Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems has been the theme of the week! The children have been engaged in daily readings of this simplistic but complicated story. They learned that Mo Willems is the author and illustrator of this book and many others that we will be reading again and again over the next week. We read the book and acted it out. The children learned a variety of vocabulary words as they listened to the pigeon trying to cajole the JK kids into letting him drive the bus but the JK kids said NO! (Well all except Harry! He thought it would be a good idea just to see if he could do it:) We talked about the feelings the pigeon had like happy and sad. Then they were introduced to feelings such as deflated, hopeful, annoyed, eager, cajoling, joyful, doubtful, and exasperated! The children loved matching these words to the pictures in the book.
The field trip on Thursday was a great success! There were a lot of great songs and fun interactions with the children. The play was an hour long and covered the pigeon stories Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog, The Pigeon Wants a Puppy, and Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late. If you would like to see more on the play go to the website. There is a parent link there too about responsibility. Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus
On Friday, the Kindergarten kids joined us to watch a short video of Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus and an interview of Mo Willems. He talked about how he came up with his idea to write the pigeon books and taught us how to draw the pigeon.
The children finished making their friendship bracelets this week for each other and we passed them out on Tuesday. They really enjoyed receiving a handmade "bracelet" from someone in the class! When each person received the bracelet, I told them who made it and each person genuinely said thank you, this is really nice! We have been adding up our tickets in the good friend bucket at the end of the day. The good friend tickets are a really great way to recognize when someone does something nice like helping put toys away, or saying kind things like I like your drawing, or even saying I'm sorry. When someone does a good friend deed then that person that received the good deed adds a ticket in the bucket.
The children have been writing about good friends in their journals and also they wrote about what would happen if the pigeon really did drive the bus! We will finish the pigeon drawings next week and display them in the hallway.
In the math center this week the children counted and sorted buttons according to a variety of attributes. First each group made a list of ways to sort things like color, size, shape, number of holes in a button, or design on the button. Next each child received a handful of buttons and each person worked on their own buttons to to sort. We counted how many different groups we created and then sorted again. In the language arts center, the children read a book titled The Party. In this book they read a predictable book about things you have at a birthday party. The text in this story repeated itself and matched the illustrations on each page. When the children were done reading, they created their own illustration and sentence of what they would have at a party.
In the art center, the children drew pigeons! They looked through the Mo Willems books and talked about the shapes that make the pigeon and applied them to their drawings. These are hanging in the classroom. In the fine motor center, the JK kids strung animal foam beads. They were able to make patterns and count how many beads fit on their string.
Our seventh grade reading buddies came on Friday morning to read to us too! We really enjoy our time with them.
Next week, we will focus on Mo Willems books one more week. The children are so happy to be engaged in these books and love them so much. They foster a love for reading, illustrating and invite us to act and use our imaginations! Centers next week will be art, technology, math, and language arts. We will have third grade reading buddies on Thursday. On Friday, we will have a Mo Willems hot dog party and invite the Kindergarten kids to join us too. Details in the JK class email! Congratulations on a JK friends lost tooth!!!!!
FREE CHOICE IS A GREAT TIME TO PLAY WITH OUR FRIENDS AND LEARN FROM EACH OTHER.
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