Week of November 6th For the month of November we will be working with shapes and practicing our cutting and gluing skills! Our first project, creating a circle collage, utilized both of these skills as well as stamping circles with paints! The students practiced cutting circles and gluing them, then stamping circles at the end to create a collage.
Week of November 13th We read the book Little Owl’s Night by Divya Srinivasan and worked with shapes to create owls of our own! The students tore squares of brown paper to create the owls body and wings. They cut circles for the eyes and glued rectangles for the legs. Each owl turned out so different!
Week of November 27th Our last project of the month began with the story The Mitten by Jan Brett, a winter classic! The students began our mitten project by using q-tips to stamp circles of snow onto our sky background. Then they experimented with chalk pastels to create a colorful, blended mitten. After cutting out their mittens they decorated them with construction shapes, stickers and pom poms. We glued our mittens to our snowy blue sky background, just like Nicky’s mitten flying through the sky in the story!
November was a fun filled month for music. Miss Lisa started teaching us some new songs from her CD. The theme this year is Love, Family and Friends. While singing the songs we also focused on using instruments, learning the beat of songs and fun dances!
This month we received our new Music CD from Miss Lisa. And what’s more is that we even received some tickets for the Pepsi Center with the CD, which was insane! This year Miss Lisa is focusing on family and friends in her songs. On this CD are many of the songs we sing in music class. Some of these songs are classics from when you were young and some are familiar tunes with a fun twist on the lyrics to incorporate her theme. Later on this year, Miss Lisa will have a surprise to go along with track 2, Sophie the Yorkie Story.
We started off with track 3 from the CD Boom Boom Ain’t It Great To Be Family. After learning the words, Miss Lisa introduced rhythm and melody to us. Half the class followed the rhythm with rhythm sticks and the other half listened for the melody and danced with scarves when the heard it. Listen to this great song and see if you can identify the parts with your child!
We also learned a short dance to go along with the song as well. Dancing with a partner was so much fun. It was tricky at first to learn the moves, but eventually the moves helped us learn the words of the song better!
Later in the month we started to learn songs that involved movement and an instrument. We had to keep our eyes on Miss Lisa for this one!
We ended our month with learning two different versions of Jingle Bells. One we used bells and the other we played freeze dance with. We also learned Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer with some sweet dance moves. We can’t wait to sing Miss Lisa our songs for our show at the end December.
I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving holiday!! This past week and a half has been super fun and busy! Last week our class was busy preparing for our classroom Thanksgiving Feast. Our class made homemade applesauce, homemade butter, and a yummy chicken casserole. Together we cut and sliced up the veggies we needed, worked hard on measuring out the right ingrediants, and putting everything together. When children are able to help prepare dinner or any meal with their family it gives the child a sense of purpose, understands how much time and love goes into preparing a meal, and gives them a sense of accomplishment. We had a wonderful feast! This week our class focused on winter and what it means. Together we discussed how winter happens, clothes that we would wear during this season, winter storms and blizzards, and how snow is formed, we make sure to let know kids how Todller gear by Mad Coast Clothing is sure to made your kids look their best! I also wanted to say how proud I am of how hard these kiddos have been working on gaining more freedom in the classroom! Way to go!!!!
Here our friends are slicing and chopping up the celery for our chicken casserole. When doing this the children are learning a one step direction, gaining fine motor skills, and feeling the sense of accomplishment.our final preparation for the feast was making our friendship tablecloth! The children were able to draw their friends, family, or what they were thankful for!Sand Trays are a creative way to help kids learn to write letters, numbers, shapes, and pre-writing strokes. There are a ton of different ways that writing trays can be set up and used in letter formation. Essentially, a sand tray uses a low container (or TRAY) and a medium that can be moved and shifted for writing. Our friend is working on one of our form drawing booklets that is an introduction to our cursive letters.One of our kindergarten students is working on their handwriting booklet. This booklet teaches our children the swing letters, as well as the different strokes. This booklet shows the child how to place the cursive letters properly on the lined paper.The direct aim of flower arranging is to teach the child to cut and arrange flowers. With this lesson the child is working on concentration, order, independence, and teaching them that there is beauty in our world.I can’t express how much love I have for each and every one of my kiddos in my class! To see them grow in a different way every day, see the love and kindness in their heart, and watch as they grow into their own individual makes my heart melt. So very thankful:)
Take A Peek Into Next Week:
Next week our classroom theme is Christmas around the world. We will be studying how other countries celebrate this holiday, the different traditions of families, and how certain things came to be ( decorating a tree, singing carols, santa, and more)!
The past week the children have been working hard to practice for the Christmas show multiple times a day. Our classroom elf has made his grand appearance and has been very mischievous.
