Days in the Sunshine

This year we filled our walls with beautiful writing, art, and knowledge. Walking into our classroom in May, you would have seen all of the projects the Whales dedicated so much hard work to over the school year. This week, teachers have started taking things down to file away for the Whales to take home on the last week of school. Everyone has been feeling the mix of emotions that comes with closing one door and opening another. The Whales have been feeling a sense of sadness about ending kindergarten but they have all been talking about the excitement they have for 1st grade. The Whales know that they are always welcome in the Whales classroom to say hello, to get a hug, or to be helpers to future Whales. They will always and forever be Whales in our hearts.

The last couple of weeks we have had the opportunity to do so many fun and different things. The Whales ran their hearts out at the Annual ELC Fun Run! They cheered each other on and were so proud of their hard work. Last week, we had Ms. Juliane a vet tech at an Eye Animal Doctor come in and talk about what different animals can see. She brought in a 3 month old puppy that has an eyeball that is too small. The Whales loved hearing about what a vet tech does to help animals in our community. This week Mr. Logan a safety manager at Portland Speciality Bakery came in. He taught us about what food safety is and how important it is to make sure that food in grocery stores is safe for people to eat. He also talked to us about the steps to creating a new product and recipe. The Whales learned that the first recipe is not always perfect and it has to be reviewed and improved upon. He showed us what the 1st sample, 3rd sample, and finally 8th sample of S’mores Muffins looks like. These muffins are coming to stores like Winco and Fred Meyer. The Whales were very excited to taste a top secret recipe. They wrote about what they thought about the muffins. Mr. Logan also taught us the science of making ice cream and how and why the milk changes from a liquid to a solid state.

Today we had our last Friday Summit of the year. We celebrated our 4th graders graduating and said a big thank you to Mr. Mark who is retiring. The Whales were able to have one last snack picnic with their family buddies. We caught up on what each classroom has been up to and shared about our summer plans. The weather was perfect!

As the year is coming to an end, we are so incredibly proud of the strong individuals that the Whales have turned into. They are strong readers, writers, scientists, mathematicians, and friends. They show kindness to others and bring excitement for learning with them everywhere they go. We are so excited to hear about how their 1st grade adventures go. The Whales are going to continue to do great things!

The Whales arrived to school and were eager to get on the big yellow school bus. We hopped on with enthusiasm and that excitement stuck with us the entirety of our adventure. The Whales walked around to different stations with their group. They did a layers of the wetlands chalk art project with Ms. Aimee. They looked at near and far distances and what that might look like in landscape art. Check out their landscape art hanging in the classroom. While at the art station they also got to see a goose egg that was left behind in the grass. They visited Ms. Stacey, and looked through scopes to see different birds at the Wetlands. They saw a Scrub Jay, Cinnamon Teal, Killdeer, Canada Geese, Cackling Geese, and even an Anna’s Hummingbird! WOW! They used the Merlin Bird ID app on iPads to explore through sounds what birds were around them. We heard Red-Winged Blackbirds, Song Sparrows, Geese, American Crows, American Robins, Black Capped Chickadees, and so so much more! They even had time to explore the Wetlands freely with their group. Some groups chose to get close to the water and look for newts, and other water animals. Other groups walked around the entire wetlands and saw a Great Blue Heron. The Whales saw, heard, and explored so much! We couldn’t have asked for a better trip! A huge thank you to all of our parent volunteers for leading groups around and taking some great photos! We appreciate you all so so so much!

Baseball and Birds

The Whales have had a busy couple of weeks researching birds and getting ready for Celebration of Learning. The Whales are Ornithologists! They have each researched a Pacific Northwest Bird. For this project they read facts about their bird and had to find answers to questions. They researched about habitats, diets, beaks, feet, nests, and eggs. They talked in their research about why their birds beak and feet are special (helps it eat certain food, and stand in certain spaces/get food). They spent two weeks working on a scientific illustration of their bird. They had a picture of their bird to look at. When we were illustrating we were looking at the different shapes we saw in our birds to help us with our illustrations. The Whales used artists coloring pencils, water color, and tempra paints to color their illustrations. They are truly stunning. This week the Whales worked on creating riddles of their birds. The riddles will be up at Fernhill Wetlands for the field trip and the following weekend for community members to look at. The Whales spent a lot of time and worked extremely hard on this project. They are so excited for their field trip next week!

Last week the Whales took a trip to watch Pacific University’s baseball team play in the playoffs. We got to the stadium early and found seats. The Whales received rally towels and beads to wave around during the game. The Whales watched the baseball players practice and got to watch Pacific hit a home run! GO BOXERS!!! Our little Boxers had an amazing time supporting the big Boxers.

