December Newsletter

December 2012

Mrs. Stone/Mrs. Paris’ Room

Dear Families,

            It is hard to believe the semester is just about done!  We have been very busy and there has been a lot happening in the classroom.  Our interns, Ms. Tina and Ms. Rachel, are wrapping up their time with us.  Their last days are on Dec. 11^th, which is also the last day of the semester.  Dec. 11^th will also be Mrs. Paris’ last day with us.

            We have been continuing our explorations with the motion of water and the motion of objects.  The children have been very excited lately about music and musical instruments so this may be something we explore more in depth when the semester starts up in January.  If you have any special music or special instruments that you could share with us, we would love to hear!

            Thank you to all of the families who donated items to our “Breakfast Basket.”  Our fundraiser was a success and it was neat to see all of the baskets come together.  Congratulations to the winners!

            If you have not signed up yet, our parent/teacher conference sign up sheet is in the classroom.  There are still a lot of time slots available.  Conferences are going to be held after the semester finishes.

             Just a reminder that colder days are ahead.  We do go outside, even in the winter months with snow.  We encourage families to bring boots and snowpants when needed to keep clothes dry when we go out to play.  Please make sure that all outside items are labeled with your child’s name.  This makes it less confusing when we are getting the children ready and helps ensure the correct clothes are going home with each child.

            As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask!  Have a great rest of the semester and a relaxing break!

Catie Stone and Jamie Paris

The Lights!

     Throughout the course of the semester, one of our Interns has been exploring light with the children.  She brought in several types of light sources like lamps, flashlights, and the overhead projector.  She also brought in some LED lights that the children could explore in various ways.  Since the children have also been interested in water, she decided to combine the two so the children could see how the lights look in the water.
     The children were excited about being able to directly manipulate where the light goes.  They also seemed to try different things with the lights in the water table, like stacking the lights and trying to cover them with their hands to watch how the light changed.

November 2012

Mrs. Stone & Mrs. Paris’ Room

http://ecec-stone.blogspot.com/   (313) 593-5424   CMKUofM@yahoo.com

     It is hard to believe another month has flown by!  We have been very busy with the children so far this school year and have been exploring many different things in the classroom.  Mrs. Rachel is continuing her exploration with motion of objects and Mrs. Tina has been continuing to explore lights and motion of water with the children.  We have also been building, exploring natural materials, looking at fountains, and looking at how things “fit” on one another.

     Curriculum night is November 14^th (Wednesday) from 5-7pm.  Parents and children are welcome to come into the classroom and see some of the projects we have been working on this school year.  The teachers and interns will be available to explain project work.

     On curriculum night, we will be having a basket raffle.  Our classroom basket theme is “breakfast” so you can look on our blog to see items to donate.  Please have these items to us by Monday, Nov. 12^th because we need time to get the baskets together before the raffle.  Each classroom is creating a different basket so it will be exciting to see how they all turn out!

     Please also remember we are closed for Thanksgiving and the Friday following (Nov. 22 & 23).  Enjoy those days with your families!

     The weather is starting to get colder.  Please know that we do go outside in the winter months, even in the snow!  Hats, mittens, boots, and snowpants are welcome.  Please make sure each of these items are labeled with your child’s name as we have several sets to keep track of on a daily basis.  It makes things a lot easier if hats and mittens are placed in your child’s coat sleeve so we do not need to search through backpacks for them.  Dress shoes and shoes without rubber soles make it very cold on feet when going outdoors also. 

     As always, please let us know if you have any questions/comments/concerns.  I hope everyone has a relaxing and enjoyable month!

Catie Stone & Jamie Paris

Breakfast Basket ideas

   For our basket raffle, our classroom has chosen the "Breakfast Basket" as our theme.  We were thinking that some of the things going into the basket could include (but are not limited to):

Pancake Mix
Whisks
Pancake Flippers
Syrup
Oven Mits
Muffin Mix
Chocolate Chips (for pancakes or waffles)
IHop Giftcard
Egg Separater
Placemats

Anything that you or your family thinks would be a great breakfast idea would be welcome!

