Play Space for Mango and Jelly!

The relationship between our classroom animals and the students is a special one. For many students who do not have pets, Mango and Jelly provide the opportunity to take care of a (cuddly, furry) living thing. Taking care of these animals gives students a chance to practice responsibility, gentleness, compassion and respect. Our students help clean the guinea pig cage, feed them (both their regular food and fun veggie treats) and nurture Mango and Jelly by playing with them, brushing them, talking with them and cuddling them.

We had come in from recess and the students told me that they had been talking with Lukas about our gerbils at home and the maze my boys had built for them. With some discussion about how much they love to play and asking about the maze, they came up with a decision to make a play space for Mango and Jelly.

“They need some exercise outside of their cage!” –Xavion

“And they can play in a play that has cool hiding spots!” –Liam

“But what do we make it out of?” –Ella

As a class we brainstormed what we could do. The students had many good ideas. They thought of ways to make it safe and fun for the piggies, and what types of materials we could use.  We then got on to some guinea pig blogs for some design ideas, and also how to keep Mango and Jelly safe in terms of the materials we use.

Telluride MountainFilm Festival

Telluride MountainFilm Festival 
On Tuesday, our class visited the HS Drama Theatre to watch the Telluride MountainFilm Festival. This school-wide event was on campus April 18th and 19th as a generous donation from an SAS family. There are a series of short independent movies that are shown in a variety of locations over the two days. Librarians work with MountainFilm representatives to preview and curate screening lists to share with students. The ECC playlist was 30 minutes long and featured some funny and inspiring short films. 

Friday Update April 15

This week it was all about animals! We also visited the Elementary School! We have been very busy!

Our explorations and activities included…

*Designing and beginning to put together a play space for Mango and Jelly (more in the next blog post.) We researched, read, looked at animal blocks, looked at pictures, tested it out with a pretend guinea pig and then tried it out with Mango and Jelly!

*Visited the Elementary School.  We (our class and Ms. Hannah’s Pre K class) went to the rooftop playground and then checked some books out from the ES library for our classroom.  It was a long walk, but so worth it!  Our Pre K students felt like big K students! 

*Making tie dye paper towels with Jasper’s mom-thanks for coming Fiona!

*doing a couple of laps with second grade for their annual walk a thon

*using our 100’s chart to count and practice patterning and using dominoes to practice one to one correspondence, matching and of course having fun playing a game that I have always loved! J

*Playing buggy bingo to practice our counting, names of numbers and cooperation

*drawing airplanes and building them—we have a group that is VERY interested

*practicing sounding out simple words that keep showing up in our Mo Willems books!

*and much, much more….

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:

(I’m trying to get the rest of the year sorted, so you can put dates on your calendars J)

*Return library books and blue bags on Monday.

*Check the blog for pictures from this week!

*SUMMER BIRTHDAYS: if your child's birthday is in the summer and you'd like to celebrate it at school before the year is over, please send a note and we will celebrate!  J  We don’t want to miss anyone! Let me know what day works for you.

*IF you are leaving early, withdrawing from SAS or will be missing certain days over the next few weeks, send me a note. This will help me manage those last-minute details regarding report cards, work sent home, portfolios etc.

*Tuesday, April 19^th: Telluride Film Festival for Ecc- This was a generous donation from an SAS family, and is a school wide event on Monday and Tuesday. The ECC playlist is 29 minutes long and are appropriate for our age group with some funny and inspiring short films.  We will be attending in the morning.

*Tuesday, April 26^th: Teacher Appreciation Day J YAY! J

*Friday, May 2^nd:  Labor Day—NO SCHOOL

*Thursday, May 9^th:  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 20^th: 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 23^rd: Vesak Day—NO SCHOOL

*Friday, June 3^rd:  Last Day of School!—11:30am dismissal

WE LOVE MO WILLEMS!

“What are you drawing Si-Yoon?” –Shayne

“Elephant and Piggie! I’m going to make a story for them.” –Si-Yoon

“Can I too?  I will sit here with you.” –Shayne

Liam comes over to the table to investigate the start of the conversation he overheard from another table.

“I’m going to draw a big Gerald.  Maybe I should draw all of the characters I like…Elephant, Piggie, Pigeon.  I have to look in the books to remember them.  Maybe snake too because he is so funny.” –Liam

“Here! I have a lot of the books we were reading. Let’s make our own stories and pictures. I love these books..they make me laugh all the time. And we can read them by ourselves, right?” –Ella

The conversation continues as the students get to work, occasionally studying the books in front of them, and concentrating on the details of their drawings, and trying to match the colors of the characters to the ones they know and love.

“I just can’t get this pigeon right! I keep trying it but it is not working!” –Shayne  (Some time passes while Shayne practices a bunch of different pigeons.) “There, you see guys!? I got it!  I finally made one I love!  I kept trying and trying and I got it! I’m going to paint this one I finally got.”

After a couple of days of this group working and showing the class their work, many other students in the class wanted to give it a go as well.

Our class loves to read books by Mo Willems. Pigeon, Elephant and Piggy, Knuffle Bunny, Naked Mole Rat…these characters get talked about during snack and lunch times, during our explorations, and the students are constantly begging me to read these books (not that they have to-Mo Willems is my favorite author of all time! J)  They love to look at the pages together, read the words they know, copy the pattern of the books we have read together so many times, laugh at the silliness of what is happening, and practice the intonation and volume that these books require and encourage.  Since the love of books by Mo Willems is such a big part of our classroom, it did not surprise me when our amazing students started drawing pictures and making their own stories. What was amazing though, was the level of engagement and concentration while they were working, and the details and amazing drawings and stories that were produced!

Friday Update April 8

This week our explorations have taken us many different places, and we have covered many concepts, from reviewing the letters and sounds, to patterning and counting, to rhyming! It has been a busy week, and we have been missing Rania, who has been quite ill.  We are hoping to have her back in our classroom soon!

Our explorations and activities included…

*Experimenting with colored sand and glue

*Testing various objects to see if they sink or float

*Investigating insects

*Rhyming games

*Counting and cooperation games

*Math provocations with dominos and objects (the students were counting, patterning, adding, using spatial awareness, number recognition, one-to one correspondence, subitising, all from simple manipulatives.)

*We have been playing a lot of games with our letters and sounds, and sounding out stories and sentences together. We have also discovered quite a few sight words that we already know and use a lot!

*Several students continue to be very interested in animals or airplanes, so we will continue to pursue these…

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:

(I’m trying to get the rest of the year sorted, so you can put dates on your calendars J)

*Return library books and blue bags on Monday.

*Check the blog for pictures from this week!

*SUMMER BIRTHDAYS: if your child's birthday is in the summer and you'd like to celebrate it at school before the year is over, please send a note and we will celebrate!  J  We don’t want to miss anyone! Let me know what day works for you.

*IF you are leaving early, withdrawing from SAS or will be missing certain days over the next few weeks, send me a note. This will help me manage those last-minute details regarding report cards, work sent home, portfolios etc.

*Next Wednesday, April 13^th is Alternate Dress

*Tuesday, April 26^th: Teacher Appreciation Day J YAY! J

*Friday, May 2^nd:  Labor Day—NO SCHOOL

*Thursday, May 9^th:  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 20^th: 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 23^rd: Vesak Day—NO SCHOOL

*Friday, June 3^rd:  Last Day of School!—11:30am dismissal

Have a great weekend! Lynsey and Aidah J