In numeracy this week, the Whales have been working on 2D and 3D shapes. They have been playing a shape game with more complex 2D shapes such as pentagon, hexagon, trapezoid, and octagon. We have also started looking at 3D shapes. So far we have looked at spheres, cylinders, and pyramids. The Whales have been having fun looking around our classroom for 3D shapes.

In literacy, the Whales have been learning about “sneaky e”. The sneaky e is found at the end of words, and will change the vowel to say its own name (long sound). We practiced spelling and reading words such as; time, name, made, line, and slate. The Whales are doing such a fantastic job applying this new rule during their reading and writing. All of the Whales have grown so much throughout the year and will continue to grow with the remainder of time we have left together.

Thank you for all coming to the Celebration of Learning! It was so joyful to see the Whales share all of their hard work from this year!

Birds and Face Paint Party

The Whales are ornithologists! They are deep in their bird study. They have learned about different types of feathers. One type is the down feather. Down feathers are used to keep a bird warm. The other type is contour feathers. Contour feathers help a bird fly. We looked at the differences between contour and down feathers. We noticed that contour feathers are heavier and can push more air. Down feathers are lighter. We learned that feathers not only help birds fly but can also help attract other birds, can create shadow to help catch fish, and can be used to help make bird nests. We also explored the different types of beaks, Some different types are straining, spear, nectar eating, seed eating, chisel, and tweezer. Birds have different beaks depending on what their diet is. We looked at how boy birds attract girls birds. They use their bright colors and dance moves. The Whales practiced dancing like a bird.

In numeracy, the Whales are studying 2D shapes. This week we looked at squares, rectangle, triangle, oval, diamond/rhombus and circle. We made these different shapes with wiki sticks. Next week, we will be looking at more complex 2D shapes, and 3D shapes. We also have been continuing our work on story problems. In literacy, we learned new consonant digraphs. We learned /wh/, and /ph/. We practiced spelling and reading words with these consonant digraphs.

On Friday, the Whales celebrated being able to read independently for 20 minutes. To celebrate the Whales had a face paint party!! Ms. Aimee and Ms. Abby set up a face paint station. All of the Whales got to pick out a face paint design. They were so excited that they went and showed Ms. Ren. We love our FACE PAINT!!

Composting and Sunshine!

The Whales had such an enjoyable week in the sunshine!! We had many picnics outside, and took our reading and writing outside! So much fun to write in the sunshine! The Whales have been working so hard on publishing and our author bin is getting so full.

This week we continued our work on Changemakers. We talked about Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Martin Luther King Jr., and Kate Sessions. We learned about Climate change and the effect human activity has on our Earth. We talked about different ways we can make change in our classroom (turning lights off when we aren’t using them, not wasting water). Most importantly we talked about composting as a way to make a change in our school community. We collected compost bins for each of the ELC classrooms, and we became experts on what you can and can not compost at the University. We are Compost Captains! We made posters that we will present next week to all of the other classes. We will be working on educating our school on the importance of composting. At the end of each week, the Whales will be collecting the compost from each classroom and dropping it off at the University compost center. We are so excited to be leaders in our community and Stewards of the Earth.

On Friday, we took a trip to the library. We love seeing the kind librarians who welcome us into that community space with open arms. The Whales did a lovely job sharing the space with other community members. The librarians told the Whales “You are welcome anytime!”. When we got back to the classroom the Whales had sharing. There were some incredible sharings. Some friends shared items that have sweet memories attached to them. One Whale showed us pictures of a “ghost forest” at Pacific City. Where the tree stumps are 2,000 years old. We even had a Whale share pictures of his compost bin at home! We love seeing the Whales share each week. They have grown so much and share so much detail!

Wishing Tree, and Changemakers!

The Whales are weather reporters! If you didn’t get to check out your Whale’s weather report, do not worry! They have all been added to this week’s blog. Please check out the weather reports! The Whales did such an amazing job using their knowledge of clouds, and different weather tools to make an educated prediction about that days weather. We completed our cloud art which is currently hanging in our classroom. We showed cirrus, cumulus, stratus, and nimbus clouds. Our art also shows how high in the sky the different clouds are. The Whales got to celebrate the end of our unit by reading “Thunder Cake”, and making our own Thunder Cake. The secret recipe in the Thunder Cake was pureed tomatoes! The Whales were nervous it would change the taste of the cake. We each took an adventure bite and decided we couldn’t even taste the tomato! We agreed that the tomato made the cake very moist.

