Tuesday, January 15, 2013

What Can You Make With Ten Black Dots?














Blankets on Day one

Nicholas and Ashley were the first two students to share their special treasures in Room 101.  We tried very hard to ask thoughtful questions and be good detectives as we  worked to find out what each of them brought in. 



Thursday, January 10, 2013

Patriot's Clothing Day

Mr. Lyons announced that tomorrow, January 11 would be Patriot's Day atPine Glen!
Students and staff who have and would  like to wear New England Patriot's  team colors or apparel are encouraged to do so tomorrow.

Afghan, Quilt or Blanket??

In the coming weeks we will be having lots of fun with afghans, quilts and blankets!  Each student will be assigned a day to bring one in.  It will be their job to keep their treasure a secret in the black bag they are issued.  We do not want anyone to see what it is until the special time!

We will try to answer the question as to whether students special treasure is an afghan, quilt or blanket as we play the game 20 questions to learn about it.  Then we have few minutes of sharing before we dive into the job measuring our treasures.

Comparisons will be made between them.  Which is the longest, shortest, etc.  We  practice measuring length, width and area using non-standard tools for measurement.  Our favorite job is measuring the area because we measure how many kindergartners fit in the area of our blanket!

Then, at a later date,  we will create new, paper quilts for each other.  In addition to looking colorful and showing that we can follow the pattern and directions, we are learning new things about each other. 

As you will see, the quilt projects will be a highlight during the winter months!

As part of the introduction to this project, Mrs. Parnell shared one of her favorite stories about patchwork quilts..............see the video introduction to the Reading Rainbow story we watched today.


Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Hermit crab


Fish!

 We dove right back to work when we returned from the break.  The past week we have been exploring the world of fish and creatures that live in the sea.  We have read about flounders, watched videos of horseshoe crabs and sea stars and touched and handles some of Mrs. Parnell's shell collection including sand dollars, sea stars and horseshoe crabs.   We also watched the hermit crab walk across the rug in our classroom!  The 4 year old crab, in it's colorful shell belongs to Mrs. Parnell's daughters.

In addition to learning about fish we are practicing addition! We have been doing addition math facts and are preparing for our math fact quiz! AND, we are beginning to learn about teen numbers!

Our study of the alphabet has moved on to writing the capital letters.  At a very fast pace we have covered the letters A-J already!

Room 101 friends are working hard.  In our journals we have written about vacation, things we wear in the cold weather and the characteristics of fish.

Things to come include our sharing opportunities with special blankets and more!

Students teaching Students!

This week room 101 students have had the pleasure of helping a fellow student.  Regis College freshman, Ms. R. is considering becoming a teacher.  As part of her learning and exploration experience she was asked to spend a week shadowing teachers in a classroom.  Ms. R is with us the entire time k students are at Pine Glen.  She is observing us and helping out at various tasks.