Welcome Maya!

Last week we had the pleasure of welcoming lovely Maya to our classroom. Immediately the children began to recognize all of the things that we needed to for her! “She needs a cozy cube!”, “She needs a Writing, Math, and Theme Binder!”, “She needs her name on her cubby!”. When the brainstorm was done, we had over 20 jobs that needed to be accomplished in order for Maya to feel at home in LE.

The most wonderful sights to witness were the moments, like above, when the children instinctively held Maya’s hand to bring her to snack, the playground, or lunch. She is being really well looked after, and watching the children this week I can tell how comfortable with the classroom and how things work at Acera.

Fells Field Trip

On Thursday, we loaded the school bus for a very quick drive to the Fells to hear the big kids read their stories of the mythical creatures that inhabit that beautiful place. Underwater creatures with treasure fighting giants, fanciful fairies, and oddities of all kinds were woven into entrancing tales. The children also got a chance to climb the slippery slopes, throw stones into the pond, and make discoveries of their own… including the spotting of a Red Bellied Woodpecker! We hope that this trip will ignite the LE’s imagination and seep into their own writing.

Curriculum Night

We had a small yet determined current and prospective parents at the Curriculum Night last night, braving the first snow storm of the year! They endured my laryngitis and asked many interesting questions about Acera and the Lower Elementary classroom. It was particularly lovely to have Maya’s parents, Marina and Timur, who had lots to learn about life in LE. Welcome to Acera! Here are the slides.

Math

During the few days of indoor recess this week, the LE students discovered that we have several chess boards! It was hard to stop mid-game, so the tournament was added to our math choices. There were several children interested in playing, and in the run-off students demonstrated skills of logic as well as their knowledge of the game! They shared strategies, move suggestions, and gracefully lost and won. This day Wesley was the chess champion, and the kids made metals for him which he shared proudly above!

The children also took the Bingo multiplication/division game off the shelf, and have been playing in large groups. If the children are unsure of the answer (9 x 9 for example) they pull other materials off the shelves such as the Base Ten Blocks. “If you have 10, 9’s that would be 90. So, you just subtract 9 from 90… 81. While observing, the students are committing math facts to memory and using creative problem-solving.

Stuffed Animals and Toys from Home

At the beginning of the year, I decided to be more flexible about bringing stuffed animals and toys from home. It became clear that some students needed their “Transitional Objects” to snuggle during Rest and Read. Other children were connecting with others over shared interest in squirrels “Squirelies” that became involved in block and basket structures. However, over the last several weeks, stuffed animals and toys from home have become a source of distressed. Animals were lost, forgotten at school over the weekend, or interrupting learning moments of the day instead of informing and contributing.

We had a long conversation about this at Morning Meeting today, and children shared their thoughts and feelings. Some children were extremely mad, others very sad, many others quite reasonably offered suggestions to solve the problem. In the end, it is best that we reinstate the Toys from Home Stay at Home Policy. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Ms. Jen

Peace, Pose and Poetry

On Halloween many parents saw our peace, pose and poetry routine for the first time! After morning work, around 9:00-9:15, we start our morning meeting with the 3P’s. A quiet moment of peace where we close our eyes, take a few breaths, and observe a little silence. This moment of peace serves as a reset if a child had a difficult morning, very high or low morning work time, or just feeling the first moment we are together as a whole group. When that is over, we have shout a raucous “GOOD MORNING” and send around a hello and a handshake. After the handshake goes around the circle, I randomly pick a YOGA pose (our second P) from our deck of yoga cards. The third P is a poem! The children have particularly enjoyed hearing poems read-aloud, especially the book, Be Glad Your Nose Is on Your Face: And Other Poems by of Jack Prelutsky. The children find it hilarious!!

 

Math Challenge

While some children are working on finding all the combinations of numbers that add up to ten, some are adding subtracting and dividing numbers into the thousands! For others, logic problems are the most challenging. The puzzle pictured above has been a real favorite. It involves 9 squares with numbers 1 to 9 printed on each side. The challenge is to make a 3×3 square with all connected sides equal to 10. Here is the problem solved for the first time! Children want to do it again and again to see if there is a trick to solving it that is easily repeated. Any ideas? Shhh… don’t tell anyone! We want to figure an answer to that problem out by ourselves.

Child Visits… and a New Classmate!

We have been welcoming potential Acera students into our classroom over the last couple of weeks, and it has been a delight to see the LE students climbing over each other to assist and play with the visitors. Above you can see Roman and Zachary holding Maya’s hand, and Aria getting into the photo from behind. Nice photo bomb Aria!

The good news is that Maya enjoyed her visit so much that she is joining our class next week! It is amazing to have another delightful Kindergarten girl, an amazing mathematician, and kind friend join our team!

A Nest for Celeste

Just because we finished our first chapter book, A Nest for Celeste, it doesn’t mean the interest in the story has waned! Children are making their own stories based on the characters, programming Scratch computer models based on Celeste’s basket ride over the Mississippi River, and we are still weaving the giant basket big enough to hold an LE’r! It has really created a writing explosion! At pick-up today a child asked, “Can I stay here and write some more?”

Warmly,

Ms. Jen