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| backyard tour |
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| Google - bring your parents to work day |
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| Trip to Tahoe Bus to Bart to Train to Rental Car |
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| 6 hour train ride to Truckee |
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| dandelion |
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| mini golf |
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| 2 hour Lake Tahoe boat tour |
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| Max's first time solo |
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Gramma Letty and Grandpa Dick Visit SF
Tuesday, September 1, 2015
Alt School 2015-2016
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| First Day! September 1, 2015 |
New Update for Max Cavelie
9-4-15 · Jamie Spatt
9-11-15· Jamie Spatt
Max examines mushrooms with a friend and tries to draw their shapes with gills!
Max likes to build with math puzzles and blocks.
Max likes to build with math puzzles and blocks.
New Update for Max Cavelie
9-15-15 · Jamie Spatt
Max is a happy and flexible student who responds well to redirection and suggestions by teachers for activities to 'try out'. We can see Max putting himself out there to try things that at first seem challenging, with some encouragement. Max is well liked and respected by peers and knows how and when to ask for assistance from teachers. He is cooperative and seems to enjoy school and playing with friends in open ended times.
Below is Max participating in a zones of regulation SEL charades game. Working on a letter puzzle with Bryce. And two samples of art he has worked on in the past week. Max shows the capacity to really attend to details and focused work with encouragement from teachers.
Building Max's stamina for writing and sustained seated tasks is a goal we are striving towards. He can tend to get fatigued when asked to write letters and short words, but independently asks for his hand writing notebook to practice.
New Update for Max Cavelie
9-21-15 · Jamie Spatt
Max is an easy going, regular participator in activities at school. He is well liked by peers and can navigate multiple groupings of students at work. He can tend to be quiet and take a sideline approach to start. Encouraging Max to take initiative and practice stepping out of his comfort zone will be a focus going forward. Max gets picked by Leo to play a special game he brought from home at game time.
Max builds data based on his like/dislike graph. He wonders "Do you like stoplights?"
Max meets a special friend at the park!
Max observes a mine-craft mushroom building video then attempts to build one with legos.
Max designs a pipe to carry mentos to a coke bottle in Esprit Park.
New Update for Max Cavelie
9-22-15 Jamie Spatt
Max really enjoys math activities today and tries out each one staying motivated in each! hands on and building style math speak to him. He measures his shoes, builds a structure with exactly 12 blocks, sorts objects from shortest to tallest, and carefully completes each task before moving on.
Max shares his treasure box with the group and fields questions and comments after. Lots of children make connections to his items and he seems to take pride in this experience!
Week 1 was Electric!: Squishy Circuits, Throwies, and Makey Makey
9-17-15 · Dogpatch Maker Lab TK-1 · Kristin Uhlemeyer
9-17-15 · Dogpatch Maker Lab TK-1 · Kristin Uhlemeyer
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| Max joined a Maker's lab after school one day a week |
Pencil Grip
Monday 9-21-15 · Max Cavelie · Annette Bauer
We are working with Max to improve his pencil grip. He should be encouraged at home to "pinch" the pencil. Thanks! (First pic shows correct grip...)
New Update for Max Cavelie
9-21-15 · Jamie Spatt
Max does a math game with peers counting numbers of unifx cubes to put in cups based on a dice roll.
Max creates a structure to withstand the huff and puff of the big bad wolf.
Max builds a bridge from india to lanka based on the Ramayana we are reading as a class.
Max draws a picture for the yellow zone and acts out the blue zone for our 'zones of regulation' poster in the classroom.
Max creates a husky sled with considerations built in for the needs of the team.
Max is a charismatic and well liked player in the classroom. He often is up for trying out new things we suggest with a bit of scaffolding but has trouble sustaining. Max's body likes to be in motion and moving and it can sometimes distract from the task at hand or from listening at meeting times.
We are working with max to grow his stamina for seated, written, and not his 'first choice' activities. We are hoping we can give him the tools he needs to self regulate and choose activities that are appropriate to his physical and academic learning level.
Max seems to like school and is learning the routines and the most successful ways to navigate the space.
New Update for Max Cavelie
10-6-21-015 Jamie Spatt
Max creates a mushroom representation out of legos he is proud of!
Max begins to work on letter bingo games with Annette in a small group.
Max designs an egg catcher with a partner for the egg drop challenge.
Max shows an increased level of interest in drawing and writing in the classroom. We are beginning to use letter charts to aide Max's development of spelling, writing, and reading!
Max continues to be a great friend, partner and peer in the classroom. He is showing a little deeper investment in seated work and group activities that are not a 'first choice' option. He has shown interest in reading almost daily with a familiar group of boys in the cozy corner after lunch. Currently, the reading usually consists of looking at lego books they picked out from the library. As their skills grow, we will encourage them to transfer that interest in reading to other topics of interest, thought right now, the high investment of looking at books and practicing reading is wonderful! They read together for long periods.
Max's affect in the classroom is mostly positive and engaged, though he has a tendency to wander and also to be a passive and quiet voice. We will continue to work with Max on speaking out and sharing his unique voice as a learner to the group. We will look for opportunities to showcase his work to the rest, and create moments like the one where he showed his treasure box with pride, to boost confidence and deepen his interest in creating work to be shared and be proud of in the classroom!
New Update for Max Cavelie
10-18-15 Jamie Spatt
Max works hard on his mushroom stuffy design!
Max is the caboose on our husky sled dog train!
Max gets deeply invested in sorting beads according multiple attributes!
Max continues to be a positive member of the huskies team! He really enjoys his time doing hands on activities or anything having to do with movement or building. He assimilates into play with groups of boys at park time and in the classroom. He seems to be having a good time at school and has learned the routines and of patterns choices/choice making. He can still tend to show resistance at a not so favorite choice, but this behavior is dissipating. For instance, he showed resistance to starting his mushroom stuffy, but by the end of working the first day, he asked if we could do it again tomorrow and stayed sustained in the sewing the whole time!
Simultaneously, this activity is wonderful for Max's fine motor skills which he should be continuously working on, (reading, writing, drawing, list making, small bead sorting, etc.) I am happy to see him enjoy this work and get so excited about completing his stuffy!
Max also really enjoyed sorting the beads according to attributes. He was invested for a long period of time, which would have been difficult for him just a couple of weeks ago. He is beginning to build more stamina for seated, detailed work.
He loves writing in his journal at school too, something that was also difficult to sustain at the start of school. He has written and drawn pages and pages worth of ideas about his weekends and even started and completed a story which he shared with mom a week or so ago.
He shows a vested interest in learning to read and spends a lot of time looking at books thoughtfully, both independently and with friends in quiet time.
As the weeks continue, I would love to encourage Max to continue practicing using his voice to speak up and share out in meeting times without blurting, and being comfortable starting or joining conversations with peers or teachers. (Guiding him into conversations with open ended questions and suggestions.) I would also love to see more practice on his fine motor skills and drawing/writing to keep the positive momentum going!
