Once Upon A Time

Time for castles and fairy tales!

We are buzzing with excitement about our new library theme of fairy tales and all the related characters of princes, queens, ogres,  and knights! We have set up the library with a couple of toy castles complete with dragons and knights, and we have a huge selection of fairy tale books to read or listen to. 

A fun series about a good hearted knight and his 3 dragon friends

Our second castle

Read-alouds this week have included Rose Red and Snow White, Rapunzel, and Rumpelstiltskin.  Despite knowing that one of the features of fairy tales is that they end with a 'Happily Ever After,' we find ourselves on the edge of our seats when in the midst of the story plot! Other fairy tale features we are identifying include the use of magic, special numbers, royalty, a beginning of 'Once Upon A Time' or 'Long Ago', and good vs. bad characters. 

Features of fairy tales

Writer's Workshop this week focused on two non fiction activities. One was a non fiction topic of our choice which included any of the non fiction features we  chose, such as captions, table of contents, illustrations with labels or close ups, and fact boxes. The second was a non fiction writing piece introducing themselves to their future (TBD) second grade teacher. They began this writing with an introduction along with a few facts about themselves or their interests, and will continue on Monday adding a few more pertinent details describing themselves, and finally closing with a wrap up. 

Writing 'All About Me' for 2nd grade

Show & Tell never disappoints! Along with special collections, favorite toys, or souvenirs from family trips, we get the tie- ins to our curriculum or something just for fun. This week one of our friends brought in stuffed animals that represented categories in the animal kingdom we've been learning about - a reptile, bird, amphibian, and mammal. Another friend had us up with an impromptu dance to go along with her musical microphone (which conveniently comes apart to fit in a bag that can travel on  
                                                         a school bus!). 

Can you name the animal categories?!

Let's dance!

As we turn our attention to animal offspring and their parents in science to discover how they are different and similar to each other, we took a close up look at a couple of examples. We have a  display of a life cycle of a tadpole to a frog (which look very different from each other) and a selection of books depicting other life cycles such as those of a butterfly, bird, or ladybug. We love looking at the adorable online science slides of baby kittens, puppies, and chicks and thinking about how their parents help them to live, grow, and survive. 

Reading about animal parents

Science reading buddies

 I might try and catch some tadpoles to bring in, but from prior experiences I know they are not as easy to catch as you'd think! I did pick up a Luna moth cocoon from our own local Butterfly Place, so we may be able to see that metamorphosis!

Our frog and tadpole display

Our collection of animal magazines is a nice tie-in!

Here we are in math with all our personal sized clocks! We will continue to practice telling time even though we are moving into a unit on organizing and analyzing data using graphs and tally marks.

We can tell time!

I am finally ready to pack the sweaters away now that a sure sign of spring has come - the blooming of the forsythias and my pretty pink magnolia! The sun is coming out today, so enjoy the weekend!
Mrs. Dagley