Galaxy room Newsletter

 Week In Review

September 13-17, 2021

Monday: Today we started our Life in a Bag project. The students were very excited to share and were very patient and attentive to each other. Teacher Candice modeled the Life in a Bag share with some of her favorite items like shells and sea glass collected from the Sonoma Coast and one of 2000 origami paper cranes she folded. Today’s sampling of the student’s share is: Baker shared a photo book and a bird whistle, Arlo shared his treasure chest and measuring spoons, Benjamin shared an ice cream truck picture and a fall leaf, PeeDee shared sand from the beach and a whisk for stirring, and Parker shared a stick, a spatula and a paintbrush. We also talked about fire drills and did a practice one to prepare for the drill on Wednesday. We read Lola Goes to School and talked about all the ways that our school experience is similar to Lola’s.

Tuesday: Today we continued our Life in a Bag share, and the students did a great job explaining why they brought in the items in their bags. Here is today’s sampling: Conrad shared his small reading light and his whisk for cooking, Natalie shared her goggles for swimming and her favorite book to read with her Bubbie, and Elsie shared a puzzle piece, a photo of her camping and her favorite Spinosaurus dinosaur toy.

Today we read You Are Special and we used this to prompt our self-portrait project. We thought about what our faces look like, including face shape, eye color, ears, nose and mouth placement as well as quantity. We tried to make our drawings look like ourselves. Students created their self-portrait using black Sharpie marker for the outline and watercolor to fill in color and details.

Wednesday: Today we had a fire drill, which will be a part of our monthly drills. The students did a great job lining up with sounds off to head outside. We talked about how loud the fire alarm is and how it is doing its job to make us want to leave the building quickly, quietly and safely. We emphasized how important it is to keep our hands off of our ears so that we can hear any directions a teacher might give. We continued with our Life in a Bag share, and here is today’s sampling: Chase shared a cut out of the Frosted Flakes cereal box and a Thomas Train book, Hannah shared her dancing ribbons and a Miss Bossy book, and Charlotte shared her unicorn pen and her sparkling crystal rock. We read Hello School and found more comparisons to our classroom and school.  Teacher Sally shared her keepsake bag from Brooklyn NYC and a winter cap her friend knitted as a gift.

Thursday: We finished up our Life in a Bag share, which was a big success! Here is a sampling of today’s share: Anneke shared a flamingo pen and a Dutch flag, Calvin shared a lizard he drew on paper and a dog stuffie, Lucy shared a book of princesses, a paintbrush and photos of her friend and cousin, and Teacher Mike shared a golf ball and his terrarium. Today we read  Now I’m Big and discussed how we grow and change. We came up with a list of things we did when we were babies and what we can do now. Students enjoyed working with play dough.

Friday: Today we finished up our All About Me theme with a great book called Growing Always Seems to be Up. We talked about all the ways we grow and change, like getting taller, faster, smarter, older, funnier and even feeling different on the inside. We talked about how our faces can tell people how we feel, and students looked at pictures of kids making different faces and we talked about how they might be feeling. Then we took turns making expressive faces and the teachers guessed, just by looking at their eyes, how they felt. For our project, students made Mini Me’s. On a small cut out paper person, students chose outfits, used markers to color skin tones and eye color, and added yarn for hair to match themselves. We sent these homes along with two weeks of the students’ sign-in sheets. Have a great weekend, and see you all on Monday!

Note and Reminders

  •  We will practice monthly fire drills along with the Irvington School. Additionally, we will be participating in other drills throughout the year, such as Lockdown, Lockout, and Earthquake.
  • Thank you to Calvin’s and Conrad’s families for the yummy snacks over the past few weeks!
  • Next week we will begin our unit on family, friends and pets.
  • Thanks for all the support and patience as we get into the swing of this school year.