Our first two sessions of ECO have been fantastic.  Much of our time has been focused on learning ECO routines and expectations that will be in place for the whole year.   We always stop in the field when we get off the bus to play a game and have a whole group meeting, which includes thinking of something we are thankful for and singing a song.  Then we quietly make our way into the forest where we settle in for snack and hear a story.  This is followed by our main activity for the day.  Finally, children visit their sit spots, where they write or draw in their journals before we come back together for a closing circle.  The success of this is built on several important expectations.  These include staying within the designated boundaries and making sure we can always see an adult, respecting the safety circle when we are having having snack, and following the three cares:  take care of yourself, take care of each other, and take care of the earth.  Ask your child to tell you about these!

Last week we met with our third and fourth grade learning partners for the first time.  This is a really nice way for kindergarteners to build a connection with older students.  We will continue to meet on a regular basis, often to read together, but sometimes to engage in other activities across content areas.

One of our daily routines is reading independently.  During this time children spread around the room and find a space by themselves where they can focus on reading quietly.  This will be especially important when I begin direct reading instruction.  We began this routine by talking about three ways to read a book- read the pictures, read the words, or retell a familiar book.  While children are not yet able to read words, they do an amazing job of using the pictures to tell themselves both familiar and unfamiliar stories (sometimes their versions are even more interesting than the actual story!)  This has been a time when the class has been completely engaged and we have been reading to ourselves for up to 15 minutes.  Several children have also expressed a great desire to learn to read words, so this week I also introduced reading bags, which will become an essential part of our independent reading routine.  Right now children have two books in their bags, Children in Mrs. Beattie's Class, and another book called I See with just three words on each page and a predictable pattern.  With these books they are able to practice reading each other's names as well as some simple sight words such as "I" and "see".

We have finished sharing artifact bags.  While many of the children in the class already knew each other quite well, I now feel like I have a much deeper sense of the class.   As the bags were shared we worked on speaking with a loud clear voice and listening with our whole bodies, making sure we were really focusing on what the speaker was saying and trying to think of thoughtful questions.  We will continue to practice these skills through regular sharing time as part of our morning meeting.  Because our class is small I don't think it is necessary to assign a sharing day, but I ask that children share no more than once a week, and it is fine to not always share in a given week.  I strongly encourage shares that aren't toys, for example books, objects of special significance, or telling shares.  However, I have had really interesting conversations with past classes about what constitutes a toy (legos are toys, but may involve some really creative building), so children may share anything knowing that most shares will then spend the day in backpacks.

Sharing an artifact bag- great practice in speaking and listening.

This week we welcomed several monarch caterpillars into our classroom.  These will serve as a catalyst for our first science unit, which focuses on sorting and classifying plants and animals and the differences between living and non-living things.  We spent some time observing the caterpillars and drawing scientific pictures of them (trying to draw exactly what we see).   Some of the things we noticed were they are quite small right now, but eating constantly.   They have black, white, and yellow stripes and two antennae.  Sometimes they eat upside down, and they can hang their bodies out off of one leaf while they munch another- they must have sticky feet!  We also talked about what it means to take good care of them while they are with us including making sure they have plenty of fresh food and always using calm, gentle bodies and voices when we are near their house.

Our growing caterpillars.

Making and documenting thoughtful observations.

On Thursday morning, Lindsey Vandal, who will be our ECO leader, came for a short visit to introduce herself and meet the children in our class.  We spent some time outside searching for bugs and  learning a few of our ECO routines and expectations.  ECO will begin next Wednesday, September 9th and continue every Wednesday morning through November 11th.  There is a more detailed letter explaining the ECO program in your child's green folder.   We are very excited to spend time in the forest!

Searching for bugs!