Children's House Room 7

May News

In May, we are studying Dinosaurs and focusing on the African continent. We will incorporate fun Dinosaur Montessori work into our shelves. The children will learn about the different Dinosaurs that roamed the Earth. The book of the month is The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We will explore the lifecycle of a butterfly and continue our gardening work. We are very excited about the events we have planned this month!

April Recap

In April, children learned about the layers of the Earth and Australia. They studied the culture, people, and traditions. The children colored the Australian flag and traced and colored a map. We had an Australian flag made of felt that the children put together themselves. We discussed the different kinds of animals in Australia using pictures and tiny figures. We discussed various ways to take care of our planet Earth. We all agreed that picking up after ourselves was the way to start! Children brought in different objects that could be recycled or reused, and we classified them. They also practiced caring for the Earth around school by picking up and throwing away trash. Our book of the month was Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, and they loved this book! They drew their tree and glued letters to represent the story. 

We had so many fun crafts throughout the month. We did rock paintings outdoors and placed them in our garden. We also did an outline of a butterfly using different colored chalk and black paper. They enjoyed picking out the other colors. We also made a yummy snack during the Week of the Young Child. We made trail mix out of crackers, M & M’s and pretzels. They loved it. It was fun to make and so delicious. They really enjoyed learning about music and using maracas during our enrichment class. 

March Recap

In March, we studied the Rainforest, St. Patrick's Day, and Dr. Suess. We started our first week off during circle time, learning about the different animals in the rainforest. The children learned about the four different layers of the rainforest. After learning about the Rainforest Layers, we made our diagram using construction paper. We colored animals and placed them in the layer in which they live. March was about reading and learning about beautiful rainbows, shamrocks, and Dr. Seuss's books. Our Saint Patrick's celebration was a success. The children brought many yummy green snacks, including cucumbers, peas, and even green juice! We had a golden coin and four-leaf clover hunt on the playground. The children enjoyed it! We made a rainbow bracelet out of Froot Loops and a pipe cleaner. The children thought it was delicious! They loved playing place the gold coin in the pot of gold. Each child had an opportunity to try and place a gold coin in a pool of gold while wearing a blindfold.

During Grace and Courtesy lessons, we practiced saying please and thank you. We worked on number order and letter sounds. We also practiced The Pledge of Allegiance. In March, we began working in our garden. The children have been learning how to care for our plants. The children have enjoyed enrichments using computers, learning new words in Spanish, and especially love the cooking activities. 

February Recap

In February, we had a great month with lots of fun activities. We talked about how to be good friends and be aware of what friendship means. We had a wonderful time learning about Asia and the Chinese New Year. We made our very own dragon with paper plates and colored pencils. The children enjoyed coloring and putting it together. The book of the month was Little Blue and Little Yellow. After reading the book, we discussed the differences between one another and if that should impact our friendship. We learned all about color mixing and were able to mix the colors yellow and blue to make green! We were fascinated by this concept.

Our Valentine's celebration was so much fun, and we had the opportunity to celebrate friendship with lots of yummy treats. We explored Asia by talking about landmarks, culture, food, music, and clothing. We created four flags, China, Japan, India, and Russia, with colored pencils. We also did Valentine's art projects with hearts and tissue paper. Thank you to our families for bringing all the items for our classroom party.

January Recap

In January we studied all about Antarctica we went over the climate it has and how it is the coldest place on earth! Children looked at pictures of Eskimo people and what they wore they were fascinated by how different their clothing was. Children loved our book of the month “The Mitten”, after reading it we did our very own mittens we colored them first. After coloring them we cut out all the animals from the story and glued them on our mitten! We also learned about all the animals that live in Antarctica for example penguins, polar bears, and walrus! After learning about all the animals, we looked at different animal footprints and tried to guess what animal they belonged to. We also did parts of a penguin using our three-part cards job. Children learned what hibernation means and what animal hibernate like snakes, bears, skunks, and squirrels! We did a fun cutting page to go along with this. Children had the opportunity to categorized whether the animal hibernated or migrated during the winter.

Children have been working very hard on their sounds and numbers. Children have really enjoyed putting the numbers 1-20 in order on our hundred board! One of their favorite jobs this month has been the lock and key work. We also have continued working on our manners by saying please & thank you. We been practicing our sounds with our letter sound work with pictures and by signing the letter sound song. Our enrichment has been full of fun activities. Their favorite was making a snowflake by gluing small blue paper pieces onto a picture of a snowflake.

December Recap

In December we discussed how various cultures celebrate the holiday seasons. We showed videos about Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Christmas. Children talked about what they do at home for Christmas during our circle time. We put up our very own Christmas tree in our room with many different ornaments that children brought from home. We also read our book of the month, The Giving Tree, and we not only discussed the joy of giving and receiving, but also the joy of giving back. We had so much fun practicing all month long our three Christmas songs Feliz Navidad, and Santa Clause is Coming to Town. The children did amazing at our Christmas performance. We also had an amazing Christmas party with so many yummy treats. Thank you to all the parents for coming to our performance and participating in and helping us have our amazing Christmas party. 

Children have been practicing their fine motor skills with various work such as tweezers, stringing and dressing frames. For language, we have been practicing our letter sounds by singing a song and using our Sandpaper letters. For math, we have been working on our bead stairs and number rods children really enjoy doing this work. Children were introduced to the Triangle box and have been practicing nicely. We have also been practicing how to clean up our area children, really like wiping down their own table with soap and water. 



November Recap

In November by introducing children to Harvest and Healthy Bodies. We practiced using kind words towards each other and different ways we can be helpful. For example, children helped one another to make their beds before rest time. We then read our book of the month Fill A Bucket, where children were excited to practice different acts of kindness throughout our class. During our circle time we also discussed different ways they can be kind and helpful not only at school but at home also! Children later moved on to learning the different parts of a flag and coloring their USA flag. We looked at different pictures of all the Landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge, The Statue of Liberty, Hoover Dam and many more. Children practiced the 50 states song and introduced them to the puzzle map of California. We then explored parts of a tree with a very fun puzzle! After practicing the puzzle, they had the opportunity to color the different parts of a tree themselves.

We continued to work on our letter sounds and numbers. We have been singing a letter sounds song every morning to help remember our letter sounds. Children really enjoyed learning about our primary colors. We had a very fun activity using food coloring and shaving cream. They all had the opportunity to pick two colors and mix them with the shaving cream in a Ziplock bag to create a new color! They were so excited to take them home and talk about all the colors they can make with just their primary colors red, blue and yellow! We also went over parts of a turkey using our 3-part cards and had a cutting worksheet to go along with it. Their favorite part was the waddle. Lastly was our Thanksgiving Feast which was amazing children enjoyed being surrounded by friends and sharing what they were most thankful for. Thank you to all the parents who participated and helped make our feast possible. Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!