A Peek At Our Week in the Cherry Blossom Classroom!
This week we started our focus unit on the continents. We took a deeper look into North America, South America, and Antarctica.
We also started our individual research on the African countries we are respresenting. Each child is looking through one or two books about their country and learning about the people that live there, the foods that they eat, what sport/game they like to play, animals you would find in that country, and famous landmarks.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
A huge Happy Birthday to our newest 4 year old and our two newest 5 year olds!
A Peek At Our Week in the Cherry Blossom Classroom!
This week we learned about Spring! We talked about what weather we would see throughout the spring, what flowers would begin popping up out of the ground, what the birds outside of our window are up to, and observed this beautiful tree outside of our building. Spring is one of my favorite seasons, so we will keep discussing all of the wonders it brings over the next couple months.
International Festival Update!
We introduced Africa this week! The Cherry Blossom class is super excited to represent several countries of Africa at the International Festival this spring! We started locating our individual countries on our Africa Map Puzzle!
What have the 4 year olds been up to in our mixed age classroom?
This child is working with our tweezing work in the Practical Life area. We have added to this work by having the children sort by color while tweezing.
In our Sensorial area, we use constructive triangles to learn more about shapes. With this box, we learn about the three different types of triangles – equilaterial, isosceles, and scalene. We also learn that we can use more than one of theses triangles to form a larger equilaterial triangle.
This child is using foam shapes with the moveable alphabet. She is isolating the beginning sound of the word, later on she will use the moveable alphabet to sound out the whole word.
This child is tracing and labeling a horse. We use this work to not only learn the different names of the parts of an animal, but also work on labeling skills and handwriting.
The chalkboards are a favorite tool in our Cherry Blossom Classroom. We use chalk to practice writing individual letters, blended letters, our names, words, numbers, and so much more! This child is choosing to write all of the letters of the alphabet!
After the children are comfortable with number recognition and quantity for 0-10, we introduce the child to the Golden Bead material. This material introduces the child to place value which we build upon as we compose numbers, and learn addition and subtraction.
SPRING BREAK IS NEXT WEEK!
Enjoy your break! We will see you back at school the week of April 4th!
A Peek At Our Week in the Cherry Blossom Classroom!
We have had a super busy week in the Cherry Blossom room! Our focus was on clouds and rainbows, and we completed so many fun science experiments as we learned about these awesome parts of nature!
Ms. Sam introduced us to the order of the colors in a rainbow.
We used sunight and prisms to create rainbows on the wall of our classroom! We learned that raindrops and prisms work the same way by bending the sunlight to reveal the colors!
We know that clouds are water droplets that stick together, but then how does it rain? We saw that when the cloud gets too heavy or too full of water then the drops fall down!
We learned about the three main types of clouds that we can see in the sky. Cirrus and Cumulus clouds generally mean good weather but Stratus clouds cover the sky like a blanket and generally bring rain. We’ve been checking the sky all week to see what types of clouds are up there.
This experiment was definitely their favorite. Maybe you could try it at home too!
That sneaky little leprechaun caused some mischief!
We were quite surprised to come inside from recess and find that a sneaky little leprechaun had visited our classroom!
What have the 3 year olds been up to in our mixed age classroom?
This group is all about the sensory based works!
This child is working with both the Brown Stairs and the Pink Tower to build extensions. You’ll notice that the Brown Stairs are still built from thick to thin and the Pink Tower is still built from big to small.
This child is working with all four knobbed cylinder blocks.
This child is beginning to learn how to write individual letters with our sandpaper letters and our sand tray.
Our 3 year olds are beginning to work on writing their names! We are focusing on the first letters at this time, and they’ve started writing that first letter on all of their papers!
Peek Into Next Week!
Focus Topic: Spring and Seeds!
Letter of the Week: Qq & Zz
Number of the Week: 18 & 19
Important Dates:
March 24: Elementary LIVE Wax Museum – 6:00-7:00pm
A Peek At Our Week in the Cherry Blossom Classroom!
A HUGE thank you to all of the families that attended our Breakfast Club this morning! It was so nice to spend some time with families and friends before our school day began. We enjoyed joining conversations and hope the All About Mom and Dad papers made you smile! And a huge thank you to everyone for making my birthday special as well! My heart is full today!