The Whales have started talking about Changemakers. Changemakers are people who make the world a better place. We learned that Changemakers notice problems, they think of ideas to solve that problem, and they bring people along with them. One of the most important parts of being a Changemaker is listening to other ideas and never giving up. This week the Whales learned about Rosa Parks, Wangari Maathai, and Louise Braille. We had some important conversations about fairness and every human being having equal rights.

During literacy, the Whales have been working on the floss rule. Words that end with f,l,s,z - that also have a short vowel sound, are spelled with double the end consonant. We practiced spelling words like; buzz, pass, will, and off. During reading, the Whales have been noticing so many floss words in their books! During numeracy, the Whales have been working on story problem math. We are working on identifying the important things in the story problem. We have also been working on how to show a picture of the problem. After we show a picture we add a number sentence. The visual picture and number sentence help us show our thinking out loud and to others.

On Thursday, the Whales got to take a trip to the wishing tree. Pacific University started a wishing tree this week at the Aucoin Patio - located across from the Pacific University library. The Whales each got to write or draw a wish that they have. They tied their wish to the tree and they are hoping their wishes will come true. Some wishes were; “I wish everyone had a house”, “I wish for a unicorn”, “I wish every kid had a book”, “I wish for all of the flowers in the world”, and “I wish for a cat”. Check it out next time you are on campus!

Leprechaun Traps, and Family Math Game Night

This week was jam packed with Leprechaun trap engineering, weather, and math games! The Whales had so much fun on Monday creating Leprechaun traps. They planned out a design prior to engineering. Their designs had to have a place to hold gold, a way for the Leprechaun to get in, something to keep the Leprechaun entertained, and a letter to entice the Leprechaun inside. The Whales all had these elements in their traps, and they still did not catch the LEPRECHAUN! That Leprechaun was mischievous! They left our toilets green, they emptied out our writing caddies and book shelves!! They left foot prints on our tables and floors! We had to clean up the entire mess! Better luck next year Whales!

This week with our unit of study we learned about thermometers, wind, and clouds! We talked about how to measure temperature using a thermometer. We measured our classroom temperature, room temp water, ice water, and hot water. We then recorded our temperatures on paper thermometers. We learned that wind is made from moving air molecules. We did a few different science experiments to test trapping air, feeling strong wind (fast moving air molecules) and slow wind (slow moving air molecules), and we also tested if air has weight. Which we found out it does! But air is not very heavy. We practiced being bossy cool air that pushes warm air up and up. Which causes air molecules to move and in turn creates wind. We learned about how to predict weather by looking at the clouds. Cumulus clouds are big and look fluffy. Cumulus clouds mean that it most likely going to be a nice day! Cirrus clouds are high in the sky and they look wispy. They also mean it will be a nice day! Nimbus clouds are dark and mean storms are on the way. Stratus clouds are like a blanket across the wind that mean rain is on the way! Over spring break go cloud watching with your Whale. What do they see? What kind of weather might you be getting?

Thursday was a day full of math and fun! Thank you everyone for coming to Family Math Game Night. It was such a joy to see the Whales playing with each other and their families! We hope everyone enjoys their goody bags and get to play some new math games over spring break!

Weather and Pi(e) Day

The Whales have been learning all about weather! This week we learned that the sun is what makes our weather on Earth! We listened to a meteorologist talk about how the Earth gets warm from the sun. We learned that the Air does not get heated by the sun directly. The sun’s energy heats up the Earth and then the Earth heats up the air. We also talked about what makes us experience day and night, and the different seasons! We practiced being the Earth and the sun and revolving the Earth around the sun. When our part of Earth is facing the sun we are experiencing day, and when our part of the Earth is facing away from the sun we are experiencing night. The Whales learned that it takes 365 days or 1 year to make a full rotation around the Earth. We also learned that while the Earth spins, it is titled on an axis and this is what makes us experience the seasons. We read a book called, “On the Same Day in March”. We looked at how the different places on the Earth experience the same day depending on their location in relation to the sun! Next week, we will be diving into the water cycle, wind, and clouds!

In Literacy this week, we have been doing review of what our short vowel sounds, before we dive into our long vowel sounds. The Whales are growing as amazing readers! In numeracy, we continue to work on subtraction. During classroom choice, their math must-do this week, was Take Away Connect 4. The Whales ues dice and have to make a take away number sentence with their dice roll. They find that number on their connect 4 sheet, and have to get 4 numbers in a row.

This week in Music with Ms. McKenzie, we practiced some of the songs we will be singing for our grownups next week. We are working on changing dynamics and tempo of music. We have been using cue cards to change the speed and sound of the song. We have also been working on recognizing notes. We have been looking at whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes, and sixteenth notes! The Whales are musicians!

