Welcome to Julie's Class

Welcome to a new school year! I'm looking forward to working and learning with your children. Please refer to this page weekly for information and updates on what we have been doing throughout the week.

Julie
julie@traversechildrenshouse.org.

• Jodie has returned to the classroom! We are so excited to have her back in our room. Anna stayed in our room on Monday and Tuesday while Jodi observed the routine of the day. This has helped the children tremendously with this transition.
• We have also added two new guinea pigs to our room. They were adopted from a family that could no longer care for them. Both are males and we will be observing them to discover what they should be named.
• In last months national geographic there was a story that I shared with the class. It is about an artist who makes sculptures of people and then places them in the ocean to help regenerate the coral reefs. I will be looking for more of these types of stories to share as we get closer to earth day.

• The extended day children enjoyed a field trip to the Boardman River Nature area. We learned so many things about what happens with mammals and insects during the winter months; how to tell what types of animals have been browsing our garden for a winter snack, there are many types of insects resting through the winter months and how to look carefully to find their camouflaged homes.
• What has your child shared with you about China and our Chinese celebration? We have been talking a little each day about the culture and how families live in cities or the country. How are their family meals similar or different from our own?
• This week I observed two extended day students comforting a younger student who was feeling frustrated. Both of the older children had an idea to help, and the younger student followed the direction of both of his peers, when he said "I still can't" they didn't change their answers, they just encouraged him to try again.

Week of January 16, 2012

• We are so fortunate to have a close connection with Interlochen Arts Academy. We enjoyed a presentation by some of their students playing french horn, oboe, clarinet, flute, piano and bassoon. I really enjoy hearing the music, but for me the best part is watching the children's reactions to a live performance.
• Snow has taken over, winter has finally arrived and the children are so excited. We are practicing getting everything on in the correct order; snow pants, boots, coat, zipping and tucking, mittens and hat. Wow! It's a lot of work with many steps. Please remember to label your child's belongings as many items are beginning to blend together.
• Chinese New Year will be celebrated next week; the children are busy making lanterns and dragons. One of the children commented "the room looks so festive". We have the lanterns hanging and children are practicing Chinese symbol writing. We are practicing frightening the dragon away during collective group, so if your child is pounding the floor with their hands this "might" be the reason.  

Week of January 9, 2012

• After the long vacation and the short week, the children are back into the routine of the classroom. They are singing and laughing, enjoying each others company and learning from each other. We have welcomed two new students to our classroom. Cici Copenhaver, who moved with her family from Minnesota, is an extended day student and Tavo Serrano has moved up from Betsy's class.
• In the afternoon we began another crystal growing experiment. We used sugar and water, we are checking it everyday and making observations about the growth of the crystals that are forming. When all the water has evaporated, we will compare these with the salt crystals.
• I read the children a short book about Martin Luther King Jr. The children had many questions about him and the great work that he did. We will continue to talk about Dr. King and what discrimination is. We will be talking more in the following weeks about the changes that he helped make in our country.

Week of December 12, 2011

• The children have been enjoying Holiday music from my "growing up" years. It has been very relaxing and comforting to hear the sounds of Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra flowing through the classroom. This is a tradition that has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember and have enjoyed sharing the classics with your child.
• How do children around the world celebrate this holiday? We have talked about European, Asian, and African traditions and even the differences that we might find throughout the United States. Every family has their own traditions even within our classroom. Ask your child what tradition they might like to start?
• Is today the sing along, is the question of the week. We have been practicing singing, with beautiful voices, in preparation for the all school sing on Friday. I know the children have the refrains down and are pretty good at pretending their way through some of the verses. They have had such a great time learning new songs as well as practicing the favorites.
• Have a wonderful, (SNOWY?) holiday break! 

Week of December 5, 2011

• We have been making a variety of decorations and gifts that will be coming home with your son or daughter; for those of you that have many easel paintings adorning your house this makes wonderful wrapping paper. Grace and courtesy lessons this week will include the giving and receiving of gifts. Hopefully these will carry over into your holiday celebrations and family traditions.
• There are many students that have been busy with our puzzle maps and trying to figure out where we live in North America. We have talked about the fact that Michigan is surrounded by the great lakes. The children are currently trying to learn the names of the lakes and where each is located in relation to Traverse City.
• This week we practiced safety with a run through of our lock down drill. The children all did really well, sitting quietly in the bathroom with the lights off. I tried reading a story in a soft voice, but unfortunately I had difficulty seeing the words. We then pretended that we were rocks and it was so silent we could hear the traffic outside and the chickadees chirping.

