March, 2015

Kate Case

This month was super busy for our classroom. Throughout the month of February we learned all about community helpers and Caldacott books! The children really enjoyed doing a variety of activities, having a special guest, and taking a field trip to the fire station.

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During the first week we lead a discussion about what a community helper was and what they do for us. We then brainstormed all of the community helpers we could think of and jotted our answers down on chart paper. The next day we did an activity called, “Helping Hands Writing Chart.” Each child was given a paper hand and was able to write out a community helper and what they do for us.

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The children were then able to decorate their hand and hang it on the wall. Over the next couple of days we talked about Doctors and nurses and what they do for us, tools they use, the different places they can work and the clothes they have to wear. We also went over the similarities and differences between a veterinarian and doctor. Also, during that week I showed the children how to address an envelope.

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The second week was all about police officers, fire fighters, stranger danger, and “stop, drop, and roll.” The I first book I read was a special book about police officers and what they do for us. We then added onto our web about some of the things we learned Ainsley said, “They have to have a partner so that they can be safe when they go out on calls,” Jackson said, “They have people that dress like us called detectives,” and Amelia called out, “If you need help and are lost you can go to them.” I loved hearing the children retain so much of the information! Throughout that week we learned how to “stop, drop, and roll” and played a game called “Below the Smoke.” With this game some of the children had to hold up a sheet and move it up and down like smoke and one child at a time had to crawl the proper way under the smoke. The last day we visited a fire station. The children were able to see all of the tools that they use on a fire truck, where they eat and sleep, their fire suits, and the different jobs that need to be done. It was a great field trip!!

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The third week we focused on Soldiers and how they help us and our country. We also had fun learning about teachers, principles, and Librarians. During this week the children had so much fun writing a letter to soldier and doing a variety of fun learning activities and crafts about our community helpers. We also watched a fantastic video on construction workers. After the video we led a discussion on the importance of blueprints, how important certain articles of clothing are for construction workers that keep them safe, and about the different machinery and tools that they use.

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The last week we focused on bakers, chefs, and what you need to have in order to own a restaurant. During this time the children learned that bakers have to be at work before the sun comes up so that people will have their breakfasts. They also learned that bread, rolls, muffins, cakes, and cookies come from a bakery; the different tools they use and what kind of education they require. We also talked about the restaurant business and the different types of restaurants that are out there. website branding is essential in every restaurant business by the way, since it serves as a tool to reach customers.

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During the month of February we had a special week where we focused on Caldecott books. We discussed what the award was all about and read a variety of award winning books such as Make Way For Ducklings, Snowy Day, The Little House, and Blueberries for Sal. We included activities and crafts that went along each book. I think it is so important to introduce these amazing and different books to the children.

Ms. Ashley’s Corner 

In music class this month, the children practiced using their soft, loud, high, and low voices to sing hello to their music teacher Ms.Lisa. Ms. Lisa played music on her piano and and had the children guess which character she was playing from the story Peter and the Wolf. The children were very surprised on how much they could remember and almost guessed all the them right. They were so excited. Then Ms. Lisa played sounds you would hear in everyday life, such as a phone ringing, rain, and even thunder. The children could not believe she could play all of those different sounds on her piano. Then, the children played cat catch mouse game. The mice had to come out of their houses when the music started and then when it stopped the cats tried to chase the mice back into their houses. The kids laughed so much and had so much fun. This game reinforced high and low sounds.

Art class this month was great and the children used their imagination to explore impressionism which is a 19th-century an art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists. They studied the artist Claude Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting. Ms. Michele even had a puppet of Mr. Monet to show the kids. She then taught the kids about how Claude Monet and showed the children some of his paintings of his work. The children then got to sit down and create their own impressionist painting using only their finger tips and paint and their creations were beautiful. They gave Mr. Claude Monet competition.

Science class this month was so much fun. Mr. John did experiments on sink or float. The first one was about to pop cans, one with sugar and one without. He then had the kids make an hypothesis on what they thought would happen. Much to their surprise, the diet soda generally floats. Why? Regular sodas are loaded with sugar, and that increases the density of the soda. Diet sodas have aspartame, and a lot less of it per volume. Kids have a lot of trouble with density as they often think that “light” things float and “heavy” things sink but with this experiment they were able to learn and determine that not to be true. They are scientists. The next experiment Mr. John did was sink or float with an unpeeled and peeled Orange orange. What orange will float and what orange will sink? The first time you put the orange in the bowl of water it probably floated on the surface, after you removed the peel however, it probably sunk to the bottom, why? The rind of an orange is full of tiny air pockets which help give it a lower density than water, making it float to the surface. Removing the rind (and all the air pockets) from the orange increases its density higher than that of water, making it sink. The children thought that was really neat in class and we encourage you to try it at home with your kids and let me teach you!

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