Thursday, we completed the graph that went with our Patten Block Snowflake (PDF page under “P”).  

We also read Silly Sally and I showed the children how to act out the story using the Drama Props.  We also did Cut Up Sentences and we really got some of the sentences mixed up! 🙂  We also completed our first 6×6 Sudoku puzzle (using shapes) and have started on another one.  

We also checked in on the Monarch Butterflies in Mexico and watched a slideshow from www.journeynorth.org

We watched a movie about Dental Health and will talk more about that and Nutrition next week. I reviewed some of the basic topics covered in the movie (I got it from Colgate a few years ago, along with teeth brushing booklets and toothpaste samples and coupons and a board game).  They still offer them, however you have to request them in September to be sure to get them in February each year.  They are available in English and Spanish. 

I also spent some time after school organizing my books by month/theme.  They were like this already on the bookshelf, but I couldn’t find them when I needed them, so I decided to switch to this:

I’m still working on it, but basically each month has it’s own tub/or theme has it’s own tub and they are in the order that I use them in the year.  I am in the process of dumping things out of other tubs to steal them to use for this project! 🙂  When the month changes, I can just pull the tub I need and set it on my bench and pull books from there all month long and then put it back on the shelf when I’m done with it and pull the next tub.  I also need to have a general tub for books that can be read anytime.  My hope is to take up some of the next shelf as well and add more books to each tub that are scattered around the room in several places.  Today, after school, I plan on tackling the Library Work Station to reclaim my Arthur and Clifford books–hey, those are in tubs–I can steal those tubs too! 🙂

On Friday, I had the children play a different heads/tails game:

The children had to shake a penny in their small Dixie cup and then pour it out gently on their paper.  They then had to cut out the appropriate picture and glue it on their graph.  After 10 minutes, I stopped them and they totaled up their graphs and wrote those numbers down.  We again, made a class graph to show the results of everyone’s papers and found that heads was again, most likely to come up! 🙂

I also introduced the children to a game I learned from my friend Karen Berman, called Enchanted Forest:

You will need Attribute Blocks: 

or some other manipulative that has at least two attributes (like these farm animals have two sizes and are 8 kinds of animals, and come in several colors):

Here’s how you play:

1. Each child randomly picks one attribute block (I dump them all out on the floor and have a few children at a time choose one)

2. They put the block on the floor in front of them and you look to see what attributes you have to choose from (thick, thin, red, blue, yellow, big, little, etc.)

3. Choose an attribute and do not tell the children what it is.  (for example, thin, yellow shapes)  You can pick one, two, or three attributes.

4. Have each child one at a time ask you, “Will this key get me into the Enchanted Forest?”

5. If the shape meets your criteria, then you answer yes and that child lays their shape on the floor in front of you.

6. If you say “No”, then the child returns the shape to you and you put it away.

7.  Let everyone have a chance to ask and then ask if anyone knows what the “key” was.  

8. I then put the shapes back on the floor and we play again and again and again!  They beg to play! 🙂

Have a great weekend!

Kristen 🙂