Making Tamales

Eating real tamales after making our play-doh tamales. 

Finished tamales

Rolling out the "masa" dough for our tamales.

 Rolling up and tying our tamales.

Our tamales in the big pot ready to be "cooked"

Placing our rolled up tamales on the plate when they were completed.

Making the dough flat before placing on the corn husks.

Week of December 16-19, 2014

Week of December 16-19, 2013

Theme: Holidays and Christmas Around the World

No letter of the week of show and share

Dear Families,

Thank you for your help at our Holiday party. I think both parties went really well and all of the children had a great time. 

This week we will be doing some Holiday inspired activities. On Monday we will be doing activities inspired by the Polar Express. We will be working on writing, finding letters to make holiday words, listening to holiday stories and working on listening for syllables in words. Last week we worked on measuring objects using traditional and non traditional activities. On Monday we will continue by using the balance scale to weigh objects and compare the weights of different objects. On Wednesday we will be celebrating Christmas Around the World with the whole preschool. The children will have the opportunity to visit the different preschool classrooms and learn about how different countries and cultures celebrate the holidays. On Thursday it will be Polar Express Day at school. We invite all of the children to either wear or bring their pajamas to school for a fun-filled day before the holiday break. 

Reminders:

December 18-Christmas around the world

December 19-Polar Express Day, wear or bring your pajamas to school.

December 21-January 5th-Holiday Break

January 6th-Return to School

I am in the process of transferring the pictures to the class blog site, so as soon as I am able to successfully transfer them all I will let you know they are posted.

Week of December 9-12

Week of December 9-12, 2013

Theme: My Detective's Tools

Letter: R

Dear Families,

This week, as children continue to think and act like detectives, they will learn about tools that detectives use to gather information. Children will use a balance scale to compare the weights of objects, using the words lighter and heavier. they will use connecting cubes to compare the lengths of items, using the words shorter and longer. And using containers of various sizes will learn to use the words more, less, empty, and full. 

Learning Together:

• Together, explore the capacity of kitchen containers of various shapes and sizes. Fill two containers with water or rice, and ask your child to guess which container holds more. Then measure the contents of each one.
• Read to your child "the Three Billy Goats Gruff," "the Gingerbread Man," or a similar story in which the characters solve a problem. Talk about the problem in each story and how it was solved. 
• Cook or bake a food item together, and invite your child to help you measure the ingredients.

Special Activities:

December 10-we will have a special visitor that will show us how to make tamales. This correlates to our story which talks about how to make a recipe using different types of measurement: "I Like Making Tamales." She has a Mexican heritage and will share some artifacts from her culture. We will also have a special Mexican inspired snack at snack time that day.

December 11-Special Letter Snack-Sean

December 12-Class Holiday party-all parents are welcome to attend and participate in the festive events. The a.m. party will be 10:00-11:00 and the p.m. party will be 1:15-2:15.

Week of December 2-5, 2013

Week of December 2-5, 2013

Theme: I'm A Detective

Letter: G

Dear Families,

This week, as we begin a unit titled "Let's Investigate," children will learn to think and act like detectives. This week's lessons will provide children with opportunities to learn about and use their senses. Children will use their senses of sight, hearing, touch and smell to gather information and answer questions. They will also be introduced to tools, such as scales and magnifying lenses, that help detectives gather information.

Learning Together

• Place a variety of items, such as a marble, a cotton ball, a lemon, and a crayon, in a paper bag. Have your child use his or sense of touch an smell to identify the items without looking in the bag.
• Together, play games of "I Spy." Say clues such as "I spy something in this room. It is red and soft. What is it?" Take turns giving clues.

Before the Thanksgiving Break the afternoon class got the opportunity to watch the third graders practice their holiday concert. This week on December 3 the a.m. class will also have the opportunity to watch the third grade production of their holiday concert.

Special Activities:

Letter of the Week Snack G: Dylan Heestand

Star of the Week: Myrrah Shaw

Holiday Break: December 23-January 5.

December 6, 5-8 Holiday Shoppe and Book Fair-Hilton Elementary