaviors are not on the group plan. 

Next week is OWL WEEK in our classroom!