January 24, 2015

Well, I guess the snow went somewhere else, because there was hardly any in Haywood County! Apparently we are supposed to have snow late Sunday night into Tuesday, so if you haven't already signed up for texts alerts, go to wlos.com and sign up for our school. If you live out of cell range, you can watch wlos news in the morning and watch the ticker that goes along the bottom of the screen for closings, etc and if we are closed or delayed it will be on that ticker.

Despite this past week being a little short, we somehow managed to accomplish a lot! We learned about Brazil and listened to Brazilian music and had a traditional meal of meatballs in sauce with rice. Most people associate Brazil with their Carnaval celebration and Samba music but there is also a latin jazz influence as well. This is a link to Samba music  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZWPYGbcVR8 and some other styles here at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-ts=1421914688&v=MsksC_3Jr4M&x-yt-cl=84503534.   

We also learned about musical composer John Williams who composed such great movie themes such as Star Wars, Superman and Indiana Jones. We watched a video of him conducting Star Wars and Superman and while we watched we saw french horns, trumpets, trombones, tympani drums, a harp, a piccolo, flutes and other instruments. We learned the role of the conductor is basically to tell the musicians playing the instruments what to do such as play softly, louder, join in, wait your turn, etc. The kids where really fascinated watching him conduct the musicians! We listened to his songs on the cd player as well and the kids spent most of this week cranking out some music of their own in the music center taking turns with the instruments and the cd player! Here is a link to John William conducting Star Wars  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rQSJDLM8ZE.  and here is on for Superman  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jz0M-fDBbac. 

Along with learning about Brazil and a musical composer we did our weekly letters and numbers and sight word and on Friday we made bird feeders. (hopefully they all got home with each child). We have plenty of materials left over so if we have time this coming week we will make some more and hang them on the trees at school.

This week (weather depending) we will be learning about letters Pp and Uu, numbers 27 and 28, the sight word "saw" and the square shape. We will be learning about the art works of Henri Mattise a French artist, and be making our own creations using his "cut-outs" style of art, and last but not least, we will be doing a fun (and colorful) science experiment.

Please keep on bringing in those thick and warm winter coats, hats and gloves so the kids can stay warm outside on the playground. We go out around 10:00 in the morning and the playground is in the shade and still chilly.

Flashlight Friday is every Friday! I have a few extra flashlights but not enough for the whole class.


Leaders For The Week Of January 26th-30th: 

Monday:        Andrew

Tuesday:        Max

Wednesday:  Tanner

Thursday:      Allie

Friday:           Mary Beth


Please help your child to remember that the toys or items they bring in for show and tell on their leader day is only to come out for show and tell and must stay in their cubby the rest of the day. We don't want their favorite toys and things being broken or lost.


Have a great week!

Mrs. Wendy


some pics from last week: