Most days in our class children have an opportunity to read to themselves.  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 most children in the class can't yet read words, we can all look at the pictures and use them to make sense of the story.  We have a large collection of wordless picture books in the class which are great for practicing this skill.  Some favorites seem to be Chalk by Bill Thomson, Rainstorm by Barbara Lehman, and The Chicken Theif by Beatrice Rodreguez.  Right now we are reading to ourselves for about 7 minutes, gradually increasing our time as we learn all parts of this routine.  Last week I introduced children to their reading bags which will become an essential part of this routine as well.  Right now they have two books in their bags, one is a book of nursery rhymes, and the other is a class book about us, a copy of which I have sent home as well.   For now these books are a great way for us to learn each other's names, but we will use them over and over throughout the year as we practice different reading skills.  The copy that came home is for you to keep.

We also read the book Sometimes I'm Bombaloo by Rachel Vail.  Ask your child to tell you what it means to be bombaloo.  We talked about that fact that everyone feels bombaloo sometimes (even adults) and discussed strategies for calming down when we are feeling bombaloo.  Some of the ideas were taking deep breaths, counting, drawing, finding a space alone, looking at a book, and looking at a drip toy (these have proven to be very popular in our room).

Our monarch caterpillars are changing rapidly.  When we arrived this morning we had three chrysalids, two caterpillars hanging, ready to become chrysalids, and one caterpillar still munching and growing.  During choice time we were lucky enough to see one of the hanging caterpillars shed its skin and wiggle its way into a chrysalis!

A couple of you have asked about our specials schedule.  We have gym and music on Mondays, library and French on Tuesdays, no specials on Wednesday, gym on Thursday, and art and technology on Friday.  Sneakers are best for gym on Mondays and Thursdays.

What an amazing group of children in our class this year!  I am astounded at how quickly they are learning all of the expectations and routines even as new ones are added each day.  We are making our way through artifact bags, using this opportunity to really practice being good listeners to see how much we can learn about each classmate.  After a classmate shares we are practicing asking questions to find out more, or just stating something we learned from the share.  About half of the children in the class have shared and I would love to have everyone share by the end of the week-if your child hasn't gathered items for his or her bag yet please help them with this soon.

We began writer's workshop today by writing about one thing we did this weekend.  Because most of us can't yet write words, we talked about using a picture to tell the story,  then adding pretend words, or letters we know, or maybe even beginning sounds to label parts of our pictures. As children are writing Susan Laskaris, who is with us each morning, and I had individual children tell us about their pictures while we wrote the words for them.

Today we also introduced several monarch caterpillars to our classroom.  These amazing creatures will be a main focus of our first science unit, which focuses on sorting and classifying plants and animals and the differences between living and non-living things.  We had a really nice discussion about how we need to care for these caterpillars while they are in our room, including making sure they have food and water and having calm and quiet bodies when we are near them.

Sharing an artifact bag.

Writing about the weekend.

Our monarch caterpillars.

A few of the things we have done in the last couple of days:

• learned about morning meeting, which includes greeting each other (right now I am modeling this by greeting everyone), singing "Down By the Bay" using rhymes that classmates think of, and reading our morning message
• explored materials that we will use during math stations
• met our 3rd and 4th grade learning partners
• practiced looking at books quietly
• talked about our hopes and dreams for the school year
• practiced being really good listeners as several classmates shared their artifact bags

We have also continued to practice basic routines and expectations including following directions, cleaning up materials, and always using gentle hands and bodies and kind words.  Thank you to those of you have returned red folder information so quickly!

Exploring math materials.

Working with 3rd and 4th grade partners.

Illustrating a wish for the year.

Happy first day!  Your children were amazing today, from sitting quietly through an assembly to start the day, to maneuvering the lunch line and cafeteria routine, and everything in between.  The first day is perhaps the most challenging because everything is new and needs to be explained- your children were wonderfully patient and respectful as they began learning our basic routines.  I would guess that for most children outside time or free choice were favorite times of the day!  Information from the red folders can be returned to me or directly to Kathi.  I appreciate the effort it takes to fill out all of the forms, but the sooner we have the information the better.  I will provide more details about our days and post some pictures very soon.  Thank you again for your support and please thank your child for a fantastic first day!

For our final science unit we have been focusing on states of matter, specifically looking at solids and liquids.  Last week after investigating properties of solids and liquids we discussed their differences.   We then spent some time experimenting with water drops on different surfaces.  Water is very fun on waxed paper!  Becca, who spends her days in our classroom, shared a wonderful art project idea that we completed this week using old crayons.  Your child can tell you about this.  Finally, for the unit assessment today we conducted a matter experiment using popsicles, documenting the changes at four different intervals.  There was an extra popsicle for everyone to eat later in the day.

We have started cleaning up the classroom and there is definitely a sense that the year is coming to a close.  Today we revisited some books we read at the beginning of the year, a little blast from the past,  and it was our last Mrs. Beattie's restaurant lunch.  It has been a fantastic year and having it come to a close is very bittersweet.  Thank you for all of your support throughout the year.  It has been an absolute pleasure and joy to spend my days with your children!

This morning kindergarteners got a jump on sprucing up the school grounds by helping Joe move a very large load of sand into the two sand boxes.  They were such enthusiastic helpers that many chose to continue the job during choice time!  It feels a bit like we've been to the beach (I have lots of sand in my hair) but it is very satisfying to have full sand boxes again.

We have finally completed our animal research books including beautiful covers.  This has been a long process involving lots of hard work and perseverance.  Next week we will begin shoe-box projects to go with these, and we are planning to share the books with our third and fourth grade learning partners before they come home.

Moving sand, bucket by bucket!

I'm sure you will all hear about our morning of boat building in the forest.  As we were eating snack Angie told us a tale about a raft-building chicken while she demonstrated some boat building techniques.  Then everyone had time to gather materials in nature to make their own boats.  When everyone was done we said goodbye to the forest and headed down to a sandy beach on the edge of the river.  Angie launched the boats one at a time while we cheered from the shore.  All of the boats were a great success, whether they traveled a few feet or are still on their journey.  We even caught a glimpse of three boats passing under the bridge on our way back which was thrilling!

This week during writing we have been creating poems by drawing an object and writing words to describe it around the edge of the picture. We have also been enthusiastically observing tadpoles and documenting their changes in our science notebooks.