Notes from Mrs. Babetski
For Mrs. Babetski's Threes:
As we move into February, I wanted to give you an update as to our winter activities.
We have created cardinals, bird feeders, penguins and painted at the easel. All these art activities continue to foster our creative juices, exercise our small and large motor muscles and give our language abilities a workout as well.
We have celebrated Kwanzaa and Chinese New Year with stories, art, games and music that have introduced us to these holidays.
Language activities have included stories such as Nat the Bunny, The Mitten and Feathers for Lunch. Looking at the “Name of the Day” has become a favorite activity. Each child's special letter has become our special letter for the day and allows us to experience letter learning in a more personal and developmentally appropriate way. Our listening and sound discrimination skills are fostered here and continue to mature.
New songs include 5 Fat Snowmen, Pat the Little Snowman, Tommy Thumb and Your Face. Participation, rhythm and rhyming skills are encouraged. Large motor muscles are also exercised when we dance to The Freeze or Body Rock.
We welcomed two Beta fish to our science table and continue to keep an observing eye on the growth of our classroom amaryllis and paper whites with a ruler. Here the children are encouraged to care for nature and by using the small sprayer bottle to water; they exercise their hands and fingers for writing as well.
In conclusion, we have snatched alphabet snowflakes for letter recognition; matched patterned mittens for visual discrimination, ice fished for shape recognition and enjoyed computers with Mrs. Flast. We are looking forward to February and all the love that it brings.
Fondly,
Cindy Babetski
For Mrs. Babetski's Fours:
Happy New Year. See what we have been busy with this month.
We welcomed in 2012 with puff sponge paintings and evergreen trees painted with real pine branches. We blew liquid watercolors through straws, painted with ice and shaving cream and have been observing the many properties of water. Skills we have touched on are small motor exercise, language development, hands on tactile experiences and art just because it’s fun.
We constructed a beautiful cave for our friend Little Bear and placed it in our kitchen area. As they say, location is key and I know he will hate to leave it when spring finally arrives. We are learning about hibernation, and all the creatures that participate during these winter months. We will remove links from the paper chain we made at the holidays as we count down the days until our spring celebration when we welcome Little Bear back. Each time we remove a link, we are subtracting!
Our pine cone feeders were fun to make. We have one hanging outside our classroom window for us to observe.
We have celebrated Kwanzaa and Chinese New Year by listening to stories and hearing music from these holidays. This expands our knowledge of different cultures and customs.
Language arts activities revolve around those wonderful winter tales. We have read about mittens, jackets in the snow, biggest snowmen and feathers for lunch (a book about a cat looking for food!) skills that are fostered here are sound discrimination, listening, rhyming, critical thinking and a love of books.
We have been moving to music with movement songs like Peanut Butter and Jelly, The Freeze Dance and On the Count of Five. We have used our instruments and our rhythm sticks. We even walked like penguins.
Since we have to be inside a lot these days we enjoy having relay races downstairs in the playroom. Team work and following directions is fostered as are large motor skills when we run, walk backwards, hop and ride the small scooters. Cheering for our friends always makes us feel good.
We now have two Beta fish occupying space on the science table along with Pip. We continue to care for our garden amaryllis and paper whites by using the sprayer bottle to water them which also exercises our hands for future writing (My windows get a nice cleaning as well!). Caring for nature and sensory skills are being developed here.
We continue to use our individual chalkboards, have fun with our name tags which helps us recognize not only our names but our classmates as well. We have been ice fishing for shape recognition, matched mittens for patterning, and snatched alphabet snowflakes for letter recognition. Show and Tell has been wonderful so far.
Fondly,
Mrs. Babetski
For Mrs. Babetski's Four Plus Class:
I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year. As January comes to a close, this is what we have been up to.
We painted wonderful winter hats and drew expressive faces to go with them as we welcomed in 2012. Hopefully our birdfeeders have been enjoyed by a few birds and squirrels as well.
We blew watercolors through straws, painted with shaving cream and are observing the many properties of water. We will finish that unit this week when we create our collective ice castle.
After reading the story Snowballs, we created snow people which will be featured in our soon to be published book. I will be giving each child a turn to take it home to enjoy with their family. When it is your turn, feel free to leave a comment on the last page.
We celebrated Kwanzaa and Chinese New Year this past month with music, art and stories. We banged our drums and used our rhythm sticks to celebrate these wonderful holidays. It goes without saying that music is a part of our class every day. Our best instrument is with us always. We love singing songs like Your Face, Jack Frost and Pat the Snowman. Our bodies also get exercise when we dance to The Freeze, Body Rock and Sally the Swinging Snake.
Language Arts activities include stories like The Snowy Day, The Jacket I wear in the Snow, Time to Sleep and The Mitten. We had the pleasure of having Aidan’s sister read a wonderful story to us called Over in the Meadow. We all thank her very much.
Our science table is now home to two Beta fish as well as Pip who hibernates a lot these days. We continue to observe the growth of our amaryllis and paper whites with a ruler and tend the garden when it is our turn. Our friend Little Bear has been placed inside the cave that we helped the AM 4 year old class make. We are trying very hard not to disturb him while he is hibernating. We will welcome him out on the first day of spring.
Our letter journey is off to a wonderful start. We are globetrotting and meeting wonderful new friends along the way.
Some specific skills we have been working on are:
More or less, One to one correspondence, Graphing, Matching, Patterning ,
Numbers 11-20, Memory and recall, Categorizing, Listening, rhyming, and syllables,
Alphabet recognition and consonant sound discrimination.
