Planting and Growing

Despite last weekend's snow, it is spring and it is time to plant our Pre-Primary garden! This past Thursday was Earth Stewardship Day and the PK and K classes worked together to weed, rake, and plant in our garden.  We planted different types of greens in one garden bed, and radishes, fava beans, and parsley in the other.  Adam Keller's Upper School advisory joined us as we worked and they were a huge help!  

We also learned about reptiles on Earth Stewardship Day.  For our education session, we visited our friend Ray - known as "Ray the Reptile Guy".  Ray is a herptologist who works with rescued turtles and snakes.  He brought several turtles and tortoises to show us and we were able to touch several snakes including an albino Black Rat snake!

Pre-Primary Play - "Giraffes Can't Dance"

The children are super excited about our upcoming play, "Giraffes Can't Dance".  Our play will be performed Friday, May 13th in Clifton at 8:30 a.m.  If for some reason you can't attend on the Friday, you are welcome to come to our dress rehearsal on Thursday, May 12th at 8:30 a.m. (also in Clifton). This past week the children learned their part in the play and have begun learning their lines.  We have many fun songs and dances in the play as well, so don't be surprised if you hear your children humming popular 80's songs at home! We will let you know soon about costumes, but the good news is they will be very simple! Keep your eyes open for emails as we get closer to the date of the play!

Life Skills -  Connected and Respected

In Life Skills the children have been learning about using "strong words" when attempting to work out conflicts with friends.  We have been talking a lot about the difference between strong words and being "mean".  Strong words are words that say how you feel and what you need in a tone of voice that is serious and strong.  Strong words are not meant to hurt feelings, but to advocate for oneself.  We have been doing a lot of role playing and practicing with each other, even the teachers role played using different tones of voice in front of the class (this brought some giggles!).  You can practice this at home as well.  Say something with strong words ("Stop it! I don't like when you do that!") and then say something with mean words, ("You are always so mean!  You're not my friend!").  See if your kids can spot the difference!

Curriculum Highlights

Language Arts  - Reading Horizons - letter sounds /qu/, /z/, /c/, and short vowel /i/, Most Common Words, handwriting.  Writing Workshop - "5 finger stories", stretching out small moments, using descriptive words when writing.

Math - Addition! Strategies for adding two numbers together, finding missing addends, communicative property of addition, ways to make number from 3-10.

Science -  Gardening!  Prepping the garden for planting, planting seedlings and seeds, working in our flower bed. Finding lots of critters in the soil! Stewardship of the earth - how can we take care of the earth.  

Social Studies -  Our Friend project, assembly on Russian music and dance, assembly on the music and dance of Latin America, Life Skills