Friday, April 12, 2012

The Kinderbees applaud at the performance of "The Hundred Year Snooze."

 WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

This has been a fun-filled week with Spirit Week activities, as well as attending two plays: “Henry & Mudge” at the Lebanon Opera House on Tuesday and the third and fourth grade play, “The Hundred Year Snooze” right here at HES on Wednesday.

We are making great progress with the new Rainbow chart that I implemented a couple weeks ago. I am pleased with their motivation and ability to respond positively in the classroom throughout the day.  On Wednesday everyone made it to Outstanding and was rewarded with a certificate. Great job Kinderbees!  

Playing catch outside.

         The pleasing warmer weather has provided us with opportunities for brief morning recesses. They are learning many important lessons… getting along, sharing, taking turns, listening and yes, following the rules. 
 

Math:  Coming out of our recent experience attending the early childhood conference in Manchester, New Hampshire, Ginny and I learned about the concept of bonding from a leading program entitled Singapore Math. This week our classes began working with bonding for the number 3. Using a variety of manipulatives: cubes, beads and discs they will be exploring what makes three. For instance if you break the whole: 3 into two parts it can appear as 0 and 3; and 1 and 2. When they have explored these patterns we will look into bonds for other basic numbers up to 10. 

Student of the Week:

Cashton was our Student of the Week. We learned that he likes the color black, he is good at skateboarding, he wants to be a football player when he grows up, and he likes ramen noodles (a class favorite J). And if he had one wish he would like a hamster!

Hunter shares his favorite coloring book.

CALENDAR

• Share: This week’s share theme was /ou/. This proved to be a tricky share, but we were able to discover some great connections to words with that sound. For instance: foul ball and a king’s crown.  Next week’s share theme is /oi/. Boy, get poised to make some noise!

• Snacks:  Thank you to Maple and her family for this week’s snacks. The class enjoyed Yogurt, cheese sticks, cupcakes (it was her birthday), cucumbers, mandarin oranges, dried apricots, apples, and popcorn! Next week’s snack will be provided by Finn’s family. Many thanks! J

•  Spring break: Next week! April 16-20.

 Bridges by Finn.

HOUSEKEEPING ITEMS: 

• Reminder: Our classroom reading buddy, George, is being sent home on Fridays to be returned on the following Monday. Included in the bag is a journal. Please write in the journal the book or books you read to him and any funny stories that may have resulted from his home visit. Keep him for the weekend and return him and the journal on the following Monday. Sophia had a fun-filled weekend with him last weekend.  We are looking forward to hearing all about George’s adventures. Feel free to have your child draw a picture in the journal on one of the pages as well. Thanks! 

• Reminder: Extra Clothing:  Please make sure your child has warm clothes for the chillier days and an extra set of clothing in case they get wet. Thank you!  

• Scholastic Book Orders:  April book order brochures are included in today’s folder. Please return orders by Friday, April 27^th. You can order anytime online if you like. Please use our classroom code: H9K3R

Sincerely, 

Mrs. Bodnar

jbodnar@wsesu.net

Friday, April 6, 2012

Judy Hills talks with the kids about her trip to Africa. 

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

Being out of the classroom for two days in a row at a teacher’s conference makes for a very short week – for me.  Meanwhile the children have had a full week. Amy Richardson substituted and did a fabulous job. The children read The Grouchy Lady Bug, by Eric Carle, on Monday, and made construction paper Ladybugs, which are now posted on our hallway bulletin board. On Tuesday, they read It’s Mine, by Leo Leonni. They compared the two books and wrote in their journal about what makes a good friend.

It has been National Health week and all week the children have attended a variety of different health related classes. It has been a wonderful experience for them and I would like to thank Deb Christie-Maples for coordinating the week events along with Farm to School.  We enjoyed some Kiwi on Wednesday for a special treat on Green Day!

Puck the Gnome.

Language Arts:

We are learning about how to tell a story. That it has a beginning, middle and an end, and how to draw pictures to tell the story and then to use our words to describe what we have drawn.   We are also learning to use lots of color and to draw lots of details.  

We were very excited to listen to Judy Hills show her slides from her recent trip to Africa.  She brought our class wonderful gifts. Individual baskets, a woven basket shaped bowl and a colorful handmade woven rug.  The children were excited to learn about what it is like to live in the village where she traveled. She showed slides of children at school, different style homes, and how they spend their time, as well as different animals like giraffes and a holy cow He has extremely long horns!

Two birds in a nest. 

You may have heard about a new unlikely hero in one of the stories I am currently reading aloud. We are reading about an interesting gnome, named Puck. The children are enjoying hearing about his adventures with his buddy Din. While I read, they are molding with clay. The creations help keep their focus while I read as well as give them experience working in a 3-dimensional medium. At the end of read aloud time, everyone enjoys sharing with the class what they made.

On Thursday, I sent home some sight words on a ring. Some of these words may be tricky and some may be decodable. The goal is that they will be able to begin to recognize the words automatically. We started this week’s words with ones they may have already known. As the weeks progress, we will add new ones that may be trickier.

Computer Lab/Math

I recently learned how to edit the Moby Math site so that the children do not have to work against the clock.  They can take their time solving the problems so it will be a more enjoyable and relaxed experience. J If you would like to have your child go to the site at home the login instructions are as follows.  Go to www.runmoby.com. Your child’s login and password is the same. Just type it in twice. It is:  bodnar(your child's rest bag number)

CALENDAR

• Share: This week’s share theme: /qu/. We enjoyed hearing and analyzing this unique sound. We learned that q comes with u. We met a few different stuffy pets, a duck named Quacky and a Giraffe named Quacky. We even met a unicorn who was a queen. A horse who was quick and we talked about quiet.  Next week’s share theme is /ou/. Get out!  Have fun!J

• Snacks: Thank you to Ava and her family for this week’s snacks. The class enjoyed cheese-its, grapes, watermelon, strawberries, and Jello. We saved the cookies for a special end of day Friday treat. Next week’s share will be provided by Maple’s family. Many thanks! J 

• We have an upcoming field trip this Tuesday, April 10^th to see the play “Henry and Mudge” at the Lebanon Opera House. If you would like to be a chaperone, please let me know. The bus will be leaving around 9:15am. Please send in $5 for admission next week. We have an additional field trip to the LOH later in the spring, so feel free to send in $10 to pay in advance. Thank you!
• Spring break: April 16-20.

HOUSEKEEPING ITEMS:

• Reminder: Our classroom reading buddy, George, is being sent home on Fridays to be returned on the following Monday. Included in the bag is a journal. Please write in the journal the book or books you read to him and any funny stories that may have resulted from his home visit. Keep him for the weekend and return him and the journal on the following Monday. Ryan had a delightful weekend with him. He enjoyed a fun-filled weekend! We are looking forward to hearing all about George’s adventures. Thanks! 

• Reminder: Extra Clothing:  Please make sure your child has warm clothes for the chillier days and an extra set of clothing in case they get wet. Who would have thought it was going to snow! Thank you!  

• Scholastic Book Orders: You can order anytime online if you like. Please use our classroom code: H9K3R

Sincerely, 

Mrs. Bodnar

jbodnar@wsesu.net