Salt Through The Sieve

What a fantastic 4th week of school the Whales had! We explored apples at the nature table, worked on our letter sounds, played Whale Guess Who, had our very first Mystery Reader, and much much more!

This week the Whales started their first full lesson of UFLI. UFLI is our phonics curriculum that teaches the Whales foundational reading skills. We work on phoneme blending, grapheme-phoneme correspondence, decoding, encoding, and more! This week we worked with the short vowel a sound. We practiced blending letter sounds to make a word such as cat, and map. We practiced our letter formation of both uppercase and lowercase A. The Whales did a great job taking care of their learning tools, and materials. They showed so much kindness!

At the numeracy must-do table, the Whales balanced apples (bean bags) on their heads and tested how many steps or jumps they could do without the apples falling over. Some friends got up to 22 steps with 3 apples on top of their head! WOW! The Whales had to write the numbers of how many apples they balanced, and how many steps + jumps they took. In numeracy, the Whales are also working on counting on. Starting with a big ten stick, and adding on little ones. They are doing a great job supporting each other and challenging themselves!

The Whales started their apple unit of study. They spent the week exploring and investigating apples and apple branches at the nature table. They noticed that the apples were different colors and different sizes. We learned that apple trees blossom in the spring. When the blossom starts to die, the apple starts to grow. We looked at our apples and noticed that we can still see part of the blossom at the bottom of the apples. When you’re at the store notice the apples with your Whale! See if they can find the blossom on the bottom of the apple! We also learned that apples have seed chambers located inside the apples. This holds the seeds and keeps them safe! Next week we will be opening up apples and investigating the insides!

We have started to play Whale Guess Who! Whale Guess Who is a game where the Whales listen to clues about a friend in their classroom. They have to guess who they think it might be based on the clues. The Whales really know each other because they have been able to guess it every time! After they guess who it is, we count the syllables in that friends name. We make rhymes with that name. And the Guess Who contestant has to put their name back together after being split apart!

This week the Whales learned about a saying we use in our classroom, “salt through the sieve”. Ms. Abby showed the Whales a sieve and we talked about what it is. We imaged that the Sieve is us or our brain. Ms. Abby named something that happened in her day that was good and made her happy. That was a chocolate chip and Ms. Abby added it to the sieve. The Whales noticed that the chocolate chip couldn’t fall through and we talked about how Ms. Abby wants to hold on to the sweet chocolate chips that happen in her day. Then Ms. Abby talked about something in her day that was a little salty and made Ms. Abby not very happy. That is the salt. Ms. Abby added salt to the sieve. The Whales noticed that the salt goes through the sieve and doesn’t even ruin the chocolate chips! The salt are things that Ms. Abby doesn’t want to hold on to and she just lets it go. She doesn’t let the salt ruin her day. The Whales went around the room and said something good that happened in their day and added a chocolate chip to the sieve. We talked about how holding on to the good things can help us feel happier and helps us learn more. The Whales thought that the salty things that happen to us we don’t want to hold on to because they don’t help us be happy and we can just let those things go. We can say “salt through the sieve”. When you are around your Whale and something salty happens like they spill something or their wood tower falls, we can say “salt through the sieve”. That means we can just let it go and think about the chocolate chips in our day!

The Whales had their first Mystery Reader on Friday! Ms. Courtney read “Violet the Pilot” and the Whales absolutely loved it! A huge shout out to Ms. Courtney for coming in to the Whales classroom and sharing a story with us!

Van Gogh's Sunflowers, Published Authors, and Our First Friday Summit!

This week the Whales wrapped up their study on Sunflowers. They started the week learning about Vincent Van Gogh. We learned that people in his town thought his paintings were weird and different. Many people teased Van Gogh for his art. We noticed that Van Gogh did not give up just because other people said his art wasn’t good. We learned that his paintings are very popular, are featured in museums, and cost A LOT of money. The Whales started their art by illustrating a vase that their sunflowers would sit in. To create their sunflowers the Whales used circular sponges and blended brown and black paint to make the middle of their sunflowers. To create the pedals the Whales used paint brushes and a swiping technique. They used a mix of tempera paint and water color to make different parts of their art POP! The Whales will be finishing the last touches to their Van Gogh sunflowers next week and they will be soon displayed in our classroom for everyone to see!

For numeracy, the Whales have been practicing using ten frames, and number writing. They studied the numbers 6, 7, 8, and 9! They practiced using ten frames to show their number. They used two different materials to make their number on the ten frame. This can help visualize two parts becoming one. For sign in this week, the Whales practiced their number writing. We are making sure that our numbers aren’t doing the backwards dance! Have your Whales practice their number writing at home! Here are some rhymes you can use:

-0: Around you go, around you go, that’s the way you make zero.

-1: Straight line down, and then we’re done. That the way to make the one!

-2: Round and back across the railroad track. Two! Two! Two!

-3: Around a tree, around a tree, that’s the way to make a three!

-4: Down and over and down some more, that’s the way we make a four!

-5:The bee goes down, around the hive, then dives across to make a five!

-6: Around the clock until it ticks, that’s the way to make a sox!

-7: Across the sky, then slant the line, makes a seven every time!

-8: Make an S and do not wait, go back up to make an eight!

-9:First a circle, then a line, that’s the way to make a nine!

In Writing, the Whales helped Ms. Abby add details to her illustration. We noticed that we can always add more details to our illustration even if we think we are done! It’s AMAZING! The Whales are starting to publish their first stories! When they are finished with their story and have done some editing with a teacher, they get to add a cover! They create a title, and get to decide what genre their story is. They stamp the date on their cover and put it into our Whale Author basket! The Whales are so excited to fill our basket with fun and creative stories!

