Happy, happy Wednesday! The Birch room is full of happiness and energy today! We began our morning with our usual morning routines. The students built with loose parts and continued to write their own music by observing different music sheets today. A group of students went to build in the collaboratory and experimented with fabrics and the wind tunnel. Other friends explored in the tinker room. Here, the kids were busy making designs on the fabric wall and deconstructing an old computer. We talked about the importance of wearing the goggles and using the tools in a safe way. We discussed the different pieces of the computer and their purposes. Some said the pieces are important so the letters that people press can work the right way. Other students talked about how all of the wires send messages through the computer so the computer knows what to do.

 

Back in the classroom, students played at the sensory table with sinking and floating materials. Before lunch, we read one of our new books called Squeak, Rumble, Womp, Womp, Womp by Wynton Marsalis. A little boy talks about all of the sounds he hears throughout his day. Some of the sounds come from instruments while other sounds he observes comes from everyday life situations, such as noises you hear in and outside your house. We talked about walking around our neighborhood to observe some sounds that we hear. Our class talked about how we might hear some sound we usually hear, such as kids talking and cars driving. Some students shared that if we are quiet, we might hear birds, squirrels, dogs barking and wind blowing. Maybe we will be able to go outside within the next few days to take a "sound walk!"

 

Exploring music

Hello all! Today, the Birch friends began their morning with a few songs and rhyming games. We built withs loose parts and used stamps to make letters and words. Some friends experimented with new materials in the sensory table. The students discovered what materials float or sink in water. 

Other friends played with our new play-doh and explored with new materials at the light table. Our class later went down to the gym and exercised with bikes and played with loose parts and puzzles. When we returned back to the classroom, we studied some sheet music and talked about what the music looks like and how people use the music. Some friends wanted to write their own music! 

They wrote their own music notes and researched pictures of instruments to draw. 

 

We played a few games before lunch and had a fire drill immediately following lunch. We had to exit the school a different way and the students did a great job following their teacher, staying quiet and listening to directions. Way to stay safe, Birch! 

Monday Fun

Happy Monday! We hope you had a great weekend with your child. All of the stories they told about their "stay at home days" sounded like an eventful weekend for a lot of families! There were several playdates and families going out to dinner. One of the student's shared how her baby sister is now holding a rattle and that sparked a conversation about what a lot of their siblings are doing, such as working on crawling and potty training! How exciting!

After our morning meeting, the students began to play and experiment in the classroom. We practiced signing in our names while others made a design with loose parts on the dotted carpet. Others made designs with the shapes at the light table. A group of students took a trip to the kitchen and made pink play-doh for our classroom! Others built in the collaboratory. Some students began to make paper airplanes and wanted to see how far they could fly them across the classroom. The students figured out how to use the yardsticks and rulers to measure the distance of their paper airplanes. They wanted to use loose parts to create a hoop or tunnel for their paper airplanes. The kids eventually figured out a way to hold the round loose part and the basket in air. They tied two tape measures to either side of the round loose part and basket to a chair and the sensory table. Their creation turned into a trap and then a catapult. It was very interesting to see the students create this contraption and work together to solve their problems. Way to work hard, Birch friends!

 

    

 

Before lunch, we sat and observed our art piece we created as a class. The students painted their feelings while listening to jazz music. This masterpiece is hanging in our hallway and some of the students described their paintings. Please take a look at our art piece!

Hopefully we will be able to enjoy some warmer weather and the sunshine tomorrow!

Poetry

Good afternoon and happy Friday! We began our morning by building with loose parts, creating designs in the art center and building letters on a geo-board and pegs. A group of students went to the collaboratory and built a gingerbread house that included chairs, dog bowls, and fabric for decorating. Other students went outside while some went into the tinker room.

 

Later in the morning, we listened to some music and talked about the beat in the songs. We practiced keeping the beat and began talking about poetry. The class discussed how we might hear rhyming words and how poems can be short stories that help us feel different emotions. We read a book containing several poems and the students shared the rhyming words they heard and how the poems made them feel. The class really enjoyed the silly poems and talked about creating our own poems! Before you know it, your child will be a poet!

Have a nice weekend!

