Climbing the Walls!

This week in P.E. we took advantage of a rainy day to try out the rock wall in the gym!  These guys are awesome little climbers!!!

In reading we are working on rhyming, comprehension and sequencing with the story Jazz Baby!   The class had a great time getting out our instruments and making some music after we read the story.  Then they practiced putting the story in order and worked on oral retelling skills.  We are continuing to work on letter sounds, letter ID, and "popcorn" words.  Because of the short week next week, the following week after Moose Days will be our first week with take home Popcorn Word folders.  

We continue to write in our journals several times a week... the kids' progress in writing is evident already!  We are really working on friendship and creating a classroom community, so this week I read the kids one of my favorite books of all time, The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein.  Then we talked about what kinds of things we would like to grow on our tree to give our friends and wrote about it in their journals!  Here is what the kids came up with during our brainstorming session!

In math we are exploring the concept of "equal" and learning the equals sign.  Once again we did Math in a Cultural Context (MCC Math) to help the kids understand this concept.  We watched a short video about Dora, a native woman whose family did commercial fishing in Bristol Bay with sailboats.  She talked about what would happen if the boats were loaded unequally.  Then we got out Playdoh to see if we could load our boats equally so they wouldn't tip over!  The kids used their bodies as a balance to "weigh" the balls and worked together with their team to figure out how to load their boats!  They were so excited when they got their boats to float!

Then we got out our balance and tried to make two balls equal to each other.  The extra challenge was then to make two halves equal to one whole ball.  It was a great intro to fractions!

Luckily the weather turned gorgeous later in the week and we were able to go out with Tim Lorenzini from Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge and do some plant ID and leaf collecting!

When we got back into the classroom Tim showed us how to use a plant press to press our leaves.  We'll check them in a week or so and see how they turned out!   Thanks to Tim and Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge for another fun outing!