On Friday, the ELC had their very first Friday Summit! Friday Summit is a new tradition that the ELC will be doing every Friday morning. During Friday Summit, the whole school meets together. We do a song, a land acknowledgement, and as we get more into the year, each class will get to share the learning that they are doing in their classrooms. We call this our Summit because we talk as a community about the “hill’s we have climbed” that week, when we share our classroom updates. Ask your Whale about their favorite part of Friday Summit!

The Whales are Scientists!

“We are filling each others buckets!” This exclamation was made so many times throughout this week by multiple Whales! After reading “How Full is your Bucket?” the Whales challenged themselves to fill peoples buckets every day. We learned that if we fill other peoples buckets, in return we will feel our bucket also fill. The Whales took action and showed support to their friends every day this week! It was so heart warming and amazing to watch!

This week the Whales became scientists. We dove deeper into our study on the human brain. We talked about being mindful and what that looks like. We learned that neuroscientists have found that being mindful helps the prefrontal cortex focus, it helps us regulate our emotions, and it even can make us feel happier. The Whales were introduced to the Peace Table. At the Peace Table Whales can communicate with their classmates and work to resolve social problems. There are resources at the Peace Table to help walk students through conflict resolution. We practiced mindful listening while we are at the Peace Table and talked about helpful actions we can take for our community after we solve a problem including writing letters to apologize, cleaning up spaces we may have made a mess of, and organize items in the classroom that got disorganized during that process. The Whales have been using the Peace Table throughout the week and have been doing a great job, talking to others about their feelings and how to solve the problem at hand. The Whales also took a deep dive into our study on sunflowers. We learned about the lifecycle of a sunflower and even acted it out, starting as a seed. We were able to investigate the sunflowers in our very on piazza! The Whales noticed so many small details and were able to illustrate like scientists. On Friday, the Whales learned about heliotropism (sunflowers following the direction of the sun). We pretended to be sunflowers during meditation, and took a breath in when the sun rose, and took a breath out when it set.

This week the Whales were artists and authors! The Whales started and finished their beginning of the year self portraits. These portraits will be displayed in front of each Whales cubby. So be on the look out! The Whales also began Writers Workshop. We learned about how stories need a beginning, middle, and end. We made a story path for the Three Little Pigs. You can check it out hanging in the classroom! It is so fun to see all of the stories that have been started in the classroom. Some Whales are writing about family trips, Holidays, school days, and so so so much more. We are so excited to continue to watch their stories grow and for them to be published authors!

On Friday, we had an engineering morning! Whales were able to freely choose from different engineering stations including; domino chain building, play-dough + wood stick structures, wooden block building, Lincoln logs, and magnatiles. There were some amazing structures! Look below for pictures of their creativity and genius engineering!

What a spectacular week!!!

The First Week of School!

What a absolutely fantastic first week of school for the Whales! On the first day of school, we read “Lenas Shoes are Nervous” by Keith Calabrese. We had a community discussion about how it is okay to feel different emotions about starting something new, like kindergarten! We made a chart to show how each friend in our classroom was feeling about the first day of school. Some of us were feeling happy, some were excited, some were nervous, and others were “ner-vited” (both nervous and excited). After looking at the chart we could see how many Whales were feeling each emotion. We applauded each other for sharing how we were feeling. We are already building such a tight-knit community filled with kindness, and love.

We started our week measuring different parts of sunflowers. To do this the Whales learned how to use a ruler to measure. We looked at the inch side of a ruler and talked about what an inch was. We used inch worm blocks to help us visualize this concept. Some friends had sunflower parts that were as long as the ruler, 12 inches! We practiced writing our numbers next to our traced sunflower parts. At the science table, the Whales used a pro-scope to look at the head of a sunflower up close. Some Whales even found bugs tucked in between the seeds. The Whales have been working hard through out the week using tweezers to pull out sunflower seeds. Next week, we will do some big counting with those seeds using ten frames to help us. At the storytelling table, the Whales made magical stories of their characters at a sunflower farm.

On Thursday the Whales started to learn all about the brain. We learned about 3 parts of the limbic system. The prefrontal cortex (wise leader), amygdala (controls feelings), and the hippocampus (memory saver). We looked at a diagram of the brain and saw where each of those parts are located. In the Whales classroom, we make decisions using our prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex helps us focus, so that our hippocampus can take new information and store it. We ask the Whales to use their prefrontal cortex and hippocampus when we are learning something new. Next week, we will learn more about how meditation and mindfulness can help grow and strengthen our brain.

The Whales have had a blast playing in the Cedar Classroom. They are practicing using the monkey bars, and climbing the big logs and rocks. Many of the Whales have been enjoying the giant sand box and using the water to make pathways in the sand. However, we can’t forget about the piazza. The Whales love playing with the giant blue blocks, and building creative structures, like castles and boats. We also noticed that the sunflowers in the Piazza are blossoming just in time for our sunflower unit. Next week, we will be scientists and investigate our own sunflowers in our very own piazza.

We wrapped up our week, with our first sharing day! Whales did such an amazing job using their strong voices to tell their classmates all about their sharing. We heard about stuffies, books, photos of fun trips, rocks, petrified wood, a slithering wooden snake, and so so much more! Sharing is such a fun time where we get to learn all about the important things in our friends lives.

We are only 3 days into the school year, and we can already tell it is going to be a spectacular year! Full of growing, lots of learning, new friendships, and so much fun!