Dear Families,

The last two weeks have been filled with fun and exciting moments both inside and outside the classroom. Here are some highlights:
 
Science
The children chose birds to study their beaks and the food they eat. Each child began to draw his/her favorite bird focusing mainly on the shape of the beak. The children will be writing about the birds’ beaks and diet. The culminating project will be a class book. The children’s drawings and favorite facts about birds are now posted on the bulletin board of our science center. About two weeks ago we hung a suet treat on a pole by the pre-k room. It took the birds a few days to find it, but now they are feasting on it. Last Friday we placed a second suet treat on a tree by the edge of the meadow. The children also had fun throwing handfuls of sunflower seeds on the grass.

Our four frogs are doing well and have officially joined the classroom community with a “name” ceremony. The children generated a list of possible names then voted on a name for each frog as follows: Spotty, Lucky, Lippy, and Tiny. The children are able to distinguish the frogs by their size and markings.

Language Arts
After naming the frogs, the children had fun generating words beginning with the same sound as the frogs’ names, focusing particularly on the beginning sound of “sp” (Spotty). The children added a new poem to their Poems and Songs binders – Once I Saw a Little Bird.

Also we read several poems on birds from various books on poetry. One of the children’s favorite is The Penguin in Disguise. Poetry has proven to be a fun way to teach vocabulary by playing with words and using metaphor. I am blown away by the children’s ability to understand metaphor in poetry, especially if reminded that they have this ability within. Renowned poet Coleman Barks strongly suggests (I’m paraphrasing) to not be afraid to read poetry to children because they have an innate ability to understand poetry even if they don’t have the language to talk about them. Also we read a beautiful book about an injured bird that was rescued and lovingly nursed back to health by a family. The book’s title is Martha by Gennady Spirin – thank you Caroline and mom for suggesting and lending us the book.

We celebrated Read Across America Day on Thursday by reading books all day, in addition to reading with our guest author and illustrator Sylvie Wickstrom also known as Sylvie Kantorovitz. Sylvie read the newest book she illustrated Go To Bed Monster! Sylvie answered children’s questions and demonstrated how she illustrates books by drawing a circus dog, as requested by the children. Thursday morning we all had a lot fun watching a performance in the library by the Ivy Vine Puppets – what a treat! Storytelling with Ken Busman was also a wonderful treat, and the parade of costumes was the exciting event talked about for weeks prior.

First Grade Math
The children have been exploring making shape designs with the shape templates. Particularly, the have been investigating ways to make combination shape designs by rotating the shapes. Also each child has created a poster showing his/her favorite way of sorting shapes, and sharing it with the class by making a presentation explaining the attributes used for sorting.

Kindergarten Math by Lynne
The kindergarten math children have been having fun with sorting activities and survey taking. We used fruits and vegetables, self portraits and foods we eat at breakfast and lunch to do sorting and graphing activities. We had several lively discussions on how to sort these items and the children were able to come up with a multitude of ways to do so. We then represented some of the sorting information in graph form.

The children had a lot of fun as they conducted surveys of each other and the afternoon pre-k children. They represented their findings in graph form and as written math equations, and we will continue doing surveys next week.

Celebration
Friday morning in honor of Jamie’s birthday, Jamie’s mom and Jamie showed the class a “real” gramophone. The children learned that a gramophone does not use electricity or batteries, but has to be wound up by hand. They were equally amazed as they watched the needle on the album move in a circular motion to make music. Thank you to Jamie and mom for this very interesting demonstration.

Reminders
Friday, March 14th there will be NO morning assembly. The school will be celebrating Pi Day with an afternoon assembly at 1:59. There will be more details in the “weekly updates” by Natalie.

Student-led conferences are scheduled for Thursday, March 20. There will be no school, but please sign up for a time at the front desk. Your child will be your guide in the classroom, talking with you about his/her work.

I know this is a lengthy update to read, but I hope you find it useful. I wish you a happy and sunny week.
 
Liliana