Pine News Update
We hope you all had a restful, long weekend. If any of you did something to learn about or commemorate Dr. King or to participate in a Day of Service, please think of a way you could support your child to share that experience with the class during morning meeting.
See below for cool learning at school.
MLK Portraits in Exploration Time
Max suggested making portraits of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during exploration time. There were also plans to build his childhood home and to build an imitation of the monument to MLK that stands in Washington D.C.
We talked about his ideas this morning during morning meeting because a few kids needed help applying his practice of communicating strongly and clearly with someone who hurts you rather than jumping to hurt someone back.
Gym time
We went to the gym last week during exploration time. Nice to get silly and go fast on these scooters.
What's that!?!
This is the "Good Deeds Dragon". Has your child mentioned it? We put a clothespin on his tail when we see someone doing something good for the community.
There is a great exhibit in Williamsburg about fantastic, soulful early childhood education. Fun for kids and adults alike, there's a light room and a nature room to play in, and there is great information for adults to read and ponder about the early childhood education research being done in Reggio Emilia, Italy.
How to Writing
We've been working on writing instructions for procedures. We call them "How to's" or "How To Writing." We've been acting them out too. This helps kids develop detail and clarity throughout all genres of writing. Here Grace is folding a scarf in the dramatic play area. Put your kids to work at home! And then have them write about it.
Poetry Collections
Every week we read a poem as a group in class. We read it many times throughout the week for different purposes - comprehension, visualization, fluency and for practice using sight words. At the end of the week, the kids put their poems in their very own anthology. They love reading these on their own.
(The books are beautiful, right? And they're cheap. You can find them here if you want to encourage your little author/poet to do some writing at home.)