Miss Kristin's Blog

A Porcupine Named Fluffy

kiorio — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:38:45 +0000

We’re getting ready to start a new book called A Porcupine Named Fluffy by Helen Lester. This is a great book with funny illustrations that will provide us with opportunities to talk about things that are soft and things that are prickly or hard. A Porcupine Named Fluffy is a delightful tale of a young porcupine who wants to live up to his name. Fluffy’s parents choose the name Fluffy because it is a pretty name, but Fluffy discovers that he is not at all fluffy. He tries to “be” a cloud and a pillow. He experiments with bubble bath, whipped cream, marshmallows, shaving cream and feathers, and even a bunny costume, but nothing works. He is very dejected and becomes greatly embarrassed when he runs into a rhinoceros who teases him and laughs at his name. But after Fluffy discovers that the rhinoceros is named Hippo, he laughs as well, and the two become fast friends.

This story provides numerous opportunities for sensory experiences as well as the development of descriptive concepts and expressions of feelings in dramatic play. We’ll be acting out the story, experimenting with different materials and making fun art projects. We are going to be doing many activities to explore the concepts of “fluffy,” “soft,” “prickly,” and “hard.” You can use these words at home when drying off with a fluffy towel, walking on a soft carpet, eating hard carrots or prickly pretzels, and so on. It’s great when your child can hear the same words at home and at school, which reinforces the concepts. This will help our students better understand and use the words in different contexts.

We’ll be experimenting with cotton balls, pillows, felt pieces, beads, rocks, pasta (before and after cooking), sand paper, and many more fun materials. Your child may want to continue experimenting with new materials at home to find out if they are hard or soft, prickly or smooth. Some of these activities will entail messy substances, such as shaving cream, slime or playdough. We apologize in advance but no worries- everything will be washable!

We’ll also make some great art projects – from porcupines and rhinoceroses, to hard and soft patterns. We’ll also play hide and seek with objects in shaving cream and act out the main events in the story in costume and with puppets! We hope you all can share in the fun this unit brings to our classroom!

Snowy Day

kiorio — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 19:04:50 +0000

Time really flies, and it’s already time for our long winter break! Although it still seems far away, January is right around the corner. Beginning on January 3rd, our class will be starting a new book unit based on Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. This is a story about a young boy who goes for a walk in the snow, makes snow angels and watches a fun snowball fight. The boy tries to take a snowball home in his pocket, but sadly, it melts. Much to his surprise, however, it snows the next day and he has brand new snow to play with!

This book, along with other favorites such as The Hat and The Mitten by Jan Brett, will help us discuss the changes we see in winter. We will be learning about how snow is made, what makes ice melt, things to do in the snow, and how to make snow projects such as snow globes, snowmen or snowflakes. We will play with foods that remind us of snow and ice, such as sugar cubes, Honeycomb cereal and marshmallows.

We will also be studying how the change to cold weather affects our bodies. Since we get very cold without proper clothing outside, we need to dress warmly! Our class will be sorting summer and winter items, dressing up the boy from the story in warm clothes and even talking about what kinds of warm foods there are to eat, such as soup or hot chocolate. Weather permitting, we will be playing outside (even if it snows!) so please dress your child warmly!

I hope you all have a safe and fun vacation, and a very Happy New Year! We look forward to our new unit and having a great start to 2012! Stay tuned for more news after the break!

Night Tree

kiorio — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:37:08 +0000

With December quickly coming up, our class is going to spend the month learning about the beginning of winter, three holiday celebrations, and we will be starting a new book theme. We will be discussing the changing seasons and how winter brings with it cold weather, ice and snow.

Without delving into the religious aspects of these holidays, we will be learning about Chanukah, Kwanzaa and Christmas, and what they mean for many people. We will be making some projects for each holiday, such as a Christmas tree, ornaments, a kenorah and a menorah. We will also be cooking potato latkes and a gingerbread house!

We will also be starting a new book unit using Night Tree, written by Eve Bunting. This book is set at Christmastime, but there are no religious references or mentions of Christmas activities. Instead, the story focuses on a family who places food on a pine tree in the forest for the animals to eat. It is a great book to assist in teaching sharing and being kind to other people and animals. We will be learning about what kinds of animals live in the forest, what they eat, and how we may help them this winter.

We hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and a restful long weekend, and we are looking forward to these December activities!

