Week of February 25-28, 2012

Week of February 25-28, 2013

Theme: City & Money

Show and Share: Something that has a shape on it or is made with shape

Last week we had fun on the farm. We counted farm animals and spelled animal words with magnetic tiles. We made paper plate farm animals that we are hanging up in the classroom in our classroom barn. We also had farm animals in the rice table and a farm to play with. We talked about the different food products animals give us and made our own butter to put on toast.

This week we are moving to the city and using money. In the dramatic play area this week we are going to have a grocery store, so if you have any empty food boxes or cans at home please send them in during the week and we will add them to our grocery store. If you send in empty cans, if possible, could you please put duct tape around the open edge so that no one's fingers get hurt. Empty plastic containers will work too, such as those for margarine or yogurt. The children will have the opportunity to work at the cash register, shop for goods and find the appropriate coins to buy their purchases with.  We will also be sorting coins by type, matching coins to the appropriate piggy banks and digging for coins in the rice table. We are going to use clothes pins with coins on the end of them to match to a cardboard coin circle, this is a good fine motor activity to develop finger strength for writing and cutting. We are also going to be practicing making pre-writing shapes as these are important for all letter formation. We will be playing a coin matching game and then counting our coins. We will also be doing coin rubbings with paper and with aluminum foil. 

Below is a money poem that we will be saying at school to help us remember the coins and what they are worth.

Penny
Penny, Penny easily spent
Copper brown and worth 1 cent.

Nickel
Nickel, Nickel thick and fat
You’re worth 5 cents I know that.

Dime
Dime, dime little and thin
I remember you’re worth ten.

Quarter
Quarter, quarter big and bold
You’re worth 25 I am told.

We would like to welcome Richard to our morning class, we are so excited to see him in the morning.

For those children who will be going to kindergarten during the 2013-2014 school year there is a letter in your child's mailbox that will go home on Monday regarding kindergarten screening and registration. For the children who are entered in our preschool the registration is a little different because there are already a registered student in the district.

Week of February 19-21, 2013

Week of February 19-21, 2012

Theme: Farm

Letter of the Week: A

Show and Share: Feb. 21 Letter A

We had a great week celebrating Valentine's Day. We practiced different patterns using hearts. We sorted hearts by color, counted them and identifies which color had more and which had less. We practiced some fine motor skills by sewing hearts. We made two Valentine's crafts for those special people at home. On Friday we celebrated Valentine's Day  by passing out Valentine cards to our friends and eating some yummy snacks.

Next week we will be talking about the farm. We are going to sort and count farm animals. We are going to use magnetic tile letters to spell some farm related words. We are going to do some shape matching. We will also be working on matching colors to color words. We are going to be working on positional words when we construct our own farms. We will also be making some farm animals that are going to live on our school farm in the classroom. We will practice some fine motor skills by matching clothes pin legs onto farm animals. In the sensory table we will have rice and some farm animals for us to bury and find. 

Upcoming dates: No school Monday, February 18th, President's Day!

At this point I believe I have contacted everyone regarding parent/teacher conferences and scheduling or rescheduling a date and time. If you have not heard from me and would like to schedule a conference either at school or over the phone please contact me and I will work with you to set up a date and time.

Week of February 11-14, 2013

February 11-14, 2013

Theme: Valentine's Day

Letter of the Week: K

February 14th-Show and Share letter K

Special Events: Valentine's Day Party, February 14

Last week was a fun filled week of Robots. On Monday both classes got together with their third grade buddies and worked together to build robots. I believe everyone brought their robots home except for two. If you did not receive your child's robot home it will come home this week. We did several robot activities comparing robots by size and matching shapes on robots. We also learned about the 3D shapes: sphere, cylinder, cube and cone. We used gumdrop and toothpicks to construct our own 3D shapes. We practiced spelling color words with magnetic letters and made an R2-D2 robot for the letter R. In gym this week we worked with third grade buddies from a different class to work on jump roping skills. Hilton Elementary raised $2,000.00 for Jump Rope for Heart.

This week we will celebrating Valentine's Day. On Thursday I sent home a large piece of colored paper, please use this to wrap a cereal box and leave an opening in the container, we will use this to place Valentines day cards in so make sure your child's name is on it. We will be sorting hearts by color and counting them. We will also be practicing patterning skills with hearts. We will be working on writing when we make some Valentines day inspired cards and crafts.

On Valentines Day if your child would like to pass out cards to their friends we will be doing that at our class party. This party will be just for the kids as it will be smaller than others. When your child addresses their Valentines Day cards please have them sign their name on the card but do not put a child's name on them. At this age it is easier for them to pass out if each individual card does not have another child's name on it. We will be playing several Valentines themed games and will have a special treat for Valentines day.

For those parents who had not had a conference I will be contacting you to schedule a date and time. Thank you to the parents who came and participated in your child's conference.

Upcoming dates: No School Monday, February 18th-President's day.

Week of February 4-7

Week of February 4-7, 2013

Theme: Everybody Builds & Robots

Letter of the Week: R

Well with an unexpected snow day on Friday that means that all of the conferences that were scheduled for Friday, Feb. 1 will have to be rescheduled. I will contact that parents that this effects and I will reschedules days and times for conferences.

Last week we had fun building a variety of objects. We sorted shapes and then used them to complete houses. We used our imagination to make a book page about what we could build if we could build anything we want. We also did a shape matching game with buttons on a house shape. We had a measuring box with a variety of tools to measure with such as a measuring tape, ruler and blocks. We used these tools to measure a variety of objects such as crayons, pencils, scissors and a chair. 

This week we will continue our building theme and move to building robots. On Monday both classes will be getting together with their Third Grade buddies to design and build robots. We will also be working on graphing, sorting robots by size and matching shapes. We will also be introduced to three dimensional shapes: sphere, cube, cylinder and cone.  We will be constructing/building 3 dimensional objects using gumdrops and toothpicks. 

Just a reminder that there will be no school on Monday, February 18th for President's Day.