Thursday, 28 April 2016

Friday Update April 29

Just a reminder that there is no school on Monday!  I will see the students back at school on Tuesday, May 3.  It has been another full week of learning!!!

Our explorations and activities included…
*Continuing to work on Mango and Jelly’s play space. Our path changed a little bit as some of the students wondered what it would be like to create an imaginary world for the guinea pigs to explore in addition to the real one!  They were excited to start this, and it was an amazing relaunch to an already awesome project that the kids have had going.
*Jasper’s mom came in to make Anzac day biscuits with our class.  The classroom smelled wonderful and the kids enjoyed tasting them!  Thanks Fiona!
*We were painting together and a couple of the kids were upset that they had dripped on their painting—I showed them how you could fold the ends of the paper together and smush the paint to make a new painting! This led to an impromptu lesson on symmetry and so many of the students wanted to try it out after!
*We had a counseling lesson with Mr. Pearson on Honesty
*The students did some AMAZING drawing and writing with me. Sounding out words and labels, fine motor control—I was almost in tears at how proud I am of my class!!!
*Jimmy and Shayne started a word hunt with the letters in all of our names that enticed the rest of the class.  For awhile it was loud and noisy as many students were frantically looking around for different words and letters, but so so great!
*Our Pre K team of teachers have spent a lot of time and effort over the year to reinvent some intentional and purposeful learning spaces around the ECC, and it looks amazing! This morning we spent some time in some of the new spaces—it was a big hit!
*The civil defense was here doing a course with admin in the high school, so there was a bright red fire truck sitting outside.  Of course we had to go investigate! The men were incredibly nice and answered all of the student’s questions.
*All of the Pre K classes walked down to watch a Kindergarten Assembly this morning. We watched one of the kinder perceptual motor classes (the kinder version of Move and Groove) perform Under The Big Top, celebrated birthdays and danced around to a fun song.


SAVE THE DATE:
PRE-K CELEBRATION AND PORTFOLIO SHARING
The children have been working hard all year, and would like to celebrate!
Please join us to help celebrate our accomplishments, share our portfolios, and watch a slide show of our Pre K experiences.
Friday, May 20, 2016
8:15 am
E104 (our classroom)
*Please let me know if you CANNOT make it

Upcoming Dates and Things to Remember:

*Return library books and blue bags on Monday.
*Check the blog for pictures from this week!

*Friday, May 2nd:  Labor Day—NO SCHOOL
*Thursday, May 19th:  Pre K Visits KINDERGARTEN! (Students only) We will walk to the primary and visit kindergarten rooms, play on the k playground, listen to a story read by Mrs. Cuthbert (PS Librarian) and have a snack in the primary school cafeteria.
*Friday, May 20th: CELEBRATION/PORTFOLIO SHARE starting at 8:15am(Parents are highly encouraged to attend this day J)
Magic Show-Date TBD (Students only) We will walk to the primary school, have an opportunity to play on the kindergarten playground, watch a magic show and enjoy a popsicle.
*Monday, May 23rd: Vesak Day—NO SCHOOL
*Friday, June 3rd:  Last Day of School!—11:30am dismissal

Thursday, 21 April 2016

A Play Space for Mango and Jelly Part 2

The process of creating a play space for Mango and Jelly has been growing and changing over a number of days.  Some students planned the entire space and drew specific details. Others began gathering materials and started to build.

“Let’s have so many spots for them to hide and go into.”  -Map
“Yeah, they like to be so cozy.”  -Malia
“Let’s do the drawing on one page.”  -Rania

Some students were not yet interested in the project and during various times where we were all together, the students working on the play space for Mango and Jelly shared what they had done already and what the plan was. We also talked about the possibilities of materials—foam was going to be used for a “cushy” place to rest until we looked it up on the internet and realized it might be dangerous for the piggies because they would choke on the pieces.

“Mango and Jelly like to chew everything so we have to be careful.” –Aria
“I think we should make areas for them to eat.  They eat so much food.”  -Shayne
“Let’s get a bunch of materials and then see how we can put them together.”  -Daniel







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Friday Update April 22

It has been an amazing week of learning, and there is a lot going on!  Ask your child about what they are up to, and feel free to use the pictures from this week as a starting point! We have had not one, not two but THREE birthdays this week!!!!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIAM, SI-YOON and MENA!!!!!

There have been a lot of sick kids in the ECC over the last couple of weeks and it seems to be spreading fast.  Please do keep your kiddos home if they are not feeling well. (Especially with fevers—they need to be fever free for 24 hours before they come back.) 

Our explorations and activities included…
*We attended the Telluride film festival in the HS Drama Theatre with the entire ECC.  It was a beautiful collection of short films for our age group and the kiddos LOVED it!!
*Continuing to designing and put together a play space for Mango and Jelly (will have separate blog posts up). We talked about what we observed and learned from our trial with the guinea pigs, and came up with a couple big ideas---1) Mango and Jelly were really shy so we should make them some friends (we did that out of clay.) 2) They didn’t go up to the top levels (maybe they need some ramps or stairs)  3) Other people don’t know what we are making or what things are inside their play space (we should make some signs and labels.)
*Some of our students decided to start painting the play spaces as well—it turned into painting and crafts of every kind!
*We have had a mini project of building going on with a police station. It started off as something fun and has evolved into a place that is going to protect Mango and Jelly.  It is complete with a zoo animal system that is on alert and all the food (colored blocks) to keep them healthy overnight.
*Puzzles, games, painting, drawing and the dramatic play dress up area have been very popular this week as well.
*Many of our students are continuing to choose to use our mark making area to send each other notes—they are using their knowledge of letters and sounds to write simple words and are helping each other out!  It is great to observe their enjoyment with this as well as working with me. J

SAVE THE DATE:
PRE-K CELEBRATION AND PORTFOLIO SHARING
The children have been working hard all year, and would like to celebrate!
Please join us to help celebrate our accomplishments, share our portfolios, and watch a slide show of our Pre K experiences.
Friday, May 20, 2016
8:15 am
E104 (our classroom)
*Please let me know if you CANNOT make it

INTEGRATING INTO THE PRIMARY SCHOOL
Over the next couple of months of Pre-K we try to give the children plenty of opportunities to visit different areas of the Primary School and interact with many of the PS faculty. In May we will also have a magic show in the kindergarten group room, visit the kindergarten classes, go to the library to have a story with Mrs. Cuthbert and eat snack in the Primary School cafeteria. By June your children will be Kindergarten experts!  Please see list of dates below….more details will be provided as the dates get closer.

Upcoming Dates and Things to Remember:

*Return library books and blue bags on Monday.
*Check the blog for pictures from this week!


*Tuesday, April 26th: Teacher Appreciation Day J YAY! J
*Friday, May 2nd:  Labor Day—NO SCHOOL
*Thursday, May 19th:  Pre K Visits KINDERGARTEN! (Students only) We will walk to the primary and visit kindergarten rooms, play on the k playground, listen to a story read by Mrs. Cuthbert (PS Librarian) and have a snack in the primary school cafeteria.
*Friday, May 20th: CELEBRATION/PORTFOLIO SHARE starting at 8:15am(Parents are highly encouraged to attend this day J)
Magic Show-Date TBD (Students only) We will walk to the primary school, have an opportunity to play on the kindergarten playground, watch a magic show and enjoy a popsicle.
*Monday, May 23rd: Vesak Day—NO SCHOOL
*Friday, June 3rd:  Last Day of School!—11:30am dismissal
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