Week 34: Trees and Botany Classification

Week 34:
https://gvsps.blogspot.com/2018/05/week-34-trees-and-botany-classification.html

Week 33:
https://gvsps.blogspot.com/2018/05/week-33-may-weather-and-science-fair.html

Dear Parents,

This week we have been busy with two big projects: Learning about Botany and prepping for Mother's Day.  We really enjoy learning about our spring environment and understanding how things grow.  We have several new Botany related works out on the shelf.  We also enjoy having our secret Mother's Day Projects and learning how to wrap them.  It seemed like this week flew by!

Monday- We had circle reviewing date and calendar.  We had a group lesson on the parts of trees and have a new three part matching work and puzzle out.  It was great to see the younger students getting the layout of the lesson, building off their layout outs from earlier lessons.  Another new work in our classroom is the Botany cabinet, where student can use wooden insets to learn common shapes of leaves and petals.  They can use it to trace, make booklets and identify objects in their environment.  Popular works today included Parts of Animals works, Stamp Game Addition, mapping, spelling book, weather puzzle,  and sandpaper number extensions.  This sandpaper number extension tested the tactical range of two particular students who know their numbers well, but only by sight.  This tactical extension has the physical bead count and the association with the written number, but using a blindfold creates a fun way to explore those math facts. We ended the day with a reading of Be A Friend To Trees, by Patricia Lauber.

Tuesday-  At morning circle reviewed date and calendar.  Sra. Rosa came to teach about some fruits, some seasons, and taught a new spring song to the advanced group.  A new sensorial work that we brought out was the binomial cube, where children can physical see the connection of the binomial cube from the relative shapes.  Popular works included group bead multiplication, spelling works, creative stories, coffee bean crush, shoe tying works, and sandpaper number extensions.  Read Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt, by Kate Messner  and talked about our song "The Ants Go Marching" that we'll be singing at community meeting.

Wednesday-  At morning circle we quickly reviewed the date and calendar.  We also had a special lesson about the three types of plants: Herbaceous plants, bushes, and trees.  We had some physical examples from the playground and classroom that we sorted and then of course we introduce the tray work, which has many pictures of plant types to sort.  New works to the work cycle include new texture cutting works.  Popular woks include Stamp Game Addition, Parts of Animal works, Counting works, Handwriting works, Sand Pouring works, Special Projects works, and Botany Insets.  In the afternoon we read The Reasons for a Flower, by Ruth Heller.  We ended the day practicing our song for community meeting.

Thursday- At morning circle we reviewed the date and calendar and then had a quick lesson on the parts of a fruit.  We cut an apple apart and pointed out the pericarp is made up of the exocarp (the skin) and the mesocarp (the fleshy part we make apple sauce out of), and the seeds live in the endocarp.  We also related the fruit back to the flower by learning how the blossom end connects everything.  During work cycle popular works included stamp game addition, stamp game subtraction, group bead multiplication, parts of animals and parts of flowers works, sand pouring works, wrapping works and card making.  Some students also participated in the School spelling bee and lasted an impressive 5 rounds and 10 rounds.  Again we congratulate them both on their bravery to try in front of the entire school and of course their success.  Nice job G and V! At the end of the day we read The Empty Pot, by Demi, which is a beautiful Chinese Tale about a boy who couldn't grow a flower and the honesty and bravery that he had to still present it to the emperor.

Friday-  At morning circle we reviewed the date and calendar.  We read a story about Clifford's Happy Mother's Day, by Norman Bridwell and talked about Mother's Day.  Popular works during work cycle included gift wrapping, card making, stamp game, group bead multiplication, skip counting, coffee bean, egg shell crush, landform, trees geography works, parts of a plant and life cycle of a bean.  Much of our day was also spent wrapping and making cards for Mother's Day.  At the end of the day, we read Verdi, by Janell Cannon, about a snake who was afraid to grow up.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Mother's Day!  See you all on Monday!
Ms. Becky and the Preschool Staff


Important dates to Remember:
Sunday May 13th- Mother's Day
Monday May 28th- Memorial Day- No School
Thursday June 7th- K Graduation and last day of preschool
Monday June 11th- Summer camp starts.