Dec. 18, 2008

Parents,
We've had a wonderful final day before winter break! This morning we ate breakfast and drew a picture of making snow in our journals (powder + water = snow!). For our fine motor work we cut pictures of things we liked and created collages, worked with craft sticks that had different numbers of buttons glued to them, glued macaroni on letters, and created funny faces by putting magnetic features on magnet books. We didn't have time for circle time today because we joined the entire school for a sing-a-long in the cafeteria. We were with Pre-K and we sang "Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer". We wore our reindeer headbands (antlers made from our hand shapes) and the kiddos all had their noses colored red (with washable marker). We did a great job! And we were wonderful listeners for the rest of the performances! We returned to the room and worked with the snow we made yesterday. We scooped it with spoons and added water to it as well. When we finished with our snow we put it in baggies to take home. Please have fun playing with it! This afternoon we're doing some top secret stuff, so don't even ask us about it. :-)

I wish you all a very happy winter break! See you in 2009!
Love,
Ms. Parsons

Dec. 16, 2008

Parents,
This morning we ate breakfast and drew a picture of a kite in our journals. The children are getting so good at telling me stories about what they've drawn! For our fine motor work, we worked with a braille typewriter, counted candles and cakes, strung beads on strings, and cut and pasted holiday pictures to make collages. During circle time we determined that it's cloudy today and put the gray cloud over our tree, we counted to 16 during calendar and continued our red/green pattern, and we danced to "I Like Potatoes" during movement. For story time today I read "Merry Christmas Mom and Dad". During centers today we drew letter "K" objects from our green bag. We found a kettle, two keys, a kangaroo, a kazoo, and an upper and lower case "K" while we practiced the letter "K" sound. We then glued letter "K" objects to a letter "K" paper (kite, keys, Ks, and a king). The home center was also open and we cooked up all kinds of great dishes. Ms. McGuire came today for speech therapy. We had lunch and played on the playground with Pre-K. This afternoon we'll continue working on our tree project.
I'll be out tomorrow because my son is having a cast put on his broken elbow. I'll be back on Thursday.
Have a wonderful evening!
Kali Parsons

Dec. 15, 2008

Parents,
The most amazing thing happened over the weekend!!! All of the leaves fell off of our classroom tree! We determined that it must be winter. So exciting!

This morning we ate breakfast and drew a picture of a key in our journals. For our fine motor work we made frogs jump, created structures with bristle blocks, made towers with letter blocks, and cut holiday pictures and glued them on paper to make collages. During circle time we determined that it was rainy today (and I sprayed everyone with our squirt bottle so they could feel rain), counted to 15 during calendar and continued our red/green pattern, and danced to "Peanut Butter". After circle time we continued dancing, doing 3 more songs, because it is in the 30s outside and not everyone had a heavy coat. I read the book "The Snow Tree", about forest animals decorating a tree in the woods with found objects. After the book we all placed decorations on our classroom tree. We moved to centers where in the art center we all cut stars to go on top of our winter trees that we created last week and we placed decorations on them. In the big toys center we created structures with many shapes/sizes of blocks. We ended center time today by mixing shaving cream together with silver glitter and working with it on our art table. We are VERY sparkly! We had lunch and played on the playground with Pre-K (brrrrr!). This afternoon we'll cut stars, triangles, and rectangles to form trees in Pre-K. We are working hard on learning all of our geometric shapes.
Have a great night! Stay warm!
Kali Parsons

Dec. 12, 2008

Parents,
This morning we ate breakfast and drew a picture of a cookie with sprinkles (we noticed that there were two "K"s!). We went to the library and Ms. Kraal's substitute read two holiday books. We returned to the classroom and did our fine motor work (working with big wooden letters, drawing with chalk, and creating pictures with shape magnets. We had a wonderful holiday performance to attend this morning. We went to the cafeteria to hear the "Circle of Light". It was a group of musicians/dancers that performed many different songs from different cultures. We were a wonderful audience! We returned to the room briefly before lunch and worked with shaving cream. We had jewels, balls and cars in it. We made trails with the objects and hid them in the shaving cream. We talked about how the shaving cream felt and smelled. We had lunch and played on the playground with Pre-K. This afternoon we'll work on our matching skills by playing BINGO in Ms. Mitchell's Pre-K room.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Kali Parsons

