Room 11 Newsletter
September 10 - October 7, 2019
Integrated Learning
- making skin color play dough
- sibling graph
- ME color code
- puppets
- hand pin punch
- painting paper plate faces
- brown and white egg experiment
- plaster birthday cake art project
- birthday month graph
- singing the "Macarena Months"
- birthday cake candle numbers (1 to 1 correspondence)
- balloon sorting and patterning
- making cupcakes in a sensory box
Science
Pre-K students explored their five senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste to make observations inside and outside of our classroom. Your children loved making music with our wooden sound tree, identifying different scents, using binoculars to observe the wildflower garden and playing with kinetic sand and play-doh. We are also learning about primary and secondary colors. We started by reading Mouse Paint by Ellen Walsh, and mixing primary color icing to make secondary colors. Next we will read Purple, Green, and Yellow by Robert Munsch. Some of our centers include mixing color filters on glasses, sorting by color, writing and drawing about color, and color mixing. Ask your child if they can sing the primary color song! In addition to our classroom activities, we have also begun planting in our brand new garden beds! Ask your child what their class planted!
Literacy
In Literacy, we will learn the letters "Tt", "Ll" and "Jj" We will read books about these letters, brainstorm words that start with their sounds and do lots of fun centers about each letter!
Ask you child what sound these letters make and see if they can come up with a word that starts with that sound. Some of our centers include:
- Toothbrush painting
- T pin punch
- Playing with turtles in the sand
- Patterning with tools
- T BINGO
- Triangle collage
- Playing the triangle and tambourine
- Jumping
- Jack-o-lantern face matching
- jewel patterning
- Jingle Bell counting
- Lacing
- Legos
- Letter printing
- Legume sorting
- Light bulb copycat
- Lettercise
Art
Welcome to Art! Pre-K comes to art once every rotation for 30 minutes. The first day we went over the rules and how to participate at centers. We are all P.A.L.S in the art room. We give our friends Personal space, we are Always kind, we Listen and follow directions quickly, and Share the supplies.
Social Studies
- family portraits
- "roll an emotion" game
- emotion interview with a friend
- playground rule bookpage
- class scavenger hunt around Lamplighter
Environmental Science
Please help your nature explorer to have a safe and fun time outdoors by wearing athletic shoes (not sandals) and easy care clothing to school daily!
PreK students are actively exploring our outdoor education areas, learning to observe colors, smells and sounds in our new raised bed and wildflower gardens. We will also cross the ring road to our bird observation site and our Lamplighter creek habitat.
Learning to cooperate, how to be respectful of nature and to be responsible for their own actions are goals for our students all year.
Drama
The theme in Pre-K this month is “All About Me” so we’ve been using the five things we need to play pretend (head, arms, legs, voice, movement) to show some of our favorite things, such as animals and food. Did you know that an ice cream cone can go “woof”? Did you know that you have to use one arm to make an elephant’s head? This is some of the fun we’ve been having. Continue the fun at home with your child’s other favorite things and have them concentrate on head, arms, legs, voice, and movement.
Music
We are off and running in Music Class!
PreK is beginning their study on the importance of a steady beat in music and practicing those beats using body percussion and rhythm instruments.
Spanish
P.E.
Welcome to Physical Education with Mrs. Seeds! Your child will have P.E. in the EC Gym for 30-minutes at least twice a rotation. Good athletic shoes are a must for participation, so check your child's calendar and make sure they are dressed and ready for P.E.! We have started this week with classroom expectations to lay the foundation for playing and learning in a safe and respectful environment.
Woodworking
Students were eager to visit the woodworking shop. They were able to tour the shop and learn about classroom rules and safety procedures. We briefly introduced a few of the tools they will be working with this year. Students had the opportunity to explore different centers around the room. They will begin their first project soon.
Media Center
The students in Pre-K enjoyed visiting the Media Center for the first time and meeting Mrs. Vermillion and Ms. Palefsky. We read The Book That Jake Borrowed and talked about the importance of taking care of books, how to tell if a book is a library book by the barcode and call number, and how librarians can help us find books we want to read.
Technology
Students will begin the school year exploring beginning sounds in words and 1:1 correspondence with our good friend, Osmo. Osmo is an interactive iPad based app that allows the kids to interface with characters and activities on the screen using tactile number and letter tiles and white boards. We will also begin our coding curriculum by playing a cooperative group coding game geared towards our September theme, All About Me!
Innovation
The beginning of the year is all about getting comfortable in the Maker Space. We will be learning the rules and procedures of the Innovation Lab and will get acquainted with the materials. Students will have an opportunity to tinker, free explore with our first Genius Hour, and learn about the importance of perseverance.
Ask your child about...
- What color do blue and yellow make when they mix?
- Can you say "hello" in Spanish?
- What is your child's name story? Please send us your child's name story so we can share it with the class. Ms. Wright is named Carrie because her mom loved Cary Grant and Mrs. Burdick is Sarah Elizabeth after her great aunt. :)
Important Dates
September 9 - Playground visit 2:30 PM
October 4 - Carnival
October 9 - Yom Kippur (no school)
October 14 - Indigenous Peoples'/Columbus Day (no school)
October 24 & 25 - Conferences (Please sign up on the PTC wizard if you have not)