Special Class Blog 9/28-10/2
Spanish with Caitlin
This week in Spanish class, JK friends practiced introducing themselves with a ball toss game to a new class puppet named Pico! Then, Ms. Caitlin reviewed greetings for different parts of the day. Friends were invited to practice the motions and sing along to the “Buenos dias” song to now include “Buenas tardes” and “Buenas noches”. Ms. Caitlin reviewed the calendar in Spanish with her puppet, Pico, and friends. Then, the class took a deeper dive into greetings by reviewing the phrase ¿Cómo estás? ( How are you?), with a few responses. Children played a game to practice responses to the question and then Ms. Caitlin guided them to complete an activity that helped them express feelings in English and Spanish. Great work JK ers!
Library Class with Amy
Today Ms Amy read us Mr Tiger Goes Wild. Mr. Tiger Goes Wild by Peter Brown is about a tiger who feels tired of being proper and decides to go wild. He leaves the city, enjoys being free in nature, and discovers the importance of being yourself while still caring about others. We had some terrific discussions about how important it is to be yourself! Ms Amy then had a coloring page/activity sheet where the children could color in a picture of Mr Tiger and his friends in the city.
Yoga with Tara Rachel
All aboard the Yoga train to set out to the apple orchard. We wove our way with yoga poses through the orchard! We were singing as we shook the apple tree, collected the apples, washed them, and munched! The children were introduced to the “Apple Breath.” We said goodbye to September and welcomed Autumn!
Mindfulness with Tara Rachel
We began our lesson with ocean breathing. JK children will see a puppet presentation once a month. Our story this week was called, The Boy and The Sea. This story (we practiced first with our imagination last week during yoga), was about a little boy who lives by the Seashore. In this delightful imaginary story, the Sea itself tells the boy stories of the wonderful wonders and creatures that live in the ocean: octopus, sharks, whales, starfish, seaweeds and a mermaid. The boy tells the Sea stories of the way he likes to fly a kite on the beach, build sandcastles and swim! Then woosh… the wind brings a chill to the air, big waves and the wind carries the boy’s hat into the sea. The boy sits - watching and waiting for the sea to bring the hat back to the seashore- he watched and waited, saying, I am patient, I can wait. As a big autumn wind blows the waves roll onto the big rock where the boy sat. Mother tells the boy, In the summer it is your turn to play with the sea, but in the autumn and the winter, it is the wind that gets to play with the ocean. With these crisp cool days recently, the children enjoyed this playful yoga journey!
Key Benefits of Puppetry for Children
3-Dimensional Story - paced visually and auditorily to support language development, calm, rhythmic breathing and gentle atmosphere.
When children see a puppet presentation, it is an opportunity to feel an adult presence, and deepen their imaginative capacity because they witness the story unfold and become a part of it.
They experience a digestible passing of time from beginning, to middle and to the end.
Children experience the ancient art of verbal storytelling.
Ukulele
Ms Ella was back this week! She started off class with "The Name Game" song. After Ms Ella tuned the ukuleles, they worked on first tapping out a rhythm and then strumming a rhythm. Then Ms Ella had them work on the red dot chord (C chord) and sing and strum, "Row Your Boat". After a few times of playing the song through, we packed up the ukuleles and enjoyed some parachute time! Few things better than a parachute on a Friday! Ms Ella would like the children to try and practice the C chord and strumming with their thumb.
Library Visit
We were excited to welcome our first parent readers today! Caroline and David, Arianna's parents, came to read to the children in the library today. They read Princesses Can Fix It! and I Really Like Slop. Thank you so much, Caroline and David!
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