Bridges, Dot Day and Forest K!

What a busy couple of weeks we've had! The children are really beginning to get the hang of our daily schedule. They have been enjoying getting to know each other through morning meeting activities, explore and choice times, and seem to love to chat and make each other smile during our snack times.

We have officially kicked off our Bridges Math Unit and the children are really enjoying all of the math materials that we have been using. We have been playing games with geoboards, polydrons, unifix cubes, pattern blocks and ten frame mats. The children do a great job in their small groups...they are a very friendly and cooperative bunch! Their creativity with the materials never ceases to amaze me! I have seen chilldren building rocket ships, porcupines, elaborate concentric patterns, towers, trains and more.

We had a wonderful time celebrating Dot Day on Thursday! We read the stories, "The Dot" and "Ish", by Peter Reynolds and practiced making our own marks with some individual and collaborative dot art. The children participated in a dot scavenger hunt all around the classroom and we played some Dot Day Bingo (while practicing our numeral ID) during math. Here are some photos of our festivities:

Forest Fridays continue to be a wonderful way to end our school week. We have officially chosen are sit spots and have been using sunny days to sneak out and practice taking quiet time and noticing the world around us in our special spots. The children were introduced to our Forest Friday Weather Journal and will take turns making these written/illustrated observations each week. We had some great observers yesterday...Here is what some children had to say about their sit spots and the weather:

Ryan noticed that the cattails look like corn dogs.
Eliott noticed that there was sun and a breeze and it felt really good.
Ellis was able to find little sticks to build her name at her sit spot and she saw yellow flowers and prickers.
Owen noticed two little holes at his sit spot.
Lillian relaxed on her tummy.
Zod has three tunnels of trees at his sit spot and three ways to get out.

This is what the children wanted to share with you about our forest time this week while co-authoring the blog post:

Lillian: We walked on a path.
Ella: There was really tall grass.
Eviana: We went on a hike and there was a river.
Eliza: [The river] was all dried out.
Eliott: I like how we went to our sit spots and enjoyed the nice view.
Cameron: I used binoculars. It makes things bigger.

We were able to start making and clearing out our walking path up the large hill. We will continue further up the hill next Friday.

Finally, I would like to say thank you to all the families who came out for Curriculum Night! I appreciate you taking the time to come share in your child's learning. The children are all very excited to see the little messages you made them.