Friday, March 8, 2023

 

Dear Parents,

This week was filled with so many activities!

The artist of the month is Vincent Van Gogh.  Vincent Van Gogh was born on March 30th, 1853. He had two brothers and three sisters.  Which brother did Vincent write the most too?  (Theo) We looked at Vincent’s Self Portrait and the Self Portrait with the Straw Hat.  We talked about what do you see? What are some of the colors that you see in the painting, tell me three things that you see in the painting. We also looked at the Portrait of Theodore Van Gogh of his father.  The class decided that he painted his father very seriously and he looked angry.  The last painting we looked at was the Noon: taking a nap.  We talked about how this was a copy of the artist Millet’s painting but Vincent made it in his own style.  We will continue to learn more about Vincent Van Gogh throughout the month.  The one thing that the class was astonished by was that he only sold one painting when he was alive.  They wanted me to find out which one….so we looked it up and it was The Red Vineyard.

We continue to read our Chapter book The Princess in Black and the Perfect Princess Party by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale When Princess Magnolia’s ring goes off like an alarm.  What happens each time to Princess Magnolia?  Where does she go?  How many times does she need to leave her own birthday party?  Is she happy?  Ask your child all about this story we are reading.  Along with the story we have been watching different YouTube videos about castles, shields, and what was it like to live in a castle back in the day.  This upcoming week we will be making our life-size shields and showing different designs of the Heraldic shields.

We enjoyed celebrating Ada’s 7th birthday on Friday!! Ada’s mom came to school and read Kicia Kocia in Polish. It is Ada’s favorite book from when she was a baby! What a special treat to hear another language and Ada did a great job translating with her mom.  Thank you for sharing this story and taking time out of your schedule to join us.

Thank you to all who participated in St. Baldricks! Our class was so excited to attend the festivities and our class kept asking when will it be our turn.   Our class cheered and chanted on for our shavees George, Leo, and cutting hair was Emma and Jennifer!

 

Ms. Ela’s class came in to do their Community Service Project on 1focus.org. The students presented with posters and told us about this important cause. 1Focus is an eye charity whose mission is to mentor, train, equip, and provide eye care in underprivileged locations worldwide. They aim to raise $300 for a sight-saving surgery for a premature baby. Let’s go!!

This week Ms. Anna’s class and our class played sight word bingo. The two classes played the whole board, four corners,  horizontal one line, and vertical.  The classes enjoy spending time with each week and gives them a chance to talk with one another and work together on the different events each Tuesday.

Our class is working on reading together 1,000 books before the end of the year.  We need your help to accomplish our goal.  Please read with your child every night for 10 to 15 minutes.  When you’re done just write down the book on the reading log and send it back to school every Monday.  Thank you for your help!!

Sincerely,

Ms. Demetra

 

The books we read this Week:

The Selfish Crocodile by Faustin Charles and Michael Terry

BOBO The Sailor Man! by Eileen Rosenthal

The Hiccupotamus by Aaron Zenz

Me I Am!  Jack Prelutsky

Friday, February 23, 2024

Dear Parents,

This week we started our new chapter book The Princess and Black by Shannon Hale  This chapter book has a Princess Magnolia who then turns into who? (Princess in black).  Along with the Princess, she has a Unicorn named Frimplepants that turns into a black horse that helps her fight monsters and save the goats and the kingdom.  How does the Princess know that she needs to help and change into a Princess in black?  (When an alarm goes off on her glitter-stone ring).

After reading our chapter book we took a look at a YouTube video about parts of the castles and saw how different our houses are from what it was back in the day. Ask your child if they would like to live in that castle?  In this video, it talked about how most castles were built on a hill.  The outside of the castle had High walls, Moat, Towers, and a drawbridge.  Inside the castle were Bailey’s.  There were many buildings around the Bailey. Ask your child if they liked all the rooms in the castle?  We will continue to study and learn more about Castles.  Our class will get familiar with the style and the materials they used to make a castle and the structure.

On Tuesday with Ms. Anna’s class, the children did Blind artist painting/drawing when one person describes a picture to their partner and they have to draw it.  The children described it as playing the game Guess Who but drawing instead.  The two classrooms enjoyed this activity and we will definitely be doing this again.

