We are so sad not to see all of your sweet children at school every day anymore, but we are also looking forward to hearing back from you all about their wonderful accomplishments in years to come! Thanks again for sharing them with us. We have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know each and every one of them.
~ LBS Teachers & Staff This page will be archived - you need to save the url address as it won't be accessible from the main website anymore.
0 Comments
It’s been a very busy year. This week we have been reminiscing and recalling fun things that we have done throughout the year. We’ve also been enjoying our friends as we part for the summer. We built our last block structures, harvested the garden vegetables, drew pictures, collected our belongings, and said our goodbyes. We also had Joe Maffo from Critter Management come talk to us about alligators. We all got to hold a baby alligator and Mr. Joe told us to stay away from them because they are very dangerous. If you see an alligator you should tell an adult. Do not touch them!! They will eat almost anything. We had an end of the year celebration at the Port Royal Amphitheater. It was a delightful evening with parents, grandparents, and friends attending. We sang songs, celebrated, and had a send off to Kindergarten. Thanks for sharing your children with us. They are very special and I love them all. This has been a week of celebrations! We celebrated Lana’s 5th birthday, Laila’s 5th birthday and Ava’s 5th birthday. Happy Birthday to all our special school friends. Our hard work in the garden has paid off. This week we discovered ripe tomatoes, strawberries, and blueberries. It seems like something good came from tropical storm Beryl. The rain seemed to make our vegetables and flowers lush and plentiful. We also found a large moth on the playground outside of our classroom. It landed on Arden and Tucker before flying off to settle up in a tree. It created a lot of excitement! We think it was a Polyphemus Moth. On Thursday we made a school-wide visit to see our “Grand Friends” at The Helena House in Port Royal. We performed the songs that we sang for Portfolio Night and had a lemonade social. The residents loved seeing everyone and enjoyed the performance. Thanks to Mrs. Williams (Krislyn’s Mother) for joining us and assisting with the children as we walked there and back. Next week will be our last week all together as the year will be coming to an end. Please plan on attending our end of the year celebration on Thurs. June 7 at the Port Royal Amphitheater at 6:00 p.m. We look forward to seeing you there. It’s been a great year!! This week we have been busy working on our performance for portfolio night. We painted sea animals and practiced songs and facts to share with others. We are becoming experts on many topics! The children have acquired a wealth of knowledge about sea creatures from our partnership with Mr. Bender at the Lowcountry Estuarium. The school has a display tank on loan which Mr. Bender changes every other week. He teaches the children about the types of animals he puts in the tank, all of which are found in our local estuaries. He has brought stone crabs, mud crabs, porcelain crabs, snapping shrimp, mud snails, oysters, striped killifish, mummichogs, a lightning whelk, clams, and a sea star. This has been a wonderful learning experience and has helped inspire the children to be more connected to their local environment and to take an interest in conservation and protection. We also enjoyed walking on the Cypress Wetland nature trail this week. We checked on the Egret rookery and then saw a Wood Stork, a Great Blue Heron, a Red-winged Blackbird, an alligator in the water in the far distance, and turtles. It is an exciting half-mile long walking trail that is well planned and informative. The children ask to go in the garden every day. We continue to check on the plants and flowers, and water and weed. We made signs to put in the garden to help identify the plants and herbs that are growing there. Mrs. Willis has added mint, basil, rosemary and chives. We also have blueberries, watermelon, cantaloupe and onions. On Friday we enjoyed Music with Ms. Kali and had a special guest (Haynes Werner) bring his red-tailed hawk to show us. He talked about birds of prey and the sport of falconry. The children asked lots of interesting and thoughtful questions. Don't be surprised if one of your children comes home asking for his/her own pet hawk. We hope you enjoyed portfolio night and viewing your child’s work and classroom and the performance. The children have grown so much and continue to amaze me. We continue to check on our strawberries, tomatoes and green beans every morning. We found 9 ripe strawberries this week and picked, washed and ate them. The tomato plant is growing rapidly. It is now 43 inches tall, but the tomatoes are still green. We’re beginning to see signs of green beans too and can’t wait to harvest them. We’ve been finding lots of interesting creatures in the garden. This week we found a grasshopper, a frog, a snail, and ladybugs. We enjoyed exploring our new water playground this week. We had fun fishing in the canoe, observing water flow, filling containers, pouring water, making streams on a rocky hill, painting with water, and moving water through tubes. We will continue to explore concepts such as flow, shape, and density over the next few weeks as long as the children seem engaged and excited about water exploration. We had Wee Fit and Yoga this week. The children have had great opportunities to develop gross motor skills through these two special area classes. I see improved balance, strength, coordination, power, speed, endurance and agility as well as self confidence. Fitness is an important part of our curriculum. It will help combat obesity and promote healthy lifestyles from the beginning. Next Thursday, May 24 will be portfolio night with a performance by each class about our study of water. Please mark this on your calendar and plan to attend. _This week we celebrated Tucker’s 5th birthday. We enjoyed eating cupcakes on the boardwalk