We are beginning our unit on Jobs in March. We will be having Career Week! Please plan ahead to visit the classroom during the morning the first week of March to share your profession with the class. Plan on a 10 minute demonstration or discussion about your job, wear your uniform if applicable, and bring materials to share with the students.

Math: This week we discovered shape puzzles and counted how many of the different shaped pattern blocks we used in our puzzle. The students have also been doing a lot of work on putting shapes together to create another shape (two triangles to make a square, or two trapezoids to make a hexagon). Next week we will be learning about 3-D shapes, and their names.

As an extension of our math unit on shapes, students created a large “Shape Mural”  Thursday afternoon . They used paper shapes to make a scene, and were also able to cut out their own shapes to add to the mural. Students used shapes to make people, animals, and even houses on the large sheet of paper. The mural is hanging in the classroom above the dry erase board. Children worked very diligently on the mural for almost 45 minutes as a whole group. It was an amazing event as the children worked together for an extended time to create an wonderful collage all together.

We began Physical Education instruction this week. Miss Nicole will be leading the class in various movement activities as part of our PE curriculum. This will occur every Friday from 11:30-12:00. Please dress your child accordingly on Fridays.

Our new unit on Nonfiction Writing was a huge success this week. Students were writing “How to” stories to teach others something. They completed papers that allow for step-by-step directions and a small illustration to go with each step. Many children wrote about how to take care of their pet at home, or how to set the table. One of the children made directions on “How To Play Duck Duck Goose” while another student wrote “How to Play Tricks on Your Dad.” They have really shown their creativity and understanding of the writing process in this new genre. We will move forward in non-fiction by writing animal reports in the near future.

Children began this week doing some individual animal research. They found an animal of their choice, and read some information from a nonfiction book. Then they were instructed to do a drawing of the animal and write one thing they learned.

This week, we did a big unit on the book Caps For Sale.  This is a story about a peddler who sells caps that he wears upon his head. When he takes a nap under a tree, monkeys steal his caps. Then the adventure continues as he tries different ways to get his caps back from the monkeys. Students completed small books during centers about the various color caps in the book integrating numeral writing, one to one correspondence with their drawing of a specific number of caps per page, as well as story recall. They also acted out the story with me, taking caps off my head.

To begin to think about spring, students did an observational painting of real flowers in the classroom this week. They painted various details in their pictures. Please take a moment to view the paintings  hung all around the classroom.