Happy Holidays!

Here are some pictures that I snapped during our party this morning!  Thank you so much for those of you that donated your time or supplies! We could not throw such fantastic parties without your help!  I also want to thank the entire class for the gift card to Somerset!  I am so excited to do some shopping over the break!  That was very thoughtful and generous of you all! :) Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Heavy Heart

Dear Families,
Tonight as I hug my own baby close, give kisses and hugs and feel grateful that I am his mama, I also think of each of your children.  I am so so very thankful for each one of them.  They truly are a blessing and I feel so lucky to be the teacher that spends each day with them.  Please know that when they are with me, they are loved and I will always do my very best for them.
Jen

Snowman Step Inside

Tuesday with our Boulan Buddies we did an art project and we also took a "step inside a snowman." Before our buddies came we read the book Snowmen at Night. It is a story about what all of our snowmen do at night while we are sleeping. As a class we pretended to step inside a snowman body and think about what a snowman hears, may feel and sees. Some of the kids came up with:

A snowman sees...

• children playing
• children wearing winter coats
• sky, moon
• trees
• snow
• cars going by in the road
• a house
• children making snow angels

A snowman hears...

• children laughing
• doors to the house open and shutting
• garage door going up and down
• snow crunching as people walk on it
• cars zooming by
• animals running by

A snowman feels...

• worried they may melt in sun
• lonely because they don't have friends
• happy because someone made them
• sad an animal ate their carrot nose

After their discussion they recorded their thinking and then made a snowman out of a coffee filter.

Gingerbread Science

Today we did a very exciting science experiment with Mrs. Summers kids.  We have been reading many versions of the Gingerbread Boy.  We noticed that in many of the versions, the gingerbread cookie comes to a river.  At the river he meets a fox.  The fox knows that the cookie cannot go in the water and tricks him into climbing onto his back so he can take him across.  The trusting cookie climbs onto the foxes back and the fox jumps into the water.  The gingerbread cookie is then eaten by that tricky fox.  This led us to wonder what would happen if the gingerbread boy had tried to cross the river himself.  We set up an experiment where the children needed to make predictions about what might happen when the cookie went in the water.  Many predicted that he would crumble, get soggy, sink to the bottom, fall apart, etc.  We then placed a cookie inside a tub of water.  After ten minutes we came out and had a discussion about our observations.  We noticed that they were soft looking and wiggly and had gotten larger.  We then left them in the water for 20 more minutes.  When we came out to check on them, they had both floated to the top.  When a kiddo tried to pick one up out of the water, the cookie completely fell apart.  We talked about why this happened and drew many conclusions about cookies and liquid.  Some children made the connection with what happens when they dunk oreos in milk.  Our discussion led us to think about what the gingerbread could have done differently in the story so that he didn't have to choose between the fox and the river!  Please talk with your child about what we did today- I am sure they will have lots to say. 

Partner Reading

In Reading Workshop we are learning how to share books with a partner.  The boys and girls are already familiar with sharing thier thoughts with thier reading partners during our Making Meaning lesson each week.  We know that when we talk about stories with others it helps us to understand the story better.  This week we learned how to read books from our book boxes with a partner.  The boys and girls practiced sitting elbow to elbow and knee to knee (or EEKK as we like to call it) so that they could both see the words and the pictures.  Then we learned that first one kiddo reads a page and then the other kiddo reads a page.  When the story is over we talk about what we learned, what we remember or our favorite part.  Here are some readers hard at work.