Welcome to our world of discovery and learning!

Welcome to our daily blog! We use it to share daily updates on our classroom, reflections on our learning with children, and photographs. Extended family, friends, neighbors, educators, etc, are also encouraged to follow the blog!
One of the wonderful aspects of blogging is that it allows real-time interaction between home and school. Is your child talking about what we are doing in school? Leave us a comment and let us know! Are you interested (or even an expert!) in something we are studying? Leave us a comment and let us know! Are you planning an outing with your child to extend the classroom learning? Leave us a comment and invite other families along!
We also have a section call, "Learn More About..." When we write each post, we tag it with relevant topics. And so if you wanted to see what we have been doing with, for instance, science, you would click on that tag, and see all the posts about science.

Monday, April 29, 2013

Owl Environment: Extreme Makeover Edition

This morning, Owl teachers noticed that friends were bringing dress up materials into the book area, so the question was proposed: Should we move our dramatic play area closer to the book area? And with that, our entire classroom shifted!
 Everyone lent a hand in grabbing furniture and classroom materials and momentarily displacing them. Apparently it's fun to make our classroom into a huge mess (Who knew?)! After reaching consensus on how the classroom should be laid out, we painstakingly moved each piece...several times. The result, however, is a brand new, magnificently updated feng shui room. Come it check out!
A small group also visited Raji's Kindergarten today to work on some math activities. He donated to us mosaic shapes to keep in our classroom for a while so that we can see and explore different kinds of shapes and how they work together spatially. Small groups will continue to visit Kindergarten on different days so that they can experience some more concentrated math endeavors, as well as become more comfortable with the rooms and teachers.

Other Owlings:
We headed downstairs to the all-purpose room for some rainy day dance parties
Boogie-ing down!
They also have a wonderful book corner down there!

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Español con las Lechuzas y los Búhos: Nuestro Autobús (The Bus For Us)


¡Bienvenidos familia, amigas, y amigos! During la clase de Español, it was Patrick’s turn to choose our destination to a Spanish speaking country. After our traditional morning greeting, he suggested we head to Ecuador. Upon our return, we settled into this Spanish speaking country and gathered in a círculo.

 

reinforcing vocabulary words:
buenos dia – good day
¿Cómo estás?  - How are you?
¡Muy bien, gracias! - Very well, thank you!
dónde – where
vamos – going
hoy - today
por favor - please
levantence - stand-up
carro - car
bote - boat
 bicicleta - bicycle
tren – train
avión– airplane
alas – wings
vuela– fly
sientencen - sit
círculo - circle
muéstrame - show me

To reinforce our learning of the Spanish vocabulary for some forms of transportation, we read Nuestro Autobús (The Bus for Us) by Suzanne Bloom. Through simple text and animated illustrations, the story introduced us to a variety of vehicles as Tess, a character in the story, waited at the bus stop for the school bus, el autobús

vocabulary:
¿Es éste nuestro autobus, Gus? – Is this the bus for us, Gus
grúa – tow truck
camión de bomberos – fire truck
camión de helados – ice cream truck
camión de basura – garbage truck
excavadora – backhoe
autobús - bus

What’s one exciting way to help learners learn? Songs and rhymes of course! So, after the read aloud, we practiced singing “The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round” in Español. What fun! With a little help from our (puppet) friend Perrito (Doggie), we sang a few verses.


Las Ruedas del Autobús

Las ruedas (wheels) del autobús
Van dando vueltas, dando vueltas, dando vueltas,
Las ruedas del autobús
Van dando vueltas por la ciudad.

El bebé (baby) en el autobús
Hace ña, ña, ña, ña, ña, ña
El bebé en el autobús
Hace ña, ña, ña por la ciudad

Las puertas (doors) de el autobús
Se abren y se cierran, se abren y se cierran, se abren y se cierran
Las puertas de el autobús
Se abren y se cierran por la ciudad

Los limpiadores (wipers) del autobús
Hacen swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish
Los limpiadores del autobús
Hacen swish, swish, swish por la ciudad

Music has such power and meaning that go beyond words. It promotes growth in various developmental domains from cognitive to physical development. Las Lechuzas y los Búhos truly enjoyed this interactive song as they sang and used corresponding hand gestures. What a wonderful way to support their development of small muscles!

We finished our class with our traditional song, Adios, hasta luego, and Patrick squeezing la vaca. ¡Gracias, Patrick!

¡Hasta nuestro proximo viaje!

Paz,
Alicia






Friday, April 26, 2013

A Magic Trip

This morning the Owls ventured down to the art room to Sam today, and walked in to a room filled with assorted materials all over. On the two tables, the materials were divided by color; the first table was filled with reds, yellows, oranges and browns. The second table offered an array of blues, greens and purples. Sam told us that the one table was filled with "warm colors" and the other was filled with "cool colors".
Using the things on the table, friends made wonderful warm and cool collages.
Visiting us this morning were our 7th grade friends: Jesse, Thomas and Sydney!

We also went on a romp to the magic forest, or the Arts Park in Avelthorpe.

(We had many more photos, but for some reason Blogger is not letting me upload them. We'll see if we can get more up later!)

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Seeds Big and Small

Gwen introduced us to a new word in library today: non-fiction! She told us all about research and the ways to use books to find out more information. She also had us pretend to be a seed growing!



Snack brought opportunities for new seeds. The avocado fruit had a GIANT seed inside, while the lemons had tiny seeds inside.

Another plant was growing in Tamara's kitchen, so she brought it in for the Owls to observe:



Other Owlings:
the next generation of journalers















fire drill








Espanol