Shaving Cream Names

 

In 4k, one of the many things we learn is how to write our name.  We have been practicing writing our names with only the first letter being an uppercase letter.  All the rest of the letters in our name are lowercase.  This can be very tricky, so the more ways we can practice, the better! 

Last week, we brought out the shaving cream and got "messy!"  We spread the shaving cream around the table and got writing!  The class enjoyed using their fingers to write their name and then using their hands to erase it and do it again!

December Nights, December Lights

We are learning our song for our holiday program quickly approaching!! This years song title is December Nights, December Lights and discusses four special holidays that are celebrated all across the land in the month of December.

Hanukka~Lights the Menorah

Christmas~Lights the Christmas Tree and Advent Wreath

Kwanza~Lights the Kinara

La Fiesta de la Posada~Lights Luminarias (Lanterns)

Thank you for continuing to practice the words to our song at home so that we have confidence as we sing it at school.

The words are...

December nights, December lights.

Celebrations all across the land.
December nights, December lights.

Celebrate with others hand in hand.

Celebrate eight nights of Hanukkah

Celebrate the feast of lights.

Christmas colors that inspire us.

Shine by day and through the night.

(Repeat Chorus)

Light the flames of the kinara.

Kwanza holidays begin.

Twinkling light of la Posada.

Is there room left at the inn?

(Repeat Chorus)

The links below have been viewed in the classroom and are informative of the holidays mentioned in our song. We have looked at a few of the symbols of these holidays as well so that we have a greater understanding of the holiday.

Arthur Hanukkah Video Clip

Sesame Street Kwanzaa Video Clip

Disney's La Posadas

 

 

May all of our holidays be celebrated with open hearts and with others hand in hand!!

Tom Turkey

My name is Tom Turkey
And I’m afraid as I can be.
I’m wearing my disguise
So you won’t catch me!

 

In case you haven't had a chance to stop by, check out our awesome disguised turkeys!  They have made it safely past Thanksgiving, thanks to all your hard work!

 

In 4k, we have also been working on writing with labeling!  Each week, our bulletin board reflects the letter we are studying that week.  The children help label the parts of the picture on the bulletin board.  They are then encouraged to label their own picture, with the help of the bulletin board and parent volunteer! 

Keep up the great writing!

 

 The colorful feathers for our turkey were created by the children using feathers to paint with instead of paint brushes! 

 

Your child's writing is displayed on our writers showcase and then put in their portfolio, which you will receive at the end of the year.

T for toothbrush and teeth

Brushing your teeth is important!  For T week, we learned about trains, tigers and how to keep our teeth healthy!  One of our small group projects was to use a toothbrush and toothpaste (white paint) to brush away the cavities on our tooth.  After we counted the number of cavities on our tooth, we tried to brush them away!  Even though you can't really brush away cavities (wouldn't that be nice), it was a fun activity to remind us how important brushing your teeth is!  Through books and a visit from the dentist, we learned how important it is to brush and floss our teeth so "our teeth don't rot and fall out." 

Remember to brush and floss your teeth at least twice a day and visit the dentist every 6 months!

 

Working together

In 4k we are learning how to communicate our ideas and work together with our friends!  This past week, the children have been challenged to work together to create a winter scene on our smartboard!  The tricky part is only one person can touch the smartboard at a time, otherwise the parts won't move.  This encouraged the children to communicate their ideas, take turns, and work together with a classmate!  I am so impressed with how cooperatively each pair is working and the ideas that are being shared!  Keep it up 4k!

Food Pyramid Fun

Sorry this post is so late!  During nutrition week, 4k learned all about the food pyramid!  We looked at both the new food pyramid and the old one and discovered what foods we need to eat to stay healthy.  In order to stay healthy, we should eat foods from all the food groups.  Each child created their own food pyramid and then on Friday we had a surprise food pyramid snack!  Discovering where the foods we were eating belong on the food pyramid was a blast!  All the children did a great job placing the food in the correct spot on their food pyramid place mat!  While eating dinner tonight, ask your child what food groups the food you are eating belong in!

 

 

 Thank you to all the families who helped out by supplying part of our special food pyramid snack!

The Results are in...

For V week, we learned about voting!  We talked about how our families were going to vote for a president on election day, and held our own class election!  Instead of voting for a president, we voted for a name for our class bear!  Each child was able to offer an idea that they thought would be a good name for our bear!  After everyone had a turn to share, each child each voted for their favorite name.  We learned what a tally mark was and used them to help us keep track of our votes.  Once everyone had a turn to vote, we took the top two names held a real election!

The top two names were: Sparkly Bear and Monster High

 

 

We learned that when you vote, you do it privately so no one knows your vote.  We discussed how it was OK to vote for something different than our friends and we didn't have to share who we voted for unless we wanted to.  Each child took a turn to go to our polling center and fill out a Ballot to vote for one of the top two names. 

 

Once all the votes were cast, we counted them and learned that the winner of our class election and the new name of our bear was:

Monster High