Building Community Sept 9-13 — The Early Learning Community First-Second Grade

This week we continued to focus on building community and learning our routines. This week during project time students used microscopes to examine and capture photos of a variety of interesting things from nature. Student engineers collaborated to make Rigamjig and Magnatile structures. Much negotiating and problem solving took place as students were building together. Other students enjoyed coloring, painting, and creating in the art center. In math we continued our work with the calendar and hundreds chart, including skip counting. We practiced playing Mancala, Snap It, and Make Ten. While Mancala helps students develop strategic thinking, the other two games provide an opportunity for students to practice their math facts to ten. Students were randomly assigned partners for our math games in order to strengthen the connections between a variety of classmates. This week we also started our math books. First graders are working on adding single digit numbers, counting by five, and comparing numbers using the terms less than and greater than. Second graders are using the hundreds chart to solve trickier math problems and are solving equations with three addends. Outside Otters loved playing on our new turf, building waterways in the engineering sandbox, creating concoctions in the mud kitchen, and eating fresh fruit from our piazza gardens. This week during our literacy block we’ve been studying each others’ names through Otter Guess Who game. Students are getting better at reading the morning letter fluently and have been immersed in reviewing spelling patterns during our daily word work time. We’ve also been singing many songs and reading song lyrics- what a fun way to strengthen literacy skills! In writers’ workshop this week several students published stories and were able to share those stories with the class. This week teachers began conducting reading and spelling assessments to determine where students are in their literacy development. These assessments will help teachers determine next steps for instruction for each specific child. Overall the Otters sailed through our first full week together with much joy, laughter, and learning!