Thank You, Omu!

This week we talked about our upcoming time away from school for Thanksgiving; a time many people think and share about feeling thankful, connecting their hearts with family. We thought about the word thankful and what it means. Children shared that the word thankful means to thank someone or to show love.

We looked at the word thankful and counted how many parts, noticed the letters and noticed the beginning. Sam said that the word thankful starts with the letter t, but it makes a different sound! Th work together to make one sound; th. We noticed the word the, thumb, and thump start like thankful.

We read the book Thank You, Omu! 

Omu makes a stew for dinner. While it simmers during the day, community members can smell her delicious stew. They knock on Omu's door and she offers each a bowl of her stew. At the end of the day her pot is empty. When she hears a last knock on her door, she opens it to see all of her community members. "I have no more stew for you", Omu says sadly. 

"We are not here to take, we are here to give!" All of the community members share food and stories with Omu. One child shares a kind note with the words, Thank You, Omu!

This story of kindness, love, and feeling thankful for the people in our community is told through colorful paper collage. We used the work Oge Mora to inspire our own paper collage. 

First the children thought about and wrote who or what they feel thankful for. Then they used paper to show who or what they feel thankful for, ensuring their collage matched their sentence. We remembered how Henri Matisse taught us to draw with scissors. The children used their scissors to draw their work, using different kinds of lines and shapes to add detail. 

The children's beautiful work is a collection of feelings; comfort, warmth, love and gratitude. 

the importance of choice

We recently introduced Academic Choice using essential standards to guide our choices. For example, learning about letter names and sounds can be done in many different ways; building letters using different kinds of lines, working with letter lacing cards, making alphabet books and posters using letter stamps, and exploring alphabet puzzles. 

A meaningful way to practice writing sight words can be done when writing a kind note; children are expected to use the words to, love, or the name of a friend. Kind notes is often the favorite choice in Kindergarten.

 

With children coming in at different times during the morning transition, we have been practicing a soft start to our day. Children are provided with a choice each morning. They can read from the books in their basket, practice their sight word rings, work on a letter book or build a new sentence for our class pattern book of what we see on the trail. 

This past week all of the children eagerly chose to read, cut, build, reread and illustrate a sentence for our class pattern book. I've laminated a picture of each sentence and attached them to a ring in the children's baskets, providing a meaningful way for children to practice essential reading skills.

The children have enjoyed a choice in the morning and this transition is a time for me to check in with students. We are slowly building a class book connected to our hikes without using additional time in our day. For children working on the sight word see, many of them have explained that they can find the word in their nature sentence. This is a smart strategy and demonstrates the importance of meaningful work and choice in student learning. 

Our morning transition has been one of the richest moments in our day. It's been a time to practice, reinforce, and make connections. It is a peaceful time. 

A little look at the morning transition...

Working with students during the morning transition!

exploring and writing about the trails

Nature Journals

Warm weather and a shared interest in collecting pinecones provided an invitation to practice the skill of scientific drawing. With clipboards in hand, we found space to work on the trail. The children carefully examined details in the pinecones and used black pens to draw like a scientist, adding the label pinecone to their work. Following our exploration and recording, the children eagerly collected pinecones to bring back to our classroom for us to sort and count!

Writing Workshop

This week we practiced using what we've learned about writing teaching books by starting a class book about hiking. The children thought about the important information we needed to include in our teaching book and we made sure to have information on every page. 

They practiced picturing the topic in their mind and using drawings and words to show detail. With each planned page, the writers used their own whiteboards to draw the information, stretch words and listen for the sounds they heard, and add details through action marks and labels.

All About Hiking

1. First you need your gear. Boots, a jacket, a backpack, water and snacks! 

2. Then you need your eyes forward and space between friends.

3. Make sure you are quiet when you hike in the woods, because you don't want to scare the birds!