Recently Max has also been showing a habit of touching, tickling, and poking friends at circle and in transitions... some students have started to complain about this behavior. We will encourage Max to remember his personal space bubble and encourage him to either hold a fidget, take a mudra or hands in lap, or be mindful of the space he sits in and those around him.)
Vertical Garden Phase One
10-22-15 Dogpatch Maker Lab TK-1 (15-16) · Kristin Uhlemeyer
We started the first phase of making a vertical garden to hang succulents in our shared outdoor space in DP2. We love collaborative projects which help our community. We began by sanding shims and painting them. Next week, we'll hammer them to the pallet which will house the plants.
New Update for Max Cavelie
10-24-15 · Jamie Spatt
Max is really developing his skills of independently working and staying on task these days. He often needs gentle reminders and redirection paired with some help choosing neighbors who will help and not hinder his ability to stay in the GREEN zone of learning, but he is steadily growing in this respect. He continues to lose focus the most at morning meeting times, and we are experimenting with props, chairs, fidgets, and body position to help him find a sweet spot.
Max can sometimes resist a teacher after 3-4 times telling him to try something like a new seat at meeting. He will flop his body and refuse. We are working on what this means for Max's energetic needs and what it means for options in the moment and practicing first time listening.
Max and trevor unpack a pumpkin saving the seeds!
Max and Anders help sort the items we bought from scrap.
Max sorts mushroom cars according to color.
Max independently reading the floor size dictionary.
Max practicing mudras for focus!
Max and his pumpkin, belted in so it doesn't roll away.
Max and good friends at the patch! They had a blast! :)
New Update for Max Cavelie
11-2-15 · Jamie Spatt
Max shares his dad with us to let us use "Cardboard". He is really proud and happy to teach other kids about google virtual reality goggles.
Max has been really into buildings lately! Building parks, houses, towers, and castles. He has a keen spatial sense and loves to build both alone and with friends. He isn't too phased when accidents happen and his buildings break, he just rebuilds!
Max finishes his mushroom stuffy, he is proud of his hard fine motor work!
Max is excited about the snails in the classroom and helps design the habitat! "This leaf should curve over and there should be a bridge!"
Max gets more and more comfortable in the classroom day by day and he is building stronger and stronger relationships with his peers and teachers.
He can tend to wander and is still working on the physical-ness of his body during meeting times and learning to focus and listen without distracting his classmates. We are working through strategies to help. He often asks for a chair or rocking chair which helps. We help him to make sure he is appropriately spaced. I am looking forward to seeing more of Max's creative building projects in coming weeks!
DP Halloween Celebration!
10-30-15 Dogpatch · Mitzi Mapa
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| Max's best school buddies Leo (top) Jessie (below) Anders (right) |
New Update for Max Cavelie
10-6-15· Jamie Spatt
Max creates a building including 5 shapes he can name!
Max and partner create a domino board using all the dominos and naming the numbers.
Max writing in his journal, he tries writing the words, 'toy' and 'treasure'.
Max creates his own story in the book binding center!
Max enjoys a little alone time making the USA puzzle.
Max continues to be a joy and pleasure in the classroom, this week the distracting of others and circle time attention issues seems lesser! Seems like we are making some progress here! Max is really invested in his journals, books, cards, and math assignments these days. He is able to sustain himself to complete his tasks and then happily transition to a free-play choice.
We continue to see times of really high energy for Max and would like to make sure we are offering him enough types of activities to regulate both his mind and his physical body! :)
Max works well independently and in groups, and though his energy can sometimes get tangled in the noisy energy of the business of the 'boys', he isn't usually an antagonist, and he can self manage independent working! Nice Max! :) And cool hair and slippers today! (unicorns.)
TinkerCad (3D modeling), Snap Circuits, and Finishing the Planter
11-12-15 Maker Lab TK-1 · Kristin Uhlemeyer
A lot of the kids expressed interest in learning about robotics, so today, we experimented with Snap Circuits as an intro into how electricity can power LEDs, motors, and other devices. The kids used them to build beginner circuit boards. We also built designs using the 3D modeling program TinkerCad (a child-friendly version of AutoCad). Lastly, we hammered our shims into the pallet after we made pilot holes and we started doing planting with fresh carrot, wildflower, lettuce, and pea seeds.
New Update for Max Cavelie
11-13-15 · Jamie Spatt
Max practices scarf juggling with our new circus expert aaron!
Max makes an aerial view map of Esprit park!
Pumpkin
traditional 'Rangoli's' or Indian sand paintings with special colored sand
Rama from the story Ramayana
Diya's or painted candle holders (Diwali)
Max creates an aerial view map of Alt School!
Max makes bird shapes with tanagrams, naming the shapes and counting them!
Max has been having a great week in the classroom! He is actively participating in all of the activities and sustaining his involvement/attention a little more all the time! Max can still tend to have distractible and impulsive behavior that can cause scuffs and arguments with friends. He is quick to come to teachers to help in these situations and talks through the issues with friends in a respectful and sincere manner. He practices listening skills in these moments and makes a plan to 'not do that again'.
For Max, who tends to be a strong friend at playtime, but not necessarily the MOST outgoing, somewhat of a person who likes to ease his way into the game, I wonder if he is having some trouble knowing what to say to get someone's attention when he doesn't know what to say but just wants to play with them or let them know he wants to play. We can experiment with this language in coming days and modeling 'play opening sentence structures' for Max... We'll see!
Once Max is IN the play and invested in the activity, it's usually smooth sailing... He is a good friend to all in the huskies class!
In math and literacy we continue to see growing interest and sustained learning while doing seated tasks. He is even enjoying the spelling out of new words and the addition and shape games we are starting in Math Centers. He has some slow processing when it comes to basic numeracy skills and we will continue to practice, practice, for fluency and accuracy!
New Update for Max Cavelie11-22-15 Jamie Spatt
Max explores habitats at the Randall museum.
Max works on basic addition skills using number cards.
Max practices circus skills with Aaron, jumping in hoops!
Max selects and shares his favorite park via a parks app on his tablet.
Max creates a song using shape instruments and chalk.
Max picks a shell book for the classroom! "Look this is a beautiful book we should get!"
Max creates a symmetrical building where people go in to 'buy beautiful things'.
Anders and Max
Max continues to become more and more invested in the classroom themes and activities each week. He is really applying himself to tasks we ask him to try out in centers, literacy, math, and otherwise. He is exploring reading by looking at lots and lots of books in quiet time and consistently likes reading with Leo, Jesse, and Anders.
He is beginning to explore invented spellings of words to go with his drawings using the letter chart and guidance from teachers. He is reinforcing his basic numeracy skills in math centers, practicing counting and writing numbers as well as starting some early addition skills using the number cards and dot math. We would like to keep building Max's foundation by encouraging him to try out writing some small words regularly and doing lots of counting and number recognition at home and school.
