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

 

 

Friday, October 13, 2023

Dear Parents,

I am so excited to share with you that the children have been learning about jazz music!  At first, I continued to play it every morning then finally a couple of children asked what kind of music are you playing?  I then asked them to listen closely and tell me what instruments they heard.  We then explored and found out that in jazz there are mainly 7 instruments used.  Ask your child if they remember which instruments …What is the sound we learned and rhythm sound like. (Hint:  Saxophone, piano, drums, guitar, trumpet, trombone, and bass.)  We also listened to traditional songs versus the jazzy way like Old MacDonald, Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Bringing Home Baby Bumble Bee.  Then we learned how to snap our fingers and learned the rhythm of swinging eighth notes with our mouths.  The last thing we did was listen to the song by the famous jazz composer Duke Ellington song It Don’t Mean a Thing.  We moved our hands up when the songs said Do whoop whoop.  We will continue learning about Jazz and learning more about Duke Ellington.

We continue to read Mercy Watson’s Princess In Disguise by Kate DiCamillo.  In this story, there are two new characters introduced to our story.  Who are they?  ( Stella and Frank) Who is Mercy chasing?  (The cat)  What does Stella think is happening?  (Stella thought it was a parade).  The children are so excited to share their Halloween costumes just like Mercy.  Next week we will be wrapping up this book.

In Math, we Counted the Crop of fruit.  How many Apples are in the circle? How many oranges are in the square? How many Strawberries are in the circle but not in the square? In doing this challenge the children used numbers and Operations, Data Analysis, and Problem-solving.  We continued to work on Tangrams, and we also did another picture of how many and what’s another way to count quickly.  Have your child tell you how they came up with this and how they bunched up the grapes.

The children are excited that we will be attending the play of Pinocchio this coming Wednesday!  We read the book and watched half of the animated version.  We will watch the other half on Monday.  I can’t wait for the children to tell me about the similarities and differences between the book,  the animated movie, and the play.

Ms. Anna’s class came to present their Rainforest animals and their animal sculptures.  Did you know that sloth sleeps 20 hours and poops once a week!! What?!?! Ask your child if they found something interesting from Ms. Anna’s class presentations.

This week I did not send home books instead I sent home the Storyworks magazine of September.  Please read with your child from the fun stories in this magazine.  Also in the same folder is the Art to Remember.  Both of these items remain with you and do not need to be returned to school except for the folder.  Thank you!

I also want to thank Kalin and his family for all the beautiful plants that sit along the window in our classroom.  The children will be busy taking care of them and learning more about these plants.  Thank you again, Kalin! 🙂

Since it rained all day today.  The children asked if they could make Halloween decorations for our room.  They worked hard and the results are amazing!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Sincerely,

Ms. Demetra

These are the books we read this week:

The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig

The Lion and the Mouse by Diane Marwood

We’re All Wonders by R.J. Palacio

What is the Moon?  by Chris Arvetis and Carole Palmer

Pinocchio by Walt Disney

Friday October 6, 2023

Dear Parents,

Welcome to October and new explorations!

In our class, we continued to read the Mercy Watson series and we finished reading Mercy Watson Fights Crime by Kate DiCamillo.  Does Mercy really fight crime or is Mercy interested in the buttery smell?  Ask your child what Mercy is up to now.  Is LeRoy a thief or a cowboy?  Each time we finish reading one of the stories we watch the book talk on our smart board.  It just helps them hear the story one more time to get to know the characters better and refresh their memory of the whole story.  This week we started book #4 Mercy Watson Princess in Disguise by Kate DiCamillo.  Ask your child which other costumes Mr. and Mrs. Watson decided on for Mercy Watson?  The children continue to work on their Journals and I keep encouraging them to write on their own and try to sound out the words. Every week we have more children trying! Whoo hoo!

The children have been interested in Rocks so we have started talking about the three types of rocks:  Igneous rock, Metamorphic rock, and Sedimentary rock.  We walked around the school and around the block to look for different kinds of rock that interested them.  We took them back to our class looked at them and drew them on a piece of paper.  We will continue looking at and exploring rocks and minerals.

In Art, we talked about Mary Blair.  Mary Blair was an American Artist, animator, and designer.  Mary was most known for her modern concept art which brought many colors to her work.  Mary worked at the Walt Disney Company.  Which movies was her work known best in…. ask your child?  Hint (Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, and Peter Pan).  The children then drew their own pictures used bright colors and named their own pictures for their own movie name.

In Math, we looked into how many by looking at this picture and tried to figure out which is the best way to count.  Counting each item takes too much time.  How can we count them in a different way?  Ask your child what they came up with.  The children also worked on tangrams which are the seven different shapes. Which shapes are they?  The children worked hard on cutting out and making their own pictures without overlapping any shapes.  We will continue to work on this next week.

We continue to work on reading.  During quiet reading this week they read the two books with me and they are taking home the same two books to share with you. Please let them read their story to you and then send the books back on Tuesday.  Thank you!

What a way to end the week!! Thank you for having your children participate in Breast Cancer awareness they enjoyed wearing pink and visiting the bake sale.  Along with that, we had the famous #10 Giorgos Karagounis Panathinaikos/ Former Captain of the UEFA Championship of 2004 come to our school. The children made signs and used lots of green and the Greek flag on their drawings and held them up proudly when he arrived.  Lastly, we had the Firefighters come and talk about fire safety and how important it is to have a plan with your family if a fire should occur in your home.  Do you have a meeting spot for your family?

 

Also, we continue to read your family traditions and the children are finding out more about their classmates.  Thank you for sharing your family traditions with us.

Please remember to always send a jacket to school with your child now that the weather is getting cooler.

Have a great weekend see you all on Tuesday.

Sincerely,

Ms. Demetra                                                                 

Books we read this week:

Firehouse by Mark Teague

Pictures From Our Vacation by Lynne Rae Perkins

Pocket Full Of Colors by Amy Guglielmo and Jacqueline Tourville

Giggle, Giggle, Quack by Doreen Cronin

Weasels with Measles by Lesley Sims