This week we talked about weather! We learned that weather is what we see outside, and that it can change throughout the day! We also learned that temperature is the way it feels outside. We briefly dicussed different types of weather and will continue to do so all month long as we fill in our March weather graph. What type of weather do you think we’ll have the most of this month?
We also talked about the water cycle this week, learning big words such as: collection, evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. We started a science experiment in our room that can show us all of the steps of the water cycle, and we’ll keep talking about this cycle next week as we take a deeper look at clouds.
What have the 5 year olds been up to in our mixed age classroom?
This child is working with the Trinomial Cube. She has practiced building the cube in the box and on the lid, and is now working with the pieces of the cube on the table.
This child is composing large numbers with the Golden Bead material in our classroom. We break numbers down into units, tens, hundreds, and thousands and then the child can use the bead material to build that number in a concrete way.
This child is using the moveable alphabet to write words without pictures. We were focusing on making “at” and “in” word families with known words and nonsense words.
This child has been working with individual sandpaper letters and is now working with the sandpaper letter blends to practice connecting letters together while writing in cursive.
This child is working with our 3 part cards. 3 part cards include a control card with picture and word, a picture card, and a word card. The child will lay out the control cards, then match the pictures cards to the control cards, and finally match the word cards. We use 3 part cards in the Language, Geography, and Science areas of the classroom to build upon our focus lessons.
International Festival News!!!
The Cherry Blossom Class will be studying the continent of AFRICA for the International Festival. We’ll be diving right in after Spring Break so make sure your child signs up for the country that they would like to represent by Friday, March 18th!
A Peek At Our Week in the Cherry Blossom Classroom!
“Congratulations! Today is your day. You’re off to great places! You’re off and away!
You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’ll be on your way up! You’ll be seeing great sights! You’ll join the high fliers who soar to high heights!
Wherever you fly, you’ll be the best of the best. Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.
Oh, the places you’ll go! There is fun to be done! There are points to be scored. There are games to be won.
You’ll get mixed up, of course, as you already know. You’ll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go.
So be sure when you step. Step with care and great tact and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act.
And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed!)
KID, YOU’LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!
You’re off to Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting.
So… get on your way!
– “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!’ by Dr. Seuss
Dear Parents,
Thank you for assisting us with a fun, silly, wonderful, fantastic week with your child! This book brings tears to our eyes as we think of all the amazing places this group of children is going to go! We love your kiddos!
– Ms. Tonya & Ms. Sam
Peek Into Next Week!
Focus Topic: Weather and Clouds
Letter of the Week: Ww
Number of the Week: 16
Important Dates:
March 11: Breakfast Club!
March 24: Elementary LIVE Wax Museum – 6:00-7:00pm
A Peek At Our Week in the Cherry Blossom Classroom!
We continued learning about Our Earth this week. We focused on land and water forms, such as lake, island, cape, bay, gulf, and peninsula. We also talked about what would we would see if we could cut the Earth in half. We found out that there are different layers inside the Earth. The inner core, the outer core, the mantle, and the crust!
We also continued our study of habitats this week, focusing on the ocean, the savannah, and the desert. We participated in a science experiment with Ms. Sam, introducing us to the different zones of the ocean. We were most interested in the Twilight Zone and a special animal – the Vampire Squid! We watched a special Octonauts episode to learn even more about the Vampire Squid.
Enrichment Spotlight – ASL with Ms. Emily!
Ms. Emily was so excited to hear that we were learning about habitats! She told us a story about forest animals, all with ASL! Then we discussed the story we saw her tell and practiced signing with her! It was a wonderful ASL lesson this week!
Peek Into Next Week!
Focus Topic:Dr. Seuss!
MONDAY: Wear Crazy Socks!
TUESDAY: Wear a Hat!
WEDNESDAY: Dress Wacky!
THURSDAY: Wear Green!
FRIDAY: Dress like what you want to be when you grow up!
A Peek At Our Week in the Cherry Blossom Classroom!
Happy Valentine’s Day! Our week started with a Valentine’s Day celebration. We wore our pajamas, voted for what movie we would like to watch, enjoyed and sang Encanto, and enjoyed some special treats! A huge THANK YOU to our parents that donated supplies for our fun celebration! We can’t wait to do this again!
