Hello all,
“Letter T is for Tie-Dye Week” was certainly the most Tubular, Terrific, and Tremendous week of the 2014-2015 school year yet! The students entered school each day with what seemed like Trillions of Letter T shares! Everything from T-Rex to Turtles, Trains to Tigers, and of course, all things Tie-Dye were sent in and shared! There were Tons of Letter T books that were sent in including Tickle The Duck by Edward Long and Listen To My Trumpet by Mo Willems! Well, “Letter T is for Tie-Dye Week” has come and gone. Read on below to discover the learning that took place and fun that was had throughout the week!
The students spent Monday and Tuesday morning working one on one with the teachers to complete their Letter T identification/fine motor activity sheets. The teachers were so impressed with how easily the new students recognized the letter T and also how well the older students remembered all things “T” during their morning work! In the afternoon on Monday and Tuesday, the students created the twentieth letter list of the year! As a whole group, the students took turns brainstorming and contributing words that begin with the letter T and also hunted around the classroom for letter T items! With what seemed like Tons of letter T items to be found inside PPA, the letter T list was full of many more answers than other less common letter-weeks prior! Take a look at the list that Tuesday’s group came up with!
How many letter T shares do YOU see?
Answer: Trumpet, Tomato, Tugga-Tugga Tugboat Book, Thomas the Train, Triceratops, and a Turtle!
On Wednesday, the letter T fun really began as the students learned that they would be making their very own Tie-dye Toesies (socks). With some help from the teachers, the white Toesies were twisted and wrapped with rubber bands. One by one, the students made their way over to the Tie-dye Table which contained the assorted colors of Tie-Dye for dipping! First, the Toesies were placed into the yellow dye-bath to get a base color. Once the Toesies had soaked up the yellow dye, the students then began Tie-Dying! The strangest thing happened when the Toesies were taken out of the blue-dye bath. To the surprise of the students, the Toesies came out of the BLUE dye-bath looking GREEN! How could this be? The teachers checked the packaging to make sure they had not made a mistake. Did they mix up the dye and add green dye instead of blue? How could this have happened? Thankfully the students were there to help explain to the teachers that the yellow Toesies looked green after being dipped in blue dye because when yellow and blue mix, it makes the new color green! Wow, how smart the students of PPA are!
Each student dipped Two Toesies during the morning and eagerly awaited the “big reveal” which took place during Wednesday and Thursday afternoon! The students’ jaws dropped and eyes lit up as each Tie-Dye Toesie was opened up and revealed! The designs ranged from bulls eyes to lines to swirls and more! Regardless of the design on the Toesies, one thing was for sure – they were all Totally Terrific!
Thursday was a particularly fun day as the teachers introduced the students to some Letter T instruments including Triangles, Tom-Tom Drums, Tambourines, and Tapping Toes! During group activity time, the students Took Turns performing with various T instruments for their classmates. Be sure to watch one of the performances below! They were all Tremendous!
On Friday, the students arrived at school – wearing their Tie-dye Toesies of course!
For morning work, the students tried their hands at baking some yummy Tie-Dye Muffins! The students measured out assorted ingredients to add and mix together in a bowl. Once the batter was mixed, the students then divided the batter into four separate bowls. A few drops of red food coloring was added to the first bowl, green food coloring to the second, blue food coloring to the third, and yellow food coloring to the fourth. Once the coloring was stirred into the batter, the students took a spoonful of each color and added it to a larger muffin tin. With a quick swirl of a toothpick – Viola – the students had created a gooey Tie-Dye muffin ready to be baked!
After lunch on Friday, the students enjoyed their delicious Tie-Dye Treats! They looked and Tasted Terrific!
As if Letter T week was not exciting enough – the students were visited by not one but TWO PPA Daddies this past week! On Monday, the students began the day with a morning dance lesson from the PPA Daddy featured below! The students were Thrilled to practice a dance known as the “Salsa” with the Daddy and son Team. The teachers and Daddy sure had a laugh when the students said that they knew all about “Salsa” because they EAT it all the time! The Daddy explained that Salsa Dancing and Salsa eating, while both fun, are two very different things! What an amazing way to start the week! Thank you to this PPA Daddy and Son Team for visiting! 🙂
The second PPA Daddy visited PPA on Tuesday to honor the St. Patrick’s Day holiday. This Daddy brought along two special helpers, his son, a current PPA student and his daughter, a second grader and former student/graduate of PPA! Just like he had done a year ago when his daughter attended PPA, the Daddy – i.e. Mr. Shamrock – once again taught the students of PPA all about the holiday and his native country, Ireland. Mr. Shamrock was not the only one doing the teaching, the PPA sister/former student also read a story to the class and helped teach the students how to say some words/phrases in Irish/Gaelic. The students loved practicing saying, “Dia Dhuit” (prounounced DEE-ya Gwit), which means “Hello” in Irish/Gaelic. They also enjoyed learning other Irish/Gaelic words such as: “Gora Mile” – Thanks (pronounced Gura-me-la), “Muinteoir” – Teacher (pronounced Moon-Tor), and “Milseán” (pronounced Mill Shaun) – Candy. What a wonderful day afternoon it was! A special PPA “GORA MILE” to this Irish Trio for visiting! 🙂
What a colorful and tremendous week letter T week turned out to be! Things will continue going Up from here as the students head into “Letter U is for Up (in the sky) Week” next! As always, thank you for reading. Have a fun and safe weekend!
-PPA
REMINDERS:
Parent-Teacher Conferences will be taking place throughout next week. Please check your email or the calendar board for your child’s designated conference time.
Next School Closing:
School Closed for Spring Recess
Friday, April 3rd- Friday, April 10th
School Resumes on Monday, April 13th
THEME FOR NEXT WEEK:
