Last week in atelier we used paints, tagboard, and scissors to create our own plant puzzles. Today we got to play with our puzzles. We figured out how to put together our own puzzle and then we tried our friends’ puzzles. 

Our afternoon schedule has changed and now half of the class visits the atelier to work on a guided art/science project while the other half the class enjoys reading book boxes and library books in the classroom.  The following day the groups switch. Last week the ELC community decided to use the empty garden plot (photographed below) to plant a rainbow garden. Today for our art and science activity we began planning our rainbow garden. We read a story called Planting a Rainbow.  Then we used magnifying glasses to examine plants in a variety of colors. After examining our plants we each painted a realistic picture of the plant that we would like to add to our community rainbow garden. Tomorrow the other half of the class will examine and paint plants. Then on Wednesday we will actually plant our community rainbow garden.

View more photos from today in our May 17-21 Photo Gallery

Here are some of the highlights from last week:

We explored the scientific properties of bubbles. Several inventors invented their own bubble wands.  Others found ways to create bubbles in their hands by getting their hands wet and soapy.

Ewan’s dog, Elliott came in to visit us.  It was great to spend special time with Ewan’s mom and with Elliott.

We created labels for the different vegetation in our butterfly garden.

We watched several Painted Lady butterflies emerge from their chrysalises last week. On Friday we released the butterflies in our butterfly garden.

During centers we played a plant memory game where we matched scientific vocabulary with pictures. We had to use both our memory and concentration skills, and our decoding skills to play this game.

A few of us worked on planting vegetables in our kinder community garden. We planted onions, radishes, carrots, broccoli, and tomato plants. We also watered plants around our outside learning area.

During Writers’ Workshop we worked on writing individual stories. We discussed how to find our best learning spots during writing time and as a class we decided to listen to classical music during Writers’ Workshop. We enjoyed listening to music and creating our own stories!

View more photos from last week in our May 10-14 Photo Gallery

Daily Blog Message
Written By Brendan
“Yesterday we played with Legos in Creative Play. We were taking a video with a video camera of our chrysalises because we wanted to see if any of them hatched. And some of them hatched and now we have four Painted Lady butterflies.”

Every day we spend time engaged at classroom centers. A popular new center has been Monopoly.  Monopoly involves students buying property and exchanging money. It has been a powerful way for students to practice their math skills. They are especially becoming more skilled at making change and adding sums of money.

Yesterday we had music with Ms. Shelley. We sang a Spanish song about body parts and we also got to make music with the shakers.

For the past four weeks in Writers’ Workshop we have been focusing on writing scientific research reports and memory book piecs. This week students were very excited to return to a focus on writing personal stories. Ask your child what he/she is writing about this week.

We have been enjoying the beautiful sunshine in our outdoor classroom.

View more photos from this week in our May 10-14 Photo Gallery

Today’s Blog Message
Written by Brendan
“Awhile ago some moths laid their eggs. Now they are caterpillars. Today our buddies came and read-ed us books. At recess today I played Star Wars.”

Yesterday the other half of our class went to see a jazz band practice. We got to hear the musicians play a song and we got to try out their instruments!

Last week a group of students became very enthusiastic about a story we read in class called Elbert’s Bad Word.  These students decided to spend time during Creative Play doing Readers’ Theater activities with the story.  Readers’ Theater involves students immersing themselves in the story and discussing the story ideas and characters. They also act out the story multiple times as a student or a teacher narrates. Readers’ Theater involves exploring and discussing a story, and does not emphasize memorization of parts. Yesterday this group of students presented their Readers’ Theater play to our school community and to some family members.

Today our buddies came to visit us. We had so much fun enjoying special books with our buddies.

Several students in our classroom community have been very interested in mapping and states lately. Students were excited to try out the United States map puzzle during center time this week.

VIew more photos in our May 3-7 Photo Gallery