Fish Tales 2/21 ~ 2/24

Dr. Bianco was the Mystery Reader on 2/16. She read Skippyjon Jones and the Big Bones by Judy Schachner. This is a delightful, imaginative story that tells the tale of Skippyjon Jones visiting the land of dinosaurs in his closet. It is written in English, yet incorporates Spanish as well!

Some of the other books we read this past week were:

Ten Terrible Dinosaurs by Paul Stickland

How Does a Dinosaur Say Good Night? by Jane Yolen

There's a Dinosaur in My Backyard by B. G. Hennessey

Ten Little Dinosaurs by Pattie Schnetzler

Mighty Dinosaurs by Judith Simpson

Henry In Love by Peter McCarty

Edwina - The Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She was Extinct by Mo Willems

Danny the Dinosaur by Syd Hoff

Dinosailors by Deb Lund

We had a class discussion about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and then created penny bracelets using contac paper and yarn.

Last week the children painted banner paper using rollers and the teachers cut the paper into dinosaurs for the exploratorium bulletin board. This week the children enjoyed tearing paper to create a palm tree and grass.

The children are matching foam letters to those on the rug. This activity reinforces letter identification and some of them were naming words that start with the letter as they placed them down.

As the sun shade was installed on the playground, we took advantage of the loose dirt and brought out loaders and dump trucks for the children to use.

One of our transferring centers incorporated using tongs to transfer "dinosaur" bones!

The paleontologist lab continues to be a favorite center in the exploratorium where the children delight in using their imaginations as they don equipment to look for dinosaur bones.

After the children painted dinosaurs at easel, they would sing a dinosaur song!

Are dinosaurs really extinct? The children enjoyed creating dinosaur eggs using paper mache over a balloon. The children will paint them this coming week and the teachers will discreetly add a dinosaur. We will send them home for you to open together! We try to remove the entire balloon, yet at times some of it gets stuck to the inside.

The lower division celebrated reading week. Buddy reading was on the agenda for Thursday. Ms. Telemachios'  4th graders read to our children. Many of them are patrols and walk the children to class in the mornings!

 Dinosaurs were the theme for exploring on Friday. The children created a dinosaur nest by stomping on a graham cracker in a a baggie using a dinosaur. They added yogurt and jelly beans as the eggs. We stirred up plaster of Paris and the children spooned it into a cup containing a dinosaur they had chosen. This coming week they will use a hammer and screw driver to open up the dinosaur and discover a fossil. They strung dinosaur bones (macaroni) to make a necklane and pressed a dinosaur into play dough inside a plastic egg to create a fossil.

Dates to Remember :

February 29 - Class Photo Day

March 1 - Field Trip to Coast Guard Air Station

March 9 - Spring Break Party - 

               Exploring Schedule - 9:00 Playground - 10:00 Party

March 12 ~ 16 - Spring Break
March 30 - Relay For Life 

Fantastic Fish Celebrate Valentine's Day & So Much More!!

The children finished delivering their valentines as the week began. 

The Valentine Party was enjoyed by all!! At the assembly, Mrs. McIvor led the teachers and children in singing, You Call that Art? This is a delightful song about painter Jackson Pollack. The teachers created this picture as they sang.

Later on the children decorated t-shirts by throwing paint like Jackson Pollack. It was so much fun!!

 We ate strawberry shortcakes for snack and created heart headbands by cutting out a heart, adding stickers, and printing with valentine stampers.

 One of the highlights of the morning was opening Valentines on the rug with our parents and friends.

 Valentine Bingo was another popular activity! We decorated clay flower pots with paint and added "chocolate kisses" for the dirt and a seed packet.

We want to thank all of the parents that helped prepare valentines with their children, purchase supplies for the party, and assist with the festivities. The children benefit from your loving guidance and we really appreciate all you do!!

We had so much fun guessing what was in Mrs. Samuel's large envelope. Some of the guesses included: "a sticker, snowflake, a snake, picture, a photo, book, card, and a valentine. It was a Valentine Bear Hug from Mr. Hank!!

The Relay for Life Lunch was very successful. Thanks for your help and support.

Our dinosaur theme began on Wed 2/15. We opened a Paleontologist lab in the exploratorium, where the children can look at fossils and bones with magnifying glasses. There are other props to spark the children's imagination to pretend they are out at a dig!

The children drew pictures of themselves with markers at center time. They are beginning to add details to their representational drawings including the sun, grass, the moon, eyebrows, eyelashes and so much more!

Dates to Remember: 

February 20 - President's Day Holiday

February 29 - Class Photo Day

March 1 - Field Trip to Coast Guard Air Station

March 9 - Spring Break Party - 

               Exploring Schedule - 9:00 Playground - 10:00 Party

March 12 ~ 16 - Spring Break
March 30 - Relay For Life

    

Fish Tales 2/6 ~ 2/10

On Monday, several children from Ms. O'Mullane's second grade class visited our classroom to read a book about Australia that they had created on the computer.

