November 13, 2012

Happy Tuesday!

Today in skills, the Organic Squirrels worked on ee as long e (like in meet).  They're working hard at reading Gran!

The Zesty Wombats are working on spellings for long o.  They've learned o (open), oe (toe), ow (snow), oa (goat), and o_e (bone).  They read a story called Val's Training about a girl who swims.  They're also reading Henry and Mudge books.

The Screaming Mustaches are reading books about the Littles, a family of small people.  Half the group is reading The Littles and the other half is reading The Littles Take a Trip.

The Ice Dragons are reading Henry and Ribsy which is a book about Henry and his bad dog, Ribsy.

We didn't have centers today.  Instead we worked more on Social Skills.
We read a story called The Worrywarts.  It's about three animals who worry about the worst things that can happen to them.  They prepare for the worst, and then when the bad things happen, they're ready.  It uses humor, too.  After we talked about how to break big worries down into all the things that would have to happen in order for that bad thing to happen.  It helped them see that the chances of big, bad things happening are teeeeeny tiiiiiny.

For example, one student said that she's worried about her Christmas tree catching on fire.  We talked about how, in order for that to happen, first you have to have unsafe lights that you didn't check before putting them up.  Then you have to leave the lights on for a long time, or overnight.  Then they have to malfunction.  Then they have to start a fire and the tree has to catch.  Then nobody has to notice it.  Then your smoke detectors have to not work.  The chances of ALL of these things happening at once are so small, and steps can be taken at each step, to minimize the chances of this happening (checking bulbs, unplugging the lights, putting batteries in the smoke detector and checking it, etc).

If your child comes to you with a worry that seems oversized, you can help them by breaking it down to see that it probably won't happen to them.

This afternoon the kids had Spanish, in which they're learning about seasons, music, in which they're singing folk songs and songs about Thanksgiving, and science, in which they're learning about body systems.

The kids had a generally good day.  It can be hard to come back after a long weekend, but they settled in and were ready to work!  Remember, tomorrow is a library day and we're going to the farm early!  Please send a packed lunch!