Laurel Creek 2012-2013: Laurel Creek- Weeks The Third and Fourth

Due to teacher sickness and absence we have collapsed the last two weeks into one post. We will get back to our regular once/week schedule next Friday.

This ten day period gave us our first two birthday celebrations and our first self-portraits, we have been practicing old skills, developing new ones and growing as a community.

"Here I am in September"

Laurel Creek students created their first self portraits of the year. Julianne, our teaching artist, came in to introduce the September medium, chalk pastels. Chalk pastel is a highly smearable medium and the children were taught how to use that to their advantage as they blended colors to create new tones and textures. Laurel Creek students will create a self portrait in a different medium each month.

Lunchtime

Readers Workshop

Cate has written several songs to for the classroom and has so far introduced the Seasons song, Days of the Week song, and The Vowel Song. We will include the lyrics to them on the blog within the next few weeks.

First Grade word study
First graders have been working on letter formation and hearing initial, medial, and final sounds in words.

Terry & Tommy - Kindergarten word study

We started to hear tales of Terry and Tommy, a brother and sister who live with their two dads in West Berkeley and are always discovering new sounds. So far they have discovered the ick a mouse sound (short i sound), the calf sound (n), the broken car sound (r), and the hissing bus sound (s). Students practiced forming the letter and came up with words that begin with the letter sound being studied.

The Fantastic Mr. Fox
The children have really enjoyed this fast-paced tale of a clever fox who digs his way to a better life for his family and all of his animal friends. We are now on to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, another Roald Dahl novel.

Dismissal routine
To be dismissed to work time children wait for the ball to be thrown to them. With this activity they are developing gross motor, active engagement, and self regulatory skills.

Birthday Celebration
We had our first birthday celebration of the year this week. We heard the story The Duckling Gets a Cookie and then partook of a cookie ourselves.

Listening to a read aloud
Hearing books and discussing them are a fundamental part of Kindergarten and First Grade and are a great opportunity to model reading and interpretive skills.

Morning literacy games and activities

Readers Workshop

Buddies
We met with our Strawberry Creek buddies to make collaborative drawings. A paper was folded into quadrants and each buddies work had to be represented in each of the four quadrants. This required discussion and planning. Laurel Creek students really look forward to our Wednesday afternoons with their buddies.