Trip to the Planetarium

Today was our trip to the planetarium and Pacific Science Center! Hopefully your child provided a full report. Here are some pictures to accompanyany their summary.

 Seeing a 3-D version of the planets.

 Weight on other planets.

 Moon puzzle

Celestial Storms

Testing orbits

In a space craft!

 The actual planetarium (I'm curious what the children thought about it. This was the most disappointing part of the trip for me.)

 Galaxy exploration.

Touch pond

The butterfly room!

In the butterfly room, a wonderful museum employee, Ari, gave us a botany lesson. He showed us some interesting plants, including pineapple, coffee, and chocolate trees.  He explained pollination and infestation, the connection between insects and plants. This was my highlight of the trip. As most of the students shared my enthusiasm, the next scientific area of study is likely to be horticulture.

Water Painting

Recess in this weather can be less fun.
Today we tried something new.
Paintbrushes + water + TDS building = Fun for everyone.

 It started with a few kids.

 Then more came.

 And more!

Until everything was covered!

"Morah, is it going to stay on the wall forever?" Yitzi asked.
"What is your hypothesis?" I asked.
"It will and Rabbi Margolese is going to be really angry at you," he replied.
I really hope his hypothesis is wrong...

Pre-K, Phone Home

I am not a believer in needless rote memorization. But some is needed. In Parashat Vayishlach I explain, "Dina, Yaakov's daughter, got separated from her family.  This is very dangerous!" We discussed why this is dangerous, how it could theoretically happen to someone (because the students insisted it could never happen), and what they would do if, chas v'shalom, it ever happened to them.

"I'd call ummm, 111," Nechama suggested.
"I'd call 911," Syma countered,
"911! 911! 911!" the class chorused together.
"Good! You all know to call 911 if there is an emergency.  Like a fire," I replied. "But if you are out somewhere, and suddenly can't find your family, what would you do?" I asked.
"I would never lose my family," Nehorai insisted.
"I would call my family and they would find me!" Allison replied.
"Excellent! How would you call them?"
"With a phone," Yitzy responded dryly.
"Do you know your phone number?" I asked. Everyone stared at me blankly.  "How about your address?"
"I live on Myrtle Street!" Syma proudly replied. When pressed for an address, she cleverly remarked that she would have a policeman drive her on Myrtle street until they found her Volvo and then she would know she was home.

My goal was for everyone to work on memorizing their mother's cell phone number. If you have a preferred emergency contact, please let me know.
"Does this mean you will get us each a real phone?" Yitzy asked. Yaakov began to cheer at this prospect.

 We started with audio, oral and kinetic learning. Each child reviewed they phone number, hearing it and saying it.

 Then they had to jump out the numbers.

 This was good reinforcement for those working on number recognition.

 Great for fine motor coordination.

Fun for everyone.

 The numbers were printed up and the students are putting them up with magnets.
We will keep practicing in different ways at school.

Please reinforce this at home. Sing the number on the car ride to school. Have your child say them over and over while washing their hands.

Until my offspring memorized my phone number, I wrote it on their arms and across their stomachs whenever we attended a large function.

If You Give a Pre-Ker a Muffin...

Today MacPherson's (remember when we went there?) had 10 lbs of bananas for $.99.  This was clearly a sign that we needed to bake, the most delicious way to reinforce mathematics.

 Peeling (pincher fingers in action)

 Mashing (sensory feedback)

 Taking turns to add all the ingredients and stirring.

During this process, we worked on number recognition, counting, addition, subtraction, mentioned fractions, and number to objective correlation. 

The muffins were done but the children were not.

"I love baking! We should bake more!" suggested Allison.  
"Yeah!!!" almost everyone agreed.
"No, I don't like baking. Except chocolate cookies," Nechama shared.
"We should bake lots more. And then have a bake sale," suggest Syma.
"Yeah!" agreed Yitzy. "We'll be like the big kids."
"We could open a bakery," added Yaakov, excitedly. "And we'll make lots of money! When the school runs out of money, we will give them ours."

I think their plan (for selling baked goods) is an amazing one, involving so many valuable educational components!  IYH, we will move forward on this, making the Pre-K Snack Shop. We hope to sell our baked good as part of a healthy snack option for the whole school. 

Leaf Fun

During Sukkot break, the look of our playground changed. The children enjoyed playing with the leaves in a variety of ways. They were motivated and engaged for a very long time, always finding new ways to extend the play. If your child is not in these photos, they were enjoying an aspect of the playground other than the new autumn leaves.