Golly It Would Be!
Dear Parents,
I couldn’t have asked for a better welcome back! It was such a nice feeling to come back and see that I was missed by your amazing kiddos! What a wonderful and busy week of learning we had.
We bid a farewell to Oswald, as the kids completed their workbook on his fascinating odd animals and said hello to a new friend, a dog named Golly! Golly loves rummaging for food in garbage cans and he’s always hoping to find something in Cass’s leftovers, silly dog! Boy, he sure sounds like my dog, Guinness! With the introduction of Golly, the class has been learning to write upper and lower case G’s, as well as learning the /g/ sound. They’ve come up with some clever words for our board: goodness, gardenias, green, gold and my favorite guacamole! On Thursday we constructed green garbage cans with Golly and on Friday we spent time finding pictures that start with the /g/ sound to fill our garbage cans. We also made hats with big floppy ears so that we could all look like Golly for a day!
The class has also been really focused on math this week, as we continue learning about geometry. I worked on introducing solid figures such as rectangular prisms, cones, cylinders, cubes, and spheres into the lesson, as well as talking about the plane shapes that come from each of these. We also learned that most of these plane figures contain corners and sides, except of course the circle! I had the children play a quick game with me where we each walked in a line down the sides of the classroom, and when we bumped into one another, well, there’s your corner! They had a good laugh over that activity.
Speaking of spheres, we had our second social studies lesson about the seven continents and the Earth’s oceans. I used a flashlight and our globe to explain how when it’s daytime in Marietta, it’s nighttime in Tokyo, Japan. As I rotated the Earth with the flashlight starting where we live, I walked the children through a 24 hour day! They were in complete aww. I also taught the class about maps and compasses. We continued the lesson by learning each direction (Never Eat Soggy Waffles, right!) The best part was having the kids all use a real compass as we went on a walk around campus! Did you know Wood Acres has a giant compass rose in the quad? It was a fun learning excursion and we all took turns guessing what direction our compass would say as we rounded each building.
Last week in Art we finished up our spaceships! We thought it would be a great addition to our geometry lesson too! We also completed our owls out of newspaper, our seahorses, and of course our cities! We have been extremely busy in Art these past three weeks! This week began our three week Music rotation. The kids felt right at home with Mr. G! They have been actively dancing and singing with him!
In other exciting news, our class completed putting together their Mr. Potato Head which meant everyone got to enjoy a ring pop for Fabulous Fun Friday! We use the Mr. Potato Head to encourage the class to always do their best and to stay as focused as possible when at our specials each week. After each special class a new piece is added and when completed, Ms. Steele and I come up with something exciting and fun! Who knows what they could earn next?!
Before I go, there are a few important reminders:
We will officially kick off our mystery reader program on Shutterfly! This is such a fun way to surprise your child and read their favorite book to their friends as well. You can sign up for a time slot (Friday’s from 8:50 a.m.-9a.m.) on Shutterfly. Please be sure to sign up only one time so that everyone has a chance. I have only put a schedule up until December. We hope to see you each week for this special treat on Zoom!
Our VIP schedule will also be up on our Shutterfly account! Our very first VIP will start the week of September 14th!
I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to speak with each of you about your child’s journey in learning at Wood Acres during conferences. I will be setting up a time for each of you. We can talk through, Zoom, Facetime, or phone call. The choice is yours. Please let me know which you would prefer!
And last, but certainly not least, the word of the week is: GLADIOLAS! This is a tricky one 😉
With love,
Ms. Porto and Ms. Steele
