All Aboard the Polar Express!

What a fun day!!!!!! Students started our holiday event by searching for a boarding pass around the room. Once they found it, they could head over to The Polar Express Train (in Pre-k2) to listen to the story. Afterwards, they exchanged a used book with another student in one of the classes. Next, the kiddos headed back to the tables for some warm hot chocolate, topped with peppermint marshmallows and candy canes. To finish this fun day, students wrote about their favorite part in the story we read. More pictures can be seen in the photos tab under: Holiday Party.

Cold as Ice

Last week we were talking about Holiday All Star Characters such as Rudolph and Santa. One morning we got on the topic of Frosty the Snowman and one student asked how he could have melted since it is supposed to be so cold in the Winter?

 I decided to pull out the book and read it to the class. Afterwards, we played a game in which I showed them two ice cubes. We discussed how ice is made by water that freezes in the cold temperatures of a freezer but will melt when taken out because the air temperature is warmer. We then connected that with how snow is also made by cold air that freezes the rain that falls but will melt when the sun warms the air outside. 

Then to test these ideas we left one ice cube on the plate, and passed the other cube around in a circle for the duration of the song "Frosty the Snowman". The kids had SUCH a fun time squeezing the cold ice-cube then shaking the water off their hands after passing to the next person. It was so cute to see their joy in this simple activity. We examined the size of the cube after we were done to inspect what happens when an ice-cube gets warm (just like Frosty did!)

"Run, Run, as fast as you can..."

Today we read three versions of the classic children's book "The Gingerbread Man". We discussed similarities and differences across the each version, then students chose which of the three was the best and wrote about it in their journal. Angela's Mom read in the newsletter that we were going to be reading these books today and brought Gingerbread cookies to share with the class!

The three variations were: The Gingerbread Man, The Gingerbread Cowboy, and the Gingerbread Kid! They each had a different Tag line and different character who ate the Gingerbread Man in the end.

Risa drew a picture of how the Gingerbread cookies looked different in each story. 

She worked hard for her gingerbread reward!

Question of the Week!

Congratulations to Miss Laura, she is ECSTATIC to announce that she is expecting a baby girl, due this June! Of course, the kiddos were happy to weigh in with baby name suggestions:

Happy Civil War!

It's never happened before, but the Ducks were out numbered by Beaver fans this year 11-10! Good luck to both teams in the big game on Saturday (although I think we all know who the victor will be).

A Class Full of Thankfully Turkeys!

For this Turkey project students colored a coffee filter with washable markers then sprayed it with water to bleed the colors together. Then they cut out a turkey shape and drew eyes, a beak, and gobbler.

Questions of the week: What are you thankful for?

Sanaa: My family

Maliya: clothes

Evan: My country

Yuval: My family

Sydney: Shoes

Paityn: Toys

Miyu: Castles

Austin: My Country

Aila: Toys

Rishabh: Family

Angela: Pets

Dishitha: Toys

Maya: Bed

Siddharth: My toy car

Hayden: Having a safe country

Aryaman- Family.... and cars

Election Day

Today we read the book Duck For President and learned that we are having a real presidential election tomorrow.

Next we discussed the voting process: 

Students learned about what each of the candidates stand for.  Obama likes: basketball, chili, and dogs. While Romney likes: skiing, granola, and horses. Students chose whichever president they felt they mostly agreed with by choosing a blue ticket or red ticket. 

Each student was able to cast a confidential vote.

Next we tallied all the votes to see who won. 

Leaf fight!!!!

Life is all about the moments in-between the moments... Today we took full advantage of the fall weather by heading outside for a good ol' fashioned leaf fight. We made the biggest leaf pile possible and then WENT FOR IT! Leaves were everywhere! What a great time we all had today. A full album is available to view in the photo's tab :)

Happy Halloween!

*Disclaimer: O.k., so I tried to take a panoramic photo, but it did not turn out quite as I had anticipated. My guess is that I moved too slow while taking the shot, as you can see, it ended up mashing or stretching several faces, or cutting kids out all together. Makes for a kind of funny picture though, doesn't it? ;)

We had such a BUSY and fun day! We started off by decorating Trick-or-Treat bags with Halloween stickers. All classrooms, including ours, took turns touring the school, trick-or-treating throughout each room. Upon our return to the classroom we read scary stories (Spooky Wheels on the Bus, and The Great Monster Hunt), followed by our Pumpkin Food party. Next up was to create a memory book about our pumpkin patch field trip. And last but not least, a rotation of 3 Halloween crafts! 

Whew! Another action packed day is under our belt. I took lots of pictures, which you can find in the photo tab above. I wish you all a safe and dry night of Trick-or-Treating!

Happy Halloween!

