Mr. John's Corner:

Line Time Lessons

In February we started off studying the skeletal system.  The students had fun learning where the bones were located and the function of certain bones.  For example, the skull protects the brain, the ribcage protects internal organs and the spine helps you sit up straight.  They enjoyed hearing about the hip bone being called the pelvis and thought it was hilarious that there was a rock star nicknamed "Elvis the Pelvis".  We also revisited the 3 tiny bones in our ears called the anvil, stirrup, and hammer. The children were excited to learn the medical terms of the bones.  Do you know what the femur, radius, ulna, tibia, fibula, and phalanges are?  The students learned without the skeletal system we would just be blobs on the ground. (*#@^*) was a noise I used on the first day to represent a blob on the ground. This sounded like a combination of "raspberries, a snort, and a flagellant sound!  I made this sound on the first day of the lesson and unfortunately, could not reproduce the sound again.  Students had fun working on a craft where dry pieces of pasta were transformed into skeletons and they also worked on coloring, cutting and gluing skeletons.  All the children loved taking turns being human skeletons with our foam skeletal puzzle named Elvis.

We then explored our internal organs and learned the brain is the control center of your body that sends and receives.  Our lungs help us breathe, the heart pumps our blood and the stomach begins to digest our food with acid.  The small intestines digest the food and send nutrients to the rest of our body and the large intestines push through the waste that creates our bowel movements. The children were fascinated that our kidneys process the body's water and the liver filters toxins.  The children learned where the organs are located with the help of our Living Internal Organ T-shirt.  The shirt helped the children find the organs location by velcroing the organs to the spot on the t-shirt.   

The following week we learned about George Washington and how he was our first president and how Abraham Lincoln came from a poor family and freed the slaves.  We were introduced to Franklin D. Roosevelt and how he was president during World War II and how John F. Kennedy fought for equal rights.  We then learned Barack Obama was current president and the first African American president. The children were taught the president's wives are called the first lady and the president lives in the white house in Washington DC. He also flies on a jet called Air Force One.  We discussed what responsibilities the President has.  The children came up with keeping us safe, keeping the world safe and running the country.  Many coloring pages were used to help identify which president is on what coin.    

 
We capped off February with a very excited Miss Michele.  Michele is studying art and was pleased, excited, and crazed to take over the lessons during Art Week. She taught the children the primary and secondary colors along with shade and tone.  She introduced warm and cool colors as well. Her art projects were plenty and fun and also plenty fun and somewhat messy.  We say "if art isn't messy it isn't fun."  The children made clay sculptures then painted them. They also  made very pretty and interesting water color creations.    Another art project was our toothpick and marshmallow sculptures.  Some very unique, simple and complicated designs were created using toothpicks to secure mini marshmallows. Miss Michele's Grandpa, Jim, came for a visit. He is a local Toll-painter Artist. He shared the process with the kids and cut out little wooden animals for the kids to paint.  

 
Cultural Subjects
The class has been counting to 10 in twelve languages, English, Spanish, Sign Language, German, French, Japanese, Greek, Arabic with the Lebanese dialect, Italian, Romanian, Russian, and Hebrew.  We will start Swedish in March.

Kindergarten Lesson
We started out the month introducing addition using beads.  The introduction of beads shows the kindergarteners a solid correspondence between the symbol and quantity. I also showed the students what tools could be used in their own classroom to help with addition, such as the table top rods, color bead bars and addition strip board.  We briefly touched upon multiplication.  I introduced multiplication is something as simple as adding multiple times. Again, beads were used in conjunction with symbols to enforce what quantity goes with the symbol.  Due to they crazy weather we had a shortened week where I introduced fractions. We will be looking at fractions further in the next few weeks.

Science
The first science experiment conducted was the classic "What happens when vinegar and baking soda are mixed?"  The two were mixed in a plastic soda bottle with a balloon over the opening.  The students were amazed how the balloon filled without anyone blowing into the balloon.  We learned an abbreviated example of the scientific method.  First, we ask the question (because scientists always ask questions). Then we come up with an educated guess called a hypothesis.  Every student came up with their own hypothesis.  The beauty of the hypothesis is there are no wrong answers. I told them scientists have incorrect answers more than they have correct answers.  Then we perform the experiment and communicate their data.  