where we like to go to view the Egrets. Happy Birthday Tucker! We also visited our “Grand Friends” at the Helena House. We painted flowers with watercolors while we were there and gave them to our friends to enjoy. We also sang several songs and assured them that we would be back at the end of the month with the entire school. They look forward to our visits so much and asked to hear the songs again before we left. The children always bring smiles to their faces and brighten their day. We have been checking on our tomatoes and strawberries daily. We discovered 3 ripe strawberries this week so we picked them and all enjoyed a small sampling. We decided they were a little tart so we will wait longer next time before picking them to see if they will be a little sweeter. The tomatoes are much larger but still green. Arden found a snail in the garden and Carson found a frog. This week we enjoyed having all our specials. (Yoga with Ms. Brittney, Music with Ms. Kali and Wee Fit with Mr. Paulie) It has been a busy week. We made a special gift to give to our great moms for Mother’s Day. It’s been hard keeping it a secret. Several children have told me they have told the secret to their Daddy, brother or sister but have not uttered a peep to Mommy. We hope you enjoy your day and your gift even if the surprise was revealed. Happy Mother’s Day!! Our camera has been sent off for repairs so we have had fewer pictures than normal for the past couple of weeks. We are currently borrowing the 3’s camera when it’s not in use. Thanks to Mrs. John’s and Ms. Angela for sharing. The garden is bringing us joyful learning experiences. Since the children are naturally drawn to nature and long to be outdoors it has given us many opportunities to incorporate language, science and math concepts into our day. It has also given us a respect for living things, curiosity, persistence, patience and how to work cooperatively. We have been measuring the large tomato plant weekly and it has now grown to a height of 25 inches. We are counting tomatoes and are now up to a total of 20. Our strawberries are getting larger and we are beginning to notice some beans sprouting. Our sunflowers haven’t sprouted so we have replanted and will try again. The children think we didn’t water them enough. We will add this to our class jobs to remind us. The biggest chore in the garden is the weeding. We pull most of our weeds by hand. We like pulling the weeds because the weeds are less likely to come back if they are pulled. We also have been exploring water flow at the water tables with flexible plastic tubing of different lengths and diameters, funnels and containers of various sizes and shapes for pouring such as plastic bottles, and cups. The children have discovered many strategies for getting the water to move up and down through the tubes as well as observing the way water behaves when you pour it or squirt it out of containers. We will continue to explore water flow over the next couple of weeks and offer experiences and materials for them to investigate, question and problem solve. We have been seeing woodpeckers come to our suet feeder this week. The children have been so excited to see them there. We also revisited the rookery where the colony of great white egrets are nesting. The baby chicks are growing and walking around the nest and in the trees. We also noticed a great blue heron standing in the shallow water. He was waiting patiently for something to eat. The children were amazed at how long it stood there without moving. Please make sure that your child has a change of clothes at school. With warmer days and water play it might be needed. We have water play rules but accidents do happen. Thank you. _We’ve had a week of discoveries. We took a walk down Richmond Avenue to revisit the breeding colony of Great White Egrets that have been nesting in the trees in the Cypress Wetlands for the past month and discovered baby chicks in the nests. The boardwalk is finished so we were able to get a close look by viewing them through a viewer that has been placed there. The Great White Egret can be distinguished from other white egrets by its yellow bill and black legs and feet. In breeding plumage, delicate ornamental feathers are borne on the back. We then walked along the path behind the YMCA to the other side of the wetlands and along the way we saw a turtle, several other interesting birds, a tree with holes that the children think a woodpecker drilled, duckweed floating in the water, and more egrets. Arden discovered a pileated woodpecker pecking on a tree outside our classroom window as we were reading a story. We all excitedly went to the window to view it. Bluebirds have been coming to our feeders and we saw a flock of wild geese flying overhead when playing outside on the playground. In the garden we discovered our first tomato. It’s still small and green, but we will check on it regularly and will anxiously wait for it to ripen so we can pick it. We have also discovered a few strawberries on the strawberry plants. We’ve been learning about measurement (non-standard and standard) and used a yardstick to record the growth of the tomato plant. It has reached a height of 19 inches so far. We have planted sunflower seeds along the fence and will have fun measuring them too once they sprout. Mr. Bender has added several new sea animals to the salt water display tank in the Studio. We now have a lightning whelk and clams. Mr. Bender visited the school on Friday to tell us about the new sea animals and answer questions that we might have. We also have duck eggs in an incubator. The incubation period is 28-30 days so they should possibly hatch next week. We have been marking off the days on the calendar. We are still working on our bottle cap mural on the playground fence. It is a work in progress and we hope to complete it soon. It is inspiring to watch the children as they work. We had Music with Ms. Kali on Friday and had fun singing and playing instruments. We always look forward to her visits. We had a lot of interesting things to share this week. Austin brought in a goose feather