Dear parents,
Monday morning we began creating a meteor to hang in our solar system. The children helped squish paper and tape it down to form a ball. They said meteors were made of rock. We added foil and orange tape which they said was for the fire. They wanted to hang it near our planet Earth. The children explained, recalling from a book, that one theory was that a meteor hit the Earth, contributing to the extinction of the dinosaurs.
We went outside to play and brought eight large dinosaurs to use in our dinosaur hunt. We buried them in the sandbox and let the "paleontologists" dig to find them. Then they got to hide them for the next group. It was a successful dig.
We used the small dinosaurs to make fossils. The children found pictures of fossils in our books. They pounded the red clay as flat as pancakes and then pressed the small dinosaurs in to leave imprints like the ones we examined in books. We left them to dry and went out to play cat, puppy, lobster, hamster, various other animals, and family members.
Wednesday in circle we greeted each other by counting and clapping the syllables in all of our names, then we did the same for some long dinosaur names.
We had music with Alex on Wednesday and Thursday this week. While half the class made music, children in the classroom wrote more collaborative stories. We made a list of the characters for children to choose to act out.
Thursday in our small groups, while one group had music with Alex, we revisited our story from the prior day, reading the title, then comparing with a book to note what else we needed. We added the authors' names, then after that we noticed that our books have words AND pictures, so there are authors and illustrators too. We re-read our story, pausing to imagine and visualize characters and events. Then we went to the tables to draw that character or scene. We played outside and had a picnic lunch outside.
On Friday we read the recipe and matched it with the ingredients and materials on the table, then took turns measuring, pouring, and mixing Gloop. We voted on which color to use. Then we played with the gloop during the morning and again in small groups during free play. Gloop was had by all.
Thanks to Kay for the write-up while I was at the conference. Highlights at the conference were social and emotional learning, the power of positive thinking (mentioned more than once), mindfulness, and promoting self-worth.
Have a sunny weekend,
Therese