We have jumped into our new theme after wrapping up our family unit. For our new unit, we will be exploring cultures and traditions. We will be looking at what makes up a culture. How does culture bring people together and how does it separate people? Since our school wide question is “how do I impact my environment and how does my environment impact me?” we’ll be discussing how environment plays an important role in cultures and traditions. We started the week by putting out a globe and several world maps for the students to study. They were immediately draw to them and helping each other figure out the different countries and places. “Is that Africa? It starts with and A!” and “Where is the country of Molalla? Is Molalla a country?” The children have shown a lot of interest in houses and homes around the world. We are excited to go deeper on this topic and see where their interest takes us!
On Monday we started our new literacy time. Students will be working at several different centers including read to self, read with a teacher, write the room (where students go around the room and write words they find) and creating letters out of playdough. This is giving Lori and myself a great opportunity to conference one on one with students and help them with their specific needs and goals.
We are getting ready to finish our first read aloud, Charlotte’s Web. The children LOVE this book and always ask me to read longer. We spent some time on Tuesday working on story mapping and looking at what makes a story. We looked at how stories have characters, settings, main events, a problem, and a resolution. The students mapped out Charlotte’s Web in great detail. They had an excellent discussion about why each element of the story is important, and what would happen to the story if an element was missing. They are using these elements during story workshop as well. Bella, Kenzie and Wyatt came up with an exciting story using our big blocks and were very proud of the fact that their story had all of the elements that we discussed.
On Wednesday we read the story “The Dot” by Peter H. Reynolds. It is an excellent story about growth mindset and pushing past frustrations. Vashti is a girl who believes she can’t draw, only to discover that she has a talent for creating beautiful dots. We then had a brief lesson on primary colors. Wyatt taught us that primary colors are colors that cannot be made. We looked at how you can make other colors by mixing the primary colors. Each student was given their own plate with red, yellow, blue and white paint. They each created their own beautiful color palates and made colorful dots like the ones on the story. I’m excited to get this beautiful art up on our walls!
Next Tuesday is our all school field trip to see Shrek the Musical at NW Children’s Theater. Thank you all for your quick turnaround with the permission slips. We are all so excited for our first field trip in Trillium, and the whole school is excited for our first field trip all together! Please read through the field trip guidelines that Shelley sent out in her newsletter on Friday. This field trip is different than any we have taken in the past, as we have all of our staff attending. Parents are invited as guests to watch the show, but are not needed to chaperone. If you are attending, please remember that it is important for your child that they stay with their buddy and assigned teacher. It can be tempting to want to sit as a family, but the intention of this experience is that students are able to bond as a community with their fellow students. If you’ve attended a fieldtrip in the past with your older children, this one will be a different experience. Please let Lori and I know if you have any questions or concerns about the fieldtrip.
The Trillium students are such wonderful group and a blessing to Lori and me both. I had to miss some class time this week due to my daughter being ill, and got a great report when I returned. The students greeted me with hugs and stories, even though it had only been a day and a half since I’d seen them. They are such kind and caring individuals, every one of them. Thank you for sharing them with us!
Have a wonderful weekend with your families and we will see you all on Monday.
Best,
Shannon
On Monday we started our new literacy time. Students will be working at several different centers including read to self, read with a teacher, write the room (where students go around the room and write words they find) and creating letters out of playdough. This is giving Lori and myself a great opportunity to conference one on one with students and help them with their specific needs and goals.
We are getting ready to finish our first read aloud, Charlotte’s Web. The children LOVE this book and always ask me to read longer. We spent some time on Tuesday working on story mapping and looking at what makes a story. We looked at how stories have characters, settings, main events, a problem, and a resolution. The students mapped out Charlotte’s Web in great detail. They had an excellent discussion about why each element of the story is important, and what would happen to the story if an element was missing. They are using these elements during story workshop as well. Bella, Kenzie and Wyatt came up with an exciting story using our big blocks and were very proud of the fact that their story had all of the elements that we discussed.
On Wednesday we read the story “The Dot” by Peter H. Reynolds. It is an excellent story about growth mindset and pushing past frustrations. Vashti is a girl who believes she can’t draw, only to discover that she has a talent for creating beautiful dots. We then had a brief lesson on primary colors. Wyatt taught us that primary colors are colors that cannot be made. We looked at how you can make other colors by mixing the primary colors. Each student was given their own plate with red, yellow, blue and white paint. They each created their own beautiful color palates and made colorful dots like the ones on the story. I’m excited to get this beautiful art up on our walls!
Next Tuesday is our all school field trip to see Shrek the Musical at NW Children’s Theater. Thank you all for your quick turnaround with the permission slips. We are all so excited for our first field trip in Trillium, and the whole school is excited for our first field trip all together! Please read through the field trip guidelines that Shelley sent out in her newsletter on Friday. This field trip is different than any we have taken in the past, as we have all of our staff attending. Parents are invited as guests to watch the show, but are not needed to chaperone. If you are attending, please remember that it is important for your child that they stay with their buddy and assigned teacher. It can be tempting to want to sit as a family, but the intention of this experience is that students are able to bond as a community with their fellow students. If you’ve attended a fieldtrip in the past with your older children, this one will be a different experience. Please let Lori and I know if you have any questions or concerns about the fieldtrip.
The Trillium students are such wonderful group and a blessing to Lori and me both. I had to miss some class time this week due to my daughter being ill, and got a great report when I returned. The students greeted me with hugs and stories, even though it had only been a day and a half since I’d seen them. They are such kind and caring individuals, every one of them. Thank you for sharing them with us!
Have a wonderful weekend with your families and we will see you all on Monday.
Best,
Shannon