March Events

Friday 3/4 9:15-11:30...Invention Convention


Thursday/Friday 3/10-3/11...Elaine in Chicago for a workshop: "Active Learning in Early Childhood"


Friday 3/11 6:45-8:00...Barn Dance at Allen School


Friday 3/18...No School for Students


Friday 3/25 10:00...trip to Wild Swan Theater's   production of Peter Rabbit


Thursday 3/31 7:00-8:00 PM...Community Meeting


March is time for Spring Conferences with parents.


The official day for conferences is Friday, March 18, but in order to accommodate more parent's schedules, I will be providing conference times before this day. In the past, many parents have told me that mornings are the best time for them to meet. So I will have conference times at  8:00-8:20am and 8:20-8:40 am. If the designated times are not convenient, please contact me so we can set up an alternative time. For example, I am available Monday and Thursday between 2:00-3:00.

You can email me with a couple times you are available or sign up on the sheet posted next to my classroom door.

I look forward to meeting with each of you.

Friday before break

In the morning, the class had more opportunities to use simple machines.  The children tried to balance pennies on a ruler (lever) by moving the fulcrum, used inclined planes to construct marble runs, and attached objects to a rope, attached to a pulley, to raise objects to the ceiling.

The day ended at the ice rink.

  Even though many children had very little experience skating, they all enjoyed the challenge.  It was great to see the sense of accomplishments and joy on all the faces.  It was hard to get everyone off the ice at the end of the hour.  

Thank you to all the parents and grandparents who helped with skates and on the ice.   

I hope everyone's break was as enjoyable as our time at the rink.

Good News/Bad News

The good news is, it feels like spring is coming.  


The bad news is, the playground is full of puddles.  

The good news is, the children love the puddles and water.

The bad news is, clothes can get very wet.

The good news is, the children learn many things playing with water.

The bad news is that it creates more work for the adults.

And this is where we, the adults, come in.  If you make sure there are extra clothes to school, I will help children change after playground time.  I will also help them put wet clothes by the heat vents to dry.  It is especially important to have several pairs of extra socks.

Thank you for your patience during the transitional weather.

Simple Machines in Action

Using levers

Trying a pulley

This month the children have learned about simple machines from books  and from watching DVD's from the "The Way Things Work" series.  They have even started learning a song about simple machines, but nothing can replace the understanding gained by using the simple machines.


I hope you will enjoy working with your child designing an invention using a simple machine.

Experimenting with inclined planes

Will you be my valentine?

Valentine's day 2011

We hope you had a great Valentine's Day.

We did!

Sub Zero

What do you do when there has been sub zero temperatures for a week?
Go to the beach, of course!


When the children came to school on Friday there was a sign on the classroom door that read:
"Under Construction, Do not enter".


After the school's morning meeting, the children were all wondering where we were going to have class since we couldn't enter the room.  I explained the room had changed and was no longer a classroom.  After showing them several clues, the class guessed that the room had turned into a beach.  Each child got a postcard with pictures and names of shells.  I told them were going to collect shells and see how many different kinds they could find.  I also mentioned that when my friend and I go shelling, if one of us finds several of one kind and the other person doesn't find any, we share.  


Off went the shoes, and the hunt began. Everyone collected a bag full of shells.  There were many questions about what each shell was called.  Then each child sat on "the beach" and sorted and categorized their shells.  They were every good about sharing with each other.  


Juna came Iate to school because of a dentist appointment.  By the time she arrived, all the shells were collected.  I was so impressed that all the children were willing to share some of their shells with Juna and make sure she had gotten all the varieties.



After collecting some children wrote about the experience, while others drew in the "sand".  Instead of sticks or fingers, markers were used.  The room was vibrant all morning.

Thank you to my friend Nancy for helping me collect all the shells for this activity and driving them back to Michigan so I didn't have to take them on the plane.

Shoes and math

grouping and measuring shoes

Venn diagram

Recently, the children have done several math activities with shoes.