Writer’s Workshop

kiorio — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 20:10:07 +0000

This past month, students have been learning the Writer’s Workshop model and participating twice weekly by observing a mini-lesson, writing in their journals and sharing their work with peers. This week the four ELP classes mixed amongst themselves for the Writer’s Workshop session. It is expected that children in the preschool years will demonstrate various stages of writing, whether it be scribbling, clearly drawn pictures, pretend writing, strings of letters, more conventional writing, and combinations of all of the above. Children were grouped based upon their stage of writing with other children in similar stages. This way mini-lessons and instructional support can be tailored to meet each child at their current stage and move them forward. This will continue each Thursday with groupings being flexible, meaning children will move in and out of groups as they develop in their writing. It’s a great opportunity for children to work alongside new friends and gain exposure to a variety of teaching styles.

The Three Billy Goats Gruff

kiorio — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 15:31:00 +0000

During the next three weeks, we will be focusing a new story unit on The Three Billy Goats Gruff, written by Janet Stevens. This is a fun version of the old tale of three billy goats who are trying to get across a bridge to the grassy meadow on the other side. A mean old troll is sitting under the bridge threatening to eat the billy goats as they cross over. The billy goats are brave and clever, however, and outsmart the troll. We will be discussing how friends and family help one another, how it’s good to face your fears and how to feel better when afraid.

During the coming weeks, students will be acting out the story, learning about feelings and making great projects. We’ll be learning new words, retelling the story and even growing our own grass from seeds! I hope they all enjoy this classic fairytale Next up after The Three Billy Goats Gruff will be a week of learning about Thanksgiving!

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything

kiorio — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:41:46 +0000

This week we will begin the book The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything. This story fits with the Halloween holiday, as it involves a Jack-o-Lantern, but it does not address Halloween specifically. The story is about an old lady who sets out to gather herbs, spices, seeds and nuts from the forest. It is dark when she walks home, and she soon realizes that she is being followed by a pair of shoes making a “clomp, clomp” sound. She is not afraid, but hurries on anyway. Next she is followed by a pair of pants, a shirt, two gloves, a hat and a pumpkin head, all of which make scary noises. They chase her home and try to scare her, but the little old lady is not frightened. Instead, she tells them to stay in the garden, dress a scarecrow and scare her crows away!

This story is about comforting your fears, and we will use it to facilitate discussions about what makes us scared and how we make ourselves feel better and braver. We will be studying body parts and clothing, body movements, pumpkins and seeds. We will be learning the sequence of the story and how to predict what will come next. Pretty soon, your kids will be able to read parts of this story aloud to you!

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything can help us transition into some Halloween activities as well, and we will be making some fun and scary art projects! Also stay tuned for email updates on the Halloween trick-or-treating and costume day!

Picking Apples and Pumpkins

kiorio — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 14:00:02 +0000

Welcome to fall in ELP! During the next two weeks, we will be reading Picking Apples and Pumpkins by Amy and Richard Hutchings. This fall story involves a family that goes out to a farm to pick apples and pumpkins. While on the farm, they ride the hay wagon, climb trees, use an apple picker, have a picnic, and buy their apples and pumpkins. At home, they bake an apple pie and carve pumpkins into Jack-O-Lanterns.

This story offers us an opportunity to explore the changes that occur in the fall, such as the changing colors of the leaves, the planting and harvesting of apples and pumpkins, the variety of textures and flavors of foods made from apples and pumpkins, and the equipment on a farm. We will be acting out a trip to a farm to pick apples and pumpkins and will be making art projects with trees, leaves, acorns, pinecones, sticks, and apples. We will also be studying weighing, measuring, cooking, and the differences between fruits and vegetables. We will be graphing our favorite apples, too, and that will give us a chance to try eating different kinds!

We will also be starting our year-long unit of study about letters. We’ll start with “A” next week just in time to read our Apples and Pumpkins book! We are really looking forward to learning about fall, and hope you will love the artwork and stories your children will be bringing home! What’s next? Halloween and The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

kiorio — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 14:32:46 +0000

Beginning next week, our class is starting a new unit to learn letters through Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault. This wonderful alphabet story has a catchy rhythm, and before long, your child will be reciting the book to you! The premise of this story is how the lower case letters of the alphabet come out to play by climbing a coconut tree. However, as more and more letters climb up, the tree slumps and eventually… chicka chicka boom boom! Down all the letters fall, skinning knees and bumping heads along the way. The mama’s and papa’s – or the uppercase letters – come to the rescue, until the lower case letters choose to begin their climb once again.

