88 Days of School!

In Math this week the children began learning about money. We began our study by reading “Alexander Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday” and having the children share their knowledge about money (see below for their thoughts). During job time some children sorted and classified the coins while others worked in small groups and did Counting Mat activities. Throughout the week the children used their Counting Mats with pennies, nickles, penny strips and nickel strips to represent numbers 6-10 and later to create addition equations.
Our Avenida study this week focused on mapping. We began our investigation into mapping by reading the book “Me on The Map” and having the children share their background knowledge about maps with their friends (see below for their feedback). Throughout the week we created maps of our classroom, school and Avenida de la Playa. The children also enjoyed comparing maps from around the world.
During Writer’s Workshop we focused on “The Magic 5” and began using our Magic 5 checklist after each writing job was completed. Throughout the week we wrote about what we learned about Avenida de la playa, what we think we might do this weekend and what we liked about our artist in action.
Next week we will have noon dismissal on Tuesday, February 3rd and conferences will be held on Tuesday afternoon, all day Wednesday and all day Thursday. Class will resume on Friday, February 6th with a field trip to La Jolla Shores.
Money:
“It buys things.” E.E
“The government is the only thing that can make real money.” H.C
“You keep it in your pocket.” A.G
“Robbers steal it.” J.M
“You keep it in your wallets.” J.R
“You keep it in your piggy bank.” T.S
“It can be gold.” E.M
“It is bad to lose money.” M.N
“Money can be in the shape of a circle.” M.E
“Money has the year it was born on it.” P.W
“Money can be shaped like a rectangle if it is a dollar bill.” N.S
“It can be shaped in an oval if it goes through a machine.” J.W
“Every money has a guy on it.” J.R
“The guy on money is a VIP.” M.E

Maps:
“They are made so you don’t get lost.” J.R
“You can get a map of the earth.” J.M
“You can draw things on them so you know where you need to go.” P.W
“It can be round like a globe or flat.” N.S
“They help you find people and places.” A.R
“You can make a map with a crayon and paper.” M.N
“Maps have labels and pictures.” J.W
“Maps show where you are in the state.” T.S
“There are maps in my mom and dad’s phone.” E.M
“The map of the world has all of the countries and the United States.” E.E

Our Monday

“In Music with Lauren we read a funny book about a music teacher and kids that said rumors about the teacher. One of the rumors was that when she sang one of the boy’s glasses broke because she was so loud. At the end she was a normal teacher and the rumors were not true. In Art with Carrie we dotted on paper then folded it and when I opened it there was a picture. After recess we talked about handwriting. If you don’t have good handwriting people cannot understand you. Good handwriting is when you spell the letters properly. You draw the letters so they bump the lines and they start at the top. At job time we practiced lowercase d’s, g’s and c’s. They all start with the magic c. At afternoon job time we read “Alexander Who Used To Be Rich Last Sunday” and we learned about money.” J.R.

Adventure to Avenida

“Yesterday we walked from the school, over the bridge, next to my grandmas house and down Paseo Dorado to get to the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club. When we got to the club we saw some huge Seahorses. On our trip we counted them in our neighborhood guidebook. I counted over 101 seahorses! We saw ducks, swans and geese in the lake. I also found an alive turtle. Lisa A gave us a tour. First we went to the beach and we helped the beach stop littering and picked up the trash. Then we met Mr. Juan and he teached us how to play golf. He showed us to aim the ball line at the hole and then strike. Then we fed Peepers (a Seagull) hotdogs and planted a plant with Shelly. I liked planting because it helps the Earth. After planting with Shelly we went to Chef in the kitchen. We got to make our own pizza. I put on pepperoni and cheese. Then we went to the restaurant and ate our pizza and asked Lisa A. questions about the club. When we left we said ‘Thank you for the tour’.” E.E.

“On Tuesday I went to La Jolla Kayak. La Jolla Kayak is a place where there is Kayaks and you get to sit in them if you are kids, as long as your mom asks if you could. I got to wear a life vest. I didn’t have whistle on my life jacket. If someone is in the water and drowning they will do the whistle and a guy will jump in and get him and put him in the kayak. Jason showed us a video that showed us if the kayak was turning it might flip over and you would have to come out from under the top of the kayak. When we left they gave us a piece of paper with all the fish in the sea and a map of the ocean. I learned that if you tip over the kayak you will fall into the water. After La Jolla Kayak we went to Surf Divas and we watched a video about a girl surfing a whole world. Megan showed us how to do a pop up and how to paddle. When a wave gets close to your back you get up. When we left they gave us hats. At surf Diva’s I counted the boy bathing suits and there were 13. I found out that the have 20 surfboards, but I counted more than 20. You can buy them and rent them.” P.W.

Thursday's Artist in Action

Click on the image to see an enlarged view.

Jobs in our community

What a wonderful few weeks we have had! The children have been busy going on field trips to Starbucks, Barbarella’s, La Jolla Shores Market, Surf Diva’s, La Jolla Kayak and Hotel La Jolla. We will be wrapping up our small group tours on Thursday with our last trip to the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club. While the small groups are on their tours of Avenida de la Playa the children on campus have been learning about jobs in the community, transportation and what we can do to take care of the environment around us.

