Five Day AM Class News 5/20/22
Class: Blue Stars 5 day am
Recap: May 16 – May 20
Dramatic Play: Camping in the Woods
Focus: Summer Fun
This week the Blue Stars enjoyed a fun camping theme (by our pond wall) in Dramatic Play. A variety of student sized camp chairs surrounded a blazing (plush) fire. Explorer hats, binoculars, sunglasses, beach towels, canteens and lanterns were at the ready for our Blue Star to use for their journeys into the great outdoors. Lots of small plastic forest animals lined the shelves so students could play with and ponder encountering one of these creatures on their travels. Some students put together ramps and rolled balls down their creative engineering inventions while others took advantage of building amazing things with their friends a few more times. Ms. Grace took suggestions from each student and played their favorite songs during the week. Songs from Frozen, Encanto and Rascal Flatts provided some spunky tunes for a day camping by a pond! Tuesday added to the water theme as the Blue Star class had its annual water day. Sand, mud, shaving cream, and lots of water mixed together to make happy soggy Blue Stars! In the motor room, a balance beam, trampoline and tumbling mat were placed into a circle to make our classroom obstacle course. Students showed off their strength, balance and flexibility as their friends encouraged their efforts!
The manipulative room was a place to play and have a good time with friends one last time before the school year came to an end. Students played with individual cans of Play-Doh. Legos were used to create interesting objects while plastic dragons and other mythical creatures were used to create magical playscapes. Students came and went from a table covered with glue sticks, felt tip markers, construction paper, crayons, and scissors to create pictures and notes. Comradery and friendship rolled through the room like the wind through a forest. This week our books were some of our favorites that have been read throughout the school year. Students loved hearing these books read again and remembered some of the books’ messages from before.
This week our read alouds were: Big Pumpkin, Stick and Stone: Best Friend Forever!, Nobody Hugs a Cactus, Night Animals, and The Whale and the Snail.
Art and Science/Math Activities:
In art this week, students came and went from a table covered with glue sticks, felt tip markers, construction paper, crayons, and scissors to create pictures and notes for their friends to remember them by. They played with individual cans of Play-Doh while chatting with their friends. Students created beautiful pictures using their fingers and amazing colors. They also used lots of different sizes of fabric pieces and glue to create a fabric mosaic. We had an interesting addition to the classroom this week for science - a stuffed squirrel! Once again, Ms. Grace’s brother Mr. Mike Garcia, provided us with an interesting specimen. We talked about what kind of animal a squirrel is (a mammal) and then the students told what characteristics a squirrel had that made it a mammal. Students learned how a squirrel’s tail is like a cat’s tail and is used for balance. Students also came up with ideas as to why a squirrel has such sharp claws. Our Blue Star scientists suggested that it could use its claws to climb, dig and protect itself! After our discussions, students used their sense of touch to explore the squirrel further and felt its claws, fur and tail.
All year long our Blue Stars have not only spoken about being kind they have learned what it means to be kind to others. For the past 2 weeks the Blue Stars have been working diligently trying to come up with ideas on how to be kind to their families. Each time they did something kind they were able to add a puff ball to a jar during our Morning Message. Monday the jar was completely full! Our wonderful Blue Stars came up with great ways to show kindness to their families. Things such as: “I gave my Mommy water when she wasn’t feeling good.”, “I helped my Mommy make dinner without being asked.”, “I played with my sister when I saw she was sad.”, “I helped my mom cut the watermelon for dinner when she didn’t ask me to.”, and many more kind things. To celebrate, we had a fun pajama day on Thursday. It was a very comfortable, fun and cozy day! Our Blue Stars are a very kind and sweet class and should give themselves a great big pat on the back for their thoughtful efforts!
The last day of school we traded the shirts we wore to school for the ones we tie-dyed, and the Blue Star class looked stylish, happy and a little older since the beginning of the year. To bring a close to this amazing year we ended it with a large star piñata! Students used their best batting skills to take a swing at the piñata. When our star piñata went supernova (broke open) out spilled gems and gold coins. As students lined up at the gate to leave, they traded in their coins for goodie bags filled with lots of interesting objects for some summer fun! This wonderful event helped to bring our Blue Star friends together for one more memorable moment.
