Another exciting connection for us was discovering that violet (with one T!) is a colour close to purple! We made this discovery when we were exploring the number 7 by looking at the colours of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and...VIOLET!
For the last two weeks, our Star Name has been Violett. 'V' was a new letter for some of us and it was exciting to explore words that start with this sound. We also practiced forming this and the other letters in Violett with materials like chalk, playdough, pencil, and sand. Another exciting connection for us was discovering that violet (with one T!) is a colour close to purple! We made this discovery when we were exploring the number 7 by looking at the colours of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and...VIOLET!
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Welcome back! Today we spent a lot of time sharing stories, photographs, and artifacts about our holiday adventures. This gave us an opportunity to practice skills like viewing, presenting, listening, and retelling. When we recorded our ideas in our journals, we also had an opportunity to practice our emergent writing. We worked hard to identify the sounds we heard in the words we wanted to write and make connections between these sounds and letter formations. Before this past week Ms. Alison was away for a long time because she was sick. That didn't mean we didn't get to communicate though! The mailbox became a great way for us to keep in touch! What a great way to practice writing as a form of communication! Here are some examples of the letters and drawings that were sent back and forth: Daniel was our most recent Star Name. When we started to study his letters, we quickly realized that all of us shared letters with Daniel in our own names...even Ms. Alison and Mrs. Mano! We used our Word Study notebooks to record the letters we have in common. Daniel gave a great interview and taught us lots about his favourite places in Singapore using accurate names, like Bugis and Plaza Singapura. Well done Daniel! A couple of weeks ago, Henry was our Star Name, which introduced us to the letter 'H'. As we investigated the name 'Henry' and practiced writing the letters, we realized that the lower case letters 'h', 'n', and 'r' are formed very similarly. Can you see how they are nearly the same? In preparation for our field trip to the Paper Monkey Theatre 'Shadow Play' workshop, Ms. Alison set out a simple provocation. She moved the overhead projector and sheet from where they usual sit and hang, out into the middle of the room. When the children returned from outdoor play, they discovered the change, which prompted some creative new discoveries, thoughts, and action... We began our lesson by recalling the story of number one. We remembered everything!...the lagoon, the ocean, the one special shell with the mermaid whispers. And so, it was time for the story to continue... The sun was low in the sky and it would soon be evening. Mum and I reached the rocks at mouth of the lagoon and stopped to look around. On one side was the ocean and on the other side, the rocky mountain. We continued, climbing over the rocks and following the shore until we were far from the lagoon at a small beach. Mum pointed high above the beach to TWO caves, and we started to climb. The first cave had a lovely sweet smell, it smelt like yummy honey. I wanted to look inside but Mum promised we would return to explore it on another day. We climbed a little higher and reached the second cave. The entrance was very wide and the whole cave was filled with the orange glow of the sunset. One side was filled with soft red sand, perfect for sleeping. We set out our blankets and opened our baskets. Mum and I each ate an apple while watching the moon rise over the ocean. The sun had set and it was time to sleep. Mum and Dad kissed me good night and cuddled me to sleep. When the story was finished, we each counted two pearls into our counting shells. We talked about the things that there were two of in the story:
What a beautiful surprise we had this morning when we opened the mailbox...LETTERS FROM OUR FAMILIES! As the mail was handed out, the excitement increased. The children decided that they wanted to hear all of the letters read out loud, so we did. How excited we were to hear our mummy's, daddy's, grandma's, and grandpa's words and how wonderful to think that they would take the time and care to write us a letter! After we finished reading the letters, we talked about what we could do next. Everyone's ideas connected to saying thank you and a couple of people suggested that we should write some letters in return. So it was off to the writing centre for us to collect some materials and make decisions about exactly what would be important to write and draw for our families. Here are some photos of us reading our letters and holding the letters we received and the letters we wrote. We hope you like them!
When I was a little girl, my family traveled to a place that was far from our home. It was a beautiful valley with a blue lagoon was surrounded by a moss-covered forest. The water of the lagoon reached all the way to the ocean through a small gap in the mountains. My mum called this valley "the place of great gifts". My family stayed there for many days. Every day we woke up with the golden sun and wandered along the edge of the water. We loved looking at the big green trees in the forest. It was a very special time. One night there was a full moon. I could hear the wind. It sounded like it was whispering to us, telling us to begin an adventure. When we went out, we could see that the moon had magically changed the sea. The tide had shifted. The stars twinkled and I could hear the thundering sound of waves on the rocks of the beach. My mum said to me, "Come quick Alison...there is so much wonder to see in the world!" So we collected our baskets, packed some food and blankets, and left. We explored the beach discovering so many little treasures. I wanted to fill my basket, but my mum reminded me that we were looking for ONE special shell, ONE that was as old as the ocean and carried the whispers of the mermaids. A seagull called out and landed on a shell. I looked at it. On the outside the shell was rough from the tumbling of the waves, but on the inside it was perfect. Mum looked at it, picked it up and smiled. Yes! This was the one! After listening to the story, we all listened to the ONE special shell. We could hear the whispers of the mermaids!! We each took a counting shell and one pearl to put inside it. We discussed all the things that there were one of in the story and that we could think of in our own world. We made a list as a class and learned a poem to remember how to write the number one: The number one is like a stick, A straight line down that's very quick! Aziz has been our Star Name for the last two weeks. His name gave us an opportunity to review some of the sounds and letters that we know and recognized from other Star Names in our class like Denzil, Zoe, Axel, Lea, Emma, and Wilma. One of our favourite Star Name activities during these weeks was practicing writing Aziz's letters with chalk in our small playground. We unlocked our thinking about the formation and shapes of the letters using the 'FORM' concept key. We also made up some phrases to help us remember how to make the letters. For the 'A' you go "down one side of the mountain, down the other side of the mountain, and cross to make the snow on top". For the 'Z' you go "across the sky, down like lightning, and across the earth. We are working hard to remember to always form our letters from top to bottom, or from the sky to the earth, as we like to remember it! |