Scientific Thinking...

From Scientific Thinking

We have been reading and studying about scientists and what scientists do. We learned scientists draw and write about their thinking. Scientists also try experiments and continue to try new things. We also learned scientists use their senses to explore a topic. We worked with magnets this past week to explore our thinking and how they worked. We learned magnets did not stick to our tables, cabinents, and windows; however, we learned they stuck to the legs of the chair, the pencil sharpner, part of the scissors, and to the handle on the cabinents. It was great to listen to the children talking about what they discovered. We also came together to synthesize our information! It was such a fun time! We will continue to talk about scientists over the next few weeks.

Valentine Fun...

Here are some pictures of the children at the Valentine's Day Party. We enjoyed a fantastic snack, created bags, exchanged valentine cards, and enjoyed some socializing! It was a blast. Thank you to everyone who sent in treats!

Calendar Fun...

When you go into many classrooms, especially early childhood classrooms, you will find a time set aside to study the calendar. This time is spent in many various ways throughout the country. I spend my time working with the calendar in various ways. I like to call my time "Morning/Afternoon Meeting." We spend the time figuring out what today, tomorrow, and yesterday is on the calendar and we identify the numbers. We also play mystery number, where I take a number off the calendar and the children have to figure out what the missing number. In the later part of the year we mix the calendar up and the children have to put it back together. This allows us to work on ordering numbers. Some teachers like to add a day each day to the calendar; however, I feel different about this. My view on this practice is: you never see a partial calendar, when you look at the calendar you always see the entire month. I want this practice to be in my room because it helps us plan and helps the children develop a sense of time. At the conclusion of this short time we sing the Days of the Week and the Months of the Year. Check out our You Tube channel and watch the children singing "Days of the Week," I am sure you will recognize the tune...I am apologizing in advance if it gets stuck in your head!

Dental Health...

We had an awesome opportunity on Friday to have a visit from Dr. Dave Franz! He owns his own practice in northern Cincinnati. He came to talk to the class about the importance of dental health and visiting the dentist. Before Dr. Dave visited with the class we read various books about dental health and created charts about our learning. I was impressed how the children identified the important information from the reading. Dr. Dave also gave the children tooth paste and a toothbrush. I heard from the children saying what a great time they had and how much they enjoyed the visit. When I asked the children what they learned they were able to tell me all types of information!

Conference Time...

Thank you for everyone who attended conferences over the past two weeks. Parent-Teacher conferences are one of the most enjoyable times I have while working. It was wonderful to meet with you and discuss your child's progress. I thoroughly enjoy the time we are able to meet and partner together. I have made notes about various information we discussed and if I mentioned I would send something home with your child, please look for it on Monday or Tuesday of next week (I will be out Thursday and Friday). I will say overall I have seen a huge growth in maturity in all the children socially, behaviorally, and academically. We will be raising the bar these last 3-4 months of school. I know the children can succeed and we want to end the year as strong as possible. Once again thank you for all of your support!

Reading Fun...Music Fun...

Over the past few weeks we have been working on our reading skills, but through the use of music. One of the reading components is "phonemic awareness." Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear sounds in words. We have been using a lot of music to help with this skill. We sing a lot of various songs and then we change sounds to change the words. The songs turn into silly songs. You may have hear your child singing "Mr. Snowman," Rainy Weather," etc. These songs have helped us work through the idea of changing words without seeing them. For example, in the song "Mr. Snowman" (sang to the tune This Old Man) we sang Mr. Snowman only sings /y/ songs; therefore, he sings yick-yack-yaddy-yack. In addition, Mr. Snowman may only sing /v/ songs; therefore, he sings vick-vack-viddy-vack. Using music allows me to teach reading skills in an unique and fun way!

Lyrics to Mr. Snowman (to the tune of This Old Man)

Mr. Snowman

Sings /k/ songs

He sings /k/ songs all day long

With a kick-kack-kiddy-kack

Sing his silly song

He wants you to sing along!