WORK, WORK, WORK

Community day is always special but today it was so nice to look around and see how safe and comfortable friends feel in the classroom environment.  The children were using so many parts of the room Focused and engaged with their peers, collaborating and negotiating.


Working in your journal was one choice at the large table and creating sculptures, gluing small wood pieces together was at the other large table.

Construction workers had to work out how to raise the water pipe that they built a couple of weeks ago so that the adults in the room could walk underneath without bumping their heads.  Austin, and Luca, and lots of duct tape solved that problem.  

Then they decided they wanted to be able to roll cars down the pipe.  We discussed how we would get the car all the way down to the ground.  Luca and Austin decided we needed a pipe going down.  Here they are measuring to see how long the pipe needs to be.



Austin is using his drill to make a hole in the pipe going across.  Fang was not impressed by the noise of the drill.



Luca and Austin looked in the inventions center and found some bottles.  I cut the ends off and they attached them together to create a pipe.  I made sure I was near by to support them when needed but the ideas, and most of the work was generated and carried out by the boys.

Other friends made multiple work choices throughout the room.  

While some of the class chose to stay with one work choice all morning.

The photos I managed to take are only a fraction of what the class was doing this morning.

A very busy and productive day. 

Enjoy your weekend see you on Monday.  

BEAD PATTERNS

Ms Lane started the morning by introducing bead necklaces.  Everyone created a pattern with the beads and threaded them on to the yarn.

Construction workers were very busy.  Austin made a saw and was using it to fix the door.

Then it was time to bring in the crane.  Friends worked on this earlier in the week  and worked on making sure there was space for more than one person to sit.  We also decided the crane needs to stay at school and cannot go home with one person as it was made by a group of friends.  (I know some of you will be breathing a sigh of relief at this news.)



Teacher Grace led a music class with her students.  They were a little rowdy at first but she soon settled them down.


As you can see some of them have tools (teddy bear and blue circle to sit on) to help them control their body.

Teacher Solveig read a story to her student.

Valentina had to deal with two baddies played by Fang and Ike.  They came to the house to get kitty, played by Ruby.  Valentina was determined to keep the bad guys from getting kitty.  Happy ending, Fang and Ike did not get kitty.

       All involved remembered to control their weapons and bodies, so thankfully no casualties.

Colin came in to dress up looking for the bad guys
Colin: "Are you a good guy or a bad guy?"
Leonard: "A good guy."
Colin : "Are there any bad guys in here? Hey, do you want to be on my team?"
Leonard: Yeah!
Colin: "Here you are, I got you police glasses." Colin placed them on Leonard's face.
Colin: "He looks cool."
Leonard found another pair of glasses he preferred better.

At the end of the morning we read two books, as they were both very short.  Looking at different ways we can feel happy.  We had a conversation about what makes us feel happy.

QUESTIONS
What makes you feel happy?
What color makes you think of happiness?
Can you tell me how the little boy helps the rabbit in the story, so happy?

We all chose a color that we associate with being happy.

THANK YOU CARDS

We wanted to show how Thankful we were to Su, and her staff at Raku by writing Thank you cards for hosting all of us yesterday.  

The children were very eager to draw pictures, and attempt to write the Chinese character for Thank you, or sushi. We have Mr. Billadeau to thank for that, as he took Chinese language lessons in high school.

Evy brought in a tea set for our 'T' words today.  During work choice time friends helped her set up a table using big blocks.  Yesterday afternoon they had made sushi, and cookies using model magic.  Perfect to add to a tea party.

As you can see from the hard hats construction work is still on going, but even a construction worker can stop and have a cup of tea.

At the end of the morning we had a discussion about how feeling Thankful is one of many feelings we can have.

Q: What are feelings?

Margot: When you feel something like happy

Beatrix: Sad

Leonard: Surprised

Fang: Embarrassed

Grace: Sad and mad

Luca: Depressed

Austin: Mad

Beatrix: Sleepy

Fang: Furious

Austin: Serious

Beatrix: Frustrated

We will continue to add to the list this week.

We read The Feelings book by Todd Parr.  It is a fun book to help start our conversations on feelings and emotions.

QUESTIONS
What did you draw on your Thank you card?
What surprised you about your 'T' word list today?
Can you remember one feeling you saw in  The Feelings book?

Patterns

"The metroplex"

"Elsa's ice castle."

Austin:"It' pumps the water."

RAKU RESTAURANT

Thank you Su, for hosting our class at your restaurant, and for all the amazing food.  Click on this link to view a video of our field trip.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Cpt4eJflMPX7bUgqnFN-Arg0w-_2jcCM

BUDDIES AND BOOKS

Before group time this morning the class was excited to observe construction workers from Mortenson.  They came to fix our soap dispenser which had fallen off the wall.  PreK construction workers made sure they did the job correctly.

Our music time was a little shorter than usual today as we had to get ready for a visit from our 8th grade buddies.  

Both classes got some large muscle time by running on the football field and playing on the playground.  

When we returned to the classroom we read, Arthur writes a story by Marc Brown.  Arthur's teacher tells them to write a story for homework.  Arthur has a hard time deciding what to write about.

The 8th graders brought books with them that they enjoyed reading when they were little, and read them to the children.  

They also got the chance to write a story with their buddy, which we will read  on Wednesday, as tomorrow we have a field trip.

QUESTIONS
How did the construction workers get the soap dispenser to stay on the wall?
Do you remember one of the songs you sang with Ms. Fanucchi?
What story did your 8th grade buddy read to you?