Wednesday News

May 1st, 2013

This morning the Cardinals were planning on spending time with the rest of Lower school in Meeting for Worship in quiet reflection. However, we had a last minute change of plans and instead of spending our early morning with other Lower School students, we were lucky enough to be able to spend that time with our favorite music man Jason!

He taught us a new song that used scarves as a physical representation of the lyrics of the song. The song itself spoke of singing higher, lower, and other directive motions and the children connected not only the pitches with the raising and lowering of note pitches, but also connected their scarf clad hand motions to what was being depicted musically.

After putting away our scarves, we sat with Jason and, using his smart board, he showed us lyrics and pictures to yet another song! This one some of the children recognized and adding a simple beat with our hands we sang through the silly lyrics that told the story of Aiken Drum, the man who lived on the moon.

We waved goodbye to Jason as we left his music room with giggles and grins thinking about all the fun he had facilitated for us!

Back in the classroom the Cardinals were joined during choice time by a visiting friend.   The children were wonderful, gracious hosts demonstrating their excellent manners and caring personalities including him in their play and involving him in discussions about things he likes to do!

Areas of the classroom were growing from huge block structures of towers, or cars that three friends could sit inside, to a renewed interest in the careful, fine motor developing, beading of our wire basket sculpture.

After a productive choice time we continued our artistic morning in the basement area with art with Sam. She began by handing out circular tubes and white primer paint. Then, she shared with us that this was the first step of a huge project we would be continuing. The end result would be something called a Totem Pole. But first, the Cardinals would need to ready each piece before we will be able to decorate them. The children did a wonderful job with this step of the project and were very interested in what a Totem Pole is, and what theirs might end up looking like. We are excited to see how this art project unfolds.

We had spent a wonderful morning indoors, and got so much done! After art class we could not resist the sunny weather no longer! So we basked in the sunlight and rolled down some grassy hills to complete our Wednesday morning together.

Join us this Saturday, May 4th from 10 a.m. till 12:00 p.m. for an amazing morning of outdoor play at the Nature Playdate! Build fairy houses, plant seeds, dig in the dirt, build with blocks, make a journal and more!  Explore the outdoors on a beautiful spring day.  Snacks are provided.  We hope you'll bring friends to come out and play!

Español con los Cardenales: Nuestro Autobús (The Bus For Us)

¡Bienvenidos familia, amigas, y amigos! During la clase de Español, it was Radha’s turn to choose our destination to a Spanish speaking country. After our traditional morning greeting, she suggested we head to Argentina. 

 reinforcing vocabulary words:

buenos dia – good day

¿Cómo estás?  - How are you?

¡Muy bien, gracias! - Very well, thank you!

dónde – where

vamos – going

hoy - today

por favor - please

levantence - stand-up

carro - car

bote - boat

 bicicleta - bicycle

tren – train

avión– airplane

alas – wings

vuela– fly

sientencen - sit

círculo - circle

muéstrame - show me

Once we arrived and gathered in a círculo, we each took a turn at tossing a big die that represented a different number on each of its six sides. Once we tossed it, we were encouraged to say the Spanish word that described the number it landed on. Although it was a bit challenging for some friends to remember the Spanish vocabulary for the number it landed on, they knew exactly what to do to figure it out; count the happy face stickers, one-by-one.

vocabulary words:

qué - what

múmero – number

es – is

cuenta – count

uno – one

dos – two

tres – three

cuatro – four

cinco – five

seis - six

 pasalo – pass it

To reinforce our learning of the Spanish vocabulary for some forms of transportation, we read Nuestro Autobús (The Bus for Us) by Suzanne Bloom. Through simple text and animated illustrations, the story introduced us to a variety of vehicles as Tess, a character in the story, waited at the bus stop for the school bus, el autobús. 

vocabulary:

¿Es éste nuestro autobus, Gus? – Is this the bus for us, Gus

grúa – tow truck

camión de bomberos – fire truck

camión de helados – ice cream truck

camión de basura – garbage truck

excavadora – backhoe

autobús - bus

What’s one exciting way to help learners learn? Songs and rhymes of course! So, after the read aloud, we practiced singing “The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round” in Español. What fun! With a little help from our (puppet) friend Perrito (Doggie), we sang the first verse in both English and Spanish. Wow! We can’t wait until our next class to learn some of the other verses.

Las Ruedas del Autobús

Las ruedas (wheels) del autobús

Van dando vueltas, dando vueltas, dando vueltas,

Las ruedas del autobús

Van dando vueltas por la ciudad.

Music has such power and meaning that go beyond words. It promotes growth in various developmental domains from cognitive to physical development. Los Cardenales truly enjoyed this interactive song as they sang and used corresponding hand gestures. What a wonderful way to support their development of small muscles!

We finished our class with our traditional song, Adios, hasta luego, and Radha squeezing la vaca. ¡Gracias, Radha! 

¡Hasta nuestro proximo viaje!

Paz,

Alicia