We've been practicing our "trick words". (See post below)

More trick word practice 

A glimpse of what's been happening in our class...

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Short notice...

So... I am dying to get the littles out into the snow to PLAY!  I've been busy with assessments all day today and will be doing them tomorrow afternoon. However, I'd like to get the children out into the school yard, as the snow is perfect, and make a couple of snow folk.  Please feel free to join us, around 9:30 or so.  If you have any ideas for decorations, feel free to send them in.  I'm going to bring in lots of red peppers, whatever might work from my compost, and I'll do a walk through of my basement tonight to see what I can scrounge up.  My fantasy is a snow person or two on the lower playground, perhaps the Loomis St. side, and if we're lucky, a creation right in the front of the school to meet and greet all that pass by.  We hope you can join us!

NAP

It's Offical...

We're heading out with Amy on Friday, January 21st!

Wow!  What a busy week we've had.  We started off on Monday with a pretty nice day with lots of new to share about our vacations and remembering classroom routines, schedules, and rules.  We also reviewed "tricky teens" our letters and letter sounds, those vowels and the sounds they make and took note of the growth our Narcissus bulbs had made over the holiday.


On Tuesday, I think the reality of our school routine and the length of the day hit hard for all of us.  We were tired and weepy.  A few even requested naps (I'm going to have to bring some blankets back in).  After a brief discussion and some sharing, it was decided that we all needed to get into bed early that night.


Wednesday's morning bulletin asked the children if they had gone to bed early the night before and to check "yes" or "no".  I'm happy to report that the majority of them did (myself included).  Needless to say, the day went much smoother.  We started the morning with an introduction to Picasso and his Cubist phase.  We looked at a number of paintings, with a focus on his portraits and how they represent two different views of a face.  We then took what we learned up to our Third Grade Book Buddies and created portraits with them.  The third grade buddy created a profile, while the Kinders created a front portrait.  They far exceeded my expectations...

  

AREN'T THEY GORGEOUS??  Wait until you see the rest...

Many of the children came back to the classroom wanting to practice making more portraits is this style- a study, if you will...  Next week we'll be working on creating a Cubist style background for the portraits with our Buddies.We also have been working on "Trick Words" (words that don't follow phonological rules and/or are regularly repeated and seen in texts.  Some of the words we've been working on are:

• see
• we    
• me 
• can                                          
• and                                                 
• the
• like                        
• here
• was

In conjunction with this, they're learning how to spell "CVC" words (consonant/vowel/consonant).  What they've shown me is that they know their letter sounds and they're learning how to put them together to create words.

Oh and lastly, NAP was cancelled for this week by the director.  With such short notice I wasn't able to pull an outdoor adventure together.  Luckily, all but two of you remembered (sorry Angela).  Please know that I always send reminders home in hardcopy and on line when it's approaching.  If those notices aren't going home, assume it's been cancelled.

Secondly, we have grown and learned so much since those last few weeks of summer.  We spent so much time establishing routines and learning independence.  A large part of that includes being timely: getting to specials on time, getting ourselves dressed to get outside in time, and getting to school on time.  This is especially important as your child is able to start the day together with his/her friends and also eliminates disruptions as we start our morning meeting.  I get that life can throw up curveballs (dead batteries, hitting the snooze too many times, any number of lost clothing items...) I understand... However, it would be helpful for our kids to get a relaxed start, establish routine, diminish classroom interruptions, and help others stay focused (while at morning meeting) if their classmates arrived on time.  I appreciate your efforts.


I'll be posting the birthday pictures over the weekend; oh, and I found the Paul Markowitz photos.  Those will also follow.


Enjoy the weekend,


Paulette

Another Attempt at the URL...

So here's another attempt at the Van Gogh You Tube Video/Song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHGChLGH52l

Shouldn't the address be appearing in blue?

Kim, can you help me out???

Picasso!

This week we'll be starting a new artist study with Picasso.  We'll be talking about his portrait/profile paintings and using this method with our book buddies.  We'll also be studying his "Cubist" phase, with a focus on "The Three Musicians".  Please know that your children have not only absorbed so much from the artist studies, but they have shown wisdom, insight, beauty, and innocence and translated what they've learned to their writing, creations, and discussions.  I can't help but think that they are teaching me much more than I am teaching them.  A wonder...

December Highlights

Day in the dark- "The best day of school--ever". -Ethan

We studied Vincent Van Gogh and his "Starry Night" painting.  For more information go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHGChLGh521 

Watch with the kids!  (I'll try posting this website again if it's not working).

More Day in the Dark...

We had Paul Markowitz, a story telling legend (here in Montpelier) come in with his daughter Aviva to share funny stories about cookies, little people, and his family.  All in an effort to model oral story telling and the tradition of passing stories on to the next generation.  The kids adored both he and his daughter, and were absolutely speechless during the story telling.  (I took photos, but for some reason, I'm not able to upload them.  I'll keep working on it...)

Stay tuned...

Welcome Back!


I hope that each and every one of you had a restful and rejuvenating break.  The snow was lovely at the beginning of the week, wasn't it?


I can tell you that I'll be arriving on Monday with synapses firing away, as I had an almost larval break-rarely out of my p.j's. I'm happy to report that "phase 1" of our renovation is complete and thus we are no longer camping in our own home.  My children skied almost everyday, whilst their mom snuggled up with the new Keith Richards autobiography and ate lots of delicious high fat foods (mostly in the form of cheese).  


Towards the end of the week  I found myself missing the little nippers and wondering about their winter break.  I'm looking forward to hearing about all of their adventures and travels.


I'll be posting pictures of our "Day in the Dark", unifix discovery, Van Gogh project that we worked on during December.  I'll also be posting dates to remember and upcoming themes.


I'm looking forward to seeing all of you tomorrow and to an exciting 2011.


Best,


Paulette