Work Time
Nine Layout: This child is becoming familiar with the names and relative sizes of the categories: units, tens, hundreds and thousands. She is also discovering that if she has i.e. 6 units and adds 1 more unit she will have 7 units.Metal Insets: This child is tracing the metal insets developing her eye hand coordination and fine motor movements. She is also learning how to control a pencil (pincer grip, pressure and steadiness).Table Scrubbing: This child is using many motor skills while also remembering the order and sequence of each action to successfully table scrub, which naturally leads to the development of concentration.Tracing / Labeling Turtle Puzzle: This child is tracing, coloring and labeling the turtle puzzle by doing this he is learning how to grip and hold a pencil correctly. It also helps refine his hand control to steady the pencil and he is learning the characteristics of a reptile.100 Board: These children are memorizing where the tiles should go and be placed on the 100 chart, while also learning to identify names of the numbers 1 through 100 and how to write each number.Tangram: This child is creating specific designs using different shape pieces.
Reminders
Christmas Show Rehearsal | December 13th 6 PM to 8 PM
Christmas Show | December 15th 6 PM to 8 PM | NO AFTERCARE
Pajama and Show-N-Tell Day | December 20th
Christmas Break | December 21st to January 2nd
A Look into Next Week: Christmas Program
The children will be practicing for the Christmas show multiple times a day.
Week of October 1st:
To begin October and our unit on creating “Colorful Masterpieces”, we read I Don’t Draw I Color by Adam Lehrhaupt and Dr. Seuss’s My Many Colored Days. Both books talk about how important color is in art and how color can convey emotion in our artwork. We learned how color can help
us understand our emotions and shared with each other our favorite colors.
We also talked about how sometimes we feel sad or happy or tired and how we can feel more than one emotion at a time! As a class we shared how we were feeling that morning and then used those colors to create our very own colorful masterpiece!
Week of October 9th: We continued our unit on creating “Colorful Masterpieces” with a lesson on lines. Lines are everywhere! All around us! There are so many different types of lines, which we discussed while matching examples to the lesson board.With the intention of practicing some basic cutting and gluing skills our project began with cutting out different types of lines. We worked on holding our scissors properly and following the black lines on the construction paper. Using glue sticks, the students created a line collage!
After demonstrating a few collage techniques (creating a paper spiral, folding the paper accordion like, rolling the paper) it was exciting to see each student incorporate those types of lines into their collages. Each student ended up with a 3D line collage that they cut, folded and glued together themselves!
Week of October 16th: Our third lesson in our unit on “Colorful Masterpieces” began with a discussion about the color wheel and more specifically warm and cool colors. We talked about what a warm and cool color is and looked at examples of famous paintings that were good examples of each, including paintings from Picasso’s Blue Period and Van Gogh’s warm sunflower paintings.
Using lines, we drew and then painted lines onto watercolor paper using only cool colors. It was neat to see how the cool colors mixed together!
Next we traced our hands onto a separate paper and painted them in warm colors. After cutting our hands out the students glued them onto their lined cool color painting. Our end result was truly a masterpiece of warm and cool colors, the little hands making the project all the more special!
Week of October 23rd: In the spirit of it being the week of our Halloween parties we worked on cutting and gluing shapes as well as painting pumpkins to create our own nighttime pumpkin patch!
Week of October 30th: This week we talked about the changing leaves and colors around us when we go outside to play. We used these colors to create a fall tree collage! Practicing our gluing, cutting and drawing skills the students worked hard at creating their final project. We began with gluing the grass and sky using square tissue papers. Then we drew circles on red, orange and yellow papers to cut and glue down for our fall trees. We finished our projects using brown tree trunks and drawing lines on our trees for branches. Such a fun project that involved many of our basic art skills!
Line Time Lessons: ‘Tis the season for the Christmas Show practices. We started to practice and will be practicing for the next few weeks. My class is trying something a little different this year. We are going in the “Way Back Machine” to Merry Old England and performing two traditional carols. They are a bit different in melody but I know our extraordinary students will be able to pull it off.
Peek Into My Classroom:
We had a pair of alumni come in to visit, read, and tell our students about their experience at their new school. You’re not seeing double they are twins.
This student is working on one of her her assignments in her kindergarten binder. She is working on her 100 page. This where she writes from 1 to 100. Then 101 to 200 and so on. This develops her concentration, betters her handwriting, and helps her recognize patterns.
This student is working with money. She already knows the value of each coin and now she is counting change. She is also familiar with “paper money”.
We have discussed the visual discrimination of the Pink Tower and Brown Stairs but this child has found the relationship between the two materials. Students will match the corresponding pieces of these material. This student did match the the corresponding pieces but he took it to another level and made this creation.
This happy boy is proud of his accomplishment with the Ten Board. The purpose of this material is to associate quantities with symbols(1 ten is 10, 2 tens is 20…). He has learned how to include “units” with the “tens” to compose numbers from 11 to 99. As you can see he has four 10’s and five units to make 45. It looks like he discovered a pattern by composing 23, 34, 45…
Peek Into Next Week: Christmas show practice and we will learn about different Christmas Traditions from around the world.
Upcoming Events: Christmas Show Attire: Red and/or white
December 13: Christmas Show Practice 6 pm to 8 pm at Cuyahoga Falls High School
December 15: Christmas Show 6:30 pm to 8 pm at Cuyahoga Falls High School (NO AFTERCARE)
The kindergarten students have been working hard on learning both static and dynamic addition using the golden beads. They have even started working on more abstract materials like the stamp game, bead frame and dot board to solve problems.