This week the Whales celebrated Pi(e) Day. In kindergarten, we focus this day on the fun of math! We played Take Away 20, talked a little bit about the idea of measuring circles, baked a pie and so much more! We worked together in 2 groups to make 2 pies for our classroom. We talked about measurements and what reading a recipe looks like. We talked about following ingredient measurements in a recipe, and reading the directions. We tasted our pie later in the day, and all agreed it was DELICIOUS!

Tie-Dye and Migration!

The school has been bright with tie-dye shirts, aprons, dresses, and so much more! The Whales had such a fun time learning about tie-dye with Mr. Mark, and creating their own tie-dye designs. A huge thank you to Mr. Mark for putting this activity on every year, and to our volunteers for helping the Whales create such wonderful tie-dye designs. They truly are beautiful!

This week the Whales have been finishing up their unit of study on Migration. We made observations of similarities between our migrating animals. One of the noticings the Whales had was that many of our animals travel from the Tundra, down south to either Mexico or South America. Yesterday, we learned about the Canada Goose. Our presenter taught us that Canada Geese fly in a “V-formation” so that they can balance the amount of energy they are using to fly. In order to understand how tricky it might be to fly in a “v-formation” the Whales went outside and practiced. We realized that it is really tricky to stay in that v-formation, and to not pass the leader. Over the course of our unit, we have talked about why animals migrate. We have also been learning about how animals know it is time to migrate, and how they know exactly where to go. From our nonfiction books, we learned, that some birds know where to go because of the sun and the stars. We also talked about how there is still so much to study and discover about migration. The Whales could become future scientists or ornithologists and discover more about migration! Maybe one day, they will discover how the American Eel and the Chinook Salmon know where their exact birth spot is in the Sargasso Sea and in the Rivers. So COOL!

This week in math, the Whales have been practicing subtraction. They played take away monster math. They are mathematicians! They used number bonds and created number sentences to represent their answer. We have also been playing Take Away 20 against Ms. Abby. The Whales are masters at this game! They have figured out the strategy of giving Ms. Abby the low numbers they roll, and giving themselves the higher numbers so they can get to zero faster. You can play this game at home with a dice! On a piece of paper, create to columns. One for your Whale and one for you. In each column, write 20 -. Use a dice and roll a number. The objective of the game is to get to zero first. The trick is, if you go first, you get to choose whether you want to keep the number or give it to the other person. When the next person rolls, the person without a number has to keep that number. The first to zero wins!

In literacy, the Whales have been working on reading and spelling words with consonant blends. For example, the word “stick”. We learned the heart words “what” and “have”. The Whales are so excited to continue to challenge themselves in reading and writing. There stories in writers workshop are becoming more and more complex! We have been working on goal setting with our writing. The Whales are setting daily goals for themselves on what they want to achieve during our writing time. There have been recent publishings about Rainbow Friends, family trips, summer berries, and much more! Ask your Whale what their latest writers workshop story is about! We started a new chapter book called, “Mr. Popper’s Penguins”. Ask your Whale what has happened so far in the chapter book!

We are so incredibly proud of the hard work we have been seeing from the Whales. They are stretching themselves, and working really really hard. It is amazing to see how much they are growing in academics and just as human beings!

The Fancy 100 Heart Celebration!

The Whales classroom was buzzing this week with excitement about the 100 Day of School and Friendship Day. In preparation for the 100th day of school, the Whales worked together to cut out 100 hearts. We organized the hearts into ten groups of ten. We hung them up and have been using them to practice counting to 100. We noticed that it is quicker to count to 100 by 10’s rather than 1’s. The Whales have also been creating self-portraits of what they would look like when they are 100 years old. They will finish up the 100 year old self-portraits next week. Look forward to seeing some spectacular 100 year old Whales!!

On Wednesday, the Whales arrived in their most fancy attire. We saw bow ties, sparkly dresses, fancy jerseys, button up shirts, cowboy boots, princess dresses, and so so so much more! The Whales definitely were dressed to impress. In the morning, we decorated some 100 heart crowns, created desk buddies, completed addition mystery coloring, and engineered with 100 cups. At calendar time it was finally time to add our 100th day to our countdown to one hundred. We packed up all ten of our ten sticks and moved them into a 100 plate. Instead of doing the ten stick cha-cha, we did a 100 day march. We marched through the ELC, up the Berglund stairs, and all the way to the tip top of the building. When we got to the top, we were able to look down upon our Cedar Classroom and Piazza. What a view!!! We then counted to 100 AGAIN on our way back to our classroom. Along our route we stopped at the Sea Lion classroom. We wished the Sea Lions a happy 100 day! We love showing the 3rd and 4th graders all of the amazing learning we are doing in Kindergarten! The Sea Lions are the best supporters of our Whales.

