Line Time: We went back in time and learned about Ancient Egypt. We learned that the leaders or kings were called Pharaohs and when a king died they used a method to preserve them called mummification. The pharaohs that were mummified look nothing like you see at Halloween or on cartoons. The ancient Egyptians had a a written language called hieroglyphics which incorporated symbols such as cats,humans, and other daily objects. We also learned that the ancient Egyptians were responsible for building the Great Pyramids and The Sphinx which has the body of a lion and a head of a man.
Did You Know? (Russia is GiNormous): Russia has a whopping 11 time zones within the country, which gives you an idea of just how large it is.
A Message From Mr. John: Your fave Movie(s):
Cultural Subjects: Your children can now count to ten in 24 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagalog, Hebrew, Korean, Hungarian, Irish, Kiswahili, Welsh, Dutch/Flemmish, Polish, Serbo-Croation, Cebuano)
Know Your Languages (Cebuano):
Tracking and Recording(Flower):
Peek In The Classroom:
Peek Into Next Week: Line Time- Ancient Greece
Letter Of The Week-V v
Rhyming Word Of The Week- ben
Next Language is Malay
Academic Enrichment Weekly Theme: Division with borrowing (dynamic)
Next Week: Weekly Theme: Fractions
Synonym Of The Week: GOOD, pleasant, fine, honorable, wonderful, valuable
Sight Words Of The Week: write them
Upcoming Events: A few days off and other stuff.
DAYS OFF: -No School: Monday, February 20th (President’s Day) -No School: SPRING BREAK- March 27 through April 2 — Returning Monday April 3 -Early Release/No Aftercare: Good Friday April 7. ***** Dismissal 12 noon/NO AFTERCARE ***** -No School: Easter Monday, April 10
OTHER STUFF: Akron Art Museum Field Trip: Thursday, March 9 (from 9 am to 12 pm) IT IS FREE! (Forms sent via Remind and in take home folders)
We learned about Dinosaurs this week! Our new vocabulary that we were introduced to is herbivore, carnivore, extinct, paleontologist, and fossils. This was certainly a favorite topic for our kiddos! We spent the whole week asking questions and sharing what we know about dinosaurs with our friends. We read books, watched paleontologists at work, and discussed our favorite dinosaurs. Everyone has a favorite dinosaur, what is yours?
Enrichment Spotlight:
Valentine’s Day!
Peek Into Next Week!
Focus Lesson: Winter
Preschool Lesson: Hibernation, Migration, and Adaptation
Kindergarten Lesson: Division
Important Dates:
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17 – NO SCHOOL, Teacher Inservice Day
Line Time: We first learned about George Washington and how he was our first president and was the General of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln came from a poor family, freed the slaves and was president during the Civil War. We were introduced to Franklin D. Roosevelt and how he was president during World War II and how John F. Kennedy fought for equal rights. We then learned that Joe Biden was current president. The children were taught that the president’s wives are called the first lady and that the president lives in the white house in Washington DC, and flies on a jet called Air Force 1. We discussed what responsibilities the President has. The children came up with keeping us safe, keeping the world safe, and running the country.
Presidents Of The United States Of America (Wasn’t that a 90’s band? Gunna eat a lot of peaches!)…
What’s The Diff? (Supper and Dinner)? Dinner and supper are both used to refer to the main meal of the day, and especially to that meal as eaten in the evening. Supper is used especially when the meal is an informal one eaten at home, while dinner tends to be the term chosen when the meal is more formal.