Let's enjoy some sunshine!

Yes, that is what we did! Our class went outside and enjoyed some sunshine! This morning, we built with loose parts, played card games, and drew self portraits. After playing in the classroom, we decided to bundle up and head for the outdoors! We walked around our lovely downtown area and talked about the things we saw and heard. We heard lots of cars passing by, some birds singing, and children talking of course! We saw people going to the bank and into some restaurants. The class continued the walk into the neighborhood and saw a bunch of people taking a walk and enjoying the weather. We returned to school and played outside with some chalk and built an obstacle course! Before lunch, we played some games and read books. Have a lovely Thursday!

 

 

Planning a performance

Hello all! Wow, has it been an amazing day in the Birch room! The students have really taken an interest in performing and learning about an orchestra and instruments. We began our morning by performing our usual morning routines and making choices. A group of students went outside to enjoy the weather while others gathered to read a book about an orchestra and discuss our performance plan. We made a list of things we find at a theatre, such as curtains, popcorn, tickets and numbers on the seats. A few students worked on creating a map of what our classroom will look like for the performance. We plan to use our big oval shaped carpet as the stage and our rectangular polka-dot carpet as our orchestra pit. Other students wrote each student a ticket while others worked on assigning numbers to chairs. This plan is still in the works! We are excited to see what tomorrow brings!

 

 

 

Music and performances

Hello all and welcome back from the long weekend. I hope you had a great weekend with your child! The students were very excited to be back at school and they were ready to learn today! We began our morning by talking about our weekend activities and several students took long car rides to far away places...how fun!

We began our morning with some popsicle stick building with loose parts, designing at the light table, and a number card game. Other students matched tile letters and clips and created the alphabet! A small group of students built in the collaboratory while other students continued to play in the classroom.

As the morning continued, a small group of students worked on planning a performance for the class! Once they were prepared, the rest of the class cleaned up the room and took their seats on the carpet. We talked about how we can be good audience members and the kids talked about sitting on their bottoms, keeping their hands in their lap and staying quiet during the performance. The students took the stage! One student sang the song, while another student hummed along and the last student of the group showed off some dance moves. After the performance, their classmates complemented the performers and this sparked a lot of ideas! Several students wanted to put on a show for the class and teachers. We talked about what we need when we go to a show, such a tickets. A group of students got to work right away on planning their performance. They wrote scripts, collected instruments for their songs, practiced their songs, and created tickets for every classmate and teacher! Meanwhile, we turned on some music in the classroom and the students were able to paint their feelings on our big mural. The students used a variety of paint strokes and colors to portray their feelings. The observer will find smiley faces, along with drawings of a girl, a family, curvy lines, and a mixture of colors to create secondary colors. After painting and listening to the music, the students began to ask about the different instruments they heard while painting. We came together as a group and discussed these wonderings. Some of our wonderings consisted of:

• Who is playing the instruments?
• How do they know what to play?
• How do all the instruments play the same music?
• How do they know when to stop?
• What is on the white paper? Why do they keep looking at the white paper?
• How do they play their instruments?
• Why do some people in the audience sit up high and other people sit down low?

We decided to do some research on this interesting topic. The class decided to watch a video of people playing instruments together and we learned how this group of people can be called an "orchestra." We observed their outfits, the man in the middle who was waving a stick, and how the audience members were behaving during the performance. Several students asked about the white paper the musicians were looking at and want to know what is on the music sheets! We plan to do more research on our wonderings this week! Stay tune for more performances, music, creativity, learning and fun!

Oh, what a beautiful morning!

Hello everyone and happy sunny Thursday! We were able to go outside and enjoy this beautiful weather. We began the morning with our usual morning routines. The students created art, built with loose parts and the light table, and played bingo and a letter matching game with tiles and clips.

 

The Bristol Bravos choir came and performed for us! They sang a song in Spanish, a song about a snow day and hot chocolate. They were very entertaining and did a great job! After the concert, we went on a neighborhood walk. We saw a lot of our neighbors walking and a several dogs out in their yards enjoying the sunshine. We came back to the classroom and built with trains and experimented with sand before our lunch. Have a great weekend!