Classroom Community

Hello family and friends!

We have had an amazing week in the Aalva class! Our schedule has been set and is in full swing this week. I am so impressed by how smoothly everyone has transitioned into it. We spent the week letting the children take ownership of their classroom by allowing them to have a say in how our classroom runs and what it looks like. We feel that this helps them feel comfortable and gives them more pride in our classroom community.

One thing we did this week was introduce workshops! We currently have writing and math workshops that we rotate throughout the week. Our goal is to have two math and two writing workshops each week. During writing workshop the children will be working in journals. They are able to write and draw about anything they choose. This is a great way for them to develop their writing.  They will soon be more comfortable in their writing as they have the opportunity to tell stories through their words and artwork. During math workshops we set up the room into stations. Each table will have a different activity that will help them develop different math skills such as counting, number recognitions, patterns, and sequencing. We use a timer to let the children know when it’s time to switch stations. For the first week we started with 5 minutes per station. For each workshop, Ms. Rachael and I will adjust the time according to their interests and needs. As the year goes on I’m sure our workshops will grow and develop as the children master more skills. One thing I love about our workshops is the one on one time with each child. It gives us a clearer understanding of what skills each child has mastered, what they are still working on, and what direction we need to take them individually.

In keeping with the idea of building a classroom community we came up with several ideas for classroom helpers. Ms. Rachael and I feel that this will add to the ownership of the classroom as the children have jobs that help to keep our classroom safe and successful! Each child will be able to choose their job throughout the week. We have the job chart hanging up in the room if anyone wants to talk about that with their child during drop off or pick up times.

Another thing we did this week was draw self-portraits. First we read the book I Like Myself! by Karen Beaumont. After reading the book we broke up into small groups, looked at ourselves in the mirror, and discussed what we looked like and the things we liked about ourselves.  We allowed the children to draw their portrait however they wanted! Some chose to draw their whole body and others just drew their head. Some decided to use heavy details while others used a more simple approach. We feel that each portrait shows a small glimpse of all the different personalities in our classroom. We encourage you to take some time to check them out in the hallway and talk to your kids about what they drew. This activity also goes along with the family posters we sent home to be worked on. In order to help build a sense of community, we need to get to know one another better and feel more comfortable sharing who we are with our peers.  I cannot wait to see how each individual child chooses to decorate their poster!

Have a great weekend! Love,

Ms. Michelle

Approaches to Learning:

•Show creativity and imagination using materials in representational play.

•Demonstrate eagerness and interest as a learner by questioning and adding ideas.

•Show increasing ability to maintain interest in self-selected activities and play despite distractions and interruptions.

 

Social & Emotional:

•Demonstrate self-direction by making choices among peers, activities and materials.

•Demonstrate confidence by participating in most classroom activities.

•Follow classroom rules and procedures with reminders.

 

Language and Literacy:

•Respond to elements of colorful language in stories and poetry.

•Begin to identify significant words from text read aloud.

•Begin understanding how print is used to bring meaning.

•Identify several letters and their general order in the alphabet.

 

Mathematics:

•Begin to show an awareness of numbers in the environment.

•Identify and copy a simple pattern.

•Sort and classify objects by one attribute.

 

Welcome!

Hello family and friends!

Welcome to our classroom blog! This will be a place where you can read about our weekly happenings and see pictures of what we've been up to at school. I hope you will be encouraged by what you read each week as you watch us learn and grow.

This first week has been wonderful as we have welcomed both old and new CJDS friends into our classroom family. I have been amazed at how quickly everyone is already adjusting to our new routine. Everyone seems to be getting along well and we've already seen some new friendships starting to blossom. For this first week, we really wanted the kids to take ownership of their classroom. We want them to feel that this classroom is their area to learn and explore. We want it to be a place where they feel comfortable and welcomed. The kids worked together to create a list of "jobs" that they wanted to do in the classroom. They have also taken time to fill our walls with artwork.  Michelle and I have sincerely enjoyed this first week and we hope your kids have been just as excited about it as we have been!

To start off our week, we decided to spend some time getting to know one another better, building a foundation of how our daily routines will run, and exploring different materials in our classroom. We have slowly introduced the students to one or two new routines each day. One of the first things we introduced was "Morning Meeting". This could very easily be my favorite part of the day! This is a time where we all sit down as a class to greet one another, share news/stories, read our daily morning message, sing songs, and read together. This is a great way to transition from home to school as well as welcome the kids and set the tone for the rest of our day. It develops a sense of community that creates trust, confidence, and inclusion.

We have also spent a large part of the week exploring centers. Each day we would go to a different center as a class. We spent this time talking about what could be done in that center, what we were learning through our play, as well as appropriate ways to use the materials in the center. This is a guided discovery where we introduce and model the work that can be done and then allow the kids to explore. After exploring a center together, we let the kids branch out and explore the room on their own. There are countless ways to experience math, language, science, and socialization during center time. For example, 2 boys sat down together in our block center. They pulled out some colored blocks and began to group them by color. Afterwards, they counted the number of blocks in each group. They were working through the process together. They then went into our science center and brought over the scale and began comparing the weight difference in each group. In a matter of minutes, we were able to informally assess math and science concepts, their socialization with one another, as well as their verbal language. This is just one great example of learning that takes place through play!

Next week we will be adding some workshop times into our classroom schedule. Throughout the week we will be doing workshops on math, reading, and writing. These workshop times will involve concepts such as math games, introductions to books, and introductions to writing/drawing journals. You'll hear much more about this in our next newsletter but I did want to give you some insight into what we will be focusing on next week. I feel confident that we will be in full swing in no time!

Each week in my post, I will be listing different standards we met throughout the week. These will be just a handful of the many standards we cover each week. It's amazing how much we learn through exploration and play! I think you'll be encouraged to see so many standards that are met in just one week. I will use the same language listed on the standards so you have a clear explanation of what was done. If you ever have any questions about them, please just let me know. The standards will fall into one of four categories: 1) Approaches to Learning 2) Social & Emotional 3) Language and Literacy 4) Mathematics. Here are a list of just a few from each...

Approaches to Learning:

• Show curiosity in an increasing variety of activites, tasks, and learning centers.
• Demonstrate growing initivative in selecting and carrying out activities.
• Show abiility to focus attention for increasing variety of chosen task and activities for short periods of time (10-20 minutes).

Social & Emotional:

• Describe characteristics of self and others.
• Use classroom materials responsibly, most of the time.
• Develop friendship with one or two preferred children.

Language and Literacy:

• Make relevant comments or appropriate responses to story events or characters.
• Participate in choral speaking of poems, songs, and stories with repeated patterns.
• Creates a picture and labels it orally.

Mathematics:

• Use emergent mathematical knowledge as a problem-solving tool.
• Classify objects in their environment by color, shape, size or function.
• Begin to show an awareness of numbers in the environment.

We are looking forward to a wonderful school year! I'm excited to see just how much your sweet ones learn and grow in the next 9 months! As always, feel free to call, write, or stop by with any questions or concerns you may have. I hope everyone is ready for week 2 and enjoys their weekend! Enjoy a quick glimpse into all the fun we've had this week...