Week 22- Kindness and Respect
Hey Parents!
As January Ends, there are some minor celebrations in February to keep on the calendar. It appears that Monday Feb 5th will be our 100th day of school. In the preschool we have been tracking this day and will celebrate the hundredth stick with a red ribbon. Valentine's Day (Feb 14th) is also approaching. We ask that if you want to bring cards to class, that they are not addressed to anyone in particular, so it easier for the children to pass them out at circle. We also ask that there are no food treats involved, as we have so many allergies this year. Again this is all optional and we will give the students time to create cards in class as well, so no pressure to even make or buy cards. But a reminder that there are 27 students in the class.
This week we began talking about equality and kindness. We talked Sojourner Truth, Martin Luther King Jr, and Rosa Parks and kept it in the context that ownership of people is wrong, kindness matters, we each make choices everyday to be kind and respectful to each other, and our world is a diverse and beautiful place. A Taste of Colored Water, by Matt Faulkner; Just Like Josh Gibson, by Angela Johnson; and Circle Unbroken, by Margot Raven is included in our library this month.
In other news, sadly our playground was covered with melting ice, and we deemed it unsafe for the children to play on, so we had a lot of indoor recess this week. Mother Nature should help us by the weekend, but early in the week we felt the risk of concessions was too high to risk playing outside. Instead we have some open recess indoors with Legos and coloring and sometimes sang songs at circle.
Monday- We began the day with a Birthday walk for V, who turned 6 years old. Thank you for your gift of Winnie the Pooh and a book of poetry. We enjoyed you reading to us this afternoon! The classroom is transitioning over to reflect Valentine's Day (Feb 14th) and the Chinese New Year (Feb 16th- year of the Dog). The children enjoyed finding the new practical life works, namely the heart lacing work and Valentine Card making work. Some of the children enjoyed the challenge of push pinning a dragon, which requires at lot of concentration and coordination. Other popular works include, sound association lessons using sand paper letter, stamp game, bead math, bank game and US puzzle (larger version using a control map).
Tuesday- At circle today we read Sojourner Truth, Preacher for Freedom and Equality, by Suzanna Slade. We talked about how a long time ago people thought it was okay to own another person, but we now know it was wrong. People can't be owned and we should always treat each other with kindness and respect. Many new works in the practical life section require more organization and coordination. The sand cat and fish pour require fine targeting skills while pouring and organization/recall to know the steps to fix the spilled sand. Measure scoop brings in the dimension element to a quantity of sand. A full third of a cup looks much smaller in a large bowl, but it is the same quantity as it is transferred from object to object. I'll try to write a little about each new work each day. We also had Spanish Class with Sra. Rosa and reviewed farm animals with the beginner group, fruits with the second years and days of the week with the 3rd years. Popular works include: Sound Association, pouring tea equally, bank game, POA turtle, POA bird, POA horse, subtraction book, button snake, and name tag tracing. We also read another chapter in the Polar Bear at Dawn, Magic Tree House book.
Wednesday- We began the day reading Rosa, by Nikki Giovanni. We talked about the events that led to Rosa Parks in terms of fairness and what how we can bravely stand up for it. The highlighted new work is the sponge squeeze, where you immerse a sponge in water and use a side lemon press to squeeze the water out, thus strengthening your hand for writing. Music Class with Mr. Wolfe went well as we did music motion songs and practiced for Arts night in April. Other popular works include: POA turtle, Stamp Game, landforms, and whisking bubbles.
Thursday: We began the snowy day, talking about the calendar as it is our first day in February. We notice that it is the 98th day and that we have two more days till the 100th. Today highlighted work Candy Cane Crush, which is very attractive to the children because its smells like a candy cane and they use a mortar and pestle to crush it. This is a temporary work as we have a limited supply of candy canes but it will switch to egg shells crush in the next week or so. Popular works today include stamp game, bead addition, US puzzle map (using the control), land form map, and amphibian continent matching. Today was also our third Thursday Pizza day.
Friday: Our second snowy day in February. Again at circle we reviewed the calendar and date. Highlighted work is the Chinese marble transfer, which is a spoon transfer between bowls but with more marbles extending out the concentration of the child. Some of the new works were adjusted for degrees of difficulties today, but all remind in the same spirit. An interesting observation was all afternoon work was done on the runs. No one choose to work at the tables. Popular works today were dictation, clock book, stamp game, sand pouring, name tag tracing, and sound association.
I hope everyone has an awesome weekend. See you on Monday!
Ms. Becky and Preschool Staff
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