Dear Parents,

We had an exciting week learning about Christmas. We talked about how important it is to give to others. One of the ways the children experienced the joy of giving  was by painting and decorating a frame for you.  They could hardly wait to give it to you.

We continued the week by creating a classroom Christmas tree which adorns our bulletin board.  They also made dough ornaments which they painted and decorated.  Another fun project was creating stars, snowflakes, and trees out of craft sticks and pompoms. 

A holiday tradition we discussed was baking with our families and friends.  Our class worked together to create festive sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies for the holiday party.

We hope you enjoyed our holiday party.  The children had so much fun preparing for the celebration, especially practicing the holiday songs.

I wish you and your family a Happy and Healthy New Year!

Love,

Ms. Bonné   

 

December 14, 2012

Dear Parents,

We had lots of fun this week preparing for all the holidays.  Last week we celebrated Krampus, a European holiday. The children put their shoes in the hallway, and if they were good St. Nick would put candy in their shoes. If they were not well behaved, Krampus would put rocks in them.  Of course, all our children received candy.

This week our focus was on Hanukkah (the festival of lights) which lasts for eight days.  We celebrated the holiday in our class by painting wooden dreidels, making colorful 3-D dreidels and playing the dreidel game. The children had such a good time playing the game, especially winning all the candy. They also made a beautiful classroom menorah and present to go under it. The children enjoyed learning all about Hanukkah by listening to stories.  Some of their favorites were: Hanukkah, by June Behrens, Celebrate Hanukkah, by Deborah Hieligman, Hoppy Hanukkah, by Linda Glaser, and Festival of Lights, by Maida Silverman. We concluded our celebration by making the most delicious Latkes (potato pancakes).  The children absolutely loved them! You will all have a chance to try the Latkes at our Holiday party, next week.

Next week our focus will be on Christmas.  We will be learning all about Christmas and family traditions.  If you have any family traditions that you would like to share with us, please let us know.  Books are always welcome!

In music this week we practiced singing Hanukkah and Christmas songs.  Some of the children’s favorites were “Jingle Bells, “We wish you a Merry Christmas”, “Oh Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah,” and “I have a little Dreidel.” The children were so excited while they marched around the room, shaking bells, and singing songs. 

The Mad Scientist visited our classroom this week.  She showed the children different types of shells and had a discussion with them about which type of clams and crabs live in which shells.  She also passed around a whale’s tooth and a shark’s tooth for the children to examine.

Reminders: 

§  Thank you to those families that have already donated to Toys for Tots.  We will be collecting toys until the end of next week. We appreciate your donations.

§   Our Holiday party will be held on Friday, December 21st at 11:15am.  Please send your child to school at the regular time.  All children are invited to come to school on Friday, even if it is not their regular scheduled day.  

I would also like to thank all of you for your support throughout the year and for sharing your wonderful children with us. On that note, it is not necessary to bring anything to the holiday party, just your family. We can’t wait to celebrate with all of you!

Love,

Ms. Bonne 

December 14, 2012

Dear Parents,

We had lots of fun this week preparing for all the holidays.  Last week we celebrated Krampus, a European holiday. The children put their shoes in the hallway, and if they were good St. Nick would put candy in their shoes. If they were not well behaved, Krampus would put rocks in them.  Of course, all our children received candy.

This week our focus was on Hanukkah (the festival of lights) which lasts for eight days.  We celebrated the holiday in our class by painting wooden dreidels, making colorful 3-D dreidels and playing the dreidel game. The children had such a good time playing the game, especially winning all the candy. They also made a beautiful classroom menorah and present to go under it. The children enjoyed learning all about Hanukkah by listening to stories.  Some of their favorites were: Hanukkah, by June Behrens, Celebrate Hanukkah, by Deborah Hieligman, Hoppy Hanukkah, by Linda Glaser, and Festival of Lights, by Maida Silverman. We concluded our celebration by making the most delicious Latkes (potato pancakes).  The children absolutely loved them! You will all have a chance to try the Latkes at our Holiday party, next week.

Next week our focus will be on Christmas.  We will be learning all about Christmas and family traditions.  If you have any family traditions that you would like to share with us, please let us know.  Books are always welcome!

In music this week we practiced singing Hanukkah and Christmas songs.  Some of the children’s favorites were “Jingle Bells, “We wish you a Merry Christmas”, “Oh Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah,” and “I have a little Dreidel.” The children were so excited while they marched around the room, shaking bells, and singing songs. 

