March 9, 2008
We had a terrific “Tt” week full
of tasty toast, turtles, and the ever so popular tent that I brought in. Since the children are so wonderful I couldn’t
turn down their request to keep the tent in class another week. Make sure to check out their turtle tales in
the hallways. The children always seem
to have a story to tell, but when I actually ask them to tell one, it’s very
hard for them to come up with one—but we persevered! Another highlight of last week was the bat
assembly. We had front row seats so we
saw each bat up close and personal—very interesting. I’m sure they all can tell you why bats are
so important to the rainforests. Please bring in any spare umbrellas for
room decorations for this week.
Monday, March 3, 2008
The
weeks are flying by so quickly. I can’t
believe we are already on letter “Tt”! The highlights of our super “Ss” week
included graphing Skittles and of course our experiments on Friday. We tried to make our clay into a shape of a
boat that would actually float. We had a
little success until the clay got too saturated and wouldn’t hold
together. Another sinking experiment made the children scream as we watched rice
float and sink when we added water, baking soda, and vinegar together. Actually it wasn’t the rice dancing around
that made them scream, but was the mixture foaming and overflowing like a
volcano that did it. Just wait until
“Vv” week! Hopefully everyone will be
there tomorrow. I miss having my whole
class present. It hasn’t happened but
once in the last two and a half weeks!
Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008
Well, we have 5 out of 6
today--much better than 3 being gone yesterday.
When will this end? Despite many
absences we are rolling along through “Rr” week
making rainbows, rectangle robots, and today we went outside in the snow to
paint raindrops (on dry tempera paint—wasn’t quite snowing enough to make this
a huge success). We have been focusing
on rhyming as well. This is a skill you
can practice with your child in the car, before bed, etc. Nonsense words are allowed when rhyming. We ended today by drawing a rat. They did a fabulous job! Hopefully all will be here tomorrow. Get well, My’Kale!
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
The children had a great day today enjoying PE with Mrs. Lamb, doing art with Mrs. Goering and Mrs. Hamilton, and then attending Library with Mrs. Thiessen. We then ended our day playing instruments while listening to valentine music. Thanks to all for attending conferences last week. I enjoyed visiting with everyone—you have amazing children. We will continue to do many valentine activities throughout the week. Make sure to check out the hearts we made yesterday by tearing tissue paper and painting it on with vegetable oil!!! I will not be there tomorrow (Wed.). Mrs. Swanson will be here—she is wonderful. The Valentine party is Thursday, Feb. 14 at 10:30. Please check the sign-up sheet in the hallway to see who is bringing what. Also, the children will be exchanging valentines (6 total children). Do I need to list them (smile)?
Thursday, January 10, 2008
We are having a wonderful week
doing Winter activities. Our room and hallway are decorated with many
snowflakes, snowmen, and soon matching mittens.
I am proud of the children for painting matching mittens. It was a challenging activity, but they rose
to the occasion. We have been scientists
this week doing many ice experiments. We
are making predictions and then checking our results. We found out that ice floats, we can pick up
an ice cube with a thread if you add salt to it, and also that water gets
bigger when it turns to ice. We have
started our number books doing page 0 and 1.
So far so good.
The challenge will be #2! We hope
to have these completed by conference time.
We learned “please” , “thank you”, and “you’re
welcome” with Zero the Hero today. Ask your child about our permanent
friend. We now don’t have to borrow Zero
from the other class—our friend even makes noise!!!!! Tomorrow is our Winter
picnic. Bring a little snack to share if
you wish.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
We are having a magnificent week
so far in our Pre-K. On Monday, we acted
like mischievous monkeys and then made monkey puppets. The children worked hard at cutting in tight
corners. It is amazing how far they have
progressed! On Tuesday we were
scientists in action doing magnet experiments.
We made predictions of what a magnet would stick to, and I even
introduced the word “hypothesis” to them (not sure that will stay in the memory
bank though). We ended our Tuesday with
our Annual Fund Pizza party and an enjoyable round of Musical Chairs. The children thought I couldn’t count right
when I sat out one less chair. Wednesday
was also marvelous because of our Center Time with Mrs. Mosier’s class full of
making masks, magnets, macaroni at the sensory table, and much more. After centers, we made mash potatoes. I have come to the conclusion that the class
does not like to get their hands messy.
Hopefully I will see everyone tomorrow as we are doing M&M graphing
and patterning as well as painting a masterpiece. STAY HEALTHY!!!!
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
We are having a lovely “Ll” week so far. The
children have been enjoying laughing, lacing, and drawing ladybugs. Tomorrow we will head to Festival of
Trees. This should be exciting since it
is our first class fieldtrip!! We will
leave at 8:40 AM and return at 10:30 AM.
Please have the children wear their TCS shirts. We have started doing centers with Mrs.
Mosier’s class twice/week. This is an
enjoyable learning time for all while meeting new friends. Our class also played Teen Number Bingo
today—very challenging. We will focus on
these numbers for a while.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
What a jolly week we are having learning about “Jj”. Tuesday was a
joyful day full of jogging, jumping, and doing jumping jacks when we spotted
the letter “Jj”.
