What a beautiful September we have had in the Cherry Blossom class! We have enjoyed warm, sunny days outside and so many fun activities in the classroom. Our Monarch butterflies hatched from their chrysalis and we set them free as they begin their long migration to Mexico. Blossoms have learned about Living and Non-Living things this month, as well as their 5 senses. They have used those 5 senses as they explored apples and pumpkins, ending the week with an amazing trip to Ramseyer Farm! And we wrapped up the month by welcoming the season of Fall, and learning about the four seasons.

Practical Life/Sensorial

We were able to use all of our 5 senses within the classroom this month, especially in the Sensorial area! We used our sense of sight for sorting and building from biggest to smallest. We used our sense of hearing with our sound cylinders. We used our sense of smell with our smelling jars. We used our sense of touch with our thermic tablets, rough and smooth boards, and fabric box. And we tasted tested sour, salty, sweet, red apples, green apples, and apple cider!

Math

Our Math lessons range from one to one correspondence as the children count quantity, to counting by 10s with our Tens Board, to filling in Ten Frames, and Kindergarteners are working with the Addition Strip Board and recording the sums of their equations.

Language

Our sweet Blossoms are working hard in the Language area as well. Our youngest children are working in the Pre-Language area as they practice What Does Not Belong or Opposites. Older preschoolers are working with Sound Pouches as they are introduced to letters and the sounds they make. Kindergarteners are isolating ending sounds in words or even working on blends in words!

Handwriting

There are so many different ways we practice our handwriting skills throughout the day! Chalkboards, dry erase boards, sand trays, and paper and pencil!

Cultural

You’ll see hints of our whole group Cultural lessons sprinkled throughout our classroom. Whether the children are working on Parts of a Pumpkin books, or Four Seasons art, or Parts of an Apple books, or even a pumpkin patch and an apple orchard in a child’s sketchbook!

What are the Kindergarteners up to?

My favorite part of a mixed age classroom is observing students teach lessons to other students. Our Kindergarteners practiced math skills with some preschool students this month. Why do we do this? Many reasons! Working together practices communication skills. Teaching a skill to another person strengthens the understanding of the concept. Learning from another person opens up new ways of understanding.

Learning is SO MUCH FUN!

Ms. Kelly has been working with the class on feelings and calming techniques. We have been practicing yoga and different ways to breathe. Here the class is practicing Lotus pose and taking five deep breaths.

Here’s a peek at some of our days! Worm weather, the excitment of finding the picture you’re looking for while sorting, the smiles that apple cider brings, and Cherry Blossom trees with Pink Tower and Brown Stairs!

A Peek Into October!

October will be a busy month as we dive deeper into Fall. We’ll be studying trees and leaves, as well as beginning our Animal Classification unit – a classroom favorite every year!

Important Dates:

Friday, October 11 – No School/Fall Break

Friday, October 25 – Trunk or Treat (more info coming soon!)

That’s all or now!

Our Focus Lesson:

What a beautiful first two weeks of learning in the Cherry Blossom classroom! We have spent these first 8 days discussing our classroom’s “Expected Behaviors”. These are our classroom expectations for the school year, such as being respectful to materials and being kind to others. We read books, held classroom discussions, and looked for all the ways we use these Expected Behaviors all day long!

Kindergarten Corner:

Our Kindergarteners returned ready to LEARN! They jumped right back into their addition equations as if they hadn’t been away from school all summer! They excitedly began Reading Groups and Writer’s Workshop this week, are stepping into their roles of leaders within the classroom, and are assisting their teachers throughout the day. We have a feeling that this is going to be an amazing group of kiddos!

Pre-K and Preschool Corner:

Our returning preschoolers have proudly claimed their Pre-K status, and jumped right back into their work activities as well! There has been handwriting, teen numbers, beginning sound isolation, and so much more this week! Our newest learners, or Preschoolers, have spent a wonderful few days learning our classroom routines, exploring Practical Life trays, and enjoying some partner works with older friends.

Enrichment Corner:

We started both Music class with Ms. Lisa and Art class with Ms. Lindsey this week. We were also very excited for our first science experiment of the year with Mr. John!

A Peek at our Week:

We have two very hungry monarch caterpillars growing in our classroom. Ask your child about what stage of the life cycle these insects are in! We also spent so many beautiful days outside exploring our new blacktop play area, running around in the grass, playing basketball and soccer, jumping in puddles, and enjoying popsicles with Ms. Sarah! Also, meet our new neighbors!

Peeking at Next Week:

Our Focus Lesson: Living/Non-Living & Emotions

Important Dates:

Monday, September 2: Labor Day – No School

Monday, September 9: Taekwondo Demo Day

Friday, September 20: Ramseyer Farm Field Trip

We have had such a busy month in the Cherry Blossom classroom! We have been preparing for the upcoming International Festival where we are representing South America. Your child has been practicing their fact that they will present during the festival, as well as singing our special songs in Spanish! We can’t wait to share our songs and facts with you next week!

Speaking of the Festival, here is some important information for you! Our Rehearsal will be on Wednesday evening, this is not a dress rehearsal so your child can wear whatever they wore to school that day. On Friday, for the show, your child should come dressed in an outfit that represents the country that they studied. If you have any questions about this, please ask me asap.

