Ask me about friday, september 2, 2022

Happy Friday!  We had the best day so far, and they've all been great so far.  Today we studied these paintings and talked about whether they were exactly the same, the but a little bit different, or just different with little the same.  This is what we have talked about in math this week.  Then we listened to a story by the amazing Mem Fox called The Straight Line Wonder.  This book is about three straight lines.  One straight line decides he wants to be different and make jumps and bumps.  His two best friends want him to stay a straight line and worry that people will stare.  Ask me to tell you some of the other shapes the first straight line makes.  This book was about lines, but also about being unique.  We may revisit this next week to talk about how we are each unique.  We ran out of time today because we are still suffering from beginning of the year "kindergarten time."  They don't all saunter around leisurely, some are very quick to follow directions or finish and go to the carpet, but enough are that we are still a little slower in our transitions!  I love that they don't feel the need to rush all the time.  We should all feel that, but we have a schedule to learn and follow.  We'll get there!  Learning to make quick and quiet transitions is part of our lessons in our Benchmark reading program as well, so it will really help as we move into small group work later in September.  
We read This School Year Will Be THE BEST, by Kay Winters.  This book was about wishes the a teacher and students have for their new school year.  We also made wishes and drew a picture to show what our wish is for the year.  Several were very inspired by the book and would like a chocolate fountain in the school!  I hope they are not disappointed when it doesn't happen!  I'll have their wishes up for Back to School Night so you can see what they wished for!
In math we learned a new routine for how to quickly get manipulatives for tasks.  We used a ruler today to match animals that were exactly or almost alike in math.  They are learning to stay in their order in the rows on the carpet and follow a path to the cabinet to get their materials before going to their seats.  Some are leisurely in completing their work, others finish quickly, so we will be working on getting right to work and working the whole time.
During playtime today, they made their own choice about where and what to play.  I've told them they can change what they are playing with after they put the first thing they chose away, but so far they just are playing with one thing.  We will have a little lesson on switching toys next week.  They are playing together very nicely, but we do need to work on their noise level.  We got louder as the week went on!
We had another fire drill today.  This one was with the alarm.  It's just a little siren with a voice.  They were amazing.  They walked about and stayed together, stood quietly and walked back in quietly.  We just need to work on forming a straight line.  Today's line was pretty wiggly!
I totally forgot yesterday to post a fun thing we will get to do when they are packed up early enough before patrols start coming.  We watched a short clip of How It's Made.  I haven't been able to do this for a couple years, but because of changes in how we dismiss, and how well the children are packing up, we may get to see more of these!  Yesterday we watched how bubble gum is made, and today we saw how sprinkles are made.  I'm hoping to plant the seed for future engineers by sneaking in a little extra science with these episodes!  I'll post them below in case you've never seen the show.  

We ended our day with a really sweet story.  We read I'm Sticking With You, by Smriti Prasada-Halls.  This is a story of two good friends, Bear and Squirrel, who do everything together.  But squirrel needs some time alone, at least he thinks he does, so he goes to stay in an igloo.  Bear follows.  Ask me to tell you what happens next.  Squirrel finds out he needs his friend in the end, and decides they should stick together.  The message at the end of the story really sums up our start to the school year.  "And whether you like it or love it or not, We are a team...And I LOVE YOU A LOT!"  I'm hoping our little birdies are at least liking school and adjusting to a new teacher, new friends, new classroom and new school.  It's a lot of listening, and it sometimes feels like boot camp that first week of school, but we are laying the foundation for a great year.

Thank-you for your support this week!
Have a great, long weekend! 
​Miss Wolfe