February 13-17
Irvington Newsletter for the Week of February 13-16, 2012
Hello Pre-K families! What a wonderful week we had learning about art and friendship! Next week we will continue to study art, and our letter will be Rr.
Our person of the week was Jaden. Jaden is five years old, with blue eyes and golden hair. He wants to be a ninja when he grows up, and loves to eat mac and cheese, biscuits and gravy, ice cream, and chocolate chip cookies. He likes to go to carnivals, to go to Candyland (which is in Africa), and his transformers. He does not like “bullies because they are being so rude to me” and salad. Jaden wishes he could go to Legoland, that he could go to Wonderland, and that he could fly. His favorite part of being person of the week was getting his person of the week book.
Thanks and Reminders
Thanks to Zachary’s family for the delicious snack! Please sign up for round two if you have not done so already, and if you need snack suggestions, don’t hesitate to ask! Schools are now taking applications for kindergarten, so don’t forget to get that in- the sooner the better, as it makes it easier for the m to plan out the classrooms.
**Also, there is no school on Monday!
Monday we talked about what art is to us and some of our favorite ways to make art. We talked about the idea that anything creative is art, and that kids can use their imaginations to be artists now! We read The Art Box as an introduction and The Lonely Moose about friendship. We made person of the week pages for Jaden. For share time, Ben told us some great Q words: quilt, queen, Quinn, and quarter. Brady told us some more: quiet, quick, and quickly (some of the teachers’ favorite words, it seems). Helen C. brought in a rainbow-a-nator, which makes rainbows. Students loved to see the rainbows all over the walls! Lucia added to our Q-list with the words queen, quack, Quinn, and quiet.
Tuesday we had a very busy day! We talked about art as a way to express yourself, using terms like ‘show how you feel and show what you are thinking,’ and we had Miss Nina from the library come and read to us! She read Little Dog Lost: The True Story of a Brave Dog Named Baltic and There Was an Old Monster. We also read Art and Max and Suryia and Roscoe, a true story about a friendship between a dog and an orangutan. We used this book as a way to talk about being friends with all different kinds of people, and to reinforce that idea, we did an ‘M&M experiment.’ In this experiment, students closed their eyes and ate four different colors of M&Ms, and tried to guess the color. Of course they could not, and we talked about how the outside of a person does not matter, and the inside is what counts. We also made necklaces and exchanged them so that each student received one from another. At share time Netta showed us the book Zin Zin Violin, pointing out the quartet page. Lily told us the word queen, and that her favorite kind of art is making hand prints at home. Zachary shared his lunchbox, featuring Mario going quickly! He also likes to make hand prints. Tessa told us the words quickly and quietly, and shared that she likes to make rainbows with markers as her favorite art. Leo brought in a magic tree house book about quakes, and told us a little bit about the books. Phoebe shared a photo of her and her friend Quincy, and asked us all a question: what is my favorite color?
Wednesday we talked about colors and focused on the color wheel. We read A Book About Colors: A Guide for Young Artists, Maudie and Bear, and Hello, Red Fox. We made our own color wheels, using only red, yellow and blue, and students really enjoyed experimenting with these three to see what other colors they could make. Check them out, they are hanging in the back corner of the classroom. At share time Mary drew a picture of a quilt, and told us her fairy godmother gave it to her- wow! Dane brought in a photo of a duck (quack!) and a container of Quaker oatmeal. Willem told us “quiet quacks!” and Darwin showed us some soap art he made. When asked how he made it, he replied “you will find out when you get to my house and make it.” Isa told us the words Quincy, Quinn, quilt, and queen, and that her favorite color is light blue.
Thursday we celebrated Jaden’s fifth birthday! We sang to him, admired his birthday crown, and made him birthday pages for a book. Happy birthday Jaden! We started a new game at circle, called Question or Comment, where we have to shout out if something the teacher says is a question or a comment. This is an important thing that students are just learning to distinguish, and playing at home is encouraged! We read You Will Be My Friend and The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse. This is an Eric Carle book inspired by the expressionist painter Franz Marc, and we made mobiles for our project from pictures from the book and oil pastels. The mobiles were a lot of fun and a different project than we usually do. At share time Kate showed us a quilt her mom made her when she was a baby that she loves to snuggle. Olivia brought in a fossil she made that says love, because its art, and a book about art called Ish (which we enjoyed reading later). Paxton brought in a quill and a queen his brother Jake drew, and told us an elaborate story about the queen’s magic. Aidan shared a model plane, a CRJ, and told us about how he was going to be taking a Q-400 on a trip this weekend! Quinn shared his Hancock school memory book since it is all about Quinn, and showed us a few of his favorite pages.
Friday we finished up our mobile project and did a special project for the Irvington School Auction (March 9th, www.irvingtonschool.com/auction for details.). With the help of parent volunteers (Thanks Antonia, Helen and Keli!) students made alphabet quilt pieces to form a class quilt to auction off! We read The Mountain that Loved a Bird, A is for Artist, A is for Art Museum, and Owly and Wormy Friends All a Flutter. We also read Jaden’s Person of the Week book. For share Helen Cruz-Uribe brought in the movie ‘Chicken Run’, because Rocky and Ginger are friends. Odessa shared a large stuffed lion named Quinn!
Thanks for a great week at pre-K, and have a nice weekend!
