Our week started with a very special delivery. Our caterpillars arrived in the mail on Monday! Mrs. Pompa and the kids opened the package after Mrs. Mickel left for the day. The kids were excited to tell Mrs. Mickel what was in the package.
The very next day we turned into butterfly scientists. We started our butterfly journal in our morning meeting on Tuesday. Everyday we observe the caterpillars and write down our findings. We discuss the stage of the life cycle we see. We count and measure the caterpillars and discuss what we see. So far we have seen them wiggling, crawling on the side of the cup and growing. Today all of them had moved to the top of the cup and some were already hanging upside down. (I think our caterpillars were older ones, since we haven't seen the molting. Some of our friends were really interested in that part!) we are all excited to see the changes that take place over the weekend. We may come back to see the next stage. In Sign language, Ms. Julie was happy that we had been practicing our butterfly song and signs. She read us another great butterfly book and had some great life cycle toys to play with. We learned the signs for egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, butterfly, spin, sleep and a few others. In Music with Mrs. Osborn we got to practice being penguins who come to tea. We think that is a really fun song. We practiced beating a steady beat on the drum and then got to make more music with the shakers. Señora Zoe helped us practice our Spanish words for happy, sad, tired and angry by playing a game of charades with us. Then to work on our colors we sang a song about the colors we were wearing. We also played a guessing game to see if we could recall the color that was missing. We also wanted to let you know how happy we are with the feedback from the bear system. It seems like most families are thrilled with the additional information that it provides. We have seen first hand how excited the kids are to show off their hard work at earning a green bear with Mom, Dad, and grandparents. We have noticed a difference in the classroom already, and it is just the first week. Mrs. Neese has been helping us with a big project. She has taken small groups with her to studio each week, and we are almost finished. The process has been fun and engaging, but the product will be awesome as well. Stay tuned! Next week we will continue to observe our caterpillars/ chrysalises. You can find our photos here.
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Wow! Meet the teacher coffee, a visit from Drew's mom, Spanish and a day full of pirate fun- and that was just our Friday!
We have had a lot if fun at school this week. We started if the week with Yoga. We follow along with Ms. Brittany and do the same moves. We love the washing machine and her close and far games. We have continued to talk about the butterfly life cycle. The kids have practiced their signs for each stage as well as a few extra. We talked about some big words, too (metamorphosis, chrysalis, and proboscis) We will continue to use these words with our new class pets. That is right; our live caterpillars are in the mail now! We can't wait to watch them as they eat, grow, wiggle, molt, and change. Look for caterpillar updates soon. Our class has fallen in love with building letters. We have a class set of big lines, small lines, big curves, and small curves. With those pieces we can build every letter of the alphabet. These toys teach the capital letters. We love our first initials the best. We love music with Mrs. Osborn. We practice using our looking eyes as we sing "Who's a Good Watcher." This week we learned a penguin song and got to dance like a penguin. Above all, we love to use the instruments she brings! We shared the drum and let all our friends have a turn, but we each got our own shaker to play. We are learning to use our gentle hands with the instruments. In Spanish today we continued to practice our color words. As a reward for all our hard work each child got to choose a colored stamp for their hand. See if your child can tell you the Spanish word for the color they have on their hand. Today after Spanish, Drew's mom came to talk to us about physical therapy. We have our doctor pretend play out now, so it was great to have the kids learn about other people in the medical field besides doctors and nurses. The kids got to see a skeleton and learned that it wasn't anything to be scared of. Mrs. Sadler taught us about muscles after all our friends got to show off their enormous arm muscles. They got to listen to their heart beats through a stethoscope and practice their balance on a wobble disc. The first aid kits are from Drew and her mom. You can keep them with you to help take care of your next boo boo! After such a busy morning we needed some time outside to move those muscles that we just learned about. We played for a while before we realized that pirates had taken our treasure and hidden it. Thank goodness they left a treasure map behind. We unrolled the map and realized that all the pictures were of things on our playground so the treasure had to be there. We followed the map to find the treasure chest full of silver! The silver happened to have yummy chocolate inside. Thanks to Grayson Burke and his mom for the pirate gear! Our class was overtaken by pirates. Mrs. Mickel and Mrs. Pompa even grew mustaches! Your kids definitely learned a few pirate words for Talk like a pirate day today! Thank you to all the parents who were able to come to the coffee this morning. I was happy to get to meet with each of you and talk about how your child is doing. If you have any further questions or concerns, please let me know. Until then, we will see you next week. Our photos from the week are here. This week we were able to finish our pigeon hand print craft that we started last week. It was a teacher-directed project that enabled them to practice following directions and using their "listening ears." We also practiced colors and shapes in the process.
The kids enjoyed showing me all the sites on my first trip through the trail on our way to Helena House. While we were there,we sang songs and gave our grand friends the cards that we made for them. We were grateful for that extra hands that helped us on our field trip. It was a great experience for all. We also started our new learning experience about butterflies. We started with a couple of books about butterflies, and a song that will help us remember the life cycle. Don't forget to ask your child about the signs that go with our butterfly song. They have practiced egg, caterpillar, spin, chrysalis, and butterfly! We will have new class pets join us soon! Then we can watch the life cycle process unfold in our classroom. We will be using our "looking eyes" as we carefully observe the process. These next few weeks should be an exciting time in our class. You can find our photos are here. Have a great weekend! Wow what a busy week, and we only had 4 days together! We started the week with our friend Pigeon From author Mo Willems. This time we were told not to let the pigeon drive the bus. After reading the story we each chose whether we would have let him drive. 10 of our friends voted not to let pigeon drive the bus, and the remaining 8 though we should let him drive. This was a great exercise in choice making, counting and talking about more and less. We are working on a character project for Pigeon, so the classroom may be taken over by a flock of pigeons soon! Wednesday we had sign language. It was great to see Ms. Julie again. We learned the signs for some common objects in school (book, pencil, eraser, ruler, and backpack). She read us a book about school, too. Hopefully we will be able to use these signs in our classroom and at home. Thursday was packed with special things. First we met our new music teacher Ms. Carol. We introduced our selves with a chant and played some instruments. We learned some songs and got to play with bubbles on our way out. That was a big hit!
Then Benjamin's dad and grandmother joined us to celebrate his birthday with cupcakes. Since he missed out on his party, Benjamin brought in his party games for us to play outside. We got to pin the tail on Clifford, and throw jellyfish bean bags at Bruce the shark. All of the kids had fun with these special games. Of course his birthday lantern was glowing all day, and a few friends helped decorate it for Benjamin. It was a great celebration of our friend Benjamin. In Spanish on Friday we continued practicing our names with Señora Zoe. We are still working on colors and feelings as well. Señora was happy that we are responding so well to the lessons. ***Please keep in mind that our specials start at 9! Children who arrive after 9 should be signed in at the front desk and taken to Mrs. Tallent or Mrs. Willis (not to the classroom). This will minimize the disruption to the class. We also would like to remind everyone that when children are dropped off and picked up, the person dropping off or picking up needs to be sure that they check in and out with their child's teacher, especially if the children are outside. The children should know (we are working on reminding them) that they are not to run out of the gate or door when they see a parent, They need to wait until the parent comes into the room/playground and lets the teacher know they are taking them.) See you Monday. We are looking forward to another fun week! Our photos can be seen here. |
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Class of 2016
Researchers TeachersMolly Fastenau Archives
June 2016
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