Unicorn News for the week of April 23rd

Books We Read
I Read Signs
Tooth Fairy
Charlotte's Web (continues)
Planting a Rainbow
The Amazing Bone
Going to the Zoo
The Zoo Book
Shrek
Brave Irene
Sun and Moon


Our poem:
Little Miss Muffet
Sat on her tuffet
Eating her curds and whey.
Along came a spider 
and sat down beside her
and frightened Miss Muffet away!


In Pre-k we....

• celebrated Giavanna, our Friend of the Week!  We learned that she loves rainbows, all her books, except the scary one and her  Harry Potter legos!!!  Giavanna's mom came in for Choice and taught us how to make rainbow crayons with old crayons.  And Giavanna shared her favorite snack, salami and olives (double yum, I was sorry to have missed it!  I was out of the classroom at professional development today).
• planted peppermint petunias, white petunias, pink geraniums and pink vinca flowers in Lori Ann's garden.  Lori Ann's garden is the memorial garden in the small school yard.  Classes use the garden for quiet activities like reading, writing or drawing.
• mixed secret formulas or potions with 6 mystery ingredients.  3 ingredients were liquids and 3 ingredients were solids.  The liquids were numbered and the solids were lettered.  The Unicorns could touch or smell the ingredients as they concocted their mystery mixes!  On the last day some Unicorns were able to guess 3 of the ingredients!  They figured out #2 was vegetable oil and that "A" was salt and "C" was flour.  I will reveal the other ingredients at our meeting on Monday.  Then I will add one more mystery solid and one more mystery liquid.
• had 3 animal visitors from the Staten Island Zoo, Lucy the bird, a pancake tortoise and a corn snake.  We were able to touch the tortoise and snake!
• have been reading many William Steig books recently.  The Unicorns really love this author.  We decided to make a book basket for William Steig and keep reading his books.  He authored Dr. DeSoto, Pete's a Pizza, The Magic Bone, Shrek, Brave Irene and many more!  Besides being a great story teller, William Steig has a fabulous sense of humor and the Unicorns get it!!!!

Looking ahead!

Georgia will be the Friend of the Week

Enjoy the weekend!

Unicorn News for the week of April 16th

Books We Read
Long and Short
Wolf Pups!
The Biggest House in the World
Charlotte's Web (continues)
Shrinking Mouse
I've won, No I've won,  No, I've won (thanks Aubrey and Monty)
Happy Birthday, Dear Duck
How Many Snails?
Doctor DeSoto


In Pre-k we.......

• celebrated James as the Friend of the Week.  We learned that he loves superheroes, hotdogs and T-Rexes!!!  James shared apples with the Unicorns.  We love #1 snacks!  He also shared his mom Annie!  She recorded some Unicorns' stories at Choice time and helped us go to Carroll Park.
• went to Carroll Park 3 times this week!  The weather was fantastic and we had great fun.  A big thank you to all the parent volunteers.  I've posted another sign up sheet  on the door for this coming week, the tests continue on the 25th, the 26th and the 27th, so we will continue going to Carroll Park!
•  celebrated the April birthdays, HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLARA!  We made extra chocolatey cupcakes, YUM!
• saw Edgar the pig again.  He came for another visit!!!!  All the Unicorns fed him this time.  We learned he loves to eat cherry blossoms!  We wondered if he would turn pink from eating all those cherry blossoms!  He is a black pig, a Vietnamese Pot Bellied Pig.  He has grown his pot belly!
• got pet snails from Ryan's house!!!  Ryan shared 3 snails from his backyard.  They are Antonio Pet, Cuckoo Cuckoo Head and Brown Guy!

Looking Ahead!

Gia is the next Friend of the Week!

Please check your child's head for lice!  I will check too!

I will attend a PD this Friday, April 27th.  There will be a sub.

Unicorn News from the week of April 2nd

Books We Read
Dinosaur Galore
What Puppies Love (the 3rd book that the Unicorns can read)
Cynthia and the Unicorn
Charlotte's Web
Dinosaur Encore
The Spider Dance (the 4th book the Unicorns are trying to read, it has a pattern that helps)
Max's Chocolate Chicken
The Kitten (the 5th book the Unicorns can read)
Fin McCoul (read by Georgia's cousin Nell)
Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree (thanks for reading Emily)
Counting Chicks
The Matzah Man


In Pre-K we......

• celebrated Kate, our Friend of the Week!  We saw her poster, traced her, learned that her favorite book is Cynthia and the Unicorn (thanks Ilana, she donated this book to us), and her favorite state is Arizona (where Roadrunner lives, beep, beep) and lastly she shared her delicious snack of cheese puffs and raisins!!!!!
• dug up dinosaur skeleton bones in the sand table.
• listened to the Good Ms. Padgett sing her stories!  It was a real treat!
• rode trikes.
• talked about the spring break adventures that lay ahead!
• harvested our mushrooms, cooked them and tried them (some Unicorns tried them!)
• had two special readers this week, Nell and Emily!
• were weavers!  We wove on real looms with plastic grocery bags!  The 3 weaving jobs were threaders, beaters and up and down monitors.
• had an egg hunt!
• learned about the 2 holidays, Passover and Easter.
• ate matzah.

