Here is a great article about reading development and young children.  Please read it!

Reading Readiness Has to do With the Body

Some great reading ideas and tips for the summer:

Barefoot Books has a fun, pirate-themed summer reading program. It’s a 12 week email series with lots of tips and free handouts. Sign up here!

Barefoot Books

Reading Rockets has a summer reading list, along with some great tops for summer reading:

Reading Rockets

We have been reading many of Eric Carle’s books in our class, and have been enjoying them!  We tried our hands at writing like Eric Carle, and even used his Very Hungry Caterpillar story to think about in math terms, in our math journals.  The children are encouraged to express their thinking using pictures, numbers and words.  You can see their work here:

empathy
noun em•pa•thy \ˈem-pə-thē\
: the feeling that you understand and share another person’s experiences and emotions : the ability to share someone else’s feelings

Below is the symbol for empathy. It shows that the world is interconnected. We are all connected and need to understand other people. It is important that we help each other learn to have empathy — to “walk two moons in someone else’s moccasins.”

In the book, Stand In My Shoes, Emily asks her big sister what the word empathy means, Emily has no idea that knowing the answer will change how she looks at people. But does it really matter to others if Emily notices how they’re feeling? Stand in My Shoes shows kids how easy it is to develop empathy toward those around them. Empathy is the ability to notice what other people feel. Empathy leads to the social skills and personal relationships which make our lives rich and beautiful, and it is something we can help our children learn. This book teaches young children the value of noticing how other people feel. Listen as the book, Stand in My Shoes by Bob Sornson is read.

April is National Poetry Month.

National Poetry Month is a celebration of poetry introduced in 1996 and organized by the Academy of American Poets as a way to increase awareness and appreciation of poetry in the United States.
In honor of National Poetry Month, students created “Book Spine” poetry during their library lesson. Students arranged book titles to make a poem. Just like regular poetry, they created a poem that was serious or funny.
To make a “Book Spine” poem the students started by moving books around with their spines together so that the titles were like lines of a poem. Students moved books around into different stacks until they found lines that worked best together to create a poem.

Below are some of the “Book Spine” poems our class created.

We had a great day at Turtle Back Zoo.  The weather cleared up nicely and we were able to to see almost all of the animals!  We loved seeing the gibbons, who were very active and lots of fun to watch!  You can see a video of them here:

The kimono dragon was another favorite:

We had a wonderful day!

April’s Word of the Month: Flexibility

April’s word of the month is flexibility. Having a positive and hopeful attitude helps us to overcome challenges. When times are difficult or mistakes are made, it is important to stay motivated and be flexible. Being flexible helps us when we need to cope with changes. Flexibility helps us to think about problems in new, creative ways. This is also a great way to connect and understand growth mind-sets and fixed mind-sets. Being flexible is helpful in developing our true potential.

Read: But Excuse Me That is My Book by Lauren Child

In this funny “Charlie and Lola” adventure, Lola insists on going to the library to get her favorite book, the same one she has taken out over and over again. What will happen when she discovers that the book she loves is not on the library shelves? Will Lola be flexible and take an different book from the library shelves?

Flexibility is the Thinking Skill that focuses on the ability to adapt to new situations, improvise, and shift strategies to meet different types of challenges. Dealing with uncertainty, creative problems solving and handling change make take practice! Test your flexibility! Play the games “Me and the Key”, “Think Outside the Flock” and “A Spoon Full of Sugar”

Look at things differently and come up with creative solutions to problems. Identify an object from around the house and think about it differently. For example, different ways to use a phone book, such as for a booster seat, a doorstop, or a fire starter. Turn pots and pans into a drum set, or make a fort out of the couch and pillows.

per·sis·tence

noun \p?r-?sis-t?n(t)s, -?zis-\

This past week we completed our unit on bridges.  We have read about bridges, looked at photos of famous bridges, painted bridges, and studied different materials that were used for our bridges.  We even got to explore a game that allowed us to problem solve ways to build bridges.  We began by looking at bridges in our area and discussed how a new bridge is being built right now!

Brooklyn Bridge

George Washington Bridge with the Little Red Lighthouse

Tappan Zee Bridge

After discussing these bridges, we read the story Iggy Peck Architect by Andrea Beatty.

We talked about how we could design our own bridge. What could we use to build it? How could we make it strong? How big could we make it? We explored different kinds of wood, paper, and fabric to determine what would be the best material to use. We practiced copying some famous bridges and buildings in our block center:

And then we were ready to construct our own bridges!  We learned that building bridges were not as easy as we thought!  We had to change our thinking and our designs as we worked.  We had to try out different materials.  Some of our bridges did not last too long, but we learned that determination and hard work pays off.  We didn’t give up and we were able to create some very creative bridges!

Bridge Building

This project was a great way to talk about mindset with the students.

Mindset is a simple idea discovered by world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck in decades of research on achievement and success—a simple idea that makes all the difference.

In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them. They also believe that talent alone creates success—without effort. They’re wrong.

In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment. Virtually all great people have had these qualities.

Teaching a growth mindset creates motivation and productivity in the worlds of business, education, and sports. It enhances relationships.  We learn about and talk about the the value in hard work and determination, problem solving and creativity.

Learn more about a growth mindset with Carol Dweck:

Today we were able to put on our performance about teaching the school about tolerance.  We hope you like it!