Wednesday, March 20, 2013

For those who are not on Facebook, I apologize for not posting lately on this site.  It seems so much is happening here it's all I can do to post pictures and a quick blurb.

The Egg Drop was very successful last Friday.  Our class made 4 containers for our eggs and only 1 egg broke.  This was the egg in the parachute that landed safely in practice   The parachute didn't open fully so our little charge became crow food.  Still a 75% success rate for four and five year olds is impressive.

Gilbert the dog was also a guest in our room.  He is a mixed breed rescue dog, has wonderful manners and likes hugs from children.  He quickly realized that I had peanuts in my lunch and we became close buddies.

Monday we found objects beginning with the letter G in our letter bag.  It's a good thing we already knew sometimes words starting with the /j/ sound are really tricky G words.  Otherwise, we might have thought giraffe and grapes didn't belong in the same bag.  So far the class has come up with 12 G words including the fabulous word "garage".   It has both the/g/ and the /j/ sounds in it!

Yesterday we read Dr. Seuss' "If I Ran the Zoo".  Today the children drew a real animal and then their made-up animal in their journals.  This is a very creative bunch so you know their 3D creations will be great.  We pulled some supplies today to begin working on their animals.  I just love this class.  Even with 3 over flowing boxes of supplies, they still thought of an item they need me to bring in tomorrow.  An artist needs what an artist needs!

We will focus on construction tomorrow but I don't anticipate finishing in one day.   Big ideas take time and lots of glue.

Friday is our field trip to Mill Mountain Zoo.  We will need to leave here by 9:30.  The weather prediction is looking chilly right now.  If it's too chilly on the hill Friday, we'll bring our lunches back to school and eat here.

There is a stomach bug going around town and several children here have fallen victim.  If your child complains of stomach pain, nausea or diarrhea please use caution and keep them home.  We are required to follow the state guidelines of a 24 hour  absence of fever, vomiting and diarrhea before returning to school.

This is a very caring class so Monday I was surprised by their grumpiness with each other.  I had them sit in a circle and tell each other 1 thing they really liked about each other.  I then took a turn to tell them what I really liked about them and the discussion somehow turned to each one's "gift" and how it could be used to help others.  I thought you might like to know how your child's classmates see them.

Alora - She knows all about horses, isn't afraid to touch bugs and always helps people.
Daniel - He can read and will always sit down to read to a classmate.
Dawson - He is always happy to see his friends and makes them smile.
Django - He shows kindness by giving hugs to comfort people, checks on hurt friends and finds
              a toy for anyone who doesn't have one.
Oliver - He has a great imagination and can always think up a new game to play.  He also knows
            how to grow things.
Rylan - He knows numbers and will always help fix the number board when it is "whackydoodled".
Sam - He loves science and knows all about animals.  He makes a great mad scientist.
Sylvana - She loves to help people and will stop what she is doing to help.

The term "good artist" was mentioned several times but I have recently noticed that each child in this room has developed areas of specialty.  We have expert cutters, drawers, painters and creative "put it together-ers".

I don't know what else to say except that I am the luckiest teacher of all.  Just look at the gifts that were delivered to my room.

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