First Week of School

Happy First Week of School, Everyone!

We are so happy to have a class full of personality, enthusiasm, caring, and wonder. Here are a few highlights from the first week of school. We will be updating the blog every Friday and sending out an email with the link. Please feel free to "follow" the blog so that you can access it easily from your home computer. Thanks so much and happy reading!

Welcome Song:
Ben busted out his ukulele to sing a welcome song that included everyone’s names!

We read the daily schedule and then announced the buddy groups that would set out to explore the classroom and school grounds with a special checklist. One returning student and 2 new friends took a close look at the block area, dramatic play area, project studio, library, materials shelf, and the bathroom. They ate snack together and then went to play a game or work on a puzzle on the rug.

Backyard Exploration:

We took a look around the back yard and noticed all the different areas and things to play with and on. Children had a few moments to ask questions and teachers gave information about how to be safe and take care of each other on the playscape. Then we PLAYED!

Breathing:
Every day after recess (unless it is a special schedule) we practice breathing. The ritual takes place with the lights off and the children sitting criss crossed on the rug. We practice lengthening our spine and holding our bodies steady. One child rings a special breathing bell as we take slow deep breaths in through our nose and out our mouths. Another child picks a number card to tell us how many breaths we will take that day, and yet another child thinks of a word to whisper as we exhale. The word for our first breathing exercise was “peace”. Children are invited to close their eyes during the breathing and then share how they were feeling and what they noticed. Some comments were, “I felt very relaxed.” and “It felt like if I kept breathing I would just go fall right to sleep!”

Special Visit: Kate Klaire

We are fortunate to have Kate working with us this year. She came in to introduce herself, go over some of the safety tips, and show us some of the recess materials. We will be working with her during community meetings to develop our social and emotional culture during outdoor time.

we'd like a new Sorry! game for a present.

dramatic play

enjoying the library

blank book writing

looking fabulous with dramatic play

rice table exploration

sharing a book

TUESDAY!
 

Warm-up: We made animals for the attendance jar. Every day when your child arrives they will be responsible for putting their animal in the jar to signify their arrival.

Meeting: We learned how to read the calendar during morning meeting

work time:

We made cards with small portraits of the child’s face for our tooth chart. Part of our lost teeth ritual includes moving your card over as each tooth is lost. We have a special tooth song and the child selects a short story from a book called Throw your Tooth on the Roof, which is a collection of traditional tooth losing ceremonies all over the world.


We made shelf marker/bookmarks with Ben. As we learn to care for books and for our library, we will use the markers to keep track of books that are taken out and to keep track of student’s place in the book they are reading.

We began creating books with drawing and writing and learned how to use the date stamp to keep track of work.

We used stamps to find letters to spell names and pictures to match the letter sound.

We used dice and crayons to play a dice game that focuses on recognizing number symbols and conversion from dots to number.

Special Visitor: Mitch
Mitch Bostian, head of school, came in to Laurel Creek to share a song with us. It was entitled “We are the Dinosaurs” and we sang along and acted out the story to the tune of his guitar. We also got a sneak preview of another song he will come sing with us that is about a green marshmallow. Stay tuned!

Miscellaneous Tuesday highlights:

 

recess

dramatic play

fish observation

block building

WEDNESDAY:

Warm-up: alphabet practice

Special Visitor: Jodie

Jodie Barton, the learning specialist for K-3, came in to read us a story. She will be working with us closely this year as we strive to best support all the different types and speeds of learners we have in K/1.

Project Studio: children started to explore the project studio, where you can design and build creations made from “beautiful junk” materials. If you have any particularly interesting (and well-scrubbed) recycled materials such as: tubes, interesting shaped boxes, pieces of plastic or even Styrofoam trays feel free to bring them in.

Special Visitors: Tanya and Fluffy

Diego’s mom and Middle School Spanish teacher, Tanya Madrid, came in with their pet chinchilla, Fluffy. It was very exciting to see Fluffy run around in his exercise ball and take a dust bath. Diego told us a lot about Fluffy and we got to ask questions and make comments.

Hopes and Dreams: we spoke about creating our hopes and dreams for the year in K/1.
The discussion involved differentiating between a dream you have when you are sleeping and a goal that you achieve through hard work. Children did their own drawing and many did most of their own if not all of their own writing. Please come take a look at our wall display next week.

Weeding! 

Javanne, our new Seed-to-Table specialist, came to work on weeding and tidying up the back playspace with both K/1 classes. We used tools to pull weeds, shovel sand, and harvest apples.

Special Visit: Zaq

Zaq Roberts, associate head of school, came in to share a favorite childhood book of his, Tubby and the Lantern . Afterward, children had choices based on inspiration from the story. Making paper lanterns, building a ship from wooden blocks, and painting a scene with watercolor were some of the options.

Free Friday:

Every Friday from 8:30 to just before 9, we open the classroom to adult guests. It is a wonderful time to see what your child is working on and interested in, as well as a great time to see other classroom community members. We welcome you to join us.

Special Guest: Julianne

Julianne Hughes, teaching artist for K-5, came to do a special project with us. We made the placemats that we will use for eating lunch all year long. Using an ocean theme, children used glue sticks, animal shapes, and torn paper to create underwater scenes.
We are fortunate enough to get not only our special class art time with Julianne, but also an hour visit in the classroom from her every week!

work time:

Special Visit: Javanne

Javanne Golob will be working with us as a P.E., Yoga, and Seed to Table specialist teacher! She came in to do some Mindfulness work with us. We did drawings of things we observed in the classroom and compared the 2 drawings made of the same object to notice the differences. We did mindful eating with a raisin; noticing and documenting what it looked like, smelled like, sounded like, and eventually tasted like.

Other Friday highlights:

Math: Monster Squeeze
Ben taught us a new math game that practices concepts of number in terms of greater than and less than.