Our Gingerbread Musical Performance

The Gingerbread Man: The Musical

The Cub Cadets had an award winning performance yesterday for their families.  Each child did an amazing job singing and remembering all of their important parts.  We hope everyone has a wonderful winter break and enjoy this magical time of year.  

Credits:

Pat :Costume designer for the little old man and little old woman

Katelin: Musical director

Lisa: Narrator and Executive Producer

Wind and Water Unit January 5-9

Upcoming Dates

December 23-Last Day of School before winter vacation

January 5- Back to School 

Next Unit 

Wind and Water Theme

This theme allows children explore wind and water using observations, experiments,

 and books to learn more about topics such as evaporation, weather, temperature, insulation, rain, and snow

Books this week

            -Giberto and the Wind by Marie Hall
            -One Dark Night by Hazel Hutchins

Small Groups this week

-Math- Shape Bingo Game
-Science-Observing movement of objects in the wind. We will use a variety of objects and use a hairdryer with a teacher to see how objects move.  We will record our results to share with our family. A home project will come home shortly to connect with this activity.
-Games- We will be playing memory using picture cards of new unit 3 vocabulary words.  
-Pinwheel Making- We will create our own pinwheels and see how they move in the wind.
-Gilberto Letter Book- We will use vocabulary words from our unit book, Gilberto to reinforce letter sounds.

Center Activities

Art: Painting-moving paint on paper blowing straw

Easel: Painting with colors from the book Gilberto and the Wind  (black, brown and and white paint)
Writing: blank books with crayons and markers
Sand and Water: water and student and teacher created sailboats
Library: Exploring books
Puzzles and Manipulatives: Matching uppercase alphabet arch letters
Dramatic Play: play clothesline and clothes pins for dramatic play
Blocks: building with blocks

Songs, Word Play, Letters
Songs:  Come On and Join in the Game; Clap Your Hands; Bingo using Windy words, Magic C rap song
Poems:  Stand Up; My Big Balloon; Mix a Pancake; Five Little Owls in an Old Elm Tree
Literacy Skills: Naming sound game and rhyming word game

Try this at home: Observe signs of weather with your child.

When you are outside ask them to look at the sky about talk about clouds, rain, wind, and storms.

Handwriting
-We will be working on our "Magic C" letters for the Handwriting Without Tears Curriculum within our workbooks as well as other hands on activities.
-Literacy Groups will begin.  Our handwriting small groups in the morning will be grouped into RTI groups so children can get the support for what skills each child is working on.  Some of our classmates will stay in our room and others will be going into kinderstars classroom.  Each group will be working on different skills but working toward the common goal of literacy(letter, sounds, writing letters)

Preschool Life Skills
We are continuing to review our previous skills 1-4.
1-When a teacher calls your name, stop, look and say, "Yes".
2-When a teacher tells you to do something, do it "Right Away".
3-When a teacher tells you to do 2 things, do it "Right Away".
4-When something is too hard, first try then say,"Can you help me please?"
5. "When you want something from a teacher or friend and they are doing something, say, "Excuse me" to get them to look at you."
New Skill with this week:
6- "When someone is in your way or has something that you want, say"Excuse me"to get their attention, and say, "May I____" to get what you want.  

Old McHolly had a farm! Ho,oh,ho,ho,ho!

Gingerbread Unit Dec. 15-23

Our End of the Year Show will be on Thursday December 18 at 11:45  Please come see "The Gingerbread-The Musical"
-Gingerbread Homework Due Friday Dec. 19-  Please have fun with you child with the at home math activity.  (Gingerbread Measuring)

- We also have an elf named Holly who will be visiting us in the month of December.  Holly be hiding in our classroom and keeping an eye on all of us.
-We are also enjoying guest readers during this unit

