Spring Has Sprung

Spring is finally here! We are excited to be back at school after a wonderful week of Spring Break. We had an extremely busy week filled with lots of great conversations, writing, reading and exploring our school garden.

We started our week off by sharing our Spring Break Adventures. The children had so many wonderful stories to tell. Each child wrote about one of their favorite Spring Break memories. They did a really nice job of capturing one special memory to share. Each child focused this week on the process of adding details to their stories. Next week, the children will be copying their Spring Break stories in their best handwriting to bring home to share with their families.

Our class tried something new with Reading Workshop this week. We are beginning the process of exploring all of the books that our classroom library has to offer. We began this week by reading books that fall into the genre of "Animals". Each office read a different basket of Animal books during Reading Workshop this week. The children really enjoyed the chance to read new books that they normally wouldn't have picked up to read.

We also introduced "Book Recommendations" to students. Together, we had discussions about what it means to recommend a book. I created a sheet that the students used this week whenever they came across a book that they thought friends in the class would enjoy. Next week, we are going to be discussing various ways to display our recommendations for the whole class to see.

On Wednesday, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and with Science Notebooks in hand, we headed out to explore our school garden. The children looked for signs of Spring. Each child sketched a "snapshot" of what they observed in our garden.

We observed beginning buds on the Butterfly Bush, 

a yellow Daffodil, 

buds on the Dogwood Tree, 

and Tulips almost ready to bloom. 

It is amazing how observant and detailed the children were in their observations and sketches. Here they are at work:

This week, we read several versions of The Little Red Hen. The Little Red Hen is about a hen who wishes to use the wheat she planted to bake bread. However, when she asks her friends to help her with each step of turning the wheat into bread they are not willing to help. But, they are quick to want to help her eat the bread in the end! 

                                               

(Photo credit: Amazon)

We compared and contrasted the different versions discussing what things were the same and what things were different. We talked about what makes a story a "Little Red Hen" story. We also read Hattie and the Fox and compared it to The Little Red Hen. When asked "What is the message of this story?" the children were full of wonderful ideas. They said: 

• "Working together is good."
• "Working together can turn into something great."
• "If you aren't going to help, you can't be a part in the end."
• "Think before you say no or yes."
• "Team work makes a dream work." 

We are going to take the message we learned from The Little Red Hen and work as a team these next 10 weeks to finish the year off strong!