Morgan Rothschild Academy Toddler 2 Room April Newsletter 2008

Dear Families, It looks as if spring is finally here in Shanghai! Time really does fly when you are having a good time and we certainly have been having a good time learning and making new friends at Morgan Rothschild Academy. The Toddler 2 Room is very excited to welcome two new students, Fin and Yoyo, to our class. They are an excellent addition and already seem as though they are seasoned MRA students.

   We in the Toddler 2 room have been busy preparing for springtime, it being our March classroom theme. We have enjoyed and explored the subject of spring in all of our core learning components; language and literacy, number, science, music, and art. By incorporating a theme that has been chosen according to the students’ interests, we have been able to construct a curriculum that not only includes the fundamentals of learning but also makes the lessons captivating and enjoyable at Morgan Rothschild Academy.

 In our Language and Literacy component, we learned various vocabulary words that are associated with spring. The first two weeks had a focus on weather and the last two weeks had a focus on the signs of spring. We constructed a weather wheel and every morning we go to the window to see what type of weather needs to be placed on our wheel. Morris really enjoys being the “weather helper” and is always the first to inform me if it is raining. For our signs of spring lessons we were able to dissect and explore various types of flowers. Dennis told me that his favorite flower was the Tiger Lily because it was orange like a tiger.

 For our word component we have been focusing on a different letter every week. Each letter is introduced by also showing words that start with that letter. These words are words that the students already recognize and know at Morgan Rothschild. After our lesson the letter is then used as the class password. After our lesson on the letter ‘T’, Yoyo recognized the letter ‘T’ on his Thomas the Tank Engine shoes.

 In our science component we have used various hands-on activities to encourage active exploration among the students. We went on a nature walk to see spring emerging in our own school community. Kevin loves to go outside and look for grasshoppers and butterflies in our schoolyard. We also had a lesson in which we explored changes in volume using different shaped containers. Martina loved making predictions as to how much water would fill the triangle shaped container.

 In our math component we have been focusing on recognizing numerals, shapes, seriation, and making patterns. We had one lesson in which we incorporated mathematics and art. We made rainbows using semi circles. The students all really enjoyed placing different colored circles in the right order to make a rainbow. At Morgan Rothschild, the students improved their fine motor skills by using scissors to cut out different sized raindrops. The students then glued the raindrops in descending order from largest to smallest drop. Emily concentrated very hard on this project and insisted on completing it all by herself.

 In our music component we have been learning various different songs for our spring performance. We are very excited to work with the Toddler 1 class for our spring show. All of the students really enjoy singing and learning new songs at Morgan Rothschild Academy. After learning the song “Clementine,” Patrick told me that he wanted to sing it by himself. He said, “Ms. Sofia, just Patrick sing Clementine.” Vanessa just loves singing the song, “I like to eat apples and bananas.”

 In our art component we have been creating some wonderful projects with a spring motif. When we made our weather mobiles Lilian told me that he was going to give his weather mobile to his mother. We also made spring visors to wear when we go outside to keep the sun off of our faces. Fin loved wearing his spring visor when we went outside to the playground.

 This upcoming month also proves to be exciting and learning filled! Our April theme is insects. We will also be working continuously on our own garden, which should be ready to work on by the end of the week. I encourage you to keep writing your comments in the daily progress reports. I really appreciate your comments and also enjoy hearing about your child at home. I look forward to seeing all of you at our spring performance at Morgan Rothschild Academy!
All of my best,
Ms. Sofia

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