They brought puppets and other props to make the book come alive!

Cutting hearts is a very popular activity in Alpha. The children delight in cutting out a folded piece of paper in the shape of a tear drop. They open it up and voila, there is a heart. This activity gives the children many opportunities to practice their cutting skills!

 

This past week we had Valentine Cats by Jean Marzollo at the listening center. This center continues to be a very popular activity. It provides the children an opportunity to hear a story, follow the turn the page signals, and sharing a book.

The children delivered their valentines to the bag mailboxes by matching up the name.

Building with the unit blocks provides opportunities to create, converse, negotiate and have lots of fun!!

Mrs. McIvor continued her study of stringed instruments with opportunities for the children to play the violin and the guitar. She had the children sing a song as one of them played the guitar!

"Flowers and a helicopter" were created from these colorful manipulatives!

Adding colorful glue and tissue paper to wax paper are the first steps to making a heart sun catcher. The children added more glue and another piece of wax paper.

At the Valentine party on Tuesday, the children will be decorating t-shirts by throwing paint with a brush in the same mode as artist, Jackson Pollack. In preparation for this experience, Mrs. Gootson showed the children a Jackson Pollack painting and talked about his technique and the colors in the painting. Mrs. McIvor has taught us a song which we will sing at the party!

February 14 Valentine's Day Party ~ Exploring schedule - Playground 9:00 - Party 10:00 We will need parents to help with the party and read Valentine's to the children.
THE CHILDREN MAY WEAR CLOTHING WITH HEARTS OR VALENTINES COLORS WITH JEANS!
Please have them wear older shoes as we will be "throwing paint!"
February 15 - RELAY FOR LIFE lunch - Information went home about this special day. The children may eat a hot dog lunch or bring one from home. Sage will not be serving lunch on this day.
Your donations to Relay for Life are totally optional.
THE CHILDREN MAY WEAR PURPLE SHIRTS WITH UNIFORM SHORTS, SKORTS, OR PANTS.

February 17 - Teacher Professional Development Day
February 20 - No School - Presidents' Day Holiday

February 29 Class Pictures 
March 1 : Field Trip to the Coast Guard Air Station at the Clearwater/St. Pete airport. We have enough parent volunteers for this trip. We will leave school at approximately 9:00.

March 9 - Spring Break Party - Exploring Schedule - 9:00 playground - 10:00 party
Summer Camp Brochures will be sent out in Early March!

Fish Tales 1/30 ~ 2/3

One of our circle time activities is a morning greeting. Mrs. Samuel gave each child a square or rectangular piece of paper. Pairs of children with matching shapes and color stood in the middle of the rug, said hello to each other, and stated something they like about the other person!

Mrs. McIvor introduced the violin to the Alpha students. Each child will have a turn to play the violin in the coming weeks!

Painting a heart at the easel was a very popular center this week!

 

The children decorated bags with hearts and doilies that they will use as their valentine mailboxes. We sent the name list home early because we knew it would take some time for the children to create a valentine and/or sign their first initial or write their name. Please send their valentines in at any time or by Monday 2/13! Thanks!

The zinnias are sprouting in the garden!!

We talked about creating a Recipe for Friendship at circle time one morning! Mrs. Samuel identified numerous kitchen tools. The children offered their ideas about friendship including sharing, teamwork, kindness, and hugs.

The children looked at the kitchen tools and told Mrs. Samuel their Recipe for Friendship!

They cut out a heart and glued doilies and other hearts creating a collage.

The Alpha students attended the 4th grade production, We Haz Jazz on Thursday.

Exploring on Friday was filled with heart activities. The children created heart wands and really enjoyed using a hole puncher to create holes to add some ribbon. Then they used these wands to shadow dance.

Rolling paint over doilies to create a friendship banner was another activity.

Our snack was Friendship pancakes. We mixed batter and added pink food coloring to half. The children found a partner and flipped a pancake. One child chose a pink pancake and the other a white pancake. They used a cookie cutter to cut out a heart and shared that heart with their friend. Then they ate the pancakes with the different color heart! MmMm good!!

They watched the bubbles pop and helped flip the pancakes!

Dates to Remember:
February 14 Valentine's Day Party ~ Exploring schedule - Playground 9:00 - Party 10:00 We will need parents to help with the party and read Valentine's to the children.

February 15 - RELAY FOR LIFE lunch - Information went home about this special day. The children may eat a hot dog lunch or bring one from home. Sage will not be serving lunch on this day. Your donations to Relay for Life are totally optional.
February 20 - No School - Presidents' Day Holiday

February 29 Class Pictures 
March 1 : Field Trip to the Coast Guard Air Station at the Clearwater/St. Pete airport. We have enough parent volunteers for this trip. We will leave school at approximately 9:30.

March 9 - Spring Break Party - Exploring Schedule - 9:00 playground - 10:00 party