What do you think? Come to Parent night to share ideas!

Hello families!

*Thursday night is family night!  I hope you all can make it!  I always look forward to this nice time together.

How are you?  Math has been on the kids brain so much lately.  It's in so much of our lives when we stop to think, isn't it?  As we usually do, the friends like to calculate how many kids are here in the morning, and we often take these small moments to think about quantity and addition and subtraction. 

The kids are beginning to make the leap between counting repeatedly to get their answer and logically working it out because they are gaining more number sense.  Today at the moment of this discussion we had thirteen friends and two teachers.  Now some friends initially counted all the PEOPLE in the class, while others counted the KIDS.  This meant they came to different numbers.  When I put the problem by asking if we have fifteen people and two teachers, how many kids, many friends wanted to add.  Subtraction can be a tricky concept.  Sometimes it is good to look at something manipulable, so I created the representation below.  The friends began seeing the number fifteen as the whole and two and thirteen as the parts that make up this whole.  As we go through these days, the friends are making new leaps of understanding every moment!

Last week the friends were talking about symmetry, balance and circles in their work.  This caused us to think about the designs and relationship between shapes in mandalas.  The friends who are working on this begin to see how numbers work together.  For example, if you start with 8 sticks in the center and have 5 jewels represent the petals for each of the 8, then how many jewels do you need?  Wait, isn't this multiplication?  Here are a few of our unfinished pieces. 

It is so fascinating how serendipitous things can be.  Our new friend Bridget B's mum is an artist and mandalas are her work!  The friends have been inspired by her creations and the titles she gave them.  They have been thinking about the math elements of these creations, but also the symbolism that can be represented by the person who creates them.  A few friends have work in progress going in class, come in and check these out!

We also looked at a few videos of mandalas being made.  The first one has subtitles, but I mostly summarized the bare essentials and we watched in silence for much of it.  Since the kids are interested in the process and how they make these, I didn't read all of the philosophical elements.  They were mostly interested in how the work unfolded, from the middle to the outside layer.  And there can be so much planning involved!  The second one had many great time lapse moments and the kids were interested in the tools and the way the artists manipulated the sand.  Also the fact that they spent five days working on this!  So interesting.  Let me know if there are other details the kids notice on further viewings!

http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/sand-mandalas/65b239acd26dfdad672465b239acd26dfdad6724-415820480700?q=sand+mandala+video&FROM=LKVR5&GT1=LKVR5&FORM=LKVR6

http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/time-lapse-making-of-a-mandala-the-crow-collection-of-asian-art/570232b220ab4f176825570232b220ab4f176825-424008417446?q=making+a+mandala+video&FROM=LKVR5&GT1=LKVR5&FORM=LKVR4

Here's a third one because it was fun to see how someone got excited about creating mandalas with food!  :)

http://video.yahoo.com/watch/4125455/11113799

I hope you are having a great week!  Love, Jennifer



100 what?

Hello!

There are so many things happening, it can be hard to keep track of whether I reported them all to you!  I hope you know I'm trying!

I asked friends if they knew what today was for many Americans.  They couldn't think of anything except for the fact that we have new songs and poems.  (This is actually pretty momentous for our community! )  I told them about how some people really celebrate Groundhog Day and other friends talked about what they had seen on TV.  Many of my kids were skeptical about the logic in this, how can the shadow of a rodent predict the weather? :)  But they thought it was fun and curious. It stimulated a fabulous discussion about how shadows work which lead to them thinking about the earth's rotation and trajectory in the universe, and how light travels. Pretty cool.

This week I brought in a chest full of pennies, nickles and dimes.  We began exploring what we know about these and how their quantities relate to each other.  This can be so tricky, moving from looking a a nickel and two pennies and thinking "I have three coins" to "I have seven cents".  We will continue to use coins to study how number quantities work.  They are very familiar with the concept of tens from our daily calendar count.  And we have also explored counting by fives.  So when we each had a small pile of pennies, the friends tried to organize them and decide if they could trade up for nickles or dimes.  They are very interested and seem to want to know about this because they know how important money is.  I will keep you posted!

