weekly update

Last week the children had a lot of fun learning more about Henri Matisse - his different styles during his lifetime.  They loved creating their own still life paintings using water color paints.

This week - we will wrap up our learning about Matisse - how he used scissors to create art.  We will also use scissors to create art and then use cookie cutters to dip in paint and spell our names on our art work.  We will display these on our bulletin board in the back of our room.  We will also try to make stain glass art by coloring on transparent sheets.  We will be working on another project, but that will be a surprise for families - sorry I cannot say anymore.  We will also talk about being thankful.  What does thankful mean?  We will talk about different things we are thankful for and create a thankful for book.


This year I am giving the children different BLOCK CHALLENGES -  so this week we will try to put blocks on shape mats to match the different shaped blocks on the mat.  We will also keep our I can build block cards out to give suggestions on different structures the children can build.

We will add sand in our sensory table along with animals, so the children can use their imaginations at the sensory table.

We will start weekly jobs after the break so we have been talking about each job and modeling what the job expectations are. 

Reminder there is NO SCHOOL next week - Nov 19 - 23 for Thanksgiving break.

Conferences are Nov 19 & 20 a sign up genius link went out for sign ups - or call the main office to schedule one with Jeanne.

Thanks
Darcie

Books this week

Here are the books we will read at group this week.

Our new greeting

We are practicing this new greeting while entering our classroom. We are practicing this with an adult before giving it to a child for a job. All of these greetings can be done with a gentle touch. The children can say hello if they want but not a have to.

Feel free to practice at home.

Playgroup

Come join play group

Artist week 1

Our first artist went went well - the children loved exploring different ways to be an artist.  This week we will touch upon Henri Matisse - 2 days will be free art where the children can keep exploring on their own, but the other 2 days we will do a more structured Matisse art projects.  One day we will do a still life painting of flowers or fruit and the other day the children will cut out different shapes and create a mobile.

They have enjoyed playing on the light table and creating different shapes and "art" on the table.  The children have also loved playing with the water beads and oatmeal in our sensory tables.

I have been gathering data for Parent Teacher Conferences which will be held in a few weeks - sign ups will be posted soon.  Keep an eye out for them.

If you would like to come in a volunteer in the classroom an email went out to sign up.

Books for this week

We will read books about Henri Matisse's this week as well as feeling mad.

Nov newsletter

NOVEMBER - 

November brings us cooler weather, and learning about the artist Henri Matisse.  In three short weeks we will talk about different Matisse artwork and styles. We will continue to talk about mad feelings and strategies to use when we get upset.   Also, we will talk about being thankful and what we are thankful for in our life.  You can also talk with your children at home about things they are thankful for.

The children will become artist themselves and have the opportunity to use oil pastels, water color paints, mix paints to make new colors, still life painting, create paper mobiles, “stain glass art”, and finding their own artistic style.  We will read several books about Henri Matisse and look at his artwork to learn more about his life.  From what I have read Matisse started as a painter, created stain glass windows, and later in life when he got sick he used scissor to cut out shapes to create his artwork.

Other areas in the classrooms – our dress up area is back to a house area with babies and food.  Our block area will has big cardboard tubes to use for ramps, tree blocks and our community garden rocks from the open house the children created in August.  It will be interesting to see what they create in this space.  This month the children will get a chance to explore our light table using different shapes and blocks that go with it.  The children will also get a chance to explore our marble works and peg tower sets.  There are new fine motor  and math materials out as well such as big beads to lace, pattern blocks to create pictures, fruit counters, counting cookies, dominoes and more.

Our greeting song will be “Here Today” I will post words on the blog, and our new sign in method is matching their picture to their first name.  The children are working hard to recognize their name and the letters in their name. 

The 4-year-olds will be working in their handwriting books while the 3 year-olds will be creating letters with wooden pieces.  We will be working on how we hold a crayon using a 3-pt grasp.

Both classes have been working hard at creating classroom books to share with you in Dec at our Book/Author Celebration.  

Ms. Nancy and her husband Tom have been working hard at creating a few new things for our playground.  There is a new mud kitchen and soon to be car for the children to play on.  I am sure they will both be a big hit on our playground.  Along with all the fun we will have on our playground please dress your child in appropriate clothing so they are warm enough on the playground.  

