Ottoe Skippers
Happy Valentine's Day! We will be exchanging Valentine's tomorrow and on Monday. We have friends who have been sick or out of town and would like to give them an opportunity on Monday to pass out their Valentine's. This week we decorated bags for the Valentine's to go into and students will be able to take those home tomorrow. We ask that candy is not passed out with the Valentine's. There are still a few class lists outside the door if you have not picked one up or you can simply just sign the 'from' space for 22 students and 2 teachers:) Ms. Leah has been working with the students on an art project. They have made 'Love Butterfly'. The students trace, cut out and glue two hearts together. They then decorate them and write down what love is to them. You can check these out in the hallway. Students have been busy working in their phonetic letter books, word family or sight word books. We have also been playing the banker's game. This teaches units, tens, hundreds and thousands numbers and amounts. Students learn how to count large amounts, build numbers and large numbers. Conferences are next Thursday and the following Friday. The sign up sheet is still outside the door. If you are unable to make it please let Ms. Leah or myself know and we will schedule a time that works for all of us. Spanish (a little late) Pre- school January Updates: In January we have continued with the unit “ La Familia”. I showed them different families pictures where they have been able to recognize and say each member of the family in Spanish. Also, I tried to mix the class with different activities such as songs, dancing, flash cards and books. A few weeks ago, I started reading Spanish books to them as “Las Hermanitas” (It is about two sisters), “La Familia” (the Family), and “Rubia y los tres osos” (the blond girl and the three bears), these books have a small vocabulary in Spanish. These books are easy for the kids to understand the story. This month, we are going to continue with the family members unit, and I will add the topic “Saint Valentine’s Day” as a cultural topic. If you have any comments or questions, please don’t hesitate to write me at: [email protected]. Ximena Campos. Spanish Teacher Monday is our 100th day at school! We will be celebrating by bringing in coins and counting them to try to get to hundred. If we get to 100 we will start again and see how many times we can make 100 total coins not amount. On Friday of next week (February 5) we will have a pajama day to celebrate as well. Happy 100th!
This week Ms. Kathy visited us from the ICPL and read to us about bears. She always brings in entertaining books and sings songs with the students. She had cut out bears and an activity paper for the students. She will be here again next week. Thank you Constantine for coming in and reading on Wednesday. The students enjoyed the great picture books and descriptions. Some new works include Valentine themed practical life and a puppet stage. From a copy paper box the students helped paint a stage for our finger puppets. Now they can explore with their imaginations different acts with the puppets. We also have a book making work with stickers and markers to gear up for the book fair. One of our topics of discussion during line time was expectations during clean up. As we reviewed the expectations we made a list and then turned it into a chart with pictures for students to be redirected if the need reminders of what to do to help keep clean up. This is posted above the dirty laundry basics. The students found a stink bug in the classroom and it quickly became of great interest. Olivia wanted to take it home so we put it into a Tupperware container with plastic and were reminded by the students to put holes in it so the bug can breath. She took it home and the brought it back today. We found out that it could fly and it tried to escape three times. One student exclaimed " You're a mean bug" In reply another said "Don't say that. If you do it will want to fly away." "You're a nice bug." You're a nice bug." Students who will be going to kindergarten next year went to the kindergarten room during lunch. They enjoyed conversation and sharing while eating their lunch with old friends. Stay warm, Shayne The week started out really cold but then warmed up enough for us to go outside. We celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday by thinking about how to make the world a better place. We discussed how MLK Jr had a dream and shared our own dreams of how to make the world a better place. These thoughts are posted on clouds outside our classroom.