The fun did not stop there! Now we were on to celebrating friendship! We sat in a large circle. We passed out our friendship cards one at a time. This was so we could individually say thank you to all of our friends. We wanted to make sure that our friends knew we are thankful for them. The Whales did an amazing job appreciating their friends. It is so special to see the friendships (new and old) that have formed and deepened over this year. After we passed out our friendship cards we enjoyed some strawberry cookies together. YUM!! The Whales are still talking about how much fun they had on our celebration day.

This week the Whales have started presenting about their migrating animals. So far we have learned about the American Eel, the Arctic Tundra, and the Bar Tailed Godwit. Thanks to Everett, Joella, and Landon we have learned so much already! We have been mapping their migration paths on the SMART board. We have noticed that many of our migrating animals start in the Arctic Tundra (PARTY IN THE TUNDRA!) in the North, and migrate in the cooler months to the South (Mexico, Hawaii, etc.). The Whales will continue to look at maps and talk about shorter and longer distances. We are so excited to hear more presentations. The Whales are amazing scientists.

Catching Snow Flakes

What crazy weather we have had this week! Some snow, some rain, and some sunshine. The Whales were ecstatic this week when it started to snow at school and they could run outside and try to catch some snowflakes. The Whales were trying to make snow angels (very wet snow angels) and were attempting to make very teeny-tiny snow balls. It was delightful to watch the smiles and to hear the laughter that the little bit of snow brought us.

This week the Whales have been working on stretching themselves and expanding their friendships. They were challenged to sit by new friends at lunch and to get to know them a little bit. Turns out, we have so much in common with our classmates! The Whales were talking about their favorite foods, ice-cream flavors, colors, and so much more! While outside, we worked on playing with new friends and taking turns with what we are playing. We talked about kindness. We defined kindness as; being nice and helpful to others no matter our differences. We talked about what that looks like, sounds like, and feels like. We noticed that kindness looks like people working together, playing together, and checking in on their friends. We talked about how we feel happy, loved, excited, and safe when we are kind and when others are kind to us. We also expressed that it is easier to learn when we are surrounded by kind people. We noticed that kindness sounds like; saying please and thank you, asking friends to play or read with us, and checking in on friends. Ask your Whale what new friends they have made this week!

On Friday, the Whales were so excited to start a new addition to Friday Summit. We have now added Buddy Families! All of the ELC students have been split into groups with one ELC teacher. Each group is labeled by a color. In each group their are Dolphins, Seals, Whales, Otters, Sea Lions, and a teacher. The Sea Lions are the leaders of our groups. Today, they led us in a drum roll name game for us to get to know our buddies a bit better. We will meet with our Buddy Families every Friday at the end of Friday Summit. Talk to your Whale about the games they played and the people in their group! We are so excited to get to know other students in our school and to feel connected through the different classrooms.

Hibernation Presentations

Throughout this week, the Whales worked on all things hibernation. They finished up their hibernation sites, and they practiced their presentations. Leading up to Friday, many Whales were feeling “nervited” (nervous and excited). We talked about our feelings and reassured ourselves that it is okay to have big feelings about doing something new and something in front of an audience. We talked about ways we can prepare our bodies for a serious presentation. We noted that eating healthy food like vegetables, drinking lots of water, and getting extra sleep helps us prepare for a presentation.

A huge Whale round of applause for the Whales and their amazing work on their hibernation research and presentations! In the morning of Friday, the Whales presented for the Seals and Dolphins. This was a great opportunity for the Whales to be leaders and teachers to our younger ELC students. The Seals and Dolphins were captivated and learned many new facts about hibernating animals. The Seal and Dolphin teachers shared with the Whales after the presentation how proud they were of them. It is so extraordinary to have a community that gets to share knowledge with one another. The Whales shared with each other how they felt after their presentations. They expressed; “I feel proud”, “That was so much fun!”, “I am a teacher!”, “Do we get to do that again?”. Later in the afternoon, the Whales got ready to present for a second round in front of their families. We were so excited to see siblings in the audience! We are so incredibly proud of them for being so brave and presenting in front of a large audience of grownups. They taught us some amazing facts about hibernating animals. Who knew that Snakes smell with their tongue. SO INTERESTING!

