End of Year Fun!

CIRCLE/LANGUAGE ARTS      I introduced the concept of homonyms.  Using pictures, they were able to give 2 definitions of one word that sounds the same.   In another game we used our dictionary.   I would recite a definition of a word. Then, a student would identify the word and name the initial consonant. They loved the challenge! Using our songs, we reviewed the days of the week and months of the year. We did an alphabet review game of the letters and their sounds.

MATH      We did a group time activity using a math puzzle. The children practiced identify numbers and sorting.  Coins, coins, and more coins! We counted our year long collection of tzadakuh. Earlier in the year we voted to donate the money to Children's. They were proud to do that mitzvah.

SCIENCE      Using celery, water, and food coloring, we demonstrated how a plant absorbs water. The end result illustrated how the water flows through its veins. They were amazed by the results.  Please ask the children about our rainbow made with milk and food coloring!


SHABBAT   After reading the book about Joseph, we discussed various themes that included the following: families are special, forgiveness, and everyone is special in their own way. This week, we talked about Chai. We explained that it means life, good luck, and the number 18.  To wrap up the lesson, each child was presented with a Chai necklace wishing them good luck in Kindergarten.

ART      Our alphabet caterpillars are complete. The children were proud of them and were sent home today.  It was a great way to practice writing the entire alphabet. To coincide with our  Shabbat topic, we created Joseph's coat of many colors using tissue paper. The children spent time on their gift and card for Father's Day!  They are wrapped and in backpacks. Alphabet soup was created by cutting, pasting, and selecting foam letters.

BOOKS/SONGS    Baseball from A to Z (Spradlin), Alphabet Rescue (Wood), Alphabet Soup (Banks), Joseph and his Magnificent Coat of Many Colors (Williams), The Best Father's Day Ever (Loomis), A Wild Father's Day (Callahan),A Father's Day Thank You (Nolan), Alphabet Soup (Banks), Countdown to Kindergarten (McGhee)

CELEBRATIONS      We had our final visit from Mother's Nature.  She presented Under the Sea. Once again, the children were enthralled the entire time. A huge thank you goes to our fabulous P.T.O.  Thanks to Isabel's family for the delicious birthday cupcakes. Thank you to all of our parents who attended our Portfolio Party. The children were thrilled to show off their "books".

REMINDERS      The last day of school is Monday, June 6. Our picnic will be held on Tuesday, June 7 at Miami Riverview Park. If it rains, there will be no school.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK   After reading our books on Father's Day, I asked the children what present could they give Daddy that would cost no money. One child promptly replied, "love"! My heart melted.

Gardens and Umbrellas

CIRCLE/LANGUAGE     We acted out the following words: grumpy, groaning, growling, grunting, grouchy, gobbling, and guzzling. Another fun activity was a game using beginning sounds. I hid a letter inside an egg and they had to find the picture with that beginning letter. They did awesome. Individually, the students dictated to me what makes them grin. Their answers were entertaining!  After reading, The Story of Feelings (Berkner), we role played many emotions. Also, we role played appropriate ways to communicate our feelings. As a group, we did several sequencing activities.

MATH      After reading the book, Making Graphs by Nechaev, we made our own graph by picking our favorite g food....graham crackers, green salad, granola, or grapes. Grapes were the favorite! We practice one to one correspondence when we wrote numbers on our gumballs.

SCIENCE   We are growing green grass in honor of G week! The children "wrote" their beginning letter of their name in the dirt and we sprinkled grass seed on the letter. The children are thrilled with the results and monitor their grass daily.  Our potato grew a potato! One child discovered a potato growing out of our potato.....hysteria ensued and our "scientists" were full of questions.

SOCIAL STUDIES      Using the map of the United States, each child picked 3 states they wanted to visit while on our classroom "bus". The page will be in their portfolios.

ART      We adorned a gumball machine by adding numbers and color. Children designed a garden complete with grass. Umbrellas were made with coffee filters and pasted on paper with "glitter" rain. Golf ball painting was used to paint U's.

BOOKS/SONGS      "The Great Green G",   Busy in the Garden (Shannon), Trouble Gum (Cordell), Gerties Gorilla's Glorious Gift (De Rubertis), Good Nite Gorilla (Rathman), Jewel the Unicorn (Dussling), My Red Umbrella (Bright), Babar's USA ( Brunhoff), Something from Nothing (Gilman)

CELEBRATIONS      We celebrated Israel's 63rd birthday with the entire school. There was a magician who performed and a parade of Israel flags designed by each classroom.  Thank you to the P.T.O. for the magician. The children thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it!   Thanks you to the P.T.O. for the final visit from the Schoolhouse Symphony. Their "shows" are always so age appropriate and the students look forward to it.

REMINDERS      There is no school on Monday, May 30...Memorial Day. Portfolio party is June 1 at drop off. Our end of the year picnic is on Tuesday, June 7. It is at Miami Riverview Park in Loveland. Details will be in backpack soon!

QUOTE OF THE WEEK     I was talking to one of the girls about moving on to kindergarten and being in school all day next year. She replied, "I don't want to grow up. I want to play!"  As we were eating a snack, one student proudly stated, "Elves are real...they make my favorite cookies!"

