The Explorers have been busy skiing, exploring in town, hosting a movie premier, painting a masterpiece on a guitar, and learning about wolves.  

Last week we had a great field trip to the Montana Natural History Center to learn about some Montana mammals.  

It was a fun trip to ride the bus into town, we even shared the first bus with the Appaloosa Rabbits from PS2 as they were heading down the hill to saunter in Greenough park.  We then had a bus transfer and a short walk down to the MNHC where Christine played a mammal movement game with us, then showed us a bunch of cool skulls.  The Explorers did a great job of matching skulls to pictures of the animals they belonged to.  Then we had a chance to explore the kid's discovery room, check out the specimens and exhibits, and pet a real snake!  After our wonderful tour we made our way back to the bus stop for another ride to the transfer center, where we ate lunch, then headed back to school for a little nature journaling and a restful afternoon.  

The next morning we got to have an extra recess with everyone from the whole school during All School Friday.  After recess all of the school came to our room for cocoa and graham crackers while we had a premier of The Magic Within.  The kiddos were excited to see themselves up on the screen (projected onto our class whiteboard) just like in the movie theatre.  Each child recieved a special sticker from the event and I hope they brought home some exciting news about this wonderful school project.  When you come to the auction you'll get a chance to see your child in their part of this place-based movie that shows what a magical place Clark Fork School is.  Following the movie we broke up into our respecive ASF groups and worked together to write a collaborative story where each child got to add a sentence to build the story from the prompt "It was big, and it was green."  We also had fun doing animal movements together and then sharing our stories with the other groups.  We also spent some nice community time with the Appaloosa Rabbits in PS2 on Thursday, the 2nd where we spent a half hour exploring their room.  It was fun for the kids to play with different games, try out some fun art ideas, paly with different preschool friends and check out a different room in the building.

Along with all the fun school community activities, skiing, and field trips we have been very busy in our classroom.  The Explorers are working with me to paint a guitar for the auction. The guitar has a Clark Fork River theme, and has been moving along in layers of paint over the last week.  Next week we will put the finishing touches to it so that it can be ready for the auction.  We have also been learning about Wolves!  The Explorers are learning about this fascinating, beautiful creature that works together in a pack.  We have been working on a book about wolves, making pattern necklaces with our own wolf badge to show our own pack.  Next week we will be working on a cool lifesize wolf drawing as well as some other fun wolf projects like a moveable wolf made from recycled cereal boxes.

In language arts we have been working on writing in our writing journals every morning.  They are doing a great job of using the prompts to write some beginning sight words along with starting to use thier "kid spelling".  During learning centers we have been writing a lot about wolves in our wolf book, along with doing some short vowel work.  We are starting to sound out three letter words and use our knowledge of letter sounds to write in phonetic or "kid spelling".  In math we have moved on from 3d shapes to patterns as well as practicing our careful counting and number recognition.  Next week we will have our 100th day of kindergarten on Thursday.  It will be a fun filled day of counting to 100 in many different ways with many different things.

February is going to be very busy in the Explorer room.  I just want to give you a heads up about some of the things that will be happening.  On Tuesday, the 7th we have our last ski and there will be a pizza party at lunch!  The CFS auction is on Saturday, the 11th with the premiere of our movie that I mentioned about.  Our 100th day is Thurday, the 9th, followed by Valentines Day on Tuesday, the 14th.  I will be sending out an email about these days early next week.  We will also be having Kindergarten Discovery week during the week of the 13-17th.  We will have a potluck on the night of the 16th as you have heard from Karin's emails.  Please check the whiteboard outside our classroom for daily notes and reminders about what is going on in the Explorer classroom along with some emails that I will be sending along the to help keep you informed.  If you have any questions just ask, thanks.

Until next time,

TJ

I have more fun pictures that I will be sharing in an extra blog next week!