Week of November 28, 2011

• I hope everyone was able to enjoy family and friends during our Thanksgiving break. The children and I are continuing to talk about all the wonderful things that we are happy to have on a daily basis. This has led to some discussion about inventors and all the different items available that had to be invented. Hopefully one of your children will invent something to keep pet hair off everything except the actual pet!
• In the afternoon we have begun listening to "Penguin Puzzle," a book in the series of the Magic School Bus. In this adventure, the children and Ms. Frizzle are in Antarctica the worlds coldest continent. They have encountered ice bergs, ice shelves, and krill. The children are also learning fun facts about many different types of penguins.
• Since it has begun snowing we have talked about how unique snowflakes are. Each snowflake is made up of different ice crystals. The children have been looking at pictures of a variety of different crystal formations and we will experiment with growing our crystals using sugar and salt. 

Week of November 14, 2011

• Following the lead of the children and the reports of "hot lava" on the playground, we have begun reading about volcanoes. We will be talking about magma, vents, eruptions and yes, hot lava. Anna brought in a volcanic rock from her sisters yard in Italy, it is heavier than I thought it would be. We will also be looking at pictures from one of the islands in the Caribbean, where they have a tourist attraction named "drive in volcano".
• Continuing with our cultural study of Poland, we have a flag on loan to our classroom from one of our families. The children have learned the significance of the colors on the flag and they will have the opportunity to make a flag to bring home. Ask your child if they can tell you the difference of the eagles that live in our country compared to eagles that live in Europe.
• I want to share one of my favorite Harvest Feast traditions that we do as part of our classroom celebration. Before we begin our wonderful meal, each child is given a kernel of corn. The kernel represents what each child is thankful for. We pass around a basket and say what we are each thankful for and when everyone has had an opportunity to give thanks we talk about how full our basket is. This basket will remain on the shelf until the new year as a silent reminder of how fortunate we all are.
• Have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! 

Week of October 31, 2011

• I read a book titled "Van Gogh and the Sunflowers" with the children, the story took place in a small village. Camille and his family became friends with Vincent and he painted portraits of the entire family. While reading the book we talked about the paintings that some of the children may have seen in museums that were painted by Vincent Van Gogh.
• How do we preserve food for the winter months? Some for our classmates are lucky enough to have helped out with preserving food from their home gardens. We talked about foods that can be frozen, or foods that are put in jars and stored for many weeks. I will be attempting to make cherry tomato raisins in the oven, if it is successful I'll be sure to send some home with your children.
• Conferences are scheduled for next week and I am looking forward to meeting with each of you to talk about the wonderful work that your child has been doing in our classroom. The amount of growth that has taken place in the few weeks that we have been together as a community is very heartwarming. 

Week of October 24, 2011

• We had our first food of the month presentation this week. We learned that pumpkins are a fruit, and it can be eaten raw or cooked. Many brave children tried the raw pumpkin and found that it tasted pretty good. Michele Worden brought in many different varieties of pumpkins for the children see. One pumpkin variety was named "Cinderella", which was a favorite with a few young ladies.
• With the weather beginning to chill up, please remember to send in gloves or mittens for your child labeled with their name. We have already begun to have some confusion about what belongs to whom. Although it does offer more opportunities for grace and courtesy lessons, I find that the coatroom full of children wanting to get outside to play isn't the most effective way to accomplish this.
• I which that you could see the tremendous work that each child in our room is doing. Every day I am amazed by my observations. The discoveries that the children make through repetition with a material, the time each is afforded to complete tasks, and the joy that I see every day through the completion of work is truly a gift.  

Week of October 17, 2011

• It is pumpkin time! During collective group I read a true story about a pumpkin patch titled "Pumpkin Circle". Through this book we learned about how to grow the perfect pumpkin. They need a lot of space to spread out, and each pumpkin should be stood up so it is not laying on its side. Pumpkins take about one hundred days to grow to the perfect carving size.
• Continuing with our conversations about fall, we talked about ways that seeds are dispersed naturally. Then we did some fun seed dispersal on a really windy day this week. There is something about "1,2,3 open your hand" and letting the wind take away the seeds that is so liberating and joyous. Some of our milk weed seeds stayed close, many floated quickly above the trees.
• With the cooler weather approaching there will be many yummy aromas leaving our room. The crock pot will be put to use for applesauce, spiced cider and even mashed potatoes. We have been toasting pumpkin seeds and will try our first batch of banana bread this year. Look forward to tasty samples coming home throughout the coming weeks. 

