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!

Building, Cooking, and Herb Observations!

What a Wednesday!

We began our morning checking in on our herb infused oils. We examined the jars closely and noticed some herbs had floated to the top while other pieces sank to the bottom. We did not see a drastic change in the color of the oil and are looking forward to checking back to see this process unfold!

After a very busy Choice Time, we gathered on the rug and Paula showed us the materials she had purchased for us to display our gratitude for the people in our community. Paula purchased seven boxes of Pumpkin bread and introduced us to the different measuring and mixing materials we would need for the delicious display of "Thank You" to the people who work in our school and help the Cardinal Class. We happily engaged in the cooking process creating pumpkin breads to perform our very own acts of kindness for Debbie, Crissy, Jason, Sam, Gwen, Tricia and one for our class.

We want to express our Thanks to everyone for all the help and support they provide to our school, including the teachers and the children especially during this special time of year. We wish everyone a happy Wednesday and want to remind you that there will be no school on Friday as it is Conference Day! 

A Day filled with Kindness

Kindness

Today, the Cardinals explored the value of kindness. First the teacher, introduced the word "kind" and even posted the question, "Is it kind?" on our question board.  We described how our bodies and minds feel when we are experiencing kindness. We began thinking about this very important question that we can ask ourselves as well.  We began discussing the different words we use with each other and gave examples of kind things we can say or do in situations with our friends. We continued to use this guiding question as we read stories throughout the day as well. One described a lady who lived in a tree (and allowed others to join her after a bad storm) and another called, Hey Little Ant by Phillip M. Hoose. The children helped to determine if the characters in this story were kind and what they might do instead! 

Smoothie Making

After a peaceful Morning Meeting, and our growing sense of community, the Cardinals enjoyed Choice Time. Shannon introduced the class to one center for the day, the Smoothie Center. Shannon brought one of her favorite kitchen gadgets, a blender, in for the class to use! The fresh ingredients were set out too and included bananas, peaches and raspberries. This sparked the curiosity and hungry bellies of our class.  Many Cardinals chose to visit this center displaying cooperation, responsibility and patience as they engaged in the mixing and blending process. The Cardinals exercised their fine motor skills as they helped to slice bananas and the other fresh ingredients for our delicious drink.  Each Cardinal then participated in measuring and scooping, exploring Math concepts in a hands-on way. The end product showed us how a tool, such as the blender, can change the consistency of solid products into a liquid that is smooth enough to drink!

The Kindness Continues...

Outdoor time was full of explorations as we worked in the sand, building, and grassy areas. Then we ventured inside for a group story and were surprised by a visit from a previous AFS teacher named Meghan. She read and shared with us how she is teaching in another school. We enjoyed hearing her story and shared many of our own with her as well. Our morning was wrapping up quickly and as our day passed by, we found that we had leftover smoothies! We decided that it would be nice of us to share our drink with our neighboring teachers and helpers throughout the school. Lunch time arrived and we decided to gather together and read about the holy day, Yom Kippur, as we set the tables. We learned this is a holiday about forgiveness in Jewish Tradition and it seemed to fit so easily with the concept of kindness. The children were excited to hear what Paula might be doing on this special day and participated in many conversations with their teachers as they ate. 

Hope our families had a day filled with kindness just as the Cardinal Class did today. It would be great to further explore the concept and idea by asking your child what they can do to show kindness. We even drew pictures of this in our journals! Take a second and peek inside at your child's thoughts.