Friday, September 26, 2014

We've Been Busy!

Grandparent's Day!!!

 We have had a great 1st quarter!  I will start off by bragging about how wonderful our Grandparent's Day Celebration was!  Our Grandparent's are the BEST!  Each grandchild was able to give their grandparents a tour of our class, serve them yummy BOSA donuts, clean up their plates, have a favorite book read to them, and then they sang the best song to them!  We Love Our Grandparents!!!  What a wonderful day!!!

Our next adventure that I will be highlighting is our D & I week!  In our Pre-k room, we have 2 letters that we focus on for 2 weeks!  We do a lot of compare and contrasting sounds, structures and words that are each letters "favorites."  For D & I below, we have the students digging dinosaurs out of "rock" (plaster) just like real paleontologists do!  They thought it was hard work!  I enjoyed listening to them talk about what tools would be better to get the dinosaurs out.  I loved one suggestion to get their dads tools.  Yep, that would do it!  They are so creative and smart!!! 
 

 Above was another great treat!  We had some pet "Insects" because they are one of I's favorite things!  They loved to watch the small crickets jump and eat the apples and drink their yellow jello (which is what they called it.)  The conversations that we had were amazing!  They were able to draw the crickets and observe their body parts and actions!

 Here we are making Ice Cream!!!  I hope I tired them out by making them shake, shake, shake the bags! 


 Yes!  We got to enjoy our hard work!  As you can tell, it was delicious!  What a great way to end our 2 weeks of I & D!  




 Here is a great example of our Dinosaur Sculptures that we did.  This air dry clay will dry and then students will be able to paint them once they come back from Fall Break! 


 Have a wonderful Fall Break!  We will be back ready to play/create/invent/explore/learn/discuss/ponder after the break!  Be Safe!



Fall & Apple Week

Apple Week in the AM 2's Class!

We have had a wonderful first quarter of school.  I truly cannot believe the time has gone so quickly.  We were excited to start into our Fall themes this week with Apples and talking about our Five Senses.  We will continue with Five Senses after Fall break with Fall smells, textured leaves, sensory play-doh, etc.

The kids are getting great at sitting for circle time, We have gone through ALL of our ZooPhonics now, though we will continue focusing on two each week throughout the year.  Remember that YouTube is a great resource for helping them do ZooPhonics at home and for parents to learn them.
We got some "dobbers" this week in our classroom, the kids love the new way to decorate their projects.
This one was just too cute not to put up here!

The kids helped us turn a crank to peel and slice apples, then we put them in a crock pot and smelled the yummy smell all during class.  We sent some home to taste at the end of the week.

apples (approximately 10 medium)
crock-pot
water (1 cup)
sugar (1/2 cup)
cinnamon (1 teaspoon)
measuring cups and utensils
plastic knife
knife (for adult use)
potato masher

You can make this at home for your kids if you like.  It makes the house really smell like Fall, even though it does not feel like it outside yet.  The kids can even help you cut some with a plastic knife, and once it has cooked for about 3 hours on High in the Crockpot and cooled for an hour or so they can help to mash it with the potato masher.
We also made some very fun Apple crafts.  Here is one involving lots of glue and a little bit of jello powder to make a "smelly apple."  According to the kids, "it smells like candy!" 

Have a Happy and Safe Fall Break!


Ms. Gretchen's 3's are working hard!

For the first several weeks, we have been getting to know each other in our Ocean Classroom and we have been busy working hard and making friends!


One of our favorite units is All About Me. We loved learning about our bodies! We started with our bones and talked about how important they are and how to keep them healthy and strong.

We also learned our brain is the boss of our body. We learned how our lungs worked by blowing up balloons. We ended the week with a visit from Kidtastic Dentistry. They taught us all about having a healthy mouth and teeth.....and by the way, teeth are BONES TOO!


We loved learning about our

incredible bodies! 

 

 

This is our last week of school before Fall break and it's the first official week of fall. Our unit this week is "Leaves And Fall" even though it is still 100 degrees outside, we are going to bring a little fall into the classroom. We will be learning how leaves change colors during the fall season. We will watch time lapse leaves changing colors and how the weather affects them.


We are working hard on writing our names. We love to use the whiteboards and words strips! I will be hanging them up in the hallway after break. We had a great first quarter. Can't wait to dive into our next unit!  Have a wonderful and safe Fall break and we will look forward to seeing you when you return!

 Ms. Gretchen & Ms. Amanda

 


Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Welcome to the Jungle!


Welcome to the Jungle room in the afternoon! Our year is off to a great start! We are building friendships, learning a lot and having so much fun!

We love our independent play time! We like to dress up, play with cars, build, play with play-doh and much more.




Enjoying snack-family style!



 It’s reading time!




During our center time we complete lots of activities that are focused around art, math, language arts and science. 





We are looking forward to the rest of a fabulous school year in the PM Jungle Pre-K room!

Ms. Tracy, Ms. Tasha & Ms. Riki




Sunday, September 21, 2014

Mrs. Nettie's 3 yr. old T/TH Classes


You're off to great places,
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting,
So.... get on your way!




I, Ms. Nettie,  have the wonderful privledge of introducing you to the amazing children of the 3 year old Tuesday/Thursday class in the Forest Room. 

We have been enjoying the new experiences of socializing with new faces, exploring new ways of learning and most of all, having so much fun during our time together. These precious, little faces brighten my day as much as I brighten their's. We have enjoyed getting to know each other through our "All ABout Me" unit. Which took us right into learning how to keep our body healthy and happy through exercise, eating yummy fruits and veggies and focusing on healthy habits for happy teeth. Next, it was off to safety around water, our homes and while playing. We learned how our Moms and Dads have rules to follow on the road while driving, just as we need to follow rules in the classroom to keep everyone around us safe. 

I look forward to the year ahead with my wondeful class as we enter the holiday season together :o)

Hugs from,

Mrs. Nettie
Mrs. Debbie (AM Teacher's Assistant)
Mrs. Lisa (PM Teacher's Assistant)










































In Honor of September 11th.