Thank you Bonnie, Jennifer, Caroline and Papa Craig for coming in a reading. This is a volunteer opportunity for family members to come in a read to small groups for about an hour. Please let me know if you or another family member are interested. A couple of new works include a artwork of stringing pasta onto thread. The students then have the option of painting the newly made necklace. We also have new puzzles on the shelves. Students worked in literacy groups this week for the kindergarten readiness activity. This consists of vocabulary skills, learning reading techniques and reading a simple repetitive book together. Also, today, all future kindergartens visited Ms. Michelle in the kindergarten room for half an hour. She read a story and did a few activities with them. It was a great experience. Yesterday we mixed borax (cleaning substance) with hot water and food coloring to make snowflake crystals. We discussed snowflakes having six points and what they are made from. Students took home their crystals today. Spanish Estimados Padres, We have just started the unit “ La Familia” which will incorporate review material on greetings, polite words and new material on Spanish vocabulary as “padre”, “madre”, “abuela”, “abuelo”, “hermana” and “hermano”. Since my last update, we have continued singing and listening Spanish songs that helped the kids to remember the Spanish vocabulary. Also, we started talking about their family members. In this exercise they have answered questions about their families such as how many brothers and sisters they have, and they had to answer using Spanish words. This month we are going to continue adding new vocabulary about family members. If you have any comments or questions, please don’t hesitate to write me at: [email protected]. Ximena Campos. Spanish Teacher Conferences are coming up in February. (February 18, Thursday, evening and February 26 Friday all day) I will either post a sign up sheet out side the door or set up a google document next week. We will also be celebrating the 100th day of school. Part of this celebration includes bringing in 100 coins (pennies, nickels, dimes, quarter, variety) next week. We will count the coins and donate them to charity. More details to come. Have an awesome weekend:) Shayne The students are definitely back into the routine of the classroom. We started our week with some colder weather and one day of not being able to go outside one day. We ended our week with a visit from Mr. Ryan who taught us about water colors and water pencils. See some pictures below of students painting with water colors.
This week we have been talking about Martin Luther King Jr. We have read books and had discussions during line time about him, peace, kindness and being fair. Students have an opportunity to paint peace plates. We also listened to the beginning of his speech. Some new artworks include marble painting and chalk pastels on construction paper. Marble painting includes two marbles in a pan with paper with drops of paint on it. The marbles are then rolled around and spread the paint on the paper in a cool design. This week for our cooking projects the students made orange juice. With this funky juice squeezer they placed the orange pieces inside, squeezed it and then poured the juice into a cup. It was a great independent work. Some other works include animal tracks work, longs chains on the bead cabinet, 6-10 fraction circles, ways to make 10 (which is a beginning addition work), shoe tying and parts of a volcano. Each week I am taking small groups and working on specific skills in rotation with the literacy groups. This week in our small groups we learned consonant blends of sh, ch, th and wh. We thought of words that begin with the sounds, played a matching game and did a worksheet. Coming up in the next month 100th day of school - we will be celebrating this day in some fashion but have not made an exact decision Valentine's day - We do exchange paper Valentines between our friends in our class. We ask that you do not include candy or treats on the valentine's. More information will be given closer to this date. Have a great weekend and stay warm:) Shayne Welcome Back !
Happy New Year! Students have been busy getting back into the classroom routine. With the new year comes several new works in the classroom. We have new practical life, snowman felt work, new puzzles, an addition work and compound word building work. Thanks to the Piper family we have a coffee grinding work that is very popular. It also makes our room smell like fresh ground coffee:) Thank you to those who brought in coffee beans. Will can use more next week if anyone is willing to bring in a bag of whole bean coffee. Since we have so many students (16) moving on to kindergarten next year I have begun kindergarten prep group work with the students in the classroom. In the past I have taken groups out of the room and worked with them, but this year we will just complete these small group sessions in the classroom. This week we did literacy groups. All week we have been enjoying the snow outside. We have a few shovels and have ordered more through Small Hands. This morning we did not go outside since it was raining and so cold. Thank you everyone who answered the six question survey through survey monkey on 'makers'. Unfortunately I am not able to put a name with the answers. I did not know this at the time of sending out the survey. I would like to invite anyone who would like to show something that they make to the class to email me [email protected]. Please tell me what you would like to share, about how long it will take, what we would need to provide (if necessary) and when. It would be best to do this during work time which is any day between 9-10:30 and 1:30-2:30. There is a little flexibility in the morning. Monday can start earlier as we do not have a special on that day. There were some really great answers that would be amazing to share with the students. Email me if you have any questions. Thank you A BIG thank you for ALL of the classroom gifts. We took some line time this morning to open them and be excited about the new items for the classroom. We immediately added new puzzles, stapler, scissors, and coffee grinder to the classroom for work time.
This week we made sugar cookies. Some of you may have received one. We mixed two batches of dough, allowing for everyone to have a turn with something in the process of making the dough. The dough was then refrigerated through lunch and rest. With the first batch we rolled it out, used cookie cutters and our new prints to put designs on them. We then added our homemade sprinkles made from sugar and food coloring. With these the students ate one and then bagged up the other to give away as a gift of kindness. The second batch the students again rolled them out and used cookie cutters, we then frosted them and put sprinkles on them. These were given to faculty and staff at Willowwind. Thank you Jenn for coming in and reading to us:) Wishing all of you Happy Holidays! See you next year! We have had a busy and productive week. The students have been doing really well during work time. We talked more about kindness and feelings during line time. We talked about how we can get hurt on the outside and the inside by hitting or words people say. We did an activity with a sponge where we put it into water and it soaked up all unkind things people say and then squeezed the sponge to represent the tears from being hurt. So even though there is not a mark on our body words can still hurt.
