Welcome back Aspen Room families! This week the Aspen Room has been “Snow” Cool! The Aspen Room has been discussing Snow and all things related to cold winter days.  We learned why it snows, what snow is made of, how snow forms, and the amazing designs ice crystals make to form snowflakes.  We watched a video, How Snowflakes Form, and a video showing  magnified examples of different types of snowflakes and their crystal designs.  Did you know….that different types of snowflakes (crystal combinations) form depending on the temperature of our atmospheric conditions.  Therefore, the type of crystals that form are dependent on temperature and the path a snowflake takes as it falls.  This is what makes  each snowflake unique!

After discussing snowflakes, we shared what we like to do outdoors during the winter months.  After sharing all of our thoughts, stories, and ideas on all the fun we have with snow, we explored our winter themed practical life shelf and enrichment activities! Ask your child about the foam bead snowball spooning activity!

The Kindergarten students explored subtraction with the decimal system and learned the terms Minuend , Subtrahend, and Difference. Next week we will continue to explore this mathematic operation with Dynamic Subtraction!

For the week of January 11, we will explore the Antarctic and the Arctic!  The Aspen Group will look at these Biomes and will explore their similarities and their differences, and what kind of wildlife can be found in these habitats.

i

This week we dicussed table manners and learned how to set a table.  The children helped lead the group meetings by sharing how one should behave while sitting at the table.  They all had very good ideas of what classified as having “Good Table Manners” and shared many scenarios indicating what “Bad Table Manners” are.  We had a lot of fun sharing our thoughts and ideas on this subject!  You all have very polite and well mannered children! During our discussions we also talked about how to try (taste) foods that we don’t care for and to try new foods when they are presented to us.  At the same time, we role played how to react when we discover that we don’t like a particular food using “Good Manners”.  We then read How Do Dinosars Eat Their Food which reinforced all the great manners they shared during our group meeting time.

After discussing manners, we learned how to set a table with our place setting activity from the practical life shelf.  Then during afternoon meeting time, we learned the names of the place setting objects in Spanish. Your children now know plate, fork, spoon, knife, napkin, and placemat in Spanish.

Kindergarten students are continuing their work with telling time, and have reviewed some of our previous lessons for reinforcement. Next week the kindergarten students will learn about the layers of our Earth and will research and explore each part.

Our theme for next week will be all about Conifers.  We talked a lot about decidous trees and identified various types of leaves during the months of October and November. Therefore, we will learn what a Conifer is while learning to identify different types of Conifers.  Conifers are special and are found all over this time of year.

This week we are talking Turkey!  Where do turkeys live?  What do they eat? Can they fly?  We learned the answers to these questions and more!  In fact,  we also learned what a group of turkey’s is called, then we labeled the parts of a turkey, and listened to turkey calls. Did you know that a group of turkeys is called a flock or a rafter?  Ms.  Taylor also found an amazing video called Turkey Facts on youtube for us to watch during afternoon line time!  Ask your child about what they learned about turkeys this week. They are now turkey experts!   The class also watched/listened to read aloud books called Turkey Trouble and How To Catch A Turkey. They were hilarious books full of Thanksgiving fun!

Kindergartners have been working on their addition and multiplication skills as well as learning to tell time on an Analog Clock and also observed the differences between an analog clock and a digital clock.

Next week we will be talking about Table Manners and will also talk about the Pilgrims and why we celebrate Thanksgiving in the United States.

This week the Aspen Room learned all about the Skeletal System. We discussed the parts of the skeleton and learned the names of our bones, how bones help us, how to keep our bones healthy, and fun facts about our bones.  Your children also explored the Skeletal System by putting together our skeleton puzzle, labeling the bones of our skeleton , working with the Skeletal Classification cards, and coloring skeletons!  Your child also learned that the adult human body has 206 bones but an infant has about 300! We learned that this is because the bones in an infant are still developing/growing and as a result they have more bones than an adult. We also discovered that the Python has the most bones with 600 vertebrae which  can equal 1,800 bones! Yet, the shark has the fewest amount of bones because it’s skeleton contains a lot of cartilage. It was definitely a “Skele-Fun” Week!

Kindergarten students learned all about the parts of Trees, Plants, Arachnids, and Insects!

