The Trees

Here is the video that the kids put together using Adobe Voice App. We made this video during Dr. Seuss weeks, inspired by his book The Lorax. This video has been shown at the student led conference last Thursday. For those who missed it, please enjoy this video. 

March 16-20, 2015

Say Spring...

Wohoo! A very hectic week yet fun was just over. Everyday was filled with meaningful activities. On Monday-Wednesday, we discussed a lot about our unit study this week, season: Spring. On those three days, we also did a bit of role play in order to prepare our first student led-conference. The kids were just so excited sharing their learning milestones over the 2 trimesters. On Thursday, we had parents coming to our class to watch the kids doing their 'show-off' presentations. The kids were superstars. They did the presentations so well, didn't they? The last day of the week was a hit. After cheering the big kids doing their try-athlon, together with Pre-K 4 students, we did our water games. It was so much fun. Their most favorite activity was sliding down ECC playground slope. Splash! Those cold, tired and hungry kids then rewarded a special lunch buffet with misc sandwich, fruit kebabs, apple juice and chocolate ice cream on the menu. Have a nice Spring break everyone. See you all in two weeks!

Student-Led Conference 2015

Yay! We have just finished our student-led conference. Hope all of you had a great time watching the kids did their 'show off' this morning. I wonder if all the parents attending the conference this morning were as amazed as myself looking at what the kids have achieved by far. I am so looking forward to witnessing the kids' learning progress till the end of school year. On behalf of all Pre-K 3 students, we would like to thank all parents for the time spent at the conference this morning. 

March 9-13, 2015

Welcome to the first week of trimester 3. With only one week before Spring break, we do need to fasten our seatbelt to move a bit faster than our regular speed. Report cards will be sent home on Tuesday, March 17 and I am excited to share about the kids' progress at student led conference with all of you on Thursday, March 19.

My Journal center is open for business. We set this center as a one person at a time center to give each kid personal space to work without disturbing or being disturbed by his/her peers.  Having good senses of art, all the kids can't wait to have a turn to express their thoughts, feelings, stories and experiences through their drawings. 

5 apples for 5 dots on the dice

Red apple, green apple, red apple...

10 Apples Up On Top

Carefully added different materials to the socks

Preparing the puddle for the tweetle
beetles battle with paddle in a bottle

Mr. Brown can moo moo

The clay feels so cold

My sculpture is not ready yet

Yay! I can put this puzzle back together 

This is the final week of author study: Dr. Seuss. His books that we discussed this week were 10 Apples Up On Top; Fox In Socks; Oh, The Places You'll Go; The 500 Hatf of Bartholomew Cubbins; and Mr. Brown Can Moo. Discussing all Dr. Seuss' books for three weeks, the kids start growing their Seussical side. With their very limited reading capability, some of the kids can even tell which book is written by Dr. Seuss just by looking at the picture on the book cover. Marvelous!

Awed by the apple slicer

Lay the sliced apples carefully on the pan

Our apple crisp served with neapolitan ice cream 

Inspired by 10 Apples Up On Top book, we spent almost one hour to prepare our apple crisp. The highlight of our cooking class this time was the apple slicer. I am not sure whether they have seen or used this tool before or not, but when they tried to use it, they couldn't stop saying WOW. They were then more than happy to have apple crisp served with neapolitan ice cream for dessert at lunch time.

  

Lots of color we saw on Oh, The Places You'll Go gave us an idea to do this science experiment. Color changing milk is a very simple science experiment. Some very unusual things happen when you mix a little milk, food coloring and a little dish detergent applied on a cotton swab. What's happening? Milk is mostly water, but it also contains vitamins, minerals, proteins, and tiny droplets of fat suspended in solution. Fats and proteins are sensitive to changes in the surrounding solution (the milk). The secret of the bursting colors is the chemistry of that tiny drop of soap. Dish soap, because of its bipolar characteristics (nonpolar on one end and polar on the other), weakens the chemical bonds that hold the proteins and fats in solution. The soap's polar, orhydrophilic (water-loving), end dissolves in water, and its hydrophobic (water-fearing) end attaches to a fat globule in the milk. This is when the fun begins. The molecules of fat bend, roll, twist, and contort in all directions as the soap molecules race around to join up with the fat molecules. During all of this fat molecule gymnastics, the food coloring molecules are bumped and shoved everywhere, providing an easy way to observe all the invisible activity. As the soap becomes evenly mixed with the milk, the action slows down and eventually stops.

