Growth Mind Set

Using children's literature to promote a growth mind set.

Working together. . .

science observation. . .

imaginative play. . . 

and independent work.  All part of the Ladybug day.

"Growth mindset" is a phrase you can find frequently in the literature concerning current education practices.  For our Ladybugs, it means that we can all make mistakes but then we try again.  We have been using a series of books by Peter Reynolds as a tool for promoting a growth mindset.  The books are about making our best effort and not being afraid to try something new.  Pre-k kids rarely have an issue with a growth mindset (they love to learn and try new things), but we are laying the groundwork  for trying hard and not giving up when things seem hard.

First Friday

Playing "War" is a fun way to work on the concepts of greater than and less than.

There was even time for some one on one reading with the big kids.

This was our 1st First Friday for these Ladybugs.  We mixed all the kids together, including middle school, and divide them into 5 groups and then each group goes go a different activity for an hour.  This is one way we build community at Seabury.  Some of our kids went to a cooking class, others went to the library, some went to do some building with different materials, some were involved in paper craft and the last group worked on a mural for International Dot Day based on the book "The Dot" by Peter Reynolds.  All of our Ladybugs did great being mixed with the big kids and joined enthusiastically in the activities.

Math mentors and Grandparent Day

We've had lots of visitors to our class this week.  I think the grandparents were the favorite!

Bike Day!

We love bike day!  We rode bikes, brainstormed different types of transportation, graphed the number of wheels on our bikes and made patterns using transportation pasta.  It was all about wheels today!

According to the Ladybugs these are different ways to get from one place to another:
car, time machine, airplane, truck, garbage truck, boat, bike, motorcycle, train, bullet train, parachute, rocket, cement mixer, dump truck, submarine, jet pack, helicopter, space ship, sailboat, bus, bulldozer, surf board, shoes, roller skates, elevator, escalator, skate board, rollerblades, ice skates, boosters, horse, hot air balloon, camel, running, jet, suction cups, training wheels, scooter, school bus, taxi, race car, raft, row boat, motor boat, jet ski, kites, and ferry boats.

Apples!

There were apples to cut out,

Surveys to be taken,

data to be recorded,

and data to be analyzed.

Apples needed peeled,

and they needed to be cut up.

We investigated and tasted 4 kinds of apples.

We wore safety glasses, used tweezers and magnifying glasses to aid in our investigation.

   

We made apple pie

and measured the peels!

It was a busy week learning about apples.  We learned about the life cycle of the apple tree and used apples for a scientific investigation.  We tasted 4 different kinds of apples and voted for our favorite kind ( Red Delicious won by a landslide).  We painted, cut, measured, baked, and gathered information from the rest of the school.  (we're exhausted!)

Our math mentors were back this week to work on geometric shapes.  The Gumshoes' teacher, Mr. B., wrote a great blog post last week on the value of mentors in the classroom.  If you haven't read it yet, check it out on the Gumshoes' blog.  (access it on the sidebar of this posting)