ALL ABOUT PENGUINS!

Dear Parents,

It was so great to get back to school and to see all of our friends. We are pleased to welcome our new classmate Tima. This week we went on an amazing "journey" to the Antarctica to visit the penguins.  The children learned several facts about penguins such as: Penguins can't fly but can swim under water.  There are 17 different species of penguins.  The largest penguins is 4 feet tall (emperor penguin) and the smallest is 16 inches tall (the little blue penguin).  Some of the stories the children enjoyed listening to were: About Penguins, by Cathryn Sill,  Without You, by Sarah Weeks and "Where is Home, Little Pip,?, by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman.

After reading about penguins, the children created their own.  First they painted egg cartons, then cut out wings, added feet and a beak.
Finally, They glued them all together to make an adorable penguin colony, which even included snow and icicles.

In math this week we counted penguins and matched them up with the appropriate number.  We also created a web which stated facts about penguins. 

In music this week with Lisa, the children continued to practice holding the violin in rest position. The children also had fun with the parachute which they bounced "snowballs" off of it.

Other areas of fun in class:

Dancing to "Animal Action"

Notes from Yuting:

This Wednesday during Mandarin class we played a number matching game to review Chinese number characters 1-5.  

The new song we are learning  is "Five Little Speckled Frogs" -- the Mandarin version of course!

Practicing piano with Yuting

 
 We also celebrated Ava's 4th birthday! Thank you to her family for the delicious cupcakes and treats. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AVA!

Love,

Ms. Bonne and Ms. Barbara

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

• Dear Parents,

We had so much fun this week preparing for our holiday celebration.  We invited the Quarter Note Class in to make ice cream cone Christmas trees.  We decorated them with green frosting, sprinkles, and marshmallows, etc. The children had so much fun making them while socializing with children from the Quarter Note Class.

The children worked so hard making your holiday gifts.  We hope you enjoyed them!


Yesterday the children created adorable popsicle stick sled ornaments, which are hanging on our classroom Christmas tree.

On Thursday we had a visit from the librarian, Jean Holmblad.  Some of the stories the children enjoyed listening to were:
Penguins, by Cynthia Rylant, Bear and Hare, by Emily Gravett, The Seals on the Bus, by Lenny Hort, and I'm a Truck Driver, by Jonathan London.

Finally, we had a school wide song festival.  The children did a great job singing.  I am sure you will agree.  We continued our holiday celebration by eating, potato latkes, bagels and cream cheese, dipped strawberries, banana bread and red velvet cupcakes. We  hope you all had fun at our celebration.

                                    

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     


Love,  

Ms. Bonne and Ms. Barbara

HOLIDAY TIME IS HERE!

Dear Parents,

We began our holiday unit by learning about Christmas, Hanukkah, and Krampus.  If you celebrate a different holiday please let us know, so we can celebrate your holiday as well.

We had lots of fun this week preparing for our holidays.
This week our focus was on Christmas. We introduced our holiday unit by doing an excellent fine motor activity.  First the children cut out stockings and then sewed them together with a needle and yarn. They glued cotton balls on top of the stocking (representing fur).   The children then created a fireplace by sponge painting "bricks" and then hanging their stockings on top of it.  

Finally we painted a menorah, which we placed on top of the fireplace.  The children marble painted the candlesticks.  On Friday, we ended our week by making delicious gingerbread cookies.

We continue to work on learning our alphabet letters.  This week we learned the letter "Q."  The children brainstormed a list of words that begin with the letter such as: Queen, quick, quit, quiet, and quilt.  So far the letters we have learned are: L,  E,  F,  H, T,  I U, C,  O, and Q. The children have done amazing job learning the letters and their sounds. They have also been learning how to sound simple words.

We celebrated Siddharth's 4th birthday on Friday.  Thank you to his family for the delicious cupcakes.

Happy 4th Birthday Siddharth!

Notes from Yuting:

This Wednesday we used an abacus to count from 1 to 20 in Mandarin. We also learned about hands and fingers and read a book about the amazing things they can do!  Then we learned the Chinese version of the finger play "Open, Shut Them.

Yuting

Other areas of fun in the classroom:

 

             

In music this week the children have been practicing some holiday songs  - "Jingle Bells," "The Dreidel Song", "O Hanukkah" and  "We Wish you a Merry Christmas."

Love,
Ms. Bonne and Ms. Barbara