Goodbye !

Dear Families,

It is hard to believe that we are writing our last blog for 2017. This year has flown by and it has been such a pleasure working with you and your children. We have seen them grow and flourish into such confident and remarkable individuals. Brooke, Sue, Roh, and I are holding back our tears as we reflect upon what a wonderful year it has been. We would like to thank you for all the love and support you have given us and Green Bay School throughout the year. For those of you moving on to other schools, we wish you well, and remember you will always have a place in our hearts. For our friends who are returning, we can't wait to see you in the fall. Below you will find your child's reflection about their time at Green Bay School. 

I love Green Bay School because....

Lola- I love seeing my friends.

Rory- I love Mrs B. and playing with the I-pads.

Henry- I love reading books about trains with my teachers.

AJ- I love our tadpoles and teachers.

Angie- I love my friends.

Ben- I love my teachers.

Deva- My teachers are the best!

Alex M. I like to play in the outdoor classroom.

Mason- I like to learn about tadpoles!

Ruben- I love the puzzles they have!

Aubrey- I love all my teachers!

Edwin- I love to see my friends!

Alex G. - I love to laugh with my friends.

Paul- I like to discover things in the garden.

Myles - I like to sing and dance there.

Will- I like the Legos.

Luis- I love all the toys!

Andres- I loved having my birthday at school!

Holden- I love playing and learning with my friends.

Brandon- I love my teachers and my friends!

Charlie- I love being silly with my friends,

Cassie- I like art.

Carter- I like doing shows with my friends.

Matan- I love when Mrs. B. reads to us.

Asher- I love my teachers!

Alexa- I love to play tea party !

Dublin- I love art and painting!

Assembly and More...

Dear Families,

This week the children have been hard at work practicing for our class assembly on June 2. They are looking forward to sharing their moves and smiles with you. Please make sure your child wears a tie-dye shirt and jeans or navy shorts/pants on the day of the performance. Also, all family members are welcome to join us.

In addition, to practicing for our assembly, the children have been experimenting with flight. The children built hot air balloons out of take-out containers and tested how far they traveled. They also finished adding the last of the rocket jets to our class space shuttle. Many of the children decided to model this shuttle after the one depicted in the book, Zoom, Zoom I Am Going To The Moon. They  also had the opportunity to watch real footage of a rocket landing on the moon.

Our literature selections included: Pigeon Needs A Bath, Stuck and The Very Lonely Firefly. The book Stuck was definitely one of our favorites. It inspired us to fly our kites and  parachutes and steer clear of all obstacles!

We also explored the concept of measurement. We used standard tools such as tape measures and rulers and nonstandard tools such as unifex cubes and links to measure items that fly.
The children were able to measure the distance each item traveled . They recorded their findings during large group on a bar graph. This provided a wonderful opportunity to review how to interpret a graph and use the vocabulary more, less, and equal to.

As the weather  gets warmer, please remember to apply sunscreen to your child each day before school. Please send a water bottle with your child and make sure it is labeled with their name.

This week in Mrs. B's morning class with Mrs. Kopecki, we read the book Stuck by Oliver Jeffers. It's a story about a boy whose kite becomes stuck in a tree. The boy continually throws a variety of items of increasing size in the tree (including the kitchen sink) to get the kite unstuck! The children helped to name the items that were included and helped to identify compound words. We also used Eetchy to help categorize and describe the items. We focused on Green-Group (category) and Blue-Do (what the item does or what we do with the item). You can often find the books we read on youtube or at the library. During our free-choice time, we continue to work on how to play with each other by asking peers to join in play or asking to join their play, asking for turns, and asking for toys.  In Speech with Ms. F, the children practiced turn-taking, sound production, asking and answering “wh” questions, commenting to peers, following directions, initiating peer interactions, speaking in grammatically correct sentences, labeling verb+ing, naming items in categories and category naming while having the picnic,

Ms. F also read “George and the Hot Air Balloon.” While reading the book, the children practiced labeling vocabulary, answering “wh” questions, making predictions, sound production and speaking in grammatically correct sentences. 

We hope you have a wonderful holiday weekend!

