Henry's class...

Here are some snippets from Henry's teacher the last few weeks:

We are continuing to learn about the people in our community. Last week we focused on doctors, nurses, and dentists. This week we've talked about bakers, carpenters, and mail carriers. We talked about how the mail process works. We decided to make our own postcards to send to our families. We painted index cards and I wrote down their message. Tomorrow we will address them and put them in our mailbox. So, be on the lookout for a special message from your little one.

We had a great dance class with Ms. Felicity. I'm really impressed with how well they are taking direction from her. They all seem to have a great time during the class and are staying focused on the activities she offers.

We had a great day. ()'s mom came to talk with us about being a veterinarian. She brought with her one of her dogs, Boomer who very willingly let the class pet him, listen to his heartbeat, brush his coat, and brush his teeth. The class had a wonderful time.

We had a great visit from firefighter Larry and firefighter Chris. They did a nice job of relating to the kids and making them feel comfortable. They demonstrated how they dress in their gear when going out on an emergency. They reiterated to the class that they were the same person under all the gear. We were invited to get inside the truck. All but 2 of our friends took a tour of the inside. We also got to hear the sirens and watch the flashing lights. It was quite an exciting morning. I have a picture of each friend to take home. I've attached them to the cubbies.

We had another great day at St. George's. First, we celebrated our friend, ()'s 4th birthday. ()'s mom, (), came to talk with the class this morning. She is teacher at (). She teaches cooking skills to young adults with special needs. She talked with the class about what she does and showed pictures of her classroom. As a special treat, we got to sample some pumpkin bread made by her students. We are also sending home a sample of the banana bread they made.

After our lunch we put together a sensory dome of various plants. We placed it in the window and will make daily observations of what we see happening. The plants we put in are from various parts of the world. Each had a special trait that will stimulate a certain sense. We hope to start seeing results in about a week.

We've had a fun day. We finished putting together our family tree pictures. We traced our arms to represent the tree and added green finger paint for the leaves. We counted the number of people in our family and added a special heart to the tree to represent each member. Number recognition has been a big focus of our week. You might have noticed this from the questions of the day. We have also been taking turns with our apple tree board and counting with the pop beads. I've put a handout in the folders that suggest hands-on ways you can work with math and science concepts as home.

We had a fun day. We took turns sorting buttons. We talked about different ways to sort them by color, size, shape, texture, and number of holes. They were a great source of entertainment for a good part of the morning. We also enjoyed using the letter stampers in the play dough.

On what a wonderful day we had. With weather like this, you can't help but be in a good mood. We enjoyed a picnic lunch on the playground today. We will continue to make this a regular thing provided the weather cooperates. After lunch we did a group painting project. We used roller brushes and painted with fall colors.

We added a new element to our room. I have a sign in/out board specifically for our class. They will locate their name and "sign" in when they arrive and out with they leave. This is another way for them to practice name recognition and to make writing a more meaningful and purposeful experience. Tomorrow is music day with Mr. Neil at 9:20.