// Photos: First week of December! //
// Week of Nov. 26: Curriculum Update //
We are happy to see so many happy, healthy faces back at school after our Thanksgiving Break. The children enjoyed preparing and eating Stone Soup last week and returned this week with tales of their holiday weekend adventures. As we feel the cold winds of winter approaching, we are changing our shelves again to reflect the season. This week, we discussed birds that migrate in the winter and birds that stay in New Jersey even when it is cold. We also started to lace “mittens” and some of the older friends started sewing. We continue to read the books that our families so graciously donated to the classroom- thank you! The Red Room children showed their kind and thoughtful hearts this week by making cards and using the Moveable Alphabet to write Ms. Michelle a special birthday message.
// Photos from the last week in November //
So what's the big deal about arriving to school on time?
// This week at HPMS //
This week has been all about celebrations- celebrating two friends’ birthdays as they begin their 5th journey around the sun, preparing to celebrate Stone Soup, and celebrating each child at our parent teacher conferences.
As we continue to prepare for our Stone Soup feast, we read two versions of the classic tale. We discussed the messages of sharing, friendship, kindness, collaboration , and the joy of togetherness. We also are learning how to use a peeler so that we are prepared to peel carrots next week. We tasted different plants so that everyone could courageously try new tastes, notice different parts of plants we eat, and think about plants to put into our soup. We continue to weave our placemats as well so everyone has a defined space during our feast.
This week, the photographs show many different mathematics works. Throughout our conferences, many parents were interested to see the concrete materials the students use to practice 1:1 correspondence, to recognize quantities, to create quantities, and to learn operations. The hands-on experiences our students have with these materials really helps to build their number sense and understanding of the abstract concept of math!
Today, Ms. Carlene helped some friends learn about fire safety.
// The Days Leading up to Thanksgiving //
// Curriculum Update: Week of November 5 //
We welcomed November last Thursday and with that, we had a discussion about the special holiday that happens at the end of the month- Thanksgiving! Many students remembered celebrating Thanksgiving in our classroom last year with Stone Soup. As we prepare for Thanksgiving and our Stone Soup feast, we discuss plants we eat verses plants we do not eat. The kindergarteners are leading their friends in weaving placemats as well.
We celebrated another special holiday on Monday- Diwali! Several moms lead a circle to help the students learn about Diwali traditions. They also prepared a diya painting art project that the children all participated in. Lastly, they brought us some yummy treats that were enjoyed by all! We appreciate when parents come in to share traditions with the class!
Proper hand washing has also been a major theme this week. Ask your children to give you a hand washing lesson :)
// Photos: Week of November 5 //
//Curriculum Update: Week of October 29 //
Leaves are falling all around! The children went on a leaf hunt in the park and we hung some of the leaves they found in our classroom windows. They also did a bark rubbing where they put paper on a tree and color with crayon on the paper to create texture. A new art work is on the shelf that many children have chosen to complete. They use leaf stamps that look true to many of the leaves in our area. It is a very long process from set up to clean up, but the children focus to see the different prints they can make.
We had our second birthday celebration. Birthday celebrations are a time to discuss the individual’s journey around the sun and to highlight the milestones and adventures of each year. The children learn about how we grow over time as they hear and see, through pictures, each friends’ birthday story.
// Photos: Week of October 29 //
Brought to you by "The Media Mavericks" (Upper Elementary & Middle School Students @HPMS)
// Week of October 22: Curriculum Update //
We were happy to see so many parents at Curriculum morning last weekend. Look at the photos this week and notice the different ways children can explore the same concept. Additionally , in the photos you may notice how children build a foundation on which they continue to build knowledge. For example, you will see children practicing two-digit numbers. With this foundation they are able to explore 4-digit numbers. This leads to operations with 4-digit numbers. A strong foundation helps our students grow and it is so wonderful to see the active learning in these photos!
This week, we have been exploring geography! We sang a song about the seven continents. Together, we looked at a map of North America and identified animals that live on this continent. We predicted what types of biomes the animals live in based on their appearance and by what we know they need to eat. We determined that animals that live in colder climates can be found in northern parts of North America, whereas animals that need warmer climates, tend to live further south. We also looked at the landforms lake and island. Many children have enjoyed a hands-on activity where they are able to pour water into a “lake” and around an “island”.
Our apple and pumpkin topics continues to interest the children. They used an apple to make apple print art and today, they pulled the seeds out of a pumpkin in order to count the total.
// Week of October 22: Photos //
// Week of October 15: Curriculum Update//
We had a great field trip to Abma’s Farm on Tuesday. The children enjoyed taking a bus ride, playing on a pretend tractor, taking a hayride and observing chrysanthemums, vegetables growing, honey bees making honey, and tractors at work, and of course finding their own pumpkins in the pumpkin patch. It was very exciting to see each part of the lifecycle of the pumpkin in real life. They had cider doughnuts and apple juice when we arrived at the school.
Back in the classroom, we opened a pumpkin and learned about its’ parts. Everyone had the chance to touch the seeds!
// Week of October 15: Photos //
// Curriculum Update, week of Oct. 9 //
While the children had the day off last Friday, the teachers were busy changing the shelves. To prepare for our upcoming field trip to the farm, we now have many works related to apples and pumpkins. The children are learning the parts and life cycles of these fruits.
During a whole group apple tasting, we discovered the tastes and textures of Macintosh, Granny Smith, Sweet Tango, and Zestar apples. The children described the appearance and taste using their senses. The majority of the children chose Granny Smith as their favorite and described it as the most sour and crunchy of the apples. Everyone was adventurous trying apples that may have been new to them. We created a graph of “Our Favorite Apples” together.
Although it is still unusually warm, we did notice that some leaves are starting to change color on our walk to the playground. We saw many squirrels busy in the park and wondered if they are starting to prepare for colder weather. We sang “Leaves are falling, leaves are falling to the ground, to the ground, look at all the colors, look at all the colors, red, yellow, and brown, red, yellow, and brown” as we are seeing more and more leaves on the ground.
We read the story “I Heart Art” by Mukta Chowdhary and Sheena Raja who will visit us on Friday. We cannot wait!
// Photos from the week of Oct. 9 //
//Curriculum Update: Week of October 1 //
What a busy week in Red Room! We welcomed a new friend this week and sang “Willoughby Wallaby Woo”, a name rhyming song, to help teach him our names. This silly song, as well as “Down By the Bay”, are rhyming songs by Raffi that we have been laughing along to. We practiced our Peace Day songs (“Peace Like a River”, “Light a Candle for Peace”, and “All Together Now” ) to prepare for our Thursday morning celebration. There has been a lot of joyful singing in Red Room! The children had their second week of specials as well and are settling into this routine nicely.
The changing season, as well as peace and building a kind community continue to be the major themes we are focusing on. We all learned how to use the “peace corner”, a place in our classroom where one can take time to be alone and make his or her body feel peaceful. We learned about our peace rose, a symbol for conflict resolution. We also saw the different objects we can touch to help us feel calm. We learned how to scrub gourds, learned the parts of an apple, and we tasted different types of apples as we continue to discuss fall and harvest. We read books such as “Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf”, that relate to this new season.
// Photos from the Week of Oct. 1 //
