Dear Parents,
We are well into our Jazz unit now and the students really seem to love it! We have learned a lot about Louis Armstrong and listened to his music. Check out the awesome artwork students created on the board in the hall! We learned about trumpets and created jazz paintings. Students listened to the songs of Louis Armstrong and painted how the music made them feel with water colors. Then they added a trumpet on top. Students were introduced to scat through the book Jazz Baby by Lisa Wheeler. Next week we will dive deeper into Charlie Parker (Charlie Parker Played Be-Bop), Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane. Students will be introduced to melody, percussion, bass, piano and sax through the visual deconstruction of one of jazz saxophonist John Coltrane's most beloved compositions “Giant Steps”. We will listen to the song while we read the book. Our letter of the week is J. Please send in pictures by Thursday. We will be doing a math talk on the number 6 and comparing it the numbers we have already completed. Please remember to keep your child home is he or she is sick. Many students have been coming to school coughing constantly, with fevers or with stomach ailments. If your child is dealing with on of these issues please give them time to rest and recuperate. Students should not return to school unless they have been fever free, vomit free or diarrhea free for 24 hours! When they come to school sick, teaching is interrupted when we have to nurse them and also it is quickly spread to the other students (and teachers) and they become sick as well. Thanks for your understanding! Mandi Heiser [email protected]
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Dear Parents,
First of all, thank-you for all of your support to me and my family over the last week. I appreciate your understanding over the days I was absent. I am absolutely thrilled to work at a school with such supportive parents! I’m glad to be back with my students! For the next few weeks, we will be studying Jazz. This was a beautiful unit started by Ms. Jane a pre-k teacher that taught in room 413 for many years at Ray. She passed away last year, and we thought it would be a great way to honor her memory and celebrate Black History Month. We will be reading some great text that highlight the great musicians that have influenced this genre. We will be reading Charlie Parker played be bop, Jazz Baby, Mysterious Thelonious, and Ben’s Trumpet. We will be listening to John Coltrane, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and Thelonious Monk, this week. We are hoping that we will have a jazz musician come and preform for us at the end of the unit. If you play an instrument we would love for you to come in a share your talent with us! In small groups, we will be working on letter/letter sound identification and then graphing the letters we roll. We will also be working on recognizing numbers, numerals, number words, tallies, dice and other representations of numbers 1-5. Every week in small groups we differentiate instruction based on students’ abilities to ensure the lessons are encouraging growth but not frustration. Our letter of the week is S. Bring in pictures no later than Thursday :) Remember NO SCHOOL February 20th for Presidents’ Day! Have a wonderful week! Mandi Heiser [email protected] Parents,
I will be out a few days this week due to the death of my grandfather. There will be a sub for me. If you have any questions I will be checking e-mails periodically. Thank-you, Mandi January 31, 2017
Parents, This week we will continue discussing what animals do in the winter. We will be exploring this through the books of Jan Brett including The Mitten, The Hat, The 3 Polar Bears, and Hedgie. We will creating mittens out of paper and then lacing them. This a great activity to work on fine motor skills. We will also be sequencing the story using the characters. We will be sending home the mitten and characters on Friday. You and your child can work on retelling the story together! Our Letter of the week is Q. Please send in your Q pictures no later than Thursday. Remember, no school on February 20 due to President’s Day! Have a great weekend! Mandi Heiser |
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May 2017
AuthorMandi Heiser is a Preschool teacher at William H. Ray Elementary in Hyde Park. Categories |