Room 2 - 3's AM - Many Celebrations!
Happy New Year and Happy Winter! Welcome back to a new year in Room Two. The children enjoyed the fall season. We watched as the leaves turned beautiful shades of red, yellow, and gold and then fell from the trees. Our class tree followed the same pattern. Apples were replaced by beautiful leaves the children painted with water color which have since fallen and sent home.
During the fall we learned about pumpkins, life on a farm, and celebrated Thanksgiving. We also learned how other people celebrate the holiday season. We learned about Hanukkah, the First Day of Winter, Christmas, and Kwanza. The children especially enjoyed singing the songs related to these holidays.
We started our preparations for Thanksgiving by reading books about families. We learned that families come in many different shapes, colors, and sizes. Each child glued their family pictures to make a collage and they are on display in our classroom. We looked at pictures of real turkeys, sang turkey songs and had our own Thanksgiving feast. Our menu consisted of pumpkin corn bread, corn on the cob, and cranberry orange relish. At the art table each child made his/her own turkey.
The true meaning of Thanksgiving was demonstrated when we brought the cans of food you donated to the collection center in Vladeck Hall. Also in November we welcomed our new friend Darius into our class.The farm unit was enjoyed by everyone. Children had the opportunity to see and try to milk a cow (squeezing a disposable glove field with milk) as we learned where milk comes from. During our holiday vacation when planning for months ahead we felt that it would be better to continue this unit during spring when we could visit the farm animals at Stew Leonard’s and hatch our own chicks. The children acted out the story Mrs. Wishy Washy. It was a great opportunity to put into practice waiting for a turn to be the main character or one of the animals in the story. Everyone enjoyed it saying the lines and washing the animals. They enjoyed the books: Farmer Will, Big Red Barn, When the Rooster Crowed, The Grumpy Morning, My Barn, and many more.
The holiday season was a very exciting time for all of us. We sang songs for Kwanzaa, Hanukkah and Christmas and visited Minia’s class for our annual holiday celebration. Our contribution for the party was thumb print cookies. The children were very proud of the holiday gifts they made for their families. We hope you will enjoy it for years to come. We gave the potatoes latkes a twist by making them with Yucca root instead, they were crispy and delicious.
In January have been exploring the winter season. Included are the environmental changes that take place, freezing, melting, and how animals adapt. Hibernation and migration are being discussed. A book that got us started was When It Starts to Snow. We will be reenacting the story The Mitten by Alvin Tresstle and the Tree Snow Bears by Jan Brett. We also talked about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.January will end with a unit about our senses where our children will have an opportunity to explore food with different tastes, make art with different texture and become more aware of the many sounds that surround us every day. Celebrating Chinese New Year is a fun activity in housekeeping. This year it falls on February 14th. We will have a busy start during this month since Valentine’s Day is loved by everyone. Just a reminder, there is no candy allowed - only cards. We will get a unit on transportation starting in the beginning of February.
The children have formed friendships and are getting along very well. They are starting to use language to express their feelings with one another. They enjoy coming to the writing table and the art table. Some are starting to write their names and almost everyone can recognize them as well. The weather chart is a very popular activity during circle time. A few children participate daily to check the weather, tell the class what the weather is like and count how many sunny, rainy, cloudy, windy, or snowy days we have had so far in the month.
Everyone is enjoying school-time dance with Mary. It has been changed to Wednesdays, so please try to send your child with comfortable clothing on that day. Also, there has been a change in our cooking day. We are cooking on Thursdays in the morning and Tuesdays in the afternoon.
The parent of the day program will start soon, please try to find a day (or even an hour) to spend with us in our classroom. The children enjoy having their parents visiting the classroom. There will be a schedule for you to sign in and a note will be sent home letting you know when it is going to start. We miss having Vicki in our classroom. The children really enjoyed her presence. Thank you, Vicky, for volunteering your time. We look forward to having you back in our classroom soon.
We would like to welcome our new friend who joined our afternoon class in January. His name is Gabriel and his sister, Sofia, attends Minia’s pre-k class.
We hope you had a good holiday season and wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous new year!
Maria, Alma, Jean, Nicole, and Jan
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