Category Archives: Uncategorized

Our morning class had the opportunity to participate with the closing of our school’s learning garden on Monday, October 27th. We were able to help rake, shovel, and pull roots out of the herb and spice containers! The children had a lot of fun learning about why it’s important to put our garden “to sleep” for the winter and the process it takes to do so. We also were able to plant some garlic cloves in the containers to help keep our soil fresh and clean. Maybe next spring we will see some garlic growing! After we left, the second graders came over to lay a bed of leaves over the soil.

We will be taking out our afternoon class on Tuesday this week to check out the sleeping garden and to enjoy our story for the day out on the sitting rocks there.

On Tuesday, October 21st our preschoolers at Peirce joined millions of other children across the country in Jump Start’s “Read for the Record Day”. This year’s story was “Bunny Cakes” written by Rosemary Wells. It is a sweet story about siblings, sharing ideas, and thoughtfulness.

We always like to make a big deal about this day because it is something to be proud of! Each child received their own copy of the book “Bunny Cakes” from the Office of Early Childhood and it should be kept at home. No need to return it! It’s yours to keep. We also had special learning centers for the day that included a Grocery Store, Bunny Ears Station, Birthday Cake Design Station, and a “Clip, Snip, and Shop” Station where they created their own shopping list using grocery picture adds!

Enjoy the pictures of the children having great fun! Finally, a BIG thank you to our morning moms for joining us in the fun and helping to make the morning centers run smoothly! We appreciate your help!

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WOWZA! Where is the time going? We’ve been flying through the month of October on amazing inquiry adventures! As you know, October has been focused on “INQUIRY” for our IB programme. We have been encouraging for students to ask questions about things they are curious about and expanding their critical thinking skills. When we are talking about leaves for example, there might be questions asked like, “Why are the leaves changing colors?” or “Why are the leaves falling off the trees?” or  “What should we do with the leaves that are on the ground?” These types of questions encourage your child to think in a way that allows them to sequence, and dig deeper into why things are the way they are in our world (their world).

During week seven (October 13-17), we continued our Tree Study Investigation! First thing we all did when we came back from our long weekend was share our experiences and findings from our Inquiry Autumn Scavenger Hunt! Thank you so much for all your support in making that parent-child adventure so much fun and meaningful for the children! Their stories were fantastic! Each child was able to sort their findings into various pans by object. Secondly, we counted how many each class collected overall. During that time we discussed size, shape, texture, colors, etc… of the objects found. We also compared/contrasted these objects to each other. There were great discussions over this project! The next day (Wednesday), each child took many the objects from the inquiry scavenger hunt and created their own works of art! Some students made collages, others made people or animals with these materials. We read the story, “Lead Man” and “Yellow Leaf, Red Leaf” by Lois Ehlert to gain some inspiration! Miss Santiago and I were so amazed at their deep cognitive thinking and creativity that took place. Their ideas, and process they took to create their art was anything less than brilliant! We were in awe! I hope you are too when you see their work.

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Week eight we began to switch our thinking to fire safety! (We also celebrated Read for the Record Day on Tuesday, but pictures will be posted in the next post for that). The students spent four days learning about fire safety, fire trucks, and firefighters! One of our morning family’s donated an awesome toy firehouse with trucks for the children to play with during this mini unit of study. This turned into the children creating larger structures being built of fire trucks, and homes that they could help rescue people and put out the fires! The children were so much fun to watch and listen in on their conversations! It always warms my heart when I get to see authentic learning take place when we create the right environment and opportunities to do so; through play! Students learned to “Stop, Drop, and Roll”, dial 911 on a phone if their is an emergency, the parts of a fire truck, and to not be afraid of firefighters! We had also had some fun learning centers during week eight that focused on numbers! We played a Fire Truck Roll and Dot game. Students learned how to use dice and match the numeral on their fire truck to the value on their dice! Very tricky for this age, but through practice and play they got it! We also worked on numerical order 1-5 and 1-10. Using firefighters and their numbered jackets students had to place the firemen in their numerical order in line! This was a great activity for the kids! Enjoy some of our pictures from our Fire Safety Study!

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Here is a great article that was recently posted by the New York Times. Please take a few minutes to read this article!

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/22/opinion/the-building-blocks-of-a-good-pre-k.html?smid=nytcore-iphone-share&smprod=nytcore-iphone&_r=0

Fall has definitely arrived in Chicago over the past two weeks! It has been wonderful exploring, inquiring, and investigating all the seasonal changes that are occurring outside. Our Tree Study is well underway, and the children have been asking a lot of questions about trees and the changes we see.

Through our unit of study, we have been reading a lot of non-fiction books to show how useful trees are for our Earth and us! What are trees used for? How many things in our world are actually made out of trees? The children’s findings have blown us away! Their critical thinking and imagination have sparked many questions and “I wonders” in their conversations with one another. It’s been awesome to observe and see.

