Economics

We are now in the middle of our Economics Unit!!  We are learning about concepts such as wants and needs, producers and consumers, and goods and services. 

The students are also getting a chance to earn Durham Dollars. 

They earn these by making great choices at school.  At the end of next week, they will have the chance to spend these dollars in our store!  They are getting pretty excited!  Ask your child what they are doing to earn Durham Dollars!

PJ Day!

The two classes spent a lot of time filling their marble jar (each marble represented great choices the students made) and enjoyed a day of PJ's, stuffed animals, and books!

b vs. d

Many students have trouble remembering which way b and d go in writing and in reading.  At this age, this is completely normal, but there are some tricks we can use to help them remember! 

For 'b' we use the phrase bat before ball.  This reminds the students to draw the line (bat) before the ball (circle).  For 'd' we say doorknob before door, using the same logic, but with a doorknob and a door...you must use the doorknob before opening the door.

We also talked about the word bed and how it looks like a bed.  This can help us remember which was they go as well.

 Finally we used our hands to make the two letters...with the "circle" parts touching. Hopefully one of these tricks will help your child remember the difference between b and d!!



Hot Chocolate

Last week, we made a graph answering the question, do you like hot chocolate.  Then we recorded our observations of the graph!!  Here are the results:

Holiday Gifts!

I have a few recommendations for holiday gifts this year.  And a blog with a ton of great ideas!!

Books!!  Any and all!  A few of my favorites are:


Pete the Cat (there are 2: I Love My White Shoes and Rocking in my School Shoes) by Eric Litwin

Little Blue and Little Yellow (an old but great book) by Leo Lionni

Terrific by Jon Agee

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

Ted by Tony Diterlizzi

...and anything by Mo Willems (my favorites are Leonardo the Terrible Monster and all of the pigeon books).  I could go on and on about books!

Here is a great list by Parents Magazine of the best books by age.  The Preschool and Big Kids sections have some great classics and new books!

Games!  Any games to encourage your child to read, count, take turns, interact, socialize, use vocabulary, or have fun!!  One of my favorite, not as well game is Zingo.  It is a great way for kids to have fun, use vocabulary, and interact!  They also have a math version, Zingo 1-2-3 that is a bit more educational and just as fun!!

Mom Colored Glasses, an amazing blog edited by a teacher at our school, also put together a wonderful list of Holiday Gifts!   There are gifts for kids, parents, and even pets!  Some of my favorites for kids are Illustory (kids can write, illustrate, and have published their own story), Color Your Own Castle, all of the books (of course), Box Play for Kids (stickers that turn your recyclables into something extraordinary), Very Silly Sentences, and Rory's Story Cubes (roll the picture cubes and tell a story using all of the pictures!)

Native American Feast

Last week, we had our Native American Feast!  The students loved wearing their "deer skin" vests and feasting on the Three Sisters (corn, beans, and squash) along with fish (gummy and cheese).  Here are some pictures from our feast!!

 

 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Pete the Cat

Pete the Cat  I Love My White Shoes is our class' new favorite book!! 

We used the story in our Gratitude assembly and sang the song to the school!  (click the link on the book title to download the words to the book and the song) 

It is a great story about Pete the cat who love everything he has, no matter what!  He has white shoes and sings about how much he loves them.  Then he steps in strawberries and they turn red!  Is he mad?  Goodness no!  (a line from the book :) ).  Then he sings about how much he loves his red shoes!  The story continues like this with Pete singing about how he loves his shoes, no matter what the color.  It is a good reminder to be grateful for what we have no matter what! 

I encourage everyone to download the book/song, borrow it from the library, or buy it...I promise it will be a favorite!  Most of the kids can read the story by heart now too ;)  There is also another story about Pete rocking in his school shoes!