Dear Star Room 3AM Families,
 
We were so happy to have your children back in the classroom this week! It’s amazing how much growth they experience in just a week away from school. We are looking forward to all the fun holiday & winter activities that are coming up in the classroom.
 
Theme this week:

• We explored Hanukkah, learning all about the different aspects of the tradition. We discussed how it lasts for 8 nights, families light candles on a menorah and how some children play the dreidel game for gelt. After learning about the dreidel, we practiced spinning it as a class!

 
Books we read:

• Spin the Dreidel, by Alexandra Cooper
• Harry the Dirty Dog, by Gene Zion
• Hanukkah Lights, Hanukkah Nights, by Leslie Kimmelman

 
Songs we sang:

• “What’s the Weather?”
• “Five Little Gingerbread Men”
• “Dreidel, Dreidel”

 
Places we went:

• We created paintings with Julia and Janae in Art experimenting with the effects of different colors on black paper.
• We read a Winter story and took out library books during Library with Lindsay
• We sang Hanukkah Lights, Jingle Bells, Santa Clause is Coming to Town with Noel in Music
• We played in 2nd floor indoor gym

 
Classroom Activities:

• We created components for our Winter bulletin board this week. The children used a finger dipped in white paint to create snow on dark blue butcher paper. This serves as our bulletin board backdrop. Later they created snowmen, gluing cotton balls onto a snowman cutout along with a hat and scarf. We also painted with bristle blocks, combing them through red and green paint to create unique patterns. The children added glitter for a festive effect. Make sure to take a look around at next drop off - they are part of our holiday classroom decorations!

 
Reminders:

• Library books are due back next Monday 12/3/18
• Holiday Party Wednesday 12/19/18 from 11:15 AM to 11:45 AM

 
Enjoy the photos and have a great weekend! As always, please feel free to reach out through email with questions or concerns.
 
Warmly,
Sarah and Jill

Dear Star Room 3AM Families,
 
We enjoyed learning about our surroundings this week, as Fall is certainly upon us now. Our five senses were in full swing as we explored leaves and the changes that occur in Fall. Below is an update on what the Star Room children learned this week at Montclare.
 
Theme this week:

• We explored the Fall season and leaves this week! We learned that during Fall, the weather gets colder, which means that we wear jackets outside, the leaves change colors and fall from the trees and that it is the season when we start school. The children also brought in leaves they collected for our leaf study. We observed that they came in many different colors, red, yellow and brown, as well as different shapes. We used our ears to hear how they “crunch, crunch” when they dry out. Every child got the opportunity to hold the leaves and explore their properties.

 
Books we read:

• How Do You Know It’s Fall? by Allan Fowler
• Fall Leaves Fall by Zoe Hall
• When Autumn Comes by Robert Maass
• Fletcher and the Falling Leaves by Julia Rawlinson

 
Songs we sang:

• “What’s the Weather?”
• “All the Leaves Are Falling Down”

 
Places we went:

• We created painting masterpieces with Julia and Janae in Art using different sized containers and paint to stamp circles.
• We read stories and took our library books in Library with Lindsay
• We sang I Don’t Want to Live on the Moon, Days of the Week and I Love You with Noel in Music
• We played on the roof playground and the 2nd floor indoor gym

 
Classroom Activities:

• We created Fall trees by gluing a brown tree cutout to blue paper and adding leaves in Fall colors around the bottom of the tree. It helped to reinforce the idea that leaves fall down off the trees in Fall. As Thanksgiving approaches, we created turkeys by water-coloring a coffee filter orange, red and yellow and attached it to a brown turkey cutout that the children affixed with an orange beak and feet. We added googly eyes for a fun effect!

 
Reminders:

• Library books are due back next Monday 11/19/18
• P/T Conferences are on Monday 11/12/18 (No school for students, childcare available)
• Picture Day is on Wednesday 11/14/18

 
Enjoy the photos and have a great weekend! As always, please feel free to reach out through email with questions or concerns.
 
Warmly,
​
Sarah and Jill