Mandeville Weekly News
11/10/08—11/14/08
ATTENTION PARENTS: SOMEONE FOUND A CAR KEY IN THE PARKING LOT; THE KEY BELONGS TO A NISSAN. SEE MS. PEGGY IF YOU THINK IT IS YOUR KEY.
· Our “Taste of Thanksgiving” feast will be celebrated on Friday, November 21, 2008.
· Everyone at Kinder Haus wishes your family a Happy Thanksgiving.
PreK/Kindergarten Chronicles
With a great sense of team spirit, tenacity and belief they could do it, Colin and Cameron completed the 1000 chain in one afternoon of work this week! Congratulations, guys! You are both truly awesome! What fun we had admiring the length of the 1000 chain while comparing it to the 100 chain that seemed so special just a few short months ago. One friend came into the Math/Language Room admiring the 1000 chain that had just been completed as he exclaimed, “Wow! That thing looks as long as the
Native Americans have played a large part in the discussion of housing this week as we have explored some of the differences that existed between them. New work has included matching the different types of housing such as tepees, longhouses, wigwams, cliff dwellings or pueblos, earth loges and chickees that these Native Americans once occupied. We have coupled learning from our food pyramid unit with learning about the food the Native Americans ate such as buffalo for protein and corn for vegetable. We will continue and conclude both these units next week – just in time for FEAST DAY.
Beautiful trees with leaves of changing colors have been rapidly produced by the children in the afternoon. Ms. Cathy and Ms. Allie continue to intrigue the children with their introduction to such fascinating art work. They have been discussing the different colors of autumn and how the leaves are changing colors. The children have been on a nature hunt for beautiful leaves every afternoon. These leaves will be used to make beautiful placements. In the afternoons many special projects are being prepared and the children are enjoying each new art projects. Ms. Cathy and Ms. Allie will be discussing “things we are thankful for” with the children. The children will be creating turkeys using construction paper and the teachers will ask the children, what are they thankful for? The children’s quotes will be written on the turkeys feathers. Look for all of the wonderful artistic creations to be going home soon.
During the day the children have moved into chalk work that is now displayed on the ARTIST OF THE WEEK Bulletin Board in the classroom. How delighted we are that there exits such a wonderful way for the child to encounter concentration at perhaps its highest peak – creative expression!
NOTE: PreK/K afternoons are asking for empty paper towel rolls. We will use them to make rain sticks. Thank you!
Thanksgiving is a time for giving and sharing. The preschool friends have learned how we use our manners, and how important it is to be polite and kind to one another. We have been working on many different table manners, like pushing in our chair, raising our hand to ask for seconds at lunch, and the one we call “put your hands in your lap.” We are proud to say that we have mastered this step in table manners.
We have introduced a candle centerpiece on each table which we light when all of our friends have their self control and table manners. Our friends all know that fire is hot and candles are dangerous and have learned the sign language for the words hot and danger.
Another great accomplishment at lunch is scraping their plates and putting all dishes in the kitchen dish bin. There is an order which must be followed when cleaning up after lunch and each friend has successfully learned the routine. Sense of order and routine is essential in this stage of development and the children thrive when the routine is consistent. Each child has learned when we go outside, when we come in for snack/lunch, when we have group and when we have work time and nap.
Ms. Shannon and Ms. Rachel are working on several fun crafts in the afternoons.
Next week will continue to be very busy with new work and preparing the food for our “Taste of Thanksgiving.”
We are all so excited to welcome our new friend to the Preschool class, Ratatouille. Please come by and say hello.
Toddler Talk
This week we continued our focus on one of toddlers’ favorite things—food!!! Our unit on harvest, fruits and vegetables has been a big hit.
The children had a wonderful time with our corn shucking activity. We named the parts of the ear of the corn as we shucked it. Each friend had a turn to pull the husk off the ear. Inside we found corn silk (or as a friend called it, “hair”). We felt the kernels on the corn cob-hard and cold unlike the corn we eat at lunch. We then boiled the corn and ate the kernels for lunch. Yum! Thanks to Ms. Kathy for all her help in this cooking activity.
On Wednesday we carved a pumpkin. The children had already had a lesson on pumpkins in October, but had not seen the inside of one. They were so excited when we pulled off the top to reveal the pumpkin seeds.
The children have also enjoyed the artificial fruit basket we added to the shelf. They love to feel the apples, lemon, lime and banana. Many of the children can name the fruit though the lemon and lime get a bit confusing. We do have to discourage the children from tasting the fruit- it looks very realistic.
We have also added some new puzzles to our class. The construction vehicle puzzle and tool puzzle are equally popular. They were donated by a former student. Thanks Grant! We also added an extension activity to our stacking ring work.
*NOTE: Please send a family picture by Monday. We will begin our family unit next week.