17 Jan Newsletter | January 11-14, 2016
Our first Children’s Choice week was so much fun! We spent the week learning about cheetahs, leopards, and cats. Thank you to Nila for picking such a fun topic! We used the globe to show where cheetahs and leopards live (cheetahs live in Africa, leopards live in northern Africa and Asia) and discussed the habitats’ climates. We talked about what it means for an animal to be endangered and we learned a new word: “retractable”. Cheetahs do not have retractable claws. We talked about how fast cheetahs run and compared the speed to familiar objects. Cheetahs can run faster than your car on the way to school but slower than an airplane. They can run as fast as a car on the highway (75 mph) but only for a short time. We also talked about what cheetahs and leopards eat.
On Monday, we made a math graph about who has cats and who has dogs for pets. We have the most friends who have dogs as pets. We talked about cheetahs and leopards and what makes them part of the cat family. We were very happy to welcome Nila’s mom as our helper this Monday. She helped us make our handprint cheetah craft while Miss Kaleigh worked on assessments. We were also finally able to go outside for some fresh air and exercise! We were all happy to be out. We ended the morning with a Cat in the Hat story and alphabet game.
Tuesday was our Letter of the Week day, and we decorated L with leopard prints. The children helped make a list of 24 words that start with L including Luciana and Lenox. Jeanne Bassis came to do music and movement with the children and Miss Courtney joined us so that both teachers could work on assessments.
Wednesday was our science day. We timed marbles in two different bottles of corn syrup to see how long it would take for the last marble to stop falling (41 & 47 seconds). Then we put one bottle in the refrigerator and one in a pitcher of hot water and left them there while Miss Rebecca read stories. During the closing circle we timed the marbles again and discovered that the marbles in the warm bottle fell more quickly and the ones in the cold bottle fell much more slowly.
On Thursday, we made “cheetahs” for snack! The children spread peanut butter on rice cakes and added grapes for eyes and raisins for spots. Then we read the story Put Me in the Zoo by Robert Lopshire. The children created paper plate leopards modeled after the character in the story. The cold temperature and wind kept us in so we danced to some of the children’s favorite songs – “Button Factory” and “Tootie Ta”. We also played the bean bag game that involves throwing beanbags onto numbered shapes and then pick an activity to do that many times. We then focused on letter recognition and our Letter of the Week, “L”. We made a list of the children’s names so each child could circle the L’s in their names (or another letter if they didn’t have an L in their name). We ended the morning with a color and shape game and then the “What’s Missing?” game.
We just want to remind you that there is no class on Monday, January 18th.
Scholastic book orders have been sent home. Please check your pocket if you didn’t receive yours. They are due back by Wednesday, January 27th in order for you to receive the books in time for Valentine’s Day.
Our stories this week included:
The Furry Animals Alphabet Book by Jerry Pallotta
The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss
Biggest, Strongest, Fastest by Steve Jenkins
The Animal Boogie by Debbie Harter
The Family of Earth by Schim Schimmel
Explore My World: Snow Leopards published by National Geographic
Put Me In the Zoo by Robert Lopshire
Quotes of the Week:
Audrey – “I can’t wait to be six!”
Elizabeth – “She (Jeanne B.) really likes us to sing.”
“Margaret’s a sister and she likes to play with us.”
Eliza – “Mommy was so excited to get these boots for me.”
Noah – “My Mama says, ‘No sliding down the stairs.’”
Cooper – “This is a dangerous problem. They had some glass downstairs and I wanted to go see but my didn’t have shoes on.”
Cassidy – “Guess what, I have my own yoga!”
William – “This tiny little speckle lights up when you plug it in.”
Hadley – “This is going to be the best snack I ever had.”
Vera – “When I was a baby I had baby toys.”
JJ – “Hey, Miss Chris, I hear music!”