Math is everywhere!  As the friends get closer to their 100th day of school we have been discussing what this means to us.  And also how do we want to celebrate this?  There have been many exciting and extravagant possibilities.  Some, like each friend getting 100 presents, may not come to fruition...  But one about bringing stuffed animals in brought forth a dilemma.  How can we coordinate this?  Thyra volunteered the info that she has 27 stuffed animals, but she would need others to make up the rest.  Taylor decided that it could work if each friend brought like 3 stuffed animals, but how do we check our work?  Would 21 kids at three stuffed animals work?  The children plan to use their own methods to work out these types of real life word problems.  As a teacher I am wondering how many ways we will have to explain how we got to our answer? What will the children use to represent how they came to their findings?  Especially if 21 children at 3 stuffed animals each will not get us to 100 stuffed animals, they how will they figure out how many stuffed animals each child DOES need to bring?  The fun is in figuring it all out.  And these kids are up for the challenge!

BELOW IS TOP SECRET PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS ALOUD TO YOUR CHILDREN!!!!!

On the topic of 100 day party, I am feeling like the kids are still not as inspired as to the details about this, and time is moving closer...  Other years the children have had so many exciting and interesting things they wanted to do to represent 100.  Many of you asked me about this because of memories of other years or other children.  I have been thinking it would be fun to have a special party full of activities planned by parents FOR the children and am wondering if this could be it?  Is anyone interested in joining a committee of parents to secretly create some games and activities that we know would be a special surprise way for the children to explore and enjoy the concept of 100?  It could be our treat for the kids!  And of course we could still do the few things the kids suggested, like the 100 animal collection, too!  WHAT DO YOU THINK?  (I'm excited about this possibility, but MUM'S THE WORD!)

ALRIGHT NOW YOU CAN READ OUT LOUD AGAIN.  :)

Have a lovely night!  Love, Jennifer

Happy Friday!

Dear Families,  Happy Friday!

Thank you so much for all the donations that are flowing into our class!  It was so nice to hear that the children are thinking about this.  They mentioned the generosity in their end of the day class journal entry the other day.  They were so excited to have more cool stuff to use.  I really appreciate the response and the lovely things that are coming in.  We can use them!

Today we had a visiting friend who is interested in joining our class.  It was so neat to see how friendly and welcoming our group was.  These children are beginning to realize that there are many responsibilities as part of being in a community.  It is nice to think about these children taking these skills on with them as they grow and become responsible members of our community.

Yesterday we watched part of a video I found called, "Big Submarine".  There has been an interest in submarines lately.  The video also helped further our discussion of different genres, in literature and performance.  The friends decided this dvd was a documentary.  They were very interested in all the training a submariner goes through to be prepared for any eventuality that might happen at sea.  They even practice with real fire for fire drills and real pipes shooting out water to fix a leak!

Have you asked your child about their club experience?  They are in either leadership, storytelling, dance party or open atelier (art studio).  I am having so much fun working with children of all ages.  The big kids and the little kids are mentoring each other. 

We have been creating messages to say goodbye to our friend Bella who has decided to have a much shorter commute and go to a neighborhood school.  She will be missed!  It has been a nice moment to reflect on how far the friends have gotten with their writing and messages.  They are practicing remembering all the parts of a message to make it complete.  Here are some examples of ones that are finished!  (Others are still in progress because friends are taking the time needed to make each message special and meaningful!)

I hope you enjoy your weekend!  Love, Jennifer

Do You See It?

Hello Families!

We had many lively discussions today.  Sometimes the children amaze me when it's a Monday and they are on fire with fabulous ideas!

We also went on a walk in our building area to get a little excersize before lunch.  We ended up looking for quite a while at some birds.  Thyra noticed a dove in the leafless maple trees.  We stopped and watched- it was hard to find at first!  The feathers and the branches seemed to be the same color.
Friends were wondering what the bird was doing in the tree, and why it was staying there and staying so still.  Is it sleeping?  Is it going to make a nest there?  As we watched it, some smaller birds came and they landed on the small pokey pods and balanced there swinging and picking at the pods.  This was really neat to watch.

