BRRRRRRRRRR ......
What a crazy, cold week it has been! It has been/is very chilly in our classroom and school. As well as ensuring that your child is dressed for being outside, please send him/her in a hoodie or sweater for the time inside the school. Thank you!!!!
Our class has been quite small this week as we have been missing between 5 and 10 students each day! I don't blame you ... if I wasn't a teacher, I would be at home with my children as well! Although the school is open, it is your decision whether you feel comfortable sending your child in such extreme cold. Please let the office know (or send me a quick email) letting us know if your child will be absent. A reminder that, on blue days, students come into the school as soon as they arrive. Upon dismissal, please feel free to come to our back door and come in while we are getting ready. A few extra hands at dismissal on days like these would be welcome!
If your child has come home using the words "barista", "venti", "americano misto" and or "latte", I take full responsibility! We have created a Starbucks (complete with drive-thru) in our dramatic play area and we LOVE it! We watched a short video about working at Starbucks and were excited to learn things like how many times they have to shake their iced drinks. We are learning the roles of the cashier, manager and barista and take our jobs very seriously! We have had fun delivering coffees to our friends in the classroom as well as teachers in the school. It really is interesting to watch them role play their jobs and how they use the lingo they have learned. I can definitely tell who goes to Starbucks with their parents! A BIG thank you to Deer Valley Starbucks for donating the "stuff" for our center and for always being supportive of what we do in our school.
We have been learning about what happens to trees in the winter and watched a video about Evergreen trees. Did you know that they are also called Conifers because of their cones? And their needles are actually their leaves that absorb energy from the sun to help the trees grow? We painted the background to 2 pages in our visual journals so that we can follow up the fall tree that we decorated in the fall with both a conifer and deciduous tree in the winter. We also had some wonderings about where maple syrup came from and enjoyed learning how they get the sap from the maple trees to make such a sticky sweet syrup. We are learning so many things that even I didn't know! Next week we are excited to learn about what animals do in the winter.
We have enjoyed our gymnastics unit and it is amazing to see how the children have become more comfortable and confident on the equipment. Our gymnastics unit will continue until the end of January. Again, our gym is very cold so please send your child with a hoodie that he/she can put on/take off as needed.
We did our second math problem today which had us drawing a birthday cake and adding the number of candles to show our age. Right now, our math problems focus mostly on one-to-one correspondence. We are getting into the routine of reading a question, showing our answer and then providing a written answer as well. This will definitely help the students as they go into grade one and are having to answer more complex problems.
We have been really working on hitting the target in both our drawing and writing activities. The students have shown so much growth in this area and we are really excited about what we are learning. We are ready to add more to our target as we develop our writing and drawing skills. This week we talked about all of the things we like doing in the winter (when it's not so cold outside) and brainstormed detailed ways that we could draw our ideas. We talked lots about adding things to the background of our picture as well as details to our people. I reminded the students that I should be able to tell what their favorite thing to do in the winter is by looking at their pictures. The next day, we added our writing. I find that it is beneficial to break our writing/drawing activities into 2 lessons so that we can add targeted instruction on both. Otherwise it is too much information and too long of a process and I wasn't seeing the effort that I wanted. I'm excited to see the students show so much progress in their writing, even since December. This time of the year is definitely a huge time for learning to take place!
Just a reminder that tomorrow is Blue Day for the afternoon with Friday being Blue Day for the morning. Not to confuse this with the Blue days we have been having but to have a fun spirit day to acknowledge our week of bitter cold, students are encouraged to wear as much blue as possible. Just a reminder that Friday is the morning class' turn to attend. We usually wear our pj's on Friday so see if you can dig up some blue ones!!!
We have Scientists in School coming next Wednesday for an in-school workshop on winter. Please see the letter attached to the messenger that just went out regarding fees and objectives for this program.
Here are some pictures to show our learning this week ...
Our class has been quite small this week as we have been missing between 5 and 10 students each day! I don't blame you ... if I wasn't a teacher, I would be at home with my children as well! Although the school is open, it is your decision whether you feel comfortable sending your child in such extreme cold. Please let the office know (or send me a quick email) letting us know if your child will be absent. A reminder that, on blue days, students come into the school as soon as they arrive. Upon dismissal, please feel free to come to our back door and come in while we are getting ready. A few extra hands at dismissal on days like these would be welcome!
If your child has come home using the words "barista", "venti", "americano misto" and or "latte", I take full responsibility! We have created a Starbucks (complete with drive-thru) in our dramatic play area and we LOVE it! We watched a short video about working at Starbucks and were excited to learn things like how many times they have to shake their iced drinks. We are learning the roles of the cashier, manager and barista and take our jobs very seriously! We have had fun delivering coffees to our friends in the classroom as well as teachers in the school. It really is interesting to watch them role play their jobs and how they use the lingo they have learned. I can definitely tell who goes to Starbucks with their parents! A BIG thank you to Deer Valley Starbucks for donating the "stuff" for our center and for always being supportive of what we do in our school.
We have been learning about what happens to trees in the winter and watched a video about Evergreen trees. Did you know that they are also called Conifers because of their cones? And their needles are actually their leaves that absorb energy from the sun to help the trees grow? We painted the background to 2 pages in our visual journals so that we can follow up the fall tree that we decorated in the fall with both a conifer and deciduous tree in the winter. We also had some wonderings about where maple syrup came from and enjoyed learning how they get the sap from the maple trees to make such a sticky sweet syrup. We are learning so many things that even I didn't know! Next week we are excited to learn about what animals do in the winter.
We have enjoyed our gymnastics unit and it is amazing to see how the children have become more comfortable and confident on the equipment. Our gymnastics unit will continue until the end of January. Again, our gym is very cold so please send your child with a hoodie that he/she can put on/take off as needed.
We did our second math problem today which had us drawing a birthday cake and adding the number of candles to show our age. Right now, our math problems focus mostly on one-to-one correspondence. We are getting into the routine of reading a question, showing our answer and then providing a written answer as well. This will definitely help the students as they go into grade one and are having to answer more complex problems.
We have been really working on hitting the target in both our drawing and writing activities. The students have shown so much growth in this area and we are really excited about what we are learning. We are ready to add more to our target as we develop our writing and drawing skills. This week we talked about all of the things we like doing in the winter (when it's not so cold outside) and brainstormed detailed ways that we could draw our ideas. We talked lots about adding things to the background of our picture as well as details to our people. I reminded the students that I should be able to tell what their favorite thing to do in the winter is by looking at their pictures. The next day, we added our writing. I find that it is beneficial to break our writing/drawing activities into 2 lessons so that we can add targeted instruction on both. Otherwise it is too much information and too long of a process and I wasn't seeing the effort that I wanted. I'm excited to see the students show so much progress in their writing, even since December. This time of the year is definitely a huge time for learning to take place!
Just a reminder that tomorrow is Blue Day for the afternoon with Friday being Blue Day for the morning. Not to confuse this with the Blue days we have been having but to have a fun spirit day to acknowledge our week of bitter cold, students are encouraged to wear as much blue as possible. Just a reminder that Friday is the morning class' turn to attend. We usually wear our pj's on Friday so see if you can dig up some blue ones!!!
We have Scientists in School coming next Wednesday for an in-school workshop on winter. Please see the letter attached to the messenger that just went out regarding fees and objectives for this program.
Here are some pictures to show our learning this week ...
Have a fabulous night! Stay warm!
Ms. O.
