Friendship
9/28/2018
This week at school, we celebrated friendship. We talked about what it means to be a good friend and what good friends do with each other. On Monday, we made a Friendship Flag together using bright colors. Our flag now hangs in our classroom to remind us that we should always remember to be friends and use kind words and actions toward one another. On Tuesday, we discussed how friends play games with each other. So we went outside to the sunshine and learned to play duck, duck, goose. Once everyone had a turn we played ring-round-o-rosies and then rolled down the soft grassy hill. On Wednesday, we read The Rainbow Fish and learned that making others feel happy made us feel happy, too. Then we made our own rainbow fish out of tinfoil, shiny paint and sparkly jewels. To end the week, we made Friendship Salad with fruit that each of the Beginners brought to share. Before we made our salad, we played a game of sink or float, and tested to see if the fruits would sink or float in water. All of the fruits floated, except for the grapes and blueberries, which happened to be the 2 smallest fruits. As we made the Friendship Salad, we called the bowl our classroom, and each fruit is a different part of friendship, like kind words, helping hands, good choices, hard work and nice gestures. Another important part of friendship is fun, so we used mini marshmallows to represent the fun that we like to have. The salad was a big hit and everyone enjoyed eating it.
Run, Run, as fast as you can!
9/19/2018
We took a some time at the beginning of the week to talk about our classroom rules and guidelines. We talked about some general rules like, "No hitting," and "No running," and "Share toys." After hearing what everyone had to say, we consolidated our rules down to 4 major ideas. 1. Be Safe 2. Be Kind 3. Take care of the classroom 4. Try your best and of course 5. Have fun. After we had written them down, we all signed the poster in agreement, using our handprints. We will use these guidelines throughout the year to keep us accountable. Before we missed out on the changing seasons and beautiful fall colors, we read the book The Giving Tree and then made some autumn art. The children went outside and found some bold leaves and brought them back inside. Using wax paper and crayon shavings, the children made a colorful collage. When they were finished, I ironed their wax paper and the crayon shavings melted together and outlined and highlighted the leaves. Throughout the week, we read several different versions of The Gingerbread Man. Our favorite was THe Gingerbread Man Loose in the School. It is a silly story of a class making a gingerbread man and while it cools, the children go to recess, but the Gingerbread Man doesn't want to be left behind so he tries to go find his class. Along the way, he meets several people who work in the school. We talked about the people who work at PNA and tried to put people to places, like Ms. Tabitha works at the front desk and Ms. Molly works in the gym. We wanted to show appreciation for a staff member, so we wrote a note to our custodian, Mr. Joe, who comes and cleans our school while the Beginners are sleeping at night. On Friday, we made a big gingerbread man. He came out of the oven just as the Beginners were settling down to nap, so we left him to cool. But when they woke up, we discovered he had ran away! We had to go search for him, so we asked several people around the school if they had seen him. When we finally found him, he had made a cozy nook in the third grade classroom on the 3rd floor. This activity was a great way for the Beginners to talk to different people who work at PNA, and talk to people that they wouldn't normally talk to. It was also a great way for them to tell the story and sequence of events that took place; First we baked a Gingerbread Man, then the Beginners went to sleep, and the Gingerbread Man ran away. Finally, we went back to our classroom to enjoy a gingerbread treat.
What Time is it?
9/14/2018
This week, the Beginners learned about when things happen at school. We talked about daily routines and practiced daily procedures, like lining up to go to outside, and washing our hands when we come back inside. We also looked at our schedule and discussed what parts of our days are the same each day and which are different. We discovered that we change specials each day, but everything else happens at the same time. We also talked about what kinds of things make each of us unique and special. We talked about our names and how no one else in the class has the same name. The Beginner's practiced tracing their names. Then we talked more about our families and how no two families are alike, they are all different. They drew their families in a house with crayons and then used water colors to fill in the rest of the space. Finally, we read the book There's Only One You by Linda Katz, which shared some great tips on being yourself and doing what is right. The illustrator used painted rocks in her picture to depict the story, so we decided to paint some beautiful and unique rocks, too.
School Rules
9/8/2018
After coming back from a long weekend, we needed a fun game to get back into the school routine. We played the "Name Game," where I would reveal one letter of a person's name at a time and the children had to guess whose name it was. As we were looking at everyone's names, the Beginner's also searched for holes in the letters. We counted how many holes were in everyone's names and decided who had the most and who had the least. The Beginner's were really involved and excited by this game. Looking for holes, vertical and horizontal lines, and straight and curvy lines on letters is a great way to get the Beginners interested in the Alphabet and to begin sorting out the differences between the letters. Over the next few days, we began discussing some classroom rules. We talked about taking care of our classroom and the materials in it. Then, we went on a scavenger hunt to look for toy bins and materials that were not put away correctly or had maybe gotten a little jumbled up. The following day, we went on a scavenger hunt around the classroom to look for items and become familiar with where things belong. On Friday, many of our friends were not at school, so we decided to wait until everyone was back to make a set of classroom guidelines that we could all agree to follow throughout the year. Instead, we read Dolly Parton's book I Am A Rainbow and then used bright colors and paper cups to paint beautiful circle rainbows onto newsprint. With all of this beautiful sunshine, the Beginners have been requesting some extra outside time. So, out we go to soak up these last beautiful days before winter arrives.
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Annalee JohnsonEK Teacher Archives
January 2021
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