For the love of Buildings.

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This is our final week of buildings and we will end it with a story about woodland friends who may loose their homes.  Materials from this book will be in the sensory table, along with bull dozers and sand.

We will also read a book called The Shape of Things and the students will be able to participate by adding shapes as the book is read to them.

Our letters for the week are G and H along with sorting for Math.  The students have really enjoyed this unit and playing in the sand and dramatic play area. The dramatic play area will have a large refrigerator box for the students to decorate like a building.

PM Class only:

The PM class will listen to Miss Debi Abela on Monday as she introduces the topic of living and non- living things. On Thursday we will be traveling to The Botanical Gardens to hear more about living and non living things.  Our library area will be filled with living and non living things for all the students to explore before we go on our field trip.

We will take a break from our curriculum for a few weeks as the Olympics will arrive at the EEC.  Each class in the building will be a country and help participate in this very exciting world event.

What are buildings made of?

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This week our focus is “what are buildings made of “? and “what tools do we use?”.  We will be making our own buildings in centers by using Jenga blocks and play-dough, and marshmallows with toothpicks. In one center we will be making a map of our own town using real pictures of buildings in Fairview Park.  Our dramatic play area will be turned into a construction site!!! The sensory table will have wet sand and sand castle forms to make buildings. Our letters this week are E and F and Math will be focusing on shapes and using different shapes to draw our own building on blue prints. This is going to be a fun week!!!!

Buildings, Buildings, Buildings

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Buildings Around Us!

This week we continue with our Building Study. We will look at pictures of buildings from our community and reading the stories, Buildings, Buildings, Buildings, and A Chair for Mother.  We will be using boxes to build, magnetic tiles to build with and items from our University Circle kit that includes building items.

This week we will be focusing on learning to write the upper case letters C and D along with their lower case partners.  Math will be counting items up to 20.  If a student can count higher we will support their skill development.

This is a short week for our students and hopefully the weather will allow us to come to school each day.  Please be sure to watch the weather each morning for school closings just in case.

We are in search of typical role models for next year.  If you have a friend who is interested in attending DAP, have them check the website for our link to the Spring screening on March 12.  Any questions regarding next year please don’t hesitate to email or talk to one of the teachers.

This is a really cool video on Buildings from all over the world.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

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BUILDING STUDY

The New year begins with our building study.  This week we will ask the students what they know about buildings.  We will read The 3 Little Pigs and Changes, Changes.  Of course the students will love the activities we have planned for The 3 Little Pigs.  They will be making homes for the Pigs and using a hairdryer to blow the houses down just as the Wolf did in the story.

Our math lesson will include graphing how many people live in our own homes and we will be making blue prints and buildings for art.

The entire downstairs will be joining in on a family project.  Please read the information below and have your family creation in to school by January 22, 2018

January Family Project – Paper bag Building

To kick off our buildings unit we are asking each child to design or recreate a house or building from their community. Ask your child about someplace they like to go, or while driving discuss the different stores, building, and houses you pass and ask them about the similarities and differences. This could help them design and create their own building using the paper bag. You can add on by using construction paper, small toys, or various crafting supplies to create a building or house for our Building Community!

Below is an examples:

Be creative and have everyone in the family participate.  It will be fun to see what creations show up to school!

PM Class only:

Monday we will be visited by Miss Debi Abela from the University Circle Initiative.  She will be sharing information with the students about the Museum for Contemporary Art-MOCA.  We will be taking our first 2018 field trip this Thursday to MOCA..  This museum is very interesting and will get the students thinking about various shapes and lines they may find in art.

For those of you who did not send snack in before break we are in need of snack, paper towels and napkins.  Thanks for helping us out!!

Happy Holiday

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This week we will devote our time at school to activities surrounding the Holiday. We will be reading stories that include manipulatives for the students to play with including, If you take a Mouse to the Movies, The First Snow and 10 on a Sled.  The housekeeping area will be designated the gift wrapping area, the sensory table will be filled with ice or scissors and pine needles or wrapping paper.  We will strengthen our fine motor skills with making candy cane ornaments made out of beads, a que tip snowflake and a math tree.

Wednesday is our last day with students and will be Pajama Day.  Have your child dress in their favorite pajamas and get ready for the Polar Express.  We will serve hot chocolate and cookies to the children for snack.

 

On behalf of the entire DAP team I would like to wish you and yours a very Happy Holiday and we will see you in the New Year.

Who Makes Clothing is the question?

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This week our question of the week is Who makes clothing?  We will continue to ask this question all week as we read The Jacket I wear in the Snow and Mrs. McNosh Hangs Up her Wash.  The students have really enjoyed examining their own clothing as to if it soft or scratchy and if it has numbers or letters on it.  These questions are great ways to stimulate conversation with your child.