 

We continue through the end of February seeing more of  Norman Rockwell’s paintings. This week we looked at the colored picture of the Boy Gone fishing and the Saying Grace painting. When looking at the picture I always ask what do you see?  This approach is known as visual inquiry and helps children take a moment to sit and look at art and then reflect on it. This helps children to connect to what they see but also gives them confidence in what they are talking about when looking at a painting and what they know. I explained to our class how everyone views a painting differently and not to think of it as right or wrong. I encourage appreciating art with children by reading books about art and expressing their thoughts and feelings about the artworks they see. When at home encourage your child to continue to draw and ask them about their drawings what a great way to share what they are feeling.

 

Ms. Lisa’s class invited us into their room to show us the work on their research project on different tribes’ Najavo, Cherokee, Iroquois, and Apache.  What great displays and so much information was learned by us all.  Thank you Ms. Lisa’s class well done!

 

Since Ada was not well last week she passed out her handmade Valentines to her friends this week.  Everyone was excited to get one more Valentine’s card.

Also if you haven’t done so already, please fill out the class permission form for our field trip to the Metropolis Theater to see Pigeon on March 14th.  Thank you!

Have a great weekend!

Ms. Demetra

Books we read this week:

Just For You by Mercer Mayer

Don’t Wake Up the Bear! by Marjorie Dennis Murray

Me and My Mom! by Alison Ritchie

The Blue Day Book for Kids by Bradley Trevor Greive

 

 

Friday, February 16, 2024

Dear Parents,

This week we finished our last book in the series of Wallace and Grace and the Lost Puppy by Heather Alexander.  We continue to learn about more interesting facts about owls.  The class really enjoys the Detective owls the best and that they solve cases.

We had a fun time on Valentine’s Day!  The children did Valentine’s Day cards, Valentine’s word search, Tic Tac Toe Valentine’s Day game board, and Addition and Subtraction Valentine’s Day challenges. They ate a heart-shaped pizza thank you to the PTO, watched Elemental with friends from Ms. Anna and Ms. Soraya’s classes, and exchanged Valentine’s cards with their friends.  Our class and Ms. Anna’s class also made a Huge heart shape with a poem and decorated it for each classroom in the school.  Each classroom was greeted on Valentine’s Day with a surprise from us.  The kids were so excited!

 

 

We continue to talk about Norman Rockwell’s paintings this week we took a look at Homecoming GI, The Girl at the Mirror, Jester, the Young Artist, and The boy flying a Kite.  Here are the pictures…..

We read a Scholastic reader about Abraham Lincoln and talked about how we are off on Monday to honor The President.  In the article, they talked about where President Lincoln hid his papers.  See if your child remembers where he would keep his papers?

On Friday we talked about the book Have You Filled a Bucket Today by Carol McCloud it talks about encouraging positive behavior to express kindness appreciation and love daily. Ask your child what does it mean to be a bucket filler or a bucket dipper? Ask your child to give you examples of both.  We will continue to work on bucket filling throughout the rest of the school year.

Have a great weekend!

Ms. Demetra

 

The books we read this week:

Mixed Up Alphabet by Steve Metzger

A Nap for Zap by Kama Einhorn

Rain Song by Lezlie Evans

“Could Be Worse!” by James Stevenson

Have You Filled a Bucket Today by Carol McCloud

 

 

 

Friday, February 9th 2024

Dear Parents,

We started our week off by reading, “The Story of Ruby Bridges.”  As you know, February is black history month.  Norman Rockwell painted “The Problem We All Live With” of Ruby Bridges going to school.  Ask your child these questions…why were the marshalls taking Ruby Bridges to school?   Why was there a tomato smashed against the wall?  Was Ruby Bridges a brave little girl…why?  Why did Ruby Bridge want to go to school?  Our class drew pictures of Ruby Bridges and wrote about why they liked about Ruby Bridges.

This week we started our new chapter book Wallace and Grace and the Lost Puppy by Heather Alexander this is the last of the series.   In the story, Grace is considering taking this case but she’s not sure. Ask your child why they don’t want to take this case?  What is the puppy’s name? ( Hint: Jasper)   What is the puppy’s job? (hint: a watchdog).

This week we also got familiar with more of Norman Rockwell’s paintings.  The Gift, Vacation, Setting One’s Sights, April Showers, and The Rookie, were the paintings we looked at and talked about.  Ask your child which one was their favorite of this week’s paintings.

This week the children started making their bridges with Miss Anna’s class.  The children worked on the bridges with their partners using only popsicle sticks and glue. the children worked over an hour on their projects and will continue working on them next week.  I  took some pictures so you can see the process that is going on.  We can’t wait for you to see the final results.

