Happy Summer

It's hard to believe the school year has come to a close.  Joan and I are so proud of all the kids and the things they accomplished throughout the year.  We had a lot of fun during the last week.  The kids brought outdoor toys from home for Show and Tell  and they had so much fun sharing them with their friends.  We had various kinds and sizes of balls, stomp rockets, and bubble makers and we were blessed with great weather on that day!  We also had fun inside using glue, salt and water colors to create some beautiful artwork, listening to lots of good stories, and playing with our friends and favorite toys.  Although we postponed our end of the year park day, Joan and I are so glad we were able to get together after Memorial Day for a final celebration!

Tannar and his dad made a special bubble wand and it made giant bubbles.  We had so much fun making and then chasing the bubbles we created...thanks Tannar and Tony for sharing this with us!!

We sat in a circle to tell about what we brought and why it's fun to use outside! 

Mrs. Chyko shared a special story about a baby robin with us.  She found it in her yard after it had fallen out of it's nest and read that she could make a new nest for it.  She used a ziploc container and a sock to make the new nest. She watched  as the mother robin brought worms to her baby once it was put in a new nest!  The kids loved hearing the story and seeing the pictures Mrs. Chyko brought in!!

Spring Things

The last few weeks have been filled with activity!  We heard stories about Dads, made a special project for our dads, practiced a lot for our spring sing, let our butterflies go, had fun finger painting and enjoyed learning about magnetism by using magnets and paper clips.

Saaanvi was Maple Leaf of the Week.  Last Tuesday she brought in her poster and shared it with us. On Thursday her mom came to class for a visit.  She showed us the story of The Tortoise and The Hare on her ipad.  The kids loved it!  After we heard the story she gave each of us a bunny (hare) that had wheels on it. The kids had so much fun pulling the bunnies backward and then releasing them to see how far they would go.   Saanvi also brought in cupcakes for a special treat to share with her friends.  Thanks so much Saanvi for helping to make our week so special!!

Saanvi brought in cupcakes to share with her friends.  They were delicious!

Thanks for the yummy treats!!

 How far and fast our bunnies will go?

It was fun to visit with Saanvi and her mom and
 to watch the story of the Tortoise and the Hare!

We had a beautiful day last Thursday so we released our butterflies.  We all felt so happy as we watched them fly out of  our butterfly garden!

The kids loved telling us their favorite things about their own dads, then we had fun listening to stories about other terrific dads!  I bet your child would love to tell you what they love best about you!!  

Mascots and Mothers Day

The week before Mother's Day was a busy one!  It was Liam's special week and his birthday celebration!!  Tuesday morning Liam invited several visitors to class.  His dad came in and read some of Liam's favorite books to us.  Anne and her granddaughter came to visit too.  Liam's Dad also brought in the head of the mascot from Starting Point and let us try it on!  The mascot's name is Champ.  Liam helped pass out coloring sheets of Champ and gave us each a baseball card with Champ's picture on it.  If you want to see Champ sing and dance here's a link to check out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYdm4PJ16JA

We loved hearing Liam's Dad read us stories and meeting some of the special people in Liam's life!

When we tried on the mascot head it was sort of hard to see...but lots of fun to wear!!

We sure enjoyed the special treat Liam sent in.  Thank you, Liam!!

Of course we had to sing Happy Birthday to Liam in English and Spanish!!  Feliz Cumpleanos, Liam!! 

We also heard several good stories about Mothers during circle time.  We made a special present for our moms, then we decorated a bag and Mrs. Chyko helped us wrap our gift!

We loved using our fingerprints to make a pot for Mom!

Our other big news is that two of the butterflies emerged from their chrysalis.  Caden noticed it while we were reading a story.  We immediately had to stop reading and look at our butterfly garden...we named our butterflies Max and Ruby!

Butterflies and Flowers

When we arrived at school on Tuesday we had a big surprise waiting for us.  Our caterpillars had spun their chrysalis.  Four of our caterpillars are now waiting to become butterflies! (One of the caterpillars didn't make it so we had a brief discussion about how sometimes that happens in nature.)

