Caring Day

Tomorrow will be Caring Day. The children gave earned a day to bring in something special - a toy or stuffed animal. The class earned it by demonstrating that they cared for each other, the classroom and our school.

What is It?

Today we started our day by sparking our curiosity!  This photograph was on the Smartboard.  When asked What is it? These are some of the responses:

1. tiles
2. famous painting
3. pools
4. cakes
5. stonewall
6. goo
7. paint 
8. water park

Amazing!  The children loved explaining their answers! We learned that it is Evaporation ponds in Utah at the Great Salt Lake.  Not only a great vocabulary and language activity but a learning about how someone could take this type of photograph ties into our learning about position words!
Thanks National Geographic Photo of the Day!

Patterns in Numbers

Today as we added our daily number to the growing number line - 44, a student shared an observation - "Hey, that's like 22 and 33 both numbers are the same!"

I wrote them on the board to help others see his thinking.  I posed the question if there was one number that we could think of that would come before this group?  Look how far they were able to take this idea!

Great strategies were used as we moved through this list for example one child recognized 1,2, 3 and counted to see what number would be next and then was able to correctly name 888!  Making math so much fun!!

How to Raise an Emotionally Resilient Child

How to Raise an Emotionally Resilient Child

Strengthening Executive Function Development for Students With ADD | Edutopia

Strengthening Executive Function Development for Students With ADD | Edutopia



Great article with ideas that I believe would help not only children with ADD!

Trip to North Carolina!

Today we went to North Carolina to visit an aquarium! Thanks to Skype Classroom! We met an educator from Fort Fisher Aquarium. He taught us about alligators and how reptiles are different from people and other species.
Here are some fun facts learned and to talk about with your child:

1. Alligators build nests that are 5 feet tall.
2. They lay 30 eggs!
3. Mother stays with eggs for 2 months until they hatch. 
4. Mother carries them to the water when she hears them chirping. The babies already know how to swim and feed themselves. 
5. Mother has them swim in her mouth and closes her throat so she doesn't swallow them when they need protection. 
6. Dig a hole for the winter. 

Visit from Beverly Public Library Children's Librarian

Today Mrs. Carpine read us two books.  She taught us about the library.  Here's what she taught us:

1. Beverly Bookmobile
2. About audio-books
3. To take care of the cd's that you borrow
4. To take care of the books that you borrow and do not get them wet.
5. You can borrow magazines and read newspapers at the library
6. If the library is not open, you can return a book to the drop off box.
7. That the library is a fun place to visit when it is open.
8. It is free!
9. You can look online for books that you want. Link to the library catalog

The End of Daylight Savings Lesson

These pictures helped the children understand the change in the day due to the change of the clock.  As we move towards the shortest day of the year, it is helpful for the children to see how their day changes now that it is getting darker earlier.  There is a local weather site :Cove Neighborhood weather  that has a wonderful chart to help the children see the changes in the length of the day.  It provides so much information to help me teach weather and makes it so exciting.