Max seems to be very happy at school and really enjoying every aspect. He knows the routines and is developing stronger skills for regulation and for asking for what his body needs when his energy feels distractible or silly. We work to offer him body breaks and physical options when he needs them to help retain his ability to focus and listen. He can still tend to get 'swept up' in silly friend energy and can have difficulty regaining calm.
We notice that Max is very capable of choosing play partners and inserting himself into games and playtimes, but we have noticed that Max can tend to be very quiet both at play and sometimes too in meeting times. We want to encourage Max to find a voice in play and in discussion and feel comfortable sharing out his wonderful ideas! We will look for opportunities for Max to naturally share back to the group, giving chances for him to speak about things he likes and is proud of.
Below are four basic goals we set for Max at the start of the year. As we move forward we continue to add to this list which is separate from the playlist that contains many many more goals and standards we assess on a daily basis for Max. We share because we hope to start a 'goal sharing' relationship with parents and perhaps will be sending more goals via stream. Any questions or feedback are appreciated and welcomed! :)
SEL - Learns for mastery: learns things well, seeks to improve, strives for excellence.
SEL - Learns and rebounds from failure.
SEL - Demonstrate control of impulsive behavior.
WRITING- Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic.
New Update for Max Cavelie
December 5th, 2015· Jamie Spatt
Max discussing how computers think with expert tinkerer Scott.
Max and Anders taking responsibility of the schedule for the day.
Max and friends wondering, how could we climb this tree or build supports to help us if we could?
Max designing a slide with Zoe to send a car from point A to point B.
Some early examples of Max's journal work.
Max has been having great days in the classroom engaged and invested in the activities and showing responsibility for space and materials and working on sustaining focus through projects. He has exploded as a writer in recent days and is using many strategies to experiment with writing to label his journals and write in his story book about cats! He is comfortable stringing words and letters together in his way, independently and is proud of his work, often running up to show teachers his work. In an incident this week with good friend Anders, Max practiced recognizing the effects of his impulsive behavior and practicing empathy for his friend by sincerely apologizing and writing a heartfelt letter. He is beginning to recognize the impulsiveness and we continue to work on it as a growth point for Max.
In math Max worked on dot math this week speeding through number sentences with confidence up to ten! We are excited to continue to challenge Max in this area, and he continues to show exceptional understand of visual spacial concepts in block building as well as attention to detail and balance in his designs.
To help the impassivity, we try to ensure Max;s physical needs are met first, needs for active play and space when he is too crowded or confined, and help him to slow down in the moment and talk about the effects of his behaviors on others.
One standard we worked on this week with Max was:
+ MATH: Represent addition and subtraction with objects, fingers, mental images, drawings1, sounds (e.g., claps), acting out situations, verbal explanations, expressions, or equations.
He used dot math to represent addition problems to 5 and 10.
New Update for Max Cavelie
December 13th, 2015 · Jamie Spatt
Max working on his handwriting journal.
Max's mushroom watercolor from a few weeks ago.
Max using his tablet to attach a photo of his favorite book to his playlist.
Max making a community puzzle with 3 more roles.
Max has had a great and happy week in the classroom! We are so excited to see Max really taking off with his writing and improving his fine motor skills everyday. He even asks for his handwriting journal or to write in his story book. He is demonstrating more and more fine motor control and early writing/reading skills each day. We are seeing him focus, participate, and begin to realize the effects his impulsivity can have on others in the classroom and attempt to work on it with help of teachers. We are carefully observing Max's social skills and his ability to speak out and express his feelings and opinions during open explore time and when playing with peers.
New Update for Max Cavelie
December 20th, 2015 · Jamie Spatt
Max works on a 'thinking like a computer' activity with Scott.
Max and Anders consider the data from a classroom graph on holiday sweets.
Max and Leo work collaboratively on Mitten Math.
Max and friends write messages to each other for the new mailboxes in the classroom.
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| Max and Jesse make holiday presents |
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| playing with friends at McKinley Square park |
Max had a wonderful week this week engaging in several partner activities around math and literacy. He also loved working on gingerbread houses, gifts with Siri for parents, and other holiday celebrations! He continues to show positivity and fervor for school and enjoying time with peers and teachers. He is opening up so much these days in terms of being able to sustain and be interested in more 'traditional' academic activities in addition to his favorite block building and free drawing/journaling. Max worked so well with Leo on Mitten Math, making predictions about how many cubes will fit in the mitt and testing it out by counting the actual amount. I was amazed by Max's sustained interest in this activity!
He also really enjoyed writing letters to friends and even trying the mitten activity a second time on a different day as his choice. I am beginning to read level A readers with Max in quiet time and he is applying his phonological awareness to decoding words. He is proud of sharing this reading work with me and seems to feel good about seeing himself as a budding reader! :) We continue to adapt for Max's high energy and work with him to recognize when he needs a break from the group and what his options are during that time.
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| Candlelight lunch before winter break |
New Update for Winter 2016 Dogpatch Friendship
January 6th at 3:36pm · Winter 2016 Dogpatch Friendship · Seesaw
Class Topics 1/6/16
First Class!
1. Introductions and Ground Rules
2. Feelings - happy, sad, scared, surprised, disgusted (and especially frustrated and angry); how it feels in body, thoughts and facial expressions that are consistent; role-playing.
3. Calming Tools to deal with frustration and anger -- deep breaths and taking a brain break
Max is taking this class to learn how to express himself when he is upset/sad and to learn empathy.
New Update for Max Cavelie
Friday Jan. 6 Jamie Spatt
Max working on writing a story book.
Max recording data about his five senses.
Max Making a shape mandala and practicing naming the shapes.
Max reading with new friend Siddartha.
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| daily yoga with Jamie
Max is having a nice time re-adjusting back to the classroom! He is all hugs, love and smiles! He is especially happy to be back with Anders everyday but is having fun meeting the new boys too and had a few great moments working with some girl combinations this week too. (Azzy and Zoe, Isidra, etc.) He is eagerly approaching each activity with focus but had some trouble focusing in quiet times this week, I suspect do mostly to rain, ear ache, and regular adjustments back to the length of day and transitions. We will keep an eye next week!
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Max is really showing his skill in math centers at counting and basic addition problems and I look forward to using a more focused group approach to giving Max some higher math challenges! He has also been very proud of his journaling about Andrew Henry's Meadow and his story book from today!
New Update for Winter 2016 Dogpatch Friendship
4 hours ago · Winter 2016 Dogpatch Friendship · Seesaw
Class Topics 1/13/16
1. Flexibility - using your brain to be flexible: adjusting to situations and changes; going with the flow. Focused on situations when you don’t get your way; “I don’t have to have my favorite blue crayon to be happy today, I can use this purple one instead”
2. Conversations - back and forth like a tennis game, ask questions, active listening, no interrupting, eye contact, paying attention to nonverbal cues - facial expressions and body language
New Update for Max Cavelie
1-15-16 · Jamie Spatt
Max creates an animal nest watercolor.