Books this week

Gingerbread Friends
Gingerbread Girl
The Pancake Boy

Small Groups
-Presenting our Gingerbread Homework to the class.  Each child will have a turn to present to the large group what they measured at home with their gingerbread ruler.
-Math- We will create number books to create a predictable text book to read at home.
-Art- Creating gingerbread men using a variety of materials including cinnamon.  Then we will put them on a foil tray bulletin board.
-Math- Number puzzle.  We will cut then sort in order by number to create a gingerbread man.
-ELA- We will be creating  _an word family books in small groups.  We will  be reinforcing beginning letter sounds with manipulatives before creating our books
Center
Blocks-Blocks
Sensory Table-Snow (aka popcorn from boxes)
Dramatic Play-  Gingerbread Bakery
Library- A variety of books about gingerbread
Art Table-Painting with gingerbread cookie cutters
Easel- Water Colors
Science Table
Puzzles- Puzzles
Manipulatives- Ipad apps to make cookies
Writing Center- Writing Letters

Song, Word Play and Letters
Poems- 5 little cookies
Songs- gingerbread songs, Tale of the Gingerbread Musical Songs
Literacy Skills- Letter Sound Activities, Change and Rearrange Words

Handwriting
-We will be beginning our "Magic C" HWT books (C, G, D, O, Q) and singing a Magic C rap song

Happy Birthday Holly

Today we came to school and found streamers in our room. It was Holly's birthday. At choice time we wrote birthday cards to her.  Then at Let's Talk About It, we talked about how to ask questions. We wrote a letter to Holly to ask questions about how elves celebrate birthdays. 

Early Childhood Series Tonight

The next session of the Burlington Public Schools Early Learner Series is tomorrow, Thursday, December 11. The session will take place from 7:00pm - 8:00pm in the Burlington Early Childhood Center (BECC).  The topic for this month’s discussion is the Preschool Life Skills and Social Thinking curriculum.  We will discuss what these look like in the early childhood classrooms, and touch upon how to help support development of these skills at home. We will leave ample time to answer questions and troubleshoot any challenges you may come across in this area.  We look forward to seeing everyone Thursday night!

gingerbread week Dec. 8-12

Our End of the Year Show will be on Thursday December 18 at 11:45  Please come see "The Gingerbread-The Musical"
-Gingerbread Homework- I will be sending "homework" next week as well.  Please have fun with you child with the at home math activity.  (Gingerbread Measuring)

- We also have an elf named Holly who will be visiting us in the month of December.  Holly be hiding in our classroom and keeping an eye on all of us.
-We are also enjoys guest readers during this unit

Books this week

Gingerbread Girl
Gingerbread Boy

Small Groups
-Measuring with non-standard units of measure with our gingerbread rulers hunt in the high school
-Gingerbread Rhyming activity
-Gingerbread Sequencing in order from smallest to largest using 6 different sizes
-Gingerbread Tally Game- We will spin a spinner and record which gingerbread man it lands on. We will discuss concepts of more, less, and equal

Center
Blocks-Blocks
Sensory Table-Snow (aka popcorn from boxes)
Dramatic Play-  Gingerbread Bakery
Library- A variety of books about gingerbread
Art Table-Painting with gingerbread cookie cutters
Easel- Water Colors
Science Table
Puzzles- Puzzles
Manipulatives- Ipad apps to make cookies
Writing Center- Writing Letters

Song, Word Play and Letters
Poems- 5 little cookies
Songs- gingerbread songs, Tale of the Gingerbread Musical Songs
Literacy Skills- Letter Sound Activities, Change and Rearrange Words

Handwriting
-We will be working on our  HWT books (We are working on Big and Little Line Letters like E,F,T,L)

Holly pretending to be a teacher?

Holly was reading our unit book when we arrived at school. It looks like the action heroes are being very good listeners today. We are hoping they get a high five today. 

Holly wrote back:)

Holly wrote back to us today. It is very exciting. Today she was dressed up like Spider-Man, or should we say Spider-Elf?

Holly has arrived

An elf named Holly has arrived very dramatically in our classroom. We decided to write a letter to her to ask questions?  (Examples-do you like thanksgiving?  Do you like coconuts? Do you like presents?). We delivered it to the office and Sandy was going to send it out in the express mail. We are hoping she will write back to us.