Sometimes the power of an ordinary moment inspires so much.  We could have kept walking when Thyra pointed out the dove, but watching, commenting and formulating possibilities and questions allowed us to have a sweet and special experience.  Some friends said they want to keep investigating and to see if the dove is still there after school.  Did anyone check? 

We will look into this more as our interest deepens.  As a teacher I wonder what interests them the most.  Our further discussions will help me see.  And if you speak at home with your kids, will you please email if any clear thread comes from this?

Thank you, Jennifer

PS the server is rejecting my photos for some reason.  It has been finicky before and then passed.  Meanwhile I will post this without the images.  Ug.  Please stop by tomorrow morning and I will have a slide show running outside of our classroom!  I will include the dove and our lemonade making images!

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE WATER TO LEMON JUICE TO SWEETENER RATIO?

Math and Music in our Day

Hello Families!

Yesterday we looked into our estimation jar.  I love offering these little activities because I hope families enjoy finding time before or after school to do these together. I hope you are enjoying the discussions you have while you do the activity with your child.

Our last jar held small wooden dominoes.  The friends had a range of estimates.  As we count the days we have been in school and represent this with straws each afternoon, I feel the kids are stretching their number sense with this practice.  We looked again at the amount and friends were sure that there were less than 100.  Then as we counted the friends began to realize they might need to rethink their estimates and then they would say their next guess.  This happened a few times when we passed the friend's guess as we counted and then we would stop and look at how many were left, how many we counted and then make a new estimate.  This process fosters great skills!

So in the end we found there were 28 dominos in the jar.  And we counted these by tens and by fives, two other concepts the children are getting.  Fun stuff!

Today we continued our investigation of music that has a story in it.  We listened to the sounds that go with the characters in "Peter and the Wolf".    Here are some reflections the friends had.

Yama: It was kind of scary.  Some of us thought it was sneaky music. The part when it sounded like the wolf was breaking into a house.
Ocean: The hunters' music was short.  It sounded like the side drum.  I was not sure if it sounded suprised, scary or happy.
Tayler: Peter, it sounded like he was trying to find a girl.  It sounded a little pretty to me.
Paz: I know he is walking and that's what the music sounds like.
Ocean: It sounds like he was skipping.
Logan: The wolf kind of sounded scary because he was kind of stomping.
Tayler: the bird sounded like the bird was whistling.
Thyra: It kinda sounded like a flute.
Cecelia: The grandfather kind of sounded scary to me.
Liam: The wolf kind of was a little scary for me 'cuz it sounded like he broke into the house and he was trying to get someone.
Tennacee: (thinking about Peter) It sounds happy.
Paz: It sounds like he is happy about catching the wolf.
Thyra: But what about if the wolf eats him?
Abdullah: It sounded kind of happy- the bird one.  It sounded like the bird was flying.
Ocean: The wolf was really scary because it sounded like he was thinking about eating something.
Jenna: The duck sounded like it went under something and it went into a house to eat.

After listening to the sounds of the characters, we read the story and acted it out with the music.  (It was especially funny because we realized that sometimes our "wolf" has to go to the bathroom and we have to have an intermission until our actor return! This created a lot of suspense while we waited!).  The kids did a great job for their first try.  We will continue this again soon!

http://www.ncusd203.org/river_woods/musicweb/rwwebsite/peter_wolf/peter_wolf.htm

http://www.dsokids.com/public/LessonPlans/Peter%20and%20The%20Wolf%20Story%20Sheet.pdf

I hope you enjoy listening and talking about how the music works with the story.  It is interesting to think about how the sounds and instruments effect what we think about that character!

Enjoy your evening, Jennifer

Was He A King?