Mindy, Roh, Brooke and Sue

• May 26, 2017, Records Day-No School
• May 29, 2017,  Memorial Day-No School 
• June 1, 2017,  Field Day and Class Party ( bring a treat to share)
• June 2, 2017 , Class Assembly 10AM and 2PM
• June 5, 2017 Preschool Graduation
• June 8, 2017 AM Students Attend  (Last Day of School for AM Students)
• June 9, 2017 PM Students Attend in the AM (Last Day of School for PM Students)

Up and Coming Events...

Dear Families,



This week was our field trip to Danny Cunniff Park and all the children had an amazing time. It was so nice to see all the different types of tadpoles, frogs, and other animals in their natural habitats. This trip provided a wonderful opportunity to review the life cycle of a frog and engage in many hands-on activities to solidify our learning. Thank you to all our parents who volunteered and made this day such a huge success.

The next couple of weeks will be very busy. Field Day has been scheduled for June 1, 2017. It's sure to be a fun time. Our end of the year class party will take place at 9:15-10:00 am and 1:15- 2:00 pm. The children will be participating in field day following the class party. Please feel free to bring a nut free-treat to share with the class and stay for the Field Day fun!

Also, our class assembly has been scheduled for Friday, June 2, at 10 am (for AM students) and 2 pm (for PM students). Please make sure your child wears a tie-dye shirt and jeans shorts/pants or dark pants/shorts on the day of the performance. 


Graduation is on June 5th at 10am (for AM students) and  2pm (for PM students). All children going to KINDERGARTEN in the fall will be participating in this event. There is no dress code for this event. If you haven't already done so, please send in a baby picture of your graduate. The Green Bay staff is starting to make a graduation video.

This week in Mrs. B's morning class with Mrs. Kopecki, we read the book Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman. The children worked on their phonological awareness when they joined in to recite the repetitive text “Are you my mother?” Props were used to help tell the story, then the children were provided the opportunity during choice time to use the same props to retell the story. Retelling stories is an important skill that we have been emphasizing whether we are retelling stories from books or a personal narrative about something we have done. Personal narratives are an important pre-literacy skill. Help your child tell brief stories – even if it's only about 3 things you did at the park together or an activity after dinner. Children love to recount their day or even short scenarios – no matter how mundane the details may seem!   

This week the children played a vehicle sort game on the iPad! They took turns sorting vehicles that fly, drive on the road and drive in the water. While playing the game, the children practiced turn-taking, answering “wh” questions, making comments and requests using grammatically correct phrases, using pronoun + verb agreement, sound production, labeling vocabulary, following directions, commenting to and initiating with peers, and labeling verb+ing. Ms. F also read “Curious George and the Hot Air Balloon.” While reading the story, the children answered “wh” questions, made predictions, and labeled vocabulary. We also played “what's in the flight box.” The children took turns picking items out of a box and sorting them by whether or not they fly. We then used our Expanding Expressions visual to help describe the items. 

• May 26, 2017, Records Day-No School
• May 29, 2017,  Memorial Day-No School 
• June 1, 2017,  Field Day
• June 2, 2017 , Class Assembly 10AM and 2PM
• June 5, 2017 Preschool Graduation
• June 8, 2017 AM Students Attend  (Last Day of School for AM Students)
• June 9, 2017 PM Students Attend in the AM (Last Day of School for PM Students)

Things That Fly, Speech and More...

Dear Families,

This week we continued our study of things that fly. We talked about what attributes they have in common such as wings, jets, and engines.  Our literature selections included That's Not My Airplane, Duck At The Door, Are You My Mother and Zoom Zoom We Are Off To The Moon. 

The children also turned our block center into an airport. They boarded planes to Florida, Las Vegas and Arizona. They took turns being the flight attendant,  pilot, and passengers. Although our flights were short in nature, they offered roomy seats and wonderful snacks. The only complaint by our passengers, was that there was no in-flight movie!  At our writing center, the children made tickets for various destinations. This was a wonderful opportunity to target using inventive spelling and phonemic awareness to sound out words.

The children also worked on a top secret gift for their mothers. They were sent home in a brown paper bag. I hope you and your family have a wonderful Mother's Day and enjoy the thoughtful surprise your child made especially for you.

Our creativity continued to flow as the children constructed 3-D models of things that can fly. They used a variety of collage materials, toilet paper rolls, and their imagination to launch their ideas. Please stop by our hall bulletin board to see their models. The children have also begun to work cooperatively to design a rocket for our dramatic play area. They have painted it and discussed what planet it should travel too.