Dec. 11, 2008

Parents,
This morning we ate breakfast and drew a picture of a tree with a star shape on top. For our fine motor work we put keys on key rings, moved metal circles with a magnet, and put magnetic eyes/noses/mouths in a book with funny faces. We also observed the gerbils with an apple (they only considered eating it...never took a bite). During circle time we determined that it's sunny and windy today and put the jackets on our weather bears, we counted to 11 and continued our red/green pattern during calendar, and we danced to "Tooty Ta". We played outside with our Pre-K friends. I read "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you Hear?" for story time. During centers we applied glitter to our painted squares and also worked on a thank you poster for one of our community donors (we cut a pine tree and a star and trunk and glued it all together, then added glitter). We glued keys on a big letter "K" and practiced the letter "K" sound. Ms. McGuire came today for speech therapy. We had lunch and played on the playground with Pre-K. After rest time we completed our reindeer antlers.
Have a wonderful night!
Kali Parsons

Dec. 10, 2008

Parents,
This morning we ate breakfast and drew a picture of a candy cane in our journals. We noticed that there was a red/white pattern on it. For our fine motor work we created pictures using different shape/color/size wooden pieces, strung beads on strings, matched shapes using folder games, and cut pictures out of magazines to make collages. We also had a free art table with markers and paper. During circle time we determined that it's sunny today (we also felt the heat from a flashlight), counted to 10 and continued our red/green pattern during calendar, and danced to "Button Factory". We did some extra dances because it was too cold to go outside. We danced to "Hand Dance" and "Lettercise". During centers we painted squares made from craft sticks. We used red and green paint. We noticed that when the colors mixed it made brown. We also cut out rectangles to put on the base of our pine trees that we created yesterday. We rotated through many centers today: toy center with blocks, home center, small toys center with Mr. Potato Head, and the science center with rice to scoop/fill/empty. We had lunch and played on the playground with Pre-K. After rest we'll go to Pre-K and create Rudolph antlers (we'll be singing with the entire school next Thursday and our song is "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer"). We'll create antlers by tracing our hands, counting our 10 fingers, and cutting them out. We'll staple them to a headband.
Enjoy this cold day!
Kali Parsons

Dec. 9, 2008

Parents,
This morning we ate breakfast and drew a picture of a pine tree. For our fine motor work we did a transportation puzzle, put sequencing cards in order, and matched restaurant objects with photographs. During circle time we determined that it's rainy today. We put the gray cloud and the rain drops over the class tree. We also put the raincoats on our weather bears. We counted to 9 during calendar and continued our red/green pattern. Our movement song was "If You're Happy and You Know it". We played outside with Pre-K. I re-read "The Little Pine Tree" today and we talked about the seasons and what the trees did during each season. We talked about the shape of the pine tree. During center time everyone cut out a big white triangle. We then mixed blue and yellow paint with our hands to create green. The triangles were clipped to our easel and everyone used their green hands to paint them. Ms. McGuire came today for speech therapy. After centers we read books about the winter holidays and looked at pictures from this season. We had lunch and played on the playground with Pre-K. After rest we'll go to math centers in Pre-K. In my center we'll continue creating our Santas with our hand print (counting our fingers), cutting out the triangles for hats, and creating faces and talking about the emotions they're showing.
Have a wonderful night!
Kali Parsons

Dec. 8, 2008

Parents,
This morning we ate breakfast and drew a picture of the letter "K" (big line down, slide in, slide out). For our fine motor work we drew pictures of buses with chunky crayons, created structures with bristle blocks, fit shapes in a shape sorter, and counted using birthday counting cakes. During circle time we determined that it's cloudy today, dressed the bears in their jackets because it's cold outside, counted to 8 on the calendar and continued our red/green pattern, and danced to "The Wheels on the Bus". We played outside with Pre-K. For story time I read "The Little Pine Tree". It is about a pine tree that is in a forest with other trees that show changes with the seasons, but it does not. We moved to the art center and we all cut a curvy line along the top of a huge sheet of white butcher paper. We then painted the entire paper with glue and then used our pincer fingers to sprinkle white glitter all over it. We made snow to be the background for a snow scene that we're going to be working on for the next several weeks. We also worked in the science center, pouring and measuring rice and pretending that it was snow. The big toys center was also open and we made structures with big and small blocks of various shapes. We had lunch and played on the playground with Pre-K. After rest we'll go to Pre-K and in our center we'll begin creating Santas using our hand print for his beard (counting 5 fingers), cutting a triangle for his hat, and adding features including a mouth (we'll discuss how he feels).
I hope you all had a restful weekend!
Kali Parsons

