Bugs and Insects

Over the week the class studied bugs and insects through the use of pictures, charts, stories and simply listening to information taught by the teachers.  Our library books once again were changed, this time to a collection of books on our weekly topic.  Ants were very popular as we learned the three parts of their bodies, number of legs, the different categories of ants in a colony such as workers or soldiers, the importance of the queen ant and more.  Attached to the project on ants-our ant hills that went home- was information your youngster had the opportunity to learn about.  They loved hearing that there are eight thousand kinds of ants or that ants can lift an object five times their weight.  "The Ant Bully" and "Hey Little Ant" were well received stories.

Another project matched to our bug and insect unit was the opportunity to create your own bug or insect with a body formed with model magic.  The teachers put lots of treasures out to choose from such as buttons, pipe cleaners, jewels, cut straws, etc.  Each friend made something creative that was different from all the others.  All of these bug and insect activities are shown on our blog.

You will see Zayden with the letter box for "Z".  He had requested this letter.  He has a picture of a zipper, a photo of his friend Zev (we call Zayden and Zev the "Z" boys) and an adorable photo of himself as a baby.  Thanks to Zayden's Mom for helping him.  Our alphabet books are now completed and will go home at the end of the year.

Show and tell was a big hit.  The class is holding the items chosen to bring in to school for this occasion.  They are featured here in two groups.

Finally is a view of Lucas working on letter puzzles during free choice time.  The missing letters are all in lower case which is a challenge.  Riya is the other class member on display here.  She is coloring, cutting and gluing a fun work sheet which will in the end form a puzzle of a lady bug.  This type of free choice activity always enhances our weekly topic.

Please enjoy your children over the upcoming vacation week.  Be safe.  We will see you again on Monday, April the twenty-sixth.  There is no blog next weekend due to vacation.

Rolene and Jackie

 

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Triple the Fun

This week we introduced some spring fun as the weather finally cooperated.  The first good time began with the class listening to the book "Planting a Garden" and creating a list of flowers.  These activities led us to our spring project of creating "squishy" flowers in a beautiful vase.  The project is on the blog for you to enjoy.  Lucas is shown shopping for a vase which was then glued on a large sheet of white paper. Stems were then drawn.  Drops of painted were added to these stems.  Finally a piece of wax paper was placed over all the paint.  The children then used their hands to "squish" the paint before removing this paper.  A beautiful bouquet of flowers in a vase appeared.  All are on our spring bulletin board and also featured on the blog.  Zayden is writing words to tie in literacy with our art work.

Our second round of spring fun also began with a story, this one titled "Bear's Bargain".  In the book a bird and bear make the following bargain:  Bear will teach Bird how to grow bigger and bird in turn will teach Bear how to fly.  After failed attempts on both sides Bear plants a pumpkin and as it grows bigger, he carves Bird's picture on it.  Obviously when the pumpkin gets big, Bird is bigger also.  Bear cannot follow Bird's instructions for flying so Bird makes a kite and draws Bear's picture on it.  When the kite is flown, Bear is obviously flying.  For our project everyone drew himself/herself on it.  Some of these beautiful kites are embellished with crowns, flowers, hearts, siblings and more.  All the steps for these works of art are shown on our other bulletin board and on the blog also.

Our third good time was not about spring.  It revolved around our names.  A story once again tied in.  The teachers love literacy here.  We read "Chrysanthemum" which is about a little girl given that long name of this particular flower.  Her girl classmates make fun of her name, pretending to pick her and telling her half the number of the alphabet letters comprised her name.  They really hurt her feelings so much that she wanted to stay home.  Finally a new music teacher came who also has a flower name, Delphinium, and is expecting a girl baby who will be named Chrysanthemum.  Suddenly the girls all love flower names and want one.  The book is absolutely adorable, teaching a lesson about how wrong it is to make fun of anyone.  First the Whole Notes colored strips of oaktag.  A teacher then printed the friends' names on them and cut them into pieces, turning them into name puzzles.  Ask your preschooler if you have not seen this project.  We also did some math, creating a graph to find out who had the least amount of letters in his/her name, who had the most letters and which number of letters in a name was the most common here.  Some friends are doing their puzzles for you.  Also on the blog are some class members holding books so that you can see that whenever possible, we find two or more editions of a book.  In this way two or more friends read them together, comparing words and pictures.  This is a great way to introduce reading readiness.  

Noah had the letter box for "Y".  In photos he is holding a picture of yogurt, a yak and yarn.  Noah loves yogurt and so he kindly brought squeezable yogurts to share with his friends.  This healthy snack was quite popular.  Thank you Noah!  There is only one alphabet letter left now. 

Please enjoy the blog.  Watch for another email from us.

Rolene and Jackie

 

 

Houses

In a recent blog we told you that the Whole Notes were learning about the artist Frida Kahlo for the art show.  To refresh your memory, Frida loved flowers, using symbols like the shape of a heart for love, had a monkey for a pet and thought herself beautiful with her one long eyebrow and bright colored clothing.

Frida always lived in blue houses with red and green trim.  There are photos on the blog of the artist and her house which is now a museum in Mexico.  The children are shown making their own replicas of this special place.  They are painting their homes, tracing and cutting doors and windows, trimming roofs and gluing the respective pieces.  Some friends are featured have a great time coloring pictures of Frida with her flowers and monkey put out at the art/writing area during free choice time.

Our discussions and stories centered around our homes-how they are constructed, decorated, what rooms are in them, etc.  Animal homes were explored.  Our journal subject was titled "My Home".  Emily is holding up her journal in a blog picture so you can admire her work.  A teacher read us the book "The Little House" by Virginia Lee Burton.  In this story we had a history lesson about a  small house built in an earlier century.  The house remains on the lot while all around it roads are dug and paved, cities are built with houses, apartment buildings, sky scrapers street lights and more.  We watched all of these changes over the seasons and phases of the moon.  Finally a great great grandchild of the builder of this dwelling recognizes it, as shabby as it has become, and has it moved to a new country setting.  The process of moving a house was very interesting to our audience.

JJ had the letter box for "X".  His parents were good sports about this tough letter and helped him to find a picture of a dinosaur called an xiaosaurus, construct an x-ray of a hand and copied a picture of a xylophone for him to color.  All these are seen on the blog with JJ.

Finally you will see our Easter egg hunt which your youngsters will probably say was the highlight of the week. The teachers made up some clues for an egg hunt.  Each child was assigned a clue.  For example one clue was where authors are (library), another clue was where artists can work (easel), another was at a place where you can have dinner (housekeeping), and still a different clue was where months and days may change (calendar).  Emily found a clue "where houses are blue' which was the drying rack where are projects were drying.  The final clue was for the whole class so everyone could find their eggs at the same time.  The clue was as follows: "they can't be seen, hiding in blue, where there is something musical too.  Look down near the floor, the magic number is four."  There were four eggs in a blue bucket that each child has at the bottom of his/her cubby.  A box violin is also kept in this bucket.  Ask your preschooler about this fun if you have not as yet seen the candy filled eggs.

We have now completed the work for the art show.  This upcoming week we will focus a little on spring and do something special with our names.

Rolene and Jackie

 

  

 

 

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