Valetine's Week

We had so much fun at our Valentine Day Party!

We started off with a math project.

The students were given a handful of conversation hearts.

Then they had to sort the colors of the heart onto their graphs.

We had fun seeing who had the most and least of the colors.

We also had fun eating them!

Then we played musical chairs. Logan and Reese were our champs this time!

Next we played a puzzle game.

The children were each given half a heart . . .

and they had to find the student who held the other half by matching the puzzle pieces.

And of course, you can't have a party without decorating cookies!

We ended our party by passing out our Valentine's to each other.

We hope you liked your Valentine . . .

A personalized "thumb" body

With a personalized hug inside!

The rest of the week we continued our measuring unit.

We explored volume in respect to height

and circumference of a container.

As an individual assessment of the concept, the students had to glue pictures of various sized containers in order of what would hold the least to what would hold the most.

Fun with measuring!

Recently we've added a new song to our repertoire:

"The Alphabet Song".

The students point to each letter as we sing the sound it makes. This can help the students conceptualize that the alphabet song is more than a fun rhyme, it's about real letters. And for those who already know all the letter names, the song enforces consonant sounds, as well as long and short vowel sounds.

Two lines in the song say, "You bet !" and "No Sweat !" But all the kids combine the lines and each time say "You Sweat !" It's pretty hilarious to hear everyday : )

We were the author and illustrator of our own books this week!

We personalized stories using words we can read and write by ourselves.

This week we began our math unit on measurements. We are comparing length, weight, and volume. We are using a variety of methods for measuring - paperclips, different types of beans, blocks, etc.

We played a game where the children wrote down their estimations of how many beans long an item might be.

Then the children did measurement estimations individually.

Next week I plan to start a Class Estimation Jar - each student will have a turn to fill the jar with objects, and the class will estimate the total number of objects. More information to follow on this!

For Therrific Thursday we watched a movie on the Love Sac! (The kids thought it was pretty cool, although it was just part of my master plan to keep them focused while I pulled them, one by one, for a special Valentine gift we're making for our parents)

Our Valentine Party will be Tuesday. We will be exchanging Valentines (there are 7 students in our class), sharing yummy snacks, and playing some fun games! See you then!

February!

Here's our February Song:

(Sing to the tune of "Are you Sleeping?"

I wanted to capture "The Bean Bag" song for you.

The children follow action cues from the song using bean bags - in our case, it's much cooler to use stuffed animals : )

Throw the bean bag, and catch...

Put it on your head and walk around the room...

Put it on your back now. . .

Put it on your stomach. . .

Put it on your foot . . .

The kids love this song!

This week we introduced the sound for 'r' and the sight word 'here'.

We also reviewed reading and spelling the color words blue . . .

and red.

Okay, I'm not going to lie, the highlight of this week was definitely "Show & Teach". Everybody did such a great job! I loved snapping pictures of them teaching and exploring.

Bailee was up first - she taught students how to make rings, bracelets, and necklaces with a snap together bead set.

Next up was Kensington.

She taught us how to peel an orange . . .

And share it!

Logan loved teaching us all about fossils

He showed us how to identify certain fossils with a special book he got from his grandparents.

Reese, the artist,

taught us how to paint rainbows.

Ellie taught us how to catch a ball.

She gave everyone a one-on-one lesson!

Connor showed us how to make bookmarks.

He passed out all the materials . . .

Showed us how to tie the string to the top . . .

And taught us how to decorate them.

The finished product!