Happy Holidays!!! Friday Update December 16

Aidah and I are wishing all of you the most beautiful, restful and wonderful time with your family over this holiday break. We feel so incredibly lucky to be able to teach your amazing children, and have loved every moment of this first semester! We are looking forward to the second half of the year with our Pre K family!

We want to wish Jamin, Olivia and their families the absolute best on their new adventures! We will miss you!!!!! We will try and set up some time to skype so the cuties can still see each other! Keep in touch!

Just a reminder that school starts back on Monday, January 9^th. It will be a LATE START DAY, so the school day starts at 10:00am. The bus company should be contacting you about the revised pick up times for that specific day. The rest of the week starts at the normal time.

We will be getting three new students in January—I am in the process of setting up orientations for them and will let you know more about them when we get back in the new year.

Just a note-the gift exchange that was planned by the PTA for our class got a little mixed up, so Manaswi and I decided we are going to donate the gifts that did come to school to a charity. Perhaps a children’s hospital or salvation army. J

The amazing author and illustrator Todd Parr is coming back to SAS in January! He will be spending a week with our ELC students! Very exciting!

Happy Holidays! Enjoy every moment with those kiddos of yours!

REMINDERS / UPCOMING DATES

*December 17^th to January 8^th: NO SCHOOL-WINTER BREAK

*January 9^th: Late Start—10:00am start for school.

Week 18 December 12 to 16

Cat and Dog Project Part 4

Jamin’s mom Missi brought in Jamin’s dog Kyan, and the students did a lot of comparing between the calico cat and the husky dog. They noticed his very blue eyes, and how much fur he has. Missi told the students what husky dogs are really good at…pulling sleds! She also told them that he only needs a bath twice a year and that Kyan is pretty old for a dog so he sleeps a lot during the day.

“He must be really hot in Singapore with his fur!” – A.J.

“Let’s give him more turkey! I think food makes him happy!” –Mei

We are heading into the winter break, and the students continue to be intrigued by cats and dogs. We just found out that Garfield was in an accident and is healing at home. We will use this as our first provocation in the new year. As well as Scout’s comment of “We should go visit a place where they have dogs and cats that don’t have any homes! We need to make sure they are ok!”

A study of animals in our Pre K classrooms aligns well with authentic learning in context and being completely absorbed in the process of learning. By thinking, feeling, questioning, communicating, and making connections, the students are engaged in a meaningful and relevant learning experiences they can be a part of themselves.

Including animals in our setting (whether it be our guinea pigs, Mango and Oreo Cookie or animals around us) encourages respectful relationships between the students and the animals, as well as between each other. The students learn how to interact with one another, to show empathy, to be responsible for another being, to treat animals as part of our family/community, and to find a sense of belonging in their world.

Children’s relationships with animals are special, and allowing these relationships to develop expands their affinity for living things. Many children seem to understand and recognize the intrinsic value of animals not because of what they do for us, give us or help us, but because they are living creatures. I look forward to seeing how this project is propelled forward by our students.

Our task must be to free ourselves... by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.

Albert Einstein

Cat and Dog Project Part 3

“You know, I don’t have a cat or dog. Who has one?” Samay asked?

“Ms. Jo said she has a cat! Olivia asked her at lunch!” Scout provided.

So we invited Ms. Jo to come in an tell us about her cats, Cocoa and Ritchie. The students were bursting with questions inspired by their research.

“What do they sleep on?”-Mei

“They are made of bones and muscles, right?” –Sid

“Do they drink milk or just water? How do you keep them healthy?”-Florence

“’The tail on cats is part of their spine. What if they don’t have long tails? Do yours?”-Samay

The students were very interested in learning that Ms. Jo gets woken up by the cats batting and biting at her toes, that they went to the vet to get injections, and that there is a “net” on the balcony so the cats don’t fall off.

Continually inspired, our capable and confident animal loving students went back to their books, drawings, clay, and dramatic play. “Meow!” Said Olivia, “I’m going to bring my cat Sadie in to school!”

Olivia’s mom Morgan brought Sadie to school. She told us about how Sadie goes outside during the day and sleeps inside during the night, about how her “calico” colors make her unique. The students studied her whiskers, how her tail moved, marveled at her paws and eyes, and wondered if she was feeling scared or nervous because she was new to our school. Many were in awe at being able to touch such a calm furry feline.

Observational Drawings of Sadie