Pizza Week and Read Across America Day!

Read Across America Day was a day of celebrating our favorite books and characters. We wrote a book about ourselves. Please stop in to see it!!

We have a new pet in our classroom, "Climber Goldie Cutie". We conducted a study circle about gerbils and named him by class vote, although the children all know that they can give him a nick name.

He has captured our imagination!

The "pizza restaurant" had many interested participants. The cash register was very popular, as were the boxes of pizza and menus.

Pizza Week was quick and fun. We made a pizza from the dough to the cheese, and it was enjoyed by all. We painted "pizzas", read about pizza, and looked at money and made our own "money".

Words We've Heard:

"I'm making pony money"

"where's the journal? I mean gerbil?"

in the "restaurant" "I just flip it over and it's ready!"

"This is tiring!"

Until Next Time,

Michele

Solar System Week III

We're back in our rocket ship and ready to finish up with our study of the solar system! The children created beautiful images of planets with bright colored chalk, wrote a book of "Discoveries" that began with the lead statement "I discovered....." and constructed moon rocks with our student teacher. The rocket ship now has a "back door" which makes it a bit easier to get in and out of. We've read the book Not A Box which helped us to think about our use of imagination and cooperation to make our rocket ship. We had an interesting button sorting activity with our Tuesday student teacher, also.

The children are spending quality time at the tables to begin their mornings, then heading out to other corners of the room. Elaborate imaginative scenarios are still the name of the game, and the children are working to incorporate eachothers ideas so that the group works together happily. We're seeing such growth in the group dynamics and social skills of the prek4's!

Words We've Heard:

"the rocket ship is trembling! That means it's taking off!" (as children shook the sides of the rocket ship)

"let's go back to candyland! 5-4 3-2-1 start off!"

Until next time,

Michele

BLAST OFF!!

The prek 4 classroom has been the topic of conversation for the whole school as we worked together to construct our rocket ship. After going to the drawing board and brainstorming our ideas; with duct tape, cardboard, and lots of imagination our rocket ship is launched!

We revisited our plans on Tuesday, and decided that the ship needed more decoration, a name, "Parker School Rick Rack Rocketship" and more glitter.

Rick Rack Rocketship will be in the classroom after our break, if you'd like to visit. The children are actively using the space for play and quiet time, and we have had snack inside as well as story times. We've decided to keep our solar system theme going for the week after break, as the children are very engaged and not ready to let it go.

We baked star cookies this week, and invented new planets. The children embellished the ship every day with maps and their own planetary designs.

We shared a very relaxed pajama party with the PreK3's on Friday. What a wonderful, imaginative week.

Words We've Heard (this has been the best part of our Solar System Study)

"the fans are for when we get to the hot planets"

"I'm not shooting I'm breaking up meteors"

"that's the space mission I was talking about"

"you have to get in! There's a meteor coming!"

"it's a ground control space radio"

"ting a ling a ling and it blasted off"

"guys, I'll go out into space"

Until Next Time,

Michele

Day Sky Night Sky

Day Sky Night Sky Week is here! We began our study our solar system this week, and the children have embraced the science and art and games and books enthusiastically!

Our art projects included constructing our own solar systems that included a moon, planet earth, stars, and sun. The children enjoy labelling the planets that are hanging in the room, as well as exploring the pictures at the science table. We glued and glittered crescent moon shapes, and enjoyed painting at the easel.

Our songs reflect our knowledge of orbits, the sun, planet earth, and space travel.

The biggest news in the classroom, as you might know, is the construction of a "rocket ship" using our imagination. We had a brainstorm session (everyone's ideas had value and needed to be listened to) and decided on colors (purple, gold, sparkly, diamonds) and how many children could fit inside (all of us). Hearts were a favorite decoration idea, as well. The ship will have a name, and a lot of pictures that represent the children (their ideas).. What an exciting time to be a preschooler! We are impressed with the knowledge of the children, as well as their enthusiasm in working together to make this rocket ship.

We made a polymer, "gak" , together, and found it has many properties, stretching, breaking, sticking together, crumbling apart.

We had a guest reader, Karen, who shared the book The Little House (it has the phases of the moon in it!)

Middle School students have been helping out during our P.E. time, and last week they constructed an obstacle course for us.

We went around and around the gym, following directions and moving through hopping, rolling, throwing, and kicking. fun!

We'll continue with our theme next week, and include some talk about space travel.

Words we've heard:

"you have to be there at 6-8-8"

"you're our first guest, so you get to eat under the table!"

some vocabulary words that your child might define for you:

orbit, gravity, meteor, comet, and a question they can answer,"What is the only star that we can see in the daytime?"

Until next time,

Michele

TEDDY BEAR WEEK!

Teddy Bear week gives us a chance to share toys from home, talk about something that we love, and write and cook a bit. We made "teddy bear" biscuits and constructed sandwiches for our picnice.

The children made posters of their toys, tracing them and talking about their histories. We measured our bears against the door, where we had earlier measured ourselves.

We found out that if we filled up a square with unifix cubes we could make "100"!

Words We've Heard:

"No, no, you have to be TOTO."

"All right, all right, I'll be TOTO. Just for today."

"You can be the wicked witch, Michele"

Until Next Time,

Michele