In our outdoor classroom, we have spent a lot of time observing signs of spring. We are very fortunate to have a family of robins living near an outside vent. They eat from our bird feeder daily and chirp beautiful songs. We have also observed butterflies sipping nectar from our flowers and other insects flying around. We have taken a very close look at our apple tree and have observed the apple blossoms starting to grow as well as the newly planted seeds in our garden.


 Monday is our field trip, there is a reminder notice in your child's folder.  Please read it carefully! Thank you in advance to our parent volunteers for making this day possible!

This week in Mrs. B's morning class with Mrs. Kopecki, we read the book The Very Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle. It's a story about a firefly who is lonely and looking for friends. He keeps finding other things that have lights, but none are fireflies. In the end, he finds lots of firefly friends. We discussed what we can say to friends when we want to play with them, such as, “Hi! Can I play with you?”, or “Do you want to play?” We also found lots of chances to talk about compound words (“Big words that are made out of 2 little words!”) to increase phonological awareness. The students love talking about them by indicating the first word with their left hand (fire) and indicating the second word with their right hand (fly). We then clap our hands together to get “firefly”! Some of the words we talked about include the following: lightbulb, headlights, fireworks, flashlight, ladybug, butterfly, and dragonfly. Ask your child about these words – they'd be happy to show you!
Ms. F also read “The Very Lazy Ladybug!” While reading the story they practiced answering “wh” questions, sound production, making predictions, and labeling verb+ing. We played the game Elefun with the wind tunnel! The children caught butterflies in nets. While playing the game, we practiced turn-taking, answering “wh” questions, Expanding utterance length, speaking in grammatically correct sentences, initiating peer interactions, commenting to peers and sound production.

Have a wonderful weekend! 

Mindy, Sue, Brooke, and Roh

• May 15, 2017 Field Trip 
• May 26, 2017 Records Day-No School
• May 29, 2017 Memorial Day
• June 1, 2017  Field Day
• June 2, 2017 Class Assembly 10AM and 2PM
• June 9, 2017 Last Day Of School 

Tree Planting, Things That Fly And More...

Dear Families,
We just wanted to take a moment to thank the PTO and all the families who helped make "Staff Appreciation Week" a week to remember! We are so fortunate to work with such amazing parents and children. We can't believe how quickly this year has flown by and how much your children have grown. We are so proud of them and all their accomplishments.

Also, I wanted to thank the Park District of Highland Park for helping us to plant trees in Sunset Park. What a great way to celebrate Arbor Day! Our celebration continued back in the classroom as we made observational drawings of our newly planted trees. We also read the story Tap The Magic Tree by  Christine Matheson.  The children really loved how with each tap of their finger the life cycle of a tree came alive before their eyes.

This week we kicked off our study of things that fly by experimenting with  a wind tunnel. The children made predictions about what items they thought would fly and what items would never get off the ground. We recorded their finding by using a yes/no graph.  Many of the children concluded that the lighter the object was, the more likely it was to fly through the wind tunnel.  Our literature selections this week included That's Not My Plane, The Lazy Ladybug, and Duck At The Door. Many of the children enjoyed using a felt board and visuals to retell the above stories.  

The children also had the opportunity to make simple addition problems using dice and airplane manipulatives. This allowed them review the vocabulary plus and equal as well as review identifying the numbers 0-6.  They really enjoyed comparing totals with each other.

We have some news from our discovery table! It appears that Suzy may be starting to grow back legs. There appears to be a slight discoloration on her skin where the legs should grow from. There however, has been no change in Maddy's development. The children are eager to see them turn into frogs. 

Next week, we will be turning our dramatic play area into an airplane. We are looking to borrow any dress-up clothing of a pilot or flight attendant . We will return them to your family at the  end of the week. Thank you in advance for your support.  We will also be working on a top secret gift for our wonderful mother's. 

