A Peek At Our Week| Ms. Courtney’s Classroom|Week of January 6th

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Classroom: Polar Animals

Over this past week, the students learned about polar animals. We learned that male Emperor Penguin take care of their baby chicks while the female penguins go to the ocean to eat. The students also learned that polar animals have a layer of blubber or fat to help keep them warm in the arctic temperatures. Multiple students wanted to research on their own about polar animals and then shared what they learned with the class!

These students are waddling like penguins with their chick eggs!

A Peek Into Next Week: Ocean Animals

Kindergarten:

This week the kindergartners learned about subtraction. They learned that it means to take away a small number from a larger number. Here are some new vocabulary words they learned: minuend– “A quantity or number from which another is to be subtracted”, subtrahand– “A quantity or number to be subtracted from another”, and difference-“The result of subtracting one number from another.”

A Peek Into Next Week: Subtraction

Reminders:

Parent/Teacher Conferences-Friday, January 17th/NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS/ MLK Day- Monday, January 20th/NO SCHOOL

Enrichment Highlight:

For science this week, we discussed how polar animals have blubber that keeps them warm in the cold weather. This was demonstrated by filling a zip lock bag with shortening to create an insulated layer between a second zip lock bag inside, and having just a single zip lock bag. We stuck both bags in ice cold water and felt the difference. You could hardly feel the cold with the insulated bag!

Work Time:

These students are creating patterns with the knobless cylinders. They are enhancing their visual discrimination while improving critical thinking, problem solving, and short-term memory.
This kindergartener is working on the ten board. He is learning to recognize the quantity and the corresponding symbol and is practicing linear counting.

 

This student is tracing the Australia map puzzle. This work combines dexterity and geography by learning about the continent and strengthening the hand muscles.
This activity is floor scrubbing. Our student is strengthening her hand and arm muscles while gaining more concentration, independence, and a sense of order.

A Peek Into Our Week |Ms. Courtney| Week of December 9th

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Winter/ Holiday Crafts:

This week we continued talking about different traditions for Christmas and how people celebrate differently. We painted winter scenes, built creations with marshmallows and toothpicks, and made a surprise for the parents!

Kindergarten:

This week the kindergartners learned about currency. They leaned how money is used, and matched the coins and dollars to their amounts.

Reminders:

Christmas Break | NO SCHOOL | December 23, 2019 – January 6, 2020|Parent teacher conferences: January 17th

Enrichmment Highlight:

In art class, the students made pipe cleaner snow flakes by stringing the pipe cleaners with beads.

 

Work Time:

This student is working wtih the Geometric Solids. This work is to help the child be aware of solid geometric shapes forms around him and to refine the sense of touch.
This child is practcing weaving. The aim of this work is to prepare the child for sewing and tying shoes, while also improving concentration, organization, coordination, and independence.
This student is learning to write his name in cursive.

 

A Peek At Our Week/Ms. Courtney’s Classroom/ Week of December 9th

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Practice for the Christmas Show:

The students practiced extra hard this week for the Christmas show! We were all excited to perform for our parents and friends. I hope you enjoy the show!

A Peek Into Next Week:

Holiday/winter crafts

Kindergarten: Measuring in inches and centimeters:

This past week the kindergartners learned how to measure with a ruler in inches and centimeters. They even used measurments to create a monster!

A Peek Into Next Week:

Currency

Reminders-

Pajama Day!/DECEMBER 20th

Christmas Break | NO SCHOOL | December 23, 2019 – January 3, 2020

Enrichment Highlight

In music class, we learned about triangles and practiced our Christmas songs.

Work Time:

This student is working on the Number Rods. She is learning to match quantity to symbol and is refining her sense of order, coordination, concentration, and independence.

 

This student is practicing zipping. Zipping is an important care of self activity especially in the winter with getting ready to go outside in the cold.
This child is learning how to put the Trinomial Cube together while also getting an introduction into algebra and preparation for the formula a3+3a2b+3a2c+6abc+b3+3ab2+3b2c+3ac2+3bc2+c3.

A Peek at Our Week | Ms. Courtney’s Classroom | Week of December 2nd

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Classroom: Christmas Show Practice

For the next couple of weeks the students will be working hard to practice for their Christmas Show. They are all excited to dress up as Whos from Whoville for a Grinch themed performance. If you have any questions or did not receive Ms. Faith’s email or remind message with different ideas for costumes please let her know. The students will also be reading a variety of holiday books and doing lots of holiday crafts.   

