We were treated to a special visit from some parent musicians during music class on Thurdsay. Rita brought her fiddle and Alex brought his acoustic guitar and pedal steel guitar. It was so fun to hear them play and explain a little about each instrument.
Please enjoy the clips below:
Thank you, Rita and Alex, for sharing your time and talents with us!
Here is a note from our music teacher, Mrs. Markstrum, regarding this coming Tuesday:
Dear Lower School Families,
Laguna students want to share a few more songs with you. Next Tecolote Tuesday, 6/6, will be our last Tecolote Tuesday of this school year. During the assembly, a Disney Themed performance with small groups and solos will be presented by the students. Students in small groups and solos have come in to open music time and requested to share their talents with the group. Please attend if possible.
As promised, here are some of the wonderful popcorn poems the students wrote this week:
I hear popping, yum. I see yellow butter melting. I smell butter, yum. I feel the hot stove — yikes. I taste popcorn. The end.
I hear popping and shaking. I see popcorn and they’re popping. I smell butter and salt. I feel bumps. It’s light. I taste it. It is sweet, mmm. It’s good.
I hear the popcorn kernels falling and popcorn popping. I see salt as white as clouds. I smell fire and butter and steam that’s warm. I feel fluffy and warm popcorn.
I hear popping sounds and smell salty kernels. I see multicolored kernels too! I feel warmth. It is warm! And now it’s finished! Now we eat! It’s good and crunchy! Now it’s gone.
Can’t you just taste and smell the popcorn? Time for a snack!
We are continuing to practice mindfulness during Swooper Citizens this week. Today, we read the book, “When Sophie Gets Angry– Really, Really Angry,” which tells about a child who calms herself by climbing a tree and focusing on the natural world around her. Then, we watched this video:
We loved the idea of the glitter jar so much that we decided to make our own! We discussed with the students how shaking the glitter represents our spinning emotions and thoughts when we are upset, which makes it hard to think rationally. Just as the glitter settles and allows us to see through the jar, when we use mindfulness to settle our thoughts, we can see more clearly.
Your child can use their glitter jar as a tool when practicing mindfulness. They can shake the jar up and focus on the settling glitter until they are feeling calm.
This morning at Tecolote Tuesday, Ms. Svedlund announced that she would be giving four prizes to random students who had visited each station at our Earth Day Festival last month. Imagine our surprise when three of the four randomly chosen winners ended up being first graders! They received either a reusable water bottle or a reusable sandwich wrap. Way to go, first grade! (Perhaps we should have looked into lottery tickets today! Lucky us!)
We are continuing to write poetry in these last few weeks of school. Last week, we experimented with acrostic and cinquain poems. This week, we returned to free verse poems which allowed us to focus on using our senses and describing words by writing a poem about making and eating popcorn. Just like we walked in the garden to prepare for our garden poems, we made popcorn to prepare for our popcorn poems!
I took small groups of students into the kitchen to take notes as we made popcorn on the stove. Many students had made popcorn in the microwave or with an air popper, but only a handful had made it on the stove. I bought multi-colored (organic!) popcorn which gave the students that much more opportunity to describe what they saw.
We put a little bit of vegetable oil in a heavy, lidded pan and turned the heat onto medium-high. Then, we added a layer of kernels to the bottom of the pan and put the lid on.
The students described the sound of the pan and kernels moving across the burner as I shook the pan back and forth. While we waited, we talked about why popcorn kernels pop when heated. (Each kernel contains a small amount of moisture which, when heated, turns to steam, expands, and explodes from the kernel.) We began to smell the oil heating up and, finally, we heard a pop! The students reacted with excited giggles and we had to refocus so that we could listen carefully to the sounds. Some students described the popping as rain-like, while others imagined acorns hitting the sidewalk.
Thinking about our popcorn experience
When the popping began to slow, we counted 5 seconds between pops to know that the popcorn was ready. We took off the lid, added a touch of salt, and dished up our snack, paying attention to our sense of taste and touch.
Tasting our samples
Tomorrow, we will use our notes to write poems about popcorn. Be sure to check back to see how they turned out!
Today we began learning about mindfulness in Swooper Citizens. Being mindful means calming your body and your brain, and focusing on the moment. First, we asked the students to think about where they feel most peaceful, along with what their minds and bodies do when they are calm.
Next, we watched this video about an owl who practices mindfulness:
It was amazing to watch the students begin breathing with the video, totally unprompted by Mrs. Delwiche or me! After the video, we defined mindfulness and discussed what it looks like, sounds like, and feels like. Words such as “calm,” “comfortable,” and “quiet” were suggested.
We also talked about when we might use mindfulness in our every day lives. Students suggested it might be helpful in situations where they feel nervous, angry, frustrated, or sad — or when they’re trying to fall asleep at night!
Just like any other skill, we decided the best way to get better at being mindful was through practice! Both GoNoodle.com and YouTube are full of guided mindfulness videos, so we used the video called, “From Mindless to Mindful” to begin our practice. The students did a really wonderful job of participating and following along. They even enjoyed it so much that they asked to do another!
We will continue practicing mindfulness through the end of the school year. You may find mindfulness exercises useful at home, too!
Each year, Mrs. Green’s 3rd grade classroom is transformed into the city of Swooptopia. 3rd grade students create businesses and make storefronts out of giant cardboard boxes. They also take on roles such as mayor, banker, and sheriff. You can read more about their process on Mrs. Green’s blog here: Swooptopia Open For Business
Today, we were invited to visit Swooptopia. Swooptopia’s banker gave each first grader $30 to spend during our visit.
Students visit a pet grooming business
When we arrived, the students found that they could choose to spend their money in a variety of ways: renting stuffed animal pets to snuggle, creating art and paper doll fashions, playing games such as mini-basketball and beanbag toss, or buying flowers in vases. We had a blast!
