Room 205 News
Come learn about what we are exploring in our classroom.
Happy New Year!
Welcome to the first edition of our online newsletter. It is my goal by using this format I can share more photos of the happenings in our classroom. I also hope that this is a more convenient news format for you.
New for 2016 to Room 205...
- Impact Soccer Fun Wednesdays...Coach Ian Jones, Charlee's Dad, has offered to help our children beat the winter blues by offering a fun time to play and develop some feet work on Wednesday mornings. Starting next week, we will begin a once a month (or more if the weather gets too cold) play time with Coach Jones. It will be helpful to dress your child for athletic activities on these Wednesdays.
- Friendship Fridays...we will begin special friendship learning sessions each Friday afternoon. The goal is to continue to support pro-social interactions amongst our school family. We will be working with Mrs. Yeacker and Mrs. Thomas, two teachers in our building on this endeavor.
Readers
Part of our morning routine is to look at books. Lately, the students have been creating theater (their own words) type rows to read together in.
Brrr...it's cold outside but warm in here!
Children love to play and explore through imagination. We have an igloo in class. The children have been using it to create many different experiences for themselves and their peers.
Kitchen Play
Our kitchen dramatic play area is a class favorite. Often we have family dinners, bake shops and special food creations for our class stuffed animals happen in this area of our room during exploration time. The oral language and problem solving skills are strengthened through this special place in our room.
Kindercubs is a great place to learn and explore the world around us!
I Spy 5 Fish
Alisa found 5 fish as her example of five during our number hunt.
Hunting for Five
During math workshop, we explored our classroom for five.
5 Little Monkeys
We read the story Five Little Monkeys to start our math workshop. Mira chose to use the story as her evidence of five in our room.
How We Learn During Workshop Time
As you know, we believe that children learn best through exploration and discovery. During our workshop time (either math or literacy), we often begin with a mini-lesson. This may involve a question, a story, or a group activity. For example, this week we began a math workshop by asking the children what they know about the number five. The children had time to think and then talk to a partner about his/her individual knowledge. Once partner time was over, large group sharing of knowledge began. Then we looked around the room and discussed what we knew about five. We read the story Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed. This story ties literacy, movement, and math together. We read the story chorally together, we counted and subtracted moneys, and we acted it our by pretending we were jumping on monkeys. Afterwards we practiced writing the number 5 and went off to use our clipboards to spy 5 objects in our room. the students drew their findings and added labels. Some children are ready to write full words (usually by recording the sounds he/she hears in the word in their own spelling approximation) and some can write one letter to represent the word. As a whole group, we shared our findings. This whole lesson took about a half hour and involved many learning targets. This is the type of experience your child participates weekly during literacy and math workshop. Check out your child's five drawing outside our classroom door.
Playing School in School
Our Room During Exploration Time
There is a lot of learning and discovery going on in this room.
Our Art Station
Learning About Feeling Angry
Throughout the next month your child will be learning what to do about angry feelings. Your child will be taught the following to say to her/himself:
- How do I feel?
- Calm down: take a deep breath or use one of our breathing activities and count slowly to 5.
- Say: "I am calm. I am safe. I got this."
- Talk to a grown-up about my feelings.
You can help your child deal with anger by doing the following:
- Help your child to recognize when he/she is angry. Ask "how do you feel about that?".
- Take deep breaths, count slowly, and say "I am calm. I am safe. I got this" with your child when he/she is angry. Try one of our breathing activities from Conscious Discipline.
- Give your full attention when listening to your child's feelings. Some feelings are hard to accept, but a child can often work these feelings out by talking about them.
Upcoming Dates to Remember
- January 13: Hearing Screening...all 4 & 5 year olds in our building will participate in hearing screenings. This is conducted by Oakland Schools and will take place in the afternoon.
- January 18: No School
- January 28 & 29: Half Days...dismissal at 11:15.
Room 205 Kindercubs
Sandi Larkins, teacher
Vicki Flood, classroom aide
Email: sllarkins@clarkston.k12.mi.us
Location: 6397 Clarkston Road, Clarkston, MI, United States
Phone: 248-623-4376