Welcome back Aspen families!! We hope that your winter break was full of fun, relaxation, and tons of family time! This week we got back into our classroom routine with lots of challenging work, winter fun, socialization with our friends, and became scientists! This week we finally received some snowy weather and the Aspen class was extremely excited! Future group lessons will involve learning about snow and why it snows! But, in order to discuss snow, we had to learn all about Matter first! Aspen learned that Matter is all around us. Matter has mass, volume, and takes up space. There are three states of matter; solids, liquids, and gases. The Aspen student learned that Solids- have a definite shape because the Molecules or atoms are packed tightly together. Solids also have a definite size. Solids will also keep their shape unless they are changed by an outside force. We learned that liquids contain Molecules or atoms that are spaced apart free to move over each other. As a result, liquids do not have a definite shape and take the shape of the container they occupy. Therefore, liquids can be poured, spilled, and move freely. Aspen then experimented with liquids by pouring water into different containers. Ask your child what they learned about liquids this week! We then took a look at gases and learned that the molecules (atoms) in a gas have no shape, size, or color! They can be held in a container or can escape into the air. Atoms in a gas are constantly moving around all over the place. Aspen had so much fun exploring Matter this week! We engaged in fun experiments, played games where we turned ourselves into the three states of matter, danced and sang to songs about matter, and colored books all about Matter! What a great start to the New Year!!!

Next week we will be learning all about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. , Rosa Parks, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott! There will be NO SCHOOL ON MONDAY, JANUARY 15, 2024 in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day! See you on Tuesday!!!

Experimenting with a liquid! Pouring water into different containers!

Challenge accomplished!!! Mastering the Bow Tying Frame!!!

Working together on Sensorial Extensions with the Knobbed Cylinder Blocks!!!

Gluing “molecules” with our solid, Liquid, gas Cultural activity!

This week in Aspen we were busy practicing for our upcoming AMMS Holiday program! Line time lessons were full of Holiday Cheer as we practiced our lines, songs, and hand motions. At the same time, we reviewed proper stage etiquette and the expectations for standing on risers as we perform. All children agreed that safe hands, careful feet, quiet mouths (bubbles), and big smiles are what is expected while performing . The Aspen children rocked it! They have already brought so much Holiday joy and tears of happiness to their teachers eyes! They are absolutely adorable and amazing and this is only practice! You are all in for a real Holiday treat!!

In regards to what to wear , Aspen students need to have a long sleeved solid RED shirt brought in to school by next Friday, December 8!! The Aspen students will be decorating them with a special surprise for the show. Please have your child also wear nice dark colored pants, leggings, or skirt with their shirt the day of the program. We politely request no jeans! The Aspen class get to be “Rockin” Christmas Trees this year and we are looking forward to our performance! Thank you so much for all of the support you have all given/shown us this year! Ms. Angela and I appreciate our Aspen parents so much!

In Readers Workshop, the Cardinals practiced their reading (phonological awareness) skills as they worked on a complete the sentence worksheet. The Cardinals practiced following directions as we completed sentences with the word that made the most sense. Some of our word choices created some super silly sentences! The Cardinals also played ” Sight Word Showdown ” where a card containing a Sight word is held up and the Cardinal students verbally identify them. We are already on our third Sight word box!! The Chickadees continued practing their segmenting and decoding as they received a new phonetic reader booklet containing new sight words. Our Chickadees have all begun to show more confidence and fluency when decoding words and were a amazing with their Sight Words! The Chickadees also played “Sight Word Showdown! ” They also received a new Sight Word called once! We learned that it is super silly and doesn’t follow our typical phonetic rules! I mean….an O making the W sound!! The Chickadees found this hilarious and we had so much fun using it in sentences!

Decorating our classroom tree activity.

Transferring ornaments

Static Addition with the Stamp Game!! Combining numbers is fun!

Pinpricking Holiday pictures!

Library time with Ms. Lindsey!

