Dinosaur Month!

Happy Friday! It's been a while since I've posted about our exciting studies! July was dinosaur month and here is what we were up to:

The dinosaurs surely came a marching! The children learned all about the Jurassic and Triassic periods in time.  There were many dinosaurs that roamed the earth including herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores.  The children leaned that plant eaters can be very large, they used all four legs, had very long necks to eat from the tree tops and had flat teeth for grinding.  The meat eaters usually only used two legs to help them run super fast.  Many of the children's art activities have already gone home and here is a little more explanation about what we did...  We investigated dinosaur scales while making scale prints with bubble wrap and fossil bone replicas of a T-Rex using Q-tips.  We also talked about Amber as a preserving substance.  The children had the opportunity to look through a magnifying glass to see an accent bug inside a real piece of Amber.  After the explorations, the children created their very own Amber specimen.  So cool!  Other activities included volcano eruptions, dino tracings with crayons, paper plate brontosaurus' and creating bone and trace fossils in clay.  

The stories we shared with the children included, "How the Dinosaur got to the Museum" by Jessie Hartland, "Dinosaur Farm" by Frann Preston-Gannon and "Oh Say Can You Say Di-No-Saur?" by Bonnie Worth, just to name a few!

By the end of the month, the children could easily discriminate between herbivores and carnivores just by observing their distinguishing features! 

Here's What's Coming Up Next!
August is Ocean Animal Month! The children will be exploring the various types of ocean mammals including seals, sea lions and otters and we'll toss in a reptile for good measure... sea turtles too!  The next blog post will post during the last week of August.  The weekly blog posts will resume in September!

Dates to Remember:
August 14th: All updated paperwork is due
August 17th: September Tuition is due
August 26th: Last day of School!
August 27-31st: SEE is closed to prepare of the new school year
September 1st: All programs resume! Happy First Day of School!
September 7th: Labor Day - SEE is closed for the day
October 1st: October Tuition is due

Check out some pictures:

Creating a Body Fossil

An example of a body fossil and a trace fossil

The children named this "Dino Sticky Mud"

Measuring dinosaur foot prints

Creating an Amber specimen

Another Amber specimen in progress!

I hope everyone is having a great summer! I know we are! 

Look for our next post in a few weeks!  

Have a wonderful weekend!

Joanna

End of the School Year and Hello Summer!

Hello Everyone!!! It has been too long since I've shared all the fun we are having with you! As promised, this post will be about our end of the year performance and the start of our super fun summer session beginning with dinosaur studies!

The Performance:
We had two positively wonderful performances for families on June 25th and 26th.  The children worked so hard practicing their lines every day for four and a half weeks.  The dedication to their characters was exceptional and I could really see it during each of the performances.  Every year, the children amaze me and I always feel so proud watching each and every child on stage.  I don't have too many pictures to share here on the blog but I will be uploading them to Shutterfly soon.  I also encourage all of the families of our school to share your pictures and videos of the performance day with us via email, google drive or any other media sharing application that works for you!

Dinosaurs Galore!
This month is all about dinosaurs! More specifically, the difference between carnivores, herbivores and omnivores, how big these creatures actually were, the job of a paleontologist and so much more! As you can imagine we have lots of dino digs going on!  Did you also know that the word dinosaur means "terrible lizard"?  We recently asked the children what dinosaur they would be and what they would eat and the answers were priceless! Here are a few of the responses:
"I would be a meat eater and I would eat pepperoni"
"I would be a plant eater and I would eat Doritos!"
"I would be a gruffalo and I would eat flies and ants"

The children also became paleontologists at the sensory table and have gone on multiple dino digs looking for fossils.  Our explorations also lead to constructing dinosaur skeletons using q-tips, meat eater/plant eater sorting and a few volcano eruptions!  The children learned about the words lava and magma and the difference between the two.  Check out the pictures below!

Important Dates to Remember:
August 1: August tuition is due
August 14: All new school year paperwork is due
August 17: September tuition is due
August 26: Last day for all programs
August 27-31: School closed for new school year prep
September 1: All programs resume!