Max works on spelling and writing words with Jess.
Max helps me sort the writing materials by color.
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| Field Trip to the Exploratorium |
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| building a bird's nest with Isidra |
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| rest time in the "cozy corner" |
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| sand table |
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| best buddies Jesse, Leo and Anders |
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| reading Mine Craft with Lucien |
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| Three of the States of Matter: solid, liquid, and gas
New Update for Max Cavelie
1-29-16 Friendship Club - Seesaw
Max has shown good participation and energy in the class. He is chummy with two of the other boys in the group. While he is often playful and silly with these two, he seems indifferent to others in class. He will sometimes join in the conversation and share his thoughts and respond to the teacher’s questions. He has high energy and seems to enjoy physical activities and playing with balls. Short movement breaks seem to work well with him. Occasionally, he needs reminders to be part of the group and use whole body listening and take turns talking with peers in a group context. He can also become distracted by noises, but when prompted to engage with us, he is able to redirect his attention.
Max has demonstrated that he can respect other students personal space, which offered a nice opportunity for all students to learn when a peer asked him to please stop touching his jacket and he promptly stopped and said, “I’m sorry.” We will continue to work on encouraging a growth mind-set and helping participants build skills for learning and playing with peers at school.
It has been a pleasure to work with Max.
~ Derek
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| Self Portrait |
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| Teacher Scott (computers and programming) |
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| PE on the patio |
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| Learner Celebration Students showed parents the work they've been doing in the classroom |
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| classroom portfoloio - journals and pictures |
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| yoga |
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| classroom jobs |
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| Esprit park where they have recess and PE Leo Anders and Max showing me the "boys base" where they keep all their weapons
New Update for Max Cavelie
2-6-16 - Jamie Spatt
Max works on some expressive drawings exploring art materials for our unit on 'how we express ourselves".
Max builds a robot in the block area following the lead of his tablet and playlist card.
Max writes in his journal, working on fine motor and continuing to work towards developing letter writing with his stories.
Max is continually working on developing his ability to express his ideas and feelings especially when conflicts or 'yellow zone' situations arise. I am thrilled to see him take a moment last week to tell me he is feeling yellow zone and ask for some time to rest in the cozy cube. Max should know this is always an option when he is feeling 'wound up' or in the 'yellow'. We continue to work on finding a happy balance of activities that suit his energy and regulation needs in the classroom.
New Update for Max Cavelie
2-8-16· Jamie Spatt
Max Cavelie
Midyear Progress Report
Lower Elementary DP2 TK/K
Social Emotional Learning:
Max is an enthusiastic member of the class who is steadily progressing in his ability to self-regulate and manage his energy and excitement. He often displays intense ‘yellow zone’ energy that is hard for him to calm. We have been encouraging Max to practice breathing techniques, body breaks, resting, and sensory exposure using the Sand Table, for example) to calm himself down when he gets overly excited. We are working with Max to express his feelings verbally, rather than physically. When he does physically disrupt and distract others with his body, we are encouraging Max to recognize his actions and their effects on others and develop an ability to express himself verbally and walk through the steps of a peace talk with friends he has distracted or disrupted. Max has been making visible progress in this area, working through discussions with friend Anders around shared spaces and impulsive behaviors. He is very apologetic when he realizes he has hurt a friend but has difficulty managing the behaviors leading up to these conflicts. Teachers are working to manage the environment to offer more sensory options to suit Max’s needs and make sure he knows when and how to use them to his benefit. Max can be a kind and loyal friend and has developed some lovely friendships in the class.
Math:
Max is working on basic counting skills to 20 and working through small addition problems with visuals such as fingers, dots, and small colored chips. Max is confident in recognizing and manipulating shapes in 2D and is experimenting with shapes in 3D. Max is practicing recognizing amounts that are greater than, less than, and equal when working with small math manipulatives. Max shows particular strengths in building and constructing with blocks often getting deeply invested in creating blocks that balance just so and that inspire others to join in and help. He has a strong sense of spatial reasoning in his block designs.
Language Arts:
Max is working on more clearly expressing himself and is increasingly using grammatically correct language and expanding his vocabulary. He is exploring language in many ways in the classroom, enjoying sharing favorite books with friends, exploring level ‘A’ readers in quiet time with teachers, and sounding out and writing his own stories and labels with drawings in writing and journal times. Max wrote book about kittie’s in which he drew the pictures and worked through labeling and spelling the words with teachers for each page. We encourage Max to add 1-2 words with each drawing and are sharing strategies for sounding out letters and continuing to expand his writing and fine motor skills. He can still tend to grip his pencil in ways that make writing difficult and are trying to remind him to hold his pencil comfortably for writing. Exposure to writing and drawing has helped him grow his interest in writing this year and we will continue to offer lots of opportunities to continue practice.
Work Habits:
Max can be a very wonderful helper and organizer of the classroom materials and space when he is feeling in a ‘green zone’ learning environment. Transitions continue to be difficult for him and we help him to regulate his high energy by offering him time at the sensory table or taking a break to rest or separate from high energy peers.
GOALS:
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| Lunar New Year Celebrations |
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| 100th Day of school trail mix |
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| expression through line |
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| Matter: solid to liquid |
New Update for Max Cavelie
2-12-16 Jamie Spatt
Max exploring various types of lines using sharpie and then adding color to his work. He works thoughtfully and collaboratively to share materials with boys around him.
Max works on his 'Weekend News'. We continue to see Max expand his writing engagement week to week and would like to keep encouraging him to continue his fine motor practice. He is trying out letter combinations for words along with his journaling.
Max spends quite some time practicing how to mix 'gold' one morning in a pre-school day art exploration.
We continue to seek ways to provide the conditions for Max to access a calm and focused state of mind in the classroom allowing him access to deep engagement with materials and activities.
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| Valentine's Day |
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| Self Portrait |
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| "Me when I'm old" |
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| Scott the tinkerer teacher |
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| building robots |
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| Dancing raisins - plain water vs. carbonated |
New Update for Max Cavelie
2-20-16 · Jamie Spatt
Max making predictions about the dancing raisins!
Max working on his letters in his writing journal. We continue to work with Max to gain strength in fine motor control and give him opportunities to write and draw to practice this skill!
Max experimenting with Scott's robot kits! He was totally in his element here, testing and playing with the circuits, making the fan go and lights turn on! He is excited to add legos to the robots in coming weeks.