and a millipede, Arden brought a cardinal’s nest, Nora brought a book about Rocks and Minerals, and Hope brought wildflower seeds to show us. The children are definitely connected to nature and have an awareness of and appreciation for the world around them. They love to explore, discover, and wonder and hopefully with nurturing and encouragement this love will last a lifetime. This week we celebrated Leyton’s 5th birthday. Happy Birthday Leyton. Our school wide water project is well underway. For the past few weeks we’ve been exploring and investigating the properties of water. We’ve observed water absorbency, water adhesiveness, the shape and movement of water and read about animal and plant life in tidal pools and the marsh. We did an experiment using a medicine dropper to see how many drops of water a penny will hold before water spills. Several people were able to get up to 30 drops on a penny. we also made air blown paintings by putting colored drops of water on paper and blowing air through a straw to make the water move across the paper. On Tuesday the entire school took a field trip to The Sands. mr Bender joined us there and helped us find mud crabs. We also built sand castles, looked for shells, walked down the pier and climbed the tower, searched for sharks’ teeth, observed blue crabs that were caught off the pier, waded in the tidal pools, and enjoyed a picnic lunch. Thanks to Mrs. Luikey and Mr. Williams for volunteering to help with the activities and the children. The next day we had fun painting a mural of The Sands, and wrote books about the things we saw or did there. We spent some time in the garden this week. We weeded around the tomato and strawberry plants and planted sunflower seeds next to the fence. Hayden found a ladybug and released it into the garden to help keep the aphids away. We had Yoga with Ms. Brittney on Wednesday and practiced our poses and stretches. She introduced laughing yoga to us and we all stretched out on our backs and laughed for several minutes. Laughing made us feel good. Ms.Brittney says you should try to laugh everyday. In observance of Earth Day we picked up trash along the road as we walked to The Sands and back. We also cleaned up the beach and put all of our trash and litter into the garbage cans as well as trash others had left behind. We are learning how to be better neighbors and friends to the earth in our daily choices. We have become very conscience about recycling in the classroom and have become very good recyclers. Each week we take what we have collected to to the curb to be picked up. Everyone knows to put glass, plastic, paper, cardboard, and tin into the recycling bin. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle are words that we all know. Did you know that plastics and aluminum cans take 500 years to break down in the garbage and paper 6 months. There are many Earth Day events taking place this weekend around town if you would like tips and ideas about green living. Also don't forget about the March of Dimes walk . LBS is walking to support the Byrne family and all the babies who benefit from the services and research the March of Dimes helps to fund. Our week began with the arrival of several tent caterpillar moths that had emerged from their cocoons over the weekend. Their arrival was quiet, but it caused excitement in the classroom. The next day we discovered that the black swallowtail butterfly had emerged too. It was beautiful as we watched it sit and dry its wings in the sunlight. We released them both into the garden and watched them fly away. We continue to find interesting things at school and at home. However, I’m afraid we are getting a little too close to nature. Austin reported that he picked up a black racer snake at home and was bitten on his wrist and Bowen said that he picked up a turtle over the Easter break and was bitten on his finger. We are learning quickly to be more careful around animals that live in the wild. The entire school is working on a bottle cap mural. Each class will work together to create something with the caps on a board that has been attached to the fence at the front of the school. It is a work of art in progress. Stop by and take a look. Our class has decided to create a beach scene with the ocean, the sand and the sky. We have selected the word “inspire” in hopes that it will inspire others. We visited our “Grand Friends” on Thursday at the Helena House. We sang a song about the earth and made coffee filter butterflies with the residents for them to hang in their windows. The children always bring smiles and hugs with them and the residents always look forward to our visits. Next week we will be going to the Sands in Port Royal for a morning of exploration in our estuary environment. There will be opportunities for the children to crab, build sand castles, wade in the tidal pools, look for sharks’ teeth and collect shells. We will also eat lunch there. Please send your child in a bathing suit with a T-shirt cover-up and a beach towel. Please also send a pair of shoes that can get wet and a change of clothes for when we return to school. If you can join us we could use volunteers to assist with the activities and the children. We ended our week having Music with Ms. Kali. The children are very fortunate to have Ms. Kali as part of their preschool experience. She is a certified Music Therapist who does wonders with children in helping them to develop social skills, learn to take turns and to follow directions, to develop language through songs as well as to have fun singing and using instruments. She says that there’s a lot of research that shows when kids are involved in music they do better academically. We have something new in the estuary fish tank in the Studio. Stop by to see the striped hermit crabs that were added to the tank last week by Mr. Bender from the Lowcountry Estuarium. The children are fascinated with them and enjoy watching them as they move back and forth throughout the tank. |
Details
The 2012 ResearchersArchives
June 2012
Link to Photo Galleries for the Whole Year (since August 2011)
Categories
All
|