The Mad Scientist visited our classroom this week.  She showed the children different types of shells and had a discussion with them about which type of clams and crabs live in which shells.  She also passed around a whale’s tooth and a shark’s tooth for the children to examine.

Reminders: 

§  Thank you to those families that have already donated to Toys for Tots.  We will be collecting toys until the end of next week. We appreciate your donations.

§   Our Holiday party will be held on Friday, December 21st at 11:15am.  Please send your child to school at the regular time.  All children are invited to come to school on Friday, even if it is not their regular scheduled day.  

I would also like to thank all of you for your support throughout the year and for sharing your wonderful children with us. On that note, it is not necessary to bring anything to the holiday party, just your family. We can’t wait to celebrate with all of you!

Love,

Ms. Bonne 

Quarter Note Newsletter

December 7, 2012

Dear Parents,

We continued our farm unit this week by listening to a story called The Little Red Hen, by Pal Galdone.  The children also acted out the story with puppets.  The Little Red Hen story is an old Folktale about a little red hen and her lazy friends who are not willing to help her plant, harvest, or grind wheat into flour, but all are eager to eat the cake she makes from it. The story taught the children a good lesson on how important it is to work together as a team.  After reading the story we baked delicious banana bread.  Luckily, we all helped baked the bread therefore, we all got to eat it.

We listened to the Three Little Pigs, by Caroline Bucknall            and then recreated our own version of the story by making a picture which included the house of sticks, the house of straw, the house of bricks and of course, the three little pigs.

In music, the children were introduced to the viola and listened to how beautiful it sounded when Miss Michelle gave a demonstration.  The children were all excited when they had an opportunity to try it.  They also compared the viola to the violin. The difference the children noticed was the size.  The viola is larger than the violin. 

We also attended a fantastic concert given by Nancy and Tamara.  Nancy played the cello while Tamara accompanied her on the piano.  After the concert, one of the children shouted out, “I loved it.” I guess that tells it all!

We concluded the farm unit by making 3-D horses and cowboys.

Next week we looked forward to beginning our Holiday Celebrations.  We will be celebrating holidays around the world. If anyone would like to come in share their holiday tradition with the class, please let us know. 

Reminder:  The Scholastic Book Fair will begin on Tuesday, December 11th.  The volunteer sign up sheet will be in Laetitia’s classroom.

Quarter Note Class Newsletter

November 30, 2012

Dear Parents,

Have you ever been to the Suzuki Supermarket?  This week our class created a supermarket.  We learned where all our food comes from.  We focused on food from the farm.  For example, we learned that milk comes from a cow.  We then made butter using cream.  We shook and shook it until it turned into butter.  We also learned that eggs come from chickens. In art we created our own version of a chicken and during cooking we made delicious scrambled eggs. 

 We continued our unit by creating a variety of other farm animals.  Come check out our farm bulletin board!

We enjoyed listening to a story called How an Egg Grows into a Chicken, by Tanya Kant. We then conducted a science experiment.  First we put a raw egg in a glass of water.  Then we put another egg in a glass of water with 8 tablespoons of salt.  Which one do you think floated and which one do you think sank?  Ask your child to tell you the results of the experiment. 

Some new songs we learned  were: “Old MacDonald had a farm,” High-ho the dairy-oh,” and “Take me out to the Farm.” During music the children practiced playing the cello with Miss Michelle.  As you can see, they loved playing it, and did not want to stop.  They also sang and moved to "If You are Happy and you Know it" and some other winter songs.

We also participated in an Old Mac Donald puppet show and listened to Old MacDonald Had a Farm story by Jane Cabrera.

We concluded our week by making delicious muffins with "pig faces" on them.

Just a few reminders: 

~If you have a holiday tradition that you would like to share with the class, please let us know. We would love to have you.

~We will be having a toy drive for Toys for Tots, more information to follow.

~Scholastic Book Fair will be From December 11th to December 15th.

Love,

Ms. Bonne

November 23, 2012 Quarter Note Newsletter

November 23, 2012

Dear Parents,

We had so much fun during the last couple of weeks preparing for Thanksgiving.  We hope you enjoyed all the items the children made for your Thanksgiving table. Some of the projects  included:  Turkey place mats, a tepee place setting, and a Native American Village centerpiece. 

