City or Country

Because we live in the suburbs, it is interesting to talk about how other people live and go to school. I enjoy sharing information from the book TOWN AND COUNTRY by Alice and Martin Provensen with the children. We spend a lot of time comparing and contrasting lifestyles.
The children especially enjoy talking about the how different recess can be. Why in a "City School" sometimes streets must be blocked off for recess. There is not enough room among all of the tall buildings for a playground. We talk about different games that are played and how you have to be very careful not to bat a ball through one of the school windows.
When we discuss recess at a country school, we talk all of the open space there is for the children to play. If you bat a ball across the fence there why it may go into a pasture.




Another one of our favorite books to read is THE LITTLE HOUSE by Virginia Lee Burton. After reading and discussing the book the children illustrate a picture of what the little house saw. We then write about there picture on the page. I love to read what they say and draw from the book. It is interesting to me what "sticks with a child".












Some focus on The Little House in the country. They illustrate the hills, mountains, ponds, flowers, and trees.
Usually someone will have a beautiful apple tree near The Little House. And often there will be ducks swimming in the pond.















Some of the children will focus on The Little House in the city. They will illustrate the tall buildings surrounding The Little House as the cars, trucks and buses are rushing by.









Most of the children will illustrate a daytime picture. But every once in a while a child will illustrate The Little House and what it sees at nighttime.


















There are some children who focus on all of the seasons The Little House will see. They enjoy talking about the difference in the landscape as the seasons change.















I enjoy using THE LITTLE HOUSE to talk about a story's setting. The book is just the perfect example for children to understand how important the setting is to telling the story.

It is at this time that we talk of developing good scenes for our stories. And believe it or not, they get it!!!

Watching the Weather

We are weather watchers!! Each morning, when we do our calendar activities, we discuss the weather. We go to the internet of one of our local television stations and check out the weather report for the day.

We then record the information on our weather board. This gives us an opportunity to discuss and compare the weather to the previous day.


I love that the children are so interested and excited about the weather. It is so interesting that they talk of watching the weather reports at home. It is also wonderful to see the children use weather terminology in their discussions.

The children record their entries in their weather journals each day. Ferguson is working very hard to get the information in his journal just right!!!

It is so interesting to watch them as they talk among themselves about their journals.
They say things like, "Today the high is going to be three degrees higher than yesterday's high". Or they may say,"Yesterday was partly cloudy and the forecast today is partly sunny". Sometimes I get tickled when they argue over the terms "partly cloudy and partly sunny".

One day last week Austin came in the room with great excitement. He said that he had to tell me something right then and it couldn't wait. He said that when we do the weather report for the day, we will be writing "rainy" because it was already "sprinkling" on Chestnut Road. What a funny thing for a little boy to get so excited about!!! I just loved it. It is moments like that, that make me realize we have make a great connection!!


Maddie takes great pride in the work she does each day in her weather book. Maddie is very maticulous and works very hard to get each detail just as she wants it. She can also strike a great pose!!! Looking Good!!!!!!!






Jazz works very hard to do her best. And her best is always wonderful. She has such outstanding work habits and is always eager to help others.
What a beautiful smiile Jazz has. It is obvious that she is proud of her weather book.


We Are Weather Watchers!!!!!


I wonder what the weather will be like tomorrow?