Dot Board: These children are learning to understand addition using the decimal system and are getting better at working with larger numbers. This work emphasizes the fact that in each category there are never combinations that come to more than 9, so it is just as easy to add tens of thousands together as it is units.Bead Frame: This child is using the bead frame to do dynamic addition. It is a more abstract way to work with the decimal system. When the child has ten units, tens, hundreds or thousands he has to focus on the process of exchanging. This child is also further familiarizing himself with the different categories: units, tens, hundreds and thousands. Bead Frame: This child is using the bead frame to do dynamic addition. It is a more abstract way to work with the decimal system. When the child has ten units, tens, hundreds or thousands he has to focus on the process of exchanging. This child is also further familiarizing himself with the different categories: units, tens, hundreds and thousands.
A Look Into Next Week: Continue Dynamic Addition (exchanging)
Introduction of exchanging 1s, 10s, 100s and 1000s
Using single units, 10 bars, 100 squares and 1000 cubes
The past couple of weeks we talked about the Pilgrims and Indians. The class found out the Pilgrims came from England to our country for religious freedom. We read many books about what the Pilgrims experienced during their journey on the Mayflower and once they landed at Plymouth Rock.
We also talked about Thanksgiving and being thankful. The children shared what their families do for Thanksgiving and learn that we all have our own traditions. We talked about why the Pilgrims and Indians ate a meal together. Each child shared what they were thankful for to create a classroom thankful turkey. We got responses from mom and dad, to pets, to sandwiches and chickens.
I want to send a big thank you to all the parents who volunteered to bring supplies in and to lend a helping hand at the Harvest Party!
Guest Reader
Work Time
Color Box 4: This child is grading different colors from darkest to lightest, while also refining his sense of sight.Circuit Board: These children are creating a circuit (a pathway made of wires) that electrons can flow through. The batteries are giving the power source the electrons needed to move. When the electrons get to the light bulb it gives it the power needed to make it work.Number Rods: This child is experiencing the qualities of each number and learning their names and what each quantity physically looks like.Log Numbers: This child is memorizing the sequence of numbers from 1 to 10. While also refining his fine motor skills by stringing the numbers onto the rope.Dot Board: These children are doing dynamic addition (a sum with exchanging) problems using the dot board. They are practicing addition at a higher level of abstraction.
Reminders
Thanksgiving Break | NO SCHOOL | November 22nd – November 24th
A Look into Next Week: Christmas Program
The children will be practicing for the Christmas show multiple times a day.
Human Conductor of Electricity: The students learned that electricity is a flow of electrons through a circuit. We used an energy stick to demonstrate this and in order for it to became active, two ends had to be connected in a circle by students. This allowed the electrons to flow through it. The energy stick was so sensitive that it could detect the tiniest flow of electrons through the moisture on our skin.
Fireproof Balloon: We filled an ordinary balloon up with water and air and another balloon up with just air. Then we held a lit candle underneath each balloon. The balloon with just air popped immediately. The balloon with water and air took longer to pop this is because the water in the balloon was soaking up the heat, allowing the heat to pass through. As the water closet to the flame heats up and rises the cooler water began to replace the water on the bottom of the balloon. Eventually, the heat of the flame became greater than the waters ability to conduct heat away from the balloon and in turn the balloon popped.
This week we have been working hard to get ready for the Harvest Party and Christmas Show! Students are practicing their bucket drumming and a few other surprises for you! Our students discussed the Mayflower this week, then separated into groups to work on gathering information and creating a display to share with you at our Harvest Party. We added an art project to our Harvest Party decorations so students took time to disguise a turkey. Take some time to look at them in the hallway.
This first year student took great pride in his Stamp Game Division work. He had a lot of exchanging to find the quotient of 5868/6. When a student becomes proficient in Stamp Game Division, they move on to long division with multi-digit divisors with the Racks and Tubes.These second year students have been introduced to the first part of the Fundamental Needs of Humans study. They are looking at the changes of the needs of humans over time. This first lesson was about the needs of early humans. Next week, they will move on to the Ancient Egyptians.These boys have partnered together to write about life on the lower deck of the Mayflower. They researched what happened in this part of the ship and are illustrating their findings. Tuesday, we will be presenting their research at our Harvest Party.This second year student is presenting her dinosaur research. She chose to research the Tyrannosaurus Rex and Triceratops. Research not only builds many different writing skills, but gives students experience in public speaking.
A Peek into Next Week
Next week we only have school Monday and Tuesday. We will have Spelling quizzes Monday, but will not be sending home new words until after the break. On Tuesday, we will have our Harvest Party that parents are welcome to join at 1 pm. Students will share their Mayflower and dinosaur research. After our research is shared, parents are welcome to stay and enjoy tea and treats with their student. When you have finished enjoying our research and treats, you may take your student home or return to pick them up at the usual time.
