Weeks thirteen & fourteen 2008

Week 14 Theme: 7 Continents & 4 Oceans

Focus: Introduction to 7 Continents & 4 Oceans, Peoples of the World, Animals of the World Number: 18

Classical Composer: Joseph Haydn (1732-1809). An Austrian composer known as the “Father of the Symphony”. We listened to many beautiful pieces of music and practiced picking out the sounds of different instruments. . Table Activities: Together, we assembled a floor puzzle. The students chose one depicting the universe, which led to an amazing, student-driven discussion! We also had fun playing with count and sort boxes of fruits & veggies, dinosaurs, and farm animals. . Music: We enjoyed practicing for our family night performance and hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did. Your children are amazing! We also sang the Seven Continents Song (to the tune of Take Me Out to the Ballgame): Let’s name all of the continents There are seven on earth

There’s Europe & Asia, Australia North and South America Now, don’t forget about Africa and Antarctica, too! For there’s 1…2… 3, 4, 5, 6…7 continents! . Art: Miss Cristina introduced the children to sculpture and they observed the differences between “flat” pictures and 3-D creations of art. The children drew their own idea for a sculpture on paper, and then used modeling clay to create their idea. It was wonderful to see their imaginations at work. They brought home their clay and will hopefully spend more time creating wonderful 3-D sculptures. . Handwriting and Reading: We used letter magnets of the sound train sounds, /m/, /s/, short /a/, long /e/, /t/, /r/, /d/, short /i/ to make words. It’s fun to see the kids using these well-known individual sounds to read words. . Theme: The children created their own reference map which hopefully made it home and is displayed where they can see it and review the labels frequently. We are amazed by their memories and demonstration of the power of early introduction. Many schools do not introduce such concepts until the upper elementary grades. We ask, “Why not?” They can learn it and love it! This week we also made paper dolls representing North American, South America, Asia, and Europe. They loved dressing up their dolls and seeing the similarities and differences between people in our own classroom as well as photos from around the world. One of our very favorite activities was ‘flying to the continents”. Miss Cameron cut large continents from fleece and our green carpet room became the earth. The children took turns pretending to be airplanes flying from continent to continent and the others would call out the name where they landed! .

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We also used the fleece continents to sort animals of the world and used the paddles to practice continent ocean? We used our ginormous blow-up globe ball many times this week to have fun with naming the continents and oceans. . Storybooks: Bright Stanley, I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean, Whoever You Are by Mem Fox, Rumble in the Jungle, Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett, Head to Toe by Eric Carle.

. Math: We made #18s by pasting an eight over the ones place in the number 10. The kids have done this now 8 times to make numbers 11-18 and are very proficient at this activity…they get right to work with confidence when they see the worksheet! This repetitive demonstration of the tens and ones place will lead nicely into learning the number 20 next week. We believe that an early understanding of the numbers will contribute to a solid foundation of math skills. Each student has progressed in awareness and understanding at their individual level of learning through these exercises. We hope you’ve noticed a difference! . Free-Play Fun: The children used the handwriting wood pieces to free create some very interesting shapes. We also got out the paper tubes and balls, which for some end up becoming long paper arms. The children have fun pretending to be robots, or knights, or whatever fits their imagination. (Ironman comes to mind! Not that any of our students have seen the movie, but apparently the idea of this action-hero is a big hit! Misses Tracy and Cameron got some great chuckles!)

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. Week 13 Since this “week” was actually one day, here are a few brief notes about our day, focusing on Thanksgiving! . The children created Thanksgiving coloring books with many of the themes we discussed today, such as a Mayflower, the Pilgrims, the Indians/Native Americans, and the cornucopia with the plentiful harvest. We did some research and made sure to tell the children factual things about their history. (For example, did you know that the pilgrims did not wear black clothing and hats with buckles as depicted in almost every Thanksgiving decoration? Instead, they wore a variety of rich colors!) . We completed a cornucopia craft overflowing with foods the pilgrims and Native Americans ate. (They enjoyed lobster and fish, as well as turkey and deer for their feast…no popcorn or potatoes, either!) The word “cornucopia” means “horn of plenty” in Latin and was a shape of basket they gathered and stored their harvest in. . We practiced some songs about sharing and kindness “I Am Glad for Many Things” and “A Special Gift is Kindness” and read a few books, the favorite being Run, Turkey, Run! . We all enjoyed pretend play with the play kitchen, cash registers and play food. It is fun to see the progress in social skills as we do these fun activities.