Dec. 3, 2008

Parents,
This morning we ate breakfast and drew a picture of a jelly jar in our journals (3 great letter "J" words!). For our fine motor work we cut paper and created pictures with geometric shapes. We also observed the two gerbils that are visiting our classroom. During circle time we determined that it's windy today, counted to 3 during calendar, and danced to "The Freeze". We played outside with our Pre-K friends. I read "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" for story time. We acted out the entire book. It was sometimes the same as the song we do and sometimes different. During centers we created fall trees to go on our community map. We each had a toilet paper tube, sheets of red, orange, and yellow tissue paper, and glue. We put the tissue paper in the end of the tube and glued it in place. We then glued our trees to our community map. We also observed our gerbils in the pet center. Each child drew pictures of them and their cage and what they were doing. Ms. Welcome and I transcribed their stories. We also worked with shaving cream. We used small wiffle balls to draw shapes/letters in the shaving cream. It was interesting to see how the balls made trails in the shaving cream. We independently read books about bears just before lunch. We had lunch and played on the playground with Pre-K. This afternoon in Pre-K we'll begin creating fall trees using a science tool, a pipette. We'll color round coffee filters with orange, brown, yellow, and red markers. Then we'll use the pipettes to put drops of water on the filter, causing the colors to bleed together. This will be the top of our trees. We'll continue working on these the remainder of the week.
Have a great night!
Kali Parsons

Dec. 2, 2008

Parents,
This morning we ate breakfast and drew a picture of a jacket in our journals. For our fine motor work we fit shapes in a shape container, threaded spools on strings, and connected pop beads to make shapes. During circle time we determined that it's sunny today, we dressed our weather bears in jackets because it's cold outside, counted to 2 during calendar, and danced to "5 Little Ducks". I read "Hold Tight, Bear!" during story time. We finished our friendship bears today. Everyone cut out their friends' pictures and glued them on a piece of poster board. We drew features on our bear faces (that we painted yesterday) and talked about how our bears felt. We glued googly eyes on them, too. We glued the bear head at the top of the paper in the middle, the two front paws at the top beside the head, and the two rear paws on the bottom. It looks like the bear is holding a sign with our friends' pictures on it (I'm not publishing a picture of them because they have student faces on them). We also continued working in our home center/restaurant. There is a lot of great language going on in there! Ms. McGuire came for speech therapy today. We had lunch and played on the playground with Pre-K. This afternoon we'll continue working on our scarves with zig-zags and slanted lines.
Have a wonderful night!
Kali Parsons

Dec. 1, 2008

Parents,
I hope you all had a wonderful long holiday weekend!

The December newsletter is available by clicking on the Newsletter link to the right.

This morning we ate breakfast and drew a picture of a triangle in our journals. For our fine motor work we played a small piano, drew with chalk, put sequence cards in correct order, and worked with shape magnets. We were VERY observant this morning! We noticed that we have a new month on our calendar, a new color of the month (green), a new shape of the month (triangle), and two new weather bears (see circle time to see what we did with them). During circle time we determined that it's cloudy today, felt a soft cloud, dressed our new weather bears in warm jackets because it's cold outside, counted to 1 during calendar, and danced to "Lettercize". I read the book "Bear Wants More" for story time. During center time today we worked in the home center ordering and creating meals for our friends. We also began creating friendship bears. We painted the individual bear parts brown today. We'll continue this project tomorrow. We had lunch and played on the playground with Pre-K. After rest we'll work on the concept of zig-zag and slant and create paper scarves with these features.
Have a restful evening!
Kali Parsons