Time to Celebrate Earth Day!

Welcome back everyone after a long Spring Break! The children seemed excited to be back as they entered the classroom happily and hopped right into the school routine with ease. During snack, we read Are You My Mother? and Is Your Mama A Llama? At Morning Meeting, we talked about what we did when we were not in school. 

Brandon: "Went on a train. Went to Puerto Rico."

Teachers: "How did you get to Puerto Rico?"

Brandon: "Airplane."

Nico: "I went to the kindergarten to see all the flowers."

Lili: "I went to Texas and the Hamptons."

Scarlett: "I went to see my grandpa and went in his car. I went to see my cousins. They had a great big dog."

Harry: "I went to Florida yesterday and built a sandcastle. I went to the beach with Pop-Pop."

Next, we talked about how we are celebrating Earth Day this week and how important is to save water, throw away our garbage into a trash can, and turn off the lights to save electricity. Then we read On the Day You Were Born. 

Before French with Deborah, we had Free Play. The children dug in the sandbox, played in the water table, and painted trees at the easel. We also painted Earth using blue, green, and white tempera paint on paper plates. Then we listened to a teacher tell a story about a polluted pond. When the children forgot to throw away their trash, all the animals got sick or moved away, but when the children volunteered to pick up the trash, all of the animals went back to the clean, safe pond. We sang Get Up and Dance and took turns jumping through the hula hoop as we transitioned to lunch.

Lili made a cave for the animals using foam dough and flower stems.

Brandon and Jacob are making trees at the easel.

"It's Beautiful Day"

We began our morning reading Lili's book Ten Wriggly Wiggly Caterpillars.  Using the pegs boards, Lili and Brandon made one birthday cake for Brandon and one for Jenny. At Morning Meeting, we sang Happy Birthday and counted the candles in each cake. There were seven candles in Brandon's cake but he said, "Too much. I am two. I need to have two." We took away 5 candles. Then we counted 25 candles in Jenny's cake. We learned that the numbers 2 & 5 together make 25. Then we talked about more and less. 

After Yoga with Lakshmi, we went for a walk to Jackson Square Park to see the butterflies and star tulip and then we played at at Horatio Park. "It's a beautiful day, " Jamie said the moment we stepped outside. 

When we arrived back we ate lunch. Then we read Corduroy's Easter and went on an Easter egg hunt. 

Wishing you all a wonderful and beautiful Spring Break!

"I Want To Make More Butterflies"

We greeted each other at Morning Meeting singing Hello, Hello, Hello and How Are You and sang Old McDonald Had A Farm and A Band. "I want to make more butterflies, Jennifer." And so Hudson made more butterflies while Brandon and Max played together with the trains. 

We went for a walk to Jackson Square Park to see all the butterflies we had made. Hudson, Max, and Brandon were so excited to see the butterflies as we walked around the park taking time to appreciate each one. When Hudson noticed his, he shouted, "Look at my butterfly!" Then we examined the star tulips that have bloomed. Max bent down and said, "I blow the flower open." Next, we played at Horatio Park and enjoyed the beautiful day!

Hugs and Butterflies

When Lili and Scarlett arrived at school and they headed toward the train tracks which were surrounded by vehicles. “I want to play with the people and be a doctor,” said Scarlett.  Scarlett and Lili went to the dramatic area to find stethoscopes and came back to the block area. Lili took the person with crutches and placed him on the “table”.

 “We check people in the morning. We check people when they are sick. He has a cast. He hurt his ankle. I see the problem. He fell down. He got hurt because he was running,” said Lili.

During snack, we read Stars! Stars! Stars!. At morning Meeting, Lili said, "I want to give Grandpa a cuddle!" This started a chain reaction of hugs for Grandpa, Debbie, and Jenny! Then we began to work on our Spring Friendship Tree. We went to Jackson Square Park to hang up our butterflies with the Daisy's and the Sunflowers classes! What a LOVELY day!

"I Hear the Chicken"

At Morning Meeting, we sang The Itsy Bitsy Spider slow, fast, loud, quiet, and a little silly. Then we talked about Spring and read Ten Wiggly Caterpillars. We worked more on our butterfly gifts for Jackson Square Park. When we finished,  we painted a spring mural using spatulas.

Hudson played and Brandon played in the Daisy's classroom while Scarlett and Max played with Rebecca during Free Play. Scarlett gave Rebecca a check-up. She checked Rebecca's eyes, ears mouth,and listened to her heartbeat. Then Scarlett discovered Rebecca's belly and said "I hear the chicken."

After Free Play, the children worked together to set up each lunch. What a fun day!

Happy Birthday Moon!

Our morning began with Brandon sharing Chinese noodles with egg with the class as a continuation of International Week. Then we looked at the colors and shapes on China's flag. Brandon pointed out there is one big yellow star and four "tiny" yellow stars. Then we read The Dancing Dragon.

After Brandon's share, we revisited last week's conversation about celebrating the moon's birthday. Lili, Scarlett, and Harry stated that they are the moon's mommies and daddy. Debbie made a gluten-free chocolate cake for the moon to celebrate it's 5th birthday. But we realized that we did not have any birthday candles. So we decided to go to the store to buy candles and a birthday card to give to the moon.

After our trip to the store, we iced the cake and added blue sprinkles.Then  we made more butterflies to give to the park. When Evan came for Music, we sang Happy Birthday to the moon and played on Evan's drum kit. Before lunch and the moon's party, we noticed that the moon could not "his" cake without a mouth so Debbie painted on a mouth so that the moon could eat "his" birthday cake. After eating our lunch, we lit the candles, presented the cake to the moon, sang Happy Birthday, counted up to 5 ! 

Continuation of International Week

Our morning began Monica with reading the class Where the Wild Things Are in Hebrew and English! At Morning Meeting, we sang Around and Around Is the Name of the Game by passing the ball around the circle and looking at our friend's names as we went around. We noticed looking at the letters 'O", "D", and "C" that these letters also look like the shapes of the moon we are learning about: full, half, and crescent.

After Yoga, Marianne did a presentation with Jamie about England. We learned that the British flag is also known as Union Jack and we saw photographs of major landmarks in London on the posters Marianne made for us. Then she and Jamie showed us toys that come from England and read us Mr. Funny from the Mister Men series. Next, it was time for snacks: sausage bread, pot pie, cookies, chocolate, and a delicious strawberry truffle cake! 

Thank you Monica/Nico and Marianne/Jamie for all of your hard work and participation!