A Happy Year at Happy Day!

A very happy class!~2008-2009

We love you all! Have a wonderful summer!

The End, or is it the Beginning?

This last week of school was packed lots of learning and lots of fun! We enjoyed several great activities. The highlights are as follows... 5 Green and Speckled Frogs. An activity song as demonstrated here by Andres. Reading, Teacher's Favorites such as "A Mouse, The Bear and the Big Red Strawberry", "How do Dinosaurs Say GoodNight?", "Lullaby Hullaballoo", a fun "W" fiction story "The Woorywarts" that Anna brought to share, and many more! Favorite Activity Songs such as, "Let's Go Swimming", "Jump Up!" "William Tell Overture" (Per the students' request!)Spanish words and phrases: "Que Divertido!" (How fun!) "Me encanta!" (I love it!or more accurately, it enchants me!)"el hielo" (the ice) "la agua" (the water) Sand and dirt boxes with shovels and sifters to hunt out the hidden treasure...sapphires, rubies, gold and silver! Then we took our precious stones into the schoolroom and sorted them, counted them, and then used some of the students' finds to practice graphing and make comparisons. Miss Cristina worked with the students on creating wonderful Father's Day cards for their dads or grandpas. Water-play day was a blast...the pictures say it all! Our last day we made worm puppets from socks and googly eyes, plus a garden for the worm to enjoy. The student's had a blast playing with their new creations!

Later that same day we learned about ladybugs and looked at some different colors and patterns that ladybugs have. We saw a picture of a ladybug eating an aphid and learned that ladybugs are good for our gardens because they eat some of the pests. We observed that the ladybug's shell protects their wings, which are folded underneath. When the bug goes to fly, it holds its shell out of the way of the wings. Then we took magnifying glasses and a whole bunch of ladybugs (purchased at McLendon's the day before) and enjoyed some close-up observation and interaction. The students were enthralled! Also, earlier in the day on Friday, we had a little ceremony for the students to tear off their designated seating and choose wherever they wanted to sit.

Dear Andres, Anna, Ethan, Emma, Hamed, Lily, Lizzie, Marko, Noah, and Owen...always remember that your preschool teachers, Miss Cameron and Miss Tracy, love you and believe in you. Have a great time in Kindergarten or whatever other adventure comes your way next year! Have a FANTASTIC SUMMER!

Family Night, May 29th, 2009

As far as Misses Tracy and Cameron are concerned, Family Night was a great success! The students were excellent participator/performers and the families turned out in full force! Thank-you all for making it such a wonderful evening for your fabulous children. They're a talented bunch! Unfortunately, Tracy and Cameron didn't take any pics of the program as we were otherwise occupied. However, this beautiful bouquet was one of two created and brought by Lily's mom....it's gorgeous and we thank her for her thoughtfulness! Big thanks to all the parents as well for the yummy treats and for all your generous support over the past year...you guys rock!

Weeks thirty-five & thirty-six 2009

Theme: Our Favorite Things Focus: Spring, Plants, getting ready for Family Night Composers: Bach, Mozart, Beethoven; We used clips from the pieces Minuet in G, Sonata in C, and Fur Elise for some ear-training fun and to increase familiarity with these three Greatest of the Greats. It was interesting how several of the students brought into discussion things we discussed months ago when we initially introduced these specific composers, such as Beethoven's deafness and general anger. Favorite amusing quote of the day: During circle time, Noah said, "My mom says when I am seven I get to go to Kindergarten and get a laser-gun and shotgun.....but only toys." Spanish words: Verde (green), Primavera (spring), la Flor (flower), rapido (fast), despacio (slow), Traditional Spanish Song: Rima de Chocolate Theme: For fun we painted egg-carton flowers with tempera paints. We made Mat Man with all his rain gear (the umbrella top is dark navy blue, so it is difficult to see against the green carpet.) We built the word "SPRING" using HWT wood pieces in correct stroke order. We had a great discussion about plants and how the roots drink water from the ground, the leaves make food from the sunshine, and the flower makes baby flowers and gives pollen and nectar to birds and insects. The students cooperated and did a great job following directions to draw a flower complete with everything it needs to grow. Miss Cameron found it particularly interesting how the plant uses the sun to make its energy, and we benefit from that same energy when we eat the plant or even the animals that ate the plant. Almost all living things get their energy directly or indirectly from the sun. (Miss Cameron is told that there is a bacteria that lives deep in caves that actually gets its energy from the core of the earth, so we can't say every living thing!) The students commented how plants need rain and sun, so sometimes it rains and sometimes it's sunny...Miss Cameron thought this was a wonderful observation on their part! We had fun doing the activity rhyme, "Let's Plant a Garden, Dig Dig Dig", with lots of great actions as we go from planting a seed until we can't even reach the top of the growing plant. We did an activity song, "Sun is Shining All Around", and alternately, "Rain is Falling All Around". Another favorite Spring activity is baseball, so we all enjoyed listening to the book on CD, "Hit the Ball, Duck!", by Jez Alborough. This story recording was very well done and the class enjoyed it immensely! Miss Cameron sneaked these photos of the class very intently listening to the story during lunch time...you could hear a pin drop, and that's a rare thing, believe me! Later we read a less engaging, but still informative and interesting book called simply, "Bean", that demonstrates the growing process of a bean seed. On Thursday we continued the focus by reading a book called, "Flower Garden" and enjoying the activity song, "The Green Grass Grows". One of the favorite activities was the wonderful craft to make windchimes, led by our guest parent, Owen's mom! Little Brother Patrick and Margaret were a pleasure to have. The students worked really hard on the beading and assembling of their chime-strands. The whole activity was a big hit! Thanks, Margaret, for all your effort in designing, preparing and implementing that fantastic project! Another activity we enjoyed was using our Magnifying glasses to make some observations of the tree-stumps in Miss Cameron's front yard. We talked about sap and counted the rings to see how old these trees were. They were about 37 years old! We used tacks to mark every 5 rings and counted by 5's and 1's to figure this out. We observed that the base of the tree has a larger, older trunk while the top of the tree has more branches, but a smaller, younger trunk. We enjoyed the sunshine as we did some easel painting outside and ended most days with about 10 minutes of free-play out in the back yard. Other books we enjoyed were, "Growing Vegetable Soup", by Lois Ehlert, "Little Quack", and "The Twin Princes","I knew Two Who Said Moo", Big Books: "Caps for Sale", and "Chicka, Chicka 1, 2, 3!" Math: We did some number play where the students had mixed up cards numbered 1-10 that they needed to arrange in order. Many of the students did very well with this end-of-Kindergarten skill! Also, Miss Tracy played a game where she put 5 blocks in front of her. The students closed their eyes and Miss Tracy took some away. When they opened their eyes, they were asked how many were missing. Again, many students did very well with this advanced skill. The giant dice also made and appearance during an activity, and we practiced counting by fives up to 30 at various times, especially calendar time. Reading: Several times playing with sound train sounds to build words, using the HWT pieces for the word "SPRING". We played with Wikki Stix and Shape and Alphabet cards Table Activities: Pom Pons and Launchers, Bolts and Screws, Wikki Stix, Play-doh, self-inking stampers Other: Tossing a ball from person to person while calling out our favorite foods, begins-with words, rhyming words, etc. Rhythm Sticks to the song, "I Like to Move It!", the song "$ Hugs a Day", Zoominoes