Week of October 10, 2011

• Did you know that we have a walnut tree on our campus? I took a couple of children out for a walk and we brought in leaves and a walnut fruit to share with the rest of our class. I wore gloves when I removed the fruit from the nut, so the children could see the color that it turned the finger tips. We talked about how this is used to make stain for furniture. I then used a hammer to break open the nut to reveal the "walnut meat" inside the nut.
• Thank you to all the students that have brought in leaves to share with the class! After we talk about the leaves and what type of tree they are from, we will be pressing the leaves to use for various art projects for the upcoming weeks.
• I'm looking forward to carving pumpkins with you and your children this weekend. I will have a few extra cutting tools available for use, along with bowls and scoops for the seeds. Please come dressed for the outdoors unless (heaven forbid) it is raining. We'll try to do most of our carving outside in the courtyard. 

Week of October 3, 2011

• We practiced our first fire drill and I was impressed with the way everyone reacted to the alarm. All of the children quickly lined up when it sounded. We walked in a careful line with some older children holding hands of the youngest, out to the soccer field and when we went through the attendance each child practiced saying "here" in a loud voice so we knew everyone was out of the classroom.
• After recess, the children gather to hear a few chapters read aloud, we finished "Charlotte's Web" and began reading a magic tree house book. In this story Jack and Annie, the two main characters discover the tree house and its contents; many, many books. Through one of these they get to visit the time of dinosaurs.
• Tis' the season for colds and runny noses...... so we have had a lesson on using tissues to blow our noses, we have practiced coughing in our elbows and we have been washing our hands with plently of running water and hand soap. The children are begining to learn about all the many ways that our body has to help keep germs out, our own personal "body guards". Here's to a season of few sniffles and zero cases of the flu!

Week of September 26, 2011

• We have been practicing "polite" words in Spanish during lunch. The children are saying please and thank you, when passing out food or when receiving help opening packaging from home. In addition to these, we are also practicing greetings and colors. Some of the children are already correcting me or saying the Spanish word before I get the chance because I have to stop and think about the correct words sometimes!
• What makes a color a primary color? This was a discussion we had in the beginning of the week. A primary color is one that can not be made by mixing colors together. Red, blue and yellow begin with a plant or mineral and these three are the beginning of all the other colors. Can your child tell you which two colors combined create, orange, blue or green?
• This week we have our first "safety drill". The fire alarm is sounding, what do we do and why? The children have been prepared (as much as they can be) about the loud noise and flashing light that will occur in our classroom. We will then line up quickly and quietly at our patio door, to walk safely out to the soccer field until we are given the "all clear" to re-enter the building. Your child may have questions about what to do in case of this type of event at your home. 

Week of September 19, 2011

• It is amazing how quickly the children are adapting to the routine of our day. Without being able to tell time, many of the children instinctively know when it's is about to be time for group and begin straightening up or gathering without a word from an adult. Some children even continue to work right through group, when was the last time you were so engrossed in your work that taking a break was out of the question?
• Our lunches at school are so wonderful! Today we had roasted vegetables and one of the vegetables included was purple potatoes. We enjoyed saying "purple potatoes on my plate" throughout our meal. One child had three servings of rice and another "tasted" everything on his plate following encouragement from his peers, which was fun to witness.
• This week we will be getting our classroom garden prepared; the children will be pulling out the tomato and cucumber plants. We will amend the soil with compost and do some tilling with shovels. Next week, we will be choosing the varieties of plants and covering the garden with hoops to extend our gardening season. I'll keep you posted with our progress.... 

Week of September 12, 2011

• In addition to harvesting cherry tomatoes and cucumbers from our classroom garden, we enjoyed tasting beans of many colors in hopes of discovering which one tasted best. We tried beans that were yellow, green, purple, and purple/green striped! The yellow beans were voted to be the favorite by the majority of the children.
• During a small group lesson this week, we talked about composers from late 1700's. We discussed where the composers lived and the types of instruments the composers wrote music for. One of the children noticed that each composer had white hair which led to another conversation about fashion. The composers were wearing wigs which were in fashion during their era.
• We found a wolf spider in the classroom and you can imagine the excitement that this discovery contributed to the morning! I carefully caught the spider with our bug catcher and let the children examine it for a few moments before it was safely released outdoors where it would be much happier to live. 

Week of September 5, 2011

• What a wonderful start to the new year, the children are excited to make new friends and get reacquainted with returning classmates. The returning students are helping the new students as each one gets accustomed to the routine of our classroom. It is so heart-warming to see these beginning collaborations taking shape throughout every part of our day.
• This week we are in the process of learning everyone's names, practicing many grace and courtesies of introduction and kind requests of each other. In addition we are learning the "community song" which is sung before we begin enjoy our lunches. Ask your child to sing it with you here are the lyrics: look around and you will see a community, a family, we are together, we are one. So if your child isn't eating, try singing, it might be what they are waiting for.
• Wow, the pesto pasta was finished off in record time on thursday, every child tried it and enjoyed having fresh pesto direct from the garden.