-Mr. John     

Ms. Courtney's Corner:  

February was an informative, eye opening and possibly life saving month for my class. We learned all about health and nutrition, first aid, germs and teeth. We also had time to fit in a few lessons on presidents between all of our snow days.

Our first week focused on health and nutrition. We learned all about the Food Pyramid and how many servings of each 6 groups we should have everyday. My students were introduced to nutritional fact labels printed on the packaging of every food and beverage item. We looked at some labels and determined foods students thought were "healthy" actually were not! Students learned in order to take good care of their bodies; they need to fuel them with healthy, nutritional foods!

The next week we discussed first aid. Students had fun diving into our classroom first aid bag to experiment with all of the necessary items we use in case of an emergency. We wrapped up in band-aids, gauze pads and even Ace bandages. We also learned why Ms. Courtney and Ms. Brandy wear latex gloves sometimes in an emergency situation. Each student had the opportunity to wear a glove and tell the class when they might need to use it. We also had a brief lesson on CPR. We discussed the important job Doctors and Nurses have to keep all of us healthy.

This week we also discussed germs and how we can keep them away from us to avoid getting ill from another friend. We practiced coughing and sneezing into our arms, instead of our hands. We also learned if we cover our sneezes and coughs we prevent spreading our germs and our illnesses. We also practiced blowing our noses into tissues and the proper disposal of our used tissues! Near the end of the week we talked about germ monsters and the class created and named their own.

To end this week we celebrated Valentine's Day.                      Thanks to our Room Mother, Sarah Schrag, we enjoyed a fun afternoon playing Valentine's Bingo, making frames, and decorating heart cookies! We also had the opportunity to eat a yummy lunch that was provided by our generous parent volunteers. We had a great time celebrating by handing out cards to our friends and teachers! It was another fun party in Ms. Courtney's class and I want to thank each of our families for helping in making the day so memorable!

Next week we moved from sweet treats to healthy teeth! We studied the parts of a tooth and learned enamel is the hardest material in the body. I performed an experiment with eggs which may have scared your children into not drinking Kool-Aid, so I apologize! We took eggs and placed them in four different liquids, water, milk, soda and Kool-Aid. The egg represented your child's tooth and the object of the experiment was to see the effect of what the selected beverages would eventually do to their teeth! The water and milk kept the eggs clean and they remained white and unharmed. However, the egg in soda was discolored and appeared to have a softer shell. Lastly the egg, which sat in the cup with Kool-Aid, was stained red, cracked and oozing yolk everywhere! The goal of the experiment was to illustrate even beverages can harm your teeth if you do not brush and take care of them. 

On Wednesday of this week we took our field trip to Dr. Pollock's dentist office. Thank you again to our parent chaperons who made this event possible. Students enjoyed learning about what they can expect at a dentist appointment. They took rides on the dental chair, saw the x-ray machines and even received a treat from the treasure chest! It was a great time! 

 
We also did another fun tooth experiment in the classroom. At circle time I gave each child an Oreo cookie to eat! I know, what was I thinking at 8:30 in the morning? After each  

child finished their cookie I went around with a mirror to show them all of the sugar bugs left behind on their teeth! They were amazed of all the little hiding spots the bugs can live in. I then handed each child a few orange slices to eat. After they finished I went around with my mirror again to show them that the healthy orange slices cleaned all the sugar bugs away! They were in shock! My goal was to show them exactly how bad sugary foods could be to their teeth. Just like the beverages, if we don't brush after the sugary snacks the sugar bugs will get comfy and eventually start eating away at our teeth. I was amazed at how many children really received this message and promised to make better choices when selecting a snack!

We ended the month with studying presidents. Unfortunately, because of President's Day and our snow days we only had the opportunity to discuss two presidents. We started out with our first president, George Washington. We learned he was a brave soldier in the American Army and he married our first, First Lady, Martha. We also learned at home in our piggy banks; the children could find a picture of George Washington on the one-dollar bill.

Abraham Lincoln was the next president we learned about. He was our sixteenth president of the United States and he appears on a penny. I showed the children, by performing an experiment, how to clean all of the Lincoln pennies they find. We tried to see if we placed a penny in a cup with salt water and another one in vinegar and salt which one would shine our pennies the best! The children watched how the vinegar water really cleaned up the penny and how it appeared much shinier. We also took a medicine dropper and tried to see how many drops of water we could stack on a penny. Although it was a short week, we learned how important the job of the President of the United States truly is!

