Earth Day, Recycling and Parents Day!

We celebrated Earth Day this week. The children each decorated a cloth napkin with paint and insect stamps last week during Exploring to use with their "trash-less" lunch. They brought plates and silverware from home, and thank you parents for sending lunches that were free of trash. We have been singing Jack Johnson's song, "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" while listening carefully to the words!

The boys and girls even learned how to place their napkins in their laps, showing nice table manners! Some children are bringing their cloth napkin in their lunchbox each day.

We all had fun celebrating a special birthday this week with the whole family!

Speaking of recycling materials, building with many different types was quite an experience this week. The boys and girls used their creativity to construct with cereal boxes, fruit baskets, juice bottles, corks, jewel pieces and so much more!

Other friends were having fun with the rainbow blocks. After this master builder completed construction, he invited lots of people, dogs and cats to come and visit. He then placed his "people block" in front of his house to label his work!

Letters, letters, everywhere! Finding the letter cards to spell their name is so much fun. Then they follow the model on the card to form each letter using the wooden lines and curves.

At PE this week the boys and girls had fun playing games with the parachute!

One friendly frog was very happy to see our mystery reader this week. The children loved the story, "The Magic Hat," by Mem Fox.  This magic hat that appeared in the sky one day took us on quite a magical adventure!

We were busy bees this week making special gifts for a most important event, Parent Day!!  After drawing a portait of each parent, they made a card for them and signed their name.

The children also made handprint flowers and insects on banners.

After decorating their gift bag, they placed all of their special treasures in and added some tissue.

Then it was almost time for that most important day!

The children sang to their parents on stage after marching in singing one of their favorite songs, "We Are the Dinosaurs!"

Then the parents were invited to the classroom to hear about their wonderful children and see some happy memories of this year on a slideshow.

Next it was time for parents to open their gifts.

The children were tickled as they watched their parents read the cards they had written.

Then it was time for yummy cookies and punch!

                                                                    Sooooo much fun!!!

After having some fun on the playground, the children came inside for some Exploring activities. Some chose to paint spiders and caterpillars.

Others enjoyed listening to Mrs. Samuel read, "Mr. Seahorse," by Eric Carle.

Working with insects, trees and wood pieces was an "oh so fun" activity.

                 Using letter tiles and picture word cards to form words was quite popular.

             Thank you to all of our wonderful parents for all that you do. You are not only special, you are                
                                                                         the best!!!!!

Also,  a big thank you so much to Kevlar's grandmother for the delicious tomatoes that she brought for
us.

Books Read This Week:

"The Itsy Bitsy Spider, " by Iza Trapani
"The Very Hungry Caterpillar, " by Eric Carle
"Miss Spider's Tea Party, " by David Kirk
"A Frog in the Bog, " by Karma Wilson

Upcoming Dates:

Exploring - 5/3, 5/10, 5/17 and 5/24
5/27  - Memorial Day Holiday
5/29  - End of Year Party -  10:00
5/31 - Last Day of School

Caterpillars and Celebrate the Arts

We began the week with the last little caterpillar on our class tree hatching from it's egg on the classroom tree!

Shortly thereafter, we couldn't believe our eyes when Mrs. Samuel brought our Milkweed Plant in from outdoors and it had  a BIG, yellow and black caterpillar on one of it's leaves.

Well, of course that is when the excitement began, because the children couldn't wait to observe the caterpillar as he munched away at the leaves on the plant. They also spent time poring over the book, "The Life Cycle of a Butterfly" by Jeff Bauer, as they conversed with friends about the photographs of each stage.

They also examined each stage of the butterfly's life cycle with representational manipulatives.

On Monday we met the cast for our school musical, "The Music Man" at an assembly with the JK and the Lower Division. This was a great kick off for Celebrate the Arts week! On Tuesday we joined JK to enjoy some drumming.

Each child had their own drum to play as they followed the direction of the drummer.

Then some of us led the dance while others made music on the drums!

Then in Music class, the children chose a favorite song to sing, SOLO, while Mrs. McIvor played the guitar.

Using letter tiles and word cards to form words has been so much fun!

The children used tweezers to separate fruits in to like groups. Then they counted the number of fruits in each group.

The children enjoyed building multi-dimensional structures with colored pegs and foam shapes. Some integrated color patterns in to their buildings.

Others went to great heights when building and balancing with rainbow blocks.

On Thursday we joined 4th graders to learn the history of rock and roll. The children enjoyed listening to the band play and watching the 4th graders dance! A few friendly frogs danced, too!

Visiting artists, Mrs. Bell and Mrs. Becker, from the Lower Division taught us about the Japanese art of fish painting on Friday.

Painting a real fish, head tail, fins and all was quite a treat!

Then each child pressed a t-shirt to their painted fish, to transfer their beautifully painted fish.

The boys and girls painted fish necklaces in glittery watercolor and added beads to make necklaces.

Next it was off to learn about the instruments played in a rock and roll band!

Then the children each chose an instrument to play themselves.

Others composed a progressive song to the music!

We all enjoyed the beautiful music at the Celebrate the Arts performance on Friday. The children in Early Childhood sang out loud and clear, "Oh What Fun to be Reading!"

What a perfect ending to this special week, enjoying a picnic with our families!

When laying down to rest after Friday's busy day, one little frog was quite concerned because he didn't see the caterpillar on our plant. We looked high and low, but could not find it. Mrs. Mundell explained that sometimes the caterpillars choose to leave their plant to find a special place to form their chrysalis. 

Listen and watch carefully!

That same little frog woke to find that his little caterpillar friend came to visit while he was sleeping!!

Upcoming Dates:

4/23 Trashless lunch in celebration of Earth Day

4/26 Parent Day - begins at 8:30 in Student Activity Center and is followed by a slideshow, refreshments and a presentation of special gifts in the classroom until about 9:30. Then the children will go to the playground before having a mini - exploring in the classrooms.