HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Post date: Feb 16, 2015 4:56:59 PM

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Chinese New Year Parade

Full and Half day Kindergartens together

10:45 - 11:00 a.m.

Parents are invited. You may meet at our classroom at 10:55 if you would like. Following the parade we will have a small celebration with little oranges or tangerines and almond or fortune cookies, and then the kids will go out for their regularly scheduled recess. If you would like to donate any of the above items, please let me know.

What a way to begin the week with so much rain and wind! Yikes! Happily, it didn't keep anyone from enjoying their time outside even though we've been getting a bit water logged. The weather break with a bit of sunshine was refreshing.

We started the week with our new focus letter, "V". We brainstormed all kinds of things that begin with that letter and sound: our classmate Vala, our new heart word "very", the color violet which can also be a flower! Violins in a van is the picture prompt that helps us remember our wonderful letter "V". We then moved on to the letter "B" and did the same thing.

Our Monday read aloud was a book called, Moses Goes to a Concert. It's about a young man, named Moses, who is deaf but goes on a field trip and gets to experience a concert through the vibrations he feels through a balloon. The special percussionist is also deaf and helps the class to understand that she worked hard to accomplish her dream of becoming a musician. Our next story was about a little mouse named Verdi who lived in a theater under the stage and dreamed of becoming a musician, too. He has so many instruments he wants to try out but has to do a lot of experimenting to find out which one is just right for him. Be sure to ask your child which instruments he tried and which one was the best fit for him!

In our journals, we continue to write about our weekend news on Monday and then we add different topics or sometimes do "free writes" on topics of our very own choosing. Our writing focus on Tuesday was about our favorite thing to play or do when we are outside. On the days they get to do free writes, we have some very creative stories going!

Math

We started our week with some number line games and activities. We are working at recognizing numbers from zero to twenty and then being able to put them in order just like on a number line. We are even getting good at using our "x-ray eyes" to figure out numbers if they are turned face down. Putting numbers in order from one to ten became one of our stations that we can play with a partner. We are also learning about pennies, nickels, and their values. We're working to add sums to five and be really confident with our calculations. We've also started working a bit more with our subtraction skills.

Social Studies

For our study of Chinese New Year, we finished watching Big Bird in China. We also worked on finishing our dragon masks for the parade next week and our plum blossom art projects to welcome Spring.

We had another Movement Group on Thursday morning with the Occupational Therapist and the kids had a wonderful time learning some new stretches and yoga poses to go along with songs and stories.

We ended the week with a wonderful Valentine's Day celebration. A huge thanks to Peter and Stephanie McCleery for planning it and to Connie, Rebecca and Mikaela for helping with it. I am so grateful for all of my wonderful parent volunteers and the parent support. I couldn't do this job without you!

Have a wonderful weekend!