Weekly Highlights: April 5-9

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010

Welcome back from Spring Break!  It’s spring at last here at TWLS, and our teachers are back with their classroom commentary:

From Sarah Trout:

This week, we are having a great time with our spring theme. We have planted seeds and are learning about photosynthesis. We’ve had a lot of laughs along with a floor covered in soil and water. We’ll be keeping a journal of our flowering plants throughout the next couple of weeks, and sketching it regularly. Also, we planted some green beans and will be tracking their growth.

Along with our planting, we are working hard on our letter/sound correspondence, connecting text to our personal experiences, making properly phrased predictions about the future, and writing. More springtime fun is in store!

From Kim Gallant:

This week in the Sensory Integration classroom the theme is St Patrick’s Day and March Madness. We are focusing on counting by 5’s, time telling, money identification and value, spatial concepts (left, right, middle), and rhyming. The vestibular, proprioceptive, and tactile learning activities involve some leprechaun tricks and magic this week. They provide the necessary sensory stimulation to help the children organize and prepare their bodies for learning.

This week’s “Learning Made Fun” idea:
“The Pot O’ Gold at the end of the Rainbow”

Fill a crock (a.k.a. old pot, bucket, or Halloween caldron) with some pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and gold chocolate coins. Hide the crock and give your child clues were to find it i.e. its under/behind/in front of a chair. Hot and cold clues are also fun. Once she finds the Pot O’ Gold have her name and identify each coins value. For a tougher challenge have your child count the change combinations in the crock. If she gets the correct answer reward her with a piece of chocolate gold. You can change the coin combinations and use a calculator to add a different twist to this fun game.

Purpose: To strengthen your child’s money identification skills, practice making change, foster spatial awareness, and have fun.

Materials needed:
Coins
Old pot, bucket, or Halloween caldron
Gold coin candy
Optional- calculator

From Katherine Taylor:

This new quarter we are starting is going to be very busy and full of wonderful activities. Especially with the weather getting nicer, we will be doing some planting outside in extended learning. If anyone has a green thumb and would like to get involved with helping plan a little garden plot outside let Ms. Taylor know. The kids have been reading so well this quarter and there continues to be growth in everyone as we near the end of the year. Thanks for the consistent support at home with reading logs!

We recently had a wonderful volunteer in our classrooms, a grandmother who joined us for our weekly DEAR time (Drop Everything And Read). She had a delightful time and is looking to come back as soon as possible. Here, we see her with the students gathered around, together reading “Pickles Over Pittsburgh”, a sequel to the classic children’s book “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.”

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One Response to “Weekly Highlights: April 5-9”

1. susie fry says:

   April 18, 2010 at 9:22 pm

   Sally was so happy to have her grandma read to her class. Grandma and Grandpa are looking forward to the luncheon.