This morning in chapel Pastor Lepley illustrated for us how we can share one another's burdens!  Most importantly, we can give our burdens to God!  We know that He loves us because He sent Jesus to die on the cross and rise again to save us. 

Leighton helped Pastor Lepley illustrate this! 

After chapel, morning meeting, and snack, we went outside (without the iPad- my apologies for no outdoor pictures).  

Back in the classroom we had free choice time. 

So much learning happens during free choice time!  The friends are learning to cooperate and collaborate.  They are applying skills that we learn during small group time.  They are engaging in problem solving and creative thinking. 

Did you know that the love of reading is a foundational literacy skill?  Even though the friends are not able to read books in the conventional way, they are learning valuable concepts of print including print orientation and context clues.

The flower shop was exploding with business today. 

Some of the friends wrote letters to put through the mail slot.  (This was a great time to engage in meaningful writing practice!) 

Elijah and Owen wanted to create a phone for the flower shop so that they could take flower orders by phone.  They worked together to make their own phone!  (Great creative thinking!)

Many of the friends made more flowers for the shop. 

During small group time, the friends continued to play independently in the flower shop. 

With Mrs. Zwettler, the friends practiced counting and one to one correspondence with a fun heart game! 

With me, we continued to practice recognizing lower case letters and their sounds.  We extended this activity today and included a phoneme substitution.  I said the letter sound, the friend found the corresponding letter, and then substituted the first sound in their name to the letter that they found. 

(For example: I found the L my name is now Louglas.)

This is a fun and funny way to increase phonemic awareness.  Research shows that strong phonemic awareness skills help children to be successful readers. 

Second free choice 

Second outside time

During second free choice the friends worked collaboratively to complete heart puzzles. 

With Mrs. Lipsey, the friends played a game that increases one to one correspondence and counting. 

With me, the friends played the letter recognition game from the morning that also increases letter/sound correspondence and phonemic awareness as we change the beginning phoneme in our names.