Next week we will be talking about Healthy Habits and Safety! We will discuss food groups briefly and  making healthy choices, review washing hands, and safety rules (How to cross the street, Halloween safety…etc).  We will have sorting activities, yoga cards, and more!  Have a great weekend!

This week the Aspen Room learned all about pumpkins! We learned how they grow, sang pumpkin songs, sorted pumpkin seeds from the goop (pulp), explored number concepts with our sorted pumpkin seeds, scrubbed pumpkins, and worked with the many pumpkin themed practical life activities! Pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins!!! Did you know that the Pilgrims survived the harsh winter by eating pumpkins? Yet, today the majority of pumpkins are grown and sold for decoration and carving purposes! This week’s homework assignment bake/eat something with pumpkin in it!

Kindergarten students learned all about the Animal Kingdom! They learned the many differences between the different Classes of animals! How animals are classified and the differences between each classified group.  We also had fun labeling and tracing our animal puzzles in the classroom.

Next week we are exploring the Skeletal System and learning all about bones! Bones have many important jobs for our body.  Do you know how many bones there are in the human body? Do you know which animal has the most bones? Next week we will learn these fun facts and more!

Matching and making patterns with pumpkins!

Kindergarten follow-up work! Tracing and labeling the animal puzzles.

Fall is Finally here!  Hooray, for the best season of all!  Well….in  my opinion it’s the best! This week your children learned all about leaves.  We learned that leaves have a very important job, that a leaf has different parts, why they change colors and fall, how to identify or classify leaves, and  we observed leaves with a magnifying glass to look at each part up close.  Your children are now leaf experts and tberefore have a homework assignment to collect and bring in two different types of leaves. I can’t wait to see all the colorful leaves they will return to school with next week.

This week the kindergarten students learned all about landforms! They now know how to identify a lake, an island, peninsula, gulf, cape, bay, system of lakes, and an archipelago. We also explored these landforms geographically with classification cards depicting examples of each landform from around the globe.  They also identified some of these landforms on our continent coloring maps.

Next week it’s all about Pumpkins!!! How do they grow, what’s inside them, and what are they used for? We will explore ” Pumpkin Math” and our Practical Life area will be filled with pumpkin themed fun! Kindergarten students will be exploring the characteristics of animals within the animal kingdom. See you next week for more Aspen Room fun!

See You Next Week!!!!!

This week the Aspen Room explored the world of color! Did you know that Red is the first color that an infant sees? An infant will eventually see the full color spectrum by the age of  five months! In the Aspen Room we learned this fascinating fact and more! Your children were able to explore the world of color by learning the names of colors in both English and Spanish (George taught us some color names in Portuguese!), we learned what Primary and Secondary colors are , experienced the meaning and the differences of Warm Colors and Cool Colors, created colorful works of art with watercolors and coffee filters, then used our knowledge to explore enrichment activities in the classroom.It was a very busy week!

Our kindergarten students learned the descriptive language of where we live, from biggest (galaxy) to smallest (street address).  They also practiced their handwriting skills by writing their address and working in their new cursive binders! Next week they will explore landforms!

Next week our theme is leaves! We will discuss and explore the parts of a leaf, the function of the leaf and how it does it’s job, the classification (names and type of leaf), and why they change color in the Fall! Hello Fall!!  It is finally here! Enjoy your weekend and I will see you next week!

This week the Aspen Group studied Apples!

Did you know there are 7,500 different kinds of Apples grown in our world? Do you know how a farmer plant trees in an apple orchard?  In an apple orchard trees are grown through a process established by the Ancient Greeks called Grafting! Apple seeds are not used in an orchard. If a farmer plants an apple seed  they will not know which type of apple will grow from one particular apple seed! For instance, a Red Delicious apple seed can produce an entirely different type of apple! Therefore, Grafting controls or ensures a specific type of apple is grown.

The children in the Aspen Group now know;  how apples are grown, how different types of apples have different tastes, the parts of an apple, and the life cycle of an apple.   We also explored the concept of fractions when we cut our apples to look inside them. Ask your child about the many activities and lessons they experienced this week.

Next week we will explore the world of color! We will review the Primary Colors and discuss the Secondary and Tertiary Colors.  At the same time, the class will explore the differences between warm and cool colors as well as color names in Spanish. See you next week!