Fondly,
Cindy Babetski
As we move into February, I wanted to give you an update as to our winter activities.
We have created cardinals, bird feeders, penguins and painted at the easel. All these art activities continue to foster our creative juices, exercise our small and large motor muscles and give our language abilities a workout as well.
We have celebrated Kwanzaa and Chinese New Year with stories, art, games and music that have introduced us to these holidays.
Language activities have included stories such as Nat the Bunny, The Mitten and Feathers for Lunch. Looking at the “Name of the Day” has become a favorite activity. Each child's special letter has become our special letter for the day and allows us to experience letter learning in a more personal and developmentally appropriate way. Our listening and sound discrimination skills are fostered here and continue to mature.
New songs include 5 Fat Snowmen, Pat the Little Snowman, Tommy Thumb and Your Face. Participation, rhythm and rhyming skills are encouraged. Large motor muscles are also exercised when we dance to The Freeze or Body Rock.
We welcomed two Beta fish to our science table and continue to keep an observing eye on the growth of our classroom amaryllis and paper whites with a ruler. Here the children are encouraged to care for nature and by using the small sprayer bottle to water; they exercise their hands and fingers for writing as well.
In conclusion, we have snatched alphabet snowflakes for letter recognition; matched patterned mittens for visual discrimination, ice fished for shape recognition and enjoyed computers with Mrs. Flast. We are looking forward to February and all the love that it brings.
Fondly,
Cindy Babetski
For Mrs. Babetski's Fours:
Happy New Year. See what we have been busy with this month.
We welcomed in 2012 with puff sponge paintings and evergreen trees painted with real pine branches. We blew liquid watercolors through straws, painted with ice and shaving cream and have been observing the many properties of water. Skills we have touched on are small motor exercise, language development, hands on tactile experiences and art just because it’s fun.
We constructed a beautiful cave for our friend Little Bear and placed it in our kitchen area. As they say, location is key and I know he will hate to leave it when spring finally arrives. We are learning about hibernation, and all the creatures that participate during these winter months. We will remove links from the paper chain we made at the holidays as we count down the days until our spring celebration when we welcome Little Bear back. Each time we remove a link, we are subtracting!
Our pine cone feeders were fun to make. We have one hanging outside our classroom window for us to observe.
We have celebrated Kwanzaa and Chinese New Year by listening to stories and hearing music from these holidays. This expands our knowledge of different cultures and customs.
Language arts activities revolve around those wonderful winter tales. We have read about mittens, jackets in the snow, biggest snowmen and feathers for lunch (a book about a cat looking for food!) skills that are fostered here are sound discrimination, listening, rhyming, critical thinking and a love of books.
We have been moving to music with movement songs like Peanut Butter and Jelly, The Freeze Dance and On the Count of Five. We have used our instruments and our rhythm sticks. We even walked like penguins.
Since we have to be inside a lot these days we enjoy having relay races downstairs in the playroom. Team work and following directions is fostered as are large motor skills when we run, walk backwards, hop and ride the small scooters. Cheering for our friends always makes us feel good.
We now have two Beta fish occupying space on the science table along with Pip. We continue to care for our garden amaryllis and paper whites by using the sprayer bottle to water them which also exercises our hands for future writing (My windows get a nice cleaning as well!). Caring for nature and sensory skills are being developed here.
We continue to use our individual chalkboards, have fun with our name tags which helps us recognize not only our names but our classmates as well. We have been ice fishing for shape recognition, matched mittens for patterning, and snatched alphabet snowflakes for letter recognition. Show and Tell has been wonderful so far.
Fondly,
Mrs. Babetski
For Mrs. Babetski's Four Plus Class:
I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year. As January comes to a close, this is what we have been up to.
We painted wonderful winter hats and drew expressive faces to go with them as we welcomed in 2012. Hopefully our birdfeeders have been enjoyed by a few birds and squirrels as well.
We blew watercolors through straws, painted with shaving cream and are observing the many properties of water. We will finish that unit this week when we create our collective ice castle.
After reading the story Snowballs, we created snow people which will be featured in our soon to be published book. I will be giving each child a turn to take it home to enjoy with their family. When it is your turn, feel free to leave a comment on the last page.
We celebrated Kwanzaa and Chinese New Year this past month with music, art and stories. We banged our drums and used our rhythm sticks to celebrate these wonderful holidays. It goes without saying that music is a part of our class every day. Our best instrument is with us always. We love singing songs like Your Face, Jack Frost and Pat the Snowman. Our bodies also get exercise when we dance to The Freeze, Body Rock and Sally the Swinging Snake.
Language Arts activities include stories like The Snowy Day, The Jacket I wear in the Snow, Time to Sleep and The Mitten. We had the pleasure of having Aidan’s sister read a wonderful story to us called Over in the Meadow. We all thank her very much.
Our science table is now home to two Beta fish as well as Pip who hibernates a lot these days. We continue to observe the growth of our amaryllis and paper whites with a ruler and tend the garden when it is our turn. Our friend Little Bear has been placed inside the cave that we helped the AM 4 year old class make. We are trying very hard not to disturb him while he is hibernating. We will welcome him out on the first day of spring.
Our letter journey is off to a wonderful start. We are globetrotting and meeting wonderful new friends along the way.
Some specific skills we have been working on are:
More or less, One to one correspondence, Graphing, Matching, Patterning ,
Numbers 11-20, Memory and recall, Categorizing, Listening, rhyming, and syllables,
Alphabet recognition and consonant sound discrimination.
Fondly,
Cindy Babetski
