We've had another great week on the farm! From moving like certain animals to growing our own seeds, we've been busy! We were lucky enough to have a Masters student with us for a couple days, and Mrs. Shannon had a fun lesson for us categorizing animals. We also worked on an important gross motor skill: galloping!
Our seeds are growing nicely, and it's cool looking at the roots through the clear plastic cup. We planted bird seed, and some of us were surprised that we weren't growing birds! We reviewed shapes and numbers while playing some pumpkin games, and the results will be displayed in your child's portfolio. Because we've been learning about planting and harvesting, we took our love of pumpkins a step further by making pumpkin pies! Measuring, following directions, and using gross motor muscles were all important skills that we used during this delicious activity. Thank you for joining us on our Halloween parade! We had a great time and enjoyed everyone's costumes. Next week we'll be learning more about our community and the people that keep it running. Feliz Halloween! In Spanish this week we made a pumpkin face together. We voted on which features we wanted: ojos de triangulo o ovalo (triangle or oval eyes), boca feliz o triste (happy or sad mouth), cejas enojadas o felices (angry or happy eyebrows.) Each class made a different face! We also learned a new song, El Pato Amarillo. : ) We are closed Wednesday November 11th in recognition of Veterans Day. Our photos are here.
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Our exploration of camping and nature took a twist, and we landed on a farm! When asked we knew quite a bit about farmers and their activities, but we also had some questions like what do kids do on a farm? Over the past few days we’ve done some research about different kinds of animals and how we can be like farmers. We had a lengthy discussion about where food comes from when I brought in some lemons because the kids were a little stumped about where Bi-Lo had gotten them. We worked our way around to discovering that lemons grow from seeds that are planted by farmers! So of course we had to plant our own lemon seeds.
In addition to planting lemons we used lemons to make yummy-scented playdoh! By grating the peel and squeezing the juice out, the yellow playdoh became a great sensory activity. We then thought to add corn kernels and pumpkin seeds to the playdoh to make patterns and different textures; some of our creations were so beautiful. While this was going on we did another type of farm chore involving a dirty cow. Using a toothbrush and soapy water we scrubbed the cow until it was spotless. This exercise was good for our fine motor muscles and also worked on self-help skills. While children this age need adult help to brush their own teeth (and should until their fingers are dextrous enough to tie their own shoes), it’s great for them to maneuver a toothbrush by themselves. Anything like this strengthens the muscles that help us write. We enjoyed the story of the Little Red Hen who planted a seed, tended the wheat, picked it, and baked a cake all by herself. This weekend ask your child if they can recount some of this story to you because the ability to retell a familiar tale is a skill that kindergarten teachers assess. That poor hen did so much work without any help! Once we realized that farmers do so much to keep their farms running well, we decided to assign jobs in our classroom. Check out our job chart that starts Monday! Each child will have one task for the whole week. We plan to continue our farm investigation with some more planting, math activities, and of course some Halloween fun thrown in. Our Halloween parade down Paris Avenue will be Friday October 30 at around 9:15am. We’d love for you to make it if you can! Sending your child in costume would be easiest then we’ll change them when we get back. Our photos are here. Thanks! Have a great weekend! We narrowed our interest in camping down to a couple very important aspects. One of these was marshmallows! We incorporated these sweet treats into our math, art, and literacy lessons. Using them as brushes, we painted letters and shapes. We used words such as "sweet, squishy, and smelly" to describe them. One day when given small marshmallows and toothpicks, we built 3D structures and letters and identified them. Even though it could be tricking using these somewhat delicate items, we strengthened our fine motor muscles.
Our favorite marshmallow activity was making flameless s'mores! We followed a sequence of instructions that told us to roll giant marshmallows in chocolate syrup and then in crushed graham crackers. If we hadn't followed the directions, our s'mores wouldn't have been so delicious. We read several books about camping which prompted discussions about how to pack, what to do while there, and who we would bring with us. Mrs. Brittney took us "camping" during Yoga and put a twist on several poses we already knew. Instead of downward dog, we posed as tents! We also pretended to be forest animals that we might encounter whole camping. Mrs. Myers is on maternity leave early, so we did our own Sign lesson and learned E words. We liked eagle, eye, elephant, and egg, so now we've added more signs to our growing vocabulary! I will continue to plan Sign lessons for our Wednesday classes because the kids really enjoy it. We had an awesome presentation today about owls! We got to look at three different kinds and learn about what they eat. One owl was even kind enough to cough up a pellet for us to dissect. It was very cool and a little gross. Next week we have picture day on Friday morning! Have a great weekend! Our photos are here. My introduction of pumpkin seeds to the classroom was not as successful as I had hoped, but we did have some interest. Using the light table at the science center, the children lined up seeds on a big P, counted them, and smelled them. We also had leaves for them to thread with an embroidery needle to make a beautiful fall garland. It took concentration and practice for that activity! The kids then decided to show us what they're interested in. One afternoon this week the children gathered around a "campfire" and spent a while chatting and reading together. Most of the students were involved in this play, so I've pulled together some activities and props to offer them. Let's see where this goes! Stay tuned for marshmallow math and tent talks!