The first activity involved grouping the shoes.  First, everyone got all their shoes and boots from their cubby and off their feet.  They put them in a line and counted them.  Next the shoes were put in pairs, then in groups of  5's and finally in groups of 10.   We did not have 100 pairs like the caterpillar in the book, One Hundred Shoes so ours did not make complete sets.  After grouping the shoes, someone suggested measuring the line of shoes.  I asked them what they were going to use to measure them and all of a sudden all of the rulers were lined up next to the shoes.

          black                        velcro

The next time shoes were used was to introduce Venn Diagrams.  It is difficult to see in the photograph but there are two paper circles on the floor.  Different labels were put on the circles, for example: black and velcro, and the children had to determine where their shoe would go, inside one of the circle, where the circles intersect, or outside the circles.  We did many variations.

 As the week continued, we worked with smaller Venn diagrams using plastic bears and geometric shapes of varying colors and sizes.  

Winter Walk

Everyone bundled up and we went into the woods with Faye.  It was a chilly morning but the woods were shimmering with sun light.  Faye was impressed that we were ready for a walk.  She told us not many children and teachers would brave the woods on a cold day.  We shortened our trip from an hour to 20 minutes.  Even with the shortened time, Faye taught us about animals in the winter woods.


We went off the path, into the undisturbed snow, to look for tracks.  Faye explained you really have to think how the animals act to figure out what animal made the track.  A rabbit and squirrel track can look similar, but if you see the tracks going from tree to tree it is probably a squirrel.  


Faye had us pretend we were deer looking for food.  We pawed the snow with our feet to see if we could find any food.  We found dead leaves but Faye told us a deer eating dead leaves would be like us eating paper, not a lot of nutrition.  Then she had us looking for twigs sticking out of the ground.  The twigs are still alive so deer will eat them for food.  


Back to the trail, and back to school, for some hot cider and bananas.  Thank goodness we don't have to survive on what we find in the woods.

Levers

We read our first book about simple machines, Move It! Work It!: A Song About Simple Machines by Laura Salas.


On Monday we will ask Jan if  she can help us learn the song in the back of the book.


We also watched a DVD about Levers.  It explained the relationship between the fulcrum, load, and effort, in making a lever work.  


The morning story mentioned that a baseball bat was a type of lever.  After the DVD, I reminded the children about this and they started brainstorming other sports that use levers.  They came up with quite a list of levers: golf club, hockey stick, crochet mallet, cricket bat, and tennis racket.


This is just the beginning of our simple machine explorations.

Library Visit

Friday we were supposed to go for a walk with Faye in the County Farm Park but the sub zero wind chill canceled this outing.  The trip has been rescheduled for Tuesday morning.  Cross your fingers that the temperatures won't plummet again.

With outdoor activities canceled for the morning, Mrs. Carpenter and I decided to take our classes to the library.  Renata's class stayed at school.  They enjoyed being able to spread out in various classrooms to practice lines for their up coming play.

What is better on a cold day then curling up with a book.  While some children took turns on the computers, other children searched the shelves for interesting stories.

On one of my many loops helping children find books, I came around the corner and found Maddy reading a Dr. Seuss book to Arwyn.  A perfect example, of the benefits of having classes spend time together.

Simple Machines

What simple machine have you used today?  That is one of the questions the children will be exploring during February as we study simple machines.  The children will have many and varied opportunities to work with these machines and discover how they make our lives easier.  

February 14

Valentine's day is right around the corner.  The children will be making Valentine mailboxes at school.  On Monday, February 14, your child can bring in Valentine cards to deliver to all the children in the class.  The cards can be hand made or store bought.  Your child can address the cards with each child's name or they can be distributed randomly; either is fine.  Please make sure there is one for each child in the class.  Currently, there are 11 children in the class.
Here is a list of names to assist if your child wants to address the cards:

Andrew 

Arnav

Arywn

Eli

Ella

Gabriel

Juna

Kaden

Kit

Nilay

Varvara