Today, as we often do when we come back to school for the week,  we had a discussion about the home days.  This lead us to think about why we had an extra day off.  Paz had some ideas about this to share with the group, one of which being that Martin Luther King, Jr. didn't lie.  Other friends shared what they knew or had seen on TV about this.  You may have more discussion about death and dying because a friend also  brought up that Martin Luther King, Jr shot and was dead.  This brought up the question that many friends at this age are still grappling with which is, can people come back alive after being dead?

We talked about how Martin Luther King, Jr was given a holiday in his honor and what his work was to deserve this. Cecelia asked if he was a king, which makes sense when that's your last name, doesn't it?

As a part of our discussion about this great leader, I shared one of my favourite Martin Luther King, Jr quotes:

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.

Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

We related this a bit to us in our class and how we deal with others who are mean or doing things we don't like.  Do we respond with more meanness?  How do we stop the negative energy?  As we talked and acted out how adding hate to hate or using love to fend off hate would work, Thyra said that it reminded her of our poem from December's songs and poems.  Here it is:

DUST OF SNOW

The way a crow

Shook down on me

The dust of snow

From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart

A change of mood

And saved some part

Of a day I had rued.

By Robert Frost

Thyra was thinking about having a change of heart and how this is similar to opening your heart to others to let them have rights that they were denied.  It was a lovely moment for me, to think about how the friends are making connections and scaffolding their knowledge to create a caring sense of the world around them.  The children were very sure about spreading love instead of hate.  This is a nice reminder!
 
I hope you are enjoying your evening!  Love, Jennifer

Are You Almost Six?

When is your birthday? 
The children have been interested in this lately.  This interest came from the children talking about time and our calendar.  Jenna was telling us that she is almost six, and then she told us their birthday is in October.  After a little time and discussion, all of a sudden Yama was like, "Wait a minute..." He pointed out that if Jenna's birthday was in October, then he didn't think that meant "almost six".  This sparked an investigation into how many months it would be until that Jenna will turn six.  We got our old calendar out, and our new 2011 calendar and we counted.  Woah!  The friends are really beginning to put this cyclical concept together.  It was interesting too, because after looking at all the months we will need to go through before we will be back in October, Jenna still said that she is almost six.  I guess it's all relative, right?  Maybe she's almost six in comparison to how long it will be until she's old enough to drive?  Or maybe if you want something hard enough, you CAN be almost six, no matter what the facts are!

These types of discussions have stimulated the friends to want to investigate and collect the data of our class.  A group is putting together a poll to find out when each of us were born.  It was interesting because when it comes down to it, not everyone knew when they were born.  So if you would like to extend this discussion at home, maybe share the story of your childn's birth.  What time of year was it, what was the weather like outside?  Were there any special parts of this already special story?  We will continue to talk about this more.

We are really beginning to collect data and assemble the knowledge that we have.  We are also adding many more entries into our "Words we know" binder.  The friends are now collecting these words in an alphabetic order to be a resource for when they are writing their stories and creating titles for their other work.  If your child sees a word they know in their outside life and wants to write it down, please bring it in for our collection!!!

Here are some videos we discussed lately:

Each morning I drink tea and the children have gotten into the habit of asking to see the leaves and smelling it.
They have been asking about this for a while, so we looked into it.  The two vocab word concepts that came up was what is "withering" and also the concept of "loose tea" was intriguing.  Did it "get loose"?  The children are expanding the meanings that they are attaching to words they already know.  These are often subtle and take some time to think about how the term can work in a new setting.

http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/tea-estate/3c848aa92a481d72c8d03c848aa92a481d72c8d0-415561679637?q=coin%20manufacturing%20video

http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/stash-tea-black-tea-production-processes/bc092c4b634b1daacc54bc092c4b634b1daacc54-384078053786?q=tea+production+video&FROM=LKVR5&GT1=LKVR5&FORM=LKVR12

Thanks for all your conversations and connections in coming into the classroom.  There are a thousand things to share each week, so coming in helps me point you in the right direction.  I try to share lots here, but am usually forgetting many great things when I sit down to type.  More soon, as usual.

Enjoy your evening, Jennifer