Max was incredibly proud and excited to share his bottle caps this morning. He reported that he wasn't sure if there was 100 though because now it is the 101 day of school. He poured them out on the carpet, and together as a class, we discussed ways that we could organize them. A suggestion was that we count each one and I asked how we would keep track of which ones we counted and which were left. The kids suggested putting them in a line. I asked whether the line should just keep going until 100. They then realized that they could put them in more than one row. Leo suggested that we count by 10. Max sorted all of the buttons while we finished our meeting and then we revisited. We talked in the group about how we have to keep the rows and the columns lined up with similar spacing in order to keep an accurate count. Max rearranged them and we reached 100! It was a wonderful class exercise to show how to think about counting and Max was thrilled that we used his bottle caps.
Later, during our math workshop today, he chose to do the 100 cup activity (the kids had to count 100 cups and build a structure with them---their goal was to make the tallest tower). Jaqi and I helped them to work through team organization and how to create a shared goal with divided roles and responsibilities. Leo became the recorder and counter who kept track of how many cups they were using so that they reached exactly 100 and Max got new cups to add to the structure. Max and the rest of his team took turns putting one on top. Later, his team realized that they should build ten towers with ten cups instead of one giant 100 cup structure. Max and his group were quite proud that they came to this realization. Max worked through great project management and social/emotional skills of teamwork (their shared success was wonderful). He also is beginning to have a learning shift in conceptual understanding to go from counting by ones to counting by groups.
New Update for Max Cavelie
2-25-16· Jamie Spatt
Max creates an expressionist painting inspired by the work of Monet! He uses small brush strokes and inspiration from Esprit Park.
Max shares his 100's day collection! He is so proud of this, and Kristin uses it to intro the lesson.
Max works on writing sentences and recognizing sight words using a sentence prompt card. He practices a sight word, inserts it into a sentence and reads the sentence back with assistance. He is working hard to use his phonemic awareness to help read new words and explore conventions of writing. Great work Max! This is also great for his fine motor development!
Andy Goldsworthy Trip!
February 25th at 4:01pm · Dogpatch TK-K (15-16) · Jamie Spatt
Hey there Husky parents, more to come, but just wanted to send some photos and a quick update about the wonderful field-trip we had today!
Children began the trip by exploring their 'field guides' to the presidio which they carried along on the trip, marking types of animals and plants and following a map inside the guide as we hiked.
We spent some time exploring a natural grove where children created artwork and 'forts' in the style of Andy Goldsworthy, using the natural materials found around them to build structures in groups and pairs. Once a grown up helped the children to get a basic 'lean -to' started, the children began to build and add onto their structures with great excitement! They wer stacking, carrying, weaving, arranging, decorating, and all the while using such great social skills to work together, share, and listen to each other's ideas. We took a gallery walk to give appreciations of each others work.
Next we hiked up to the SPIRE to see the artwork. Children were amazed at how big it was and wondered how many logs where used to make it, how it stays together, how the logs where arranged, (by machine? by crane? by hand?) They spent some time peeking around the structure to look for clues to it's construction... Tomorrow or next week we will watch a video to help unfold some of the mystery of this work! :)
Lastly, we played on the beach for free explore time, sun bathing, playing in the sand, and gettign our feet a little wet in the tides! Apologies for the sandy shoes, but the children really enjoyed the time to explore and play by the tides!
Thanks for all of the help and support from volunteers, families, and teachers to make this wonderful trip happen!
Love and best Jamie
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| Only luxury busses for these guys:( |
New Update for Max Cavelie
February 29th at 7:36am · Max Cavelie · Seesaw
Max's whole body listening and attention has increased. He is good at sharing and his participation is great. Max's attention is at its best when a physical activity is involved such as rolling the ball around the circle as we talk. Max prefers to sit by and play with one boy in class however he is often distracted when sitting by this student. He responds well to descriptive praise and clear limits. We are practicing doing a "re-do" when Max has difficulty following directions.
We will continue to work on Max's growth mind-set, whole body listening and broadening his social interactions to include more of his peers.
~Simone
New Math Unit: Patterns
New Update for Max Cavelie
March 4th at 9:19pm · Max Cavelie · Jamie Spatt
Max enjoys the color mixing experiment with Kristin on Thursday. Max enjoys any opportunity to get hands on with materials, mixing, building, creating, moving. He enjoys taking the mixed bag and letting the light shine through the colors on the window.
Max asks me to take a picture of his domino building he creates with other boys in the morning. They work on this piece collaboratively for quite some time!
New Update for Max Cavelie
March 22, 2015 Jamie Spatt
Max does an awesome job counting by 2's, 10's, and 3's using penny piles to represent his thinking! Great job Max! :)
Wire and 3D
New Update for Winter 2016 Dogpatch Friendship
3-23-16 · Friendship Club - Class Topic 3/23/16 Problem-Solving
Texture Play
New Update for Max Cavelie
3-26-16
Max has demonstrated improvements in expanding his emotional vocabulary, class participation and positive peer interactions. He uses, "I" messages appropriately and more frequently. For example, he shared that he felt frustrated when his friend wanted to play a different game. He has practiced the problem solving steps during a disagreement with a peer. When Max has difficulty following directions, he initiates and self corrects by engaging in a ”do-over.” We will continue to work on Max's social problem solving and flexibility (e.g, finding a solution, or playing fun and fair).
~Simone
Terra Mia
4-5-16 Jamie Spatt
Students had a wonderful time on the field-trip to Terra Mia today!
Measuring Canvas and Transferring Sketches
Max's BIG IDEA is: "It is a painting about (other smaller) ideas. Each box has an idea inside. When I have lots of ideas, I'm ready to go!"
The Science of Making Paper
The Balancing Block Forest
Max and friends create paper with Krsitin for the invitations for gallery night.
Max and a group of boys spend some time this week investigating balancing towers. He is fascinated with building complex towers that balance 'just so'. We talk a lot about symmetry and respect each others block towers and building materials.
Max transfers his big idea for his gallery night piece from his sketch to his canvas. He adds from his original idea of doing many small framed pieces of art to small frames that look like hearts because he wants there to be 'a lot of love' involved.
Max and friends help take care of Esprit by watering the plants with Gardener Dan! Thanks Max!
Measuring Madness!
DeYoung Museum & Japanese Tea Garden Field Trip
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Oscar De La Renta   |
New Update for Spring 2016 Dogpatch AltSchool Friendship Club
4/13/2016 Class Topics Self-Control & Impulsivity
Introducing Joan! Tinkering Expert! Today we had our first lesson with Joan Howard, our new 'tinkering' expert who will be joining us for the next 5 weeks to work on an extended project around small machines, levers, pulleys, ramps, and wheels using recycled and found materials. At the end of the 5 weeks we hope to work together or in small groups to create Rube Goldberg machines and learn a bit about tinkering and re-purposing our environment and materials to help create a cause and effect project with a start and finish!
These portraits are simply delicious!
4-14-16· Jamie Spatt
Today Siri lead an activity in portrait making that was as delectable as it was educational! With the art Gallery night coming up, we thought one more adventure with portraits would be a fun activity for the huskies.