Extracts, Eggs, and Elephants

CIRCLE/LANGUAGE ARTS      The letter E was introduced using Handwriting Without Tears. We continue to practice with word families and the students are progressing beautifully. We had a special reading time with the "bigs" in the library. They relish the attention from the big kids.  We had a return visit from the 5th graders. This activity was an extension of the "bullying" puppet show. Their activity is in their bags. Individually, the students transcribed E words and put them into envelopes.

MATH      We practiced writing numbers 1-20 on a number train. To coincide with E week, we spied the numbers eight and eleven on a worksheet. This is a great exercise in visual discrimination.

SCIENCE      We discovered a robin's nest with 3 eggs on the play set outside. Needless to say, the kids are beyond excited. So, I brought the exploration inside and we are learning all about robins and how they care for their eggs.(How convenient that we are studying E this week) Friday morning, the children discovered that 1 egg was missing. We spent a great deal of time looking for "evidence" and speculating what happened...one child said a starling stole the  eggs, a boy added that a crook came, and one said that a fox jumped the fence.  We used extracts to explore our sense of smell. The children smelled peppermint, vanilla, raspberry, and lemon extracts and were asked to guess the smell. We concluded the activity by reading The Sense of Smell by Schuh.

SOCIAL STUDIES   We talked about the "age" of Israel (63). Using the map, we located Israel and identified the Mediterranean Sea, Negev desert and the Dead Sea.

SHABBAT      Yom Haatzma'ut was the focus of our Shabbat. Israel's birthday, flag, and weather were discussed.

ART     The children were very excited about their Mother's Day gifts. The children worked hard on creating the special gift and card.  The  children created crowns to wear at our Yom Haatzma'ut celebration next week. We created a "mosaic" Elmer elephant to coincide with the book. We painted the letters of the alphabet for the Preschool Art Show.

BOOKS/SONGS      "Everybody Likes E", Robins (Posada), Robins and their Chicks (Tagliaferro), "First Comes the Egg", The Enormous Elephant Show (Charlesworth), Elmer and the Rainbow (McKee),
Nosy Rosie (Keller), Mother's Day Surprise (Krensky), Are You My Mother? (Eastman), Sammy Spider's First Trip to Israel (Rouss)

CELEBRATIONS     The children are asked to wear blue and white for our Yom Haatzma'ut celebration next Tuesday! Thanks to all the dads who participated in Daddy Drop-Off.  The event was enjoyed by all.  A huge thank you goes out to the P.T.O.   We welcomed Mirah this week. The class went out of their way to be inclusive and attentive to her.

REMINDERS      Next week is sharing....the children may share whatever they would like including toys! Look for the tags attached to their bags.  Wednesday, June 1 we will have our Portfolio Party at drop off.  We will distribute the end-of-the-year portfolios and have a breakfast snack. It is very short and sweet!

QUOTE OF THE WEEK       While 3 girls were swinging on the tire swing, I asked them what they were talking about. They replied, "the ten commandments!"  It's good to know they are listening!

Passover Celebration/ Letter I

      MATH    We used rulers and worked in pairs to measure inches. They have a "book" in their backpacks that we used to introduce the concept. We also reviewed oblongs, octagons, and ovals.

SCIENCE     Insects were explored all week! We identified insects by counting 6 legs and 3 body parts.
We did an  experiment using rock salt and table salt to melt ice. We compared and discussed our results.

CIRCLE/LANGUAGE ARTS    The letter "I" was introduced using Handwriting Without Tears. After reading The Very Lonely Firefly, we practiced sequencing using story cards.

ART      Besides finishing our Passover projects, we constructed ladybugs complete with pipe cleaner legs! Pom pom inchworms were assembled on "leaves".  We dished out ice cream sundaes made of cotton balls, rainbow sprinkles, pom poms (cherries), and paint (syrup).

BOOKS/SONGS      Colors on Insects (Salad), Ice Cream (Cooper), "I Like Ice Cream", Passover Magic (Schotter), Pounds, Feet, Inches (Rourke), and all our collection of Passover songs!!!

QUOTE OF THE WEEK     After our Seder on Tuesday, I asked one child if they enjoyed the program,she responded, " it was a blast!"  One student actually came up to me and said, "thank you for all the Passover "stuff" like the programs (Haggadahs)! What a joy it is working with your children! When reviewing octagons, ovals, and oblongs, I drew an oblong and asked them to name the shape. One child yelled out...."a hot dog"!

Oceans and Passover

CIRCLE/LANGUAGE      The  letter "O" was introduced using Handwriting Without Tears. After reading the book, Octopus Opposites (Blackstone), we practiced opposites. After reading the book, Oh, Look (Polacco), we practiced sequencing. Individually, I spent time dictating letters. They did very well especially having no visual clues. Also, I did another story prompt with each child about ocean treasures. They will be posted in the hall next week. The sharing went very well. The children love to be "on stage" while presenting their sharing.

