Hello families!
We can’t believe that it is already so close to the end of the semester and we are wrapping up the month of November. This past month we have done so much in the classroom. From counting, to graphing about characteristics of our body, learning about families, various art and sensory experiences, and learning about different cultures, the children have been engaged and active in the classroom.
Thank you to everyone for meeting with us for a parent teacher conference. It was nice to be able to sit down and talk with each of you about your child and how they have been doing in our classroom this semester. We value having the opportunity to sit down and talk about your children. Seeing the growth in children over a short amount of time is always so rewarding to us as teachers!
Literacy and Math
Reading has always been a huge interest for our classroom. We have begun introducing rhyming books to the children. They seem to really enjoy, I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More. In this particular book, a little boy is found painting the walls, floor, ceiling, everything in the house he shouldn’t be. His mom puts the paint away, but he finds a way to get it back. The book gives statements that end with a rhyme of a body part that the little boy ends up painting. The children in our classroom have been able to rhyme the body part, with the help of visuals from the book as well.
Throughout this month we have practiced counting with the children. This has been done through handwashing, walking through doorways to go outside, adding counting toys to our classroom and doing counting while doing art. The children are even beginning to quantify objects in our classroom!
Graphing
We encouraged the children’s participation through graphing characteristics of ourselves. We made separate graphs for eye color, hair color, family structure, and who had pets at home and who didn’t. For graphing our eye and hair color, we provided the children with mirrors to observe themselves. We also took pictures of them to be able to show them and zoom in on these features for the children to classify. When discussing our families, we read a book about families and what a family can consist of. Some families have siblings, some have two moms or dads, some have one parent, etc. In addition to tallying how many of each our children had, we added a spot for ‘Baby on the Way’ as we have two children in our classroom that will soon be promoted to ‘Big Sister!’ We also documented and measured how big some children’s feet were. We traced their shoe and and they then used about 1.5 inch cubes to see how many cubes big their foot was.
Art and Sensory
We experienced the first snowfall this month and children were able to play on the big playground for the first time with snow. A handful of children loved sledding down the big hill. They used teamwork to get the sled back up the hill by each holding an end of the sled to go back to the top to slide down.
Art is always a favorite in our classroom. This past month some new things we practiced were gluing materials to paper and painting with colored ice cubes. Both of these gave a different sensory experience. One was cold and wet, while the other sticky and wet. 
Cultures and Languages
During our last week of the month we looked into the different cultures and languages in our classroom. We listened to music in Spanish, Korean, and Mandarin that were some common songs that the children could recognize by the tune, and some new songs that are unfamiliar! While looking at artwork of Frida Kahlo, ceramics, fans, and paintings, we had conversation with the children about what they saw in each piece of artwork. We made our own artwork to resemble other cultures using various techniques or colors. Sherie, a practicum Master Teacher, brought in some quilts that she has made and her sewing machine to show us how quilts are made. The children all had the opportunity help her sew some fabric together by pushing down on the pedal to make the needle bob up and down.
Reminders
- As the weather changes and cold weather comes, please bring warm clothes for your children. This includes hats, gloves/mittens, winter coats, snowpants, and boots.
Sincerely,
Krysten and Kendra