Mrs. Sheridan our Speech Pathologist will be in our room on Monday to re-read the story The Jacket I wear In the Snow and work on speech goals.

We will be finishing our Christmas gifts, reviewing the letters D, E and F, patterning and having fun along the way.

Winter Program: Please make sure you have turned in your seat request for the Winter Program.  If not ,you can attend the dress rehearsal on Thursday morning at 10AM. For our afternoon students who attend the dress rehearsal, families are responsible for them as the AM class is in session.  You will need to take them home after the dress rehearsal and bring them back for class in the PM.  ***Please be at school no later than 6:45 and in the room for the Winter Program.

We are singing, The Reindeer Pokey, Do you want to build a snowman and This little light of mine.  We are so excited to sing for you all!!

CLOTHING

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This week we will be reading Sneezy the Snowman youtu.be/uOWKdqK6O9o and the Paperbag Princess   youtu.be/hIPrb-sA6Uo

Both books talk about a variety of clothing.  Sneezy the Snowman melts at the end of the story and the children will be making a melted snowman out of glue and shaving cream.  In the Paperbag Princess, the children will make paperbag vests of their own creations to wear.  We will continue washing our clothes in the dramatic play area and sorting clothes by color.  We will be counting the clothing that we wash as our Math concept this week is counting.  As our Fundations program has come to an end with learning the letters and their sounds, we will be review the letters and sounds until we leave for holiday break.  When we return, we will begin to learn to write them using  Fundation’s concepts.

On Monday, Mrs.Sheridan, SLP will be in the room and be a center where she will read Sneezy the Snowman to the students while working on their language skills.

HOUSEKEEPING:

Picture Retakes are scheduled for Monday, December 4th.

The PM class field trip will be at the Natural History Museum on Thursday this week.

We are in need of snack for the month.  We are also in desperate need of paper towels.  If you could send some in that would be terrific.

The concert songs have been chosen and we will be performing:

  1. The Reindeer Pokey(hokey pokey tune)  2. An original song written by Miss Alicia our music teacher (sung to the tune of Do You Want to Build a Snowman) and 3.This Little Light of Mine performed in sign language.  We will send home the words and a video of the signs this next week.  Each song is short and easy to learn.  We can’t wait!!!

Each day gets busier and busier and I am glad to be back with the children!!!

 

What to wear?

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Welcome Back!

The students will have an opportunity to add to their binder by creating a picture of their favorite thing they did or ate over the Thanksgiving break and writing a story about it. We love to scribe what they are telling us as their stories are very sweet.

This week we will be reading The Mitten, a Hungarian folk tale, as we begin our study on Clothing. The housekeeping area will be set up for sorting  and washing the laundry.  Using clothes pins to hang up laundry will help strengthen fine motor skills. For art we will paint our hands white and place them onto mittens.  For those students who are able to use scissors we will encourage them to cut out their own mittens.  Math is sorting and our letters are Y and Z.  By the end of the week the students will be able to retell the story of The Mitten using paper manipulatives.

We will begin to practice our songs for the Holiday concert this week.  A reminder that when the reservations for seats is sent out, please return them ASAP as requests for seats go very quickly.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Feeling Grateful!!

It’s that time of year when we reflect upon those things that make us feel grateful.  I am extremely grateful for Miss Lindsey as she took over my class and made it better than before.  Thank you Miss Lindsey for all that you did and we wish you the best of luck in your new endeavor.

I will be returning to work on Monday Nov. 27th. I will have a few restrictions (like sitting on the floor criss cross applesauce), but am good as new and look forward to seeing all the children and staff in the building.  If you are in the building, stop in and say hello.

 

Thanksgiving theme and Turkey Trot

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This week we will be doing centers based on the theme of Thanksgiving. Our dramatic play areas will be set up so the kids can set the table for a Thanksgiving Feast. We will be increasing our fine motor by using turkey basters and pushing feathers across the table.  We will also  be feathering turkeys using feathers and colanders. Our math will be counting turkeys, identifying the number and writing the number we will also be matching feather shapes.  Our letters with week will be W and X. Our finale for the week with be the Turkey Trot!!  We also plan on trying to do a cooking activity making pumpkin pie in a cup.

Info on Turkey Trot:

Please join us and cheer on the students in this fun run/walk around the school campus.  The students need to be dressed in athletic wear (including tennis shoes)  as well as for the weather, ie. coats, hats, mittens.  Please note the Turkey Trot will be cancelled if there is heavy rain or snow.   The AM DAP students will report to the Gym at 9:15 and run/walk at 9:30.  The PM DAP students will report to the gym at 1:15 and run/walk around 1:30.  Students still report to their classrooms just like any other day. The teachers will get the students ready for the run/walk when it is time and will see the parents cheering us on as we run/walk.