MATH      We used wikki stix to build numbers. As always, they enjoyed the hands-on activity. During our "o" activities, we review oblong, octogon, and oval shapes.

SCIENCE      We continue to monitor the progress on our "growing" carrots, yam, and potato. The students never tire of  watching the growth. To further our learning about whales and walruses, we did an experiment with Crisco and ice. They placed one hand directly on ice and the other hand on Crisco that was on top of the ice. This demonstrated blubber and how it insulates. We ate a science experiment! We did a taste test and sampled foods that were bitter, sweet, salty, and sour. We explored the sense of taste and parts or our tongues.

SOCIAL STUDIES    When learning about ostriches, we found Africa on the map and talked about the climate and habitats.

ART      After making walruses and whale, we continued with ocean life by making oysters out of paper plates. We constructed an ocean/seashore scene complete with a treasure chest that corresponded with a portfolio page. Owl faces were made using paper plates, cupcake liners, and feathers. We are spending a lot of time on our Passover projects which include placemats, pillows, and Haggadah covers. The children are looking forward to showing you at our Seder.

SHABBAT      We finished Moses and the Ten Commandments and are spending a great deal of time on Passover. We are using a wide variety of books and songs in our learning.

BOOKS/SONGS      "Zig Zag", "It's Only Me", The Owl and the Pussycat (Lear), Ostrich (Lunis), Oliver's Must Do List (Brown), Sleepy Owl (Pfister), Miracles of Passover (Hanft), What's Opposite (Falconer), Had Gadya A Passover Song (Chwast), A Taste For Noah ( Topek), The Matzo Ball Boy (Schulman)

CELEBRATIONS   We celebrated Alexis's 5th birthday with a yummy ice cream treat! 
 
REMINDERS      Our Seder is Tues., April 12 at 8:30 a.m. in Mayerson Hall. Daddy Drop Off is Friday, May 6th. The Preschool Art Show is May 11 from 5:00- 6:30.

THANK YOU       Thank you to the moms who helped prepare our Seder pillows. I truly appreciate your time and energy!

QUOTE OF THE WEEK      When discussing the 10th commandment, we defined the word envious. One student proclaimed that envious means jealous. Then, another student chimed in by saying that's how Cinderella's step-mother felt!

Kites and Walruses

MATH      We played bingo to practice number recognition from 10 -20. As part of K week, we practiced "subtraction" using Kix cereal. They were given a number to count and given a number to eat. Then, they would count what was left! We build a wonderful web using yarn. This activity practiced number identification.

SCIENCE     Koalas were our focus in Science. We talked about their habitats, food, and behaviors. We built an ocean in a bottle!! We talked about bodies of water....puddle, creek, pond, river, ocean. We located water on the map and concluded our lesson by demonstrating the ocean movement with oil and water in a bottle.

SOCIAL STUDIES    We located Australia on different maps and talked about climates. We located oceans and rivers on the map of the world that corresponded with our science activity.

CIRCLE/LANGUAGE      The letters K and W were introduced. Individually, I worked with the students as they created Beginning-Middle-Ending stories. They have made such progress.  We continue to review opposites and rhyming/word families.  We completed a portfolio page entitled "If I Had Three Wishes...".  Using the newspaper, each child was a letter detective as were practiced beginning sounds. A child's dictionary was used in a vocabulary lesson. We talked about how to use a dictionary.

ART      We had fun filling our groggers with sand. They liked to do a pattern of colors. Kites were cut and painted using "symmetry"---putting paint on one side and folding paper. There were oohs and aahs when they "opened" the kites.  We practiced our cutting skills when we made koalas our of hearts. Blue whales complete with a "spout" were made with lunch bags. Walruses were painted and adorned!

BOOKS/SONGS      "The King of Karate", If I Were A Kite (Wax), The Most Beautiful Kite in the World (Spalding), Koala and the Flower (Murphy), Purim Surprise (Simpson),Koalas (Hoft), Koalas: Habitats, Lifecycles, and Food (Leach), Follow the Water from the Brook to the Ocean (Dorros), Walruses (Weber), Watermelon Day (Gottlieb), "Who, What, When, Where"

SHABBAT      Obviously, we spent a great deal of time on Purim! This week and next, our focus is the Ten Commandments. To introduce it, we made our own Moses "doll" this week. As always, Laura does an exceptional job relaying the information in a fun, appropriate manner.

THANK YOU    A huge thank you to Rockwern 5th graders and Jen Rubin. The performed a puppet show in our classroom about bullying. The children were enthralled and enjoyed having input at the end.  A huge thank you to Debbie for providing us with cupcakes. We decorated the cupcakes for a belated "C" week activity.

CELEBRATIONS     Thank you to our drivers for our field trip to Season. The children enjoyed making the residents smile. They sang beautifully and were very engaging.  Purim was such a celebration. The children paraded for the entire school and they loved the attention.

REMINDERS   Our seder is scheduled for Tues. April 12th in Mayerson Hall at 8:30 a.m.  Sharing begins in 2 weeks....any Passover related item.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK     After complimenting a child on his strength while putting up chairs, he told me it was his karate muscles.