Being a Whale is such a treasure. During the week, there was a Whale friend who had an interesting wondering about the inside of a stem that he found in the Piazza. The Whale noticed that it felt soft and looked almost like styrofoam. We came up with some ideas about what we thought it might be and then we connected with Mr. Mark. Mr. Mark was able to do some investigating and came in during lunch to chat with the Whales about his findings. Mr. Mark talked about what scientists do when they have a wondering. They make hypothesis’s and they collect data. Mr. Mark’s hypothesis was that it came from a Milkweed plant. Upon collecting data from a Milkweed plant, he noticed that it was different. So he went to the sunflower’s out in the Piazza and noticed that they indeed had the same thing. His thoughts were that the inside “foam” was what helped the plant collect nutrients from the ground. The Whales told Mr. Mark that they will research some more and look in the sunflower books to see if they could find more information. A big shoutout to Mr. Mark for coming in and helping us solve our wondering!

Hibernation Site Engineering and Cozy Hibernation Party,

At Friday Summit today, the Whales listened to the Sea Lions sing a beautiful song about Change-makers. The Whales talked about spreading kindness and being leaders to our younger ELC friends. Friday Summit felt like such a great reminder of all the amazing work that every single classroom here at the ELC is doing. The Whales love coming together and celebrating with the entire school.

This week the Whales were hard at work engineering hibernation sites for their pacific northwest hibernating animals. The Oregon Black Bear group worked on painting a Den. The Little Brown Bat group worked on painting a cave and making many Brown Bats to hang inside. The Northwest Painted Turtles started making their Carapaces (top shell) and Plastrons (bottom shell). The Common Garter Snakes started to create Garter Snakes for their hibernaculum. Take a look at the photos below to see them working on their hibernation sites.

This week in literacy the Whales worked on the /h/ and /r/ sound. We practiced spelling and reading words with those sounds in them. We have also started reading words that have consonant blends such as skip, mist, and sink. We learned a few new heart words this week. We learned be, he, and me. During our reading group time, the Whales read a book called “The Animals are Sleeping”. They loved seeing their hibernating animals in a story. Read this fun story at home with your Whales! During literacy, we have been talking to the Whales about using the tools they have in their tool box when they are writing and reading. Instead of taking guesses, they can use the sounds they know to blend letter sounds and read words. They can use their bed hands to help them determine if they are reading a b or a d. They have so many tools and so much knowledge that we continue to encourage the Whales to not take random guesses. When working with your Whale on their homework tell them to use their prefrontal cortex and the tools in their tool boxes. Encourage them to not just guess but to do the tricky hard work. The Whales have talked a lot this week about stretching our prefrontal cortexes.

During numeracy, the Whales are working on recognizing teen numbers and understanding the place value associated with them. We talked about how many of the teen numbers give us a clue as to what number comes after the one. For instance, in the number nineteen, we can hear nine. That gives us the clue that nineteen is a 1 and a 9. We know that their is 1 ten stick and 9 little ones in 19. Have your Whales practice writing their teen numbers at home. Give them a teen number and ask them to figure out how to write it making sure the one comes first. Then ask them how many ten sticks and little ones are in that number.

On Friday, the Whales had a surprise Cozy Hibernation party. We enjoyed hot cocoa, and some popcorn to celebrate all of their hard work. They have really become experts at hibernating animals. They expressed during the celebration that they are excited to be teachers for the preschoolers next week and some expressed that they are feeling “nervited”. Nervous and excited. As a class we looked at our scientific illustrations and the Whales said they worked so hard on their illustrations. They talked to each other about how their animals look similar but everyone’s have differences. They loved seeing their hard work on the wall. Next time you are in the Whales classroom, please check out their hibernating animal artwork. It is truly astounding. You can also look below for a picture of their amazing artwork.

Research Papers, Scientific Illustrations, and Library Trips

The Whales have been putting their scientist hats on during their hibernation study. They have worked as groups to read non-fiction research about their hibernating animals. They have talked about the main facts and they each were in charge of writing two facts for their research papers. They also created illustrations that went along with their facts to help them remember their facts. They have been teaching each other about their animals. It has been so fun to see them sharing their knowledge with one another. They have talked about the similarities of their animals and differences. We have noticed that many animals slow their breathing down for hibernation and their heart beats slow as well. However, some animals go into true hibernation like Northwest Painted Turtles, while, other animals like the Oregon Black Bear go into Torpor.

Each Whale has spent time this week working on a scientific illustration of their hibernating animals. We talked about noticing small details when illustrating like a scientist. Their illustrations are to help others see what their animals look like in real life. They are now working on adding color to their illustrations using different art mediums. The Whales are practicing using an artist hand which is soft and helps us stay in the lines of our illustrations. The Whales are feeling extremely proud of their illustrations and have been talking about the hard work they have to put into their illustrations. They can’t wait for them to be finished and hung up!

