The Important Lessons

Today we welcomed 24 fresh baby chicks into the world!

The kids were absolutely in awe. We had waited and waited for 21 days, carefully monitoring the temperature and humidity in our incubator. Our eggs had actually become new life!

As Mrs. Beliveau looked at the math assessment and writing tasks she had prepared for the day, one thing became clear. The most important lesson we needed to learn today was not going to be how to skip count, nor was it going to be how to write a strong sentence. It was going to be about respect for new life. Isn't God amazing?

Lessons saved for another day!

We took many moments today to cuddle chicks, holding them gently and speaking to them softly. The boys and girls marveled at how God created such an amazing miracle, right under our noses! Check out some memories!

What was extra special to see were the differences between the chicks! Some were yellow, others black, others brown with beautiful blond stripes. God made them all special and unique, just like He made us!

It was a wonderful, memorable day and the students were so welcoming of all of the curious company who made their way into our classroom. They were very protective of the fragile new life, and were so keen to share their knowledge and answer questions. We definitely learned the meaning of "good news travels fast"!

This has been an AMAZING journey filled with loads of valuable lessons. Today's math and writing lessons, however, have been saved for another day. More importantly are the lessons we have learned about new life, respect, patience, and compassion. God's work is truly amazing!

2, 4, 6, 8, Our Counting Skills are Really Great!

We are crazy for skip counting!

Over the last few weeks, as we have explored numbers to 100, we have practiced skip counting:

• by 2's to 20
• by 5's to 100
• by 10's to 100

Learning to skip count helps us count large groups of items accurately and efficiently.

The skip counting chains we made on our 100th day have been very helpful!

Today students were given bags of manipulatives and were asked to count the items. Part of the challenge of using skip counting is figuring out how to count leftover items. 

We tried the challenge as a class with this pile of items:

We collaborated to group the items into 10's:

10, 20, 30 ... 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39!

Then we tried counting the same pile of items using skip counting by 5's:

5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 ..., 36, 37, 38, 39!

Students got into pairs to count their own pile of manipulatives! Here are some groups hard at work:

5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40 ...41!

10, 20, 30, ... 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36!

We are getting so good at counting large sets, that we can even do it with our eyes closed!

10, 20, 30, 40 ..., 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46!

The students are on their way to becoming skip counting experts, but please continue practice at home. These skills need to be automatic before being successfully applied in counting situations such as these. Why not practice in the car or in line at the grocery store? 

Happy counting! 

Fantastic Gymnastics!

We've been so blessed to have an incredibly talented, experienced, and caring Holy Redeemer parent volunteer to teach our energetic kids gymnastics! It is a class the students absolutely look forward to! The lessons are focused on the 3 F's; building our fundamental movement patterns, developing our fitness, and having fun! We had a blast and learned so much!

Here is a sneak peek into our last Teddy Bear-themed gymnastics class! Please enjoy the pictures and videos of our students tackling various balances, rolls, locomotor movements, jumps, and landings! Be sure to make it full screen!

Thank you for sharing your gifts with us, Mrs. Gazso!