Hello all,
Letter S was a huge SucceSS! Seemingly out of nowhere, Mother Nature gifted us with Some Super Sunny days! The Sunshine filled days could not have come at a better time – Letter S is for Spring Week! The students enjoyed long periods of outdoor time that was full of Sunshine – rather than Saturating rain Showers or worse, Snow! Read on below to learn more about the fun that was had and learning that took place!
On Monday and Tuesday morning, the students worked on their letter S tracing and identification activity pages. In the afternoon, the students created their Letter S list. Similar to last week, the students ran into some tricky sounds again when words like Circus and Sea were suggested for the list. After hearing circus, the teachers explained that the letter C sometimes makes the same sound as the letter S. Things got even harder to figure out when a five year old added the word “Sea” to the S list. If you repeat the following sentence aloud, you will hear why this was so tricky. “Circus sounds like ‘sssss’ but is really a ‘C’ but the word Sea says ‘C’ but really starts with an S”. Fortunately, the students were able to think of many words that begin with the letter S that were not so tricky! Here is the list from the Tuesday group!
On Wednesday morning, the students began their Springtime art exploration! For their morning craft, the students began by drawing “things of Spring” including (but not limited to) flowers, playgrounds, outdoor fun and more. After the Spring scene had been created, the students used Stampers to stamp the letters of the word Spring onto their picture!
Here is how the completed Spring Scene turned out!
In the afternoon on Wednesday, the students had Spanish class where they participated in a Super Special Spanish lesson! Led by a PPA Mommy who is an actual Spanish teacher in an elementary school, this Spanish lesson was super exciting and certainly Spring-themed!
The mommy pictured above read a lovely story titled, “El Conejo Muy Hambriento ” or The Hungry Rabbit!
Before starting, the Mommy above reviewed the vocabulary that the students would hear in the story.
Photo Sharing – Video Sharing – Photo Printing
In the story, el conejo (rabbit) becomes hungry! He sees un jardín (a garden) and begins to nibble on zanahorias (carrots) and lechuga (lettuce). Soon el conejo is happy but el granjero (the farmer) is not! 🙂
Photo Sharing – Video Sharing – Photo Printing
Once they had heard the story a few times, the students took turns dressing up as all of the characters and acting out the story!
What an amazing Spanish lesson! The students were thrilled to learn that they would be going home with their very own copy and coloring book version of the story! A special PPA Gracias (thank you) to this PPA Mommy! We hope you had as much fun as we did!
On Thursday, the students created a Springtime art project that would decorate one of the classroom bulletin boards! A Springtime favorite, Kites were created using Silky Sticks! Similar to oil crayons or cray-pas, the silky sticks colored just like regular crayons. The major difference is that Silky Sticks spread! Using their fingers, the students rubbed the colors around to blend them together to create new and beautiful colors all along their kites!
A popsicle stick was glued on the middle and a ribbon was added to create the following kite!
Later in the day, the teachers hung all of the kites up to create a new Letter S Week/Spring-themed bulletin board!
During the afternoon, the students were paid another visit by a PPA parent volunteer – Meet Mr. Shamrock! Mr. Shamrock, a native of Ireland, came to school to teach the students about Saint Patrick’s Day and about his native country. The student was beaming with pride as her father, Mr. Shamrock, told the story of St. Patrick as well as introducing a few Gaelic words to all of her friends!
Photo Sharing – Video Sharing – Photo Printing
Listen to this silly sounding word for teacher! 🙂
Photo Sharing – Video Sharing – Photo Printing
The student then read a special St. Patrick’s Day story called, There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed A Clover!
What a fun and exciting day! The students were so excited when they learned that they would be going home with their very own clover (shamrock) plants.
A special PPA Thank You to Mr. Shamrock for coming in and spending the afternoon with us! Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
On Friday, the students prepared for Spring by planting some seeds of their own! Using tiny cups or “flower pots”, the students filled their pot with some soil, a few seeds, then a little more soil.
The final step involved adding some water!
Once all of the seeds were planted, they were set aside in a nice sunny spot of the classroom. Later on in the morning, the students discussed all of the ways they would care for their new seeds which would soon be plants!
During the afternoon on Friday, the students participated in a springtime technology presentation! The video below was particularly helpful for some of the younger ones who were a little upset that their seed had not turned into a plant yet! The time lapse video below shows the entire process from seed to plant in a minute or so!
Here is another view of plants sprouting. This is what the students will likely notice over the next few days!
Once the plant breaks through the soil, they can keep an eye out for some flower buds just like this rose!
How exciting! Speaking of exciting, the students loved seeing this clip where a baby bud was not quite ready to blossom just yet but it was certainly ready to dance! Enjoy!
The following Springtime song was also a huge hit!
After the technology presentation, the students began heading home for the weekend – flower pot in hand. We hope our students and their families enjoy caring for their seeds/flowers. Be sure to take photos of the flower pot over the next few weeks as we would love to see what Sprouts!
Well, that is all for Letter S week! As always, thanks for reading and see you next week!
-PPA
Reminders:
Please submit any outstanding Summer Camp paperwork as early as possible if you wish to have your child join the 2012 Summer Camp!
Parent-Teacher Conferences Begin NEXT WEEK!
Please check your email for your scheduled conference time slot.
Letter and Theme for Next Week:
