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Weekly Highlights: February 15-19
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
This week, we have some truly excellent highlights, full of tips and tricks for learning, as well as activities to do at home so you can teach and play with your child, even while buying groceries or making dinner.
From Sue McCrary:
This week we are following the recipe for a fresh fruit salad. Yummy, yet healthy! I’d also like to give a big thanks to Fenn’s mom, Cerise, for coming into Mrs. McCrary’s Life Skills class to make Valentine bookmarks, zipper pulls and keychains. The kids loved it!
As we begin cooking recipes in Life Skills classes, please talk with your children about making healthy food choices and the importance of doing so. Have your child make a fresh fruit salad with you at home and write up a quick not for me on what fruits he or she used and how it turned out. They can earn 5 bonus points for doing this!
From Sarah Trout:
This week is our Princess theme. We will be dressing up like princesses, reading princess books, having a tea part, matching latter crown, and much more. There will be a lot of academics focused around make believe like pretending to be in a carriage to deliver mail, which will consist of individual letters (a,b,c,d, etc.) and when they mail them off, they will have to make the sound of each letter.
We have also been making Princess masks and crowns:
With all the activities planned, I am thinking about extending Princess week to next week, too! There are too many fun and imaginative activities we can do to learn to just have one week of being a princess.
From Katherine Taylor:
This week we are choosing our Dr. Seuss books to read for Read Across America Day on March 2nd, which celebrates the birthday of Dr. Seuss. In health, we are discussing food groups and the food pyramid; talk to your kids about how they can eat healthily be eating from all food groups.
From Kim Gallant:
The theme in the Sensory Integration Therapy (SIT) classroom is Princesses and Fairies. We will be investigating spatial concepts, and practicing counting by 5’s, telling time to the hour and half hour, adding sums with a calculator, and indentifying coins and their values. Learning will take place by means of scooters, slippery slides, climbing ladders, balance beams, exercise balls, and a variety of tactile materials. Motion helps kids learn, as they get a feel for the ways that their own brain and body work together. The more senses they have in play, including their kinesthetic sense, the more of their mind is busily learning and remembering. Sensory integration therapy provides students with proprioceptive, vestibular, and tactile input that is necessary for them to organize and prepare their bodies for learning.
Super Study Tip of the Week: If your child is bored practicing money identification and coin value, spice up the mundane drills by creating your own grocery store right in your own pantry. Select a variety of interesting items such as; Macaroni and Cheese, peanut butter, cereal, and/or alphabet soup (whatever cool and kid friendly food you have in your pantry). Mark each can or box with a price tag made from a piece of masking or blue painter’s tape. Keep the prices simple (.01, .05, .10, & .25). Give your child a wallet/purse with at least one of each of these coins and a shopping cart/basket. Have your child choose a coin from the purse/wallet, identify it, and its value.
Next, send them shopping to find something that matches the coin’s value. Have your child come to you to check out and pay for their groceries. During the check out process connect the coin, its value, and its written numerical representation. Incorporate grocery bags, receipts, cash registers, newspaper sale ads, and coupons to kick the fun up a notch. Trade places with your child and let them ring you up on the register/calculator. They will have fun checking your math (especially if you get it wrong & they correct you). As your child advances, try giving them a shopping list and a budget or create prices that require change combinations. Regardless of how you do it, remember to have fun!