Tia has become our class reader of honor at this week book share. She shared one of her favorite book, Madeline. Thank you for sharing, Tia.

Welcome! Добро пожаловать! Selamat Datang!

We started the year with 3 girls and 3 boys, then officially by today, we have 4 boys and 6 girls in class. This cute girl has just joined the bunch of smart kids in our class. Welcome, my dear. I'm positive that you'll fit just right in. All of her classmates were busy showing her where, what and how to do things in our class. We would like to extend our welcome to Andrey and Alex Shnitko. Добро пожаловать!

March 2-6, 2015

This is it. We have just finished trimester 2 and ready to welcome trimester 3. Report card will be sent home on Monday, March 16, 2015 and Student Led Conference will follow that on Thursday, March 19, 2015. With a very limited time left till the end of school year, we are as busy as bees. Loads of activities are lined up nicely till the beginning of June.

This week we discussed 5 books from Dr. Seuss which are The Lorax, The Shape of Me and Other Stuff, The Foot Book, Hop on Pop, and one of his famous one, Green Eggs and Ham. Some activities were prepared to match the books being discussed this week.

'I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees for the trees have no tongues.'

Inspired by the Lorax with his famous truffula trees and his absolute mustache, the kids walked around the Ridge to take pictures of different trees, trained their fine motor skills by ripping paper to create their own truffula trees, showed off their cutting skills by cutting around the mustaches, and had fun rolling play dough as their friends or their own mustaches.

'No shapes are ever quite alike.'

The kids wondered why they were only allowed to paint using black paint at the painting easel. It was a very unusual situation in Pre-K 3 colorful class. After a short explanation of shadow, the kids knew that just by observing the shadow and the shape of a thing, they might know what that thing is. Using their creative imagination, they started painting things that they could think of. Butterfly, paintbrush, car, chair, grass, tornado, etc. came up as brilliant ideas. At one of our activity table they matched pictures with their shadows effortlessly.

'Back feet. Front Feet. Feet, feet, feet. How many feet different feet you meet?'

How many different feet you meet? Daddy's feet, mommy's feet, brother's feet, sister's feet, and my own feet. Using cubes, the kids tried to figure out how many cubes they needed to measure their family members' feet. Most of them were amazed finding out that their daddies got big feet which gave them a good opportunity to start counting in teens.

Most of the kids in Pre-K 3 know the uppercase letters in the alphabets. Doing the missing alphabet fill in worksheet, some didn't need any help at all, some needed to sing along the ABC song to identify the missing letters, some needed the alphabet list to do it. 

'Up. Pup. Pup is up."

What will be the best activity to represent Dr. Seuss' Hop on Pop? Yep, you're right. Hopscotch will the best fit. Not only training their gross motor skills, they also practiced taking turns.

'Do you like green eggs and ham?'

We love green eggs cookies even better. We worked hard for two days to make them. We measured all the ingredients, mixed them, shaped them, baked them in the oven, sorted only the green candies to go on top and finally decorated our green egg cookies. We made about 60 cookies and shared them with our fellow ECC residents and some teachers. All of them love our green eggs and ham cookies too. Our cookies taste just as sweet as we are :)

That Sam I am, that Sam I am has inspired us to practice writing and recognizing our names. We had fun trying to find our name at the soccer field. It's an easy game for us.

Look who came to our class last Thursday? Mrs. Chastity Richardson kindly read us the famous The Cat in the Hat book. We have never get bored of Cat in the Hat. He has too many games and tricks to play. Thank you for coming Mrs. Chas!