Cloud Explorations Continued!

We asked Ms. Cuthbert, the librarian in the Elementary School if she had some books on clouds, and she found us It Looked Like Spilt Milk and Little Cloud. We are looking for some more fiction as well as non-fiction books right now.

Our class decided they wanted to head back outside to observe the clouds in the sky again, but this time see the clouds “from a different ground spot.” We went out to the track.

“The sky is so blue! Wait…is that THE MOON?!” –Malia

“The moon is up in the day?!” –Mena

“Yeah, sometimes I have seen it before like that.” –Maxton

“The CLOUDS look like the moon!” –Rania

“The clouds are so fluffy. The sun is so bright but I can keep looking at the sky because it is so relaxing for me.”  -Shayne

A chorus of “yeahs” heard all across the class.

The students are in the process of finding other ways to represent what they are seeing in the sky and in the clouds.

Through the project so far the students have been using fine motor skills in writing and drawing, observation and recording skills, and have had fun exploring and expressing what they have experienced with a variety of materials. Many of the students also noticed how calm and peaceful they felt just looking at the sky, and how being outside made them feel fresh and happy.

“To get all there is out of living…Never be in a hurry to stop and sip life, we must never lose our sense of the enormous value of a minute.” –Robert Updeegraff

Friday Update Feb 29 to March 4

Friday, March 4, 2016

It has been another wonderful week of learning! We have had a special visitor, reconnected with Mango and Jelly, were cloud watching and continued concentrating on letters and numbers in our environment.

Our explorations and activities included…

*Daniel’s mom came in and created sand art with us! The kiddos had so much fun doing it, and created beautiful colored sand layers in a jar they took home.

*Our mark making area has continued to be popular!  Thank you so much for sending in envelopes, paper, stickers….I found many of my childhood things I collected to add to this area, and it has been fun shopping!  If you have envelopes especially to send in, these are a favorite!!!

*We continued exploring clouds, and went out with clipboards, as well as using many different materials to recreate our cloud observations.  See the blog for more details on our cloud explorations. (It is in 2 parts)

*Many of you sent in recycled materials to add to our maker-space—the cuties were so into this as well!!!  We had binoculars, bird feeders, pencil holders….you name it!  All being created with recycled materials!

*We made our March calendar

*We practiced a lot with our letters and numbers this week, and will continue with this. When you see numbers, letters and words in the environment around you, be sure to point them out to your child.

*We reconnected with Mango and Jelly!  We cuddled them, fed them, brushed them, drew pictures for them, wrote letters to them and told them how special they are to us!  This related very well to our talks about kindness and respect.  As a class we have really been working on being “bucket fillers” and being kind to our friends, bringing our yelling voices down to quiet friendly voices, and respecting people, animals and our environment. Let your child tell you about our kindness candle time, and be sure to take a quick moment to praise your cutie when they are being kind. J

REMINDERS/IMPORTANT DATES

Friday, March 11^th: Field Trip to Elephant and Piggie. *FIELD TRIP FORMS ARE COMING HOME TODAY—You can keep the first page, please sign and return the second page.  If the info on that page is not correct, write in on the page for me, but also go into the SAS website and change the information (it means you haven’t updated it.) I can’t go in and do that. We will be leaving the school that day at 8:20 and returning around 11:30. Please pack a normal snack for that day (and lunch if your child does home lunch.) There are no chaperones for the trip.

Thursday, March 17^th and Friday, March 18^th: PARENT-TEACHER CONFERENCES.  Our students do not come to the conferences and do not have school these two days. *If you would like to talk to Ma Laoshi about Chinese, please sign up on her schedule (the same page that my sign up is on.) Ms. Laura’s is also there, however she is away for the conference days and will be doing her meetings on a different day.

March 19^th to March 27^th:  SPRING BREAK: NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS

*Please return the red library bag and books and the blue Friday Folder bag on Monday!!

Cloud Explorations!

“Hey Guys! There is a cloud in the sky that looks like Gerald the Elephant!”

My son Lukas gave us our provocation for learning early Monday morning. The students are obsessed with Mo Willem’s Elephant and Piggie books, and to hear that something looked like Gerald the Elephant was very exciting! The whole class ran outside to the playground courtyard straining to see this cloud!

The students started pointing out all sorts of shapes and images they saw in the clouds, and asked if we could stay out and look for more clouds. We decided to go to a wider, more open space, and headed to the field. Some of us lay down on the grass, some sat and some stood.

“The clouds are moving across the sky really really fast!” –Ella

“I think there are planes up there too!” –Jimmy

“Look!  There is Gerald the Elephant again!  And I think I see Piggie!” –Liam

“Look over there!” (pointing) “That cloud looks like a Christmas tree!” –Map

“It’s actually a white cat.” –Dylan

“I see so many different things…a dog, a boat, an elephant…” –Daniel

 “Let’s see if the clouds look different on the other side of the field!” –Xavion

All of the students ran back and forth across the field to get different viewpoints of the sky and the clouds.

Many of the students decided they wanted to make clouds out of different materials so we looked around the classroom to see what we could use to represent them.  There were so many suggestions, and the students tried out different things.

“Let’s use fluffy snow like we did at Christmas! It is white!” –Aria

“I think it has to feel puffy.” –Jasper (We found the shaving cream.)

“I’m just going to draw them and add the words Mom and Dad so I can tell them about what we saw.” –Si-Yoon

“Or we could build the shapes with the blocks.” –Hudson