On Friday we participated in the Mad River Valley Christmas bird count.  During math, one of our stations was watching the birds at the feeder, recording the number of each kind of bird we saw at a given time (to ensure birds are not counted more than once, the highest number of each species is used in the official count). We began with children counting and sharing results for me to record on the official recording sheet, but quickly everyone decided to do their own recording.  In math we have spent lots of time talking about counting sets of objects in an organized way, making sure that each item is counted only once.  This was tricky with moving birds, but perhaps made it more exciting!  We observed goldfinches, nuthatches, chickadees,  downy woodpeckers, and tufted titmice.  We will share our results with Patti Haynes who is a member of the Mad River birders.   I was too busy recording totals to get many photos, but below is a picture of children recording their own data and avery brief video clip.

During reading we have started to read books that don't have a consistent predictable pattern, which means we really have to pay attention to the words.  We have talked about the importance of making sure that what we read matches the written text and we have worked on several strategies to help with this, including pointing to the words, getting our mouths ready with the first sound of each word, using the pictures, and asking ourselves if what we read makes sense.  We are also continuing to work on learning sight words, as knowing these when we come to them makes a huge difference in our ability to read fluently.

In math we have been exploring ways to compose and decompose numbers to 12.  We have done this in a variety of ways from tossing a set of two-color counters,  building two-color towers with legos or cubes, and playing multiple games that help practice these skills.  As we continue to work on these skills, students are beginning to recognize that each number can be made multiple ways (6 is 3 plus 3 and also 5 plus 1).  To promote flexible thinking we have also used a variety of models to represent our work.

On Friday morning Elizabeth Schwartz graciously joined us to present a puppet show about kindness and brightening the days of others with small kind acts.  She brought in loads of extra greenery to share with us and we spent time after the puppet show making bouquets and hangings, some of which came home and many that were shared around the school.  As a bonus our classroom smelled like eucalyptus and rosemary for the day!

As we are moving into the new trimester, we revisited our "Hopes and Dreams" from the beginning of the year and noticed that most of them have already been met.  We talked a bit about increased expectations as we progress through the school year and children worked on new "Hopes and Dreams".  While not all of these are academic in nature, as we took down the old ones we were struck by the change in both students' art work and their ability to write.  It is very motivating to pause and  reflect on our progress so far.

"I want to count to one hundred."

"I hope to sled with my class."

"I want to learn new letter sounds."

There has been a flurry of puzzle activity recently, and with such a small group we have enough table space to leave puzzles out and complete them over several days.  With this in mind I recently ordered several new, more challenging puzzles.  Working on puzzles is a wonderful way to work as a team and build spatial relations.

We are fortunate enough to have a bird feeder right outside one of our windows and it is fun to check in on the visitors (mostly birds) throughout the day.  To help maintain this interest we made a chart of the birds we've seen and children are keeping track of them by adding tallies to the chart, a great math skill that teaches them to see numbers in groups of five and ten.  On our first day we filled the space for chickadees with 37 tallies (based on their size I'm guessing some are spending most of the day at the feeder and getting tallied multiple times!).  We have now moved onto  a bigger chart. Chickadees and gold finches seem to be the most common, with frequent sightings of nuthatches, woodpeckers, and tufted titmice as well.

For the last several weeks we have been working on a mini-mapping project.  We began with a map of the classroom that I drew.  After reading the map as a class, each child hid a colored cube "treasure" and then marked the spot on the map with a colored x.  We traded maps and then found the hidden treasures.  We did the same thing outside on the playground, but children were given a map with only the sand box as a starting point.  They added other features they thought would help a friend find their hidden treasure and again marked the spot.  Finally, during our last ECO session we talked about features of our space in the forest that we would include on a map.  Our attempts to draw the maps were somewhat thwarted by the rain (dry erase markers don't work very well when it's wet!) but we were able to make a class map of the forest when we returned to school.  Each child then gathered small things from the forest that could be used in making a model of the space.  On Wednesday we began creating these models.  Most children started with our safety circle and then added other features in relation to that.  This is a challenging task but they seemed to really enjoy it and we will do more throughout the year.  Hidden treasure is always motivating!

We have been enjoying the fantastic weather this week, especially on Wednesday when we were out for ECO.  Children had some time to continue drawing in their field guides and they also helped Lindsey gather appropriate wood for our first real fire.  Ask your child about the different kinds of sticks they needed to collect.  Next Wednesday will be our last forest ECO until spring, although Lindsey will join us at school for a couple of winter sessions.

During writing, children have been working on stretching words to write as many sounds as they can.  Using this strategy and their knowledge of letter sounds, students are able to write independently and I am often able to read their writing.  This is a really exciting step and they have been extremely focused during writing time.  I told them I can almost hear their brains churning as they think about the sounds they hear and write the corresponding letters.   The class has also been doing a wonderful job of helping each other.  Sometimes it's easier to hear the sounds as a classmate stretches the word and helping a friend is a fantastic way to learn.

As they grow as writers, children are naturally in many different places.  Some are writing just first sounds  and maybe finishing one sentence in a writing block while others are able to finish multiple pages.  We had a conversation about the importance of not comparing ourselves to classmates, but working hard wherever we are and trying to grow a bit more as writers each day.  We imagined that it was exactly five years ago, and I guessed that at least a couple of children would have been speed crawling, if not walking, while a couple more may have just learned to sit up, and some would have just learned to lift their heads independently.  But now watching them run around on the playground these differences are unapparent.  Acquisition of literacy skills is very developmental and all of the kindergarteners are really excited about becoming writers.

A couple of weeks ago we planted corn seeds, comparing their needs to the needs of our caterpillars. We have been using our science notebooks to document their growth.  Children have been making scientific drawings, being as accurate as possible, paying attention to details such as color and shape.  We have also been working on using letters we know to label parts of the drawings.  We have made several drawings, showing the change over time.  This week during ECO several students became very interested in our field guides, which inspired some more scientific drawing as children create their own field guides.  Hopefully we will continue this during ECO next week.

On Wednesday we had our final all school read for the time being.  This time the whole school went to the gym and children partnered up to read several books.