*A great big thank you goes out to all the Blue Star parents for your donations. A special thank you also for Ms. Bonnie Garcia for not only coordinating, but also collecting and putting together these end-of-the-year bags of fun!
** On behalf of the entire Blue Star teaching team, I would like to thank each and every parent for trusting us with your precious children this year. Your support for us and the Acorn means more than words can describe. Throughout this year we have gotten to watch them grow into the amazing little people they are. It has been a year of fun, friendship and learning. We hope whatever new adventures await them in the future they have the kindness, creativity and curiosity they have had this entire year. We wish you a wonderful summer.
Love,
Ms. Christa, Ms. Grace, Ms. Sudie and Ms. Adriana
Five Day AM Class News 5/13/22
Class: Blue Stars 5 day am
Recap: May 9 – May 13 Preview: May 16 – May 20
Dramatic Play: A Day at the Beach
Focus: Summer Fun
This week the Blue Stars had fun enjoying a beach theme in Dramatic Play. Yards of blue and green fabric interlaced with small sparkles were laid out on the floor to imitate the ocean. Our sun loving students relaxed by or jumped into the “ocean” to cool off. Student sized beach chairs, beach towels, sunglasses and sun visors were at the ready for our Blue Stars to hang out at the beach. The Blue Stars had more fun dressing up for the summer festivities by wearing tutus and boas for swanky occasions. In the motor room, seals had rings tossed on their noses and wrist ribbons were used to swish and spin around the beach.
In the manipulative room, students used tongs to place puff balls in circles to make the uppercase “O” and lowercase “o”. After they placed the puff balls on the circles, they scooted them aside and placed Avery dots on the circles to form their “Oo’s”. Students kept their focus on their “Oo’s” by tracing their uppercase O’s and lowercase o’s with dry erase markers. Students worked on their scissor skills again by stretching out on their tummies and cutting 5 different lines to help bees reach a variety of objects (ie. honeycombs, hives, etc.).
This week our read alouds were: Summer Days and Nights, Mr. Tiger Goes Wild, And Then Comes Summer, The Twelve Days of Summer, Phillipe in Monet’s Garden, Summer Color!.
Art and Science/Math Activities:
In art this week, students painted with watercolors, depicting activities they might do over the summer. They worked with T-shirts to make something fun for the summer. They played with galactic Play-Doh and individual cans of Play-Doh every day while chatting with their friends. Ms. Sudie helped us close the week with the ever-popular Peter Rabbit’s tea party! Ms. Sudie read the book, Phillipe in Monet’s Garden. This book helped our Blue Stars remember the beautiful works of art that they had learned about during our flower/pollinator unit. The Blue Star teachers helped the students make frog prince and frog princess headbands to wear for the occasion. Our Blue Stars sat around the tea table drinking lemonade while nibbling on tea biscuits and made polite conversation with their friends. This wonderful event helped to bring our Blue Star friends together for another memorable moment.
We continued learning about science by staying in the kitchen and learning through the fine art of cooking! We learned how cooking incorporates many of the same techniques one would use in a science laboratory. We measured and mixed to make some yummy homemade nut free granola. The next day we layered fruit, yogurt and our homemade granola to make tasty parfaits! We ended our week by taking a nature walk down to Brackenridge Park. Our stroll led us to the area behind the Witte where we could view a real-life pond environment. Students were able to see plants (reeds) and animals (birds) that make their home in and around this water habitat. Students became limnologists (scientists who study ponds) and put on their “observation eyes” to share what they saw in this setting. Our Blue Stars enjoyed a snack beside the water before heading back to school. This was a wonderful way to end our learning about a pond habitat!
