Week 3

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As we continue to build our classroom community and get to know each other, we have started a tradition called Person of the Week.  Our friend was invited to share something with the class each day of the week and was interviewed by the class on Friday.  We found that even students who have known each other for 4 years can still be surprised and learn new things about their friends. We look forward to learning more about each other each week. 

We continued numeracy work by discussing and showing different ways to represent a number.  Students worked together to create visual resources to post near their table groups to show the ways they best like to represent numbers.  The 5 most used ways included: written form, expanded form, tally marks, number line, and drawing base 10 blocks.  When surveyed, drawing base 10 blocks was by far the favorite. 

Another focus this week was the difference between gross and fine motor movements.  We walked to Roger’s Park to practice our gross motor movements such as running, jumping, and climbing.  In the classroom, we started coloring mandalas to practice the fine motor movements involving hands, fingers, and wrists.

The Otters Make a Mark

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This week our focus was on creativity and the artist within each of us.  We read The Dot by Peter Reynolds which shares the story of a girl who does not see herself as an artist until her teacher challenges her to “make a mark” and sends her on a journey of creativity and self-discovery.  After reading the story we used different mediums to create dots each day.  We used watercolor paints, tempera paints, chalk on paper and chalk on the sidewalk.  We also watched a video with a dot song created just for International Dot Day – check the Watch and Listen tab to see us singing along.  On Friday, we celebrated International Dot Day which is named for the book we read and is celebrated by students in 169 countries around the world!  One student summarized the theme of The Dot and Dot Day by saying that it shows us to “see how your imagination can take a blank piece of paper and turn it into a masterpiece.”  We concluded Dot Day by having a gallery walk  to admire our masterpieces and all of the unique ways that we could create with just a dot.  It was dotastic!

Welcome Back

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This week we spent time getting to know our classroom and reconnecting with friends old and new.  In our classroom choice time we explored building with Rigamajig and Quadrilla.  We made Love Rocks, leaf rubbings and wrote letters.  Our favorite class activities this week were buddy reading and painting our names.  Outdoors we enjoyed seeing the growth of plants in the Piazza and having the space to run free in the Outdoor Classroom.