Ask me about Monday,March 28th, 2022

We started our day talking about the sad news about DC8.  I reminded the children that this is a wild nest and that humans stay away from the eagles, so it is not like human babies being born where doctors and nurses are there to help.  The children seemed to understand, and while we were all sad, they seemed to understand that this is part of nature.  I think I've got a class of birders because they are studying the nest so intently and have soooo many questions.  They did want to know where DC8 was, and I had to tell them that Lotus ate her.  That is also part of nature and I explained that it was important that happened so that other birds that eat meat would not come around since DC9 would be hatching soon.  
Recess was indoors because of the cold, and there was a pretty big group of children building with the wooden blocks.  They built the tulip tree and eagle nest and were playing out what they imagined and knew had happened on the nest.  I'm thrilled to hear them remember what I told them, or you told them, and that they are working through not only the excitement of watching the nest, but the sadder part of nature too.  
We did some writing in our eagle journals.  I am hoping we can write a little each day if DC9 survives so we can write about what we are learning.  At the very end of the day while we were waiting for announcements and the patrols, Mr. President flew in and wanted to take over brooding duty.  Lotus doesn't always want to give up her spot, so Mr. President has been putting a stick on top of her.  She reluctantly gets the message and in her own good time, leaves.  This is the first clutch for Lotus, so she's new to being a mother, but she certainly knows what to do!  
In math, we found different ways to decompose 9 and 10.  We needed to talk alot about accuracy because we were finding the different ways to make 9 by drawing on whiteboards, or by using the "counting on" strategy.  We talked about making sure we drew the right number, and that by making a row of five and four, we could be more organized and be able to see better that we were accurate.  Writing the decomposition number sentence is more difficult.  Children want to put the the 9 on the right side all the time, but our sentence is 9=5+4 or some other combination.  We will continue to practice this.  We also worked with the big Rekenrek and counted by tens and fives as we determined how many beads I had moved to the left.  We start with ten rows of beads on the right.  Each row has five red and five white.  This is done so the can not only see the relationships with ten, but also five.  This is giving them good practice in building a strong number sense that will help them as they do more difficult problems with numbers.
In social studies, we continued to talk about economics.  We read the book Ox Cart Man, by Donald Hall.  The children could see how the family worked together to produce goods to sell at the market in Portsmouth.  Of course, everyone's favorite part was when he even sold his ox, and gave him a quick kiss on the nose before he left him.  I choose this book to read because it also fits in with our Read the U.S.A. journey.  I hope your child remembered to add their postcard to their suitcase.  
Keep positive thoughts for DC9.  It's a really cold night and it's pipping so it might hatch tonight.
Have a nice evening!
​Miss Wolfe