Memories of Monday

The children enjoyed returning to school after the weekend and greeted one another with smiles. Our morning routines of signing in and question of the day have taken on meaning for the Cardinals as they show increasing time and dedication to each task. The sign in table has become an area of morning conversation as the children share their thoughts and weekend activities with each other. "How are you?" and "I had a sleepover this weekend! Did you ever do that?" were some comments and thoughts overheard today. Our question, "Can you find 3 rectangles?" posed a challenge that the children took on with pride. This goal directed their focus and they began counting sides, asking themselves, "Does it have 4 sides?" and commenting, "I only found 2. I need to find one more!"  Familiar routines such as this provide the children with stability and an awareness of what to expect that is vital to their growing sense of self and independence. Through question of the day, we continue to provide the children with the opportunity to practice reading beginning sight words, practice one to one correspondence and experience other math concepts such as identifying shapes.

During Choice Time, the children have become more interested in playing board games. Today, Nature Lotto was set out as an invitation on the rug. In small groups, the children played this game taking on the role of matcher or card caller. Social skills such as taking turns and compromising were essential pieces to helping the game run smoothly. As the children participated, they were able to identify plants and animals, describe traits seen in the photos and match the same photo with its corresponding bingo card. In the Cardinal class, being helpful and caring for each other as just become a way of life and in this game in particular, it was clearly evident in how the children called one another's name to help them get a matching card if they had missed it at first glance! 

During our Choice Time, an impromptu concert appeared in our hallways with Kindergarten performing a special Earth Day Song.  The children excitedly gathered in the hallway and danced along as they listened to their older peers sing about our home. Our older peers in Kindergarten are role models and inspired conversations about helping the planet Earth that continued throughout the morning. During Morning Meeting, the children began to share ways in which we can help the planet. We played a game in which we classified things people do or acts we may see and put them into two categories: helpful or not helpful for Earth.

Before lunch, as an extension to our morning discussion, we read the story, Miss Rumphius, which tells the story of Alice Rumphius and how she set out to make the world look more beautiful. This sparked our conversation again and the children each shared ways in which we can help Earth, including "You could pick up the trash and make sure you don't put trash into the water or the fish will go somewhere else", "Putting the stuff in the trash and not leaving it on the ground or in the house", "By planting stuff. Daisies.", and "We can plant more flowers. I do that every fall." Discussions such as this build expressive language skills and help the children make personal connections to the stories we read.

Enjoy Other Photos from the Day: Connecting with Nature and Each Other!