During Handwriting Mrs. Cook let each child make their rainbow name by identifying their letters. Then using fine motor skills they arranged the letters in order and glued them to a strip. Then they practiced the correct grip and formation of their name's letters. Please take your child's name home to display! We were super signers this week with Ms. Myers as we learned the letter D and other signs such as dinosaur, dog, dad, dirty, and more. We've been combining multiple signs to say things like "big brown mama bear" and "big orange pumpkin." Ask your child to sign "dirty brown dog!" In Spanish we learned shapes such as triangle, circle, squares and talked about how many sides (lados) they have. We played a game finding the shapes in a book and also around our classroom! I love when I hear them slip a Spanish word into regular conversation. from Senora Zoe: In Spanish this week we looked at las formas, or shapes. We learned the words el triángulo, el círculo, el cuadrado, and el rectángulo. The 4's class also learned medialuna (crescent), estrella (star), diamante (diamond), and corazón (heart), and played the game Four Corners to practice our new words. I am so proud of how all the children in each class are actively participating in our songs and joyfully learning new Spanish words! We had a nice visit with our grandfriends at the Helena House Friday, and we made a ghost lollipop craft with them. It was fun talking about Halloween with them, and we can't wait to show them our costumes. On Friday Mr. Bender brought some snapping shrimp for us to observe. They make a really loud popping noise when they snap their claw. You can sometimes hear them at low tide down in the marsh. We have a pair of them in our estuary tank in the hall; see if you can spot them! We are closed Monday, so have a great long weekend! Our photos are here. We are so excited to actually feel this change in temperature now that it's fall!
This week we did a visual representation of seasonal changes by playing with Fruit Loops! We accomplished some math standards as we sorted the pieces of cereal by color, used reasoning skills as we assigned each color to a specific season (ex. yellow and orange for fall), and showed off our artistic abilities with drawing and gluing. Then, of course, we got to sample some of the unglued pieces as an exploration of our sense of taste--or maybe just because we were hungry! :) These beautiful and tasty works of art will be on display soon. I've been sneaking some fall items into the classroom and waiting for the kids to discover them. Known in the Reggio world as a provocation, these items will hopefully spark interest and inspire some questions. A bucket of pumpkin seeds is the latest addition, and the kids were very curious about them. They quickly identified them as seeds but could not specify which type. We will do some more exploration next week. We were glad to see most of our Specials teachers this week, and we love when their lessons are related to what we are currently studying. During Spanish, Senora Zoe is teaching about colors, and we've been practicing how to sing and spell our colors. Ms. Myers also identified colors in Sign Language, and she even taught us the sign for cereal (perfect for our Fruit Loops activity). To sign cereal, wiggle your pointer finger from right to left in front of your face at mouth-level (doing it from left to right is the sign for shrimp!). We didn't have Music this week, so we took it upon ourselves to provide it for all the other classes! We serenaded each classroom, and the other children were so impressed and interested in what we were doing. We then sat down and sang more songs that the younger students requested. It was fun interacting with them and showing them what big kids we are . We walk to the Helena House next Friday October 9 at 10:15 if you would like to join us. Have a great weekend! In Spanish this week we practiced counting! The 1's and 2's counted to 10, the 3's counted to 15, and the 4 year old class counted to 20. We always introduce counting with the question ¿Cuántos hay? Vamos a contar.... (How many are there? Let's count....) We sang lots of songs and also read the book Diez Puntos Negros (Ten Black Dots) by Donald Crews-a great one! Our photos are here. |
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Class of 2016
Researchers TeachersMolly Fastenau Archives
June 2016
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