Hi Everyone,
Well, it’s back to normal in the Berkshires. This week’s warmer temperatures afforded us but a brief reprieve from the cold winter weather. Our playground went from being a swimming pool, to an ice skating rink! Needless to say, the extra time playing indoors has been welcomed by all. The children’s imaginations have been really running strong. They have been creating dinosaur homes and villages, digging for bones, playing dinosaur board games and challenging themselves to complicated dinosaur puzzles. On Wednesday afternoon, one group of children decided to make a movie! They began making costumes from paper, markers, crayons and yarn. They also made cue cards and signs announcing when the show would take place. Tickets were made from cutting pictures from old catalogs. I agreed to film them, once they felt they were ready. The best part of this project was that it was completely child generated. We will keep you informed of their progress.
On Monday, we talked about how dinosaur bones, plants and insects would leave imprints in stone and then become fossils. We made some new playdough and practiced making fossils by pressing our plastic dinosaur bones into the dough and leaving imprints. Later in the day, we also observed our own imprints in the snow. Throughout the week we talked about the fact that dinosaurs can be categorized according to what they ate. Paleontologist can tell what dinosaurs ate by studying their fossils. Plant eating, or herbivorous dinosaurs had square teeth for chomping plants and wood. Meat eating dinosaurs, or carnivorous dinosaurs had sharp teeth for eating other dinosaurs. There were also omnivores, which were dinosaurs that ate plants and meat. We played a game of sorting dinosaurs on the felt board. This week we also talked about the fact that Paleontologists know an awful lot about dinosaurs, but they are not sure of what color they were. The children designed the skin of their own pre-cut dinosaur using the crayon resist painting method. Sadly, a not-so-funny thing happened to four of the dinos. When I was trying to laminate them, the laminating machine ran out of plastic and started running backward. Mr. Frantz and Mrs. Reid had to take the whole machine apart to remove the dinosaurs. They saved the pieces for us. We tried to put them together like a puzzle, but the pieces were a bit too small. The children whose dinosaurs were eaten up by the laminating machine were able to do a redo on Friday. Coincidentally, Ms. Smith shared that she had heard an interview on WNPR about some paleontologists who discovered a feather with its color intact in a fossil. It was bright orange! We looked it up online, listened to the interview and we saw drawings of the dinosaur, which was a Sinosauropteryx. NPR’s website is www.npr.org.
This week, we met the Letterland character “Oscar Orange.” Oscar is an orange, who lives at the Letterland docks. All sorts of things are unloaded at the docks. Things like olives, otters, ostriches and loads of oranges arrive in boxes. There is also a local octopus who often lends a hand to help. Oscar Orange also has a good old friend called Mr. O, who is from over the ocean. He is the oldest and wisest person in Letterland. In addition, this week we made pomanders fro
m oranges and cloves. The children used plastic needles to poke holes in the oranges and then plugged the holes with cloves. We hope that they help to make your home have a lovely odor! Next week we will meet Peter Puppy.
In French this week, the children reviewed colors and numbers. Madame Guerette introduced the vocabulary for families: mom, dad, brother, sister, and baby. We talked about our own families and how they are all different. The children have been practicing the song Frere Jacques. They plan on singing this to Madame Siegel when she returns.
We will have a Valentine’s Day party with the B3s on Thursday, February 11th. Children are invited to bring Valentines in for their classmates. If your child is going to bring in Valentines, please be sure that all of the B3s and Pre K students are included. We have posted a sign-up sheet for party treats and supplies in the coat room. Sometimes Valentines are edible. Please remember not to send anything with peanuts or tree nuts. Thank you so much for your consideration to this matter.
Student Profiles will be sent home mid-February. In preparation, I spent a good amount of time this week “playing games” with each student, individually. I am amazed at how much they have learned and how much they have grown in all areas since the beginning of the school year. I look forward to sharing their progress with you.
Books We Have Read:
- Dinosaur Food, by Rupert Matthews
- The Trouble With Tyrannosaurus Rex, by Lorinda Bryan Cauley
- The Mitten, by Jan Brett
- Snow Day, by Joan Holub and Will Terry
- Frozen Noses, by Jan Carr and Dorothy Donohue
Reminders:
- If you are sending in something to be warmed in the microwave, please be sure it is in a container that can be microwaved. Anything with tomato sauce should come in a glass container.
- Please send needed flatware with your child’s lunch.
- Update and replenish your child’s extra clothes.
- Bring Library books on Fridays.
- Please remember to remove wet shoes or boots before entering the Preschool rooms.
Dates to Note:
