Summer fun is almost over...

We are wrapping up our final week of summer camp!  What a fun and exciting summer we have had at Discovery Garden.  We will miss a few of our friends as they go on to new schools, kindergarten and first grade. 

This will be Ms. Brianna's last week.  She will be heading back to school as well, but will come back to volunteer from time to time.  Recently, we have had Mrs. Karen visit the school to see if she is the right fit for our school.  We all enjoyed having her and she will be replacing Ms. Brianna this school year.  Ms. Lindsay and I are so excited to get the new school year started.  We have so many exciting things planned including monthly field trips, more cooking projects and possibly weekly short trips.  We will be moving the science center to the math room and freeing up the science room for an additional small classroom.

School will be closed September 6th and 7th.  We will begin the first day of school for Tuesday/Thurs kids on Thursday September 8th.  Monday the 12th will be the first day for M/W students.  School is from 9-1 unless you have made special arrangements to bring your child a bit earlier.  Please try to be on time so that we may start morning meetings on time.   This means you can drop your child off to school between 9-9:30am.  The students will have free play during drop off time.  If you have any questions feel free to email us.

If your child is 2.5-3.5 he/she will be with Ms. Lindsay and Mrs. Karen.  If you have any questions or concerns you can email Ms. Lindsay at our school email and she will get back to you.  If your child is in Ms. Salouma's class you can also send her an email.

Please don't forget to bring in immunization forms as soon as you are able to.

We are beginning to plan our back-to-school picnic, but first we would like to see which day would work best for everyone: Saturday September 17 or Saturday September 24, 12pm-3pm. Let us know your thoughts and we'll get back with a finalized date!

If you have any other questions, please feel free to call/email. Thanks!

Space Week

This is the last week of summer camp! Can you believe it?? I sure can’t! We are wrapping up our summer with space J

Monday:

·         moon crater art projects

·         If You Decide to go to the Moon by Faith McNulty and Mooncake by Frank Asch

·         moonwalking

·         science: explore and observe moon

·         snack: peaches and cucumber

Tuesday:

·         solar system spray bottle painting scene

·         On Earth by G. Brian Karas and Nearest to the Sun: the Planet Mercury by Nancy Loewen

·         math: roll the dice star activity

·         science: planets and stars

·         snack: bananas and carrots

Wednesday:

·         art: rockets

·         Astronaut Handbook by Meghan McCarthy and Sheep Blast Off by Nancy Shaw

·         toothpick and marshmallow rocket building

·         science: Alka-Seltzer rocket experiment

·         math: pattern block rocket

·         snack: watermelon and peas

Thursday:

·         art: comet

·         Stars, stars, stars by Bob Barner and The Sun: Our Nearest Star by Franklyn Mansfiled Branley

·         shape constellation activity

·         literacy: beginning letter sound/letter recognition comet activity

·         snack: nectarines and cucumber

Friday:

·         solar system collage

·         Space Boy by Leo Landry and Flip the Flaps Planet Earth by Mike Goldsmith

·         science: planet classification

·         math: roll the dice star activity

·         snack: watermelon and romaine lettuce

I also found a book of space poems at the library- And Then There Were Eight: Poems About Space by Laura Purdie Salas. We will read a couple of these poems each day! This is a great book of space poems!!

Pictures From Author Study Week!

Here are some more pictures from last week. Sorry for the late post J

                                                                      Tie dying

          Paper art scenes of new stories that students would want Lois Ehlert to write about.

                                                          Making vegetable soup

                      Art projects that went along with A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon

                Making pizza! This went along with the book Curious George and the Pizza Party

busy kids

pictures

Author Study

This week we are studying authors! Yay for books! Each day we will focus on a different author, create art projects and engage in activities around the books we are reading.

Monday: Kevin Henkes

·         My Garden and Lily’s Plastic Purse

·         Garden scene art project

·         Money sort

·         Flower pattern block

·         Snack: peaches and cucumber

Tuesday: Lois Ehlert

·         Nuts to You! and Growing Vegetable Soup

·         Paper art story scene

·         Class letter to Lois Ehlert

·         Song: Busy Squirrels and Out in the Garden

·         Cooking project: vegetable soup (to go with the storyJ)

·         Snack: nectarines and snap peas

Wednesday:  David Shannon

·         Too Many Toys, A Bad Case of Stripes, Alice and the Tooth Fairy

·         Oil pastel art/Bad Case of Stripes art project

·         Toy Swap

·         Stripe pattern activity

·         Song: I Love to Brush my Teeth and Manners are the Way

·         Snack: watermelon and peas

Thursday: H.A. Rey

·         Curious George and the Pizza Party and Curious George Rides a Bike

·         Recycled sailboat activity

·         Song: 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed and If You Want to Eat Some Pizza

·         Cooking project: mini pizzas

Friday: Field Trip!! Jetty Island J

**Toy Swap: This activity will go along with the story Too Many Toys by David Shannon. If possible, we would like for your student to bring in 2 toys. From the group of toys that are brought in, they will get to choose one new toy to take home, and the other toy that they choose will be donated. Let us know if you have any questions! Thanks!

Get your limbo on!

We have a great group of kids this week, and everyone is having a great time! At the end of the day, the kids did limbo and walked in a conga line…so much fun! The kids loved it! We also spent a lot of time outside today because of the beautiful weatherJ

For art today, we made a colored sand picture. The colored sand was really colored salt! (This was a great alternative to colored sand!)Ms. Salouma showed the kids the process…dropping food coloring in a bag of salt, mixing it up, and letting it sit for a few to absorb. The students were given a paper frame (it looks like a picture frame) with a piece of contact paper in the middle. They then had to create a beach scene (or a design) with the colored salt by pinching it onto their contact paper. The contact paper works great because it’s already sticky…no glue required! We then placed another piece of contact paper over their picture to keep the salt from falling off. These turned out great! I just forgot to take pictures of our art time L

But…check out the limbo and conga pictures! (Sorry for blurry pictures...it's hard to capture them being still!)

