We had a fantastic second day of ECO!  Last week during our first session we established routines that will stay the same all year- we always stop in the field when we get off the bus to play a game and have a whole group meeting.  Then we quietly make our way into the forest where we settle in for snack and hear a story.  Last week after snack we broke into small groups for a forest scavenger hunt and today everyone chose a spot next to a special tree to build a mouse house.   These will also be children's journaling spots throughout our time in the forest.  After our forest activity we gather back together to sing a song and pack up before our walk back to school.  Earlier in the week everyone had the opportunity to choose a nature name (or let the name choose them- we drew randomly).  These will become an integral part of our ECO lessons both in the forest and back in the classroom.

In math we have spent lots of time counting, matching numerals to quantities, and practicing numeral formation.  We will continue this throughout the year with increasingly larger numbers, and we are also now beginning to compare quantities and sequence numbers.

During read aloud we have been reading multiple versions of the same book, noticing similarities and differences.  Last week we read the Little Red Hen and this week we have focused on The Gingerbread Man.  We have also been reading Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems.  These books which quickly become favorites, are simple stories told through talking bubble conversations between Elephant and Piggie, a writing style that many have been trying out during writer's workshop. We have also been closely examining the illustrations and the way Willems uses lines or squiggles to show the emotions of his characters.

Playing a game in the field.

Mouse house construction.

A cozy mouse house!

Journal writing in the forest.