April 9-13

In the atelier, the children used water color paint and gel glass medium to experiment on plexiglass. After realizing how good the colors look on the plexiglass, they began to paint color stripes to form a "rainbow."

Another day, EKS, KO, BW, EC, and RB worked in the atelier. The girls continued to explore with chalk and gel glass medium.

Using many of the same ideas that MF had when he built his gondola last week, CL and LY built a plane which carried trains and boats up the mountain.

At storytime, Ms. Iris stopped in the middle of a book and had the children draw their predictions about what was in the egg that the bunny found in the story. They also used their inventive spelling to write their words. Some of thier ideas were a bunny, flowers, a person, a bird, a moustache man, and a boy. Ask your children if they remember what was really in the egg!

Ms. Leigh dismissed the children after they answered a simple math problem or read a three-letter word on the whiteboard. The children figured out the solution to an addition or subtraction problem listening to the story she told: "Julie brought 4 cookies to school. James brought 2 more cookies to school. How many cookies all together?"

TK drew Casey, Jr.. by looking at pictures that he found on the Internet with Ms. Iris. TK said the pictures were "junk." When asked how we could get a better photo, TK said he could ask his mom for pictures since they just got back from Disneyland. Great thinking, TK! Another day, TK worked with red clay to make his beloved train.

On Wednesday, professional photographers came into the classroom to take pictures for Mid-Pacific Institute. The children were very interested in their equipment and how it worked as well as in posing for the camera.

The first meeting for the kindergarten group was held. The group brainstormed questions to ask the kindergarten teachers, Mrs. Hussey, and President Rice! Look for "homework" from the group, asking what kindergarten was like when YOU were a child!

We also started a group to share with the 3-year-olds what they will do next year. The group plans to ask the 3's what they want to know and will put a book together, describing our day.

CL's plan for the day was to make a book for his grandma who lives on the mainland. He had an idea to draw out his pictures, and then sound out the words to describe his picture, all on his own. With the help of Ms. Leigh, he wrote his words and then went to the office to bind his book. He was so proud of his book that he shared it with the rest of the class during our reflection meeting. Many children were inspired and will make their own books next week.

JD was one of the children inspired by CL's book. He drew a monster truck for his own book, which he plans to make 10 pages long! You go, JD!

The Restaurant Group and Party Planners met this week. Look for updates on the web soon.
A letter about our exciting last couple of months will be coming home soon.