What's the BUZZ????

Check out what we've been doing this week....We started our computer time twice a week.  We are doing SuccessMaker in the lab. This program places children according to their skill level in Math and Reading.  Students will be in this initial placement for a few sessions then it will start working with them at their level.  It's a great way to fill gaps and extend learning in both of these subjects.  

 Here's our classroom tree updated for our insect unit!

 Here's a close-up of the tree.  Thanks to our amazing Moms for helping get it decorated so cute for our learning.  It makes our classroom library such a fun place to sit and read books.

In the Science center this week, we've been watching this little caterpillar.  One of the students discovered him last week in the worm bin.  He was TEENY when we found him.  We put him in the butterfly cage and watched him GROW AND GROW.  Wednesday morning, I came in and found him in the J.  I took the first two pictures at 8:00am and by 8:20am he was completely in his chrysalis (see the second picture).

Also in Science we worked on our bee hives.  Last week we paper mache'd our balloons and let them dry.  This week, we covered them in yellow.    We read the book Busy as a Bee by Melvin Berger and learned all about these great creatures.  The students then added their bees and bee facts to their hives.  Check out some of their work.  

 I have to say that most of these projects took extra parent hands.  I am so thankful for such amazing and supportive parents in the Learning Garden.  It is a SPECIAL place to learn and grow every day because of your help.  Happy Spring!

Groundhog Day

Today's Groundhog Day which really means little or nothing to us here in sunny Florida!  Still, we had a good time learning about this sweet little critter and its legend.  Look what we made:

We've been talking about the SETTING of a story this week.  So everyone had to choose TWO settings to create on their stage.  Then we created our very own groundhog puppet to pop up in our settings. We added our Groundhog poem to the back so we can practice reading.

 As usual, I am blown away by their amazing artwork!  ENJOY....

Hundred Day Fun...

Check out all of our Hundred Day FUN:

Create a photo slideshow

Adults and Books we LOVE!

It's been another BUSY week here in the Learning Garden! Our intern, Mr. Mihajlovic, joined us Monday through Wednesday. He worked with some small groups. The kids are enjoying having yet another adult in the room. On Tuesday, we were really rocking and rolling as Mr. M. and Grandma and Grandpa Nations came in to work with us!

Here are some of the kids playing an alphabet mitten game with Mr. M.

And speaking of people we LOVE coming to see us....Chitra and Lindsey are back!  We are preparing to complete a FUN mural project here at Southside this semester.  The artists are working with the kids on filling space and adding details to their art work.

You can see we are also learning to work on something that is "tile sized" so that we can get "dimensions" in our pictures.

And, just as important to our Learning Garden FUN are you wonderful parents!  The "Mystery Readers" are back...Here's our first Mystery Reader of 2012 coming in to share a VERY FUN book with us.

This book is called "Finklehopper Frog" by Irene Livingston and it is a FUN read with a great message about being kind to others and understanding differences.  I'll be looking for it REAL soon on "half.com" (my favorite online bookstore).  

The sweet audience enjoyed every moment of this story as much as their teacher.

Here are some of the sweet illustrations. 

And speaking of great books...we read another "new favorite read" of mine this week called "One Winter's Day"...also a book of kindness and friendship.  I love this one too because it has a TON of great vocabulary in it and blends so nicely with our Storytown series this week.  We decided to try our hand at a new activity...making B,M,E flip books.  These kids did a GREAT job illustrating (and writing about) the beginning, middle and end of this story.  

Can you see how this artist depicted the wind in the first illustration?  I love how they are mimicking what they see in other illustrations!  

Here's the front cover of the flip books:  

And check out some of the others:

I love this one "Woo" (for the blustery wind) then "We need help" for the friends who needed to get out of the storm.  And "home' for the home the animals built for hedgehog because he showed so much kindness.

And this one:  "He is blowing away" (B), "He is giving the mice his hat" (M) and "Badger is showing the hedgehog the house." (E).  

Penguins on Parade...

 One thing that's really difficult in a state like Florida, it's hard to teach concepts like Winter.  If kids haven't really been in snow, then they don't really have a true schema for it.  Still, we do our best to teach some of the concepts to our tropically raised students.  I love to do this by talking about winter animals---and my favorite is the penguin.

We started this week by making a schema chart for penguins.  I love the schema that our thinkers already had!  (We've added to our learning this week and I'll take a picture of the whole chart next week sometime.)

 To create the chart, each student wrote about his or her schema for penguins.  I have tried multiple times to get these to line up the way I want them to, but Blogger has a mind of its own and is turning my photos again!  So, please turn your head (or your screen) for the next few pictures!

We also got creative and completed this penguin glyph in Math.  Here's the key for the penguins and then you'll see the display of penguins gracing our walls as you read this!

I had to laugh because our kids know that the Learning Garden is steeped in creativity.  Suddenly after finishing the regular directions I started seeing penguins get clothed and decorated in true artistic fashion.  Enjoy some of their amazing work!

Happy January!