Monday, April 12, 2010

SUN, SHOWERS AND FLOWERS . . .

Dear Families, Friends and Blog Followers,

As plants and flowers bloom, both in and outside the classroom, we rejoice in the light at the end of the tunnel!!

I must say that I have found it increasingly difficult to write about all of the details of school life, these past few weeks, as so very much occurs within the boundaries of each day -- (which is a good thing :)) -- for example -- in addition to the curriculum planned by, primarily, Kelly and Liz, the Early Childhood Care and Education students from Minuteman's Career and Technical and Lexington High Schools prepare, for the teachers, and present, to the children, their lesson plans, and we continue to have many visitors, predominantly our friends from the LABB Program, every week -- wonderful learning opportunities and great fun are had by children and adults, alike!!

This past week, especially on Monday and Tuesday, our Butterflies and Puppies crafted paper plate fish, learned the many parts of a flower and "drummed" like African animals, all thanks to Mrs. Dolham!!

In addition, Liz posed the "qestion of the week", which was: What do frogs eat? The answers are written, up on the bulletin board, closest to the kitchen, of the classroom -- grilled cheese, fingers and bones were among our favorites . . .

Morning projects included finishing-up and displaying two nursery rhyme based posters, Red Riding Hood role-playing -- (thank you, Trayvon, and, the dramatic play continues) . . . , fashioning Spring-themed crowns and tree ornaments, and, decorating a large wooden peace sign, to be hung over the "cube", toward the week's end.

On Wednesday, Arianne read the ever-popular "And The Rain Came Down", and, designed an interactive weather chart, for the kids, which is, now, up on the wall, in the block area -- as well, Liz cut open fruits and vegetables, for our little friends to study and discuss, and, afterward, placed said, (okay the foods -- not the kids?!), in the cubby room, for further scientific examination!!

And, because the weather was so very beautiful, Mrs. Dolham sectioned-off an area for bike-riding, Miss Downing temporarily freed the turtles, (Buddy and Sprint), and MM's Freshmen brought their plans outside and blew bubbles and played ball games with the little ones -- outdoor art and language-based activities included finger-painting the "Tree of Life" on Wednesday, (Jeanetta), Spring time drawings, (now displayed in the front hallway), (Trayvon), and playdough and wilderness sculptures, (Erin), into Thursday -- kudos, all!!

Indoors, on Thursday, our high-school friend, Kelly, spear-headed a floral and fauna scavenger hunt, photos and names now hanging alongside abovementioned drawings, Miss Amy made frozen fruit-flavored pops and Mrs. Goell guided a music lesson.

Several family members were happy to see their boys and girls paint and embellish "pet rocks", on Friday morning, thanks to Olivia, a Senior from LHS, and, later, match spring and winter clothing items, thanks to Hayley, one of our friends from the LABB Program.

In addition to her butterfly sandwich making activity on Friday, Liz continues to tell many, many stories about "Princess Sarah" and "Prince George", discuss what creatures live in ponds, leading walks in the rain, and, along with Kelly, reinforcing color, shape, letter and number recognition, via varied means, throughout the day.

And, dinosaur stories and fairy tales are always well received!!

As always, thank you for blessing all of the teachers with the lovely flowers that are your children . . .

Love Miss Peacock XOXO





letts#sprojectstrayvondisplay&redridinghood