Here is a flashback from International Festival 2022 when we studied Africa. Recognize any little faces?

We have been lucky enough to have some visitors this month teach us about countries all over the world! We have learned about Pakistan, Japan, Brazil, and China!

Our ASL lesson even followed the theme! Mrs. Thompson has traveled through South America. She shared her experience with us, as well as taught us how to sign South America, anaconda, condor, and many other words!

Coming Up Next Week!

Our Focus Lesson: South American country presentations

Monday, 4/22 – Earth Day!

Wednesday, 4/24 – International Festival Rehearsal – arrive by 5:45pm

Friday, 4/26 – INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL – arrive by 5:30pm

Our Focus Lesson: Our Galaxy, Rainbows, and South America

Our group lessons this week were a mixture of topics! We continued our exploration of space by learning about our galaxy, the Milky Way, discussing the Universe, seeing what Earth looks like from space, and then exploring what astronauts do! This completes our Outer Space unit, we’ll be taking a closer look at our planet Earth next week! Rainbows can be found all around our classroom this week as the children buzz with excitement over the possibility of a leprechaun visit. St. Patrick’s Day may be over the weekend, but I have a feeling that a certain sneaky leprechaun will cause some chaos in the classroom anyways this week. Ms. Sam also introduced us to the continent we’ll be studying for International Festival. We took a look at South America books, were introduced to our songs for the performance, and started our research!

That Sneaky Leprechaun!!!!!

That silly leprechaun did surprise us on Friday! Just take a look at the mess that he made! At least he was kind enough to leave us a little surprise though!

Enrichment Spotlight!

We have completed our study of Peter and the Wolf with Ms. Lisa in Music, and are now learning about jumpy and smooth music. Children were introduced to the piano and got to play a few notes!

In Art with Ms. Varela, children have completed their self portraits! Aren’t they adorable?!?

This week was Ms. Tonya’s favorite experiment in Science with Mr. John! I just love the dancing raisins!

Coming Soon!

Next Week’s Focus Lesson: Our planet Earth

Important Dates:

Tuesday, March 19 – Elementary Science Fair @ 6:00! All are invited!

March 25 – April 1 – Spring Break! School resumes Tuesday, April 2.

Our Focus Lesson: Outer Space

We have had a busy few weeks as we’ve begun our newest unit of study – outer space! We studied the planets of our solar system – Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. We discussed characteristics of each of these planets and learned about the rocky planets vs the gas giants. We also talked about dwarf planets so Ms. Tonya could include Pluto in our discussions. We learned what the word orbit means, and discussed asteriods, comets, the Moon, the Sun, and stars. Did you know that stars come in four colors? Yellow, white, blue, and red!

Right to Read Week!

What a fun week celebrating reading within our classroom! Right to Read week encourages everyone to read books for fun, and what books are more fun than Dr. Seuss books! We read many Dr. Seuss books this week, noticed rhyming words and nonsense words along the way, and had a blast with our dress up days!

Work Time is the BEST!

Coming Up Next Week!

Focus Lesson: Space – Our Galaxy and the Universe

Important Dates:

Tuesday, March 19 – Elementary Science Fair

March 25 – April 1 – Spring Break! School resumes Tuesday, April 2

Our Focus Lesson: Internal Organs

We have had such a fun time the past two weeks learning about the insides of our bodies! We’ve learned about the brain, the lungs, the heart, the stomach, the small and large intestions, and the kidneys. Each of these body parts have a super important job to do, and we learned all about it! We also had fun identifying where inside of our bodies each organ is.

Preschool Corner:

Preschoolers are busy! They’re counting internal organs, using the Moveable Alphabet to isolate beginning sounds, tracing and labeling animals, and completing the 45 layout with the Golden Beads! This time of year is a time of big growth for our preschool students, many of them are entering a sensitive period where their math, language, and handwriting skills will grow immensely in the months we have left. It’s such a magical time of year, full of excitement and pride in their work!

Kindergarten Corner:

Kindergarteners are doing some big kid works! They are gathering data by asking questions of their classmates, telling time on an analog clock, and reading challenging words. In Reader’s Workshop, our older Blossoms have been introduced to the parts of speech – noun, verb, and adjective. In Writer’s Workshop, children have completed their unit on How To Books, and started Personal Narratives as we work on sentence structure, which words should be capitalized, and punctuation.

Check out what we’ve been up to!

We have had so much fun in the classroom over the past few weeks! We celebrated the 100th Day of School with some 100 year old ladies and gentlemen. One of these older gentleman used his walker to give you a hint about which continent we’ll be studying for the upcoming International Festival. We also celebrated Valentine’s Day with Candy Heart Graphing, dancing, a game of Musical Hearts, a treat, and Curious George’s Valentine’s Day.

Peek into Next Week!

Focus Lesson: Healthy Foods (5 Food Groups)

* We will be checking our lunch boxes each day next week to see if we can find the 5 food groups every day!

*We will also be preparing our own snack next week, eating one food group each day! Thank you to all the parents that are providing food items for us! Your child does not need to pack a snack next week!

Important Dates:

Monday, February 19 – No School, President’s Day

March 25 – April 1 – No School, Spring Break