A peek into next week: Holiday Crafts

Kindergarten: Addition and Multiplication

The past week the kindergarten students used the stamp game, dot board, multiplication bead board and the small bead frame to practice addition and multiplication (repeat addition).

A peek into next week: Measuring with a Ruler in cm and in – whole measurements

Reminders:

Rehearsal | All School Christmas Show | Cuyahoga Falls High School Auditorium | December 11 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm

All School Christmas Show | Cuyahoga Falls High School Auditorium | December 13 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm | NO AFTERCARE

Pajama Day | December 20

Christmas Break | NO SCHOOL | December 23, 2019 – January 3, 2020

Enrichment Highlight:

For science this week we learned that oxidation is when one molecule gives another electrons. We oxidized luminal using hydrogen peroxide. When the hydrogen peroxide oxidized the luminal it began to glow.Work Time:

Movable Alphabet: This child is practicing blending and forming words using the different letter sounds she has mastered “jet” “zip” “flag” and “ax”
Addition: These children are using the golden beads to discover that when you put two small numbers together (addends) you get a larger number (sum) and that this process is called addition.
Bead Board: This child is using the bead board to do static addition. It is a more abstract way to work with the decimal system. He is also familiarizing himself with the different categories: units, tens, hundreds and thousands by looking at it in a different way.
Multiplication Bead Board: This child is practicing multiplication in a way that will lead her to the memorization of the essential multiplication tables.

A Peek into Reading Group

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This was our last Mo Willams book for Reading Group. We read My Friend Is Sad. In the book, Elephant is sad and Piggie tries to cheer him up by dressing up as a cowboy, robot, and a clown, but this does not cheer Elephant up. It ends up that Gerald did not know that it was Piggie in the costumes and all he wanted was  his friend, not the clown, robot, and cowboy. Piggie jokes at the end that Gerald needs new glasses.

During the readings, the students listended to me read and repeated the words after me. We had discussions about how the characters were feeling in the book, and why Piggie would tell Gerald he needed new glasses. The group wrote responses to prompts such as, what they were wondering about and why the robot, cowboy, and robot didn’t cheer Gerald up.

 

The students are posing for the last reading group before the new year.

 

A Peek Into The Next Reading Group

-The studens will be starting the Junior Great Book series.

-The students will be listening to stories and poems.

-The students will participate in comprehension and evaluative activities.

A Peek at Our Week | Ms. Courtney’s Classroom | Week of November 18th and 25th

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Classroom: What I am thankful for

The past couple of weeks we talked about Thanksgiving and being thankful. The students shared what their families do for Thanksgiving and learned that we all have our own traditions. The students also reviewed why the Pilgrims and Indians ate a meal together. Each student shared what they were thankful for to create a classroom thankful turkey.

A peek into next week: Christmas Show Practice

Kindergarten: Multiplication

The past couple of weeks the kindergarten students used the stamp game to discover that multiplication is simple repeat addition.

A peek into next week: Multiplication

Reminders:

11/27 – 11/29 Thanksgiving Break | NO SCHOOL

Enrichment Highlight:
This week in Taekwondo the students practiced following muti-step instructions and left and right coordination by punching targets.

Work Time:

USA Puzzle: This child is putting the USA puzzle together while also learning the names the states.
Sequence Cards: These children are practicing the order in which events happen. First, you put toothpaste on your toothbrush. Second, you scrub your teeth. Last, you dry your face.
Cursive Chalkboard Writing: This child is practicing writing his name on a chalkboard. He is developing multiple skills involving his eyes, arms, hands, memory, posture and body control.
Movable Alphabet: This child is practicing blending and forming words using the different letter sounds he has mastered to write a complete sentence “The wig is on the pig.”

A Peek at Our Week | Ms. Courtney’s Classroom | Week of November 11th

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Classroom: Pilgrims and Indians

This week we talked about the Pilgrims and Indians.  The students learned that the Pilgrims came from England to our country for religious freedom.  We read books about what the Pilgrims experienced during their journey on the Mayflower and once they landed at Plymouth Rock.

A peek into next week: What I am thankful for

Kindergarten: Addition

This week the kindergarten students used the stamp game to discover that when you put two small numbers together (addends) you get a larger number (sum) and that this process is called addition.

