Celebrating sammy snake’s /s/ week! MITTEN AND HATS, PLEASE! It is cold outside and children need coats, mufflers, mittens and hats. Please put these items in a baggy, labeled, then the child can keep them in their cubbies. We have a new fundraiser with MABEL’S LABELS. Visit www.safari.mabelslabels.com to place your order while helping our fundraiser! Or pick up the info in the office or ask Katie to send it to you via email! ANNOUNCEMENT! For the next two weeks we will be assessing students. We do this twice a year so we can see exactly where your child is academically, physically, etc. We will then assess again at the end of the summer and will make a comparison to determine growth. This gives us an opportunity to plan the curriculum to exactly meet your child’s needs. AMAZING! We have a brand new Smart Board! It is huge and amazing. The things we’ll be able to do on it is unlimited! Come and see! We will be CLOSED on Monday, February 20 to honor President's Day. Toddler News! (Teachers Sylvia, Brittany, Susan) This week we celebrated, sammy snake. In math, we did simple subtraction (2 – 1 = 1), we counted to 19 and practiced sammy snake’s math rhyme for 19; counted to eleven in Spanish, and worked on knowing our shapes and colors. In art, we decorated snakes, did sponge painting, stamped, colored sammy snake, cut scraps using scissors, and scribbled with color crayons. We looked at the pictures and objects in sammy’s bag of “s” things. In science, we discussed snakes and spiders. We enjoyed doing some dancing this week as well as listening to many /s/ focus literature books. We hope everyone had a super week! Preschool News! Language Arts (Teacher Stephanie) Children were “sweet and silly” as they celebrated sammy snake! This week, we discovered many new words beginning with and containing the letter /s/; children drew a square shape around them all. We practiced lowercase “a-z”signals and sounds by playing all kinds of fun games: we played the “Swatter Game” (children use fun bug instruments to “swat” the alphabet card that is sounded and signaled) and “Zoophonia Says” (played like Simon Says). We played other favorites including: Zoo-Bingo, Zoo-Memory, and Gordo’s Banana Party. We clapped out the syllables in our names, learned about the diagraph “sh” (sammy snake and honey horse make the “sshhhh” sound), and worked with our Zoo-animal alphabet stamps. Children were also introduced to the idea of singular and plural words. Children continued to discuss the difference between letters and words. Children used this concept to build many simple words (ex: sad, sat, sit, etc) and arrange them into sentences. Children explored aspects of a calendar; identifying the days of the week, date, month, year, and season. We continued to practice our Spanish words, focusing on simple greetings and kind words, calendar words, family words, colors, shapes, and body parts. Our literature selections included: My School’s a Zoo, Bear Feels Sick, Slugs in Love, The Berenstain Bears Learn About Strangers, and Lost Socks. Math (Teacher Stephanie) Children learned sammy snake’s math rhyme: “sammy snake with scales that sheen, slithers and slides up to nineteen.” Children practiced counting to sammy snake’s magic number 19 in English and Spanish. This week, children reviewed solving simple addition and subtraction equations using Skittle candy counters. Yum! Children reviewed their shapes with all sorts of fun games and the storybook Sea Shapes. Children sorted by color, size, shape, and other various attributes. Upon special request from the children, we made Strawberry Shortcake. Art (Teacher Marie) The children drew sammy snake through the Zoo-phonics’ “How to Draw” process: The teacher calls out and demonstrates the shapes and the children draw accordingly. The shapes come together to form the final image resembling sammy snake! This is more amazing than it sounds. Normally, few preschool teachers ever expect preschool children to actually draw an image of something. Zoo-phonics does! The children worked on their Valentine’s Day card holders for our party. They also drew ocean scenes with crayons and added sand for the sandy shore and blue tissue for big crashing waves. The children used blue construction paper, yellow paint, and star sponges to sponge paint a starry sky like Van Gough’s “Starry Nights.” The children listened to classical music and worked in small groups to make a human statue. One child was picked to be the statue and the other children moved that child’s body to mold it into a unique statue. Music and Movement (Teacher Marie) This week the children shook their sillies out with sammy snake. The children had a great time when they went on a safari wiggleadventure with the Wiggles. The children did gymnastics: forward/backward flips, hopped with both feet together from one hula hoop to the next, leaped over hurdles, balanced their bodies while walking on a jump rope, and balanced a bean bag on their head while walking in a straight line. The children pretended to be pianist as they moved their fingers back-and-forth on a paper piano while listening to composer Erik Satie’s, Gymnopedies No’s. 1, 2 and 3. The children practiced singing and Signaling “do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do” and held each for a whole note, half note, and quarter note count. The children worked on strengthening their large motors skills through an obstacle course in the racquetball court: skipping, hopping on one foot, playing hop scotch, throwing a large ball into a bucket, and crawling backwards. Science (Teacher Beth) sammy snake is our Zoo-phonics friend this week, so we began the week by getting to know about snakes and touching and holding our very own Ball Python, Samantha Snake. We know that snakes are reptiles which are cold blooded animals with scales. Snakes shed their skin as they grow. We learned that spiders are helpful creatures and not harmful. They help control harmful insects like flies, gnats and mosquitos. Many spiders spin webs from the silk they produce in their bodies. We explored our five senses: sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch. We use these sense to learn about the world around us from the day that we are born. We examined things from the seashore, such as: sea stars, shells, seahorses, sand, salt water and talked about animals that make the sea their home, like seals and sea lions and shore birds. Last but not least, we learned about the sun, stars, space and space travel. Whew! That was a LOT of scientific study! Fine Motor/Handwriting Preparation (Teacher Beth) We sprinkled salt with our “pincher grip” (fingers) onto spider webs. Using cinnamon sticks we traced /s/ on sandpaper. Ohhhh, the cinnamon smelled so good! We cut out stars with scissors and we traced “s’s” with markers. Kindergarten and First Grade News! This week was full of learning! In science, we started the week out making green-smoothies, learning about nutrition! One of our wonderful Kindergarten parents (Abby Parcon) come in to teach a lesson on the power of vegetables and fruits. Many of the students were hesitant to try the green-smoothie, but once they tasted them they couldn’t get enough! The rest of the week we studied nutrition and learned about how healthy food works to keep our bodies strong and moving. In math, we focused on subtraction and tried using lots of different objects to demonstrate our understanding of the subject. We also took plenty of time to keep up on our adding, time telling, and predictive skills. In language arts, the Kindergarten students focused on the allie alligator and inny inchworm (/ai/) “polite partner.” This was challenging list for the group, including the words: strain, trail, said, bait, brain, rain, mail, gain and snail. To help practice these words we made flashcards, played games, and used our brand new Smart Board to work on our spelling skills. Beyond spelling, we read piles of books, practiced our Zoo-phonics Sound Flash Cards and played language games. For our art activities, we made cards for Ronan’s and Hudson’s family to welcome their new sister Reese Kennedy into the world! We also took some time to draw and color a healthy meal that we like to eat. In the First Grade, we worked on sentence writing and correcting (editing) along with understanding sentence structure. The first grade reading is going well, and the first graders are getting time to not only read independently but to read along with and to the kindergarten students. This activity is so beneficial to both groups of students! The first grade spelling test was a huge success, with everyone present getting 100%! Not bad with a list that included: beam, deal, mean, dream, meat, read seat and steam! In math, we continued working on our times tables and money skills. We reviewed time telling and worked on some story problems. While story problems are still not a favorite, they seem to be getting easier as their reading gets better. We are looking forward to our weekend, but can’t wait to get back to work on Monday when we will be able to learn more and utilize the wonderful facility that we have!
Char, Katie & the Safari Staff |
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