Tracing Water Flow

The children have been looking at fountains.  They recently saw photographs of fountains projected onto the wall and we were talking about how the water moves.  The children seem interested in the movement of the water and how it sometimes goes “down then up” in a fountain and how sometimes it goes “up then down.” 

Since this seemed to be something the children were interested in, we decided to expand on it.  We printed off some photos of more fountains, and put them on the light table.  We then covered the table with cellophane and gave the children dry erase markers.  We wanted to see if the children would use the markers to trace the path of the water as it moved down (or up!)

The children seemed to be excited about how the water moved.  Although it is still difficult for some children to manipulate their markers the way they want, they were able to demonstrate through actions and words what they knew about the path of water down a fountain.  Words like “fall,” “down,” and “move” were used by the children.  Some of the children moved their arms to show us how the water moves.

 

Building

     The past few weeks we have noticed an interest in building with the children.  They are building with various materials around the room.  Some of the children have been trying to stack and build with rocks, shells, blocks, and other materials around the classroom.

     Most of the children are stacking, with structures that look like towers.  The children are working on using steady hands and placing the next object on top, centered, on the object below it.  This has been difficult for some children, especially after their structures begin to get taller and taller.

     We are going to start using different types of building materials that may allow themselves to be used not only as towers, but other types of structures.  We have thought about different kinds of blocks, tiles, and other types of materials that the children might find interesting to build with.

What's in a pumpkin?

     We have started to explore different types of natural materials in the classroom, some of which are found primarily in this season.  This week, we collected leaves outside, then took them in to examine.  We ended up breaking them into very small pieces that we will use for future explorations.
     One of the other materials we brought into the classroom this week were pumpkins.  We let the children explore with them for a few days, feeling and examining the outside.  We then cut open the top and talked about what we might find inside.  After we opened it up to look at, the children were able to explore what we saw.  We decided that instead of cookies, dogs, or toys, that pumpkins had seeds inside.
     The open pumpkins were made available for the children to explore on their own or with small groups.  It was interesting to see the way each child chose to explore.  Those children that were not interested in touching the pumpkin with their hands found other ways to explore.  Some decided to use their nose, and some decided to use objects around the room to explore with.

 

     This child decided to bring a tool from the toolbox over.  He was not interested in touching the pumpkin with his hands but still wanted to examine what was inside.  We thought this was a neat alternative to using his hands and showed his ability to problem solve by using materials around the classroom.

Will it fit?

     The past couple of weeks we have noticed the children have been interested in how things fit with each other.  We have different sized tubes that the children can fit inside each other and they seem to stay engaged for long periods of time trying to see which sized tubes fit inside the big tubes.

     This has also carried over to other types of materials.  Some of the children have started to take other objects around the classroom, like cups, to see if they will fit inside each other.  We are starting to hear phrases like, "it fits" and "works" and "doesn't work."

 

     It will be neat to see what happens if we introduce other types of materials into the classroom that the children are capable of stacking inside larger items.  We are wondering if they are beginning to distinguish between "big" and "small."

How does water move?

     We noticed an interest with water very early on in the semester.  The children love to scoop, pour, and touch the water.  Mrs. Paris found a two-tiered planter at her house and brought it in for the children to explore.  The top tier has holes at the bottom, so the children can see how the water flows down to the bottom tier.

     There seemed to be a large interest with the children when water was brought to explore with the planter.  The children started to notice the downward motion of the water and even though some were not able to tell us with words what they noticed, they could show us with their actions.  For instance, some of the children began to put cups under the top tier of the planter to catch the water as it fell.  They understood that it was coming out of the bottom, and knew if they placed their cup underneath, they would catch some water.

     This was very interesting to us, so we are thinking of new ways to explore some of the same ideas with the children, building on what they seem to already know.  If you have any suggestions, we would love to hear them!