A Message From Mr. John (Ear bugs):
Half Birthdays:
Cultural Subjects: Your children can now count to ten in 23 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagalog, Hebrew, Korean, Hungarian, Irish, Kiswahili, Welsh, Dutch/Flemmish, Polish, Serbo-Croation)
Know Your Languages (Serbo-Croation): Audio only
Enrichments (Music):
Measuring and Recording Data:
Peek In The Classroom:
Peek Into Next Week: Line Time- Ancient Egypt
Letter Of The Week- U u
Rhyming Word Of The Week- bet
Next Language is Cebuano
Academic Enrichment: Weekly Theme: Division without borrowing (static)
Next Week: Weekly Theme: Division with borrowing (dynamic)
Synonym Of The Week: Appropriate: Suitable, fitting, apropos, correct, proper
Sight Words Of The Week: would about
Upcoming Events: A few days off and other stuff.
DAYS OFF: -No School: Friday, February 17th (Teacher In Service day) -No School: Monday, February 20th (President’s Day)
OTHER STUFF: Akron Art Museum Field Trip: Thursday, March 9 (from 9am to 12pm) IT IS FREE! (Details To Follow)
Line Time: The class went green for the week learning about recycling, conserving energy, and pollution. I explained that pollution was anything that made our environment dirty. We learned there is littering. Littering can be people throwing trash on the side of the road or dropping a candy wrapper in the woods. We now know that we need to put trash in an appropriate container. We learned that air pollution is created by factories’ smokestacks and cars exhaust, but cars are just one of the factors that produce air pollution, there are also other reasons. Water Pollution is caused by factories dumping chemicals in the water or people throwing trash in the water instead of putting it in a trash can. The 3 R’s were introduced and now we all know to reduce, reuse and recycle! We thought of ways to conserve energy. We came up with turning off lights in rooms we are not in or turning off the TV if we are not watching it. We thought of turning off the water while we are brushing our teeth or turning down the heat and wearing a sweater instead. During the kindergarten lesson a student realized the room was just as light with the lights off as it was if the lights were on. Now we do our kindergarten lesson without lights.
Did you know? (I Really Don’t Know Clouds, At All)…One of my guilty pleasures. Originally written by Joni Mitchell at age 23 she stated that her lyrics were way beyond her years. Lyrically this is an awesome song. I digress https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjPoWpkBzmM A cloud can weigh more than a million pounds. Clouds are not as light and fluffy as they appear. In fact, researchers have found that a single clouds weigh more than 1.1 million pounds. How do they know? Well, that number is calculated by taking the water density of a cloud and multiplying it by its volume. Fortunately, the cloud can still “float” at that weight because the air below it is even heavier.
A Message From Mr. John: Audio Only video Not Working
Cultural Subjects: Your children can now count to ten in 22 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagalog, Hebrew, Korean, Hungarian, Irish, Kiswahili, Welsh, Dutch/Flemmish, Polish)
Know Your Languages (Polish): Audio Only video Not working
Chinese New Year: ( (新年好) /Mandarin) | ( 恭喜发财/Cantonese)
Peek In The Classroom:
Peek Into Next Week: Line Time- Presidents Of The USA
Letter Of The Week- T t
Rhyming Word Of The Week- bed
Next Language is Serbo-Croation
Academic Enrichment: Weekly Theme: Subtraction with borrowing (dynamic)
Next Week: Weekly Theme: Division without borrowing (static).
Synonym Of The Week: FAT: overweight, big, bulky, heavy, plump
Sight Words Of The Week: more these
Upcoming Events: A few days off and other stuff.
DAYS OFF: -No School: Friday, February 17th (Teacher In Service day) -No School: Monday, February 20th (President’s Day)
OTHER STUFF: Akron Art Museum Field Trip: Thursday, March 9 (from 9am to 12pm) IT IS FREE! (Details To Follow)
This week we finished our study of the human body with the Skeletal System! We learned that we have 206 bones in our body, our bones create blood cells for our body, and they hold us up so that we’re not just a blob. We learned the names of our bones: skull, ribs, spine, pelvis, humorus, radius, ulna, femur, fibula, and tibia. We practiced writing these labels for our bones, labeled a skeleton in class, and created a skeleton to bring home!