CVC Word Making Game
4-18-16 · Jamie Spatt
Today huskies explored a new literacy tool: The CVC word making box! CVC words are 3 letter words that contain a 'Consonant Vowel Consonant' pattern.
Musical Performance and MOCHA field trip
4-20-16 Kristin Uhlemeyer
New Update for Spring 2016 Dogpatch AltSchool Friendship Club
4/20/2016 Class Topic - I am feeling jealous...
Art Gala
New Update for Max Cavelie
We are so impressed lately with the progress Max is making in sustaining focus and attention in transitions and whole group times. It is still a goal and a work in progress, but teachers have been reflecting on how far he has come in getting used to the routines and following expectations for 'group' behavior. He is also coming a long way in listening to his friends and speaking his feelings in conflict resolution situations.
We observed Max quietly reading while waiting for others to transition several times last week or simply coming in the morning to read a book happily while waiting for the day to start. Max has been particularly proud and eager to grow his reading skills in quiet reading time and has also come a long way with this! Bravo Max!
We will continue to work with Max in developing these skills and are so proud of all of his growth this year...
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| Max's Art Gala invitation made from homemade paper |
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| Max and friends use their playlist cards to sort and document recyclable items. |
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| Max and partner Azzy measure their bodies in math. |
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| Max's pre and final art project for the Art Gala |
New Update for Spring 2016 Dogpatch AltSchool Friendship Club
Appropriate Ways to Show Affection
Little Opera
May 1, 2016
With little opera last week we continued to work on writing the lyrics for our sustainability song for our culmination project. We talked more about the qualities of the sun and it's relationship to us and the earth and came up with the lyrics pictured below ;)
The little opera experts also taught us some new singing warm ups and lead us through some old favorites like the 'mirror me' game shown below. Huskies have been enjoying singing and practicing little opera songs throughout the week on the way to the park and in explore time in the classroom. We can't wait to create costumes and set design for the final show!
Making bread...what do yeast like to eat?
May 4, 2016 Jamie Spatt
New Update for Max Cavelie
May 5, 2016 Seesaw Friendship Club
I have observed improvements in Max’s use of “I” messages, asking to take a break, and whole body listening. He is easily distracted and energized by his peers. He is learning to use the stop-think-do tool for self control. For example, he accidentally smashed the group’s building. He apologized but had difficulty offering to help them rebuild. Max is working on raising his hand to contribute to the group discussion instead of interrupting.
When playing with Magna Tiles, he often plays by himself because he is concerned that his creation will be destroyed. Max has difficulty sharing during this activity. He demonstrates good sportsmanship skills and is encouraging his peers more during physical activities. We will continue to work on being flexible and sharing and taking turns with peers.
Earthworm Friends
May 5,2016 Kristin Uhlemeyer
In science today, we revisited our decomposition experiments to see how far along in the process our set-ups are. The kids noticed that all of the food had mold growing but they were in varying degrees of break down. Things with a lot of water, like watermelon, were extra gushy and squishy.
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| Max creates a 3D representation of his 2D drawing of a trash machine to help save the ocean from trash. |
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| Max tells about his silhouette painting with Siri. |
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| Max works diligently and thoughtfully on his writing work book. |
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| Max's self portrait frame from the previous unit. |
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| Max and Trevor working on a project to measure the length of the world's tallest man. |
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| Max and I spend a lot of time reading this and other great books he is interested in this week. He recalls key details and maintains focus for long periods of time. He revisits the books with friends and shares favorite parts. |
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| Max and Anders talk about their Rube Goldberg designs together. |
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| Max creates a mandala with Siri. |
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| Max and Anders practicing warm ups for little opera. |
As we near the end of the school year, we continue to work on self regulation and clear communication in conflict situations with peers.We have seen Max really make huge strides in both of these areas this year, especially in the last few weeks, where we have observed Max taking his own 'cool down' time, managing transitions quietly and calmly by sitting with a book, and by expressing himself through each step of a peace talk with peers. We are also very proud of Max's growth in reading and writing this year as he is beginning to write phonetically on his own and read books back to us with excitement and pride. We have also noticed Max's skill in math and in thinking logically and quickly about all things numerical. We look forward to seeing where this takes him! Bravo Max! Below are some goals and milestones Max has worked on with the group that we think he becoming proficient with!
MATH:
Compare and sort objects by measurable attributes.
Use numbers up to 10 to compare and contrast quantities.
Accurately count up to 20 objects aloud and know that the last number is how many there are in total.
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS:
Read and understand emergent-reader texts with an initial familiarity of phonics and word recognition and decoding skills.
During oral reading story activities, ask and answer questions about key details related to characters, settings, plot events, author and illustrator, and compare adventures from familiar stories.
Write letters, words and sentences to represent appropriate sounds and convey meaning.
SCIENCE:
Explain the importance of the sun to Earth and to our solar system and how major events have shaped Earth over time.
Describe observable properties and states of matter.
Use scientific practices to define and pose reasonable solutions to address observable problems in the world.
HABITS OF MIND:
Notice and respond with wonderment and awe. Have fun figuring it out! Find the world awesome, mysterious, intriguing, and beautiful. Venture out! Be adventuresome.
Take my time! Think before acting. Remain calm, thoughtful, and deliberative.
Look at it another way! Change perspectives, generate alternatives, and consider options.
Max's reflection on the current unit:
“We have to recycle because if the art his covered in garbage we will die. We could use a conveyor belt to help us do the recycling.” - Max
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| Green layer for decomposition experiment |
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| Decomposition card game |
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| practicing measurement with big feet and little feet |
Adventure Playground (field trip)
5-10-16
New Update for Winter 2016 Dogpatch Friendship
POSITIVE GLASSES VS. NEGATIVE GLASSES
When we see things through our positive glasses, we focus on the good stuff!
When we see things through our negative glasses, we focus on the bad stuff.
Designing the Rube Goldberg Plan
Yesterday huskies had a blast mapping out their Rube Goldberg Machines with Joan!
Maker Faire Field Trip
was HUGE and full of wonderful exhibits from artists, engineers, scientists, and craftspeople. We saw a giant Rube Goldberg Mouse Trap Machine, drones, tons of robots, gear puzzles, lego cities, many drive-able robots and assembled bikes from recycled parts, light shows, and stations to do hands on making. There was much to see and lots of laughs and creativity to go around!
