October Fun!

I compiled a video of pictures from October.  Enjoy!

                               

The Green Zone

Think about how you feel when you arrive at work.  Is it a calm feeling?  Rushed?  Anxious?  Excited?

Your child has many emotions as he/she enters the school day and progresses through their learning time at school.  Leah Kuypers, an occupational therapist, has developed a way to help children visualize and regulate their emotions, called The Zones.

Mrs. Nies visited our classroom to help us learn about the first Zone - a great zone for our bodies to be in - the Green Zone.  A person in the green zone is in "a calm state of alertness. A person may be described as happy, focused, content, or ready to learn when in the Green Zone.  This is the Zone students predominately need to be in the classroom."

A few of our students demonstrated how our bodies look when we are in the Green Zone:

There is no "wrong" Zone to be in, as all people experience different emotions from day to day.  Knowing and recognizing a person's own emotional Zone can help them to identify how they are feeling.  Students can then learn strategies to move into the Green Zone and be ready for learning.  

Mrs. Nies will be coming to our classroom each Wednesday to teach us more about The Zones.

~Your child will be bringing home a fundraiser packet from Club's Choice today. If you are willing or able, thank you in advance for helping raise funds for our school!

Veterans' Day and School Cancellation Information

                          Thank you to SW1 Sean Nies who came to our classroom to teach us about Veterans.  It was an honor to have you with us!  Click here to watch a video about his visit:

                            

* There will be no afternoon Kindergarten on Thursday, November 14th.  The rest of the students in our school will be dismissed at 11:50 that day.  The Maple Lake High School football team will play a state tournament semifinal game in the Metrodome at 2:00 pm.  Parents needing childcare may call Kidville at 963-6415 to make arrangements.

* Ticket and fan bus information may be obtained by calling the high school office at 963-3171 or going to our web site at www.maplelake.k12.mn.us .

           

Adult Tickets   $12.00

Student Tickets  $8.00

         Fan Bus   $5.00

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Global Read Aloud - Book 5

          

 We enjoyed a special guest reader for our fifth Global Read Aloud book!  Thank you to Michael's mom, Meagan, for sending us this video of you reading the book Hello Red Fox.  

The students were delighted to watch you read on our big Smart Board screen!  Watch the video here:

                   
                       Michael's mom reading Hello Red Fox from Patchwork Pals on Vimeo.

Week 10

*Students should wear their Irish Pride T-shirts on Tuesday!

All students have had the chance to try the Listening to Reading Center.  We are now practicing a small group format for Daily 5, where students rotate between the four centers.  They are enjoying the variety.  Soon we will introduce our fifth part of Daily 5 - individualized reading groups.

This week we built towers with blocks that equaled the number of letters in our names.  Then we compared with others - is my friend's name longer, shorter or the same as mine?

Congratulations to the Maple Lake Volleyball and Football teams who each went to the State Tournament this week.  We lined the hallways to send them off - they ran through and we gave them high fives!

Pile on the Birthdays!

Last week we celebrated 3 birthdays in our class!  Happy birthday to Dylan, Mia, and Mack, who all turned 6 last week!

They each got a crown on their special day.  They also got to talk about their birthday and answer questions from their classmates using the Birthday Microphone.  Big smiles all around!

Tuesday, November 12th is Bingo Fun Night at Maple Lake Elementary.  Come at 6:30 pm for food, Bingo, and fun!

Fall Party

Thank you to all the parent volunteers and other adults throughout the school that made our Fall Party so much fun!  The costumes were great, the food was spooky, and the games were great!

Enjoy some pictures sent in by parents:

Week 9

This has been an exciting week!

We studied Sequence of Events by reading about the steps to growing a plant.  Students noticed keywords that show order such as "first", "then", "next", etc.

During Daily 5, we introduced our 4th station: Listening to Reading.  Students used headphones, CD players, and iPads to listen to picture books being read aloud.  The two stories available on the iPads were ABCmouse.com - Mount Rushmore, and Just Me and my Mom.  These are both free on the iTunes App Store.  

We will continue to practice Listening to Reading during the coming week.

Students continued comparing two quantities.  We played The Game of Compare (which you may know as "war").  Students begin with a pile of number cards (0-10).  Each student draws a card, and whoever has more says "me".  

We also continued doing Grab and Compare, where students each grab a handful of blocks, build a tower, and compare to see whose is longer.

Thank you to Mrs. Purcell, who came in as a parent volunteer to run a math station last week.  Students worked with Mrs. Purcell to measure objects against a 10-block tower.  They determined whether the object was longer or shorter than the tower, and drew/labeled the object.