This week we had two birthdays in our classroom.   Our first birthday celebration was Yasmina. Her parents came to read and shared Yasmina’s favorite chapter books.    Our next birthday was Leo and his parents surprised all of us on Friday for his actual birthday.  Leo’s parents shared two of Leo’s favorite books too.  Thank you to both families for taking time out of your schedule to join our classroom.  Thank you!

On Friday we celebrated the 100th day of school.   The children looked for 100 numbers around our classroom to put them back on our wall.  We are still missing three numbers. We will look for them next week!

I sent home books with each child, please continue to read with them.  Next week we will start reading to approach 1,000 books before the end of the school year.   Each child next week will receive a paper that you will fill in and keep track of for the week.  Then you will send the paper back with your child every Monday.

Our class continues to do math games, multiplicity, and math challenges.  The children have been working hard on their challenges working on number lines, greater than less than, and adding and subtracting two and three numbers at a time.

I know that Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching.  Here is the list of the children’s names for them to write their friend’s names on the envelopes:

Angelina  Ada  Connie  George  Kalin  Yasmina  Sofia  Hollie  Tristan  Leo  Emma  Jennifer

Have a great weekend,

Ms. Demetra

 

The books we read this week:

Duck On A Bike by David Shannon

Ladybug Girl and Bumblee Boy by David Soman and Jacky Davis

Shark in the Park by Lesley Sims and Stephen Cartwright

The 100th Day of School by Angela Shelf Medearis

Friday, February 2, 2024

 

 

Dear Parents,                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

We finished our novel study of Wallace and Grace Take the Case by Heather Alexander  In this story there are two Owls and a rabbit.  Ask your child what the rabbit’s name is? (Edgar)  Did they find the ghost? (No).   Who was in the bush?  (Three Baby Kittens).  Did Wallace and Grace solve the case of the ghost?  (Yes,  it was a sheet that fell on Mother Cat when she went to take the sheet to bring to her baby Kittens.) We started reading Wallace and Grace and the Cupcake Caper by Heather Alexander.  In this story, someone stole the cupcake who was it? Why did they take it?  Who are the new characters in this story?

 

Our class has enjoyed spending time with Ms. Anna’s class every Tuesday morning.  We played board games, read books together with partners, Wrote about ourselves, and then played Who am I? and watched a mini video on different types of bridges.  See if your child remembers the three bridges we talked about.  Hint (Truss, Beam, Cable). The two classes worked together with a partner and drew a bridge that they would like to build next week.

 

We started talking about Norman Rockwell and will continue throughout February.  He is an American painter and illustrator.  He was born on February the 3rd and he would have been 130 years old today. We watched a video on YouTube, and we saw all of his wonderful works from the Saturday Post.  Norman Rockwell had made over 323 drawings for the Saturday Evening Post over 47 years.  Norman Rockwell painted over 4,000 paintings in his lifetime. Each child drew a picture of Norman Rockwell or an everyday life picture.  Which picture did your child make?

Ms. Melissa’s class came to present their service project. The class explained what is ACL?  it is the Animal Care League.  They are collecting a variety of items such as dog leashes, cat toys, dog toys, laundry detergent, and paper towels.  Please help support their service project and drop off items in the bin labeled in the front of the school.

Have a great weekend!                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Ms. Demetra

The books we read this week:

I Was So Mad by Mercer Mayer

Eight Legs Are Great! by Liza Charlesworth

Biscuit’s New Trick by Alyssa Satin Capucilli

Tiger Trouble! by Diane Goode

 

 

Friday, January 12, 2024

Dear Parents,

Welcome Back and Happy New Year!!  I hope that all of you were able to have a restful winter break and enjoyed time with your family and friends.  I wanted to thank all of you so much for the beautiful and thoughtful gifts I received.  I am truly grateful for our wonderful classroom family and the kindness shown throughout the school year not just during the holidays.

May 2024 bring us all health, joy, and new memories for the year.  I like to share a quote that I shared with our class on Monday.  In this quote from Elenor Roosevelt, she said “With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.  Let the challenges begin and our class reach new ideas and thoughts to share.

We started our new novel study of Wallace and Grace Take the Case by Heather Alexander  In this story there are two Owls….does your child remember the two owls’ names?  (Grace and Wallace)  What do Grace and Wallace do?  (They have the Night Owl Detective Agency)  What is their first rule? (Never wait for fun!)  The Owls continue to have fun playing hide and seek and hear someone call for help?  It’s Edgar the rabbit.  What does Edgar need help with?  ( To get rid of the ghost from the garden. )  More adventures of these two Owls next week.

