We have begun a social studies unit exploring similarities and differences among people.  We have focused particularly on children, with emphasis placed on similarities among children all over the world.  We began by reading the book This is How We Do It:  One Day in the lives of Seven Kids from around the World, by Matt Lamothe.  This book follows seven children from morning through evening as they go through a day, describing where they live, who they live with, what they eat, and how they spend their time on a typical day.  As we read each section we compared ourselves to the children portrayed.  We also read the book One World, One Day by Barbara Kenley, which takes the reader through a day on Earth, moving from place to place as time passes.  While the children in these books can have vastly different lives depending on what part of the world they live in, with the focus on simple routines that are common to most people (waking up, eating breakfast, going to school, playing) it is easy to see commonalities and make connections to our own lives. Next, pairs of children were given similar books and a pack of sticky notes (which are extremely motivating!) with the task of finding at least five connections between children in the book and themselves.  Some of the connections students noticed were children playing with pets, children helping with chores, a family having a celebration, a child playing in the snow, and children jumping rope.

We also read the book Shades of People, by Shelley Rotner and Sheila M. Kelly, which makes the point that "our skin is just a covering, like wrapping paper" and doesn't reveal much about the kind of person we are. We discussed the idea that if a new child came into our classroom we would know nothing about that child based on the shade of their skin, but would need to spend time getting to know them as a person to know if they were kind, funny, quiet, etc.  After reading this book we observed and drew eggs, trying to be as precise as possible, noting the different shades and unique features from speckles to stripes.  After children drew their eggs we cracked them open and noticed that while each egg is quite different on the outside, inside they were all much the same, like people.  With the coming day off from school, we connected this to Martin Luther King Jr.  When I asked if anyone knew who he was someone offered that "he was a man who believed you shouldn't treat people differently because of the color of their skin," which was a perfect, succinct connection to our lesson.

Last week we began a geometry unit in math.  Our focus thus far has been observing and describing 2-dimensional shapes, noting each shape's distinguishing features, such as number of sides and corners or vertices.  Children have had an opportunity to make shapes and designs on geo-boards and they also had an opportunity to think about shapes in the world by turning single shapes into pictures of real world objects.

Last week our class participated in the Christmas bird count.  It was a bit chilly so we didn't see huge numbers of birds, but it was fun to watch and tally what we did see.  Our greatest number was chickadees.  We also saw gold finches, juncos, blue jays, and a cardinal that generated great excitement each time he came into view.  Fortunately the count is based on the largest number of a species seen at one time so we didn't have to worry about children getting carried away with tallies on our charts!  Thanks to Patti Haynes for signing us up to participate in the count and keeping our feeders full.

We have finished learning lower case letters along with their corresponding sounds and written formations.  While we will continue to practice both letter recognition and formation regularly, we have also been spending time using letters and sounds to make and read words.  Some of the ways we have been practicing these skills include playing guess my word (also known as hangman),  reading words with the same ending, changing just the beginning sound to make a new word or sometimes even a nonsense word (map, cap, tap, sap, jap, vap), and using letter tiles to build words by breaking them down into their individual sounds.  For all of these activities right now we are focusing on three letter words with short vowel sounds.

We have also started reading emergent books with predictable patterns.  Some strategies we have been using to help us read are pointing to the words and making sure we say just one word for each written word, paying particular attention to the first letter and sound of a given word (while the English language has many inconsistencies, most often the first letter of a word corresponds to the first sound), recognizing familiar sight words, and using the pictures to make sense of the text.

While actually reading words is a critical component for reading development, it is just one small piece and children tend to master this skill at individual paces.  I often think of the acquisition of reading as very similar to the acquisition of walking: certain components need to be in place for children to acquire these skills.  As long as these components are in place, children will learn to walk and also learn to read but they might do this at very different paces. 

As children are learning to read, it is important for them to focus on their own growth and not compare themselves to other children.  This is a point I try to revisit often and I find that children easily relate to the comparison to walking.   Some children may have used the support of furniture or a steady hand to practice moving on two feet, while others just stood up one day and took their first independent steps almost instantly. Likewise, some children will spend a lot of time practicing reading before actually reading many words, while others will seem to start reading overnight.  Today they are all adept walkers and it would be hard to determine who learned to walk first based on their current walking skills.  Similarly, they will all become adept readers and eventually it will be impossible to tell how fast each child learned to read.

Finally, while we spend a significant amount of time working on reading words at school (and if children are interested it is certainly helpful to practice at home as well), perhaps the most important thing parents can do to support reading development is read aloud to your children and foster a love of books.

We had a lovely day for ECO on Wednesday.  Students did a fantastic job of remembering and following ECO expectations after three weeks away from the forest- they were even complimented multiple times by one of our adult volunteers!  Our focus for the morning was creating rabbitats - child made slash piles where a rabbit might safely hide from a predator.  Your child may be able to give you more details about the construction of these and even tell you a story to go along with their creation as well.  Next week we will check for evidence of any visitors to these shelters.

Children also had time for some forest choice - building, roasting apples, peeling sticks or some combination of the three!  Next week is our last ECO for the fall.  Thank you for all of your support in sending your children prepared for our time outside and also thank you to the many, many adults who have joined us for a session.