Here are some reasons why kindergartners feel we have jobs:

“It is important to have a job so that people can get money so they can buy things, like clothes and food. Jobs help the community because if I was a veterinarian, I would help others by helping their animals. It is important so that their animals don’t die. Another important job, is a cowgirl. If cows were escaping the cowgirl brings them back in. That is important so they don’t escape so they won’t give milk. It is important for parents to have jobs so they can have money to buy us food.” M.E

“It is important to have a job so people are not very worried, because there is nothing to worry about. If there was an issue or problem and they need help, a person can help, a lawyer or a beauty maker. The beggars don’t have pretty clothes, they don’t have lipstick or anything. People with jobs can help them, beauty shop makers make women beautiful and men handsome. People want to dress however they want and beauty shop makers ask them what they want to look like and the person answers and the beauty shop maker makes their wish granted. People need to look good to go to parties. If there were no lawyers, people would fight all the time. People need to follow the rules, if no one followed rules it would be a mess. If no one followed the rules it would be a disaster, somebody would get hurt…. So that is why they needed lawyers.” A.R

Our Adventure to Avenida

Today we went on our first field trip to Avenida de la Playa. The children went on their journey in groups of three with a gracious parent as their guide. On their walk they participated in a scavenger hunt and took photographs of nature, buildings, structures, community contributors and business along the way. Here are some of the things they observed:
It takes 5-1,008 steps to walk across the bridge (depending on how big your steps are).
There are 9-10 floors in Hotel La Jolla
The Children’s School has the same trees and bushes as Avenida de la Playa.
The Children’s School does not have palm trees or Birds of Paradise
We take La Jolla Shores Drive to get to Avenida de la Playa (and we pass the street Ethan lives on along the way).
There is a house/business/apartment/building/candy factory or room next to the La Jolla Shores Market.
It says “Aloha” on the step leading to La Jolla Kayak and the Kayaks are green.
We feel that Barbarella’s serves pancakes/waffles, Hawaiian food, Italian food, pasta, chicken fingers, pizza or cheese.
The map at Surf Diva’s leads to La Jolla shores beach or “a place to get a lesson on how to surf… probably near the ocean… or in the ocean.”
On the way to Ethan’s house we saw grey, red, blue, brown, white, green, pink(ish), red(ish), pinky and rainbow colored houses.
Throughout the tour the children also focused on finding things that help and hurt the environment. Some of the things that hurt the environment were litter, big cars, and people picking flowers. Some of the things that helped the environment were trees, bushes, dirt, grass and nature. As Anna put it “When you pick a flower it is like pulling the earths hair. The Earth doesn’t like it and it hurts.” ~Room 5 friends
A BIG thank you to Leslie, Rose, Soleil, Venke and Tricia for being our great tour guides. A special thank you to Tricia, Ethan, Evan and Roger for opening up their home to all of us for a wonderful lunch and play time!

Back from the Break

On Monday the children worked on their Winter Reports and focused on spacing, proper letter formation and writing three things they did over the break. During Art the class they drew pictures of scenery and in Music they played with the rhythm sticks.
During morning job time we talked about new years resolutions and wrote about things we are not good at now that we would like to be better at (see below). Then they made fireworks with “glue and lots of different colored glitter”.
In the afternoon we began our Avenida de la Playa study by reading the book “Open Your Heart” by Grant and Layne Pecoff and discussing all of the different places people live. The children then drew pictures of their neighborhood communities and wrote about what community means to them.
New Years Resolutions:
“To learn how to speak English” ~A.G.
“To learn how to ride my bike” ~E.M.
“I want to learn how to fix my bike” ~M.N
“I want to be able to ride a bike without training wheels” ~J.R
“I want to be a better reader” ~J.M
“I want to improve my reading and learn how to do a handstand” ~H.C
“”I want to feed my cat everyday” ~P.W
“I want to be a better sister” ~N.S
“I want to learn how to do a bridge” ~ M.E
“I want to learn how to do a handstand” ~T.S
“I want to paint a cobra” ~E.E
“I want to guess what’s in Ned’s head” – A.R

On Tuesday “at morning meeting we read “Our Class is Going Green”. After we read the book we wrote about how to be green. To be green I will not litter instead of littering. So I will throw stuff in the trash can and keep the earth clean so it will smile at me. At the writing bean table I wrote about what I know about Avenida de la Playa. I know that I ate lunch at a place there that was kind of scary because it has ghosts and skeletons that had blood on its teeth. At Todd Time we played with the parachute. After Todd Time we glued trash onto a big piece of black paper. The other group glued recycled things onto blue paper. We are going to put them on the garbage cans to let people know what goes in them. During Readers’ Workshop we went on a hunt for readers. Below is a list of all the readers they saw at TCS.” ~E.E
Laura and Carrie reading the computer; Marilyn reading name tags and her computer; Julie Lee reading her January calendar for visiting guest artists; Denise reading a note for Jorge; Rachel reading a message letter; Lisa A reading her memory book (a planner); Tammy reading a message she wrote on her computer; Ryan (in first grade) reading a weather report; ALL of the first graders reading books in the library; The sixth graders reading their laptops; the fourth graders reading a screen; the third graders reading papers on the rug; the second graders reading papers at their desk.