Our Yearbook and A Calm Down Corner

This past week we began to work on our yearbooks.  They will come home at graduation time filled with treasures galore.  You will have all kinds of art work that the teachers saved throughout the year, along with holiday pictures, birthday pictures and so much more.  Trust us!  You will save these publications forever and show them to your grandchildren to remember preschool happenings.

On the blog are some pictures of our beginning efforts.  Earlier this year self-portraits were drawn.  As you will see the project was repeated this week.  More details are included by the artists so you can observe what growth has happened since September.  Another yearbook activity shown centers on what each Whole Note member thinks he/she might want to be when grown up.  You will be surprised when you finally learn the various choices.

You can view a new area set up for friends to calm down when upset.  It was a suggestion from a Newton public school child psychologist.  Every classroom should have one.  The idea is to provide a chance for a friend to calm down if he/she is upset about a problem such as waiting for a turn, having hurt feelings, dealing with a physical altercation, etc.  A chart showing choices of activities is on the wall.  A youngster can read a book about feelings, complete a puzzle or lacing card, use squeeze toys or other objects for soothing, look in a mirror, count quietly, play with a fidget item and more.  The new corner was well received by all.  Friends are using it to calm down when suggested by a teacher  or just simply trying it out for the experience as Margot and Brigitte are doing.

Perhaps you wonder what we do here on rainy days.  There are several photos illustrating the answer to that question.  Martina and Brigitte are playing with pretty ponies, along with their stable.  Emily is in the art/writing center coloring a picture of a butterfly.  Lucas is doing some great building with tinker toys.  JJ and Margot are dining in a restaurant.  Other friends are putting finishing touches with flowers on our Frida Kahlo art work.  All of us are always busy!

At the end of the blog is a view of the group having a violin lesson on zoom , followed by the class using their box violins.  On Wednesdays when Miss Lisa comes to school everyone uses a real violin.  That is our news.  We hope to share our creations with you at the art show tomorrow.

On another subject, the weather is only beginning to change.  Our outdoor time is late morning and it is not that warm at that hour.  Please remember this when you dress your child.  We cannot take the time to change clothing.  The best thing is to dress your preschooler in layers of clothes.  Items can be removed easily.  Thanks for your on going cooperation.

Rolene and Jackie 

 

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

 

o

 

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