Throughout next week, we will be listening to the story, acting it out, and learning our letters. Our projects will include making coconut trees, decorating letters and even using real coconut! We will be playing games like counting coconuts on a tree, Chicka Chicka Bingo and “Barrels of Monkeys”! I also recommend the DVD of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and Chicka Chicka 123 – they are great musical versions of the book!

Starting the week after Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, our class will begin studying all of the letters! Each week we will learn a new letter of the alphabet (in order). Some activities we will be doing are:

“Walking the letters” (literally walking on a poster-board sized letter to get a feel for how it is formed and use out kinesthetic skills)
Reading poems that have the letter’s sound in them
Discussing what words begin with that letter
Tracing/writing our letter of the week (sometimes in marker, sometimes in shaving cream or rice!)
Decorating letters with objects beginning with the letter sound (i.e. apple stickers/stamps on the A)
Sounding out letters together in familiar words

We are all very excited to begin learning our letter names and sounds! The study of letters will also be a nice introduction for when we beginning Writer’s Workshop next month. Stay tuned for more news soon

Welcome to (or back to) ELP!

kiorio — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 14:08:28 +0000

Welcome to a new school year in ELP! Our classroom this year consists of myself, Kristin Iorio, and three paraprofessionals: Donna Bruno, Caitlin Feighan and Megan Roman. We are beginning with 11 students and I am looking forward to getting to know each of you and your children to develop a wonderful community of learners!

Our units center on storybook themes, and the first is going to start right away! We are starting the school year with activities related to the book The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn. This book is about Chester, a raccoon who is afraid to go to school, preferring to stay home with family and friends. His wise mother tells him the secret of the Kissing Hand. She kisses the palm of his hand and tells him that he will be able to feel the warmth of her love any time he is feeling lonely by simply putting his hand to his cheek. He feels better about going to school when he can take his mother’s love with him, so he kisses her hand in return, and goes off to make new friends.

This book will allow us to discuss our feelings about going to school, to talk about our favorite things at home, and to explore the fun activities that will be available in preschool. During the first two weeks of school, we will be listening to the story, acting it out, doing lots of fun things with hearts and hands, and sharing our thoughts about home and school. As one of our projects, we will be making cards to send home our own Kissing Hands to our families, and we invite you to make cards to your children in return!

We are so excited for this new school year and being able to spend it with your children. We hope you all enjoy the Kissing Hand story and beautiful crafts that your children will be working very hard on for the next two weeks! Just a quick peek to the future… after The Kissing Hand, we look forward to learning our letters through Chicka Chicka Boom Boom! Please feel free to email/call with any questions you might have: kiorio@darienps.org or 203-655-9666 ex. 4191.

Rainbow Fish

kiorio — Wed, 18 May 2011 21:11:20 +0000

We have just finished learning about The Very Hungry Caterpillar and now it’s time to work on our last unit! Our class will spend the next few weeks in an underwater adventure, reading The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister. This is a great book with an important message. The story takes place in the ocean and involves one exceptionally beautiful fish that discovers that looks are not everything and that giving is what makes him happy. When other fish begin asking to share his special sparkly scales, Rainbow Fish learns that making friends is most important and that sharing is a good feeling.

I think the whole class will love this tale of a special fish learning how to make friends. With new children entering our class all the time, this book is a great way to discuss new friends and how to play together as a group. Also, we get to learn about fish, water and sea life! We’ll be making tons of fun fishy projects such as our own rainbow fish, puffer fish, octopuses, jellyfish, sharks, starfish and even sand castles. We will be graphing our favorite fish, patterning different types of fish and playing with fish toys and games.

We will also be reading some great fish stories as well as books about unique traits and making friends. We will even read some Rainbow Fish sequels, such as Rainbow Fish to the Rescue!, Rainbow Fish and the Sea Monster’s Cave and Rainbow Fish Finds His Way. This will give us an opportunity to compare and contrast the stories and discuss the language, settings and characters of each story.

We have lots of fun adventures of our own in the last weeks of school. Please continue checking emails and this blog for important dates and information.