Counting seeds in Zulu

"Math Activity: Counting Seeds in Zulu

Ms. Rebekah cut open a large squash for the children to explore and count the seeds. The children felt the seeds, flesh and skin of the squash, and we tried to count in the Zulu language".

Numbers from 1 to 10 in Zulu: kunye, kubili, kuthathu, kune, isihlanu, isithupha, isikhombisa, isishiyagalombili, isishiyagalolunye, ishumi.

The Cheetahs visit Venezuela

"Science Activity: Tasting Fried Plantain

Gabriel’s mom brought a sample of food from Venezuela to the Cheetah class. The Cheetahs tasted fried plantain. It is a banana fried in oil and some sugar. Some of the Cheetahs really enjoyed this snack others tried it and didn’t like it."

It was just fried plantain ("tajadas"), no sugar...

"Math Activity: Sort / Group Animals

During our language activity the books about Venezuela showed different animals that live in water around Venezuela and the rain forest. The Cheetahs sorted all the different animals from the book and noticed which animals live in Venezuela."

"Art Activities: Mapping South America

Ms. Kelley and the Cheetahs looked at a map of South America. Each Cheetah got there own map to color. We talked about where Venezuela and Brazil were on a map. The Cheetahs kept thinking that the small of South America belonged at the top of the paper and the larger part belonged at the bottom. Ms. Kelley had to show the Cheetahs which way their paper went."

"Language Activity: Venezuela (Picture Books). A mask from Venezuela. Counting in Spanish

Gabriel’s mom brought many things for the Cheetahs to look at today. Gabriel’s mom and dad are both from Venezuela. Ms. Kelley showed the Cheetahs where Venezuela was on a map and explained to them that we live in North America and Venezuela is in South America. Gabriel explained to the Cheetahs what mask from Venezuela was and let each of his friends feel and hold the mask. Then we practiced counting up to ten in Spanish."

The mask was a Dancing Devils of Yare mask (in the picture).

"Group Activities: Dancing. Coloring Brazil and Venezuela Flags

Ms. Kelley and the Cheetahs danced to music from Venezuela. We danced together as a large group by forming a circle and walking together to the music. Then the Cheetahs split up and we pretended that we had guitars and were playing them for our friends or family. Then we danced with a partner however we wanted to."

The music was Serenata Guayanesa.

"As a group we all sat at the tables. Ms. Kelley explained to the Cheetahs what a flag from Venezuela looks like. We counted the stars together in Spanish. Then we looked at the Brazilian flag and noticed the diamond, circle, and square shapes in the flag. Ms. Kelley talked to the Cheetahs about Nicolas being from Brazil and he is visiting family there right now."

"Thank you Barbara, Alfredo, and Gabriel for sharing your culture with us!!!"

Mr. David

Thank you note from Ms. Katie

"David,

I really enjoyed having you in my class! You are such a sweet little boy! You always put a smile on my face with your awesome personality, cute smile, contagious laugh and your playful ways!

Good luck in Cockatoos! Come by and say hi sometime :-) You will be missed greatly!

Love,

Ms. Katie"

Sorting pretend food

"Ms. Kelley explained to the Cheetahs the food pyramid. Then Ms. Kelley made the food pyramid out of different colored tape. We used our pretend food to sort the different foods into the correct color of the pyramid. Each Cheetah had a turn to put at least two pieces of food into the food pyramid. Some of the foods were easy to look at our poster and put in the correct spot but some of the food we had to guess where the food went. The Cheetahs were very excited when they matched the correct food with the correct color. Check out our food pyramid on the carpet and you could even work with your child on where the food goes!"

I know I have been putting a lot of pictures of Gabriel and none of David for a while... I just want to say that we have taken none of these pictures, but Gabriel's teachers are now e-mailing them to me, so I just put them up with their own comments... I have been trying to get David's teachers to do the same, but it just has not happened...

By the way, David moved up to the Cockatoo room last Wednesday. He loves it! He is having a lot of fun there, but he looks tiny compared to his friends...

Very brave kids

Today I felt very proud about my kids. They had their scheduled doctor's appointment and everything went very well (David is 32.5 in high -5th percentile- and weights 22 lbs -less than 5th percentile-, Gabriel is 40 in high and weights 36 lbs -50th percentile on both-). At the end David had to get one vaccination and Gabo had to get four! David only cried a little bit, but Gabo was so brave he didn't even cry! He just complained about the pain, but I explained to him that it was supposed to hurt a little, and he was so mature about it.

Here is a picture of Gabo and some of his friends at school this morning.



"The Cheetahs picked a magazine. They looked in the magazine for different types of boats and things that live in the water. They would cut the picture out and then glue the picture to a blue piece of paper. We talked to the Cheetahs about the blue paper being the water".

Learning about traffic lights

Ms. Rebekah gave each child three circles: one red, one yellow, and one green, and a piece of black paper. She talked with the children about traffic lights and what each color means when it is lit up. All of the children now know that red means STOP, that yellow means caution or slow down, and that green means GO!

Gabriel's Valentine's day party at school

Watercolor and toothbrush painting

Ms. Kelley (one of the teachers in the Cheetah classroom) helped the children as they created pictures with water colors and toothbrushes. The children mixed the different colors as they painted, creating new colors and beautiful pictures.

Here are Gabo, Joey and Molly with their creations!

Gabo's Birthday Party at School