Kate shares her poster.

The Good Ms. Padgett sings for Pre-K!

Trying the mushrooms.

Brave to try, but not so pleased with  the mushrooms.

In flight foot treatment by Kate!  Now that is the epitome of  the Friend of the Week.  Clara is en route to the Cayman Islands!

Cousin Nell reads to the Unicorns.

Emily reads Mr. Willowby's Christmas.

The egg hunt is on!

Counting eggs.

Sharing eggs!!!

Keeping eggs safe!

Our weaving teacher.

Unicorns weaving.

Great team work!  Thanks for helping Virginie!!!

Happy Passover and Happy Easter!
See you on Monday, April 16th! James will be the Friend of the Week.
The purple spring break book sent home is a diary that each Unicorn can keep over the break.  It starts on Monday, April 9th after the holiday.  They can record their day through dictation, writing, drawing, photos, etc., whatever works best for you (in the plural)!

Unicorn News for the week of March 26th!

Lucas, the Friend of the Week,  sharing his poster!

Books We Read
Five Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree
The Three Billy Goats Gruff
Moonpowder
Charlotte's Web (still reading, we're up to Chapter 10)
Under New York
The Three Billy Goats Gruff
Tall  (Many Unicorns can read this book!  The text is simple:  tall, small, fall,  Bobo and mommy.)
10 Fat Turkeys (Thanks Lucas!)
I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today (Tabi and Nikki's book!)
Hug(The Unicorns read this book!!!!!!  The text consists of the words Hug, Bobo and mommy.)
The Biggest House in the World (This is my new favorite book!   It is written by Leo Lionni.)


In Pre-K we..........

• learned all about Lucas!  Lucas was the Friend of the Week.  Did you know his favorite present is an ice cream maker that he got from Hayden?  His favorite cake is vanilla cake and vanilla frosting, "just regular cake".  He shared one of his favorite books from home, 10 Fat Turkeys.  He also shared his favorite snack, mac and cheese and corn muffins, double yum!!!!
• continued with our dinosaur theme, but we also have a sub-theme of "small and tall", "big and little" emerging.
• had a reading explosion, seriously!!!!  The Unicorns are starting to read.  They read Tall and Small and Hug by Jez Alborough.  It is very exciting!
• have spinmania!  The Unicorns have been decorating paper plates and cutting them into spirals.  After tying yarn to the plates the Unicorns run with them and they have spinners!!!
• are putting dinosaur counters in plastic eggs and hiding them.  Other Unicorns are finding them.
• went on our first subway trip!!!!  We went to see Queen Marlene's birthday show.  It was a very interactive show that was funny!  The Unicorns seemed to like the real birthday cake that was served at the end. The Toy Museum would be a fun place to visit with your family!
• saw a second show at school the next day!  We saw the story of Hiawatha.  The Unicorns took away a lot more than I thought they would.  It was an engaging puppet show.  Ask your child what they learned or thought about Hiawatha.
• played "build a tower".
• each got our own Unicorn from Farah and Shay!  Thank you Killens!  That was very generous!!! 

Tom, have a fun weekend with Corduroy!!!!!

Congratulations to Clara, she won our Staffle Raffle!  Thank you for all your participation! (For a consolation prize  Mrs. Hudson and I will take all the Unicorns to my house for a picnic lunch in May.)

Looking Ahead!

1.  Monday, April 2nd:  Kate will be the Friend of the Week. 

2.  Thursday, April 5th: Bring in all your saved plastic bags for our weaving workshop!   We still need 2 parent volunteers for that day from 10:25 to 11:10am.  Let me know if you are interested!

3.  Also, let me know if you are interested in taking Mr. T for the Spring Break!!!!

4.  Friday, April 6th:  No School!  Have a great Spring Break!!!

Photos from the week:

Lucas taking questions and comments about his poster.

Dinosaur bones by Patrick

Long-neck by James.

F train to the show.

Lucas and Shay watching Queen Marlene's show.

Marlene becoming Queen Marlene!

Clara on stage with Queen Marlene.

                                                  

The Unicorns with Queen Marlene and Cake Dolly!

Making spinners.

Queen Marlene gave us Little Dolphin!    Now we have Big Dolphin and  Little Dolphin!

Spinmania!  Evan running with his spinners!

 

Evan and Samantha making more spinners.

Giavanna and Monty running with their spinners.

Nikki and Tabi reading to the Unicorns!

Until next time!