This week in Aspen we discussed how we behave at the dinner table with our Table Manners lesson! During Line Time we took turns sharing “What to do” and “What not to do” at the dinner table! All the children agreed that proper manners included lots of please and thank yous!! They also talked a lot about the importance of sitting in a chair appropriately and using eating utensils correctly. We also read How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague. We sure had a lot of fun discussing all the silly and rude things the Dinosaurs did in the book. Our Aspen parents sure have some super polite children!!

This week the Aspen students also practiced how to set a place setting at the dinner table with our Table Setting activity. They are pros! If you need a helper this Thanksgiving , ask your child to show you what they learned!

Extensions with the Red Rods and Number Rods!

Building the Binomial Cube on the lid with no guide!!

Discrimination of height with the Cylinder Blocks.

Labeling the Continent Map!

Building the Trinomial Cube on the table!

A big thank you to Lily for bringing in a special Thanksgiving Turkey craft!!

Coloring our Thankful Wheel project! We got to draw or write all the things we are thankful for!

Watching The Charlie Brown Thanksgiving movie with our friends from Buckeye and Cherry Blossom!!!

Hello Aspen families! My apologies for not posting a blog for quite awhile! I got locked out of my WordPress account when they updated their security policy! Nevertheless, I am logged in, verified, and our Blog can once again be posted!! Please enjoy a massive amount of photos at the end of this week’s blog as part of my apology!

This week in Aspen it was all about our continent North America, Thanksgiving, Pilgrims, and Native Americans. The students in Aspen have been studying the locations and names of the countries in North America for the past few weeks. However, this week we began to take a look at the history of our continent and the U.S.A focusing on our upcoming holiday. In preparation for Thanksgiving next week we decided to discuss why we celebrate Thanksgiving. Aspen learned that long ago there was a group of people named the Pilgrims that lived in England. The Pilgrims held certain beliefs that were different from the King’s! The King had “Absolute Power” and you could not disagree with the king or you would be punished! The Pilgrims believing strongly held to their beliefs and decided to do something really brave! They decided to leave England for the New World (North America). We learned that the Pilgrims set sail across the Atlantic in a ship called The Mayflower. When the Pilgrims arrived in the new world they only found wilderness (trees, plants, and animals).There were no houses for them to move into, there were no stores like Giant Eagle or Acme to buy food! The Pilgrims had to build their own homes using wood they chopped down from trees in the forest, they had to grow their own crops, and hunt if they wanted meat! Aspen then discussed how the Pilgrims had a very hard and difficult time adjusting to their new environment! The soil for growing crops was different than theirs in England, there were different types of plants and berries (hard to know what was safe) , and they had to work hard planting, harvesting, hunting, and building to survive! Their first season was difficult, many Pilgrims did not make it through the winter! As the Pilgrims worked hard to survive they eventually realized that they shared their environment with a group of people called the Native Americans a tribe called the Wampanoag! The Wampanoag helped teach the Pilgrims how to survive in North America! As a result, during the Fall harvest the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag held a three day feast together celebrating the harvest thankful that they would have enough food and supplies to last the winter! Therefore, establishing our tradition of celebrating Thanksgiving! The children in Aspen used our puzzle maps and our Painted Globe to trace the Pilgrim’s journey while learning all about the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts! We also watched a Scholastic video on YouTube called Pilgrim Life with Scholastic News! We got to see what their daily life was like!

Next week we have a two day school week to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday! Our group lessons will be all about Table Manners! If your child attends school on Tuesday, we will have a Sharing Day! Your child is invited to bring in one item from home to share and discuss during Line Time! Your child’s sharing item should be able to fit in their bookbag and should be limited to one item. Pretend weapons of any kind are prohibited including Lightsabers!

In Readers Workshop both groups have continued their work with segmenting and decoding! Cardinals are continuing their work with Phonograms and Sight Words. They have been reading paragraphs and booklets utilizing their knowledge from group lessons to practice fluency. The Chickadees have continued their work with decoding focusing on booklets (Readers) with new Sight Words weekly! Next week there will be no reading group!

