Patterns, Patterns, Everywhere!

We have a saying in our classroom, "Patterns, patterns, everywhere!" We often say this because we find patterns while we are learning about science, language arts and even math.  Last week we had the opportunity to explore shapes with patterns blocks.

 The students loved exploring the different shapes and we learned that if we combine shapes together, we can make new shapes and patterns.

We also learned about maps and even had a chance to look at our state, city and school using Google Earth.  The students were facinated by the map features.  It was fun and exciting to explore this together.  We then made a map of our classroom and the students made a map of their own bedrooms at home.  

Mrs. Balcer, our music teacher, helped make it possible for grades K-2 at our school to watch The Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra perform a Lollipop Concert at Central Wesleyan Church.  The students LOVED listening to the talented musicians and watching the dancers perform the story of Hansel and Gretel.

One of the books we read together was The Mitten, which is a story about a boy who's grandmother knits him a pair of mittens. Like most children do, the boy ends up losing one of his mittens while playing in the snow.  While he is at home, various animals from the wild outdoors discover the boy's lost mitten and climb inside to keep warm.  After we read the story, we practiced our retelling skills and worked on our sequencing.  The students then wrote about their own mittens.