Hello Parents!
This week we will be revisiting our winter unit, now with a stronger emphasis on animals. We will be learning about migration (the seasonal movement of animals from one region to a warmer one), hibernation (when animals go into a dormant state), and adaptation (changing to survive in their changing environment). We will read books like When it Snows, Over and Under, Animals in Winter and Winter Lullaby. We will be sorting animals into the 3 previously mentioned categories, creating a classroom book about winter as well as doing some practice with one-to-one correspondence and shape characteristic recognition (does the shape have big curves, little curves, big lines or big lines). Our study on Chinese New Year/Lunar New Year was a lot of fun! The morning class was able to experience a “Lion Dance” as part of the Ray Lunar New Year celebration. We are so grateful for our parent volunteers who offered to read and be our classroom “Experts”! Have a wonderful week! Mandi Heiser [email protected]
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Hello!
This week we will be taking a break from learning about winter and talk about Chinese New Year. This year is the year of the rooster in the Chinese zodiac. We will be reading books that relate to China, Chinese zodiac creatures and the Chinese New Year holiday. We will read the books Noodle Magic, Jill and the Dragon, What the Rat Told Me, The Pet Dragon and The Runaway Rice Cake. Students will be creating some cool crafts including a Chinese New Year crown and a dragon puppet! In small groups, we will be working on letter recognition. This will be differentiated by students identifying letters by their sound, receptive identification of letters and the matching of letters. The other group will continue to work with shapes (identifying side, angles, lines and curves). During our math talk we will begin to compare numbers that we have previously explored (1,2,3,4,5). If your child has not come home with a book recently it is because they have not returned their library book. If you are wondering what they are missing, feel free to ask or e-mail me and I can let you know. Remember to read AT LEAST 2 books with your child daily! This makes such a huge difference in their academic future! Have a nice weekend! Mandi Heiser Greetings, I hope everyone has transitioned back into the school routine. This week, we are continuing to learn about what people do in the snow. We have read The Snowy Day, The Jacket I Wear in the Snow, Snow, No Two Alike, A Perfect Day and When it Starts to Snow. We will be graphing our favorite snowy day activities. We have been exploring snow through our insta- snow in the sensory table. This is “fake snow” is a polyacrylate that students helped make to play with in the classroom. It looks and feels like real snow! We also have been decorating snowflakes at the light table. The snowflakes are microscopic photographs of real snowflakes that the students can explore and decorate. Questions they can explore through this area: “How many sides does a snow flake have?”, “Do they look the same or similar? And How so”, “What do you notice about the snowflakes shape?”. We have completed some great art activities based around snow. One activity we finished last week included the main character (Peter) from the classic tale The Snow Day. Students painted with the snow paint used the book to see what types of tracks Peter made in the snow. After referencing the book, they created one type of track on their picture. This is a great way to discuss, recall and interact with literature! Students also created snowmen by using the letter of their name. Students first counted how many letter are in their name. Counted out the snowballs and then wrote their letters on the snowballs. They then glued them on and decorated them. This a great way to work on 1:1 correspondence and letter recognition. This week at small groups, we will be exploring and creating shapes. We will discuss sides, lines, curves and angles through hands on exploration. We will also be identifying what the main character in the Snowy Day, heard, saw and felt. Our letter of the week is U. Please send in your U pictures no later than Thursday. We also have started a “Good Citizen of the Day” board in the room. We have been talking about what it means to be kind and how to be a good citizen in the classroom. Each day, students are encouraged to look for good citizenship around them (such as: a friend helping them get their coat on, someone inviting them to play, cleaning extra well in the classroom….ect). They then tell the class how their peer was helpful and we will add their name and what they did to the board. This is a great way to encourage kind behavior and to help build good citizens of the w orld! Have a wonderful week! Mandi Heiser [email protected]
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May 2017
AuthorMandi Heiser is a Preschool teacher at William H. Ray Elementary in Hyde Park. Categories |