Amazing!

That is my word this week! The children have been doing some amazing things! We are working on our chapel service for May 30th.  The Theme is Lend Me an Ear! The children are learning about talking about God and listening when others share His Good Word.  We are trying to run through the service and songs daily.  If your child has a part, be sure to practice at home with your child.  We want to make sure all are comfortable up in front.

Our last artist was Vincent Van Gogh and we tried to recreate Starry Night.  It was hard, but they tried.  This week we talked about Georges Seurat and Pointillism.  This was a cool concept.  The children really loved going up to the board very closely to see the pixels and then step away to get an amazing painting right before their eyes.  It was a great lesson in perspective also. 

Eric Carle is our subject of discussion this week.  He is a wonderful children's author and illustrator.  His work has inspired our art and our word work this week.  The children learned all about ALLITERATION, ask them! They really love that word and making up sentences to reinforce the meaning.

Spanish is coming along nicely.  We are up to 15, with some ease.  We have a song is Spanish that reinforces counting.  A good idea to see if they know their numbers and colors in Spanish is to point to the number or color and ask for it "EN ESPANOL".  Some have mastered more like days of the week and polite conversation.  I am super proud of how they remember when asked and even in situations when I forget to ask!

Months of the year along with their order is our final new big concept.  We will be doing this daily along with days of the week that will be asked out of order.  That is really how you know a child has learned a letter, word or concept.  You isolate the skill/letter in question and ask them about it.  For example, point out specific letters like p and q one at a time and ask for an ID.  Point to different months or days or numbers and ask for them randomly.  The kids LOVE being quizzed. :)

NEXT WEEK:
Poetry and we FINISH the alphabet!  We have come so far and learned so many AMAZING things this year.  I hope you see them shine as brightly at home as we see them during the day!

A couple of final housekeeping items:
1. Due to school dress code, please do not allow your child to wear shorts.  If anything changes, I will keep you informed.  pants and skirts and dresses must be knee length or lower.

2. Field trip money is due by May 23.  I sent home a note about looking for a couple more chaperons.  This will be a first come basis due to limited bus space.

3. Our end of the year celebration will be June 6th.  Please try to attend.  There will be a short slideshow of our year, songs, certificates and snacks!  It means a lot to us to be able to share this day with you.  It should be about 45 mins- 1 hour.  You will also take home all of your child's art and portfolio items at that time.  Friday June 8th is a full day with closing chapel in the afternoon.  If your child will not be present, that is ok.  I just need to know by June 4 so I can prepare their stuff earlier. 

May God continue to bless and keep you!
Tanya Boyle :)

Raining Day fun projects at home!

Want to make a big cloud?
http://pinterest.com/pin/128423026844506205/
How about a beautiful floral print?
http://pinterest.com/pin/238831586459261662/
http://pinterest.com/pin/242138917435477149/
practice shapes?
http://pinterest.com/pin/137359857354591954/
need a fun gift from the kids for a special person?
http://pinterest.com/pin/237494580319879516/
matching upper and lowercase letters?
http://pinterest.com/pin/160018592979503865/
pottery?
https://kindergartennothing.wordpress.com/2012/05/08/hopi-pottery/

Send me pics if you do any of these!
TB

May Showers are also bringing May flowers

Welcome to rainy season! This week we started plants and flowers. Our artist of the week, Carl Linnaeus was even a botanist!  They are learning all about the parts of the plant, how the parts work and what will happen if something is missing.  We did a lima bean experiment that failed. We will retry next week and we hope for success.  We discussed "hypothesis" and success and failure with experiments. They were ok with the fact that our first try was a failure. I was proud of them for not getting upset.

We are flying through the rest of the alphabet.  We are currently on Tt, Uu and next week Vv and Ww.  Please be sure to practice writing and sounding out these letters.  Don't forget to also go back and review all the letters of the alphabet! The best way to retain is to repeat!

Several student are working on addition and are sucking it up like sponges.  We may even dabble with some basic subtraction in the near future.  I am very proud of how excited they are about working in class. Some children are even trying to do some read out loud instructions for group work time.

Starting next week, we will be working on planning our chapel. The children will be learning not only WHAT we are doing for our chapel service, but WHY! That's what it is all about right? Not just the performance, but the meaning behind it. 

As we start to approach warmer weather, please remember dress code: no open back shoes, flip flops, sandals or sleeveless shirts. Tie shoes are only to be worn if your child can tie.  Feel free to send a hat or put some sunscreen on in the am if it is particularly warm and sunny.

Birthday book club was great. We had 7 preschool children.  I hope many preschoolers will participate in the medieval times report contest too.  That went home yesterday.  The children all seemed very excited about it. 

Finally, if you have not yet had a chance to meet Ms. Munoz, hopefully you have heard good things from your child. She has been a great help.  We continue to think of and pray for Mrs. Hoffman, but we are also thankful for Ms. Munoz.

Until next time,
Mrs. Boyle

ps... spread the word about LUSA! Let's keep going strong.