A Monday with the Cardinals

On this day...

The Cardinals began by taking a short walk to the library where Gwen had a special story to share with us. She introduced us to Elephant & Piggie, two friends who have many stories written about them. Today's story was Should I Share My Ice Cream?, and we got to watch as Elephant thought through the dilemma of deciding to share with his friends. Gwen explained the idea of sharing as a meaningful introduction to the giving and thoughtful nature of the upcoming holiday, Thanksgiving. After the story, Gwen let us take both the book, and our new friends back to our classroom where she thought we would enjoy acting out our own Elephant & Piggie adventures. They certainly became essential characters in many stories that the Cardinals began acting out!

During choice time, in following with our current building theme, we opened up a list of "Types of Buildings" and as the Cardinals passed by, they suggested different kinds of buildings they have seen. We listed them and found that we had a rather extensive list that had nineteen different types of buildings including an airport and dress store. We practiced one to one correspondence and number recognition as we worked with our list identifying the different types of structures that would fit into this category. This language experience provided us with an opportunity to build our vocabulary while becoming more familiar with sight words that we may encounter during this study of buildings. During a quick meeting after choice time, we talked about our list and even added to it as we talked through the various places we may have seen or visited.  

After our meeting together, we enjoyed the inviting fall weather in our outdoor classroom. In small groups, children also worked inside with different shaped blocks creating their very own buildings. Each child carefully chose shapes to represent different parts of their structures and clearly explained specific details about their work. Their attention, patience, dedication show a strong interest in this study. Their growing knowledge of buildings is becoming apparent as they engage in activities such as this and many questions are beginning to come up, creating possible avenues for our study to follow. In this activity, the Cardinals used their fine motor skills to squeeze glue and position blocks on a cardboard platform. Each child explained then created their own "building story", identifying each by name and discussing the parts or shapes as rooms, people, or other aspects of their sculpture art. 

After outside time, we joined together on the rug for a shared read-aloud of Thanksgiving is Here, in which a family all gathered at Grandma and Grandpa's. The story shared one perspective of how this tradition can be celebrated through a family dinner experience. It showed a family structure including aunts, uncles, cousins, and even friends all engaging in responsibilities and fun activities around cooking, cleaning, and the sharing of a meal! Hope everyone had a wonderful Monday morning as the Cardinals sure did in our room! 

Just a reminder - It's a short week, Half Day on Wednesday, School Closed on Thursday and Friday. Thank You!