We hope you had a good time at the Thanksgiving celebration. The  children certainly looked like they were having fun.  They did a great job singing at the concert.  They looked absolutely adorable in their turkey costumes.

Thank you so much for all the food that you contributed to the feast. Everything was absolutely delicious! 

We also had a great time celebrating Kieran's third birthday.  The children loved decorating the delicious turkey cupcakes as well as eating them.

November 9, 2012

Dear Parents,

We started our Thanksgiving Feast preparation.  The children created adorable turkey place mats.  They also decorated tepee table place holders for the thanksgiving table.

Please stop by our classroom and take a look at “Ted the Turkey” bulletin board.  The children worked so hard on tracing, cutting and decorating feathers for the turkey. They each cut out two feathers.  The first one they decorated by gluing sequins and feathers onto it.  The children then dictated to us what they were thankful for, which we recorded on the second feather. Some of the children were thankful for their mommies, daddies, and baby sisters & brothers.  Other children were thankful for pasta and other types of food. 

We had a great discussion about how Native Americans lived long ago. We talked about how they fished and hunted for their food and bathed in the river.  We also discussed how they cooked their food on a campfire.  They were a little surprised that people did not have stoves and electricity. 

The children had a lot of fun learning new Thanksgiving songs with Miss Michelle and Yina.  They have been practicing "Ted the Turkey."  They also sang a couple of songs about snow "Down, Down, Down" and "I'm a Little Snowman."  The children also learned about whole notes. 

Our school-wide Thanksgiving Feast will be on Wednesday, November 21^st at 11:30 am.  Please note that school closes at 12:00 pm on November 21st and will be closed on November 22nd and November 23rd.

There will be a sign up sheet in Laetitia’s room, if any one would like to contribute something for the feast.  

Thank you for bringing in the salt shakers.  If anyone has not brought one in, please bring one to school on Tuesday.  Some of the children have already started making their drum/shaker. 

I wish everyone a wonderful safe long weekend.  I look foward to seeing everyone back at school on Tuesday.

Love,

Ms.  Bonne 

Dear Parents,

I hope you all had a good time at the Halloween party.  The children looked so adorable in their costumes.  I am sure that you will all agree!  They really seemed to enjoy decorating cookies, making Halloween  puppets, 

creating pumpkin pictures, and marching in the costume parade.  I hope you enjoy looking at all these pictures of your children in their costumes. If you have any additional pictures, please email them to me.



We look forward to beginning our Thanksgiving unit.  Please have your child bring in an empty salt container. We will be using them to make drums.

Love,

Ms. Bonne

October 19, 2012

Dear Parents,

We had a great week in the Quarter Note Class learning about trees, leaves, and the changing of the seasons.  We introduced our unit by reading some books about autumn.  Some of the children’s favorite stories were: It could be a Leaf by Allan Founder, Leaf Jumpers by Carole Gerber, and Our Seasons by Grace Lin. We also went on a nature walk and collected colorful leaves, flowers, acorns and pine cones.  The children chose acorns and pine cones and added them to our science table.  They sorted the leaves and made a leaf color chart.

The children painted a large tree and leaves.  They then glued the leaves onto the trees.  We even included pictures of the children cut into leaf shapes.

The children painted beautiful watercolor murals, and then they stamped gold leaves onto them.  They look spectacular displayed around our classroom.  Please stop by and take a look at your children’s creations.

During music with Michelle, the children enjoyed dancing while she played the violin.  They also became a percussion orchestra, using tambourines, to shake to the “Body Rock” song.  The children are also beginning to learn basic rhythms.

A dental hygienist visited the school on Thursday.  She gave a demonstration on how to brush and floss teeth, safely.  She also talked to the children about proper nutrition.  This included eating lots of vegetables and fruit and very little “junk food.”  The children were excited when she gave each one of them a packet which contained a toothbrush, tooth paste, and a coloring book.

We concluded our week by making delicious leaf shaped cookies. Baking is not only a fun activity but an excellent learning experience, as well. Most children learn quickly that eating is fun. Children learn best when they are busy and interested in what they are doing.  When they are busy measuring, mixing, kneading, and pouring, they don’t realize that there is a special ingredient that you’re adding:  It’s called learning!

We look forward to continuing our Fall theme next week.

Love, 

Ms. Bonne