Wednesday, October 29, 2008

A Glimpse Into Our Day, Primary Class Pictures

A glimpse of what our days are like in the classroom. Building a tower with the knobless cylinders, these have the same height but different diameters.

Skip counting by nines...


The constructive triangle, building triangles with triangles.



Matching tools to their names...

Classifying animals and objects by land, water, or air ...



Washing the chalkboard, building core strength and coordination...


Solving a big addition problem using the bead stairs...


Beading work...



Stretching and moving in the big blue bag...




Leaf rubbings....

An older friend helping a toddler complete the parts of a flower puzzle...



Writing notes....


Singing with Dani...

Listening to books on tape...


Building in the block area...




















Sunday, October 26, 2008

Primary Classroom Friends at Work

"Building" the teens...practice in counting from 11 to 19...
Classifying animals by the environments in which they live...


Working on the map of Africa....


Fresh orange juice anyone? Just one of our "food prep" practical life activities.





Working on the map of the United States.





Using our fine motor skills:
Tonging... Peeling a cucumber...


Silver polishing...


Using the moveable alphabet to spell words...

Completeing the hundred board ...



Building a puzzle city...


Stretching our bodies as well as our brains...



Playing in the tall grass. Some friends were pretending to be deer creating a bed for the night while others were working on their camouflaging techniques.






Talking with Daphne-pizza our classroom cockatiel...






Seriating puzzle cards, beginning-middle-end...



Hammering work, practicing eye hand coordination....






Sewing bat pillows..





Practicing buttons...





We are using the treasures we collected from our walkn(leaves, pinecones, pods) earlier that morning to paint a group nature mural.













At the beginning of each circle time we take a moment of mindfulness. The sound of the singing bowl helps us to focus and calm our bodies. When we can no longer hear the sound of the bowl we take three deep belly breaths and recite our affirmation for the week.







When it's cold and rainy oustside we find ways to move inside. Casey is leading the children through a series of yoga poses, practicing balance and strength.






Teamwork...







Here some friends are working on the hundred board, seriating numerical tiles frome 1 to 100 using a contol guide.







"Beadwork" is quite a popular work in our classroom right now. Children place hundreds of very tiny plastic beads (Perler Beads) in a pattern on a frame. Teachers then fuse the beads with an iron to create a solid shape. It is a wonderful activity for strenghtening the pincer grip and fine motor muscles needed for handwriting. It is interesting to observe children working with this activity, some prefer to work alone in almost a zen like state of focus while others work with friends socializing as if they are members of a quilting bee sharing stories as they work.

































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Thursday, October 16, 2008

Busy Toddlers

Toddler Time...



Taking a little break for a snack....




Singing with Dani...




Blowing out a Birthday candle...




Filling the watering can ...our plants are so thirsty...



Tracing metal insets. A wonderful way to learn the names of shapes and practice handwriting skills.



Practicing cutting work...





Practicing pouring...





Painting outside on the playground.



Building a terrarium....



Relaxing and reading....