Thank you for yet another fabulous month! As always I appreciate and love sharing moments with each one of your amazing children.

- Miss Courtney   

Enrichment Activities:

Kids Bop Dance: 

Elisabeth Ihde Cavallaro

 

Over the past three weeks I have had the pleasure of teaching the 2nd Session of Kids Bop dance class at Absorbent Minds. I have been showing the children how to properly warm-up by doing stretches such as, the butterfly, hello toes, surprise legs and cuddle and stretch. It's very important to stretch before any physical activity to avoid injuries.

During this session I have been slowly introducing more "Jazz Technique" versus straight hip hop. This includes; cheerleader runs across the floor, jazz kicks, and chasse's and kick ball change. The children are doing fantastic with this new material and seem to be having a blast. One of the activities they enjoy the most is leaping over 2 or three wrapped shoe boxes. This exercise is a wonderful and fun way to introduce leaps.

This past week we have started working on our dance for the International Festival. The song I have chosen is "It's a Small World". The version I am using is by "Baha Men" and is off the Disney Remix Mania CD. I will be burning a copy for all the children so they will be able to practice their dance steps at home. Please encourage your child to practice so they are prepared for the big show.

Parents, if have any questions please feel free to email me at ihderatherbedancin@sbcglobal.net

 

  

  

Sign Language with Ms. Kristin:

Afton Knight

   

"Kindness is the language the dumb can speak and the deaf can hear and understand."  - Christain Nestell Boveee

Our snowy February didn't stop Miss Kristin from coming each week with a smiling face. Our students love to be around her. (I think the stickers she brings help as well!) 
 
The first Friday of Sign Language, the kids had a blast! Miss Kristin passed out papers with pictures of many different facial expressions (sick, tired, mad, surprised, etc.) and they learned the signs for each one. An interesting piece of information at the top of the paper says, "Most of deaf communication, believe it or not, is not through sign. Only about 20% of deaf communication is through signing. The other 80% is through body language." After learning this, I couldn't stop thinking about it and caught myself using body language a lot throughout the day.  Miss Kristin brought in different sizes and shapes of mirrors for the students to practice making faces to. They loved this!  They could have spent the whole day making faces in the mirrors. We learned the signs, and then one child at a time demonstrated a face to the class. The rest of the classmates would guess what "face" each student was expressing. The class acted out the signs for each other and the rest of our time in the classroom was in silence. Miss Kristin even passed out prizes in silence. It was so fun watching the kids communicate with just their body language. They are so smart and caught on very quickly!  
 
The next Friday was Valentine's in Sign Language. We talked about how we make valentines for others and how we give them to our friends. Miss Kristin decided since we always give valentines to other people, we should make valentines for ourselves. Students picked out the color of paper and decorations they wanted. Each student also received a small bag with stickers inside. These stickers were each letter of the alphabet and the sign that represents it. After gluing on the decorations, the students selected letters which spell out their name and placed them on their very own valentine. Most of them had never made valentines for themselves before!  
 
Miss Kristin makes the end of each week so much fun! Our student's love for Sign Language is evident on their faces every week in Miss Kristin's class! 

  

   

 

Music with Ms. Lisa:

Michele Hayden

 

This month Miss Lisa brought in her piano to music class. She reviewed that a piano has black and white keys and the black ones come in a pattern.  Each student had a turn to play the keys and had to decide to play high or low.  We sang the "skunk song" to review Forte which is loud and Piano which is soft.  We also sang "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmitt" and tip toed around "John" (played by the teacher) as he slept in the middle of the circle.  While he slept, we sang Piano and woke him up in our Forte voice! (Fa la la la la la la!) We also used egg shakers to play Piano and our tambourines to play Forte while we sang different songs in class. Miss Lisa brought along bubbles this month to help us learn staccato or "jumpy" music. We popped the bubbles using our pointer finger to the staccato beat.  Our students also enjoyed dancing in a circle around a sombrero, singing the Mexican Hat Dance!

 

 

The children love to dance and sing with Miss Lisa.  We always look forward to the new and exciting ways we can learn more about music every week!