• Nov272011
    November 27

    POSTED AT 12:26 PM

    Greetings from room 116!

    As always, pajama day was a hit! The kids felt very cozy in their warm, extra comfortable pjs. The faculty cooed at the pre-k’s cuteness whenever they left the class. We plan on having another pajama day before we part for vacation in December.

    Thank you to families who brought in fruit for our fruit salad Thanksgiving feast. We had apple slices, oranges, watermelon, strawberries, cantaloupe, and even a mango!

    Next week we will be:
    using blocks and other materials to build a playground
    continue shopping in our class grocery store
    use our class sandboxes as a space for road construction vehicles
    explore books from our book bin and rug area
    use play-doh for making cookies and pizzas
    paint on our easel with a basic set of colors
    play beginning sound games and letter font matching
    begin identifying coins and paper bills
    continue counting and identifying numbers and shapes
    making patterns with popcorn and cranberries to feed the birds
    respond to letters from parents
    reading Hooray, a Pinata! by Elisa Kleven  and re-reading Dandelion by Don Freeman and Matthew & Tilly by Rebecca C. Jones (along with many other stories)
    ...and more!


    Updated pages:
    -Photos (I changed the page set-up: new photos are always at the top!)
    -Food Drive link (last link on the left side of the page)
    -Calendar

    HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Enjoy the time off with your families:)
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    Nov212011
    November 21

    POSTED AT 06:11 PM

    I’m excited to announce that Allison DiDomenico has decided to extend her maternity leave- she’ll return next fall. I’m thrilled by this news and I look forward to continue teaching your children for the whole school year!

    Last week we opened our class grocery store. It was a bit chaotic keeping our items “stocked” at first, but they’ve been having a great time pretending ther’re shopping... and trying to get each other to sniff the empty milk carton.

    We also received letters from Max’s dad, Caleb’s mom and Angelina’s mom! The kids were so excited to open the letters and write back. We worked as a class to respond to the letters by talking about how to address an envelope, where to write the date, and what to write back. Everyone eagerly participated in answering the writer’s questions, and during center time kids volunteered to decorate the letters and envelopes.

    We’ve been discussing what it means to be thankful during Thanksgiving time. We discussed how when we say we are thankful it is usually for something very important. My examples were things like our families, having a home, having food to eat, and having healthy bodies (which inspired Charlie to be thankful for his eyeballs ;) ). I wrote the students ideas on paper leaves which are now posted on the window next to our courtyard entrance.

    Although conferences are over, please never hesitate to contact me with your concerns, questions, and comments. Conferences made me really reflect on every student’s personalities, abilities, and skills- and I feel so lucky, and thankful, to have such a wonderful group of students with such supportive families this year. I am very fortunate and grateful.

    Pre-K is taking charge of the school’s food drive. We’ll be collecting items until winter break. Thank you so much to all of the generous donations we’ve received. Our goal is to collect 600 items- as of today, we’ve already collected over 100! In the next few days I’ll create a link on our website for the food drive with information about donations and what we’re doing in class alongside this project.

    Friendly reminders:
    Wednesday is pajama day.
    Wednesday is also a half day.

    I’ve forgotten my camera at school, so there are no picture updates today- but check back before Thanksgiving!
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    Nov052011
    11-05

    POSTED AT 01:16 PM

    @import url(http://www.teacherweb.com/BLOG/HTMLEditor/Load.ashx?type=style&file=SyntaxHighlighter.css);
    On Tuesday we joined the kindergarten classes in the art room for an assembly. Father and son artists from Mexico spoke to the class (with an interpreter) about wood working. They displayed their beautiful pieces for the kids to look at and showed the students how they make their carvings, beginning with chopping down a large log of wood and finishing with painting the details. The kids were delighted and continued to discuss their experience all day! Mrs. Gillooly, the art teacher, will continue the lesson with the pre-k students next week where they’ll create animal pieces inspired by the presentation. 






    On Wednesday we began to create our pretend classroom grocery store. For the rest of the week we discussed why grocery stores are important, what makes someone a “customer” and what the different jobs of a grocery store worker are. During centers, the kids will get a chance to play different parts- customer, bagger, stocker, and cashier. We talked about money and paying for groceries, and why we stock foods and other items in particular sections of the store. Some of the books we read that discuss this topic are The Little Red Hen and Matthew & Tilly. We will start to “shop” at our grocery store next week! Thank you everyone who donated empty boxes and containers to the store :)

    We also went on a leaf hunt behind the school. Unfortunately most of the leaves are brown, but the kids had a great time anyways. We brought all our findings back into the classroom and put everything on our science table. We talked about how leaves make sugar to feed the trees, why leaves change colors, and what happens to the trees that makes them to lose their leaves. We will be using our found leaves for math, writing, and crafts next week!


    Friendly reminders:

    School is closed on Tuesday (for voting and Professional development) and Friday (for Veteran’s Day).

    Parent conferences start the week of the November 14th. The teachers met up and arranged appointments so parents can consecutively meet for sibling conferences. If your appointment does not work, or you have any concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact me and I’ll see how we can fix the problem!

    Updated links:
    -Class directory
    -Specialists
    -Photos (old photos were removed to make room for new shots)
    -A new link: Making Pizza Dough
    -A new link: Leaf Hunt
    -Wish list



    Have a great weekend!

    Ms. T, Ms. B, & Alanna
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    Nov012011
    November 1st

    POSTED AT 07:27 PM

    We had so much fun at our Pumpkin Party! Thank you to every one who donated items. We watched a short story from storylineonline.net during rest time (Stellaluna), had a fun dance party on the rug, and enjoyed our snacks! I will be sending home an updated class directory tomorrow, as well as stamped envelopes to parents who volunteered to write letters to the class. Thanks again for participating!

    We will be learning more about leaves and the changing trees and weather this week. We’ll get to go outside during Science and collect colorful fall leaves for the classroom and to inspire us while making art and in Writer’s Workshop. We’ll finally make that pizza dough just like the little red hen, and we will begin setting up our classroom supermarket.

    On November 1st the Cunniff will be visited by Mexican woodworking artists. Room 116 will visit with the other K classes during their “specials” time.

    On November 8th (PD) and November 11th (Veteran’s Day) we do not have school.

    Soon I will send home the appointment times for conferences. Teachers will be meeting together on Wednesday to try and book conference times so that parents of siblings will not have to make multiple trips.
    Conference days are also half days; school ends at 12:15 and students can be picked up at the courtyard door as usual.
    Students who attend Voyager (extended day) will still be able to attend the program. They will be dismissed at 12:15 and meet up in the cafeteria as usual.
    We have both snack and lunch on half days.

    Updated links:
    -Class directory
    -Science
    -Links
    -Student work
    -Class photos (scroll to the bottom!)
    -Specialists

    Stay warm!
    Ms. T, Ms. B, and Alanna!
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