Ask Me About Tuesday, January 2, 2018

We had a great first day back from our Winter Break.  We passed the Talking Fish to find out what everyone did with family and friends over the break.  
In math, we practiced skip counting.  We are working on counting by tens, and because that is going so well, we also are counting by fives to 100 and by 2s to 20.  We played a game called Do You Have It in math.  This game rewards teams points when members have items on the list.  We focused on cold weather clothing today.  Some items were give one point, some ten points.  We used links to keep track of the points, and had chains of tens for those valuable items worth ten points.  Then we practiced counting the tens first, then counting on by ones for the remaining points.  This enrichment is helping to build a good foundation for addition and subtraction strategies using numbers greater than ten and for counting money.  We will play this game from time to time with different items and values.
We talked about the word resolution.  Ask me to tell you what a resolution is and how it is different than a goal.  We talked about how resolutions are a promise we make to ourselves to improve behaviors that will help us be more successful with relationships, our education, and day to day tasks.  I didn't really explain it like that!  The children thought of resolutions, and it might be of interest for you to know that one child shared he wanted to get better at sleeping, and a whole boatload of friends thought that sounded good and made that their resolution!  It could be everyone was tired today!  They started writing and illustrating their resolutions and will finish them tomorrow.
Obviously we will be having indoor recess this week.  We pulled out some games we haven't played yet this year and I added a few additional activities.  I notice many children doing the same activity in the same way during our play time or during indoor recess.  I want to see them try new things, so this week I'm on a mission to sell alternative games and activities.  This often gives them an opportunity to interact with students they may not have played with before.
The classroom cycles through warmer and cooler times throughout the day.  The coldest area is my desk, so I have named it the North Pole.  Many children today came with sweaters and sweatshirts so they could take them on and off as needed, but if you didn't send them in with layers, you may want to.  The end of the week looks brutal!

Have a nice evening!
​Miss Wolfe