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| Math problem solving using his playlist |
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| In literacy this week Huskies worked on sorted cards according to various early reading concepts. The box style skill builders included practice with forming and matching CVC words, lining up words with the vowel combination for 'silent e', matching digraphs, and looking for blends. |
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| Today during little opera we practiced our song and began to memorize it, getting ready for the final performance! We also got a chance to learn about rhythm sticks and keeping a beat to the music! :) We played games that required us to listen and copy each others movements and try out various beats with the sticks. |
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| A photo of our daily lunch tracker in progress! Everyday huskies are so excited to aim for 'zero waste!' We were impressed when our visitors from recology mentioned that San Fransisco has a goal as a city for 'zero waste'. Children are excited when they count zero recycled and trash items everyday! |
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| Friendship Club Topic: sharing and taking turns |
Science Seed Bombs
5-26-16 · Kristin Uhlemeyer
Over the past few weeks, we have been looking at decomposition and how it relates to compost. Today we looked at how we could use the nutrient rich soil (or humus) created from compost to help the environment.
We created "Seed Bombs" ---a mix of a little bit of water, soil, newspaper and native California wildflower seeds.
Rube Goldberg Machine - Linking Machines
5-26-16· Jamie Spatt
We photographed each section of the group machine and gave each group a copy of their piece. We also gave each group a blank list which they were able to keep notes and a list of items they still need to complete the machine.
In their groups they worked on building the various simple machines that put the larger machine together. They used recycled materials and tape to assemble the parts. We were especially proud of the marble shooter, the giant pulley, and the laundry lever. We are wondering how to attach the back scratcher and where to hang the pulleys from for the final machine.
Recycled Trash Monsters With Siri
5-26-16 · Jamie Spatt
Today Siri worked with huskies to use our recycled materials we created and collected from home and at school to help inspire us to make 'recycled trash monsters'. We began with a story and a little inspiration, then drew our monsters and dressed them up with recycled trash parts! The shiny material and texture were perfect for monster and robot designs alike!
Costume Design
5-28-16· Jamie Spatt
Huskies spent time today working on their costumes for little opera. Most of us have added color to our vests and are now working on appendages, hats, arms, sleeves, and tails!
Max brought in a great tube 'vacuum cleaner' that slings over the shoulder as part of his 'recycle car' design.
New Update for Max Cavelie
6-1-16 · Friendship Club
Max has demonstrated improvements in flexibility, sharing, joining his peers in play with Magna Tiles, and self-control. For example, Max was flexible and put his toy person in the second seat on the rocket ship. I have observed an increase in Max’s self-control with regards to deciding if his contribution is on topic and raising his hand instead of interrupting. Max is eager to share examples related to the topic, and he looks forward to playing Magna Tiles or Leo's with his peers. He also responds well to descriptive praise.
When Max is disappointed, he seems to withdraw from his peers. For example, when a peer accidentally broke a bus they built together, Max ignored the peer’s apology. He is practicing using “I” messages when he is disappointed. We will continue to work on assertiveness when he is feeling disappointed.
~Simone
Passion Project Presentations
6-2-16 · Kristin Uhlemeyer
The kids got a chance to showcase all of their hard work on their Passion Projects. They have been working every Wednesday afternoon since Spring Break and had so much to share.
The Tinkering group explained how their inventions would help the world or just be silly (ideas included grabbers to pick up trash, a cardboard tree, and a house for Kai). They re-used trash and other old materials (including converting shoeboxes into their very own toolboxes).
We designed posters to communicate our ideas about how to take care of the environment and what things we want to teach the community about recycling and sustainability.
Math Centers With Kristin and Jamie
6-7-16 - Jamie Spatt
The last two Math Centers lessons of the year were this Monday and Tuesday!
Math games involving place value and decomposing and composing numbers with tens and ones.
We also practiced our 'Addition Bingo' Skills. Huskies are showing fluency in adding and subtracting numbers up to ten and even up to twenty. Some of us like to use hands and drawings to help solve the harder equations and some of us are 'subatizing' the information mentally!
Many of us are beginning to get the hang of 'place value' using tens sticks and hundreds square manipulatives. In one game, students build numbers and have their partner try to guess the number writing the numbers in the appropriate column. 1's, 10's, and 100's.
Beaming with Bharat!
6-7-16· Jamie Spatt
Huskies had the special opportunity to use the BEAM once more before the end of the school year! We had some interest by Alt School's CTO, (Chief Technology Officer) Bharat to meet the kiddos via BEAM. To get ready, huskies made a list of things they wondered about HQ. We wondered about everything from Bharat's position on Global Warming (thanks Marlena) to how HQ recycles and re-uses. We found out that HQ does a lot of things similar to the way we do them at DP. Then we showed Bharat our set up and the BEAM followed us to the lunch area to have a look.
Little Opera end of year performance
Final Update
June 14, 2016 · Jamie Spatt
Max is...
kinesthetic and perceptive.
SOCIAL EMOTIONAL:
Max is a kinesthetic and perceptive learner. Max came came to us in fall a show some timidity towards opening up to the group. Throughout the year, with the help of gentle coaching and friendship club, Max has learned many new strategies and phrases to use to speak his feelings and ideas clearly and patiently with others. While it is still a growth point for Max, we have seen huge growth in his ability to solve conflicts using his words, use body language to make sure a speaker knows he is listening, and to regulate his energetic responses to internal and external stimuli in his environment. In the beginning of the year, transitions were extremely difficult for Max, opening a lot of opportunity to wander, run, jump, and explore enticing distractions. This half of the year, we have seen Max begin to self regulate by calmly reading a book while waiting, follow expected behavior for lining up to get ready, and be a role model for friends when they are expressing 'yellow zone' behaviors. We find that some of Max's bodily needs seem to part of his personality and have experimented with using various 'fidgets' at the circle to aide his focus. We also make sure to allow Max the time his body needs to take breaks or do sensory play until he is ready to rejoin a larger group. He is at his best in small groups working on hands on projects and working with materials. Max is a good friend and has a big heart, showing strong relationships with teachers and peers and practicing classroom norms like 'the peace talk' when he needs to. Max brings a joy and excitement to the classroom that helps him stay invested in classroom projects. He especially loves math and science and anything that allows him to build and work with his hands to create real life representations. He enjoys making videos and using his tablet too! He is beginning to get a sense of pride in his own work, enjoying sharing his accomplishments like sharing his writing journal at circle or asking, "Is this good? Do you like it?"
MILESTONES: Be aware of thoughts, feelings & actions: Reflect. Be aware of my own thoughts, strategies, feelings, and body, as well as of my actions and their effects on others.
MATHEMATICS:
Max has a natural ability for working with numbers and thinking strategically. Often times, Max is steps ahead on a math problem and demonstrates knowing the concept without needing to manipulate objects to get there. That said, at this age, it is always beneficial to work things through visually or with manipulatives to build a concrete 'number sense'. Max has exhibited Mastery of most of his basic understanding of numbers from 1-20 and even beyond. He has explored addition and subtraction, 10's and 1's place, and grouping and comparing objects and measurements. He is able to help others out when they are struggling with a concept. Max loves games, puzzles, and anything that challenges his mind to think strategically about manipulating numbers.
MILESTONES: Measure in standard units: Measure and estimate using real objects and relate to whole numbers with units (such as inches, feet, meters, dollars, cents, hours, minutes).