A peek into next week: Multiplication

Reminders:

11/22 Fall Progress Reports

11/27 – 11/29 Thanksgiving Break | NO SCHOOL

Enrichment Highlight:
For science we mixed liquid glass with different metal salts to create a chemical jellyfish.
Work Time:
Sequence Cards: This child is practicing the order in which events happen. First, the egg cracks. Second, the chick pecks his way out. Last, the chick dries its feathers.
Table Scrubbing: This child is using many motor skills while also remembering the order and sequence of each action to successfully table scrub, which naturally leads to the development of concentration.
Short 4 Bead Chain: This child is practicing counting by multiples of 4. He starts by counting the chain and labeling it (4, 8, 12, 16) then he reads the multiples.

A Peek Into Reading Group

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The kindergartners have been listening to the book Waiting Is Not Easy by Mo Willems. In the story, Piggie tells Gerald  that he has a surprise for him. Gerald is excited but Piggie tells him he has to wait for the surprise. Elephant becomes impatient and does not want to wait anymore. Piggie tells him it will be worth the wait. After waiting all day, Piggie shows Gerald the stars and Elephant realizes it was worth the wait.

After the readings, we disscussed how Elephant was behaving while he was waiting and that sometimes it is hard to be patient. They drew a time that they had a hard time waiting, wote about what they wondered during the story, and why they thought Gerald was not happy about waiting, and then we made a  chart together as a group.

A Peek Into the Next Two Weeks

-The students will be listening to My Friend is Sad

-The students will be participating in group discussions

-The students will be participating in comprehension activities

A Peek at Our Week | Ms. Courtney’s Classroom | Week of November 4th

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Classroom: Food Groups

This past week we talked about the five food groups: fruits, vegetables, dairy, proteins, and grains.  The students learned about MyPlate which is a healthy guide that shows how much to eat from each food group every day.  As a group the children created a MyPlate chart and listed a variety of foods in each group. They also talked about how being active plays a big part of being healthy. The students learned that they should get at least one hour of exercise daily and eat healthy foods to live a healthy life.

A peek into next week: Pilgrims and Indians

Kindergarten: Addition

This week the kindergarten students used the stamp game to discover that when you put two small numbers together (addends) you get a larger number (sum) and that this process is called addition.

A peek into next week: Addition

Reminders:

11/ 14 Operation Christmas Child | Packing Party

11/22 Fall Progress Reports

11/27 – 11/29 Thanksgiving Break | NO SCHOOL

Enrichment Highlight:
In art class the students made a group art piece with a long line because they learned that a line is a dot that went on a long walk.
Work Time:
Stamp Game: These children are doing static addition (a sum without exchanging) problems using the stamp game. They are practicing addition at a higher level of abstraction.
Triangle Box: This child is exploring different ways to use smaller triangles to make larger triangles.
Cursive Chalkboard Writing: This child is practicing writing an uppercase cursive M on a chalkboard. She is developing multiple skills involving her eyes, arms, hands, memory, posture and body control.

A Peek at Our Week | Ms. Courtney’s Classroom | Week of October 28th

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Classroom: Bats

This week the students learned about different types of bats from micro to mega and even found out that there is a bat that is as small as a bumblebee! The students also discovered how and where bats sleep and that they find their food through echolocation. They were amazed to discover that bats are also mammals like them because they: have fur all over their bodies, born alive, drink mothers milk and are warm blooded. The students even learned that bats are nocturnal and that when we are sleeping they are eating all of the insects like mosquitoes, beetles and ants helping humans by stopping the spread of diseases and insects from eating crops.

A peek into next week: Food Groups

Kindergarten: Addition

This week the kindergarten students used the golden beads to discover that when you put two small numbers together (addends) you get a larger number (sum) and that this process is called addition.

A peek into next week: Addition

Reminders:

11/ 14 Operation Christmas Child | Packing Party

11/22 Fall Progress Reports

11/27 – 11/29 Thanksgiving Break | NO SCHOOL

Enrichment Highlight:
During music class this week, we learned some new listening songs about telling the truth and being kind. During the songs we got to play tambourines and dance along with the music while still using our listening skills to do what the lyrics were telling us to do.

Work Time:

Ten Board: This child is being introduced to the names for the tens quantities “twenty”, “thirty”, “forty”…”ninety”.
Fabric Box: This child used a blindfold to feel each piece of fabric and match it to its pair.
Shoe Tying: This child is learning how to care for himself while developing a sense of independence and refining his fine motor skills and coordination of movements to successfully tie a shoe.