Change-makers, Earth Stewards, and Poets

The Whales returned from Spring Break and got right back to work. We continued on our study of Change-makers. The Whales have been learning about different people who have made big changes to help the Earth and to Protect the water. This week the Whales started thinking about ways that we could help the Earth. We learned about composting and about how composting can limit our waste. Composting helps foods decompose faster and allows us to use the nutrients from our food waste to make nutrient rich soil. The Whales created composting posters that show what you can and can’t compost here at the University. Next week, the Whales will be going into each of the ELC classrooms with their posters to teach other students about composting in their classrooms and what composting is. The Whales are really excited to be Change-makers as they lead this project!

In honor of our Change-makers unit focusing on ways people have made change to help the Earth the Whales created a cooperative art piece. They worked together to paint a giant Earth. We were sad to take down our sunflowers but we are excited to have Earth focused art up for upcoming Earth Day. The Whales also each made their own Earth and placed their handprint on the inside. They each answered the question: How can we help the Earth? The Whales are indeed following their pledge of being Stewards of the Earth and Protectors of the water.

The Whales are all starting to learn about long vowel sounds. We have specifically worked on the long A and long I sound. We have talked about when we see an e at the end of the word, many times it changes the vowel to say its own name. Some example words are; hide, side, lame, face, etc. We have been practicing using this rule during our writers workshop time.

The Whales are poets! We have started our study on Poetry and wow, wow, wow!! The poems that are being creative are loving, fun, silly, rhyming, and so much more! I am so excited to continue this study. We learned about noticing small details in our poems. The Whales wrote poems about items and focused on using their sense to notice details about their object. Objects included pinecones, pencils, glue sticks, wheat, and rocks. We also learned about rhyme schemes and the different patterns that some poets use to rhyme in their poems. Last but not least, we learned about descriptive poems. The Whales got together with their Sea Lion buddies. They worked with the Sea Lions to write a descriptive poem about Ms. Abby. Then they were set off with their buddies to write a descriptive poem about their buddies. Next week the Whales will finish their descriptive poems about their buddy and exchange poems. The Whales love their Sea Lion buddies.

Get ready for lots of birthdays! The Whales will be celebrating 5 birthdays this month. They celebrated the first birthday today. We absolutely love celebrating each other. It brings a smile to everyones face.