Dear Sky Room,

We had a blast at the Central Park Zoo last Friday! Thank you all for coming and making it such a wonderful trip for your children. The teachers also had a lot of fun!
Classroom Activities:

• We looked at pictures of different types of bears – Polar, Koala, Brown, Black, and Panda! The students each practiced identifying each bear, and then spelled out each bear by identifying each letter written underneath the pictures! 
• The students chose to make either a Panda, Koala or Brown bear using paper plates, glue, tissue paper squares, and different sized circles for eyes and noses! 
• We played a Koala Bear memory matching game using cards that contained images of Koala’s doing different activities. There were 12 pictures (6 sets of matches) turned upside down, and the students were told that each turn they had they were allowed to turn over 2 cards to see if they made a match. The students exercised a lot of self control during this game – even though they were very tempted to turn over each card all at once to find the match!
• We sang “We’re going on a bear hunt” and walked all around the school looking for bears in every classroom!

Songs We Sang:

• “We’re Going on A Bear Hunt”
• “Let’s Go To The Zoo"

Books We Read:

• Brave Little Bear, by Rory Tyger
• Bear Says Thanks, by Karma Wilson
• I Was Once an Apple Pie, by Suse MacDonald

 

Reminders:

• MCS will be closed on Monday, May 28th for Memorial Day.
• Our end of year party will be on Wednesday, June 5th from 11:15-11:45am.
• The last day of school is Friday, June 7th.

Have a wonderful long weekend!
Laura Ashley and Desiree

Hello Sky Room Families!

Due to our upcoming trip to the Central Park Zoo, this week in the Sky Room we learned all about Zoo Animals! The students seemed particularly interested in learning all about jungle animals, so we focused a lot of our conversations and activities around animals such as snakes, monkeys, gorillas, tree frogs and tree kangaroos. We discussed how each of these animals live in the jungle, like to eat plants and insects, and enjoy hanging and swinging from trees. 

Classroom Activities:

• The students made their own snakes by taking rolling pins wrapped in bubble wrap and placing them in a paint color of their choosing. Next, they gently rolled or patted a paper plate. The bubble wrap gave an illusion of snake scales. We later added some googly-eyes and a tongue to give the full effect of a slithering snake!
• The Sky Room turned into a jungle! The teachers hung paper vines all throughout the room, and told the students that the animals escaped the classroom, so we had to go searching for them in the hallways. The students went searching throughout the hallways for photos of the different jungle animals that were taped to the wall. After we collected all the animals, we came back to the classroom to hang the animals back on the vines using some tape. The students had SO much fun with this activity! 
• We looked at photos of the animals that live in the Central Park Zoo. The students each stated what animal they were hoping to see, and then we all walked around the classroom pretending to be that animal! It was a very silly activity.

 
Songs We Sang:

•  “The Zoo Crew”
• “The Itsy Bitsy Monkey"

Books We Read:

• Rumble in The Jungle, by Giles Andreae
• Goodnight Gorilla, by Peggy Rathmann
• My School’s A Zoo!, by Stu Smith
• Dear Zoo, by Rod Campbell

Have a great weekend!

Laura Ashley and Desiree

Hello Sky Room Families!

This week in the Sky Room we learned all about Mother’s Day. We each shared what we love most about our mother’s, and how thankful we are to have them in our lives.

Classroom Activities:

• Using watered down acrylic paints, each student decorated a ceramic pot for their mother. Before painting, the students looked at each color and chose what colors they thought their mom would like the most. 


• After our pots dried, the students poured soil and a little bit of water and planted a flower inside of the pot.


• The students were interested in learning about the ocean a bit more, so we made starfish using orange paper, glue, glitter and added on some Cheerio’s for a textural effect!

 
Songs We Sang:

• “I Love My Mommy!”
• “M-O-M-M-Y!” (sung to the tune of “Bingo")

 
Books We Read:

• Me and My Mom!, by Alison Ritchie
• Stay Close to Mama, by Toni Buzzeo
• I Love My Mami, by Judy Katschke

Reminders:

• The Central Park Zoo trip is on Friday, May 17th. Every child must be accompanied by one adult. No siblings, please.

Have a great weekend!

Laura Ashley and Desiree

Dear Sky Room Families,
 
This week we have been learning all about the Farm. We’ve had so much fun learning all about the farmers, types of animals, their different jobs.
 
Classroom Activities:

• We read books to explore the many types of animals (and learned the words porpoise and mammal!) that live in the ocean. The students learned that whales, sharks, fish, and other types of marine life live and thrive in the ocean. The students seemed to be very interested in whales and their blowholes. They were in hysterics when I explained to them that whales breathe through a blowhole on top of their heads. 
• We made fish bowls and counted out how many bubbles were coming out of the fishes mouths! 
• The students were given a choice as to what marine life animal they wanted to create – a fish or an octopus. Each project had multi-step directions, which required them to turn on their listening ears! Some students made both!
• For the students who wanted to make a fish, we first placed the paper fish inside of a tray. We then placed a couple of marbles and added a few dollops of blue, white and yellow paint inside of the tray. The students were asked to then hold the tray with two hands, and with small motions, move the marbles all around the tray to create different colored strokes on their fish.
• For the students who wanted to create an octopus, we showed them four different colored streamers (for the tentacles), and asked them to choose two colors to create an AB pattern. After creating and stating their pattern, they were able to glue down the streamers onto a round paper octopus body. Then, they were given a Q-Tip to dip into bowls of different colors of paint to create smaller, more precise streaks on the octopus. 

 
Songs We Sang:

• “Take Me Out To The Ocean” 
• “Row Row Row Your Boat"

 
Books We Read:

• Over in The Ocean: In A Coral Reef, by Marianne Berkes
• Hooray For Fish, by Lucy Cousins
• Clumsy Crab, by Ruth Galloway
• Dolphins, Sharks, Whales, and Sea Stars, by Carol K. Lindeen

 
 
Reminders:

• The end of year trip to the Central Park Zoo is on Friday, May 17th 

 
Have a great weekend!

Laura, Ashley and Desiree