We pulled out many “J” items out of a pair of jeans. We also found
Thursday, October 18, 2007
I have been lost without my
internet at home!. Hopefully you have been checking
the website since I am unable to email.
Hopefully it will be fixed tonight!
We had a happy day drawing a house, tracing hearts, reading The
Little Red Hen, and using a balance scale to see which items are heavier
than others. Yesterday we were busy
doing centers which included holepunching, writing Hh, playdough, and making a visit
to Mrs. Mosier’s room to use her sensory table full of potato flakes! The fourth grade will perform tomorrow’s
assembly. We will also have music, make handshadows, and fly a helicopter???
Until then, have a great day!
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Happy Birthday, Josh! Enjoy your special day. We were so busy yesterday having a heart hunt in the classroom.
The children found their specific color of heart (colors were assigned
using Spanish). They then counted their
hearts in Spanish up to five. The
children all seemed to accomplish this task, and we will venture on up to 10
next week. Ask your child where did
Hippy the Hippo work (hulahoop factory), and what did
he eat on the holidays (hamburgers and hotdogs)? The children enjoyed using the Geoboards (using rubberbands on a
board with pegs to make shapes). One
child insisted these be a part of “free play”!
We ended our day singing and doing the Hokey Pokey. When asked why did we do
the Hokey Pokey, one child stated, “Just for the fun of it!” Of course that is true, but it also starts
with “H” (which they also said with a little prompting). Today, each child made a house with their
name, address, and phone # on it. We
will work on recognizing and recalling these throughout the week. My internet is down so if you have
concerns/?’s outside of school hours for me, please
call me at 267-3796. I will post the
sign-up sheet for conferences tomorrow.
Have a great day.
Monday, October 8
We got off to a great start for "Gg" week. Ask your child what Griselda Green saw (ghosts) and what did they do (giggle, grin, eat grapes). The children did a great job of making uppercase G's (go ahead and encourage only 2 strokes--a C with the bottom coming up longer and then the straight line going across). They even tackled making lowercase "g's" without me even asking them to!!!! We counted to five in Spanish and did a beanbag toss game to help us have fun while counting. We are planning on having things "grow" in our class so we planted beans. I couldn't believe how much I had to encourage them to touch the dirt and that it was ok to get their hands dirty. Hopefully we will see some "growth" by Friday. Tomorrow we will start growing a DINOSAUR!? Nathan Ham has informed the school that a group picture will only cost $10. Please indicate on the individual order form if you want to order a group picture.
Monday, October 1
We had a really nice calm day. We talked about the "F" sound. Ask your child what happened to Farley Fox while he was fishing (Felicia the fish pulled him in!). He also played the fiddle while fishing. We practiced making uppercase "F's"--the children did rather well so we will try to tackle lowercase later this week. We played Candyland today using the Spanish names for the colors. I also introduced uno and dos for the numbers 1 and 2 while we were playing the game. We had our egg drop and unfortunately, all of our eggs did crack. We figured out that lots of bubble wrap is the secret to a crack-free egg. Once again, the Open House is this Wednesday night 6:00-7:30. I will have some new things for you to view. I know the children are excited to show you around the room. This is also a great time for you to visit the Library, Computer Lab, and music room as well as any other rooms in the school.
Monday, September 24
A very low-key yet educational Monday spent learning about the letter Ee. Ask your child to tell you where Edgar the Elf lived when he was at the Zoo. (in an envelope). We will focus on uppercase formation, but lowercase will still be introduced. The short "Ee" sound is hard for the children to pronounce. Today we also used the shape blocks and just explored with various shapes. For example, two triangles make a diamond, etc. We then used picture cards (tangrams) and filled them in with shapes. The children seemed to enjoy this. I told them we were scientists exploring shapes or mathematicians experimenting with shapes. Book order is in. I will send home the orders tomorrow. Have a great night.
Wednesday, September 26
A great two days. On Tuesday, we worked on our weather mobils. We were busy gluing cotton balls on clouds and glittering snowflakes. I hope you all are able to attend the Open House next Wednesday night, the 3rd, to see them displayed. We have a few more weather things to add to them. Today we painted elephants (hold paintbrush the same as a pencil) and sorted plastic eggs by color and size. Sorting by color is so easy for them. However, it is hard for them to understand that when we sort by size, different colors can be together. We will revisit sorting and classifying groups a lot throughout the year. Library is tomorrow. There is also a Recycling Assembly on Friday at 8:40 AM if you are interested in attending.
Thursday, September 6
Whew! We were so busy! From Library to making butter, a spare minute
was not to be had today. We had a great
time with our bears singing songs and going on a “bear hunt”. We are also in the process of making bear
books which will help the children know preposition words like beside, over,
under, etc. These will come home
tomorrow. We also drew bears in our draw
to learn time. I am seeing progress on
fine-motor control. Keep working those
hand muscles. Please wear your blue TCS
shirts tomorrow for the big birthday celebration.