Preschool Lesson – Geometric Solids
Our younger Blossoms studied Geometric Solids this week! They looked at and touched a sphere, cube, cone, and cylinder. We looked for these 3 dimensional shapes within our classroom, and practiced throwing and catching a sphere!
Kindergarten Lesson
Our older Blossoms continued their study of subtraction this week, using the Golden Bead Materials and the Stamp Game. In Handwriting, they practiced writing phrases in order to get used to only picking up our pencil when we start writing a new word. Reader’s Workshop continued learning about blends and phonograms. And in Writer’s Workshop our young authors are publishing their books and preparing for an Author Share next week!
A Special Visitor!
A wonderful way to wrap up our study of the human body was with a special visitor – Ms. Taylor from Dr. Pollock’s office to talk to us about Dental Health! We learned that we have 20 baby teeth and 32 adult teeth. We also learned how to brush our teeth and how to floss. Did you know that you should brush your teeth for 2 minutes? Ms. Taylor also reviewed healthy foods and sometimes foods with us!
100th Day of School!
WE ARE 100 DAYS SMARTER IN THE CHERRY BLOSSOM CLASSROOM! Ms. Tonya and Ms. Sam are so proud of how hard these children have worked over the past 100 days of school, and wanted to celebrate with a pizza party! We also celebrated by placing 100 stickers on a paper, sorting 100 objects, making 100th day hats, and counting to 100 by ones, fives, and tens! But the best part was seeing your children dressed up like they are 100 years old!
Peek into Next Week:
Focus & Preschool Lesson: Dinosaurs!
Kindergarten Lesson: Introduction to Division
Important Dates:
Friday, February 10: Valentine’s Day Celebration
Friday, February 17: NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS – Teacher Inservice Day
Line Time: This week we learned a bit about the internal organs. We started with the brain which is like the computer of the body. It tells our body how fast to breathe and how fast our heart should beat. We discovered the lungs help us breathe and puts oxygen in our blood. Our stomach digests food, the small intestine take nutrients out of our food and large intestine gets the remaining water from indigestible food and creates waste (poop)(that word produced laughter) or as I referred to a bowel movement. The kidneys process excess water and creates pee (more laughter) or urine. The liver removes toxins from the body. We found out that the largest organ of the human body is the epidermis. The liver is my fave internal organ. What is yours?
A Message From Mr. John (Perception of time): AUDIO ONLY VIDEO NOT WORKING
Cultural Subjects: Your children can now count to ten in 21 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagalog, Hebrew, Korean, Hungarian, Irish, Kiswahili, Welsh, Dutch/Flemmish)
Know your Languages (Dutch/Flemmish): AUDIO ONLY VIDEO NOT WORKING
Did You Know?: Dead skin cells are the main ingredient for household dust. Here’s an interesting science fact for you: According to researchers at Imperial College London, humans shed around 200 million skin cells each hour—and they have to go somewhere when we’re indoors and it becomes dust.
Grandparents Day:
Enrichments (Sign Language):
Peek In The Classroom:
Peek Into Next Week: Line Time- Pollution and Recycling
Letter Of The Week- S s
Rhyming Word Of The Week- bup
Next Language is Polish
Academic Enrichment: Subtraction without borrowing (Static). We also learned the terms of subtraction. 9 (minuend) – 4 (subtrahend) = 5 (difference)
Next Week: Weekly Theme: Subtraction with borrowing (Dynamic).
Synonym Of The Week: skinny
Sight Words Of The Week: other some
Upcoming Events: A few days off and other stuff.