In speech this week, the children built an airport scene with stickers! While building the airport, they practiced turn-taking, labeling vocabulary, using verb+ing, speaking in grammatically correct phrases, sound production, pronouncing multi-syllabic words, using correct pronoun + verb agreement, asking and answering “wh” questions, commenting to peers and initiating peer interactions. This week in Mrs. B's morning class with Mrs. Kopecki, we read the book The Very Lazy Ladybug by Isobel Finn and Jack Tickle. It's a story about a ladybug who is so lazy that she never learned to fly. Instead, she tries to hitch a ride with various animals but finds that it doesn't work out for different reasons (the kangaroo is too bumpy, the monkey's swinging makes her dizzy). She eventually learns to fly when she's on the elephant's trunk and he sneezes causing her to fly through the air. We also practiced Expanding Expressions when we talked about these items and which group they belong to (animals, insects, and vehicles) and then we discussed what they “do” such as fly, drive, swim, etc... During free-choice time, we continue to practice sharing by taking turns. We are facilitating this by having the children use words to ask for toys and turns. Be sure to practice this at home!  

Have a wonderful weekend!
Mindy, Brooke, and, Rohanna, and  Sue 

* May 15, 2017 Field Trip 

*June 2, 2017 Our Class Assembly 10am and 2pm

The Week Of The Young Child And More...

Dear Families,

Please join us on Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. for Dia del Nino Celebration. We will be celebrating all children as we dance, eat, play games, and engage in a variety of crafts. There will also be a petting zoo for your family to enjoy! This event will take place rain or shine. We hope that everyone can make it. All family members are welcomed.

This week we celebrated "The Week Of The Young Child" throughout Green Bay School. On Monday, we focused on music. The children made instruments using a variety of materials and played them for each other. We also listened to many of our favorite songs and listened for patterns in the music. 

On Tuesday, we targeted Healthy Eating and Fitness. We read I Will Never Eat A Tomato by Laura Child. We also made simple fruit and vegetable patterns. Each child had an opportunity to create their own patterns and select a classmate to extend their patterns. In the gym, we played a game in which we sorted plastic food by slow and go foods. The children really enjoyed this game. 

On Wednesday, we targeting working together through Math and Science. We read the book, Worms For Lunch, by Lenoid Groe and dug up worms from our garden.  The children worked together to sift through the dirt to find each worm. We brought them back to the classroom and looked at them under a microscope. After looking at them for a while, the children returned them to their natural environment and wrote about their findings in their journals.

On Thursday, we targeted the artist within us. We read The Day The Crayon Box Talked, by Shane Derolf. We also made piñatas out of paper bags and a variety of materials. The children drew a mural to depict how they were feeling. Many of the children put rainbows and sunshines on their portion of the mural.  As the children drew, they talked about the things that made them happy! Their answers included Green Bay School, their friends, and kites. This prompted us to go outside and fly a kite. We had perfect weather and the right amount of wind.  The children did a wonderful job of working together to get our kite off the ground!

On Friday, we targeted families. We read The Family Book, by Todd Parr. We also graphed how many people are in our families. We focused on the vocabulary more, less, and equal. Mrs. D. and I shared pictures of our families with the children. The children were very surprised to lean that we have children and asked a lot of questions about them.

This week in Mrs. B's morning class with Mrs. Kopecki, we read the book Bob and Otto by Robert Bruel and Nick Bruel. It's a story about two friends, a caterpillar and a worm. The worm (Otto) is disappointed when his friend (Bob) becomes a butterfly. Bob reassures Otto that worms are important because they help trees to grow so that caterpillars can eat the leaves and eventually become butterflies. He also told Otto that he is a good friend and that friends are important. You may have already heard that I brought in some worms in a glass jar that we could observe digging tunnels through the glass. We also continued to work on developing phonological awareness by listening to beginning sounds and deciding if they are the same. This time I used a caterpillar puppet who only liked to eat things that begin with the S-sound. The children took turns deciding if the caterpillar would like the item by listening to the beginning sound. He definitely did not want to eat things like kites, kangaroos, koalas, or keys. But he said, “Yes” to scissors, a snake, and the sun!

This week, the children participated in activities related to Week of the Young Child. The children made pretend fruit salad to reinforce habits of healthy eating and fitness. While participating, the children practiced turn-taking, sound production, speaking in grammatically correct sentences, labeling verb+ing, answering and asking “wh” questions, commenting to peers, increasing flexibility to accept others' ideas, and initiating peer interactions.

