Dear Koala Room Families,

We had so much fun this week learning all about Christmas! Here are some of the fun activities we did this week:

Classroom Activities:
 

• We played a “Guess What’s Missing?” game. The students looked at 9 different holiday pictures on cards and had to take turns to decipher which picture was missing. 
• We conducted a science experiment using candy canes, hot water and cold water. The students had to make predictions as to which cup of water would make the candy cane lose its color faster – the hot water or cold water. This lead into a deep discussion about what causes a solid to melt into a liquid.
• We decorated Christmas Trees! The students used different textiles to collage their trees, and had to choose a number between 10-20 to count out the decorations to glue down.
• Using marshmallows and tacky glue, the students made mugs of hot cocoa.
• Using toothpicks, mini marshmallows and gum drops we created a Christmas village! The students broke up into small groups to create their own buildings and homes. They were VERY tempted to eat the materials! :) 

 
Books we read:
 

• A Magical Christmas, by Claire Freedman
• The Gingerbread Man, by Barbara McClintock
• Merry Christmas, Curious George, by Catherine Hapka

 
Places we went:
 

• Art with Julia and Janae to finish working on part of the top secret auction paddles
• We practiced Yoga with Lindsay
• Music with Noel — we’ve been jingling and jangling with the jingle bells!
• In Gym 2 we used scooters to scoot on our stomachs to slither like snakes!

 
Letter of the Week:

• “O”! An Outstanding letter!

 
Person of the Week:
 

• Maddie Kim!

 
Important Dates:

• December 18th is our holiday party from 3:45-4:15
• MCS will be closed from 12/21/18-1/7/19 for the Holiday break

 
We hope you have a great holiday season!
 
Warmly,

Laura and Desiree

Dear Koala Room Families,

We had so much fun this week learning all about the Holiday's! We are continuing to learn all about Hanukkah.

Classroom Activities:

• We participated in the Hour of Code! We started off by talking about what a robot is and what makes a robot move.  We discussed how robots operate off of instructions and in order to accomplish a task, a robot needs to listen to the instructions.  Using symbols such as an upward arrow, downward arrow, arrow pointing to the left, and an arrow pointing to the right, the students successfully created a tower of cups! The upward arrow represented picking up a cup, the downward arrow represented putting down a cup, the arrow pointing to the left represented to move backwards, and the arrow pointing to the right represented moving forward.
  
• Each student had a turn looking at the cards, processing the symbol, and then maneuvering their body and cup to create the tower of cups. We had SO much fun with this activity! Please be sure to check out our photos from this coding activity.
• We played Dreidel! We worked on our listening, math, and fine motor skills by playing this fun game.
• We cooked latkes by shredding potatoes, onions, and then adding some eggs and salt. We devoured them with some apple sauce on the side!

 
Books we read:

• Latkes, Latkes, Good to Eat, by Naomi Howland
• Happy Hannukah Curious George, by H.A. Rey
• Snowmen All Year, by Caralyn Beuhner

 
Places we went:
 

• Art with Julia and Janae to work on a top secret auction project
• Movement and Yoga with Lindsay
• Music with Noel – we have been working on our holiday repertoire! 
• We visited the roof for the first time in a while!

 
Letter of the Week:

• “C”! A Creative letter!

 
Person of the Week:
 

• Juliet Oliver!

 
Important Dates:

• December 18th is our holiday party from 3:45-4:15

 
We hope you have a great weekend!
 
Laura and Desiree