DAYS OFF: -No School: Friday, February 17th (Teacher In Service day) -No School: Monday, February 20th (President’s Day)
OTHER STUFF: -Readiness Conferences (Incoming Kindergarten Students/Incoming First Graders): (Details To Follow)
Akron Art Museum Field Trip: Thursday, March 9 (from 9am to 12pm) IT IS FREE! (Details To Follow)
Frolic, Friends, and Fun:
Your Kids say The Darndest Things (My sister Lydia):
The past couple of weeks, Aspen has been learning all about the Arctic and Antarctic while exploring the concepts of adaptation, hibernation, and migration! We have made many interesting discoveries and learned some really amazing facts! Last week we explored the North and South Poles, focusing on their location, similarities and differences between the North and South Poles, and wildlife inhabiting these biomes. We discussed the Arctic and Antarctic ecosystems and learned how the animals living there have adapted to living in a harsh environment with temperatures below freezing. We learned all about blubber and the specialized feathers penguins have (they fit together keeping water out like a wetsuit, keeping the penguins skin dry). At the same time, we discovered an interesting fun fact: did you know that the polar bear’s skin is black and its fur is actually translucent? Their fur only appears white because it reflects the visible light. Your child is now an Arctic and Antarctic expert!
This week Aspen discussed the concepts of adaptation, hibernation, and migration. We discovered that animals are absolutely amazing and have developed interesting ways to survive the cold harsh winters. We took a look at what adaptations animals make, which animals hibernate, and how animals migrate and where they migrate to! We also took the opportunity to look at the different footprints animals leave. We can often observe these footprints in the snow this time of year! It has been a fun two weeks in the Aspen Room
The kindergarteners have focused on Multiplication (last week) and Subtraction (this week). They have learned the mathematical terms multiplicand, multiplier, and product (multiplication) and the terms minuend, subtrahend, and difference (subtraction). After learning the proper terminology, the kindergarteners practiced multiplying and subtracting with the Stamp Game! In Reader’s Workshop the Cardinals have focused on phonograms, received phonogram reading lists, and practiced their reading comprehension skills by reading short story paragraphs containing phonograms. They then answered questions on a worksheet for follow up work. The Chickadees received a new phonetic reader, practiced reading comprehension with high frequency words while engaging in follow-up activities relating to their phonetic readers. The Chickadees have also focused on the ending sounds in phonetic words. A good “Sound Detective” looks at each sound in a word! We practiced not getting tricked by words with similar sounds! In Writers Workshop, the Cardinals have focused on transition words for the beginning of a book, such as one day, one time, or everyday when writing their individual books. The Chickadees have focused on Word Wall words: went, and, the, and for. We also worked on stretching out their words (sounding them out, and completing the whole word). They also focused on writing a full sentences! Our Kindergarteners have worked so hard and have made amazing progress in both Readers and Writers Workshop!
Next week our thematic topic will be the Five Senses. We will explore how we use our senses through various follow-up activities and apply them during the classroom work period. Aspen will also discuss Groundhog Day while engaging in groundhog related fun!
Fun with the South America Puzzle Map.
Tracing Fun with our Puzzle Maps. These awesome ladies recreated our Continent Puzzle Map!
More continent tracing fun! They even added the Equator after this photo was taken.
Classification work with the Life Cycle of a Penguin!
Phonetic Object Box fun with CVC words!
Cylinder Block Extensions for Sensorial fun! All four blocks!!
This week, the Blossoms class learned all about their internal organs. We started with the brain, which we learned in the boss! The brain is responsible for sending important messages to the rest of the body, as well as making sure your body keeps breathing and your heart keeps pumping even when you’re asleep! We learned about the lungs, and how they are breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide. We then looked at the heart, and learned that it pumps blood throughout our bodies while the blood carries the oxygen brought in by the lungs. We wrapped up our study with everyone’s favorite lesson – the digestive system! We learned about the stomach and the intestines!
Preschool Lesson: Body Parts
Ms. Sam introduced us to our body parts, from our eyelashes to our ankles, we learned all kinds of new words! We had so much fun labeling Ms. Tonya’s body at the end of the week!
