Shaving Cream, Apples and Birthdays

There are many different kinds of activities on our blog, but all show your youngsters having a wonderful time.  Remember sometimes the photos are not necessarily in the same order as the text, depending upon when they were taken.

First are the experiences with shaving cream.  This is really a sensory project from the smell to its feel.  It starts with the plain white cream on an individual tray.  Dots of food coloring are added and then all is swirled together by using a pencil.  A plain piece of paper is put down on it and pressed with hands and then taken off.  Excess cream is scraped off with a ruler.  A beautiful design is revealed.  These will be the  covers of our year books.  From now until June, as mentioned last week with our self-portraits, the teachers save so many art projects to make you a "forever keepsake" of your child's work in the Whole Notes room.

We have told you that mandarin is virtual.  You will see the group in their chairs listening to the mandarin teacher.  She has sent some pictures of what she is helping them to learn.  They have been forwarded to you in a separate email.  The preschoolers are saying "my name is", hello teacher, and are counting in mandarin and identifying color names and weather descriptions.

Our new friend Zayden is featured building with some small blocks.  The Whole Note class now has 12 children, 7 girls and 5 boys.

To begin the fall season our focus was fun with apples.  Everyone tasted 3 kinds of apples: red gala, green granny smith and yellow golden delicious.  Descriptive words such as sweet, crunchy, hard, juicy and the like were recorded for a language arts experience.  Finally math was tied in on a graph so that each of our friends favorite apple was recorded.  The chart is on our classroom door.  If you check you will see that red was the winner.  Apple trees were drawn.  A trick way to create a tree trunk with branches is to trace your arm and hand.  Apples were added by using crayons.  It is interesting to note how each child's tree is different.  These are being placed in the portfolios.

Brigitte filled the letter box for "B".  She is proudly showing a book titled "Brigitte" and the letter box with the "B" showing.  Brigitte did a great job.  You can see a class member writing and drawing in the letter book.  Next Wednesday another friend will bring us a box full of items that begin with "C".

Another group of children are coloring apples to glue on their Johnny Appleseed pot hats.  A little history lesson with pictures of Johnny Appleseed and his mission was presented at circle.  We have a few preschoolers modeling their creations.  Friday is journal day so a view of some illustrator/authors is here.  

Finally is our birthday girl Riya. She came all dressed up for her celebration and truly looks like a princess sporting her crown.  Her cupcakes were a hit at Friday's snack.  Happy 5th Birthday to Riya.

Also here is our bulletin board that faces our bathroom.  The class decorated frames for their first day of school photos.  The kids love looking at these while waiting in line for turns for hygiene.  Yes, you will receive these in June also.

Please remember to send in silverware with lunch.  With Friday's pizza water bottles are needed.  Some extra food to go with the pizza, such as vegetables or fruit, is a great idea.  You must please be mindful to not send in food that contain nuts or that have a label that reads "may contain nuts or can be made in a facility that could process nuts on shared equipment."  A good example are cereal or granola bars.  These items will be sent back home.  Teachers read all labels as we have a friend who is allergic to some nuts.

Remember there is no school tomorrow, Monday, the 28th.  We welcome the group back  on Tuesday.  We wish all our Jewish families an easy fast and a sweet, happy and healthy New Year.

Rolene and Jackie

Beginning Literacy

We have just finished a fun week packed with friendships being made and  lots of learning and creating taking place.  Our blog will give you an idea of just how busy we have been.  

Every fall we talk about our bodies-how we all have similarities and differences in our appearances-and the fact that we are friends no matter what.  Each youngster drew a self-portrait (hand mirrors helped) and told us what he/she likes about himself/herself.  These portraits will be saved in our portfolios.  At the end of the school year the preschoolers will do the same assignment to see how their fine motor skills have developed and how the perception of what he/she looks like has grown.  You will receive both self-portraits in the year book sent home in June and will see for yourself how much change happens as the year continues.

There is a photo of a game being played at circle in which each class member chose an item from a bag and told us the shape.  The book "What Is Round" was read and we all brainstormed to make a list of round objects.  Our goal was preparation for the project of marble painting in keeping with our color unit of the past two weeks.  

The group played Bingo finding colors and shapes.  This activity was a big hit and helps the teachers to evaluate the knowledge of each class member.  We play until every child gets Bingo.

Friends are using our dot to dot markers to create pictures during free choice time.  Other friends are sharing toy furnishings and acting out family scenarios with our castle.

Another project shown was the use of color palettes to find what happens when color paints run together.  A teacher read "Little Blue and Little Yellow" along with the project.  It is clearly a favorite story.  Further into the blog are pictures made by using our imagination.  The book "Spilt Milk" was enjoyed by all in which white shapes are shown and the reader is left to decide exactly  what they represent.  Many interpretations are possible.  (The pictures are actually clouds.)  Every friend made a picture by dropping paint from a spoon onto a paper, folding it and rubbing a hand over it.  Open up the paper and voila!.  You decide for yourself what the creation looks like.  On our bulletin board shown here are all the creations and the decisions of the children as to what their art work represents.  

The biggest achievement of the week were the introductions of the two books we use all year to foster literacy.  The first is our letter book.  Wednesday is letter day.  We started  the circle by emptying the letter box which the teachers filled with objects beginning with the letter "A".  The class guessed what the names of the items were while repeating the sound of the letter "A".  Words beginning with the same sound were written on our white board.  Some Whole Notes can read them while others use our clues to make a determination.  Stories with "A" in their titles such as "Aaron's Hair" and "Alligator Baby" were read during the morning.  Still other books with this letter were offered in the library area.  The culmination of all of this: in our alphabet books everyone practiced writing upper and lower case  appropriate letters and then drew their own choices of things beginning with our letter.  Some can write their own words beginning with the designated letter while others need help.  Either case is fine.  Word cards are out for those who wish to copy the correct letters and spelling.  Worksheets to reinforce what we studied were out the next day for those interested in completing them during free choice time.

Starting next week the group will take turns to fill the letter box at home.  When it is your  little one's turn to have the box, please help to fill it with objects beginning with the letter shown on the top of the box.  Obviously some letters are easier than others but please try for about ten items.  You can draw things, use magazines or a computer print out.  The box MUST be returned the next day in time for circle.  This activity is a great home/school connection.  The children love it.  It is like public speaking 101.

Our other literary accomplishment was to begin our journals.  Each Friday we choose a topic related to our theme of the week.  The class members become authors and illustrators.  This week the boys and girls drew anything they chose related to colors.  Some drew rainbows.  Others made beautiful flowers or designs.  From word cards the group copies color names.  Abilities vary from writing six colors with no help to needing assistance for one or two words.  These two books are extremely popular.  Growth of fine motor skills is apparent as the year progresses.  You will receive them at year's end.

In between all of these activities, mandarin and music lessons began.  These are virtual as we are now the proud owners of a large TV in our classroom.

See you again next week.

Rolene and Jackie