Obstacle Courses
/This week several student authors published new stories and shared them with the class. Some of the stories were fantasy while others were nonfiction or personal narratives. Sea Lion tutors have been visiting our classroom to help with editing and publishing. This week we've been having daily class meetings with the Sea Lions to discuss important social emotional and executive functioning strategies. Specifically we've been discussing what leadership looks and sounds like. We've discussed how to be a role model in the hallway. We've brainstormed ways to enter play with classmates in a way that is productive and effective. Together we discovered that an excellent way to enter a group already playing is to observe first to determine some of the rules and customs of the game, and then ask to play second. We acted out different scenarios to practice these skills. We discovered that observing, then asking to play, is much more effective than simply jumping into the game and disrupting the flow. We also discussed what it feels like to be excluded from an activity. We brainstormed ways to help each other feel included. Together Otters and Sea Lions constructed obstacle courses in the outdoor classroom. We celebrated Miles' birthday and did an informal pre-assessment to ascertain what knowledge students already have about the properties of light and sound. On board game Friday we played a variety of board games including Kingdomino, Sum Swamp, Chess, Mancala, Robot Turtles, and Knock Out. Students are becoming increasingly proficient at using multiplication and addition to determine the worth of their territories in Kingdomino. We continued to watch the construction progress and sidewalk demolition around Berglund. Student engineers created some amazing Rigamajig structures and we did some shape brainteasers that involved cutting squares into fourths that were equal in size but not shape.