What's up next:
Dinosaur studies continue with sorting dinos by their habitats (land, water, air) and the children will learn more about the job of a Paleontologist. 

Check out the pics!

Art in the sandbox

Outdoor art is always an exciting experience

Fossil printing in play dough

Small world dinosaur play

Creating skeletons with q-tips

Roarrrrrr!

Carefully uncovering fossils in the sensory table

Creating the volcano

Erupting the volcano!

I hope you enjoyed this post! We'll be back next week!
Have a great weekend!
Joanna

Week of June 1-5, 2015!

Happy Friday, SEE families! The Rainbow Fish play preparations are in full swing!  As I mentioned last week, the blog may be a little sparse for the next few weeks.  We want to keep our play a surprise! So besides all of the rehearsals, scenery construction and costume design, there is not too much to report on. A bummer, I know! But trust me, it will be well worth it!

Did everyone get a chance to visit our Little Free Library?? If you haven't, swing by before or after pick-up/drop off and browse the books.  Don't forget to leave one of your previously loved books too! Let's make this the best Little Free Library around! And don't forget, our LFL is also for adults and teenagers, we want to offer books for everyone in our community.  I hope to find a cute little stool to put out there one of these days to help the kiddos out when they are choosing a book.  If you have a cute little wooden stool, we'd love to use it!  If you are interested in finding out more information on Little Free Libraries, please visit their website, littlefreelibrary.org.  Happy Reading!

News and Important Dates: 

- Our end of the year performance will take place on June 25th and 26th at 10am in The Real School of Music.  Invitations have gone home, please return your RSVP slip at your earliest convenience   

- SEE will be closed from June 29th - July 3rd for summer break.  We will be back in action on July 6th.  Outdoor water play will also begin on this date!

Lastly, because we will pretty much be consumed with lots and lots of play rehearsals, scenery construction and costume design, I plan to sign off of our blog for the next two weeks.  I look forward to posting a huge post talking all about the play process during our summer break! Yay!

Have a fabulous weekend!

Joanna

Week of May 25-29, 2015!

Happy Friday! We all love a short week! This week we began to transition from planting into our play practice.  The children began to practice their lines and everyone is so excited! The costumes and scenery will be made over the next few weeks.  We can't wait for you to see the children's hard work! 

To wrap up the planting and seeds unit, the children were reintroduced to plant systems (seeds, roots, plants, etc).  We also observed the seeds that were planted last week.  The outdoor garden is already sprouting thanks to the warm sun.  We will have veggies in no time!  Lastly, the children created their own "Hairy Harry."  Hairy Harry is a cup of dirt with grass seeds.  But, not just any ordinary cup of dirt! When the grass grows, the children can give Hairy Harry a haircut! Once the grass sprouts, these little guys will be send home for a good haircutting!

News and Important Dates:

- Our class picture retake sessions will happen on June 4th and 5th at 9:30am.  An email reminder will be sent as the date approaches.  

- Our end of the year performance will take place on June 25th and 26th at 10am in The Real School of Music.  Invitations have gone home, please return your RSVP slip at your earliest convenience   

- SEE will be closed from June 29th - July 3rd for summer break.  We will be back in action on July 6th.  Outdoor water play will also begin on this date!

Check out some pictures of Hairy Harry:

Filling up the cup!

Giving the seeds some water

A few of the Hairy Harry's ready for hair!

That's all for now! We've saving the details for the day of the play!  Have a great weekend!
Joanna

Week of May 18-22, 2015!

Another fun week has flown by! Here's what we've been up to:

Root week was awesome! The children leaned all about the different types of roots, why roots are important and that root vegetables are, in fact, roots! The children got a hands on experience touching various root vegetables including carrots, radishes, beets and daikon (a large white colored root).  We also used these root veggie to make prints with paint! And our sensory table beans have sprouted and grown so long! The children have been able to see the transformation and see the seed coat opened and "pop" off when the leaves start to sprout.  The children also observed and created sketches of roots including both tap roots and fibrous roots.  Check out the pics below! 

In addition to roots, we began to introduce the book we chose for the children to preform in June, The Rainbow Fish, by Marcus Pfister! The children are currently choosing the characters and preparing to design their costumes! Rehearsals will begin next week! The children are so excited!

