We LOVE To Learn!

We filled our chart with words that describe "love".

Next, we wrote three descriptive words and the sentence
"God is love!".

Each month, we add several poems to our poetry folders.
We search for missing words 
and use our best hand-writing!

At this station, the children opened ten hearts
to find three-letter words inside.
After placing the letters in the correct order,
the words were written on a recording sheet.

We practiced graphing and counting
by rolling a penguin-covered cube.

Sweethearts candy sorting/graphing/comparing activity

Hearts became flowers in this art lesson.  Each child was given the same materials, but the results were unique and beautiful!

The green wall is masking the amazing results of this experiment.
We predicted that the roses would turn green....
a few friends thought they might turn black!
After 24 hours, the tips and sides of each orange rose had,
indeed, turned green!

"Reach For The Stars" is an extension of 
our behavior clip chart.
Each day that a child ends on orange (great day),
a star is covered on his/her chart.
The children earn visits to the treasure chest
when their charts are full!

Skills

As I evaluated last week's work, I noticed that several students are neglecting to write their names on assignments.  I am noting this on paperwork from this day forward.


I will also be circling backward numbers on paperwork.  At this point in the year, numbers should be facing in the right direction, more often than not.  You may also see that your child's name is being circled on paperwork.  As with numbers, correct letter form in name-writing is achievable as 3rd quarter progresses.  We are working on correct form with focused hand-writing pages during morning work.


A copy of the D'Nealian alphabet is in the W.O.W. binder.  Thank you for practicing this alphabet at home!  

Behavior: Demystifying The Color Chart

Each child has a personalized "crayon box" magnet.  The boxes begin the day on green--Ready To Learn.  


As the morning progresses, I may see the need to adjust someone's box to blue--Think About It, or purple--Teacher's Choice (an email, phone call, five minutes off of recess).  This is a logical consequence to a broken rule, following a warning. 


After lunch, everyone is moved up a color.  90+% of the time, this means that everyone moves up to yellow--Good Day.  At this point, if a rule is broken, a child's box will move down one color.  And so on.  At the end of the day, everyone is again moved up one color.  This final color jump will usually land a box in orange--Great Job! 


For example, if your child's behavior calendar shows "green, yellow, green, yellow", you will know that he/she moved his/her box up to yellow at lunch, but then moved it down at some point in the afternoon.  At the end of the day, the box went up more more step, to yellow.


Another example:  The calendar shows "green, blue, green, yellow".  This shows that the child broke a rule before lunch, resulting in a move down to blue.  The box was moved up after lunch, to green, and again at the end of the day, to yellow.


I DO NOT EXPECT PERFECTION.  I do expect to see children improving in the area of self-control, contributing to the classroom community with kindness, respecting the boundaries, and treating everyone as they wish to be treated.


Learning from our choices is a lifetime endeavor.  I've been alive for many moons and God is faithful to redirect my choices and behavior! :-)  Please discuss the behavior calendar with your child, but also give them time to adjust to their environment.