Wishing you a delicious weekend,
Ms. Christa, Ms. Grace and Ms. Sudie
Five Day AM Class News 5/6/22
Class: Blue Stars 5 day am
Recap: May 2 – May 6 Preview: May 9 – May 13
Dramatic Play: Pond Life
Focus: Pond Inhabitants
This week the Blue Stars took a detour from ponds and focused on mothers! The pond habitat wall stayed up again this week. A pond, along with our classroom tree took up center stage on our classroom wall. It included amphibians, with a toad hiding among some cattails and a frog leaping off a lily pad. Reptiles were represented as some snakes slithered out from under a log and among the reeds. Birds such as ducks, loons, hummingbirds, and a heron took up residence in and around the pond while our classroom tree made a home for some cardinals and a woodpecker! A mother beaver and its kit lurking behind a tree were our lone mammals. Insects were represented by a butterfly and lots of dragonflies. We had a variety of plants including flowers, cattails and fungi (or mushrooms)! Large and small insects lined the dramatic play shelves to help our Blue Stars once again become entomologists. Lincoln Logs added to the dramatic play fun as students made individual insectariums, or insect zoos! Our creative Blue Stars used Lincoln Logs to create enclosures to keep similar insects together. In the motor room, a trampoline was used by students to jump into a swimming hole!
In the manipulative room, students used tongs to place puff balls in circles to make the uppercase “N” and lowercase “n”. After they placed the puff balls on the circles, they scooted them aside and placed Avery dots on the circles to form their “Nn’s”. Students kept their focus on their “Nn’s” by tracing their uppercase N’s and lowercase n’s with dry erase markers. Our Blue Stars got ready for Mother’s Day by matching pictures of baby animals to pictures of their mothers. They worked on their hand/eye coordination by choosing one of 3 different types of food shaped lacing cards to lace. The Blue Stars continued having fun with our light table. Students used their imaginations with colorful small plastic discs to make pictures and patterns. The Sensory Table contained flour and measuring equipment to practice measuring this important baking ingredient. Students had so much fun investigating the flour this week!
This week our read alouds were: Some Moms, Mom School, My Mother is Mine, What Mom’s Can’t Do, I Love Mom, The Way Mothers Are, Love You Forever,
Art and Science/Math Activities:
In art this week, students used foam roller brushes to roll paint over butterfly templates. Ms. Sudie continued the pond theme by helping students draw images of different types of birds.
The Blue Stars know that one of the great things mothers do for us is to feed us! Students helped out this week by making the snacks. The beginning of the week had students helping to make grilled cheese sandwiches. Another day had students following a procedural text (a recipe) to help make something tasty to drink with their pretzel snack. Students followed a recipe to squeeze lemons and measure water and the other ingredients to make lemonade!
* A huge thank you goes out to the Blue Star moms who attended our special Mother’s Day celebration. The children worked hard on making this a special day for their moms. Students started out the event by giving their mothers a mini tour of the classroom and talking about what they do throughout the day. Next, they serenaded their mothers with the songs, Days of the Week and Months of the Year. Next, students had a snack while mothers were regaled with beautiful portraits and dictations. Our Blue Stars couldn’t wait to give their mothers the special gift they worked so hard on. The event came to a close when the Blue Stars showed their moms how to do the ever-popular, Tooty Ta. Our Blue Stars were so happy to share this time with their mothers. We all hope you had a wonderful time!
May 9 – May 13
The next week we will be getting ready for the end of the school year by talking about the season – Summer!
We hope you keep your observation eyes open and discover an amazing weekend,
Ms. Christa, Ms. Grace and Ms. Sudie
Five Day Class News 4/29/22
Class: Blue Stars 5 day am
Recap: April 25 – April 29 Preview: May 2 – May 6
Dramatic Play: Pond Life
Focus: Pond Inhabitants
This week the Blue Stars dove into learning about a pond habitat. It was a wonderful way to review a variety of creatures we have learned about throughout our Blue Star year! A pond, along with our classroom tree took up center stage on our classroom wall. It included amphibians, with a toad hiding among some cattails and a frog leaping off a lily pad. Reptiles were represented as some snakes slithered out from under a log and among the reeds. Birds such as ducks, loons, hummingbirds and a heron took up residence in and around the pond while our classroom tree made a home for some cardinals and a woodpecker! A beaver and its kit lurking behind a tree were our lone mammals. Insects were represented by a butterfly and lots of dragonflies. We had a variety of plants including flowers, cattails and fungi (or mushrooms)! Large and small insects lined the dramatic play shelves to help our Blue Stars, once again, become entomologists. Lincoln Logs added to the dramatic play fun as students made individual insectariums, or insect zoos! Our creative Blue Stars used Lincoln Logs to create enclosures to keep similar insects together. In the motor room, a boat was used by students to go fishing for numbered fish.
