Week of December 13-17

Our Week Before the Winter Break!

The Gingerbread Man was on the loose!  The children started the week by conducting a scientific experiment.  They first predicted what would happen if the Gingerbread Man did not take the Fox up on his offer to ride across the river.  Each child thought of what would happen if the Gingerbread Man jumped into the river and swam across the river on his own.  Then we tested our predictions by placing three gingerbread cookies in water and watched them swim.  We took one cookie out at 1 minute and saw that it was mushy.  We took the second cookie out at 3 minutes and it was falling apart.  Finally we took the third cookie out after 5 minutes and it broke apart!  Our poor Gingerbread Men!  They wouldn't have lasted even without the Fox! The children then thought about if they were a Gingerbread Man how to get across the river and not get caught from all the townspeople! They drew some amazing pictures telling their stories of how they would capture a gingerbread cookie.  Some drew gingerbread girls, boys, dogs, cats, men, and even a Gingerbread Superman!  These beautiful illustrations and funny stories are hanging in the classroom.
We shared a book called, The Nutcracker so we could be prepared for the spectacular field trip on Thursday.  Some of the children knew the story and some children remembered their trip to the Noble Horse Theater last year!  Everyone was really excited for the trip and very well behaved when we went on Thursday.

We finished our centers that spilled over from last week.  The beanstalk measurements are hanging in the hallway.  The children all loved writing in flour and how messy they got!  The introduction to popcorn words was a big hit as well as the introduction to the game, Blast Off!  Every one's finger puppets were put together nicely.  The children followed three step directions to cut, glue, then decorate their puppets very well!  The technology center was utilized too and the children were happy to exert their independence and play games on the computers and leap pads without assistance.

On Wednesday, the children worked on a special surprise for Mom's and Dad's that they and I cannot share with you until Christmas or the New Year!  Your surprise will have to wait!  While the children worked on these special gifts, they had independent center time and they also worked in Reading Groups too.  Each child is working at their own pace in their understanding of reading and they will continue to work with me in the mornings on reading and during small group/them study work time.  Language Arts centers always focuses on reading activities too.  Each lesson is basically the same but differentiated for each child within the group to make sure their skills are being reviewed and challenged.

On Friday we had a very special wrap up to our Fairy Tales and Gingerbread theme!  The children helped mix up gingerbread batter to create Gingerbread Friends.  While we baked those gingerbread friends, we made them houses too.  When we finished we went into the kitchen to pick them up from Ms. Mira they were gone!  A note was left that said, Haha!  The old man and old woman tried to catch us but we were too fast!  You can try too, we ran to a place where you play games and activities.  We safely went to Mr. B in the gym, where we found another clue that said, "We were here but now we are gone.  We went to a place where you could get a drink of water."  We walked to the Lower School drinking fountain next.  The note there said, "We were here but now we are gone.  We went to a place where you learn new songs!"  We went down the stairs to Mr. Hunter's music room.  Another note was left there that said, "We were here but now we are gone!  We went to a place where you learn and work with your JK friends."  When we came back into the classroom, we discovered our gingerbread friends in our gingerbread houses!  We had captured them after all and boy they were yummy.

A Peek Ahead

The morning meeting will focus on new skills such as syllables, the months of the year and the new year!  During centers the class will focus on winter patterns in the math center, differentiated rhyming activities and reading skills in the literacy center, graphing names and creating snowmen in the art center, sewing bears in the fine motor center, and computer games in the independence center.
Our theme will focus on the winter season.  We will be creating a KWL chart (what do you Know about winter, what do you Want to know about winter, and what have you Learned about winter) throughout our theme.  We will be talking about the signs that tell us winter is here.  We will be creating art activities and reading lots of books about the winter season.  We will also be conducting science experiments with water, ice, and snow.  We will be charting the temperature outside with a thermometer and watching as the temperature rises and falls. In the last few weeks of our Winter theme, we will be learning about hibernation and studying animals in the northern and southern regions.