On Friday, the Whales took their first trip to the Forest Grove library. We had a community discussion about library etiquette. The Whales did a great job being respectful of other community members in the library. They made sure to put the books they weren’t going to take and put them back where they belong. We talked about the importance of a library and the jobs of librarians. Each Whale got to pick out a book to add to our classroom library. We will hold on to these books for 2 weeks and then we will go back to the library and return them. We will be taking library trips every other Friday. The Whales are so excited to return to the library soon!

Animals in Winter

The Whales are back in action after a restful Winter Break. In a community discussion, on Tuesday, the Whales were eager to share about the memories they made during break. Some Whales traveled to see family, some went to the Mt. and played in the snow, while others stayed cozy and warm at home. It was so fun to see their smiles as they talked about their adventures.

On Tuesday, we started a new unit of study on Animals in Winter. First up, is hibernation! The Whales selected a Pacific Northwest animal to research over the next couple of weeks. They will be writing a research paper, doing a scientific illustration, engineering their animals hibernation site, and presenting to classrooms and families on their animals. This week we began reading about our animals and writing our research papers. We will continue to work on their papers next week as well. The Whales are proving to be amazing scientists. They are asking great questions and are deeply focused on their animals.

As we get closer to the 100th day of school, the Whales continue to practice counting to 100 by 1’s and groups of 10’s. This week we did a counting by 10 counting circle. We continue to talk about place value. While doing calendar, we identify how many ten sticks and little ones make up our day number. Thursday we had the 76th day of school. The Whales identified that we have 7 ten sticks and 6 little ones. We counted by tens and added on our little ones. During classroom choice, the Whales have been playing Bear Den Math. They start with ten bears. One person closes their eyes, while the other Whale hides some of the bears in the den. The person opens their eyes and has to figure out how many bears went in the den. They then have to write that number sentence on their worksheet. At the beginning of the week, the Whales thought it was a bit tricky. By Thursday, they were pros at figuring out how many bears were in the den!

In literacy, the Whales have been practicing their vowels! The Whales are learning the short and long vowel sounds. We have unlocked 5 vowel sounds in our vowel valley. The Whales are so proud of themselves! We have also been practicing reading and writing words with an -s ending. Sometimes these words can be tricky but the Whales have been doing a fabulous job listening for all the letter sounds in these words. Our heart word list continues to grow! This week we added the word “see”.

What a fun Friday the Whales had! We had a math morning playing Uno, checkers, math number coloring, addition yahtzee, and shut the box with Ms. Brooke! At Friday Summit, Landon shared with the school that the Whales are studying animals that hibernate in the Winter. It was so fun to hear what all of the classrooms are up to! During our outside time, we had an extra surprise! The Sea Lions (3rd/4th graders), set up an obstacle course for the Whales! The Whales had such a good time letting out energy doing different outside activities. When the Whales came in we talked about our thoughts about their outside time. So many Whales said “I made a new friend!”. They absolutely loved getting to know the 3rd and 4th graders.

The Tea Party in the Woods Continued

Here are some additional photos of the Whales during their dress rehearsal and performances in December!

The Tea Party in the Woods

Happy Friday everyone! The Whales did an outstanding job in their performance of The Tea Party in the Woods. Please check out the recorded video that Mr. Mark took. Ms. Aimee and Ms. Abby are just so proud of the Whales for their hard work on their lines, backdrops, and props. We hope this video adds some more joy into each of your winter breaks!

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Authors Celebration and Winter Read - In

The Whales have been a busy bunch the last two weeks. The excitement continues to grow as we get closer to our play performances and winter break. This week the Whales had some visitors amongst our classroom. After reading a book called, “The Tomten”, the Whales had their very own Tomtens visit the classroom. On their first visit, they left a riddle for each of the Whales and left behind some of their beard fluff! The Whales created a list of questions and thoughts they had for the Tomtens. For those of you who don’t know, Tomtens are a Swedish folklore tale. They are said to be a gnome/elf like person that lives on farms and works to help animals in the winter. They are shy and can be mischievous. The next time they visited us they gifted the Whales homemade wool felted acorn necklaces. The Whales were so excited and took a picture holding up their necklaces. This last time they visited they answered our wonderings that we had listed in our classroom! WOW! Check out their answers hanging in the Whales classroom. The Whales have yet to actually see the Tomtens and it remains a mystery as to where exactly our Tomtens live.

We are only 4 days to the performance of our Winter Play. The Whales have been working so extremely hard on their backdrop designs and props. They worked with teachers to figure out what each part of our set should look like based on the illustrations in the book. They painted the backdrops and had to work together as a team to complete the job. The backdrops are looking amazing and the Whales are feeling so proud of their hard work. The Whales are feeling confident with their lines and are using their strong voices to make sure an audience can hear them. Look forward to receiving your ticket for the play this week!