Our class will continue to explore and learn more about real-life Owls.  We watched a video from YouTube about All About Owls for Kids: Backyard Bird Series-Freeschool.  In the video, it states that there are 200 different types of Owls.  If you are interested in learning more about Owls go to the video we watched in class.

We continue every day to write in our journals, read books that are at their reading level, and work on sight words. The children play with sight word games and use the vocabulary from our stories to understand their meaning.

In math, this week we continue to do math challenges and get stronger in adding and subtraction using two and three digits.  We also looked at the dice challenge.  What do you see?  How could you change the pattern?

Ms. Anna class will be joining our class once a week to play board games, read together, and do other activities throughout the rest of the year.  The children were excited on Tuesday to play board games with a partner from Ms. Anna’s class.  It was a success and our class enjoyed playing with having them with us.

This week and next week our class has the opportunity to say the Pledge of Allegiance over the intercom.  The children are so excited!!! Please get your child to school before 8:40am so they have a chance to say the Pledge.

Have a great long weekend!!

Sincerely,

Ms. Demetra

Books we read this week:

I Love to Sing by Anne Matheson

Little Dog Lost by Monica Carnesi

Draw Me a Story by Oliver Dupin & Genevieve Despres

A Bus for Miss Moss by Mairi Mackinnon

I Just Forget by Mercer Mayer

 

 

 

 

Friday, November 17, 2023

Dear Parents,

This week we gathered and made our folders for parent-teacher conferences. The children colored their portfolio and picked which was their proud piece in their journal and the piece that they felt needed improvement.  Thank you all for attending parent-teacher conferences!  I really appreciate you taking the time and listening to your child talk about their day at school and all the hard work they continue to do in our classroom.

Another week, another book is done!  Mercy Watson’s Thinks Like a Pig by Kate DiCamillo.  Ask your child what happened to Mercy? Did Francine capture Mercy?  Who is Francine? and What does Francine do at the end of the story with the dogs?  As always how does the story end?  We also watched the YouTube of the story to help with all the characters and to revisit the whole story

 

We have been talking about an orchestra and the four groups.  Ask your child what are the groups?  and can they name any of the instruments in those groups?  (The four groups are String, wind, Brass, and percussion instruments.  We also talked about the song Canon in D which was featured with the string instruments.  We also talked about body percussion what is body percussion?  (clapping, stomping feet, snapping fingers, patting your legs.)

Have a wonderful week off and enjoy your family and all the festivities.  Enjoy!

Sincerely,

Ms. Demetra

Books we read this week:

Biscuit Goes to School  by Alyssa Satin Capucilli

Bear Says Thanks by Karma Wilson

Thanksgiving Is Here! by Diane Goode

Friday, November 10, 2023

Dear Parents,

This week we continued with Mercy Watson Thinks Like a Pig by Kate DiCamillo  Who is the new character in this story?  What is her job?  Why does she need to catch Mercy?  Ask your child about this new story.  Since Mercy was going to a tea party, it was only right to have a tea party at school too. The children had a snack at the end of the day of Oreo cookies and hot chocolate milk.

This week we started a new genre of music.  We learned a little bit about the Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi.  The children used colorful scarves and moved to Vivaldi’s Autumn from the Four Seasons.  Ask your child if this song was fast or slow or both….was it happy or sad? We will continue this month on learning more about classical music.

On Wednesday we were lucky that it didn’t rain on our field trip to Wagner Farm. The children were able to enjoy all the activities.  The children participated in pumping water from the well, grinding corn for the chickens, feeling a warm egg from the chicken, and feeding the chickens, they were able to pet the cow, make butter, and eat it too.  What was your child’s favorite part of the farm?

   

In math, we talked about using money and how to spend your money.  The children created a Jack-o’-Lantern and had only 9 cents to buy pumpkin parts to place on their pumpkin.  Ask your child how many cents did they use and which pumpkin parts did they use. (eyes, nose, mouth, hat, mustache)

We also played The telephone game.   This process is repeated all around the circle until it returns to the first person.  Invariably the message gets jumbled somewhere along the way.  I used this to show that active listening can prevent conflict by making sure communication is clear and understood.  Try this game at home 🙂

We also had the pleasure this week of partnering up with Ms. Bia’s students to read with us during quiet reading.  Ms. Bia’s class will be joining our class on Mondays and Wednesdays during this time.

Hope you’re having a great weekend!