Our story today was a DK nature book on flowers.  Before we read it all the kids shared something they already knew about flowers and we listed them on our whiteboard.  We also discussed the letter F and the sound it made.  We had music with Mrs. Jenkins and worked hard on practicing the songs we'll be singing for our spring sing in May.  After music it was activity time.  

We used the letters from our name to make flower pots!

The kids had fun counting how many letters were in their first name and choosing the flowers they wanted to use!

On Wednesday we made a class terrarium.  We used dirt and pebbles to create a design and then planted 4 different kinds of seeds.  We worked together to create this class garden!  

During activity time Mrs. Chyko helped us use jewels and glitter glue to decorate our terrarium. We also had fun looking through several different kaleidoscopes.


It was so nice on Wednesday we went outside and played for about 20 minutes.

Thursday, we heard the story The Little Seed by Eric Carle.  It tells the story of how seeds grow.  One of our activities today was planting sunflower seeds.  The kids each used a spoon to scoop dirt into a cup, added 2 seeds, covered them up and used a watering can to give the seeds something to drink.  We put the cups on a window ledge to get some sunshine.

Some of our other activities included "the pony center", "the car center" and "the treehouse center".  Mrs. Chyko played a color game with the kids.

It was a little too cold and damp to go outside today.  We learned a new song called "The Boogie Walk" and had fun practicing that!  Here's the link to the music in case your child wants to practice it at home!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArJW1lU0EZE

Last week we had fun creating caterpillars and butterflies based on Eric Carle's book The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  We heard a lot of other books about Butterflies during the week and enjoyed watching our caterpillars as they grew bigger and bigger from eating so much!  

We used balloons dipped in paint to create our caterpillars!

We did squish painting to create our butterflies!

Caterpillars and Sea Creatures!

We've been talking about signs of spring.  Last week we made a chart of what happens in the spring. Each child shared an idea and I wrote it on the board.  Then we read it back together. (As I write their ideas and we read them back the kids love telling me letters that they recognize...most often it's letters that are in their names...I so enjoy watching and listening to the kids as they begin their literacy journey!)  

Ask your child which one is their idea.  When we put it together it created a beautiful poem.

In Spring...

Snow melts, Maple Trees wake up,

Flowers grow, Trees grow leaves.

In Spring...

Rain comes, the grass turns green,

Birds lay eggs, The Easter Bunny comes.

In Spring...

It warms up!

Baseball starts, soccer starts,

We love spring!

During circle time on Tuesday, we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  After we read the story, we opened up a box that came in the mail.  It turned out the box had a container of hungry painted lady caterpillars inside.  We put them in our butterfly garden to watch them grow! 

Max was our "Maple Leaf " this week.  His mom came in on Tuesday and told us how much Max likes visiting aquariums and learning about sea creatures.  She brought in a poster with pictures of some of the aquariums that Max has visited.  Then she read us a story called Curious George Visits the Aquarium. After we heard the story she helped all of us make our own aquariums! 

Here we are making our aquariums.  

Here's what our aquariums looked like when we were finished.

Thursday, Max brought in a special snack that looked like an aquarium.  It was blue jello, with Swedish Fish inside and whipped cream on top...yum!!  Thanks Max for helping make our week so special!

We heard some stories about spring and caterpillars on Thursday.  Then we went outside to play for a while...we were all so happy to enjoy the spring weather!!

When we were outside we looked at a pussy willow tree and felt the smooth, furry flowers on the branches.  

Back inside, we went to activity time.  Our activities this week included making a butterfly booklet to help us remember the life cycle of a butterfly, balloon painting to create a caterpillar, using scissors to help a caterpillar "eat" a leaf, playing with cars, building the marble run, playing with play dough, using letter stickers to create designs, building with blocks, and putting together a floor puzzle that had pictures of insects. We had a very busy week!

Eggs, Bunnies and Spring!

