Friday, February 22, 2019

February Vacation Fun

Hi Everyone!

I hope you are having fun this vacation! I can't wait to hear all about it! Did you visit family or spend time with friends? Did you watch any good movies or travel? Did anyone bake something yummy or do a cool craft project?! Add to the padlet below a sentence or two or even a picture of a special vacation moment that you would like to share. On Monday, each of us will be choosing one special moment to illustrate and write about. This padlet can help with our brainstorming when we are all a little tired as we settle back into our routine. :)

Simply double click on the board and write a note. Write your name at the top of the note as the title.


Made with Padlet

Global School Play Day 2019

My class and I had so much fun during Global School Play Day 2019!
This was a day of unstructured play that was supervised by teachers.  It was so nice to have the opportunity to play with the children and to see their imaginations come alive.  They worked well together, problem solved, and amazed me with their creativity!


During the morning, we had fun playing in the gym with Ms. Teixeira's class.  We played tunnel tag and then the first graders taught us Sphere Ball!


The students were supposed to have computers during specialist time, but Mrs. Haines invited them into the gym for some station fun with Mrs. Newton's class!  The kids loved all the different gym stations Mrs. Haines created!


After lunch and specialist, we visited Mrs. Thomson's first graders for games and crafts!


Mrs. Bailey donated large boxes for the children to play with and they LOVED them!  These boxes were the highlight of the day!  The kids enjoyed playing with them so much, they begged me to keep them in the classroom.  We continue to still play with them at the end of many school days.  I love how much joy simple cardboard boxes have brought to the classroom.


Mr. Sam was kind enough to cut out windows and other openings in the boxes.  
We even decided to apply our new learning of pushes and pulls and use the boxes as rides down the hallway ramp!


The kids' creativity also shined through with random paper rolls and other odds and ends I've been collecting.  
 

I think everyone would agree it was such a fun day of learning and playing together!  It was great to get to play with other classes.

It's amazing that play helps with brain development, increases children's imaginations, develops their self-control, problem solving, and critical thinking skills in the areas of math and science as well as enhances self-esteem and language skills.  My goal is to encourage more unstructured play here at school.  I hope you will consider doing the same at home.



100 days of learning, 100 days of fun

The students and I can't believe we have been learning and growing together for 100 days already!  It is crazy how quick the year is flying by! We enjoyed celebrating this special day together!
The students were proud to share their family 100th Day projects with their classmates.

We started off the day with special 100th Day morning work.


During Daily 5, children had 100th Day literacy and math activity choices.  Some students practiced counting by tens to 100 and ordering those numbers correctly.  Others chose to go on a word hunt and write 100 words they spotted around the room.  A few kids even wrote numbers 1-100.


During writing, children had to reflect on what they are able to do now that they weren't able to do 100 days ago.


After library, I had a special activity I was excited to try out with the class.   I got this amazing freebie from Brooke Brown's blog Teach Outside the Box.  The kids LOVED the 100th Day STEM bins!  They had to use teamwork like real engineers to creatively construct masterpieces that each contained 100 pieces of that station's material.  


As a Kindergarten team, we had a goal to collect 100 cans for our town's food pantry, which we exceeded, thanks to our amazing Middleton families!


I am looking forward to seeing the children's love for learning continue and their reading, writing, and math skills soar over the next 72 days!