Preschool Skills That Predict College Graduation

Reading, writing and arithmetic are without a doubt invaluable skills to learn in school. But they are by NO means the only skills we work on throughout the day here at Touchstone. As early childhood educators, it is our job to try to set children up for success by teaching important life skills such as empathy, listening, following directions, and self-control. In essence, teaching them how to think.

All four of these skills involve ACTIVELY THINKING about a given task. Children  at age 4 often react impulsively, and need to actually learn how to calm themselves down and actively think about a task in order to complete it successfully or socially appropriately.

 Here is an interesting segment from a morning T.V. show which reports on a study on pre-k skills that predict college graduation. 

http://www.katu.com/amnw/segments/Preschool-Behavior-That-Predicts-College-Graduation-175601411.html

A few activities to practice the idea of actively thinking are:
- ask your child questions before/during/after reading such as: 1. "look at this picture, what do you think is happening?" 2. "why do you think that just happened" or, "what would you have done in that same situation." 3."who was the character of the book and where did it take place?"
-purposefully trick your child by giving the wrong answer when practicing academics with them.
-switch the rules of a familiar game. See if your child can remember what you changed.

Plumper Pumpkin Patch

Here is a glimpse from our pumpkin patch field trip on Thursday. I posed the entire album in the photos tab above. This was by far the most fun pumpkin patch field trip I have taken with a class. They got to learn first hand about pumpkin varieties and how a farm works. What a fun day it was!

When we arrived we all sat for a discussion from one of the farmers. She taught us about all the different types of pumpkins they grow on the farm.

Then it was time for a tour of the farm on the Hayride! 

They grow Christmas trees too...

and raise farm animals ranging from ponies, to pigs, turkeys, goats, llamas, and donkeys!

Mini Apple Pie

We read a book in class a bout the life cycle of an apple tree in class on Monday, called "The Apple Pie Tree". In essence, the story follows a brother and sister through the seasons as their apple tree matures and grows apples ripe enough to bake a pie with.

In planned centers this week, one of our activities is to make cinnamon smelling play-dough and use it to make a mini apple pie. The kids are having a blast with this activity! Take a look-

Homemade Applesauce, YUMMM.

Step 1. Cut the apples

Step 2. Add Cinnamon and sugar

Step 3. Let it cook

Step 4. Mash it, serve it, eat it!

Step 5. Write about how it was made!

Car Talk

Each day I add a question for you to discuss with your child while you are on the way home from school on my Car Talk board, located by the door on your way out of the classroom.

You know what we are scheduled to do most days by reading the newsletter, but sometimes the most memorable parts of the day happen in those "in between"  or spontaneous moments spent at school. Car Talk is always current, relevant, and fresh in your child's mind.

Try it for a week, see where the conversation goes...

Apple Tasting

Sanaa tried all three apples...

but liked the yellow apple the best!

Then she graphed her favorite.

Students tasted a red, yellow, and green apple. Next they drew their favorite one and graphed it on our apple tree. Once the votes were in, we did all sorts of Apple Math. Activities included:
                - counting the number of votes for each color
                - counting which color had the most/least votes
                - adding the total of red +green, green+yellow, yellow+red votes
                - counting the total votes

Here's our apple tree!

Nature Walk

On Thursday afternoon I woke students up early from nap to go on a short nature walk. We made special note of all the trees around our school that were turning colors! Each student collected items indicative of the Fall season and we will explore them next week through sorting and graphing. 

Question of the Week

Here is the class giving Miss Laura a big birthday hug on Thursday! During snack I asked each student "how old do you think Miss Laura turns today?", here are their answers:

Sanaa- 15 or maybe 16

Dishitha-14

Aila- 13

Yuval- 3 dollars

Paityn- 3

Maliya- 61

Rishabh- 6

Hayden- 92

Evan- 17

Angela- 4

Austin- Well, how old was she on her last birthday?

Sydney- 15

The real answer- ?????

Music Class

Miss Dawn comes in on Wednesdays from 11:30-12 to teach a music class! During this time she teaches classic nursery rhymes and finger plays, as well as about different genres of music.

In this picture students are listening to "Great Balls of Fire" by Jerry Lee Lewis. Everyone has a "ball of fire" in their hands (a balled up scarf) and are asked to listen for when the song lyrics say "great balls of fire!" and throw their scarf in the air. It looks like a lot of fun :)

Planned Centers

Fall is Here! The colors of the season are changing around us outside. We have had many discussions this week about what we see and feel that lets us know that Fall is upon us.

 Planned centers are a fun way way to incorporate theme related discussions with academic learning. Take a look at what we are up to this week in Planned Centers:

Hayden is creating a stain glass window, using Fall leaf colors

Kruthi is creating an ABB pattern using leaves

Angela is using watercolors to paint a Fall leaf

Siddharth is counting the dots on the dice, and stamping the
matching numeral on his paper