DATES TO REMEMBER:

Thur Nov 1 -  PJ day with Ms Joy

Friday Nov 2 - Book Orders due

Nov 19 - 23 - NO SCHOOL – (Thanksgiving Break)

Nov 19 & 20 - Parent Teacher Conferences – (details will be out soon)

Dec. 20 - Author/Book Celebration (10:30 – 11:15) (2:00 – 2:45)

Dec 21 - PJ and short video day

Thanks

Ms. Darcie

Nov greeting song

Here is our November greeting song.

Science experiment

Growing a pumpkin in a pumpkin.

Books this week

This week we are reading about artist and feeling mad, angry, or frustrated.

Pumpkin Patch

photos

I am having problems getting photos on the blog - as soon as I get it worked out I will be posted more pictures.

Whats going on in October??

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins everywhere!!!

The month of October we will be talking about pumpkins and feelings.  We started our new sign in method for the month having the children identify their name on a pumpkin and put it in the basket.  We have several fun books to read about pumpkins and feelings…I will post pictures of them weekly on the blog.  We will continue to work on our “stretches” before circle and add a few new poses.  Along with our new greeting this month – Stand and Reach Up High.  I will also post words to the song on the blog.  We will also sing the 5 Little Pumpkins and use a prop to sing along with.  We will also watch different short video clips on you tube such as: how a pumpkin grows, fill your bucket, how does a seed become a plant and a couple of others. 

Our first week we will focus mostly on the life cycle of the pumpkin and all different types of feelings.  I have created a simple book – How is your Pumpkin Feeling and it has several different pumpkin faces for them to match happy, sad, mad, silly etc…  In our block area we will continue with our block challenge photo cards.  This is where the children try to copy the picture on the card and build the same structure with the blocks.  Also, in the block area the children will find items to create a pumpkin patch different orange pieces for pumpkins, brown thread and green strips of paper for vines.  For table work we will count pumpkins, do a pumpkin investigation where we will measure and draw our pumpkins, and each child will create their own Where is the Pumpkin book where the children will place the pumpkin on the page according to the spatial words on the page (example next to the tree, over the tree, under the tree etc…).  The children will also mix 2 colors at the easel from our book we read last week and paint different pictures.  Along with a couple of other fun art projects.  I added something new to the rice in the sensory table for the children to find…small candy corn and pumpkin erasers and orange gems!!  The children will also have a few other pumpkin items out in the room – pumpkin tic tac toe, pumpkin felt faces, and a gross motor activity in the classroom.  We will also go over the rules for our water table and open it at the end of the week.  Pam from the Burnham Library will also be here this week to share books with us in class.

Second week the children will have a pumpkin patch in the dress up area with pumpkins that they created from small brown paper bags.  We will read Spookley the Square pumpkin and create our own square pumpkins, and read How Full is Your Bucket and talk about how to be a bucket filler and create a classroom book.  The children will try to paint pumpkins at the easel.  Our classroom experiment will be trying to grow a pumpkin inside of a pumpkin  - fingers crossed it goes well.  Table work will be creating patterns, rhyming, counting pumpkin on ten frames, and measuring pumpkin cards.

Third week – This is a short week there is NO SCHOOL OCT 18 & 19!!!

We will try to create pumpkin faces using orange playdough and different items.  We will read the book Glad Monster, Sad Monster and create our own monster and put them into a class book.  We will work very hard to create our name on a pumpkin.  The children will cut on the line and assemble their name gluing each piece to create a pumpkin, with some teacher prep done ahead of time.  We will also do a pumpkin smashing activity – yes pumpkin smashing…the children will each take a turn to smash the pumpkin with a wooden mallet.

Fourth week – We will continue playing in all the areas from the previous weeks.  We will end our theme reading some of the fun pumpkin books and focus mostly on the happy feeling.  We will also read a couple of books about being the same and being different.  We will try to add celery in colored water to see what will happen.  If there is time we will try to create a pumpkin volcano.  We will take out the number mats with our playdough. Table work will be measuring how many pumpkin tall you are, classifying cards, sequence cards in order for the pumpkin life cycle, and draw a picture to tell me a story.

A full month of fun learning activities for the children to enjoy.

Darcie