Thank you all for coming to the Whales Authors Celebration and Winter Read-In. What a night of laughter, joy, pride, and love. The Whales out did themselves during their performance of Peace like a River. It is such a magical feeling to see the Whales create bonds with their classmates and memories that they will remember always. Thank you to all of the Whale families who support the Whales classroom and students every day. They are such kind, hard-working, and loving human beings. On Friday, the Whales each spoke of their favorite part of the celebration. Some favorites of the evening included; “drinking hot cocoa and eating popcorn”, “reading my stories”, “spending time with my family”, “coming to school at night”, and “wearing pajamas to school”. Thank you everyone for making it a special and magical night for the Whales!!

Busy Writers, Musicians, and Mathematicians

The Whales having been getting so excited to prepare for their Whale Winter play. They decided to do the play on the book The Tea Party in the Woods by Akiko Miyakoshi. The Whales picked their parts and they are all very excited to practice their lines. Each of them got a script and their homework is the practice they lines over the weekend. So far the Whales have practiced a few times in class saying their lines. We have been talking about how to perform in front of an audience and what it will look like backstage when you are not performing. Next week the Whales will start working on creating their costumes and making the back drops for their play. They are so excited to perform for the ELC and for their families.

This week we had our last music session with Ms. McKenzie until the Spring. The Whales so enjoyed their time with Ms. McKenzie. On Wednesday, they were telling Ms. McKenzie their favorite parts of music. Many Whales like singing Firefly Firefly, others liked singing about different holidays. They worked so hard the last 8 weeks and they were so proud to perform for families at pick-up.

The Whales have been practicing addition and will soon be working on subtraction. This week, we played rainbow to 10 addition BINGO. We would give them an addition problem and they would have to solve it to figure out what number they can cross off. Many Whales were being so kind and helping friends around them if they asked for help. The Whales are huge supporters of one another and teachers throughout our day. We also practiced counting by tens and adding little ones. We have been doing this during our classroom choice activity of speedy bugs love to race to 50, as well as during calendar time. Can you believe we have had 60 days of school! WOW! The Whales counted, and figured out that we have 40 more school days until the 100th day of school.

Writers workshop has been very busy! The Whales are working incredibly hard getting their stories published. The Whales are writing their own sentences now! It is so exciting to hear them sounding out their words and creating fun and magical stories. The Whales are so excited to share their stories with their families during our Authors Celebration/Winter Read-In. The Whales are spelling phonetically in their stories. They are listening to the sounds they hear to help them decipher how to spell their words. This week we learned a new rule. When we hear the /k/ sound at the end of the word it is most often spelled with a CK. For example; duck, luck, pack, snack, chick, etc. We are seeing progress and growth every day in their writing!

This group of Whales are creative, loving, inquisitive, and hard-working. They are stretching them selfs and not giving up when things get hard. Walking into the Whales classroom, you can feel a community that learns together, plays together, and works together. What amazing students, human-beings, and friends they are.

Stone Soup Feast!

The Whales had a very exciting week leading up to Stone Soup Day. The Whales have been having a fantastic week in their reading group. They have gotten new books, practiced choral reading, and have been working on independent reading. They have new books in their book bags and they are doing an AMAZING job sounding out words and rereading when they got stuck on words. During classroom choice, the Whales have been practicing making sentences and reading their sentences to a teacher. We have been checking to make sure our sentences make sense and that we are reading it how the punctuation tells us to read the sentence.

The Whales have been really enjoying their music sessions with Ms. McKenzie. They are learning words like forte, piano, and legato. They are learning the beginning of reading music notes. This week in music, the Whales drew on a banner the things that they are grateful for in their life. Check out their banner art hanging above their cubbies.

Bring what you’ve got, throw it in the pot, we’re making stone soup!!! The Whales worked as a community to chop all of the veggies that went into our stone soup, as well as fruit and cheese! It was a tough job but they got it done! Ms. Shelby added our ingredients into the big pot. While the soup cooked, the Whales gathered into a gratitude circle. We went around the circle and each shared some things that we are grateful for. Many Whales shared they are grateful for their family, pets, and school. Later in the day we got together with all of the other classrooms to hear Mr. Mark read Stone Soup. After listening to Stone Soup, we walked to the atelier and ate with all of our ELC friends. The whole school smelled amazing and the Whales all took an adventure bite of the soup. A huge shoutout to our parent volunteers, Ms. Ren, and our head chef Ms. Shelby. Stone Soup would not happen without them! Ask your Whale what their favorite part of stone soup was!