Week Seventeen: Welcome Back

Happy new year! 

It feels great to be back at Linden, and the girls are excited to be reunited with their friends. The girls seem older and more mature than when they left, and there is barely any need for reviewing routines - they are already experts! We are welcoming a new student, S, into the classroom this month. I can't wait to see how having a new student adds to our class dynamics and learning opportunities. Take a look at our first week back.

Z is figuring out how many corks make up the same length as the ruler. From here she compared different materials and which needed more to cover the same length.

S and G collaborate to design snowflakes at Light. Their discussions centre around the materials they are using, the shapes they are making, and the story behind the snowflakes.

Z works at the Nature Centre to see how she can make the scale balance in the middle. As she slows down, she starts figuring out that she can remove or add items one at a time to get the scale to be equal on both sides.

G has matched the coloured bears with the colourful cubes. She tells me that they are all ready to watch the show and are sitting on their seats.

M also spends time at the Light Table creating a snowflake design. By the end she had thought of an elaborate story about the animals in the cold that drink for water and walk on the snow. 

G and Z are pretending to be mom's with new babies in the Drama Centre. They know how important it is to read to their children, and are sharing their favourite books with their babies.

Receiving a donation of Spongebob markers this week, some girls are inspired to write with them. As G (and G) work together in the Communication Centre to write words from the word rings (some they know, some they don't), she checks in with G to make sure she is doing okay. 

G also chooses to put together one of our sight word puzzles. She is proud to match all of the words together correctly, and then enjoys lining them up neatly to keep them looking organized. 

G uses the coloured bears in a new way today during her time at the Communication Centre. She lays them over our sight word mats, improving her letter and word recognition in the process!

The girls are excited as Elizabeth reads them a French story about colours and clothing. The book gives them the opportunity to put together the story using the words that they know already.

M is still interested in using the ruler to measure different materials around the classroom. She does well matching the end of the ruler to the end of the object, and then looking down the ruler to find the number that will tell her how long it is. M also adds the name of each object (in addition to a picture of it) so she can remember what she has measured. (Note another appearance of the Spongebob crayons!)

G works with the scale in the Nature Centre. She felt that it would help her learning to move down to the floor, that way she had a better view as well as better access to all of the materials. Here she is trying to balance out both sides, while only one has a pinecone.

Z and G play together at the park. We had so much fun exploring all of the ice that had formed in the park, and playing on the playground equipment together, that we never made it down into the ravine. Next week!