Fun at the beach!

You wouldn't believe the things we found!

A patient mom encouraging exploration

Mixing age groups-a winning combination for both classes.

A perfect day for exploring with Dad.

Education Seabury style-parent, child, teacher (and friends!)

This week we visited Dash Point State Park for a minus tide.  We have been learning about ocean and tide pool inhabitants and the minus tide gave us the perfect opportunity to see some of these creatures for ourselves.  We got a beautiful afternoon for exploring.  Four helpful parents and the Barracuda class joined us and away we went on the Seabury bus.  The -3 tide exposed all kinds of shells, gooey ducks, crabs, starfish, sea cucumbers and barnacles.  We couldn't believe how lucky we were!  It was a wonderful afternoon learning together on the beach!

The Ladybugs visit Kindergarten

We're taking turns selling snack, it's a good introduction to money.

Learning about jellyfish in kindergarten.

Another jam-packed week in the Ladybugs!  In math we are working on counting by 5's and 2's.  The 2's are pretty challenging!  We use manipulatives, number lines and the iPad to make this fun and concrete for the kids.  We write every chance we get and read on a regular basis.  These kids are busy and happy to be at school.  This week we visited the kindergarten class to see what it is like and then had a violin teacher come visit us so we could try the violin.   We have lots of things to do before the end of the school year!

Enjoying the Sun

some of our painters are very prolific!

lunch in the sunshine

working in our sketch books with the Shark class, learning about lines and perspective

using our tools to take apart a printer and a drill,  using our fine motor skills and working together

The Ladybugs celebrated spring this week with our first picnic lunch on our playground.  It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed every minute of it!

Busy children, busy minds

treats on a sunny day!

Math-measuring with non-standard units, 100 to be exact!

Searching for Waldo with a visitor

The Wildcat class visited our room and read folk tales they had written to the Ladybugs.  The Ladybugs returned the favor and read to them.  

getting the garden ready for new plants

working on symmetry during our collaborative learning time

Friday afternoon, a good time for sensory work

Every week in the Ladybugs brings new adventures.  This week we worked on our estimation jar, examined a mole foot, learned about insects and symmetry, plants and what they need to grow, measured with non-standard units, learned about the letter x (that's a tough one!), and learned about working together and being friends.  That doesn't even include doing math every day and reading together and all of the specialists we have in a week.  Our youngest students are given many opportunities over the course of the week to learn by observing, manipulating, building and working together.   The skills they work on are important to the learning they are doing now but also form a strong foundation for later learning.

Learning about weather in the Ladybugs

Comparing more and less

Longer and shorter

simulating rain

the most beautiful rain ever!

making rainbows with prisms

working together to paint a bunch of rainbows

writing a book together

sometimes you just feel like dancing!

decorating the class parachute before we used it

We have been learning about all kinds of weather in the Ladybug class.  We did experiments to show how rain falls from the clouds and used prisms to make rainbows.  We've painted kites and rainbows and we're writing weather books.  In math, we're sorting and classifying objects using categories such as "longer and shorter", "bigger and smaller" and "more and less".