Welcome back for another great week of school! 

This week, we are beginning Phase One of our Spider Project.  We will be using the Project Approach as modeled by Reggio Emilia in Italy.  More information about the Project Approach will be in our child's folder this week.  

This morning we observed the spiders we found on the playground Friday afternoon.  Some of the friends drew pictures of the spiders, others discussed what they saw.  Some friends read books about spiders!  

Mrs. Maloney brought in new manipulatives for our friends!  We worked together to resolve our conflicts independently.  They children are learning valuable conflict resolution skills! 

Some of the friends explored the sand in the sensory table.

Elijah took notes of what he saw the friends doing!  This is a great opportunity to engage in meaningful writing practice! 

Train play :) 

During morning meeting, we read The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle.  I asked the children if they had any spider stories that they could share with the class.  I told them that we would work on these stories at small group time. 

We always have fun on the playground! We are thankful for our large outdoor space at Our Shepherd! 

As we were lining up to go inside, we noticed a spider web on the gate!  It was beautiful! 

We then saw another web! 

(I tried to take pictures of the webs for you, but they did not turn out so well. )

Back in the classroom, Mrs. Zwettler read us A Diary of a Spider while I set up the small groups. 

One of the small groups will be a group the entire week.  I put out some "good junk" for the children to use to create.  We will come back to these creations everyday this week.  According to the updated Bloom's Taxonomy, creative thinking is the highest level thinking skill.  This activity not only promotes creative thinking, but also promotes cognitive development!  The fact that we are coming back to our creations every day this week promotes persistence which is an important life skill. 

We then had the opportunity to draw a picture of a spider and tell a story about a spider.  This activity engages children's prior knowledge about spiders and helps identify any misconceptions that need to be addressed throughout the Spider Project. 

Mrs. Zwettler played a rhyming game with the friends!  Rhyming is an important part of phonemic awareness. Research shows that strong phonemic awareness skills lead to reading success.

During Jesus time we read the story of creation.  We learned that God created the whole world by just speaking!  God's word is powerful!  He promised to send a Savior, and He did!  He sent Jesus to die on the cross and rise again to save us! 

After lunch and quiet time, we went back outside.  

We saw more spiders on the playground! 

Second free choice time was full of activity!  The friends are learning to resolve their conflicts independently.  They are doing a good job! 

Wow!  Look at one of our block structures! 

During second small groups, Mrs. Zwettler worked with the friends to measure using Unifix cubes.  Then, they counted together how many cubes they used.  This activity strengthens foundational math skills including one ot one correspondence and counting.

With me, we worked to document what the friends wonder about spiders.  

("I wonder if they are purple?")  

We will add our half day friends wonderings tomorrow.  We will continue to add our wonderings to this paper throughout the the Project.  We will use these wonderings to guide our study and exploration of spiders.