Poetry…it’s fun stuff

 

We will head to 826michigan on Friday, October 30^th.  This place is amazing.  If you don’t know about it, google it!  They do amazing things with our kids and I love seeing my kids creativity shine when we visit.  We often go to do poetry.  This year, we will write a story – with all of the elements that we will learn about as our year progresses.  I.  Can’t.  Wait.  Last week, we read a few poems and kids illustrated at least one of them.  The Purple Po, by Douglas Florian is a fun poem and your kids did an amazing job illustrating Florian’s words.  I LOVE walking around the room and seeing all of their creativity pouring onto the blank pages.  It’s awesome. 

Oh, and if you see a sale on purple colored pencils…we need some!  J  Do you have a favorite poem from your youth?  Share it!  Show your kid the kind of poetry YOU loved at their age.  Reading poetry is also a great way to read at night.  Poems are often short and  you can easily find a collection of poems about a particular subject.  Have fun!

Poetry rules.

Self-Portraits

As the year progresses, we will do a wide variety of self-portraits.  They are fun to do and kids will hone their skills in a variety of ways.  These are amazing.  I loved watching you wander around the classroom trying to find your child’s face.  It’s one of my favorite things to watch.  Your kids are amazing.  This is further proof. 

FALLIN’ for FRUIT!

We truly appreciate the fruit that keeps rolling into our classroom.  We work hard and a healthy snack is an easy way to get our brain ready to work hard and LEARN!

Thank you! 

Veggies are welcome too…carrots, celery, red peppers, etc.  YahOOoOooO!

Perimeter

On Tuesday, our lesson on Perimeter was a fun one!  We played a cool game that had kids create shapes with 10 pattern blocks, trying to get both the LARGEST perimeter, along with the SMALLEST perimeter.  With their partner, they worked together to put the pattern blocks in variety of arrangements, drawing the final two designs using a pattern template. 

There was a nice buzz going around the room as kids worked with each other.  This continued as we moved on to our journal pages.  During math, we spend time in doing a variety of things, in a myriad of ways.  Sometimes we work as an entire group (working on journal pages on our white board), while other times we work with partners, in small groups, or individually, depending on what we are doing.  Kids can work with me on the carpeting (there’s a lot of room over there!) working directly with me, or in close proximity – just in case they need to ask me a question.  

Kids get to write on the white board a lot during our days together.  Between the projector and my computer, we use this space a LOT!  It’s a powerful tool and I love how kids feel when they work out a problem for their peers.  Bravo!

Our journal pages are checked as we go.  When my famous DOG has been drawn, they know it’s good to go.  Sometimes, the dog doesn’t quite look like a dog.  I can draw it faster than the speed of light (20 years of practice!)…but that’s what it is…a goofy dog that means they finished the page.  J

In the coming weeks, we will be working on the computers in conjunction with our math lessons.  This is new, so I’m not quite sure how it will look yet, but will keep you posted.  The Everyday Math program has a lot we can do on the computer and we will spend time exploring what works best for us.  This will be something they can work on at home too, so as we get settled, look for information about how to log in to our math program from home.