Change is stressful for everyone, especially children.  Having a routine in place for learning at home will bring a sense of security, comfort, and consistency to a child’s life.  Parents, you are doing a great job. I love seeing photos of our students completing their weekly focus packets.  These packets include an investigation question about our unit of study, opportunities to learn through play, fine motor skill activities, and cognitive skills.

I was glad to hear that everyone enjoyed Easter and our Easter Video.  The video premiered the Easter Bunny and we counted his eggs. This was a big hit with our students.  Try it with yours!

Last week we started our new study about reduce, reuse, and recycle.  This study offers opportunities for our children to explore a topic that not only interests them but allows them to gather information, become more aware of the world around them, and solve problems.  In a video, I asked our students to create their own recycling center at home. During this study we will enjoy sorting and reusing the trash collected.  

The boys and girls are also able to watch lessons through videos I have put together.  These videos teach things like: the letter and number of the week, math, and Handwriting Without Tears.  They enjoy getting to see and hear their Teacher.

Children love to play with balls in many different ways.  They throw them, catch them, kick them, and roll them with seemingly endless delight.  We are learning how natural forces, such as gravity and friction, affect the movement of balls.  Our focus question was “ What do you think it takes to make balls roll?” We discussed how using force from our muscles made our bodies roll and we needed to use force or gravity for a ball to roll.  At our soccer field, we used force to kick our balls into the net.

We also talked about gravity and used a ramp to roll different balls.  I asked the boys and girls “Do you think some balls roll faster than others?”  We recorded and discussed our predictions. Then we used different types of balls to test out our theories.  The boys and girls were amazed with the results. Putting a ramp in the classroom gives the children a chance to interact not only with me, but the other children as well.  This type of play influences the way children approach learning and influences other aspects of their cognitive development. 

Teaching Outdoors

One of the things I love about St. James is our beautiful campus and being able to teach outside. Using a parachute and some balls we continued to discover the meaning of force. The boys and girls had a blast.

This week we studied the letter “N” and “7”.

This week, we started our new study, “Balls.”  To introduce our new study, I asked the students a question, “What’s inside the box?”  I had placed a ball into a box and had the boys and girls try and guess what was inside.  While they took turns shaking and smelling the box, I gave them some clues. What can you bounce?  What can you throw? The children guessed a ball.

One of our focus questions was, “What do we know about balls?”  Some of their answers were: They are round, you can bounce them, throw them, kick them, air is inside them and so on.  Another question I asked was, “Do all balls bounce?” We decided to do our own experiment by testing out different kinds of balls.  After each child made their prediction we tested the ball and discussed why it did or didn’t bounce.

In order for children to develop the knowledge needed for later formal learning, they need frequent practice with materials in play settings and adult-guided activities.  Some of the activities include meaningful discussions and applications. One of our activities is a guessing jar. The students had to guess if we had more or fewer than 10 balls in our jar.  We recorded our answers and counted to see how many balls were in the jar. There were 22. The boys and girls also noticed that there were 3 different colors, so we decided to classify and count them. Everyone had fun, but we were also learning.

Grandparents Day is Friday, February 14th and we’ve been practicing for our show.  We even went on an adventure to Grandma's house to invite her to come and watch. On the way there we ran into a couple of obstacles.  The boys and girls learned how to participate in a group situation, number concepts and operation (under, over, or through), Traveling skills, to think symbolically, and the use of ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, & 3rd). With all the rain this was a fun indoor activity.

Bringing The Outside In

Since we couldn’t go outside, we brought the outside in. Using a sand table and construction vehicles, we were able to pretend that we were leveling the land for a good foundation. We discussed how important a foundation was to be built level ground.  We discussed the vocabulary words foundation and level.

I Scream You Scream We All Scream For Ice Cream!

What makes buildings strong?  We continued our discussion on how important it is to have a good foundation for a strong building. During snack time we used an ice cream sandwich for our foundation and created our own buildings. The boys and girls had fun designing and eating what they created.

Who builds buildings and what tools do they use?

I asked everyone our focus question and wrote down their answers. They said a construction worker and named several tools (hammer, drill, backhoe, and saw.) We also had a construction worker visit our class. Mr. Anthony discussed how he builds buildings and what tools he uses. He also passed around tools for the children to examine.

A Visit From The Tooth Fairy

A surprise visit from the Tooth Fairy. We discussed how to take care of our teeth and what causes cavities. She also sprinkled Tooth Fairy Dust on the boys and girls to help them remember to brush their teeth twice a day.

Classifying & Tally

Classification is a fundamental pre-number learning concept that children learn about the world around them.  Once they have classified items, children can compare items further to learn more specific similarities and differences between items, both within and between matched groups.  Using a color chart, we classified heart-shaped candy. Each student had to count how many pieces were in each color.   This was a fun activity but I think everyone enjoyed eating the candy the most. One of them said "I better brush my teeth tonight so I don't get a cavity."

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Before our Christmas Break, the students enjoyed our Grinch themed party and a visit from Santa.

Not only did we start a new year, we started our new study about buildings. This study features five investigations that we will explore.  The investigations offer children an opportunity to learn more about the characteristics and features of buildings, the people who build them, and the role buildings play in our communities.  Each investigation will help children explore science and social studies and strengthen their skills in literacy, math, technology, and the arts. This week the boys and girls worked together in groups to build a city. They used legos, blocks, and magna-tiles.

One of our focus questions was, “Which would you use to build your house: straw, sticks, or bricks?”  Each student had a chance to vote and tell the class what material they would use and why. We tallied our answers and then read the book, The Three Little Pigs.  After reading the story, we discussed each house and the definition of the word “collapse.”  

After the boys and girls observed 2 boxes with different items in them, I asked “Which has more, the box with the beads or the box with the bears.”  Each student recorded their answer by placing a mark under beads or bears. We then counted the items to see whose prediction was correct.