Week of November 29 - December 3

Fairy tales are a great way to experiment with language, retell stories, explore characters and settings, and compare different points of view.  Those are all things that we have delved into this week with our fairy tale unit and will continue to work on until the winter break.  We made a chart to discuss what is real and make believe.  We have read Jack and the Beanstalk and used our imagination creeping through the Roycemore halls that have magically transformed into the castle in the clouds... we haven't wanted to wake the sleeping Giant but would love to get our hands on his gold to keep our bellies full for the winter!  We've been experimenting with kidney beans, lima beans, and pinto beans to see if any of them will sprout into a beanstalk.  First we wrapped them in a wet paper towel and put them in plastic.  Once we see a sprout, we plant them in soil.  We hope that these we will be fruitful experiments!  We read Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Hansel and Gretel.  We've made a comparison chart on what characters we've seen in each of these stories.  We have discussed the settings in Fairy Tales and colored a castle mural.  Each student worked on a cottage and imagined someone inside their cottage.

Our center activities have continued to be full of engaging academic activities.  In the math center, the children used the geometric shape blocks that they have been experimenting with over the past few weeks and created pictures such as trains, animals, and plants.  This activity reinforces beyond basic shape knowledge and helps the children to see shapes in other objects.  In the language arts center we worked on beginning letter sounds through drawing pictures and playing a beginning letter sounds game.  The children work together to find pictures that match their letter card.  This activity is a review for some and a continued reinforcement of letter sounds, identification, and understanding of phonemic awareness.  Each lesson was differentiated for each child's needs and their skill set.  These are the skills we will continue to reinforce throughout the school year to help the students become readers.  In the art center, the children used their imagination to create their own masks to use when recreating and retelling the fairy tale stories we have been listening to this week.  The students explored magnetic letters in the fine motor/writing center moving letters around and pushing letters together to create words.  The independent center had the students working on the leap pads and listening to a book on tape. 

We celebrated Macy's Birthday this week with yummy, yummy brownie treats!  Happy 5th birthday Macy!  

 E.D.P Fun!

We enjoyed the beautiful and cold weather this week.  The children are working hard on getting themselves dressed with a little support from the teachers.  We reinforce basic skills such as zippering their coats, pulling on their own boots, and getting their hats and mittens on. 

Now that the weather has dropped so much we will continue to go outside!  The children will need to bundle up.  If you send boots, snow pants, coat, scarf, hat, and mittens, we will ask the children to wear everything that you send in to school.  We do our best to check the cubbies and the children to see that they have everything on their bodies.  We have made a visual list for the children to check off that they have the proper winter attire on.  Please help your child stay organized and independent with their winter things.  Hats, gloves, and scarves should be put in their coat sleeve.  Their coats and snow pants should be hung on their hook in their cubbie.  Their boots or change of shoes should be put inside their cubbie.  Please do not leave their outside clothing articles in their backpacks or we might not see them. 
Please label all of their things with their names on them!  If they don't have their names on their things then they will get lost or mixed up with other peoples things. 

A Peek Ahead

Next week, the students will be working on sight words in the language art center by playing a sight word movement game and reading a book that focuses on the words "is, and, the."  In the math center, the children will be using unfix cubes to measure bean stalks.  In the art center, the students will be making fairy tale finger puppets.  They will practice scissor control, gluing, and express their imaginative ideas in this fun activity.  In the fine motor center the children will be practicing letter strokes and writing in flour trays.  This is a tactile way of practicing letter writing and strengthening their fine motor skills.  In the independent center the children will be able to choose between the computers or leap pads. 

We will continue to explore the growth of our bean stalks through scientific investigations.  We will compare and contrast fairy tales written by different authors.  We will continue retelling the stories and investigating ways to act out a story.

Roycemore's Scholastic Book Fair is this week!  If you can stop by please do.  If you can't stop by the Scholastic Book Fair and you want to order books please visit the Scholastic Books website and place your order under our class page.