|
Hello Friend,
The Acorns have been productive! There has been an abundance of creating, building, team building, and using these skills to explore project based learning as they have been starting plans, designing games, taking breaks to follow the flow of the day, and then diving right back in where they left off, and expanding on their plans.
One of their favorites has been “Treasure”: The students use yarn balls to pass back and forth to each other, (calling the person’s name before they toss the yarn ball to them) creating a large area of weaved yarn. The students then take turns crawling low underneath the weave looking for treasure. Analyzing, assessing & evaluating.
The backyard space has been alive with sensory tables, game building, hoppity hop balls, balance boards, and yes, yes; the beloved mud kitchen. The mud kitchen play has expanded the play to create spheres, or more commonly know in the Acorn class as “muck balls.” The students are working to create to perfect recipe for these spheres, the measurements of sand, mud, earth, and water need to be just right for these spheres to meet the students standards of a perfect “muck ball.” Oh the magic of learning through play!
Our next Celebration of Learning is coming up on April 4th at 5.30pm. This is the culmination of our 2nd Passion Project phase and FACE time EXPO. Please make plans to attend and if you have any questions. Don’t hesitate to ask us!
Smiles,
Heather Feather
In reflecting on conferences, my appreciation for sitting close, observing and documenting is influenced by wonder. Formal or informal assessments are only one part of gathering data to discover the milestones students are reaching and exceeding. Studying their play allows us to see those discoveries in action. For example, the Acorns bounced between the different offerings during personal project time as a unit, working harmoniously to add their voices to the storyline. I was inspired to see our Acorns work together within a group goal as they decided to build a stick as big as the room. The following dialogue happened as they were using plastic connectors to connect plastic sticks:
K: Let’s make a giant sword!
J: We can all make different parts to join together!
K: Let’s all make 10 pieces, and then we’ll put them together.
B: I’m almost done!
K: Let’s see…(touching each stick) 1,2,4,5,6,7,8 (touching imaginary sticks) 9,10. You need 2 more!
J: I have 5. I need 5 more?
K: Yeah, 5 more. 5+5=10
B: K, count mine.
K: (touching each stick) 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9. One more!
J: Count mine.
K: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7. Three more!
J: (counting on fingers) Yes. 3 more is 10!
There was so much happening! I was able to document how three students collaborated, used each other as resources, took on leadership, used objects to add, counted on to add, used known math tools to verify answers, and comfortably worked with numbers up to 10. That particular plan ended with them putting together each student’s 10 piece contribution as it reached from one end of the classroom to the other. They wanted to save their creation to add on later in the day, which we attempted to do. However, they all eventually decided it was better to put it away. I appreciate that the TKG way is about the process not only about the product.
If you are reflecting on anything about our conferences, please share!
Lacey
COMMUNICATION STREAMS
Heather Kornman, Teacher
Lacey LaCour, Teacher
Lena Garcia, Head of Education – Teacher Mentor
Trish Valdez, School Business Manager
Shannon Minor, Board President
Facebook (private group), Community Forum
Shutterfly Site: photo archive
OFFICIAL CALENDAR: subscribe and never miss an event |
