HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Dear Parents,

We had so much fun during the last couple of weeks preparing for Thanksgiving. The children created fantastic tepee villages by making clay turkeys, and a water-colored a lake which even included fish.  The children created  a fire pit  by gluing stones around a circle and adding orange and red tissue paper for the flames. Finally, they made tepees by gluing various shapes such as circles, diamonds, and triangles to a cardboard cone, and added three straws on the top  (representing tree branches).

  



The children were quite surprised when they discovered that the Native Americans did not have stoves but cooked their meals outside on a fire. They were also that they didn't have supermarkets. The Native Americans hunted and fished for their food. They also learned that they washed up in the river because  there were no sinks in the tepees. 

We also made adorable Pilgrim costumes.  The boys made pilgrim hats by decorating a square (buckle) with gold glitter and gluing it onto their black hats. The girls decorated their hats by rolling gold paint onto the brim of their bonnets. We also cut out felt collars and cuffs. The children loved their costumes and couldn't wait to wear them,  even though, the hats were covered with paint and glue. 

We had a great discussion about the meaning of Thanksgiving after reading "The Story of the Pilgrims," by Katherine Ross.  We learned that we celebrate Thanksgiving Day on the fourth Thursday in November by having a feast. We came up with a list with traditional foods we eat with our families on Thanksgiving, such as turkey, rice, squash, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, corn, and pumpkin pie. We also talked about what we are thankful for. 
This is what the children said:  

Hattie:  My brother Bede
Delia:  Mom and Dad
Iker:  When Mom gives me Kisses
Trystan:  Mom and Dad
Sid: Kisses
Bingyi:  My Baby
Nidhi: Thanksgiving Feast
Felix: Mama and Daddy
Lexi: My family
Bonne and Barbara:  Our wonderful class!

We had a nice visit from the librarian this week.  Some of the stories the children enjoyed listening to were: Two Tough Crocs, by David Bedford, Have you Seen my Dragon, by Steve Light, and Setting the Turkey Free, by Nikola-Lisa.

We  hope you had a good time at our Thanksgiving celebration. The children certainly looked like they were having fun.  They did an exceptional job singing at the concert.  They looked absolutely adorable in their pilgrim costumes.  I am sure you will all agree!  

                Other areas of interest:

Thank you so much for all the food you contributed to the feast. Everything was absolutely delicious!  Happy Thanksgiving!

Love, 

Ms. Bonne and Ms. Barbara 

COUNTING DOWN TO THANKSGIVING!

Dear Parents,

We had a great week preparing for Thanksgiving.  We introduced our unit by reading The Littlest Pilgrim, by Brandi Doherty and Countdown to Thanksgiving, by Jodi Huelin. The children made turkey puppets by tracing and cutting out  a waddle, a beak, feathers, and wings and then glued them onto a paper bag. The children have shown such growth in their cutting skills.


The  letter we learned this week was "G." The children practiced writing it, formed the letter with play dough and finally brainstormed a list of words beginning with the letter.  Some of the words the children came up with were: goat, gorilla, gum, glass, and grapes. So far, the letters the children have learned are: L, E, I, T, F, H, U,C, G, O,and Q.  They are also beginning to sound out simple words such as, elf, let, get, cut, hot, etc.  

This week was exciting and action packed. We found out earlier in the week that a soldier was coming to visit us at the school.  He works for a local veteran group and he told us that he has many friends deployed overseas and how they always enjoy receiving letters from kids back home.  So of course we spent the week drawing pictures and writing letters to the soldiers thanking them for protecting our country. Senior Chief Jeff Chunglo spoke to the children about the food they eat overseas called MRE's (meals read to eat) and demonstrated how they cook them and store them.  Did you know they are packed in such a way that they can last for up to twenty years?  He gave each child an American flag.  We also joined the Whole Note Class while they recited the Pledge of Allegiance.

One of the highlights of the week was when "Big Joe the Storyteller" visited our school.  He used puppets and his great big loud voice to keep the children enthralled while he told his long vivid stories.  He had the children participating and laughing the entire time. They were so cute!  They really seemed to enjoy his stories.

The children have been very busy working on their artwork for the "Original Art Work Fundraiser." The children each drew a picture of a sunflower in pencil and then painted a light blue and purple background over it with watercolors.  They finished their drawing by painting the sunflower with acrylic paints.  The results were spectacular!

We also celebrated Bingyi's 4th birthday this week. Happy Birthday Bingyi!  Thank you to her family for the delicious cake. The children loved it!











Other areas of interest in our classroom:

Notes:  

We will be having a school-wide Thanksgiving feast on Wednesday, November 26th at 11:00 am.

If you would like to bring a dish, a signup sheet is posted in our classroom (no meat, please).

Love,

Ms. Bonne and Ms. Barbara

Math Fun and Games!

Dear Parents,

The children had so much fun playing math games.  We played grab bag numbers: A math game.  I wrote the numbers from 1 - 10 onto index cards, folded each one up  and then placed them into a paper bag.  The children took turns choosing a card from the grab bag. They each opened up one, looked at the number and then used small colored blocks to show the quantity written on the card.

This game seems very basic, but it is actually a pretty big leap for young children to move from simply naming numbers, to associating them with objects in the physical world.  It reinforces one-to-one correspondence, which basically means being able to match numeral symbols to their appropriate quantities.

The children each made a counting book by either stamping or writing a number onto each  page, in their number books, and then counted  out the amount with stickers.  In addition they also practiced writing the numbers at the writing table. We completed our math unit this week by creating AB patterns with stickers.  We also made patterned necklaces with dyed macaroni by creating a pattern with macaroni on the table and then stringing them onto yarn.

We concluded the week by baking delicious turkey cookies for our Thanksgiving  feast.  We  froze some, took some home, and of course ate some.  They were delicious! 

We would also like to welcome two new students to our classroom- Trystan and Lexi.  We are all so happy that they have joined our class and the children are so excited about having two new friends to play with.

Delicious lunch!

Look what we made!

We look forward to starting to prepare for our Thanksgiving celebration.  If anyone would like to contribute food for our Thanksgiving celebration, a sign-up sheet will be posted in our classroom next week.

Love,

Ms. Bonne and Ms. Barbara