Tweezing corn kernels!

Grinding our corn kernels into cornflour like the Pilgrims with a mortar and pestle!

Fun with the Tree Puzzle!

Sensorial Extensions with the Knobless Cylinders.

Labeling the countries in North America.

Moveable Alphabet Fun and copy writing the words onto lined paper!

This week in Aspen classroom we learned all about the Life Cycle Of A Pumpkin! Due to our amazing field trip to Ramseyer’s Pumpkin Patch last week Aspen was able to study the Life Cycle Of A Pumpkin up close! We had the amazing opportunity to have a first hand experience seeing and touching the Pumpkin Life Cycle stages on our special botany tray! Aspen also engaged in a variety of pumpkin themed Practical Life such as: using the tongs to transfer pumpkins, cutting out pumpkins, spooning pumpkin seeds, tracing pumpkin number papers, and even did a fun create your own jack-o-lantern bulletin board craft. The Aspen students have been focusing on how to write their numbers properly and have had so much fun practicing! Aspen then watched a video How They Grow: Pumpkins and learned more interesting pumpkin facts. Did you know that the largest pumpkin ever grown weighed over 3,000 pounds! We also had lots of fun using tweezers to remove sunflower seeds from a sunflower. It sure was a busy pumpkin filled week in Aspen!

In Readers Workshop, the Cardinals have been working on phonological awareness focusing on sight words and phonograms. The Cardinals have successfully mastered the red and orange Sight Word boxes and have been learning about Ch, Sh, and Th words. As we practiced reading words with these phonograms we practiced reading them in sentences containing sight words while completing follow-up work activities. The Chickadees continued their phonemic awareness activities practicing segmenting phonetic words. They continued explore the concept of Sight Words practicing reading sight words in the red box. The Chickadees also received a Pumpkin Life Cycle book containing the sight words we have been practicing. At the same time, these booklets also provided the opportunity for the Chickadees to gain confidence sounding out large words while practicing identifying their colors in print! Both groups have been working so hard and continue to challenge themselves weekly with new concepts!

In Writers Workshop both groups have completed writing their lists and have begun to practice writing their sequencing stories. In these stories they practice their writing skills while explaining how to do something ( for example, making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or riding a bike)! Both groups have continued to work hard to refine their handwriting skills!

Next week our group lesson topic will be Color! We are going to learn all about the Primary and Secondary Colors, learn about shade and tint, explore the color wheel, and engage in a special color mixing experiment!

Using the tongs to transfer pumpkins. Note the amazing pumpkin life cycle botany tray in the background!

Removing seeds from a Sunflower!

Practicing segmenting words with the CVC Word boxes!

Fun with the Trinomial Cube!

This week in Aspen it was all about Apples!! The Aspen students spent the week learning how apples grow, what they need to grow, learned how to identify and name the parts of an apple, and got to observe and explore the parts of an apple with our apple observation activity. At the same time, Aspen took their scientific observation to the next level by engaging in a very yummy science experiment involving apples. We took a red apple (Red Delicious), a green apple (Granny Smith), and a yellow apple, (Golden Delicious) and taste tested them! Our experiment was to see if they tasted the same or different! Ask your apple scientist what they discovered! Since we were slicing apples, Aspen then took the opportunity to discuss fractions. Aspen learned about whole, half, one- third, and one- fourth while slicing our apples for our experiment. A very big thank you to Lily for bringing in apples for us to use for this lesson. Finally, we shifted gears and used our apples for something other than eating! We made apple prints with sliced apples and paint. Our Week in Aspen sure was Appletastic!!

This week we also had our first field trip to Ramseyers Farm and enjoyed some Fall themed fun ! We learned all about Pumpkins, how they grow, and got to pick our very own perfect pumpkin!! A big thank you to all of the Aspen parents that made our field trip special and fun! Ms. Angela and I truly enjoyed spending the day with you and your child! Happy pumpkin carving with your perfect pumpkins!!