We also have been writing and drawing in our journals these past two weeks. We went outside and observed our class tree to see the leaves begin to change. Over the course of four weeks, we will visit our tree weekly to watch the changes that the tree goes through during the fall. This will carry out through the remainder of the school year with each new season.

In our water table we have added colorful leaves, acorns and mini pumpkins for the children to explore with using water. Our light table has beautiful leaves that the children are beginning to trace over and examining different leaves in detail. They are looking at the veins, edges and stems on these leaves. At our art easel, the children are using sticks to paint with! This has been a popular activity for the children to experience. The kids are quickly realizing how hard it is to get paint onto the sticks, but their diligence and creativity have helped them along the way! At our listening center the children have been listening to “There was an old lady who swallowed some leaves”. There have been lots of giggles from this corner of our room as they listen to the sequence of all the things that the little old lady swallowed in the fall!

Last Thursday and Friday I had the children complete a Venn Diagram comparing objects that are made from a tree (wood) and things that are not made from a tree, and then things that are made both from trees and not from trees. Each child was able to pick something out of a basket and then decide whether is belonged on the “Made from a Tree” side, or the “Not made from a tree” side! They were so engaged and excited about their findings!

Enjoy a few pictures from our Tree Study!

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Last week was jammed filled with learning and play! We began our second week of Second Step lessons which are helping the children learn how to listen to one another, show respect and regard for each other. The children are really responding well to this program and enjoy our two new classmate puppets “Sunny” and “Hazel”. They were named by our classmate Rylo who is in our afternoon class!

We are moving right along in our “Myself and Others” unit with our last project called, “The Colors of Us-The Stories About Us”. Based off of two stories we read last week that introduced the shades of color our skin can be, students began to dialogue what makes up the different colors of us! What makes us unique? What makes us the same? In our art area we began to mix various paint colors to create each child’s skin color! When we were close to a color the child approved they they began to paint their skin color onto their art paper with a child stencil. After it dried, students cut out their person and began to create clothes, hair, eyes, and other features that represented them! Miss Santiago assisted in this activity and the end result of their projects are AMAZING! I cannot wait for you to see them! This week we are beginning to write a story about ourselves that will go along with their art project of themselves. This project has taken us a total of 2.5 weeks to do, so please take the time to discuss your child’s project when they bring them home later in the month.

In Science during week four we ended our apple study with apple taste testing! Woo hoo!!! It was a HUGE hit! My favorite quote from one of our students was, “Miss Hopkins! This apple is delicious! No wonder why they call them golden delicious!” It made my heart smile! Using their five senses, students discussed the various traits each apple had. We examined red gala apples, green granny smith apples, and yellow golden delicious apples! Yummy! The children also finished up their still life drawings of apples that I will be displaying out in the hallway.

During week five (this week), we will be learning and celebrating SHAPES!!! Shapes are all around us! For our younger learners we will be introducing the five basic shapes: circle, square, rectangle, triangle, and oval. For our older learners, we will continue on with more complex shapes: hexagon, pentagon, octagon, cylinder, cube, etc… The children should be bringing home every day a new shape puppet for help remember the shapes name, how many sides and corners it has, along with equal sides vs. non equal sides.

Enjoy some pictures of our learning from week four!

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Wow! We’ve been busy bees in Room 121 these past two weeks! Time flies when you’re having fun. Over the past two weeks we have been continuing to learn our daily routines, school rules, and all about ourselves! We are slowly moving right into our “All About Me” unit which will take us into October!

During week three your child began to bring home some art work and papers of things they have been learning and working on in preschool! In our art, math, science and discovery areas the children have been exploring and experimenting with primary colors (red, blue, yellow), and how to use scissors! It’s been great fun and the children enjoyed our story about “Little Blue and Little Yellow” by Leo Lionni, which led us into creating a class book using little yellow and little blue! Make sure to check it out at Parent/Teacher conferences in November! At our table toy area, students have been using architectural blocks to create their own structures, modes of transportation, and even the “Frozen” castle! The children have been so creative and articulate in explaining their structures to us! It’s been very impressive to witness their level of cognition and creativity! We also read the story,”The Peace Book” by Todd Parr which led us into discussions around peace and our peace dove art!

Enjoy our pictures from weeks two and three!

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Wow! What a busy week we have all had! It has been so much fun getting to know your little one these past few days, as well as your family! Miss Santiago and I are looking forward to a great year. Thank you to our returning families for helping our new families and gearing up your little one to be the big kid helpers this year! They all have been a great help with the large number of new kids we have.

Couple of housekeeping items: Please make sure your child has their folder by Monday. It is important for them to get into the routine of putting their folder in their mailbox. Also, please make sure your family’s lunch form is turned in by this upcoming Monday as well. If you have questions on how to fill it out, please see us. We will help you out.

Enjoy some pictures of our first week!

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