Leader in Me
This week we introduced Habit #2 – Begin with the End in Mind. Habit #2 is “the habit of having a plan.” In the second story from the book, The 7 Habits of Happy Kids, students learned about Goob the Bear in a story called “Goob and the Bug-Collecting Kit.” Goob passes a toy store, sees a bug-collecting kit, decides he has to have it and makes a plan to earn the $4 it costs to buy the kit. He then spends his time putting his plan into action with the help of his buddy, Jumper Rabbit. They set up a lemonade stand, split the $20 profit, and each makes choices about how they will spend their money. Goob makes smart choices with his money and is able to buy the bug-collecting kit plus additional items. Jumper makes impulsive choices and finds that his money “just kind of disappeared.” In the end, Goob helps his buddy figure out that he needed to plan ahead, to begin with the end in mind, in order to get what he really wanted. After reading the story we had a discussion and talked about different examples. For young children, a good example is that of a jigsaw puzzle. Before doing a puzzle, they look at the cover of the box. They start with the end in mind. Below are the kid's journal entries for Habit #2.
Freeze Dance Self-Portraits
Self-portraits are always a fun activity but this week we took it to a whole new level by adding in a game of freeze dance! If you haven’t played freeze dance before it’s a fun stop and go dance game. When the music plays you dance and when the music stops you freeze in place. In this case, when the music stopped the kids drew a part of their self-portrait. We started with their head, hair, eyes, etc, and worked our way down!
Math:
For math this week the kiddos practiced listening to stories for addition, subtraction, and partners and drawing out the word problem. We practiced writing the equation to summarize the whole story. I varied the language to expose the children to various math vocabulary. I used words such as now, in total, left, and all together. We practiced writing numbers 1-9 using correct formation. We also used the math symbols = and not equal and the children showed two numbers or two groups as equal or not equal.
Teddy Bear Bridge STEM Challenge:
For this activity, each student received 4 small plastic cups, 4 craft sticks, and 10 teddy bear counters. The children's goal was to build a bridge that would hold ALL 10 bears at the same time! I loved seeing the students work to design their bridges. They did such a great job! The best part was that all the bridges looked different. They were so creative! As students finished Round 1 and needed another challenge, I changed the number of craft sticks and cups to make it harder. It was fun to watch them try our activity again! That is one of the things I like about this project: there are lots of ways to extend it and change it. Towards the end the children started getting even more creative and built a variety of structures!
Recess:
PE:
In PE Coach Long emphasized teamwork and what it means to be a teammate. What does it mean to be part of a team? What does it mean to be your best self? What does it mean to contribute? Not only are the kids learning new games and having fun but they are taking part in meaningful conversations.
Art:
In art, the kiddos continued to explore symmetry and created symmetrical collages using leaf stencils and construction paper.
French:
In French class, the children are learning animal names. The kids completed matching activities and even played charades!
Library:
Storytime with Ms. Hilda is so much fun! The kids love the books she reads and they feel such pride when they get to check out a library book with their own library card!
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