Specials are Spot On
PreK/K March News
Library Media
This month, with Mrs. Flannery, kindergarten students celebrated Read Across American week by learning some biographical information about Dr. Seuss and participating in two Seussical centers. One center allowed the students to explore his books and do some coloring and the other let the students practice scanning QR codes to listen to some of his work on SafeTube. We are now moving on to reviewing library call numbers further with a few call number sorts. Students are doing a great job and will be ready to start using the entire library by the time they are in first grade!
With Mrs. Flannery and Mrs. Hill, students participated in the following read alouds:
Bear and Bunny by Daniel Pinkwater
Have a Look, Says Book by Richard Jackson
One Fish, Two Fish by Dr. Seuss
More bears by Ken Nesbitt
Story county, here we come! By Derek Anderson
100th day worries by Margery Cuyler
Somebody loves you, Mr. Hatch by Eileen Spinelli
A valentine for Ms. Vanilla by Harriet Ziefert
The thank you book by Mo Willems
Clever Jack takes the cake by Candace Fleming
Marvin K. Mooney will you please go now! By Dr. Seuss
I wish that I had duck feet by Theo. LeSieg
Giants are very brave people by Florence Parry Heide
Horton hatches the egg by Dr. Seuss
Sad, the dog by Sandy Fussell
Don’t push the button by Bill Cotter
The dragon’s cold by John Talbot
*Please note: The spring book fair will be held this week from March 13-March 17. If you can't make it in, you can shop online at http://www.scholastic.com/bf/memorialelementaryschool31
If you have any questions in regards to your child’s library experience. Please don’t hesitate to contact us or locate more information on the library webpage.
Mrs. Flannery and Mrs. Hill
Art
For the past few weeks, the preschool and kindergarten students have been exploring the use of watercolor paint, and rulers. We learned that a ruler can not only measure something, but it is also a useful drawing tool, for making perfectly straight lines. We also tested out to see if the ruler could make straight lines go in different directions. We drew our lines up and down, side to side, and diagonal. What happened when we made our lines connect into a work of art was so exciting. We made pictures of NOTHING! We discussed and learned that not all artists create works of art that actually look like something we can recognize, and they call it ABSTRACT art! This type of art is imaginative and special, and we only draw lines, shapes and colors but nothing else!
Once our ABSTRACT drawings were complete, we used watercolor paint and learned that these special paints love water! We tried to use water to help the paint SPREAD, and focused really hard while painting on the INSIDE of our shapes. We were such careful artists! Our paintings became so vivid and colorful!
Miss Pinto and Miss Fausette
Music
This month, preschool music class had an animal theme! We sang a song about a silly goat who likes to eat various colors of clothing, pretended to make owl sounds to “wake up” our voices, and re-enacted the finger-play about monkeys who jump on the bed! We also sang an extended version of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” in a picture book about a family of bears.
Kindergarten students have started to work on identifying long and short sounds. They love to play the “echo game”, where we take turns clapping or tapping a long-short pattern for the class to echo. They learned two new songs and games to practice clapping rhythm: “Cut the Cake” and “Button You Must Wander”. As you can imagine, “Cut the Cake” was especially popular! They continued to practice high and low sounds with “scarf dancing” and a lesson where they acted like a star (high in the sky) or a starfish (low in the ocean) in response to music. Other songs we learned this month included: “Old Mr. Rabbit” and “Cobbler, Cobbler Mend My Shoe”. As always, please email me with comments or questions.
Mrs. Maldonado
Physical Education
As mentioned in our previous newsletter, the first 2 weeks of February we finished up a beach ball unit with the children. The remainder of the month we spent time with movement, hand- eye and foot- eye activities. Station centers were set-up and children rotated from one activity to another. Stations included jump roping, hula hoops, ring toss, stacking cups, bowling and jumping sticks.
We also introduced shuffle board to the children. It is an excellent hand- eye coordination activity and the children loved it. The children continued to work on their fitness, muscle strength, flexibility and coordination. You would be very impressed by your child’s improvement since beginning of the year.
Coach Boscarino and Coach Ruel
The Specials Team
Email: rflannery@easthamptonct.org
Website: www.easthamptonps.org
Location: Memorial School, Smith Street, East Hampton, CT, United States
Phone: 8603654020
Facebook: facebook.com/MemorialElementarySchool
Twitter: @EHPublicSchools