Hakuna Matata

 The week flew by.  The children are excited with the upcoming break and Christmas.  We all had a wonderful week of learning, collaborating and making discoveries.  The week ahead will be a short one and we still have many great activities and events happening.

Amplify Science

The children are busy working in Science. They paired up this week and read the book Blackout.  They asked each other questions and worked on vocabulary.  They did an activitiy with their partner called: Shared Listening.  It is great to watch the collaboration that goes on.  

Writing:

 We worked on many writing activities this week.  We are finished with the narratives and we wrote stories about the best gift they ever received, which was also a narrative.  It was great to read about what they wrote.  Many wrote about materialistic items, while others wrote about things you can't buy, like family, friendships and love.  We also wrote about how to make the world a better place.

Reveal Math:

This week, I had Mrs.Graziano come in to do a lesson using the UPS check strategy.  This is a strategy that the district is using that involves solving word problems. The children worked together and solved a problem.  Once again, there were great discussions taking place as we listened to their ways of solving a problem.  Thank you Mrs. Graziano for showing us that it is ok to make mistakes and that we should show how we are thinking to get to an answer.  Her phrase to us was :

Social Studies:

We are learning about the different ways that people celebrate the holidays around the world.  Germany, Mexico, India and Italy are just a few of the countries that we have been discovering.  We will continue this week and finish it up by Thursday.  

In Germany we learned that Gingerbread originated there and so, we created mini gingerbread houses and gingerbread people.  The children loved to be involved in these projects.

Kindness Challenge:

We have been working on a kindness challenge this month thanks to our Elf Cocoa's suggestion.  Each morning we read what the challenge is and we try to live up to it throughout the day.

We have had challenges like give someone a compliment, call a family member that you haven't talked to in a while, and make cards for school workers.  The children enjoy listening to what the challenge will be and throughout the day, I see many of them doing the challenge.

 

Another act of kindness involves a book exchange which will take place on Wednesday.  The children will hold a book swap with each other and open up their new book.  I am looking forward to seeing how this will all go.  

Self Care/Social Emotional:

Our morning meetings continue with many wonderful discussions around respect, empathy and kindness.  This week we even had a meeting with Mr. Pacitto leading it.  We start each day and end each day with a breathing exercise to get us ready for the day and end our day on a positive note.  It is so nice to see the children taking part in them and following along with the video.  It helps keep us grounded and focused.

Spirit Week:

We are holding our Holiday Spirit Week with many wonderful themes each day.  Hope to see many of the children taking part.