> Back to This Week at CHP

March 26

In Literacy, we will play a letter matching egg hunt game, trying to find the uppercase and lowercase letter pairs. We will also play a new alphabet soup letter game, matching the initial sounds of words to the correct letter.

In Math, we will continue working on measurement, expanding our vocabulary and skills to include comparisons of length and weight.

In Science, we will continue to focus on trees with books, games and activities. We will revisit the Gingko tree before spring and begin to make observations as it starts to bloom.

In Drama, the children will reenact the story of The Happy Day. They will be in role as hibernating animals who discover the first sign of Spring in the snow.

In Art, we are in the final stages of fabricating our CHP community-themed collaborative mural. We will be laying out the pieces (buildings, trees, children and animals) and adhering them to the beautifully painted background.  Stay tuned, the finished work will be revealed after the spring break holiday!

In Music, I am introducing another new song (the children are learning music so quickly, it's amazing!).  We are beginning to learn On the Sunny Side of The Street.  We will also continue our work with rhythm games. In one game, each child takes a turn being the leader and playing a short rhythm with their rhythm sticks; the rest of the group then tries to repeat the rhythm. I also use vocalization of rhythm speed, such as "short" and "long" to help the students internalize the rhythm.

The Twos have had a great week learning some new songs in music and playing a fun drum game. We were able to go outside on Tuesday and had fun in art on Thursday. Some of the books we read were The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, Hooray for Spring by Kazuo Iwamura and Pete the Cat by James Dean.

In ASL, we will learn the signs for Plane, Train, Bus and Car.

march 19

In Literacy, we will read the stories Frog on a Log? and the sequel Dog on a Frog?. We will continue writing short stories, including rhyming stories. And we will read a new rhyming book: Nothing Rhymes with Orange by Adam Rex. We will also make signs for our new Care Center.

In Math, we will continue our work in the new Care Center: exploring measurement, units of measurement, measurement tools, and recording data in T-charts. We have also successfully introduced new blue blocks in the block area (http://www.imaginationplayground.com/product/big-blocks.html).  Everyone is having a great time exploring new ways of building.

In Science, we will continue to focus on animal books. Some of the children wanted to make their own animal books so we will do that. We will also revisit the subjects of trees. This will nicely tie into Nancy's art project in which the children are making trees for our classroom mural.

In Drama, we will reenact Trashy Town, illustrated by Dan Yaccarino. The children will be in role as Mr. Gilly as we make the rounds to pick up garbage at various sites in the neighborhood. We will also sort and bag recyclables and garbage. Dump it in! Smash it down! Drive around the trashy town!

In Art, we will begin assembling our mural. We will talk about compositional considerations and create any final elements that may be needed to portray our community.

In Music, we will continue learning You’ve Got A Friend. With the Threes and Fours, we are working on recognizing tempo speed, such as telling when a song is faster or slower and how to adjust to keeping the beat with a new tempo. With the Twos, we are working on our dexterity to use the rhythm sticks and finding different ways to sound besides singing, such as clapping, tapping our chairs, using the hand percussion, and stomping our feet.

The Twos had a great week, using play dough and plastic food containers to make blueberries, strawberries, eggs and other food items. They participated in a large group obstacle course for puppet show had fun in art and music. Some of the books we read this week were: A Perfect Day by Lane Smith and Little Green Peas by Keith Baker.

In ASL, we will review the signs for the seasons and for the people in our neighborhood.

March 12

In Literacy, we will play a St. Patrick’s Day name game! We will find our letters on the lucky shamrocks and build our names. We will also find our hidden names using a resistance process with crayons and rainbow watercolors.

In Math, we will be working in the newly formed Care Center, setting up some of the measurement tools.  There are scales to measure pounds (ourselves!) and ounces (our stuffed animals!).  We will take measurements and record the results in a T-chart.

In Science, the children have been talking about and watching videos about animals – how we can help them, and they can help us. Their ideas will be made into a classroom book and used in the Care Center that we are creating.

In Drama, we will set up a shoe store and be a community of leprechaun cobblers mending the fairy shoes. In the classroom we will have a scavenger hunt to find the fairy gold. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

In Art, both individually and in small groups, we are continuing to create elements that will be used in our collaborative community-themed mural which we hope to begin assembling before the end of the week.

In Music, we are learning the chorus to You’ve Got a Friend by Carol King. The chorus has a lot of words that we can use American Sign Language signs for, and we will be incorporating those into our learning of the music.

The Twos were able to go to the playground again this Tuesday and had a great time in music. They also had a nice visit with the older kids in the big classroom and participated in a fun dance during puppet show. Some of the books we read were: Mad at Mommy by Komako Sakai and Itty Bitty by Cece Bell.

In ASL, we will learn the signs for the seasons!

March 5

In Literacy, we will play our clothesline sequencing game, where we practice retelling some of our favorite stories in the correct order. We will talk about how all stories have a beginning, middle and an end. We will continue to write our very own short stories and talk about how some can be fiction and some can be non-fiction.

In Math, we will collaborate with Nancy on using shapes to make art.  We will look at photographs of real places as well as classic paintings like Van Gogh's "Bedroom in Arles" to see what shapes we can find.  We will support this work with Magnatiles as we practice how shapes can combine into new forms - two triangles put together make a square!

In Science, we are preparing to change our grocery store into a care center for people, babies and animals. We will also focus on animals and discuss how we can help/be kind to them. The children will have the opportunity to write/dictate how they would help animals, incorporating their work into a book. We will also play a fun game called Hoot Owl Hoot, in which the children work in teams to save the owls.

In Drama, we will be moving on to people and professions in our community. The children will learn the open-ended story chant “We were Walking down the Street” to brainstorm ideas and improvise scenarios. We will create a neighborhood street with poly spots to represent different places of business.

In Art, we have begun work on a collaborative mixed media mural in which we are visually exploring this year’s curriculum theme of our community and its helpers. Every child will participate in various age-appropriate tasks. We are beginning with an emphasis on revisiting and applying what we have learned about shapes with Kristin in Math so that we can “build” structures and streets in our neighborhood. 

In Music, we will continue learning I Love You a Bushel and a Peck with lyric movements. We will also play some "call and response" rhythm games with rhythm sticks.  This activity will introduce the idea of creating rhythmic ideas that can be repeated. Using some of the songs we learned, we will interact with this rhythm activity in different ways.

The Twos had a great week back at school after a week off. We went to the park on Tuesday for the first time in a while. The children also took part in the puppet show which was a fun obstacle course. Some of the books we read this week were: Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner, The Very Lonely Firefly and Papa Please Get the Moon for Me by Eric Carle.

In ASL, we will learn the signs for Librarian, Doctor and Baker.