February 6-10

Irvington Pre-K Newsletter Feb 6-10, 2012

Hello Pre-K Families! I hope that all of you enjoyed your week and the exciting rocks and minerals unit. The students had fun exploding volcanoes, collecting/hunting for rocks, showing off collections, making rock candy and conducting other interesting science experiments.

Thanks and Reminders

Please remember that IED Pre-K is a holiday-free program. We ask that all Valentine cards and candy be kept at home or distributed outside of school. We are not celebrating Valentine’s Day, but we will be focusing on friendship and art as our themes for the next two weeks, and our letters for the weeks will be Q and R.

  • Please note that there will be no school on Monday, February 20, 2012 in observance of President’s Day.
  • Also, we ask that you help your child leave toys, money, candy and any extras items at home. Students should only be bringing their coats, a lunch, a rest-time item, and their share item (on their share day). There have been some issues arising out of students bringing extra things with them to school.
  • Lastly, a big thank you to Darwin and his family for the yummy snacks (the almonds and dried fruit were delicious). If you have not signed up for a second week for snack, please do. There are several open slots.

Our Person of the Week is Benjamin Fortmann. Ben is 5 years old, has blonde hair, brown eyes and is 3 feet 7 inches or 110 cm tall. His favorite color is blue, and some of his favorite foods are mac & cheese, chocolate ice cream and pasta. Ben has a dog named Nigel, a brother named Adam, a mom and a dad. When Ben grows up he wants to be a Ninja, who, he says, “you can call if you need any help with bad-guys.” If Ben could make 3 wishes, he would wish for more Lego Ninja-go’s, a Darth Maul toy light saber, and more Playmobiles. Ben really likes Legos, the Cars movie, (especially Finn McMissle), and to draw pictures. He doesn’t really like playing with baby toys or vegetables, “but I eat them!” It is a real pleasure to get to know our friend better. Thanks!

On Monday, we started our unit on rocks, minerals and volcanoes. Students were very excited to share their collections and did a great job keeping their collections organized, no lost rocks to report!

We started off the day by creating a KWL chart of all the things students knew about rocks. Some of the things students told us were; rocks could be different colors, that our Earth is made of rock, you can find them anywhere, they can be very hard, big or small, fun to climb on and great to collect. We read a book called Let’s Go Rock Collecting!, which gave us all some basic information about rocks. We also read Stone Soup and some facts from Rocks & Minerals. For our project, students made Person of the Week pages for Ben’s Person of the Week book. During share, Lily brought in a photo of her Papa, a plant and a phone, which showed how “P” words can also make an “f” sound. Ben shared some “P” words like peep, Potter, and Phoebe, Helen Colletti shared a pencil that has balloons on it that helps her remember it’s from her birthday, and Isa shared Pinky Pie, her favorite stuffed pony that helps her sleep. Today we also celebrated Ben’s 5th birthday. Ben shared photos of himself over the years. The students sang Happy Birthday to him and made birthday pages that were compiled into a Birthday Book.

On Tuesday, we discussed the layers of the Earth. Students made very cool paintings of the view of the Earth from a cutaway, and labeled each layer. We learned that we live on the crust, the core has both a hard inner layer and a liquid outer layer, and that magma is in the mantle layer. We read the section on the Earth in Rocks and Minerals, and for fun we also read Sylvester and the Magic Pebble. We also started an experiment with Epsom salts to see if we could create the effect of stalactites and stalagmites. During share, Netta shared a stuffed pink bear named Pinky, who is very soft and fuzzy. Zachary shared 3 shiny pennies “that we call heads with the head on it, and tails with the building on it”, which he added to the penny jar. Phoebe shared a Princess Puzzle that has a missing piece, and “my name starts with P, so I’m sharing that too”. Julian shared a very cool poster of a volcano and a photo of Mount St. Helen’s erupting, and Tessa shared a book called Pinkalicious and the Pink Drink, and she shared her favorite page.

On Wednesday, we talked about metamorphic rocks. These are rocks that change into different rocks over time, as a result of heat and pressure. The metamorphic rocks remain solid as they change, which is different from igneous rocks which melt into a liquid and then are quickly formed when cooled. We read Looking at Rocks, Explore Rocks and Minerals!, and A Gift From the Sea. For our project, we attempted to make rock candy crystals and shared our various rock collections. During share Dane brought in ash from Mount Saint Helen’s (“from a shop where you can buy volcano stuff”), and two painted rocks. Darwin shared an opal, a moonstone, a labradrite, and a quartz, which is “super-duper special”. Mary shared a pencil and a small piggie flashlight, and Willem shared paper chromatography, because he loves science and wants to be a scientist. We also read Everybody Needs A Rock and A Gift From the Sea.

On Thursday, we discussed sedimentary rocks and read some great facts from Rocks, Rocks, Rocks. We learned that sedimentary rocks are formed over time from the pressure of the Earth pressing sand, rocks and mud together. We used hand-signals to represent each different rock formation, and to help us remember what we have learned about the rocks, and the name of the different rocks. The sedimentary rock signal is both hands laying on top of each other, which looks like a sandwich, igneous looks like lava spouting out of a volcano, and metamorphic is both hands pointing together to look like a mountain. We also read facts from Rocks, Fossils and Arrowheads, Mission Science: Rocks & Minerals, and looked at the great pictures of the rocks. For our project, students made impressions of shells in play-dough which we dried overnight to create the effect of fossils. During share, Quinn shared two halves of a geode and a homemade volcano, Liam shared a peacock feather that comes from a real peacock. Olivia brought in a Playmobile “Snowflake Princess” and a stuffed piglet, “which is a baby pig”. Kate shared several “P” words like penguin, Phoebe, and picture, and Pearl her dog, and Paxton put on a pirate hat, eye patch and hook, and showed us petrified wood and pumice (it floats!). In the afternoon, we read another version of Stone Soup and made many observations of the similarities and differences. We also revisited the KWL chart to make note of all the new things students have learned over the week.

On Friday, we had lots of fun “exploding” our volcanoes! Each student had their own volcano that they made last week with some baking soda placed inside the valley. Then the students took a cupful of vinegar that was mixed with red food-coloring, and made their volcano erupt. We told them that it is called a chemical reaction when the two substances are combined. This was a fun experiment! We read National Geographic For Kids: Volcanoes, and the kids “ooh and ahh”-ed over the amazing photos of the hot lava spewing out of the volcanoes. We learned that volcanoes can erupt underwater and create new land masses, and give us igneous rocks. During share, Aidan brought in a picture of a “space rock that astronauts took and then sent down to my house”. Brady shared some rocks that he collected at the beach while he was on his trip. Odessa shared her polka-dot dress, and the colors pink and purple. Jaden shared his piggy-bank that has “volcano-dollars” inside. Helen Cruz-Uribe shared a Planet Earth book about earthquakes, tornadoes and volcanoes, and Leo shared his favorite page from a cookbook for kids and told use how to make mac & cheese, which uses pasta! Today we also listened to the book The Little Penguin on CD and activated our imaginations. We just used the words without pictures from a book, to enjoy the story. We also read Ben’s Person of the Week book and his interview and asked him his favorite part of being Person of the Week, which was being line leader, and getting both the Person of the Week and the Birthday Books.

Thank you for another magical week, Pre-K!

Pre-K Team