An Apple a Day

Dear Parents,

We made the fruits of our family tree this week. While painting their apples, the children kept saying, “Mine is very, very red!” All our apples were red. We made sure there was no white left on the paper. 

We examined our family photos and friends said where they were when they took the picture. Many people were at home, some at the park, and two families were sitting in front of a store. One person was on a boat and another said it was her birthday, hence the bouncy house in the background. 

We glued our family photos to our apples and added red sparkles. We left them to dry and played in the big room. We built with big wooden blocks, played at the styrofoam table, did the sit n’ spin, and played family. One person said, “I don’t want to be the baby.”

Yoga with Julieta has been peaceful. We have seen the children sitting and lying quietly. 

While half the class was in yoga, the rest of us added brown furry stems to our apples. The children helped squeeze the hole punch and then weave the stems through the hole. Some knew how to twist them securely, others needed assistance. Our apples look delicious!

On Friday we made butter in preparation for our family feast. We predicted how long it would take to turn the heavy cream into butter. The children guessed: sixty minutes, twenty seconds, and everything in between. We turned on some disco and danced while we shook the four containers up high and down low. Everyone got many turns to shake because it took many songs to turn! Eventually, we had butter. What started out as white cream, was now yellow butter. We tasted it, and went to play in the big room. 

Our Family Feast will be on Wednesday, November 26th at 11:00am. 

We will begin in the classroom, sing Way Down Yonder By The Apple Tree, put our apples on our family tree, and eat, drink, and be merry. 

Have a healthy weekend,

Therese

P.S. It was a pleasure getting to talk to everyone about your offspring during the conferences.

An Apple Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Dear Parents,

This week we continued to grow our family apple tree. Everyone took turns cutting green construction paper with scissors to make our leaves. Later in the week we used our fine motor skills to tear tissue paper for more leaves. 

On Wednesday we twisted long brown recycled paper to make the branches. We used piles of hand strength and determination to squeeze the glue and add leaves to our branches. While our branches dried we went into the big room to use our pretend food in the kitchen. There were several feasts being prepared and eaten.

Everyone had a turn playing at the styrofoam table on Friday. One person said they looked like marshmallows. We used boats to ride through the styrofoam pieces, and cups to fill and pour. 

We added our dollhouse to the classroom this week. The entire class wanted a turn. We played in groups of three. The dolls got a good workout.

We are reading books about family and friends. We reread our classroom rules “I like when my friend…” to remind each other how we like to be treated. We are practicing using our words to talk to friends instead of yelling, and in other cases, using a stronger voice to speak up for ourselves. 

Thanks for the family photos! We need two more. 

Have an apple pie in the sky weekend,

Therese