Our new Focus Topic is Our Earth and we learned so many new things this week! We introduced the globe this week, and talked about the equator, Northern Hemisphere, and Southern Hemisphere. We also learned that our planet is made up of land, air, and water and that is what living things need! Preschool lesson introduced us to some different habitats and we started a new book to bring home! We can’t wait to share all we’ve learned about habitats with you!
Enrichment Spotlight – Science with Mr. John!
This week we made hypotheses about buoyancy with Mr. John and experimented with sinking and floating pop cans!
A Peek At Our Week in the Cherry Blossom Classroom!
The Cherry Blossoms had a very busy week this week! We excitedly learned about DINOSAURS! We talked about different kinds of dinosaurs, learned big words such as: carnivore, herbivore, extinct, and palentologist, and matched dinosaurs to their skeletons. One of our friends brought a dinosaur book from home and read it to us!
This week we also talked about Valentine’s Day! We hope that you enjoyed all of our special heart crafts that were brought home!
A Special Visit from a Dental Hygienist!
Ms. Taylor from Dr. Pollock’s office came to visit us on Wednesday. She talked to us about how to take care of our teeth by brushing for 2 minutes twice a day, flossing, and using mouthwash! And then we were able to surprise her with how much we knew about Grow Foods and Sometimes Foods.
Enrichment Spotlight – Library with Ms. Cat!
Ms. Cat taught us about hibernation and migration this week during Library. While we loved the books and songs she shared, what we loved most was meeting her cockatiel Ginger! Since our class loves birds SO MUCH this was a very exciting visit with Ms. Cat!
Peek Into Next Week!
Focus Topic: Our Earth and Habitats
Letter of the Week: Dd
Number of the Week: 14
Important Dates: February 14: Valentine’s Day – Pajama Day & Show and Tell
A Peek at Our Week in the Cherry Blossom Classroom!
It may have been an unexpected short week (Hello Snow!) but we still managed to pack a lot of learning into three days!
We wrapped up our study of Healthy Bodies by talking about BONES! We talked about skeletons – ours and other animals. We learned the names of some of our biggest bones and discussed the important work that bones do, like keeping our bodies upright and protecting our organs.
February Holidays!
We learned about two February Holidays this week – Chinese New Year and Groundhog’s Day. We made tigers to celebrate the Year of the Tiger and learned all about shadows with Ms. Sam. We were VERY interested in shadows, which we think may need to make a come back in the lesson plans very soon! Next up is Valentine’s Day!
Recess Fun!
Recess was super fun this week! We practiced our kicking skills in the gym on Monday, played in the snow on Tuesday, and had fun throwing and catching on Wednesday!
A Huge Cherry Blossom Welcome to our New Student!
Stay warm! Stay safe! And enjoy all of that snow! See you next week!
Peek Into Next Week!
Focus Topic: DINOSAURS and Valentine’s Day!
Letter of the Week: Uu
Number of the Week: 13
Important Dates: February 14: Valentine’s Day – Pajama Day & Show and Tell
A Peek at Our Week in the Cherry Blossom Classroom!
We continued our study of Healthy Bodies this week by learning about Internal Organs. We really had a lot of fun learning about what happens inside of our bodies and the special jobs our organs do. Ask your child about the brain, heart, lungs, stomach, kidneys, and intestines. I am sure they would love to share what they learned with you!
We also continued our study of Food Groups during Preschool Lesson with Ms. Sam. We put together a fun Food Groups book so we can talk all about food groups with our families at home!
Happy Half Birthday to our summer birthday!
Enrichment Spotlight – Art with Ms. Varela!
Ms. Varela introduced us to a type of art called “figure 8’s”. We used sharpies to create our shapes, markers to color our shapes in, and then oil pastels over the markers. We really enjoyed this project!
The Birds Found Our Feeders!
Peek Into Next Week!
Focus Topic: Bodies: Skeleton and Muscles; Chinese New Year; Groundhog’s Day
Letter of the Week: Kk
Number of the Week: 12
Important Dates: February 14: Valentine’s Day – Pajama Day & Show and Tell
