PETER REYNOLDS

Dear Parents,


This week we discovered a new artist named Peter Reynolds.  Peter Reynolds is an author and illustrator of children books such as:  The Dot, Ish, The North Star, and the Judy Moody book series.  Reynold's was born in 1961 in Canada. He studied art at the  Massachusetts College of Art and lives locally in Dedham, MA. Reynolds is also is the co-owner of the Blue Bunny Bookstore in Dedham.

We read Reynolds' story, The Dot this week.  It is a book about a young girl named Vashti who discovers her own artistic talent.  She exclaims that she cannot draw, but he teacher responds to her saying, "make a mark and see where it takes you." Vashti draws a dot on her paper and signs her name on it.  Her teacher frames her picture which gives Vashti the idea to make even more elaborate dots.  Vashti realizes that she is indeed an artist and inspires a friend to start drawing.  

The class was inspired from The Dot to make a colorful dot forest.  The children first painted many pieces of paper in a wide range of colors.  When they were dry, we cut strips into squares and then the the children cut the corner off the squares to make circles.  The class then glued circles onto their trees and overlapped different sizes and colors together to make small dot-trees.  They look so incredibly vibrant on our bulletin board.

  

This week we focused on the letter "K."  We practiced writing the letter in our workbooks and sounding it out.  The class came up with several "K" letters such as:  kangaroo, koala, Kate, key, and kite. 

We celebrated Mira's 4th birthday on Thursday.  Thank you to her family for the delicious cupcakes and favors.  The children also enjoyed listening to Marina (Mira's mom) read a story to the class.

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY MIRA!

The Half-Notes were busy little artists this week and created a self-portrait using sharpies.  We set up our "Mat Man" for the children to observe and to help them understand how to draw a person.  They look magnificent! 

Notes from Ms. Peishuan:

This week we learned a new word 上 shàng up, top 

Each child had a turn choosing a ball, saying the color, and putting it  on a body part. 
Ex:
「藍色的       球       在頭上」
   lánsè de     qiú      zài tóushàng
   Blue ball is on top of the head

「紅色的 球 在肩膀上」
   Red ball is on the shoulder 

We also learned Penguin song. 
qǐ é ，qǐ é ，xiǎo qǐ é
(Penguin, penguin, little penguin)

yáo yáo bǎi bǎi,  zhēn táo qì 
(Waddling, very naughty)

qǐ é ，qǐ é ，xiǎo qǐ é

pāi pāi chì bǎng,  zuì shuài qì
(Flapping flippers, very cool)

Peishuan

In Ms. Lisa's class, the children did a variety of activities using the rhythm sticks.

Since the children worked so hard on their art activities this week,

we decided to take a break and bake.  The children had so much fun making heart shaped cookies.

Reminders:  We will be having a Valentine's Day party in our classroom on Friday, February 14th.  Please have your child bring in valentines for all of their classmates.  We have a total of 15 children in our class.  Thanks so much!

Also, we will be closed for winter break from February 17th- 21st.  We will open on Monday, February 24th.  

Have a great weekend!

Love,

Ms. Bonne & Ms. Denise