Last week we read "If You Give a Moose a Muffin" by Laura Numeroff. This delightful tale takes a boy and a moose on an associative thought type of journey where they end up as they began by eating muffins. While we had a great discussion about muffins and even made blueberry muffins, the class is still talking about the sock puppets the moose made. It sounds like they have decided on an art project.
This week we are reading "If You Give a Pig a Pancake" also by Laura Numeroff. First we discussed the types of pancakes we liked and then made a graph. Although the children as a class liked blueberry, banana, plain, chocolate chip and strawberry pancakes, plain and blueberry pancakes tied for first.
As I drew out the graph and entered the data, one of the children asked me why we were making a graph. I stopped and turned to look at this child who had just asked a question I've never has been asked before. I quickly asked myself the same question, reviewed all the ways we use graphs in my head, and the answer came to me. Graphs give us a great deal of information in a single glance. Our eyes can tell us the answer to questions like the greatest and least amounts or where the median lies without ever using Google. Suddenly, I loved graphs and the innocent questions of young children.
Your children brought home their first Scholastic flyers of the year last week. This is a great way to build your family library at a reduced cost. A former parent asked me aside from being a good deal for parents how does it benefit the school and/or teachers for parents to buy these books. What a great question! As parents buy books bonus points add up for teacher use. When borders are entered online parents earn a$3 coupon for their next purchase and the teachers earn $5 to buy books. Since we are a small school we combine our orders from the Early Learner level to the Middle Elementary level. Last year we earned enough points to buy 2 listening stations for the Elementary level and numerous books to build our classroom libraries. I hope that gives you incentive to peruse the flyers with your children and perhaps order a book.
In case you missed the rain today, don't worry you will see more tomorrow. At Gatherings we discussed the importance of children being properly dressed for the weather. We play outside unless it is bitter cold or raining cats and dogs. And sometimes we don't let that stop us so children need shoes/boots and raincoats or jackets they can get wet. While umbrellas are very cute and handy for walking, children quickly tire of holding one on the playground so please provide a hat of some type. Nothing defines childhood better than donning rain gear and splashing in puddles.
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