Thank you Lisa for coming in to read. Thank you Bonnie and Scott for sharing Hannakah books and more with the students. Each student was given a dreidel to take home. On Monday, we started making our books with our reading buddies. There were some things that went well and others that need to be changed. Instead of everyone meeting at once, we will be having students meet with their reading buddies at different times. This is because not everyone was able to connect to the internet and retrieve the pictures that the preschoolers had taken. A couple of new works include calendar, nut cracking and holiday cards. We have a calendar up in our reading corner for the kids to explore and it includes other language and math activities. The holiday card making has been really popular. Students may select a card and decorate it with foam shapes, tissue paper and markers. Today we mixed sugar, water and food coloring to make sugar crystals. These will form over the weekend and the students will be able to see the results on Monday. Mr. Ryan came in and we painted our pinch pots that we made last month. He explained how he fired them in the kiln and that they changed to a white color. I would like to ask that students not bring in toys from home. We are having an issue with toys being brought in and then they cause a distraction during line time and work time. Students are welcome to bring in something that they made or something from nature that they would like to share. Thank You Have a great weekend! anishHappy December!
In the spirit of the Holiday season we have been singing Winter Wonderland, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph, Jingle Bells, Dreidel song and more. We have also been talking about kindness and different ways we can show kindness. During line time I ask them to share ways we can be kind. Some responses have been 'Asking to work with someone', 'Being a friend', and ' Helping to clean up'. We have a kindness song that will be put onto our felt board. It goes like this: (to the tune of 'where is thumpkin') Kindness matters Kindness matters Every day in every way Care for one another Share with one another Let us all be kind today This week the students had a chance to make fruit salad with Ms. Betsy. They cut up different kinds of fruit and mixed it with yogurt. It was a multiple step process and the they had to follow directions on cards. We have the winter felt body work out complete with snow pants, boots, hats and mittens. One of the art works is folding and cutting white coffee filters to make snowflakes. Spanish Queridos Padres, Since my last update, we have continued learning “The parts of the body” and have practiced the Spanish vocabulary playing, dancing and singing. One song that they are enjoying a lot is “ Mi cuerpo hace musica”, because they can dance and learn the parts of the body at the same time. This month we have just started an animal's unit, which incorporates review material on numbers and colors and new material on such things as the names of animals. We work a lot on listening comprehension. For example: If I’m asking the color of a horse, they will be able to say if it is a black or a brown horse. This gives the students a chance to speak, even if the color vocabulary has been temporarily forgotten. Also, soon I will introduce new activities and new songs. If you have any comments or questions, please don’t hesitate to write me at. [email protected]. Have a wonderful weekend. Go Hawks! Brrr Please be sure to send your child prepared for the colder weather.
Last week we did a taste testing work with four different kind of liquids. The liquids all had tastes for the different taste buds of bitter, sweet, salty and sour. It was interesting to see different facial expressions and reactions to the liquids. We now have a taste bud book work out on the shelf as well. We have new practical life, puzzles and sensorial works out. We started singing 'Down by the Bay' this week and will be learning a new Turkey song Five Little Turkeys Five little turkeys standing at the door One waddled off, and then there were four Four little turkeys sitting near a tree One waddled off, and then there were three Three little turkeys with nothing to do One waddles off and then there were two Two little turkeys in the morning sun One waddled off and then there was one One little turkey better run away For soon it will be Thanksgiving day This week we have been discussing animals and habitats. We touched on rain forest, forest, desert and arctic. There is a new habitat work out with animals for them to explore and match to their habitats. Thank you Betsy (and Milo) for bringing in her felt Thanksgiving story. The students sat attentively and listened while she presented it on the line. It is now available as a work for the students to tell themselves! It was great to meet with most of you last week for conferences. There was much laughter and praise for all the students progress. I want to thank all of you for having such wonderful and fun kids! The Harvest Feast sign up is now in a google docs and (hopefully) sent to you by email. I still have the sign up outside the door. I apologize for getting this out so late. Have a safe and thankful Thanksgiving! |
Shayne LanningMontessori Preschool Teacher
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