Ponds, Meadows & More

This week we learned about animals that live in ponds and meadows. On Monday we watercolor painted a pond. Watercoloring is a soothing activity for kids this age, so if you are looking for a quiet, creative outlet when your little one is getting rambunctious, you might want to pull out the watercolor paints.  

 

Tuesday was our final trip up to Community Elementary for Star Literacy testing. Once again, we had model students who walked quietly through the halls so as not to disturb the big kids. We are so proud!! 

We made an accordion book about frogs on Wednesday. Be sure to ask your child to explain the life cycle of a frog to you.

Thursday we used our fine motor skills to tear paper to make a turtle. There were a lot of steps to this project, including cutting, tearing and gluing.

Remember there is NO SCHOOL on Monday due to the Memorial Day Holiday. We will see you on Tuesday for the start of Ocean Week.

Also, we have a number of things due on Tuesday, including any payment for or unwanted spring/graduation pictures and contact list update forms. We also need the graduation "count" sheets that were included in your child's red folder this week.

A Camping We Will Go!

We really enjoyed our camping unit this week! We had a real tent in our classroom, along with camp chairs and a campfire tripod complete with s'mores!

Speaking of s'mores we made some to decorate our classroom.

We also made our own fishing poles complete with a nice catch. We have a "pond" in our dramatic play area where we can practice our casting & reeling.

What a catch!

We wrapped up our week with our visit to 5K and a tour of Community Elementary School. We saw a 5K classroom,  the office area, art room, music room. lunch room, gym and playground.

Visiting the Music Room

Zoo Photos Finally Posted

AM Class Photos


PM Class Photos

Fractured Fairy Tales

This week we talked about fairy tales and heard some different versions of the stories. It was fun to talk about what was the same as what we are used to and what was different in each of the new story versions.

On Monday, we read the Three Billy Goats Gruff and we made a goat paper bag puppet. We also read Miss Smith's Incredible Storybook, where the storybook characters came to life!

Tuesday we read Cinderella and then a funny, opposite version called Big Foot Cinderrrrrella. We got to choose which shoe we wanted to make...a glass slipper or a bark clog. We used colored pencils and added stickers or popsicles sticks to our shoes.

Wednesday was a great weather day and we hope you got to enjoy it on your day off!

Little Red Riding Hood was our focus on Thursday. We enjoyed the Little Critter version of Little Red Riding Hood, followed by a darker, Chinese version of the story called LonPoPo. We used markers to color a character from the Red Riding Hood Story and got the choice of making it into a headband or mask to reenact the story.

Friday we wrapped up our week of silly fairy tales with Big Bad Wolf is Good and Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Book. Mrs. Crandall's family loves the Big Bad Book and other books by Lauren Child...check them out at the library! We worked on another page for our person book and finished up our Mother's Day projects.

Have a wonderful weekend and Happy Mother's Day to all you Moms! We hope you are treated like royalty this weekend!!

Gardening

We began our gardening week by decorating flower pots. On Tuesday we had our spring pictures taken, along with our graduation pictures. We also created a rainbow of flowers to decorate our classroom.

Wednesday was our trip to Edgerton Floral and Garden Center. We learned a lot about how they grow flowers and vegetables. We also got see some unique plants like the Candy Corn plant, Lemonade plant, Chocolate Mint plant, and Spider Web plant. Be sure to ask your child about these fun plants!

Information bout our zoo trip on May 11th/12th was included in this week's red folder. Be sure to return the permission slip ASAP. Note: There is no bus transportation to and from school that day.

Don't forget that we do NOT have school next Wednesday but we do HAVE class on FRIDAY!!!

Happy Easter!

We had an Easter/Spring Theme this week. On Monday, we dyed hard-boiled eggs. We had to write on one with a crayon to see how the wax resisted the dye. On the other we had to dye the egg in one color then dip half of it in another color to see what color the double-dipped side changed to.

Tuesday we made cute little chicks hatching from eggs. We got to use the bingo daubers again!!! This project features our handprints too, since we know things like this are always a parent favorite :)

Wednesday we worked really hard on our cutting skills when we cut out all the oval to make a bunny rabbit. Then we had to using delicate, pinching fingers to pull and stretch cottoballs to put fur on our bunnies. It was hard work!

Basket weaving was on Thursday and was another challenging project. It takes a lot of patience to weave!

We hope you have a wonderful Easter and look forward to hearing all about the weekend when we return on Monday!

Don't forget that next Tuesday, April 26th is our picture day. If you want a spring picture taken of your child, please be sure to return the pose selection form that was in the red folder last week. All children will have a graduation portrait taken, but you are not obligated to purchase any (the kids will all be dressed in caps and gowns for the group photo, so we take individual photos while we are at it).

Next, Wednesday is our trip to Edgerton Floral &  Garden Center. We do have room for adult chaperones. You may join us on the bus or meet us there. Due to the narrow passageways in the greenhouse, along with the large number of children going through, please do not plan on bringing small children and/or strollers that may prevent us from moving quickly through the center and hearing all the gardening information they share with us. Thanks!

Spring Has Sprung!

Before we show you all that we have done this week, we want to remind you of the Children's Fair being held on Saturday from 9:30-11:30am. The location has changed to the Elementary School Gym. Please enter through Door H (the door behind the school near the gym area).

There will be many activities, visits from special characters, and informational booths. There are several make and takes and promotional items that have been donated by many generous area businesses. If you want to participate in the bike rodeo, don’t forget your bike & helmet!

Now on to our week...on Monday we drew pictures in our "Person Book". Only two more illustrations to go and then the books will be bound for you to enjoy an entire school year's worth of progress.

Our dramatic play area is set up with a spring flower garden and we have our baby picture match up game featuring flowers as well.

Dramatic Play Center with a Spring Theme

 

 

 

Matching the Baby Flowers to the Big Kid Stems

On Tuesday we made kites using contact, tissue, and crepe paper. They are decorating our windows as sun catchers.

Wednesday's project was scheduled to be umbrellas, but we decided to multi-task and use the umbrellas to decorate our class bulletin board. You may have noticed that we did not send home a project at the beginning of the month due to spring break. We will be needing your participation once again in May but we hope you enjoyed the break this month.

It's raining, it's pouring, our 4K skills are soaring!!!!

Morning Class Close-up #1

Morning Class Close-up #2

Afternoon Class Close-up #1

Afternoon Class Close-up #2

Thursday we talked about robins and made our own robin in a nest with eggs. We used a lot of skills including, cutting, folding, gluing, coloring, writing and the most fun of all...we rolled marbles covered in paint to decorate our robin's eggs!!! What fun!

Rolling a marble around to decorate the eggs.

A view of a finished project

We had a great week and especially liked the warmer days. It looks like we may be in for more cold weather though so please keep on sending appropriate outerwear for the changing weather. Thank you and have a great weekend!!!

Are they  future engineers? They regularly construct things here at the Lego table.