Becoming Experts

Hello family and friends!

We've officially started our first expert project...on volcanos! We base all of our learning throughout the year on the interests of the kids. We want them to be excited about learning and find it interesting. Our hope is that this will encourage them to become life long learners. To start our year, we made a list of all our different interests. We sat down as a group and talked about what we wanted to learn, topics that we had questions about, and ideas that were interesting to us. After we made a big list, we narrowed it down to 3. From those 3, we voted as a class. We will make sure we take the time to cover each topic of interest throughout the year. As the year passes and we learn new things, we will add to our list and continue to ask questions about new topics. It becomes a cycle throughout the year. We find that sometimes our interests change. As we learn new things, we come up with different questions to new topics. It's always fun to watch their interests change throughout the year. I hope you enjoy the blog as we take you along for the ride!

The first phase of our volcano explorations was making a KWL chart. For each new exploration we work on this year we will make one of these charts. A KWL chart is a list of things that we: K (already know about the subject), W (want to learn more about/questions), and L (what we've learned). Right now we have completed the K (know). The W (want to learn) section is one that continues to grow throughout the study. This is how we base how long each exploration will last. As we begin to run out of questions, we begin to move on to something new. We will leave these charts up in our classroom throughout the study. I encourage you to check out our list (especially our W section as it expands). The kids always ask some great questions...many that I do not know the answer too. It becomes a learning experience for everyone involved. I hope the kids come home to teach you some new facts as well! At the end of our exploration we will return to the chart and list all the things we have learned. It's a great way for us to get an idea of what the kids would like to know more about and to show all we've learned!

Our second phase of exploration this week came from a collection of volcano books. We spent some time in reading workshop looking through the books. We encouraged the kids to get with a reading buddy and simply do a picture walk - flip through the book and look at the pictures together. After they spent some time talking and picture walking we asked if anyone had already learned something new just from paying attention to the pictures. We found that we had several facts to share and some more questions. These types of reading workshops will continue throughout our study. I'm headed to the library this weekend to pick up a large selection of volcano books to add to our study. We will be leaving these books out on our reading center bookshelf for the duration of our exploration.

We also spent some time in writer's workshop this week. To start our workshop we watched a short 3 minute video that explained some volcano facts and showed us what they looked like. After the video, we discussed the new facts we learned. We also discussed what our writings might look like after watching the video. We talked about words we may use in our writing as well as colors we might see in our illustrations. After our discussion, we went to our tables to write. I want to take this time to explain our writing. Some of our writings may be words, some may be pictures, and others may be a combination of both. Our goal during this time is for the kids to build confidence in their writing. If you put something (anything) on paper, then you are a writer! Behind every picture is a story they have come up with. We write down their thoughts as they say them. Some weeks you may see a single word, while other weeks may contain a paragraph. We want this time of writing introduction to be stress-free and fun.

At the moment we are predicting that our exploration will last another 2 weeks but we haven't set a deadline. We want to follow the lead of the kids when it comes to our explorations. If they feel that they've had all their questions answered, then we move on to something new. If they feel they have more questions they need answered, then we keep going. Through each of our explorations we will constantly be meeting language, math, science, and emotional/social standards. It's amazing how these things work hand in hand and always fall into place!

For math workshop this week, we introduced Math Buddies. Once a week each child will be paired up with one of Rabbi Meir's college students to work on math concepts. This week they met their math buddy for the first time and spent some time with them outside playing games based on basic math concepts. The kids had so much to say when they got back to the room! I'm so thankful that we get to participate in this each week. What a wonderful opportunity for the kids! These math sessions will happen along with our math workshops. To start the year, we have geared math workshop around number recognition but, like all our workshops, we will be changing concepts as the kids continue to grow and master new skills. These workshops will always be based around each individual child's needs. Our workshops provide time for us to spend one on one with each child and get a stronger idea of where they are as a learner.

I hope everyone enjoys their long weekend!

Love,
Ms. Rachael


Here is a list of several standards we worked on this week:

Approaches to Learning:

• Demonstrate delight or satisfaction when completeing a task, solving a problem, or making a discovery.
• Show ability to focus attention for increasing variety of chosen tasks and activities for short periods of time (10-20 minutes).
• Understand a task can be accomplished through several steps.
• Reason about events, relationships, or problems.

Social & Emotional:

• Demonstrate confidence by participating in most classroom activities.
• Manage transitions positiviely when told what to expect.
• Display emerging social skills of trying to take turns and talk with others duriing play.
• Recognize effect on others of own behavior most of the time.

Language and Literacy:

• Recall some details in stories read aloud.
• Explore books independently.
• Show interest in informational texts about familiary objects.
• Relate information from texts to personal experience.
• Begin to recognize similarities in sounds at the begging and ending of words.

Mathematics:

• Generate conjectures based on personal experiences and simple reasoning.
• Locate patterns in the environment.
• Count orally forward to twenty and backward from three.
• Use appropriate vocabulary to communicate mathematical ideas.

Here's a glimpse into our classroom this week...enjoy!

Working on our charts and placing our votes!



 

 

 

 

 

We are readers!

 

 

We are writers!

 

 

 

Presenting our family posters...

 

 

Practicing for Shabbot...

 

 

Music with Ms. Natalie!