Ms. F also ran a Social Thinking group. We finished the book, "Thinking With Your Eyes" and played a game where the children had to guess what Ms. F was thinking about by paying attention to where her eyes were looking!

Ms. F also read a funny rhyming story called, "Rhyming Dust Bunnies." The children had fun identifying rhyming words and coming up with rhyming words! We also reviewed the definition of rhyming words.

*April 29, 2017- El Día Del Niño: 9:00-11:00, 

(Event for all Green Bay Families)

* May 1, 2017 Arbor Day Tree Planting (At Sunset Park)

*June 2, 2017 Our Class Assembly 10am and 2pm

Tadpoles, Sunset Park,,and More..

Dear Families,

This week concluded our study of frogs and tadpoles. We will continue to take care of Maddy and Suzy as we wait patiently for them to go through metamorphosis.  Next week we will begin our study of things that fly. The children were very busy this week in our art center. The used cube stickers to create 3D mosaics. Many of the children made frog eggs and rainbows out of them. They also painted paper towel rolls to look like logs and cut out paper frogs to retell the story of 5 Little Speckled Frogs. 

Our literature selections this week included Froggy Learns To Swim, From Tadpole To Frog, and A Frog Thing. We watched a video of a tadpole hatching from its egg and eating it for nourishment. The children were surprised learn that the tadpoles did this. 

In our dramatic play area, the children had a birthday party for Maddy and Suzy. They made them  a birthday cake and took turns selecting the perfect gift for them. They also had birthday celebrations for one and other. This provided an excellent opportunity to generalize "Fair Ways To Play". 

At our math center, the children targeted using a dice to indicate the appropriate number of flies to feed a toy frog.  They also used a tweezers to pick up these flies. Using a tweezers is an excellent way to develop finger strength and hand-eye coordination.

Our discovery center this week, went mobile. We took many nature walks and looked for signs of Spring. The children discovered flowers blooming, birds chirping, leaves turning back to green, butterflies and lots of rain puddles. The puddles at Sunset Park had many worms and water bugs for us to explore. 

We also had a chance to play at Sunset Park and fly a kite there. The children really loved flying our butterfly kite and seeing how high they could make it go! 

Please remember Picture Retakes are MONDAY (4/24/2017). If you would like your child to have a retake please email me as soon as possible. I will be involved in Kindergarten Articulation on 4/24/17 and I want to leave a list with Mrs. D. so there is no confusion. Thank you in advance for your cooperation and thank you to all the parents who have already notified me.

Please save the date for our class assembly.  It will be on June 2. There will be an AM performance at 10am for the morning class and PM performance at 2pm for the afternoon class. All family members and friends are welcomed. I hope to see you there. 

This week in Mrs. B's morning class with Mrs. Kopecki, we read the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. The story provided another opportunity to talk about a life-cycle; this time, that of a butterfly. The students were able to take turns acting out the story during free choice time. One student was the story teller, one was the caterpillar and two were the audience. The children were also able to practice retelling the story using a felt board. We found opportunities during the story to further develop phonological awareness by talking about compound words. Using words like butterfly, strawberry, and watermelon we talked about how these words are made up of two smaller words. The students liked breaking the words down and then putting them back together again. I'm sure you will be able to find lots of other compound words during daily activities that you can talk about!

In speech this week, the children played a burger matching game and the Discovery Garden game with Ms. F! While playing the game, they practiced turn-taking, sound production, speaking in grammatically correct phrases, increasing utterance length, using pronoun + verb agreement, labeling verb+big, commenting to peers, initiating peer interactions, and making requests.

Ms. F also ran a Social Thinking group. We continued to read the book, "Thinking With Your Eyes." The children learned the concept of learning how to know what others are thinking about by paying attention to where their eyes are looking. The children played a game where they had to guess what Ms. F was thinking about by looking at where her eyes were pointing to. They did great!

Ms. F also read the story, "Frog on a Log." The students practiced identifying rhyming words while reading the story. They enjoyed helping Ms. F finish the rhyming words while reading the story!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mindy, Sue, and Brooke 

• • April 24, 2017 Picture Retakes 
  • April 28, 2017 Early Release: AM students attend (No school for PM students)
    
  • April 29, 2017,  El Día Del Niño: 
  • 9:00-11:00, Event for all Green Bay Families