In the manipulative room, students practiced tracing their uppercase M’s and lowercase m’s with dry-erase markers. Students measured pond cards using non-standard measurement units – paperclips. Large paperclips were lined up end-to-end to measure lines on assorted animal cards. Students were able to measure and tell the teacher how many paperclips “long” a pond object was (e.g. a dragonfly was 1 paperclip long). Students drew numbered cards to find out how many frogs to place on a “log”. Once students added the correct number of frogs, they took one away and then told the teacher how many frogs were left on the log. Our Blue Stars were really excited to learn that they were doing subtraction! Lastly, students picked up a variety of shapes and told the teacher the name of each shape. If a student couldn’t recall the shape, the teacher helped the student to count the number of sides the shape had and identified each shape (ex. a triangle has 3 sides, a hexagon has 6 sides). The Sensory Table contained small “ponds” for the students to play with. Rocks, green glass beads, blue glass beads and logs (sticks of various sizes) were placed in plastic tubs containing blue colored water. Small turtles, frogs and some lizards were added to complete the small “ponds” for the children to explore.
This week our read alouds were: Jo MacDonald Saw a Pond, A Year in a Pond, Pond Circle, Jump, Frog, Jump!, Scoot!, Over in the Meadow, Pond Babies, Pond Walk, 5 Little Ducks
Art and Science/Math Activities:
In art this week, students used small plastic pond creatures, such as reptiles (lizards), amphibians (frogs and toads) and insects (centipedes, dragonflies, butterflies, etc.) to paint creature tracks with. They made bubble art by blowing bubbles in a dish containing a dish soap/paint mixture. After the blown bubbles rose to the top of a yogurt dish, students placed paper on top to pop the bubbles and make colorful “bubble” art! Students then added beautiful Spring colored Spin Art! The week ended with students using their fingers to paint beautiful pond landscapes.
The Blue Stars jumped into science by learning about a pond habitat. This interesting habitat gave us the opportunity to review some of the many things we have learned about throughout the year. The life cycle of a frog and characteristics of reptiles such as snakes were some things we talked about. We learned that lots of different types of plants live in ponds from reeds such as cattails to algae. Our Blue Star limnologists (scientists who study ponds) had their thinking hats on this week when they were introduced to food chains. We started by reading the wonderful book: Pond Circle. This book helped us understand how a pond habitat (plus others) provides food for a variety of creatures. Students were fascinated and asked some wonderful questions like: “What if 2 animals wanted to eat the same snake?” and “What kind of food would an owl eat if another animal ate the snake?” Some amazing questions were asked and discussed by our curious Blue Star students!
Lastly, we said our goodbyes to our guest chickens this week. Before they left, we were able to view them one more time and give them a gentle one finger touch. Comments such as, “I like how soft they are.”, “I like their feathers best.”, and “They have big feet.” were heard from our curious students. Thank you, Ms. Wendy and Mr. Rich for providing us with an opportunity to view an up close look at a life cycle of a chicken!
May 2 – May 6
The next week we will continue to learn about pond life.
* Mothers, please mark your calendars for a celebration in honor of – you! Our Blue Star Mother’s Day gathering will be on Tuesday, May 3rd at 10:30am. We hope you will be able to join us!
We hope you discover a wonderful weekend,
Ms. Christa, Ms. Grace, Ms. Bonnie and Ms. Sudi