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