Welcome to Mrs. Douglas' EC Class at Our Shepherd!

This week we are learning all about graphs and emotions. After the friends wrote their names, they taped them to our feelings graph for today. The skills that we are learning now will enhance our Project work later in the year.

During Jesus time we learned how God created the world. He made the world as our home because He loves us! He gave us Jesus as our Savior from sin because He loves us too!

Outside time

Outdoor classroom

During small group time, we continued to work with graphs as we graphed whether we are a boy or girl. The friends drew a picture of themselves and wrote their name to add to the graph. We used the words more, less, and equal as we discussed the graph. I encourage you to use these important math words at home with your child too. :)

Independently the friends worked to strengthen their fine motor skills by lacing beads on a string. Fine motor refers to the muscles needed for small tasks such as tying a shoe and writing. The stronger our fine motor skills, the easier it is to do those important tasks.

Mr. Anderson helped in our classroom today while Mrs. Dohrman was out. The friends discussed with Mr. Anderson somethings that make them smile. He wrote them down on the smile face for us to refer back to as the year progresses.

Free choice time

One of the friends recited The Very Busy Spider. You might think, "Oh he has just memorized the words of the book," but that is actually an important pre-reading skill.

Some of the friends chose to continue to lace the beads.

As the friends play, they are learning important skills. The social skills that they learn and practice will impact them throughout their lives. They are also practicing important aspects of executive function. Self-regulation (sometimes referred to as inhibitive control) is one of those aspects that is practiced in play. For example, the friends were playing a game, and one of the friends was the "dog." The friend used extreme self regulation to stick to the role of "dog" and not use words, yet still participate in the game.

You can read more about executive function HERE.

Counting the number tiles

The friends also show self regulation when they control their impulses to knock down a tower.

We had many questions about the gourd in the science center. Fostering a child's natural curiosity is one way we build life-long learners!

"Why are the black dots on it?"

"The stem is stuck. Why doesn't it move?"

"Why does the dot look bigger with the magnifying glass?"

Look how our fiends work together to help each other!

During morning meeting we sang a song that increases the children's awareness of rhythm. The ability to clap a beat positively impacts the students reading readiness.

During afternoon meeting we reflected on all we learned today. We discussed our favorite small group from the morning and what we liked/disliked about it. It is important to provide time for review and reflection (metacognition) to improve the application of knowledge and skills.