Ms. Demetra

Books we read this week:

Penny and Her Song by Kevin Henkes

Sloppy Joe by Dave Keane

Toad makes a road by Russell Punter and Stephen Cartwright

A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon

 

 

Friday, November 3, 2023

Dear Parents,

Halloween was once again a success!!!  The children’s costumes showed creativity and some flexibility, and role-play went on throughout the day.  The children enjoyed watching on YouTube The Creepy Crayon by Aaron Reynolds and The Whistling Scarecrow by ELF Kids. I asked them after we watched both videos to draw which was their favorite story of the two.  Then to decided why and which one was the scariest to them.  Most of the class chose  The Creepy Crayon.  The children also had two special treats one was their lunch and since the weather was a mini snowstorm they watched  Disney’s Coco.  In the movie, ask your child what was forbidden in the movie Coco?  Hint (family’s ancestral ban on music).  This week we paused on Mercy Watson and will continue next week.  This week we had a variety of books and some writing outside of their journals.

In our Scholastic Storyworks, we read about the Loch Ness Monster that lives in Scotland.  We also saw a video and drew pictures of Nessie.  Ask your child what was one thing they found interesting about the Loch Ness Monster.

The children continue to work on Addition and Subtraction and the focus this week was subtracting and finding the objects in a picture and then x out the object to show subtraction. We played card games, and bingo as a class with different 4 corners, all the spaces, the top two and the bottom two.

Since we continue to talk about the moon every month.  I introduced the stars this week and we looked at the big dipper and what it looks like.  We will be learning about constellations and looking at different pictures.  Try this weekend to find the big dipper with your child.  Hint: The Big Dipper has two pieces a handle made of three stars and a bowl or square made of four stars. We watched a video and also talked about the North Star.

Last week we celebrated Emma’s Birthday and Emma’s mom came in to read two of Emma’s favorite books.  Thank you for coming in and reading to our class.  We appreciate it!!!

On November 8th we will be going to Wagner Farm.  Please watch the weather and dress your child appropriately for weather conditions since we will be outside the whole time.  Thank you always better to wear more than be cold 🙂

Also please remember to sign up for the upcoming conferences on November 16 or 17th.  I can’t wait for your child to show you all the hard work they have done. 

Have a great weekend!

Sincerely,

Ms. Demetra

 

Books we read this week:

 

The Good for Nothing Button! by Charise Mericle Harper

The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins

Blueberries For Sal by Robert McCloskey

Belly Breathe by Leslie Kimmelman

Stars by Jennifer Dussling

I Am a Star by Jean Marzollo

 

Friday, October 20, 2023

Dear Parents,

We finished the fourth book of Mercy Watson Princess in Disguise by Kate DiCamillo.  In this story, there are three new characters added to the story.  Ask your child who are the new characters?  (Hint: General Washington- a cat, Stella, and Frank a brother and sister).  Mercy enjoys eating buttery toast, but in this story, she also has been enjoying eating butter barrel candy.  Our class can’t wait to eat candy like Mercy Watson for Halloween and the countdown has begun in our class.  The children watched on YouTube the storybook of Mercy Watson read-along for Princess in Disguise today.  I love it when they are amazed at how fast the chapters go by when we watch it on the screen.

 

Today the children had the opportunity to paint their own pumpkins while listening to jazzy Halloween music.  Yesterday the children took yarn and measured the circumference around the widest spot around the pumpkin.  The children laid down the yarn along the rule to see how long each string was it varied from 18″ to 22″.

     

The children were also a part of The Mexican Talavera art wall the whole school participated.  The children first watched a video of how the tiles were made and then how they were decorated.  All the children were so excited to be a part of this colorful wall.  See if your child can spot their colorful tile on this wall.

We all enjoyed going to the Theater to see the play Pinocchio!!! The play was great and very interactive with the children.  The children had an opportunity to ask questions to the actors at the end of the show. The next day I asked the question on the board which version of Pinocchio did you like best the book we read, the animated movie we saw, or the play.  Almost everyone answered the play 🙂

Here is one of the math pictures we did with What do you see and how can you group the cherries quickly.

Ms. Lisa’s class came and presented their service project on Bernie Book Bank.  Ms. Lisa’s group did a great job with their posters and left us bookmarkers to color and return so they could give them to the volunteers.  Their class will be collecting gently used books for the book drive which is from Monday, October 23 to Thursday, October 26.

 

Have a great weekend!

Thank you,

Ms. Demetra

 

Here are some of the books we read this week:

Bears on Wheels by Stan and Jan Berenstein

A Pig, A Fox, and a Box by Jonathan E. Fenske

You, Me and Empathy by Jayneen Sanders

Sheep in a Jeep by Nancy Shaw