Dear Parents,
During the next two weeks we will change gears a bit as we focus our curriculum not on a single book, but on a series of poems. Introducing children to poetry engages their memory, imagination, and encourages a love of word play. All of the poems will center around the magic number five as we continue building on our counting, sequencing, and number recognition-using our five fingers and toes to help along the way.
Our Language Arts labs will focus on the difference between a poem and a story and we will explore new vocabulary when we place new focus words like 'ducklings,' 'monkeys,' 'peas,' 'five,' 'fish,' and 'beehive' on The Word Wall. We will also introduce the concept of the letters 'I' and 'a' as words. The Word Wall is a wonderful tool that we use to reinforce vocabulary and letter recognition in the classroom.
Saying the poems at home with your children will help reinforce the principles we work on during class time. The poems help introduce letters and promote language development through conversation and repetition of short verses. Parents will enjoy listening to how much their children can remember when prompted. This week our poems include:
Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed
Beehive Poem
Fish Poem
Pea Poem
The number five is a great introduction to math skills as counting on their (five) fingers allows children to visualize quantity and value changes in concrete form. This week, students will work with blocks and explore measurement, patterns, and sorting. We will begin to navigate the nature of less vs. more through song as the numbers decrease in "Five Little Monkeys" and increase in "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe."
Our poems of five incorporate much of the natural world into their stanzas, so our science units will include discussions about the fundamental differences between different types of animals like fish, bees, and monkeys (how they breathe, where they live, etc), while our pea poem will guide our discussion on the life cycle of plants and trees.
Everyone will be given a giant number five to decorate in art class. Students will decorate their number with any combination of five craft supplies (hearts, feathers, cotton balls, etc), while movement activities will focus on rhythm and coordination. We will introduce the song "Take Five," which features a challenging and fun 5/4 meter and students will attempt to play an instrument along with this tricky beat.
As we enter our second month of the program, we are so pleased to see our students begin to hit their stride. As always, if you have any questions please feel free to contact me.
Sincerely,
Gair Morris | 