Lastly, after the playground cleanup day last Saturday, the playground is looking beautiful with the new mulch, larger garden and some new plants! We also used our fundraiser money to purchase a new ramp set for our little engineers! Also, check out the pictures of the magnetic block set we purchased with the left over money! The new blocks are a huge hit!  And a huge thank you to the dads who came to help us with the improvements, your help is very much appreciated!  

What's up next?

We will be wrapping up our planting unit and dissecting some flowers and reintroduce flower parts.  We will also do some planting of seeds and plants and work on our outdoor garden!

Quick Note:

Over the next month, our blog maybe a little shorter.  The children will be focusing on their performance during the month of June! We are excited to give you all a few sneak peeks, but we don't want to spoil the surprise! 

Important Dates to Remember:

- SEE will be closed in Monday, May 25th in observance of Memorial Day.  Bring on the Summer!

- Our Monthly Gathering will take place on Sunday, May 31st at 11:30am at Synergy Dance Studio.  This is a free 30 minute movement/gymnastics class!  Sign up via Evite!

- Our class picture retake sessions will happen on June 4th and 5th at 9:30am.  An email reminder will be sent as the date approaches.  

- Our end of the year performance will take place on June 25th and 26th at 10am in The Real School of Music.  Invitations have gone home, please return your RSVP slip at your earliest convenience   

- SEE will be closed from June 29th - July 3rd for summer break.  We will be back in action on July 6th.  Outdoor water play will also begin on this date!

Check out our pictures:

The sprouts in our sensor table!

Sketching roots 

Our new magnetic wooden blocks!

Our larger vegetable garden ready for seeds! Thank you to the dads who helped us out last weekend!

Mrs. M's hanging root balls! Definitely check these guys out!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend! And a very special thank you to all of the men and women who have served our country!

See you all on Tuesday!
Joanna

Week of May 11-15, 2015!

Happy Friday! We are just loving the warm weather! The new grass is growing and our Playground Beautification Day is tomorrow! A HUGE thank you to the parents who are spending a few hours with us to make the playground more beautiful and inspiring for the children! Starbucks is on me!

Here is what we were up to this week:

This week was seed week.  The children we introduced to the different seed parts, the seed coat, seed leaf (cotyledon), the shoot (plumule) and root (radicle).  I bet the children remember at least one of the parts, ask your child! We also sang a fun song about the plant life cycle and the beans in our sensory table sprouted over last weekend! The children arrived on Monday to discover lots of tiny roots in the sensory table, how cool?!  In addition to our group discussions, the children sorted seeds at the science table, made bird feeders with seeds, completed their Van Gogh interpretations and opened up snap peas and graphed the total number of seeds inside! Whew! What a week! Lot's of pictures to check out below!

What's up next:

The children will learn all about the different types root systems (taproots and fibrous) and why roots are so important.  We will also begin to plant vegetable seeds in out outdoor garden! 

Don't forget to check out the home extension activities from last week's post! Continue the learning at home! 

Reminders and Important Dates:

- Tomorrow, Saturday, May 16th is our community Playground Beautification Day! We will begin at 10am and work for about 2 hours.  The tasks include digging out a larger veggie garden, leveling the play houses, adding fresh wood chips to the hill and some planting! Let's all do it for the kids!!! Please sign-up via Evite! We are so excited to have the opportunity to work together with the families of our school to make the playground even more beautiful! 

- SEE will be closed in Monday, May 25th in observance of Memorial Day.  Bring on the Summer!

- Our Monthly Gathering will take place on Sunday, May 31st at 11:30am at Synergy Dance Studio.  This is a free 30 minute movement/gymnastics class!  Sign up via Evite!

- Our class picture retake sessions will happen on June 4th and 5th at 9:30am.  An email reminder will be sent as the date approaches.  

- Our end of the year performance will take place on June 25th and 26th at 10am in The Real School of Music.  Invitations with more information will go home in a few weeks.  Save the date and please email me with any questions!

- SEE will be closed from June 29th - July 3rd for summer break.  We will be back in action on July 6th.  Outdoor water play will also begin on this date!

