Thursday Thoughts

Thursday, April 4th 2013

As the Cardinals have participated in more school-wide experiences, we have become aware of the Abington Friends community and the people in it who work together. One of the important people who is a vital piece of our Abington Friends team is our caretaker, Dave, who is responsible for our grounds.  Today, the Cardinal class celebrated Dave's 20th year of service here at our school. We used colorful foam stickers in a variety of shapes to create a display of our appreciation on a large card. This provided the opportunity for us to continue to take ownership of our work and practice our fine motor and writing skills by signing our names.

Our Cardinals have truly formed bonds with their peers and through their interactions, have developed heartfelt relationships with each other's families. During morning drop-off, children often form pods around a parent reader or a family member who is assisting in one of our morning routines such as question of the day!

During Choice Time, our children enjoyed continuing their Mondrian-inspired art pieces today. They used glue sticks and the black strips of construction paper to create structured layouts forming shapes such as squares and rectangles.

During Morning Meeting, the children were invited to revisit the invitation of seed packets and starter pots provided by Wyatt's Mom, Lauren. As Paula showed the list of seeds with the details relating to each type, one Cardinal recalled, "That's the seed directions!" The Cardinals are excited to begin the planting process tomorrow. The teachers explained how we began soaking the seeds today in small tins of water to prepare them for germination and allow the seeds to break open easier and begin sprouting.

The discussion of planting seeds led us to review our results and data of our Science Investigation: "Do all apples have the same number of seeds?" We examined each child's napkin of data with the scientific label including the name of the scientist, the type of apple, the written number of seeds and the picture representation of the amount of seeds with each glued on the napkin. We compared each category of apples and the number of seeds on each and asked, "Do all the napkins with the red apple seeds have the same number?" After comparing the numbers in each category color, we came to the scientific answer of our question and determined that all apples do not have the same number of seeds. The answer to our question is: No.

Music with Jason

Outdoor Discoveries and Play

Thursday Before Spring Break

March 21, 2013

Today was the last day before Spring Break and the Cardinals had a very busy time filling the day with as many fun activities as we could fit into our morning! We started our morning by welcoming our middle school partners who spent the rest of the morning helping and sharing in our classroom. Together we went to the Lower School Assembly. Just like all the big kids in Lower school, the Cardinals sat and listened and watched as several of the older kids shared some of what they have been learning this year, and listened to announcements and even joined in singing the community song which is sung at the end of every assembly.

After assembly, we returned to our classroom and welcomed even more friends into our Cardinal home. Paula's son Evan, his wife Nicole, and their son Harrison stopped by to see what the Cardinals have been doing since their last visit. The children were wonderful hosts sharing their classroom with all of these guests and showing everyone around their favorite activities.

Some of the areas the children enjoyed working in today included the block area, magnet tiles, sand table, journals, and legos. At the back table, Shannon had set up our latest science experiment which we have been working on since our walk to Acme. The children have taken on the role of the scientist as they have examined the apples, formed questions, collected data and evidence and recorded all of our information. They are now beginning to understand the steps that a scientist follows when conducting an experiment. After coming up with our hypotheses, dissecting the apples, and analyzing the results, a few resourceful Cardinals recycled our apple pieces to create some appley art with apple printing in paint.

After a productive choice time, some second graders arrived and we invited even more friends into our already full classroom. These second grade friends had been learning about story telling and they wanted to share their knowledge with the Cardinals. The children sat attentively and listened to a group of storytellers tell us fun, animated tales. The second graders created pictures in our minds as they conducted this dramatic form of storytelling by adding motions, altering their voices, and spoke in great detail! We thanked these friends and packed up our choice time to head outside for some fresh air. A short story together ended our last day before Spring Break together! School will reopen on Tuesday, April 2nd.

Fun Filled Friday

Friday, February 15

Our Friday Morning began quietly as the children slowly arrived ready to begin their day. Many explored in the sandbox, using some of our recycled sculpture materials as containers to fill and dump, creating hands-on experiences with volume, measurement and other beginning math concepts.

 The block area welcomed the return of Carlos, Xander, Samuel and Jayden, with other Cardinals visiting throughout the day, as they added to a structure started yesterday. 

Another invitation for the children was watercolors. This art experience allows the children  the opportunity to display their creativity as they use their fine motor skills in delicately moving the smaller paintbrush across the paper. Attention to detail and patience were both displayed at this center as the children practiced drawing faces, making oceans, and created other scenes as gifts to their friends. The bonds between the children are growing every day as they find little ways to express kindness such as this.

The Science center also proved to be a popular stop this morning. It began when Stella asked, "Would anyone like to do science with me?". A group of Cardinals came over and watched closely as Stella demonstrated investigation skills by using a magnifying glass to observe a rock. The Cardinals at this center began reciting science terms such as rock, mineral and diamond. They continue to expand their knowledge of properties of matter as they compare and contrast the different objects in this area depending on color, texture, size, weight and other physical attributes. 

Meanwhile, another group of children worked alongside friends in the block area, constructing a connected track layout. They aligned the tracks to form a path and began discussing how long or short the pieces were. In the construction process, the children demonstrated emerging math skills such as measuring, comparing and contrasting length, and sorting the types of tracks.

As we settled into our morning together, we gathered for our meeting on the rug. We began with our moment of silence and welcomed each friend to school with our Good Morning Song.  After our intriguing conversation about shapes yesterday, the children were introduced to a new way to explore shapes. We began by reviewing the number of sides that each shape has and looked at pictures of the shapes in the Shape Book. Then, marshmallows and toothpicks were displayed as tools to assemble the different shapes we see all around us. We discussed how the toothpicks were the straight sides and the marshmallows would help us in the connecting of the sides! The children eagerly identified how many of each material they would need depending on the shape they wanted to create. This "Marshmallow Math" center was a place that all the children wanted to visit. After some exploration with creating shapes at the center, some children continued to work on more elaborate 3-D structures with the materials. As they worked, the children were excited to point out the shapes they could see in their creations. Of course, we were also excited to eat a few of the marshmallows as well! Invite your child to identify what shape he/she created, what it looks like, how many sides it has and what other things in the world around us are that shape.

We continued our discovering as we spent the rest of our day in our outdoor space. The beautiful weather set the stage for the children to freely explore in their areas of interest. Looking in, you can see the dance parties, sand digging, building, and imaginative play all happening in small groups spread out throughout the area.

Enjoy the three day weekend, as we have off for President's Day on Monday. We look forward to seeing everyone back at school on Tuesday!