Music With Drums

Today was such an exciting day in music for the children.  Mr. Cook taught them how to care for and use the big drums.  I walked down to the music room early to take a couple of photos of the class.  Oh, and did I pick a great time to go!!!!  they were all using the big drums.  And when I walked into the room, everyone was righton the beat!!

Take a look at how engaged the children were in the class.  This is all due to the wonderful Mr. Cook.  He is a wonderful musician and a fabulous teacher.  No wonder the children love him so.

The Little House, One of My All Time Favorite Books

The book, THE LITTLE HOUSE written and illustrated by Virginia Lee Burton is one of my all time favorites.  It is also a Caldecot awarded book!

This book is one of the sweetest stories and has so many wonderful lessons in it.   After reading and discussing the story each child was given a sheet of paper to do draw and color a picture of either a city scene or country scene.  After the scene was complete "The Little House".  Next, each child dictated to me what "The Little House" saw in the book.  And I wrote that on the road at the bottom of the paper.  These are displayed on one of our bulliten boards in the hall.  If you get a chance, come by and see our "Little House Stories".  

All About Dogs

The first couple of weeks of school we talked about our pets.  The children were invited to bring photos of their pets to class to be displayed in our classroom this year.  I just love to give the children opportunities to have ownership of what we are studying in school.

We also did a "Follow" the Directions " activity during our pet unit.  Using the document camera and the Promethean Board, I would draw something and then the children would copy it.

 I did not tell them what we were drawing.  I wanted them to discover what it was during the process.  And the finished project was a dog!

  Each child told me something about dogs.  I typed it and attached it to their drawings.

 These are displayed on one of our bulliten boards in the hall along with a great poster from The American Kennel Club.  It is such an adorable display of dogs.  Drop by and see them when you are at school.

Dr. Richardson, Visits Our Class

Dr. Richardson came by our class this week for a visit with the children.  This is always such a treat for the children.  He talks to the children and teaches a science lesson.  but the most important thing about his lesson is that it is tied into THE GOLDEN RULE.

This year Dr. Richardson talked to the children about energy and electricity.  He used an "energy ball" to dimiinstrate the lesson.  It was so much fun because ALL the children got to participate in the "experiement".

I do believe this was the highlight of our week!!   Oh, and by the way, Dr. Richardson said you can purchase an Energy Ball just like his at Amazon for around $8.00.  You can then have some scientific fun at home! 

A Great Second Week

We have been in school 12 days, and oh how great they have been.  The chikdren are beginning to get to know each other and develop friendships.  It is so fun to watch how they socialize with each other and how the different personalities play  out.

Writing in journals is a quiet time in our class.  To help stay on task, and do good writing, the children work in their offices.  The officies not only provide a quiet place to work, but they also provide the children with many good writing tools.

The children enjoyed the large floor puzzles about pets.  It is always fun to watch their recation to completeing a large puzzle.  They want eveyone to "come and see".  Success is so much fun!

Oh, and did you notice our new rug?  It was delivered this week and we are soooooo glad to have it. 

And who doesn't like the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom  written by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambalt, with adorable illustrations by Lois Elhert.

There are so many lessons in this book.  A lot of people think of this book as an "alphabet book", which it is.  But oh, it is so much more.  There are science lessons involving living and  non living things, weight, climate, and the effects of a full moon.  There are great character and life lessons involving taking care of others and showing love and respect.  And there are math lessons about shapes, sizes, and counting, among a few.    We made our own trees after reading the book.  Take a look at what we did.

To help the children with their writing, I wrote their names in pencil and asked them to trace over the pencil lines with their choice of markers.  But I asked them to write the numbers by themselves. It was such a fun activity.  

Our First Graph

We did our very first graph today.  We used this poster of cats to retrieve our information.

Because this was our first we did the activity as a whole class. It was a very good listen and follow direction activity.

here is a close up of the finished graph.

Calico Cats

Today we read the book Counting on Calico.

this is a wonderful counting book from 1-20. It is  about the characteristics  of cats.  One of the most interesting things we learned is that all calico cats are female.  We also learned that the word calico is the name of a fabric made in Calico India.  The fabric has many tiny flowers on it and come s in many colors.  After reading and discussing the book, we made these beautiful calico cats.