Looking forward to tomorrow!

This Week's Schedule

Here are the activities that we have planned for the rest of the week! Let’s get ready for some fun at the beach!

Tuesday:

·         Colored sand collage

·         Fish sort

·         Salt water evaporation

·         Songs: 5 Little Fishies and Waves at the Beach

·         Snack: peaches and carrots

Wednesday:

·         Rock turtle art project

·         Tie-dye!

·         Salt water buoyance

·         Songs: I’m a Little Fishy and Pretty Shells

·         Snack: smoothie and cucumber

Thursday:

·         Sand cakes/sculptures

·         Treasure jar activity

·         Cooking project: coconut cream pie

·         Songs: 5 Little Fishies and Waves at the Beach

·         Snack: coconut and golden beets

Friday:

·         Porthole art project

·         Seashell sort

·         Songs: I’m a Little Fishy and Pretty Shells

·         Snack: banana, peas, snow cones

Here are some extra activities that we will do throughout the week/as we have time:

·         Marshmallow ocean molds

·         Rainbow ice

·         Limbo

·         Hula hoop

·         Create a lei

·         Coconut bowling

Beach Party!

The beach is the theme this week! Here is the agenda for today:

·         Beach scene art project

·         Fish sort (based on color, size, etc.)

·         Salt evaporation science experiment

·         Seashell sort

·         Snack: cucumber, grapes

I will post the rest of this week’s schedule later this evening, along with song lyrics. Also, if you have any empty 2 liter bottles or jars, please feel free to bring them in! We need them for some of our fun activities for this week. J

Happy Monday!

The beginning of dinosaur week...

The students have really enjoyed the beginning of dinosaur week! One student brought in some dinosaur figurines, and these have been great for giving the kids a more realistic idea (and is different from looking at pictures in a book) of what some of the dinosaurs look like. We talked about the Triceratops today. I pointed out how the Triceratops had 3 horns on his head, and that tri- means three. We brainstormed some other words that begin with tri-, such as triangle and tricycle. Ms. Salouma also played dinosaur bingo today with the kids. Some of the names of the dinosaurs are really difficult, but the students were able to look at the picture of the dinosaur on the card and match it to their bingo mat! Looking forward to more dinosaur fun the rest of the week!

Pictures from Monday and today:

                                                             Erupting volcanoes

                                               Art from Monday: erupting volcano scene

                                                           Ice picking for dinosaurs

                                                          Playing dinosaur bingo

Have a wonderful evening!

Dinosaur Books

Here are some of the dinosaur books that we have out and easily displayed for the kids to browse through and read this week!

T-Rex at Swan Lake by Lisa Carrier and Lenore Hart

Trouble at the Dinosaur Café by Brian Moses

Tyrannosaurus Math by Michelle Markel

Dinosaurs Galore! By Giles Andreae

Triceratops by Daniel Nunn

How to Raise a Dinosaur by Natasha Wing

Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp by Carol Shields

How Do Dinosaurs Go to School? By Jane Yolen & Mark Teague

A Dinosaur Called Tiny by Alan Durant

No T-Rex in the Library by Toni Buzzeo

How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? By Jane Yolen & Mark Teague

If You Give a T-Rex a Bone by Tim Myers

Tyrannosaurus Rex by Daniel Nunn

Gnash, Gnaw, Dinosaur!: Prehistoric poems with lift-the-flap surprise by Tony Mitton

Dinosaur by David Norman

Wee Sing Dinosaurs by Pamela C. Beall (music CD)

Song lyrics for this week

Song Lyrics for this week

Here are the lyrics for the songs and fingerplays we will be singing this week!

                                                                                                                                                           

Songs:

We have 2 songs that we will be singing on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and then 2 different songs for the Tuesday/Thursday class.

The Little Baby Dinosaur (The Itsy, Bitsy Spider)

The little baby dinosaur
Climbed up to the top
Of a volcano
That was ready to pop!

Out came the lava,
So very, very hot
And the little baby dinosaur
Ran home without a stop!

Dinosaur Friends (Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star)

Dinosaurs live long ago
Some ran fast and some moved slow.
Some ate plants and some ate meat.
All were mean, none were sweet.
I'm so glad I didn't live then
I wouldn't want them for my friends!

Dinosaur Egg (The Itsy, Bitsy Spider)

Inside her egg shell, white and round,
Baby dino is safe and sound.
But she wants to come out into the light,
So she pushes and shoves with all her might.
Her shell soon cracks and creaks and pops,
One big jump and out she pops!

Dinosaurs Roamed the Earth (Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star)

Dinosaurs, dinosaurs with great height,
Roamed the earth both day and night.
Fought each other with all their might.
But now those dinosaurs are out of sight.
Dinosaurs, dinosaurs with great height,
Roamed the earth both day and night.

Fingerplays:

Long, Long Ago

Long, long ago, when the earth was young.

Dinosaurs lived here under the sun.

Some were big and some were small.

Some were fat and some were tall.

Some could swim, some could fly.

Some could stretch up, very high.

Don’t you wish, they still roamed free

And lived somewhere that you could see?

Five Hungry Dinosaurs

Five hungry dinosaurs wading through a swamp.

The first one said, “I like to stomp.”

The second one said, “My stomach is growling.”

The third one said, “It’s time to go prowling.”

The fourth one said, “Let’s look for some food.”

The fifth one said, “I’m in the mood.”

Five hungry dinosaurs wading through a swamp.

They are very hungry. Chomp! Chomp! Chomp!