LITERACY:
With Max's growth in sustaining his attention, we have seen a huge growth in interest in books and literacy! Max has come to enjoy sharing books with friends especially about favorite topics like cars, star wars, legos, and animals. He is reading at a Fountas and Pinnell level C, which we discovered on a recent assessment for reading. To find books at his level for the summer and otherwise you may wish to go here! Max is learning so many new sight words and applying his phonemic understanding of alphabet letters to decode new words. While Max would still benefit from lots of fine motor skills activities to improve the control of his grip and shape of his letters, we have seen his writing come so far in the last few months! He is able to independently write and sound out new words on his own, attempt complete and grammatical sentences, and takes pride in his work and reading it back to teachers. He also enjoys working on his writing journal, (explode the code) from time to time, which is great fine motor and letter writing practice. It was a joy and pleasure to see Max's excitement around sharing his travel journals from his trips! For Max, sharing his hard work makes him feel successful and appreciated.
MILESTONES: Info text oral reading activities: During oral informational text reading activities, ask and answer questions about key details about topic connection between ideas, unknown words, parts of the book, and compare descriptions, illustrations, and procedures on same topic.
GOALS:
- Continue to support Max and encourage success by offering him fidgets, adjustments to seating, or sensory breaks when asking him to focus for longer periods of time. He may benefit from a signal he can use to leave circle if he needs to.
- Supply Max with lots of opportunities to explore his favorite math and science concepts, the more hands on the better, and perhaps write about them too! Pairing his writing with a task he loves may help encourage authentic writing experiences.
- Continue to support Max's fine motor development by practicing letters, small building projects, cutting, sorting, or beading (rainbow looming?) over the summer. Fine motor practice will help him to feel more comfortable in sustained writing tasks in the future.
It has been to wonderful to teach Max this year and have him as part of the huskies class! :) It is clear that Max has a huge heart and a lot of love to go around. I will miss him so much next year and can't wait to hear about all of the cool things he will build and create next year at DP! It has been a joy and blessing to work with Max and family!
Best and big hugs,
Jamie
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| Race Car that vacuums up trash |
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| Max - Teacher Jamie - Paxton - Anders |
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| 1st day |
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| last day |
Final Update
June 14, 2016 · Jamie Spatt
Max is...
kinesthetic and perceptive.
SOCIAL EMOTIONAL:
Max is a kinesthetic and perceptive learner. Max came came to us in fall a show some timidity towards opening up to the group. Throughout the year, with the help of gentle coaching and friendship club, Max has learned many new strategies and phrases to use to speak his feelings and ideas clearly and patiently with others. While it is still a growth point for Max, we have seen huge growth in his ability to solve conflicts using his words, use body language to make sure a speaker knows he is listening, and to regulate his energetic responses to internal and external stimuli in his environment. In the beginning of the year, transitions were extremely difficult for Max, opening a lot of opportunity to wander, run, jump, and explore enticing distractions. This half of the year, we have seen Max begin to self regulate by calmly reading a book while waiting, follow expected behavior for lining up to get ready, and be a role model for friends when they are expressing 'yellow zone' behaviors. We find that some of Max's bodily needs seem to part of his personality and have experimented with using various 'fidgets' at the circle to aide his focus. We also make sure to allow Max the time his body needs to take breaks or do sensory play until he is ready to rejoin a larger group. He is at his best in small groups working on hands on projects and working with materials. Max is a good friend and has a big heart, showing strong relationships with teachers and peers and practicing classroom norms like 'the peace talk' when he needs to. Max brings a joy and excitement to the classroom that helps him stay invested in classroom projects. He especially loves math and science and anything that allows him to build and work with his hands to create real life representations. He enjoys making videos and using his tablet too! He is beginning to get a sense of pride in his own work, enjoying sharing his accomplishments like sharing his writing journal at circle or asking, "Is this good? Do you like it?"
MILESTONES: Be aware of thoughts, feelings & actions: Reflect. Be aware of my own thoughts, strategies, feelings, and body, as well as of my actions and their effects on others.
MATHEMATICS:
Max has a natural ability for working with numbers and thinking strategically. Often times, Max is steps ahead on a math problem and demonstrates knowing the concept without needing to manipulate objects to get there. That said, at this age, it is always beneficial to work things through visually or with manipulatives to build a concrete 'number sense'. Max has exhibited Mastery of most of his basic understanding of numbers from 1-20 and even beyond. He has explored addition and subtraction, 10's and 1's place, and grouping and comparing objects and measurements. He is able to help others out when they are struggling with a concept. Max loves games, puzzles, and anything that challenges his mind to think strategically about manipulating numbers.
MILESTONES: Measure in standard units: Measure and estimate using real objects and relate to whole numbers with units (such as inches, feet, meters, dollars, cents, hours, minutes).
LITERACY:
With Max's growth in sustaining his attention, we have seen a huge growth in interest in books and literacy! Max has come to enjoy sharing books with friends especially about favorite topics like cars, star wars, legos, and animals. He is reading at a Fountas and Pinnell level C, which we discovered on a recent assessment for reading. To find books at his level for the summer and otherwise you may wish to go here! Max is learning so many new sight words and applying his phonemic understanding of alphabet letters to decode new words. While Max would still benefit from lots of fine motor skills activities to improve the control of his grip and shape of his letters, we have seen his writing come so far in the last few months! He is able to independently write and sound out new words on his own, attempt complete and grammatical sentences, and takes pride in his work and reading it back to teachers. He also enjoys working on his writing journal, (explode the code) from time to time, which is great fine motor and letter writing practice. It was a joy and pleasure to see Max's excitement around sharing his travel journals from his trips! For Max, sharing his hard work makes him feel successful and appreciated.
MILESTONES: Info text oral reading activities: During oral informational text reading activities, ask and answer questions about key details about topic connection between ideas, unknown words, parts of the book, and compare descriptions, illustrations, and procedures on same topic.
GOALS:
- Continue to support Max and encourage success by offering him fidgets, adjustments to seating, or sensory breaks when asking him to focus for longer periods of time. He may benefit from a signal he can use to leave circle if he needs to.
- Supply Max with lots of opportunities to explore his favorite math and science concepts, the more hands on the better, and perhaps write about them too! Pairing his writing with a task he loves may help encourage authentic writing experiences.
- Continue to support Max's fine motor development by practicing letters, small building projects, cutting, sorting, or beading (rainbow looming?) over the summer. Fine motor practice will help him to feel more comfortable in sustained writing tasks in the future.
It has been to wonderful to teach Max this year and have him as part of the huskies class! :) It is clear that Max has a huge heart and a lot of love to go around. I will miss him so much next year and can't wait to hear about all of the cool things he will build and create next year at DP! It has been a joy and blessing to work with Max and family!
Best and big hugs,
Jamie
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