Dear families,
With the leaves turning and the wind beginning to chill, it's the perfect time to start welcoming autumn back to New York! During the next two weeks we will cozy up with the classic tale Jack and the Beanstalk and celebrate that most ghoulish of fall holidays, Halloween.
Students are encouraged to dress up for Halloween as some of our class time will be dedicated to acting out scenes based on their costumes. We will discuss the concept of this theatrical holiday (trick or treating, costumes, etc) and read The Little Green Witch (a Halloween themed Little Red Hen) as we continue building both our vocabularies and our story prediction skills.
In addition to our celebration, the week leading up to Halloween will be spent reviewing the material and concepts we have introduced thus far. Instructors will revisit all of the vocabulary from The Word Wall while reinforcing handwriting skills, story sequencing, geometry, and sorting.
After Halloween, students will tackle Jack and the Beanstalk, adding words from the story like 'giant,' 'beanstalk,' and 'harp' to The Word Wall. We will practice the tricky "f" sound with the alliterative chant 'Fee-fi-fo-fum' and introduce another word that begins with 'f'- 'fantasy.' This conversation about fantasy vs. reality and character point of view helps develop a child's logical thinking and reasoning skills, as differentiating between the two is an important step in a child's cognitive development. During our creative movement storytelling game students will explore the difference between moving like Jack-as we introduce the Jack be Nimble nursery rhyme-and moving like the Giant.
Our math stations will echo the Beanstalk storyline as we focus on small, smaller, big, bigger, biggest, and of course, giant. We continue our work with geometry, creating patterns with manipulatives and dot paints, practicing problem solving at the block station, and reinforcing our sorting skills with the introduction of coins (sorting based on size, color, design, value).
We will exercise our green thumbs when we grow our own lima bean beanstalk in the community garden. Learning about the importance of water, soil, and sunlight to the life of a plant develops natural and scientific awareness and provides young people with a sense of responsibility and ownership.
Our week of review anticipates the mid-semester reports which will be distributed Monday, November 1st. The reports are part of our mission to keep an open line of communication between parents and teachers. They will chart your child's progress, identifying areas of achievement as well as areas of difficulty, and are designed to help guide a student's learning and development through the second half of the semester.
Please feel free to discuss these reports with your child's instructor, and as always, I am available by email.
Sincerely,
Gair Morris |
