March 2015 Newsletter

The month of March has been very busy in our classroom. The children are loving being able to finally go outside and enjoy the warm weather! We’ve also learned all about Dr. Seuss, Space, Ohio, and about North America!

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During the first week, we had fun learning all about Dr. Seuss. The children enjoyed reading “ The Cat In The Hat Comes Back” with Ms. Kim and making a “Cat In The Hat” craft that you might have seen displayed on our bulletin board in the hall! The children also enjoyed learning about rhymes, making their own “plane ticket” after reading “Oh The Places You’ll Go”, and eating “ green eggs” made using green pudding and vanilla wafers.

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In week two, we enjoyed learning all about space. The children enjoyed learning all the names of the planets in our solar system, learning all about the phases of the moon, and all about constellations. We also learned first hand how astronomy telescopes for children works! The volunteer said that they had to click here to get one to show us firsthand. The children also enjoyed making their own constellations using stickers with Ms. Kim! The children even asked me to keep the space books on our Science shelf for an extra week, because they were so interested in learning more!

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We learned all about Ohio during week three! The children learned all about our state bird, the Cardinal. We learned that the male cardinals have bright red feathers, while the female Cardinals have more brown, dull feathers in order to camouflage themselves in order to protect their nest. We also learned that our state capitol is Columbus, and that our state tree is the Buckeye Tree.

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For St. Patrick’s Day, the children also enjoyed making a shamrock craft with Ms. Kim during Preschool lesson, and reading a story about how St. Patrick’s Day became a holiday. The children really enjoyed decorating their shamrock with Lucky Charms!

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During the fourth week of March, we began our discussion about countries and continents. We began by discussing that a continent is a large “chunk” of land that is divided up into smaller “ pieces” called countries. We then took out the map of North America puzzle and began to name some of the countries. We learned all about Mexico, Canada, and The United States, and I even discussed with the children a trip to Haiti that I took several years ago. The children are enjoying learning about new cultures and customs of other countries, and they have been asking great questions!

Enrichments (Ms. Kim)

Music

In music, the children spent time getting familiar with the piano (keyboard). They listened to different high and low sounds, animals, sounds in nature, and musical instruments. Sometimes Ms. Lisa played a sound on the piano, and the students had to guess what the sound was. The children practiced listening for the differences in high and low sounds by playing the Cat and Mouse game. “Mice” came out to play when high sounds were played, and “cats” came out to play when low sounds were played. Ms. Lisa explained that the high sounds on a piano are on the right, while the low sounds are on the left. The children got to play both white and black keys on the piano.

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Science

During the first half of the month Mr. John did experiments with objects that either sank, floated, or did both! First we made hypotheses on whether or not a crumpled piece of construction paper would float or sink in water with dishwashing soap. The piece of paper floated in plain water but sank in the soapy water. The paper was able to sink to the bottom because the dishwashing soap breaks the strong bonds in plain water.

Next we made hypotheses on whether or not raisins would sink or float in a glass of ginger ale. When the raisins were dropped in, they floated and sank repeatedly. Mr. John called them “dancing raisins”! Ginger ale and other soda pops have carbon dioxide bubbles. These carbon dioxide bubbles attached themselves to the raisins and brought them to the top. Once the bubbles popped, the raisins sank to the bottom.

For the last experiment, we looked at hot and cold water. When a jar of cold blue water was placed on a jar of hot red water, the water mixed and turned purple. When we switched the jars and put the jar of hot red water on top of the jar of cold blue water, the water did not mix or turn purple. Why? The hot water must be on the bottom for the water to mix because hot water is less dense than cold water.

Art

For our first art lesson, we looked at Dr. Seuss’ artwork. Ms. Michele read the students Fox in Socks to show how imaginative Dr. Seuss was. Then the children created their own imaginative or “dreamy” piece of art by drawing with oil pastels.

Next Ms. Michele taught a lesson on mosaics. She explained how Romans made mosaics using many tiles. The pictures created by the tiles were made to remember important events that had taken place. So, the children thought of things that were important to them and then created mosaics of these things by gluing down square pieces of foam.

 

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For our last lesson, Ms. Michele discussed the artist James Demski or “JIMBOT”. This artist has created artwork with many robots. So, the children had fun drawing their own robots with oil pastels. These robots did many things like cutting grass, cleaning, and cooking, is one of the advantages of technology now a days, we got machines that clean for us, and some even clean the air in our houses as the air purifiers from https://www.bloomingair.com/air-purifier-reviews/vava-3-in-1-true-hepa-filter/.

This coming month, I encourage you to review with your child what they have learned. Take time to look at the night sky as a family and look for some constellations. Try a new Mexican restaurant together. Read Green Eggs and Ham together with your child and point out the rhyming words.

Maria Montessori said that,”To aid life, leaving it free, however, that is the basic task of the educator.” I consider it my joy and privilege to aid the lives of your children, and in turn, I enjoy watching them thrive in the freedom they have to learn and discover!

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