Aalva Class 2014 - 2015: Week One

Hello family and friends!

Welcome to our classroom blog! This will be a place where you can read about our weekly happenings, see pictures of what we've been up to at school, and hear some weekly reminders. I hope you will be encouraged by what you read each week as you watch us learn and grow.

This first week has been wonderful as we have welcomed both old and new CJDS friends into our classroom family. I have been amazed at how quickly everyone is already adjusting to our new routine. Everyone seems to be getting along well and we've already seen some new friendships starting to blossom. Michelle and I have sincerely enjoyed this first week and we hope your kids have been just as excited about it as we have been!

To start off our week, we decided to spend some time getting to know one another better, building a foundation of how our daily routines will run, and exploring different materials in our classroom. We have slowly introduced the students to one or two new routines each day. One of the first things we introduced was "Morning Meeting". This could very easily be my favorite part of the day! This is a time where we all sit down as a class to greet one another, share news/stories, read our daily morning message, sing songs, and read together. This is a great way to transition from home to school as well as welcome the kids and set the tone for the rest of our day. It develops a sense of community that creates trust, confidence, and inclusion. I plan this time to last about 15 minutes but keep it flexible depending on the interests of the students. On Thursday, our time lasted 30 minutes! The kids wanted to sing a particular song 4 times, they had tons of questions to ask, and plenty of stories/news to tell us about their week. There was a lot of laughing and smiles!

We have also spent a large part of the week exploring centers. Each day we would go to a different center as a class. We spent this time talking about what could be done in that center, what we were learning through our play, as well as appropriate ways to use the materials in the center. This is a guided discovery where we introduce and model the work that can be done and then allow the kids to explore. After exploring a center together, we let the kids branch out and explore the room on their own. There are countless ways to experience math, language, science, and socialization during center time. For example, 2 boys sat down together in our manipulative center. They pulled out the counting bears and began to group them by color. Afterwards, they began grouping by size and then counted the number of bears in each group. They were working through the process together. They then went into our science center and brought over the scale and began comparing the weight difference in each group. In a matter of minutes, we were able to informally assess math and science concepts, their socialization with one another, as well as their verbal language. This is just one great example of learning that takes place through play!

Next week we will be adding some workshop times into our classroom schedule. Throughout the week we will be doing workshops on math, reading, and writing. These workshop times will involve concepts such as math games, introductions to books, and introductions to writing/drawing journals. You'll hear much more about this in our next newsletter but I did want to give you some insight into what we will be focusing on next week. I feel confident that we will be in full swing in no time!

Each week in my post, I will be listing different standards we met throughout the week. While listing all of them would take awhile, I will be pulling out a handful to share with you. I think you'll be encouraged to see so many standards that are met in just one week! I will use the same language listed on the standards so you have a clear explanation of what was done. If you ever have any questions about them, please just let me know. Most of our standards will fall into one of four categories: 1) Approaches to Learning 2) Social & Emotional 3) Language and Literacy 4) Mathematics. Here are a list of just a few from each...

Approaches to Learning:

Show curiosity in an increasing variety of activites, tasks, and learning centers.
Demonstrate growing initivative in selecting and carrying out activities.
Show abiility to focus attention for increasing variety of chosen task and activities for short periods of time (10-20 minutes).

Social & Emotional:

Describe characteristics of self and others.
Use classroom materials responsibly, most of the time.
Develop friendship with one or two preferred children.

Language and Literacy:

Make relevant comments or appropriate responses to story events or characters.
Participate in choral speaking of poems, songs, and stories with repeated patterns.
Creates a picture and labels it orally.

Mathematics:

Use emergent mathematical knowledge as a problem-solving tool.
Classify objects in their environment by color, shape, size or function.
Begin to show an awareness of numbers in the environment.

Here are a few reminders for the week to come:
1) Family posters - We are sending home a small piece of white poster board with each child. This paper can be decorated by your child any way they choose. Make sure to fill it up with plenty of pictures of family, friends, pets, etc. This is a way for us to get to know one another and also allow them to have some familiar pictures at school. Each child will present their poster and then choose where they hang it up in the classroom. We want to laminate these so they can last throughout the year, so please make sure that the pictures are ones that you don't mind being laminated to the paper. These can be returned any day next week.

2) Take Home Folders - Each Friday we will be sending home a folder with your child. In it will be any artwork/projects they want to take home and also any paperwork for you to look over. Make sure to bring these back throughout the week so we can send them back home each Friday.

3) Sports Forms - Everyone should have received a yellow piece of paper earlier this week about participating in weekly sports at school. If you did not receive one please let us know. If you'd like your child to participate, just fill it out and bring it back to us.

We are looking forward to a wonderful school year! I'm excited to see just how much your sweet ones learn and grow in the next 9 months! As always, feel free to call, write, or stop by with any questions or concerns you may have. I hope everyone is ready for week 2 and enjoys their weekend! Enjoy a quick glimpse into our classroom...