Classroom News September 26, 2003

WOW! The family collages were great! The children were all very eager to tell the class about their family pictures, and did a great job doing this! We will have them displayed in the class all next week. This week we read “Mortimer”, another book by Robert Munsch. In this story, Mortimer’s mother, father, sisters and brothers each try to get him to be quiet at bedtime. Each time, Mortimer sings a noisy tune. The children really enjoyed singing this each time it happened in the book. This book, along with last week’s “Mud Puddle” book will be sent home with each child starting next week. Your child can share this book with you, and should be able to tell you much of the story.
The afternoon class made a worm farm on Wednesday. This required scooping soil, sand, and leaves into a clear box, and then adding the worms. We will continue to observe the farm for signs of worm tunnels and other changes. Centers this week included: dollhouse with multicultural families, blocks, making family finger puppets, and coloring family books.
Vocabulary words this week: We learned the hand signs for these words: family, mother, father, sister, brother, grandmother, grandfather, child. Other vocabulary included: soil, sand, upstairs, downstairs, and tunnel.

Speech and Language
This week Matt and Molly raked leaves. We worked on the verbs: rake, raking, raked. We also worked on sequencing the four events in the story. For articulation we practiced the /th/ sound. It is called a tongue cooler. During our rapid naming activity we practiced the names of the alphabet letters and numbers.

PT Group
This week the children practiced bouncing and catching balls, throwing them up and catching, as well as doing this with a partner. Following directions was also incorporated since everyone had to listen to Renee to hear when to start, stop, and what action to do with the ball.

Words to songs we’re learning:

Mortimer In the book, Mortimer repeats this each time another family member comes upstairs:
“Clang clang, rattle bing bang, gonna make my noise all day, clang clang rattle bing bang, gonna make my noise all day!”

For our flag time, the children are learning both “Yankee Doodle” and “Grand Old Flag”.

PLAYGROUND UPDATE
We have been having problems with bees making nests in every little spot on our playground. The custodians have sprayed multiple times, and we’ve had professional exterminators here twice. Hopefully we will get them under control soon, since we have not been able to go out for the past two weeks. Thanks for your understanding.

PICTURE RETAKE CHANGE
As of today, picture retake day has been rescheduled to October 6th from 1:30-3:00 in the library. If you would like your child’s picture retaken, let us know and we can bring your child in during this time. If you expected a package and didn’t receive one, this means your child did not have an order form and money to hand in on picture day. Bring your check and order form Oct. 6th, and you can have your child’s picture taken then.

Looking Ahead
Next week we will be learning all about shapes. We will use shapes in various art projects, and practice drawing shapes with our fingers in shaving cream. We will also be using playdough and other fun sensory materials for practicing shapes.

As always, please feel free to call and leave a voice mail, send a note in your child’s backpack, or email me if you have any questions/concerns.
knagy@cromwellct.org

Afternoon weekly news September 19, 2003

A Peek at the Week
This week we were able to finish our color collages, and they look great. We will be displaying them outside our classroom next week. We read the book “Mud Puddle�, by Robert Munsch. In this story, a mud puddle “jumps� on a little girl, and she ends up with mud on many parts of her body. This was a fun way to incorporate our body parts theme. We also practiced identifying the different parts of our body and what they do.
For centers, we had a body part matching/memory game where the children had to look at a card, name the body part, and then look for the matching card. They also played the game as a “go fish� game. Other centers included “building� a large paper face out of individual pieces which were velcroed in the appropriate location. Margaret Root facilitated this center. Coloring pictures of animals and talking about their body parts, and building Mr. Potato Head people were also fun centers this week.
Songs this week included: If You’re Happy and You Know It, and Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.

Speech and Language
This week we worked on the concepts of inside, outside, little and big. We also learned to make requests. Little Bear and Big Bear helped us learn how to answer who and where questions. When we work on “Bear� stories the children also learn to follow a sequence of three events.

PT Group
In PT Group this week the children used balloons with Renee. They individually practiced bouncing the balloons using different parts of their bodies, including: fingers, thumbs, head, elbows, knees and feet. They also played a large group game of keeping two balloons off the floor, bouncing them with different parts of their bodies. Thanks for remembering to send your child to school in sneakers on Wednesdays.

Music Class:
The afternoon class has gone to music class with Mrs. Chapman the past two Fridays. During this time, the children sing songs related to the theme of the week. Often times, Mrs. Chapman includes props to involve the children in the activity. We will share the words to these songs with you from time to time.

Looking Ahead
Next week we will be focusing on families. Please remember to work on you family collage and send it in on Wednesday. The weeks after we will learn all about shapes, simple self-care tasks, and then begin our unit on autumn, including farms.

As always, please feel free to call and leave a voice mail, send a note in your child’s backpack, or email me if you have any questions/concerns.
knagy@cromwellct.org

Words to songs we’re learning:

Open shut them (we sing this before we eat snack) Open, shut them, open, shut them,
Give a little clap. Open shut them, open shut them, lay them in your lap. Creep them, creep them, creep them, creep them, right up to your chin. Open wide, your little mouth, but do not let them in.
Weather song What is the weather, what is the weather, out today? I say it’s (cloudy), I say it’s (cloudy), I say it’s (cloudy) out today.

For our flag time, the children are learning both “Yankee Doodle” and “Grand Old Flag”.

We also did a quick song each day using a tambourine. The words are: kaboom tiddly wink, kaboom tiddly wink, kaboom tiddly wink, kaboom! Kaboom tiddly wink, kaboom tiddly wink, kaboom tiddly wink, kaboom!