Kindergarten Lesson:
Our older Blossoms practiced more subtraction this week during Kindergarten lesson. Our readers continued studying phonemes and phonograms, and using transition words in their books during Writer’s Workshop. In Handwriting, our kinders completed the lowercase alphabet! We’ll spend the next few weeks practicing writing words, and then we’ll begin uppercase letters!
Grandparent’s Day:
Thank you so much to all of the grandparents that came to visit us! We loved showing you what we do in the classroom, and hope that you enjoyed your science lesson with Mr. John!
Peek Into Next Week:
Focus Lesson: Our Skeleton
Preschool Lesson: The Number 100!
Kindergarten Lesson: Subtraction
Important Dates:
Friday, February 3: 100th Day of School! We are celebrating being 100 days smarter by dressing up like we are 100 years old! We will also be having a pizza party on this day. You can follow this link to sign up for some more items we’ll need at lunch. Thank you! https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0f4ca5a628a3f4cf8-100th#/
Line Time: Skeletal System- This week we looked at the skeletal system and if we didn’t have a skeleton we would be one messy blob on the ground (insert a flagellant sound). We learned the skull protects our brain, the rib cage protects our lungs, and the spine keeps us sitting and standing straight. We learned technical terms for our arms, leg and our digits which is a funny name called phalanges. We brought our life sized foam puzzle into our room. His name is Elvis because we learned about the pelvis and it was a cool rhyming name.
A Message From Mr. John (The Food Thief):
Did You Know? If you chill your onions you won’t cry when you cut them…..
There’s nothing worse than chopping and onion and bursting into tears. Not because you’re sad for the onion, but because your eyes sting from a chemical reaction. A simple solution is to stick your onion in the freezer for about 15 minutes beforehand. This will prevent the acid enzymes working properly and stop you from tears! ***** P.S. It doesn’t work. I tried it and still felt like I got pepper sprayed *****
Cultural Subjects: Your children can now count to ten in 19 languages (English, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, German, French, Greek, Japanese, Arabic with the Lebanese dialect, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Swedish, Tagalog, Hebrew, Korean, Hungarian, Irish, Kiswahili, Welsh)
Know Your Languages (Welsh):
Enrichments (Science):
Peek In Our Week:
Peek Into Next Week: Line Time- Internal Organs
Letter Of The Week- R r
Rhyming Word Of The Week- but
Next Language is Dutch/Flemmish
Academic Enrichment aka Kindergarten: This Week’s Theme: Multiplication, stamp game with and without carrying overs (including 0).
Next Week: Weekly Theme: Subtraction (without borrowing)
Synonym Of The Week: NICE: kind, pleasant, delightful, good, helpful
Sight Words Of The Week: first than
Upcoming Events: Grandparent’s Day: January 26, 2023
No School: Friday, February 17 (Teacher In Service day) No School: Monday, February 20 (President’s Day)
Fun, Frolic, And Friends:
Your Kids Say The Darndest Things (My brother Theo):
This week we learned all about Healthy Habits. We focused on 5 main things that can keep our bodies healthy: eating healthy foods, drinking water, sleeping, exercising, and hygiene.
We continued discussing the 5 food groups daily at lunch, we always have so much fun finding our food group of the day inside of our lunch box. Ms. Tonya guided discussions on the importance of drinking water (because our bodies are made up of mostly water!), getting a good night’s sleep (so we can grow and make memories!), and exercising (it’s so important for kids these age to move their bodies for at least an hour per day!). Ms. Sam guided lessons on hygiene this week. Blossoms learned about the importance of brushing their teeth and bathing, and of course, washing their hands!
Kindergarten Lessons:
Kindergarteners continued learning about multiplication this week in Kindergarten Lesson. In Handwriting, they continued to learn how to form bump letters, focusing on v and . We’re almost done with the lowercase alphabet! In Reader’s Workshop our Blossoms practiced . And in Writer’s Workshop, our young authors continued to work on sentence structure, as well as adding transition words to their stories such as “one day”, “everday”, “next”, “then”, or “after”.