Week twenty-eight 2009

We missed you, Miss Cameron, & can't wait to hear about camp!! Theme: Nursery Rhymes Classical composer: Edvard Grieg (1843 – 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist who composed in the Romantic period. He is best known for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt (which includes our favorite of the week In the Hall of the Mountain King). Listen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzyi3C4gNnE Your kids would probably love seeing the instruments in action. . Spanish: la rima (rhyme), el gato (cat), los gatitos (kittens) . Theme: Nursery rhymes are so fun and familiar. We had a good time reciting many of them, noticing rhyming words and making up actions. We also had fun making our kitten masks with the happy and sad faces to represent the Three Little Kittens rhyme.

Using rhythm sticks and various nursery rhyme tunes, we practiced following the beat and staying with the leader. It was a fun way to practice rhythm and many of our musical terms! We played some fun games this week: tumbling on our mats like Jack and Jill, helping Little Bo Peep find her lost sheep (cotton balls hid around the room), catching the mice in The House that Jack Built, jumping over the candlestick (play-dough canisters stacked higher and higher),

the Ride a Cock Horse Banbury Cross passing game, a Doggy, Doggy, Where’s Your Bone? hiding game (see words at the bottom—they LOVED this game), and Ring Around the Rosie. We also practiced ordering objects using the Mockingbird rhyme and song. Each child had an object from the song and had to listen closely to when they got to give their object to the baby doll. I loved that all the kids wanted to be the one to hold and soothe the baby. They are such sweet kids. We used 1, 2, Buckle my Shoe to practice cutting and ordering numbers and each child made a take home page. . Table Activities: Bar magnets, rock magnets, various metal objects, magnetic letters on boards, math manipulatives (patterns, cubes, fraction puzzles, 3-D shapes), happy day city, farm, and other plastic animals. . Art: We had extra time with Miss Cristina this week. Thank you, thank you for all your help!! (They kids found a new toddler, Aaron, to adore!) On Thursday, Cristina had the students use markers to create a class story. Each child had a turn to choose the next thing I the story, but each child’s picture represents the entire story. It is really an incredible activity with some amazing outcomes from our talented students. The children really wanted to bring these home this week, so make sure to check their bags and ask them about their story. The story is also attached to the back of the picture.

On Friday, Miss Cristina had the children use glue and tissue paper to create beautiful containers. It was a little tricky for some, but with some assistance they turned out really cool.

You will notice that the colored pencil house project also came home this week. Miss Cristina read Hiccupotamus to the children and showed them the beautiful illustrations done entirely with colored pencil. They looked at their own house projects and decided they also wanted to take them home this week. I'm sure your refrigerators are FULL!

. Rhymes & Activity Songs: “Humpty Dumpty”; “I’m a Little Teapot”; “Little Bo Peep” (a jazzy version); “Hey Diddle, Diddle”; “Jack and Jill Went up a Hill”; “This is the House That Jack Built”; “Jack be Nimble”; “Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross” (The children learned that the town of Banbury was located on a hill so the town employed a male stallion to hitch to people’s carts and help them get up the hill more easily.); “Ring Around the Rosie”, “Mockingbird”, “1, 2, Buckle My Shoe”, “Miss Mary Mack”, “Doggy, Doggy, Where’s Your Bone?”. . Math, Handwriting and Reading: For reading we played a fun matching game with CVC words and pictures. One group focused on the beginning sounds matching the picture and the other group read the words and found the matching picture. They liked it so much they asked to play it again and again until the time was up! For math the groups used numbers cards to represent place value (100, 200, 300…10, 20, 30…1, 2, 3…etc). The number cards fit on top of each other so that the ones covered up the zero of the ten, etc. This is an excellent activity to show the children that the numbers are actually built upon each other (a 19 is a 10 and a 9). One group worked on the 10-19 set and the other group worked up into the hundreds. This was an excellent activity to assess where the kids are in their understanding of numbers and will help us with planning our math activities for the rest of the year. We have been spending time using our drawing skills this week. For the kitten craft the students were independent in drawing their happy and sad mouths, whiskers, and tear drops. They are also practicing their names a lot lately and doing very well collectively with this task. We also had fun drawing our own gatos and gatitos (cats and kittens) on slates using the shapes Miss Cristina has been working on in art class.

. Storybooks: To Market, To Market; Cat & Mouse; The House That Jack Built; Five Little Ducks; Clap Your Hands; Miss Mary Mack; 1, 2, Buckle My Shoe and various nursery rhyme anthologies, old and new. . Free-Play Fun: Play-dough, tracks, cars, and trains, more jumping over the candlestick, plastic animals, lots of extra Doggy, Doggy game (words below).

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Doggy, Doggy, where is your bone? Someone stole it from your home. …Guess Who? Maybe You… …Maybe the monkeys in the zoo? Wake up doggy, find your bone. HAVE A GREAT SPRING BREAK! WE’LL SEE YOU ON APRIL 7th!! ………………………