Can you believe we have been in school just over one hundred days now? We celebrated the hundredth day this week in a big way! We started our day by parading through the school for the other classrooms so they could see what many of us would look like when we are one hundred years old. Next, we placed our collections of one hundred items on a mat at our seats. Students then became "reviewers" of the collections. They walked around the room noticing things about each collection. Students had to determine which collection they thought was the lightest, heaviest, longest, shortest, smallest, took up the most space, most colorful, least colorful, and which they thought was the most interesting to them. They had so much fun looking at all of the items each of their friends brought and reviewing these. They all had such wonderful collections! During snack each student was given a cup with one hundred snack items in it (10 Fruit Loops, 10 Cheerios, 10 chocolate chips, 10 raisins, 10 Smarties, 10 M&M's, etc.) They placed each of these items on a hundreds board. Many noticed that each set of food filled up a row on the hundreds board. When they were finished they practiced counting to 100 for a teacher and then they got to eat their snack! During our center tie we made hundreds day hats, filled in hundreds charts, transformed the number 100 into something else and made a gumball machine with one hundred gumballs in it. We also took a picture of each child, and using a special app it made them look like they were one hundred years old. We printed these pictures out and students wrote about what they will do when they are one hundred years old. We are making these into a class book and will be sending this home with each child to read.
The artist we studied this week was Michelangelo. We learned that he was from Italy. We found Italy on the map, and discovered it looks like it is the shape of a boot! Michelangelo was a very famous painter, but sculpting was his favorite. Students got to practice their sculpting skills this week by carving a bar of soap with some special carving tools. They made some wonderful creations! We also learned that Michelangelo painted the celling of the Sistine Chapel. He had to lie on his back and to paint. It took him four years to do this. We laid on our backs and used markers to draw pictures in the style of Michelangelo. We taped paper under the tables and students got to experience a taste of what it may have felt like to be Michelangelo working on the Sistine Chapel. We also learned that the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is a giant fresco. This means that Michelangelo painted his mural on freshly laid or wet plaster. We created our own frescos by painting a scene on plaster of paris. These turned our so beautiful! Next week we will learn about the artist Mary Cassatt. If you have not sent in your mommy and me picture please do so as soon as possible.
In math this week we continued our study of geometry. We used geoblocks to look at and explore 3D shapes. We have been making lots of discoveries of 3D shapes in our classroom and in our everyday world. See if you child can find some 3D shapes at home or when you are out and about. Some of the 3D shapes we have discuss are: cones (ice cream cone, party hat), cube (dice), rectangular prism (building), cylinder (soup can, can of soda). We also created some 2D shapes using toothpicks and marshmallows. Students had to determine how many sides and vertices each shape had. They did an excellent job with this activity!
In science we found that our pennies oxidized, or turned green, just like the Statue of Liberty! We drew a picture of the green pennies and completed our observation sheets. We washed off our pennies to see what would happen as well. Ask your child what their observations were about this experiment.
Our Marvelous Me person this week was Gray. We talked about the special -ay phonogram that Gray has in his name. We interviewed Gray and found out lots of interesting things about him, and wrote sentences about him for his special book. We also practiced our shape drawings as we took our time and drew Gray. We added details to our pictures and really noticed what color hair and eyes he has and what he was wearing. The students are showing lots of improvement in their writing. We are really stressing to make sure to use lower case letters when they write with the exception of names and the beginning of sentences. We have also been working on assessments in literacy. I am so proud of all the progress each child is making. I can't wait to share your child's growth with you at conferences.
Upcoming Events:
February 6 - Parent Advisory 9:00 am at the HS
February 7 - Book Fair 11:30 (located in the MS Media Center)
February 14 - Valentine's Day...don't forget your special Valentine's
February 15 - Kindergarten Art Gallery....MARK YOUR CALENDARS (all parents are invited to attend)
February 16 - No School...Optional Parent Conferences
February 19 - No School....President's Day Holiday
February 20 - Field Trip to the Laurels Nursing Home
February 28 - Family Math Night - 6:30 pm
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