Our Outdoor Learning Area (OLA), Planets, and Music

On Monday we have a dedication to our new Outdoor Learning Area (OLA) at 11:00.  That will be followed by a celebration of cutting the cake inside the school.  We'll enjoy eating our cake while we discuss what we saw and how we can use our new OLA.

This week we'll continue to learn about planets and the solar system.  We will start painting our planets for a mobile on Tuesday and we should finish them up by Thursday.  We'll hang them in our classroom for a week and then we'll send them home.  The children really enjoyed making their rocket-ships this past week.

For music this week, we will do rhythm sticks, musical egg shakers and dance to a new CD by Jim Gill called Moving Rhymes for Modern Times.  We'll try a little square dancing to Swing Your Partner and we'll also learn the motions to Face the Facts.  Here are the words to Face the Facts....you can see how fun this will be to act out!

I must face the fact.  My swimming arms are back.
We must face the fact.  Our swimming arms are back.
They are splashing, flapping. stretching, lapping one full mile exact.
We must face the fact.  Our swimming arms are back.

I must face the fact. My scissor legs are back. 
We must face the fact.  Our scissor legs are back.
They are cutting, clipping. slicing, snipping, trimming the rick rack.
We must face the fact.  Our scissor legs are back.

I must face the fact.  My driving arms are back.
We must face the fact.  Our driving arms are back.
They are guiding, steering, turning, veering, my air Cadillac.
We must face the fact.  Our driving arms are back.

I must face the fact.  My binocular eyes are back.
We must face the fact.  Our binocular eyes are back.
They are peering, peeking, scanning, seeking needles in haystacks.
We must face the fact.  Our binocular eyes are back.

I must face the fact.  My jumping jacks are back.
We must face the fact.  Our jumping jacks are back.
They are bounding, flapping, jumping, clapping, picking up the slack.
We must face the fact.  Our jumping jacks are back.

Scholastic Book Ordering Online!

On Monday, I will send home a letter explaining our new online ordering opportunity for Scholastic Books! I love books and so do the children and I want to make it as easy as possible for you to order books for your family as well. You're welcome to take advantage of this online option or you can continue to send in your order with your child.  If you order online credit and debit cards are accepted and paper orders can be accompanied with cash or checks made out to Scholastic Books.

Ordering online is fast and easy:

•     REGISTER at www.scholastic.com/bookclubs

•     ENTER the Class Activation Code for Brooks-Yates Preschool:  HKF2P

•     CHOOSE from thousands of print titles, value packs, and Storia eBooks

•     SUBMIT the order to your child's teacher

•     EARN FREE Books for you and the classroom too!

Things in the Sky: Man-made objects, Planets and the Solar System

We have a few weeks under our belt and we've started a new unit on Things in the Sky.  The children have been sharing what they know about things that are in the sky and we are coming up with some questions that we have about things that fly.  We will talk about things that are man-made that fly in the sky.  Last week we talked about general modes of transportation and we discussed what they have in common.  Here's the list that the children came up with: motors, doors, steering wheel, and fans-and they are used to cool things down.  This was a great list they were able to tell us about.  We talked about things that are vehicles and things that aren't vehicles.  

This week we'll learn more about stars and planets.  We'll also start to create some rocket ships on paper using different shapes and colors. Then we'll build and paint rocket ships too!  We have so much to do!