Lot's of pictures this week, check 'em out!

Sprouting beans in the Sensory Table!

A Van Gogh in progress

Counting snap pea seeds

Making bird feeders with seeds

Sorting Seeds

Some completed Van Gogh interpretations!

Have a wonderful weekend! See you on the playground!
Joanna

Week of May 4-8, 2015!

We are loving the sunshine! The grass and flowers are planted, the canopy is up and the leaves are on the trees! Life is good! Here is what we were up to this week:

This week began our planting and seeds unit.  The children have been introduced to basic plant parts, seed types  (seed and bulb), flower types (simple vs. intricate: think pansy vs. daisy) and the two types of growth systems (root system and shoot system). The root system is what is what happens below the ground and the shoot system is what happens above the ground.  To incorporate the theme into our classroom, the sensory table is filled with dirt, pots, seeds and flowers, flower paintings are being created at the easels and there are many more activities to be introduced soon!

To further explore plant parts, we encourage you to dissect a flower at home.  The words that are familiar to the children are root, seed/bulb, stem, leaves, petals.  We all sang a great song titled, "Planting Seeds," sung to the tune of Farmer in the Dell.  Ask your child to sing it for you! The children were happily singing the song on the playground this week!

Our artist of the month is Vincent Van Gogh.  Van Gogh made a beautiful flower painting titled, "Vase with Twelve Sunflowers." The children were introduced to this painting and a few others.  Look for the finished product on the bulletin board soon! 

Home Extension Activities:

- As the month progresses, we will prepare and plant a vegetable garden in our outdoor classroom.  If you have a sunny spot, the possibilities are endless! Seeds are very inexpensive and easy to care for.  Over the years, we have had lots of success with cucumbers, beans, cantaloupe and corn.  If you have a shady spot, try lettuce! Lettuce loves the shade.  

- Visit farmer's markets again to see all of the different types of flowers, plants and veggies.

- Do a flower dissection in your house.  Pick a flower from your garden or buy a small bouquet from the super market and let your child explore it by pulling the parts off, sorting the parts, labeling the parts or using them to create a picture...maybe turn those petals and leaves into a beautiful peacock!

Lastly, to celebrate our moms, the children were asked, "What does your mom do that makes her special?" And here are some of the very cute responses:

- "She plays piano"
- "She puts me to bed"
- "She cleans"
- "Dances!"
- "Drives the car"
- "She's a nurse"
- "Cooks hot dogs"
- "Makes corn"

What's next:

Next week is seed week! The children will be learning about seeds and bulbs and will investigate various types of seeds.  Our investigations will naturally lead us to sorting, labeling and so much more!

Reminders and Important Dates:

- Saturday, May 16th is our community Playground Beautification Day! We will begin at 10am and work for about 2 hours.  The tasks include digging out a larger veggie garden, leveling the play houses, adding fresh sand to the sand box, planting flowers/bushes and more! Let's all do it for the kids!!! Please sign-up via Evite! We are so excited to have the opportunity to work together with the families of our school to make the playground even more beautiful!

- SEE will be closed in Monday, May 25th in observance of Memorial Day.  Bring on the Summer!

- Our Monthly Gathering will take place on Sunday, May 31st at 11:30am at Synergy Dance Studio.  This is a free 30 minute movement/gymnastics class!  Sign up via Evite!

- Our class picture retake sessions will happen on June 4th and 5th at 9:30am.  An email reminder will be sent as the date approaches.  

- Our end of the year performance will take place on June 25th and 26th at 10am in The Real School of Music.  Invitations with more information will go home in a few weeks.  Save the date and please email me with any questions!

- SEE will be closed from June 29th - July 3rd for summer break.  We will be back in action on July 6th.  Outdoor water play will also begin on this date!

Pictures from our week:

Practicing fine motor skills while cutting flower stems

Practicing drawing skills while creating flowers for the stems!

The new sensory table experience

VanGogh's in process!

The beginning stages of our Van Gogh recreations

Flower Parts Diagram



Happy Mother's Day to all of the extra special moms of our school! We appreciate all you do for us everyday!

Have a restful weekend!
Joanna