The week before spring break we talked about eggs and animals that come out of eggs.   We were getting very excited about our Easter Egg Hunt only to find out that we had to cancel school on Thursday due to an electricity outage at the church!  We tried to notify all the families before arriving at school, but weren't able to catch everyone so we waited at the school.  When we told one of the kids that the electricity was out and school was cancelled, his response was, "Make sure to email the Easter Bunny and let him know!!"  We did!!

We had fun marble painting to decorate our construction paper eggs. 

When we returned to school after spring break, the bunny had left a note telling us that he'd be back on Thursday to leave us some eggs.  We heard a lot of stories about rabbits and eggs this week during circle time.  We also talked about signs of spring and robins.  We watched a video of a baby robin hatching out of her egg.

We went for a spring walk on Wednesday.  We were looking for robins and other signs of spring.  We saw, heard, and felt a lot of spring signs...including raindrops!

One of the signs of spring we saw were worms on the black top.  We talked about how worms help make holes in the dirt so things can grow.  The kids had fun picking up the live worms and putting them back in the grass.  

During activity time we set out several new activities for the kids.  One of their favorites was using shapes and hammers to nail to a cork board.

   Making a picture of a bird.

Making herself going on a walk.  The blue rectangle is the worm she picked up!

Another favorite activity was using blocks to create bird houses for our bird figurines.

I think the highlight of the week was The Egg Hunt on Thursday.  It was cold outside so we went upstairs to the church narthex to find the eggs.  Everyone needed to find 6 colored eggs and a sparkle egg.  So much fun!!

Green, Glitter and Gold

During circle time on Tuesday, we found a rainbow and a pot of gold that Lucky the Leprechaun hid in our class!  We had fun peeling off the gel pieces and putting the rainbow together. When we finished we added the pot of gold at the end.  We're trying to remember the order of the colors of the rainbow...ask your kids to see if they know!

During the first half of the year we learned to recognize our first names, now we're  learning to read our last names during circle time too.  We're also starting to print our last names occasionally.  We heard the story The Shoemaker and the Elves today and then we made leprechaun ladders using pipe cleaners, straws and shamrocks.

Here we are making our leprechaun ladders.

Tuesday was an extended day where some of us stayed for lunch.  We had a little extra time to play and we made rainbow art.  We put all the colors of the rainbow on a tray then put paper on top and used a rolling pin to spread the paint.  These are the designs we made.

The kids used blank paper to create these designs.  We had fun looking at them and trying to decide what they looked like.  We had a rainbow sky, 2 rainbow fish, a fire breathing dragon and a bumble bee!  

We used a paper with the letter R printed on it, put it on the paint and rolled it, then cut it out and glued it down when it was dry.  What beautiful "Rainbow R's!


Wednesday and Thursday we painted paper plates green then sprinkled gold and green glitter on top.  We turned them into leprechaun hats on St. Patrick's Day.

We had our hammer and shapes set out all week during activity time...it is one of the kids favorite!  We also had playdough and rainbow colored beans and mosaics available all week.

Our beautiful pots of gold with the rainbow coming out...the colors are in the same order as a rainbow in the sky!

We used glue to make the letter G and a shamrock, then sprinkled gold and green glitter on top!

Thursday was "Wear Green to School Day".  When we arrived at school our leprechaun ladders were hanging on our hooks with a gold coin for each of us!  The leprechauns left some gold "leprechaun dust" on the ladders so we knew they were there!  We went on a hunt around the church to look for leprechauns, we didn't see them but Miss Lucy said she heard one run by her office and when we looked around, sure enough, there were gold coins left for us in the church narthex.  We had fun collecting them...each of us found 7 gold coins to take home.  Back downstairs, it was time for snack. Lucky had left his favorite snack, we opened it, poured it in a bowl, added milk to it and stirred it up...it turned green and thick!!  It was green pudding!  Yum!!

"May the sun shine all day long, everything go right and nothing wrong. May those you love bring love back to you, and may all the wishes you wish come true!"