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
No comments:
Post a Comment