Dear Parents,
This past week in “Circle Time”, we introduced the marvelous letter “Mm”. Examples of words such as monkey, mermaid, manatee, Markela, Maya, Marco and Max were given. To reinforce the letter we painted our pre-cut M’s with marbles and made paper plate monkeys!
Our flannel board story “Five Little Monkeys” was a favorite this week. We also went on a barnyard adventure as we sang “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” with finger puppets.
Still focusing on “M”, we became familiar with the nursery rhyme “Little Miss Muffet”! The children were introduced to some new and unusual vocabulary. Ask them what “tuffet” (stool), and “curds & whey” (cottage cheese) are. They also learned that it’s ok to be frightened by something. ESPECIALLY spiders!
We read Manatee on the Move, a true story by Randy Houk and learned that manatees are really “gentle giants”. Ask your child why manatees are becoming endangered and why it’s against the law to feed them. (to protect them from boaters) We also enjoyed The Monster at the End of this Book by Jon Stone. Throughout the book, lovable, furry old Grover begs the reader not to turn the page there was more than the rattling of Grover’s nerves as we defiantly turned each page! A lot of us had to push our brave buttons! (Our nose) Of course the monster was none other than Grover himself!
To continue with some “M” fun we dabbled in some magic! We got out our magic coloring book and took turns shouting colors and magic words at the blank pages! It was a huge success and the children seemed amazed when colored pictures magically appeared from nowhere!!!
To children, magnets can seem like magic! Here in the nursery we capitalized on some of that wonder with a science lesson about magnetism and magnets. The children LOVE using their hands to manipulate things and magnets are a great dexterity challenge. They are fun to pull apart and put back together. They also encourage hand and finger strength. Something you might want to look into for some family fun!
In music, our favorite song choice was the “Macarena”! Hands, shoulders, head, waist, hips….Hey Macarena!!! It was great fun and their giggles were contagious!
Since the children LOVE music, we gave them permission to bang, shake and make lots of noise with our very cool collection of musical instruments. Tambourines, rhythm sticks, castanets, maracas, cymbals and bells, came together to shake up our classroom! We also learned a new flip-chart song for the letter “M”. It went like this:
Mm (to the tune….This Old Man)
Monkey see.
Monkey do.
Come meet monkey in the zoo.
If you make a face,
He might make one, too.
Monkeys love to mimic you.
(Ask them what the word “mimic” means.)
To culminate a week of merriment, on Friday we broke out the marshmallows!
This week we will introduce the letter “Nn”! We will also reinforce all of our colors, shapes and numbers to date.
We will also be gearing up for the “Year of the Rooster” as we celebrate the Chinese New Year on Monday, January 30th! The festivities actually begin on Saturday, January 28th and last about 15 days. I am always eager to get the children involved in the excitement of various cultural events and celebrations. Since the Chinese consider RED the traditional color for luck, we ask that the children dress lucky on the 30th! The Chinese New Year is one holiday we ALWAYS look forward to! For those of you that celebrate, “Gung-Hay-Fat-Choy!”
Enjoy the week!
Warmly,
Miss Joanne and Miss Sam
Birthdays in January:
Vihaan 1/16
Stella 1/21
Markela 1/28
Dates to Remember:
January 25th Back to School Night
(Evening Conferences)
January 30th Celebration of the Chinese New Year!
(WEAR SOMETHING RED!)
