MARCHing On

We are nearly 120 days in! It's nice to have the fury (and Flurries!) of February behind us and get back to basics.
We created lists to help is in or independent writing. We used resources to write friends' names, favorite things, and school words. Lists are one of the most frequently used forms of writing!

Our school counselor visits us once a week. We work on peace builder strategies, and sometimes we get to play a fun game, like Hello Mr. President. One child goes to a corner of the room and sits with her or his back to the class. Then, Mrs. Olson selects a student who uses the classroom microphone to say
 "Hello Mr.  President" in a silly way. The person in the corner has to guess who they think it is.  It was very funny and we had some really good guessers!

Our school has been working very hard on plans for keeping the children safe. We have practiced fire, earthquake, and lockdown drills. We also want to make sure the children know what to do if they happen to be outside. Mrs Perez, one of our Associate Teachers and recess monitor, did a masterful job showing the children the plan if we need them to evacuate the playground area and get to safety. 

 After the first chat, we went outside to see the plan. 

 Lucas showed us the parking lot exit. We walked down the street later so we would know what it looked like.

 We learned about a gate at the top of the nature trail that we can go through to quickly access the neighborhood on the other side.

The children know that in such an emergency, the police and school buses will have been alerted to come and find them and get them to safety. 

On a lighter note, our daily calendar practice created interest in our big calendar. I had some very nice assistants who helped me during their free choice time to change the February Calendar to March! They created a system where each person would put in two numbers and then get 2 more while the other friend put in his numbers. Thanks guys!

We have been reading about animals in our reading class. We had some fun on Wacky Wednesday and compared our height to an emperor penguin. We sat in the hallway to gather our data. Then each child took their place by the Penguin and placed their card in the correct spot on the bulletin board.

We had a few who were the same height but most of us were not quite as tall yet.
 And then Mr Douglas happened by....

Learning math facts can be challenging, but when we play games, we are relaxed and the information can land easily.
We used I Have, Who Has? to practice telling time in 1st grade, and dice games to practice our addition facts in K and 1.

Playing dice and card games at home is excellent practice!

We have our field trip this Thursday and we will celebrate the Irish on Friday.

Hoping the snow is over & turning my clock forward,

Ms. Rae