This week in Readers and Writers Workshop the kindergarten students continued their literary and phonics fun! In Readers Workshop the Cardinals continued their work exploring phonological awareness, sight words, sentence structure, and comprehension skills ( focusing on the concept of sequencing). We read the book If You Give A Pig A Pancake and The Day Jimmy’s Boa Ate The Wash and discussed sequencing within these stories. We then placed events in order from from their occurrence within the story! Our Cardinals have some great recollection and comprehension skills!! The Chickadees continued their fun with phonics and phonemic awareness by engaging in sound games, sound activities, and began practicing segmenting words! They also continued to practice following directions and completed two worksheets this week. The Chickadees also engaged in more sight word work!

Next week Aspen will be learning all about Pumpkins and the life cycle of a pumpkin!

Creative fun with the Geometric Magnetic Tiles!

Pattern work with the Apple Pattern activity.

Labeling the parts of an apple.

Exploring phonics with the CVC (consonant vowel consonant) words! Phonics is fun!!

Matching and folding socks is a favorite Practical Life activity in the Aspen room!!

Practicing handwriting skills tracing letters!

This week in Aspen we began our Botany lessons with learning all about the Parts Of a Tree. The Aspen students used our Botany Tree puzzle to learn the names of each part of a tree. At the same time, we also discussed that each part of the tree has a special job or function that it does. Each part of the tree performs a special job that helps the tree grow strong and healthy. For example, Aspen learned that the roots collect water , minerals, and nutrients from the soil and help to stabilize and keep the tree upright. Aspen then examined the trunk and branches of a tree and learned that the bark protects the wood inside the tree. In fact, something amazing occurs inside the trunk! Aspen learned that the trunk and branches have different types of wood underneath the protective layer of bark. The part called the inner bark or “Phloem” is the part or pipeline through which food is passed to other parts of the tree.This is the part of the tree that; only lives a short time , turns to cork, and eventually becomes part of the protective Outer Bark! The Cambium cell layer or growing part of the tree trunk produces new wood and gets its food through the phloem from the leaves. The Sapwood is the pipeline through which water is transported to the leaves and the Heartwood is the center supporting pillar of a tree. Aspen was fascinated by how many special events occur inside the trunk! Finally, Aspen discussed the important function of the Leaves. We learned that the leaves are the food factories providing nourishment for the tree!

After investigating the parts of a tree, the Aspen children became scientists and discussed the needs of a tree! We learned what trees need in order to grow and then researched different types of trees. For instance, the Aspen students determined that a tree needs water, sunlight, soil (minerals and nutrients), and Carbon Dioxide. We then explored where carbon dioxide comes from and discovered that we help the trees and the trees help us! They help by giving us the Oxygen we need to survive! We learned this is called a symbiotic relationship! Finally, we discussed the difference between deciduous and coniferous trees. We then took a closer look at different kinds of tree seeds, leaves, and bark with our Botany tray! We encourage your child to bring in any leaves, seeds, bark, or scientific nature related objects. However, we do ask that you limit the amount of objects for our Botany tray to two items. I know they will discover so many fascinating treasures but please have them choose their favorites! Happy hunting!!!

In Readers Workshop the Cardinals continued to practice using their decoding skills while practicing preliminary comprehension activities, they also practiced following directions, and mastered their first box of sight words! The Chickadees continued to be Sound Detectives and decoded object clues and matched them to their corresponding letter sounds! We practiced segmenting words and we realized that words are just made up of sound clues! The Chickadees also engaged in following directions by completing worksheets utilizing the skills they have acquired. Both groups are learning how to write the date when writing their name on their work!

Next week it is All About Apples! We will take a close look at the parts of an apple, engage in a scientific taste test, explore fractions with apples, and engage in apple themed art projects!!

PICTURE DAY – Wednesday September 20

RAMSEYER FARM FIELD TRIP – Friday, September 22

Tracing the Sandpaper Numbers while learning the linear sequence of numbers!

Preliminary classification work with our shell activity!

Labeling the Parts Of A Tree!

Science fun with Mr. John!!!