Sketch Pads

The children have been working diligently on their sketch pads.  Their progress is evident as their pads have developed a thickness to them.  Most have an understanding of working on their piece of choice and revisiting it if they wish to add details.  Some are still having difficulty with this concept.  The children have really enjoyed this writing experience and even ask daily if they will have the opportunity to work in their sketch pads.

Wonder Centers

I have just started implementing the observation window within my classroom.  I have incorporated it within a preexisting writing center.  The kids seem very excited about this.  My window offers exceptional views of the playground.  Some of the students wrote  “I can see the sky.”  Others wrote, “I see a truck.”  “It is big.”  “It is moving.” 

My next Wonder Center to implement is the Discovery Table.  I hope to implement it at the beginning of the month of March.

I have implemented the Discovery Table within my classroom and the children are especially excited!  They have been bringing in many different items.  With spring approaching, one popular item that the children have been bringing in is fresh flowers.  With the current focus on color words, the children have been able to incorporate descriptive color words about these flowers.  They have created sentences like, “I see the yellow flowers.  They smell nice.”  The children have moved from one sentence to two to three sentences.

I hope to move to the Pet Observation Wonder Center at the middle to the end of April.  This center will focus on butterflies.

Science Topics and Standards

Science Topics and Standards

Butterflies: 

1.02 – Observe the behaviors of how animals interact with their surrounding.

1.04 – Demonstrate how to care for a variety of animals.

Weather: 

 2.01 – Observe and report daily weather changes throughout the year.

2.04 – Observe and determine the effects of weather on human activities.

Rocks and Gems:

3.02 – Develop and use a vocabulary associated with the properties of materials:  color, size, shape, texture.

Five Senses: 

3.03 – Describe how objects look, feel, smell, taste, and sound using their own senses.

Measurement: 

4.03 – Use nonstandard units of measure to describe and compare objects.

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