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ScienceIf You Find a Rock by Peggy Christian is the new book on our shelf this week.
When you find a rock, you don't always know what kind of rock it is.
Have you found a hiding rock? Or a rock to skip in the water? It might be a wishing rock, or a climbing rock, or a rock to kick in front of you, all the way home.
Or you might have found a rock that doesn't have a name yet.
And that might be the best rock of all.If you find more rocks, please send them in. We are continuing this fun focus.Literature (and Math, and Art, too)
The children had an introduction to the art of Wayne Thiebeau. He's an American painter whose most famous works are of cakes, pastries, boots, toilets, toys and lipsticks. His last name is pronounced "Tee-bo" in case any of you are wondering. ;) He is associated with the Pop art movement because of his interest in objects of mass culture, although his works, executed during the fifties and sixties, slightly predate the works of the classic pop artists.
We read Counting with Wayne Thiebaud, and although I didn't buy the book to talk about math, (but what a fun way to demonstrate counting), but rather, to introduce the children to contemporary art in a *scrumptious* form!
Attention was brought to the 'creaminess' of this painting below. Makes us just want to eat it right off the page! 
Pie Slice Oil on board, 1991
Seven Hot Dogs Pastel and Watercolor on Paper, 2006
Candy Apples Watercolor over Monotype, 1989
Celebration Cakes Pastel on Paper, 1992.ArtWatercolor extension. Final work placed on light table for investigation.
Snippets
Tracing on the light table.
Stacking
Storytime
On Wednesday, Lulu turned 3 years old!
*Happy Birthday*
Yoga Photos by Kellyann
Closing circle
Now the children are beginning to learn group work in yoga. Ms. Krista was describing some of the things they will be working on, and it sounds really neat!
Final Savasanah
The children have shown a great deal of interest in rocks, so we are going to delve into a focus on rocks. If you have any interesting rocks at home, please feel free to send them to school in a Ziploc bag or other container that is labeled with your child’s name so we know who to return them to. Art
The children have had an introduction to chalk pastels this past month, and last week, we introduced Oil Pastels. What’s so cool about these are they offer an intensity and a variety of color not found with typical wax-based crayons and typical sidewalk chalk. Oil pastels are made of a mixture of pigment and oil, while chalk pastels are pigment held together with a dry binding agent. As with the chalk pastels, we offered the oil pastels on thick paper. 
SpanishWe read Mouse Paint, in English and Spanish. We continue to learn El Burrito Enfermo and we played Spanish Bingo (aka Loteria). This was a huge hit! The children who played it, paid special attention to see if their word was called and got the concept right away. Ms. Kellyann did a great job calling out the words in Spanish and I’m so proud of her for giving it her best effort. :)
Other Snippets
I pulled out the Math Spindle Box because with a couple children, there has been interest in the symbolic representation of numbers and counting. This is going to be available for those who wish to work with it.
Damon, Mia and Lulu enjoyed these sorting activities with fruit and flowers. 
Ms. Kellyann captured this terrific moment of playing and sharing between the girls. Social skills developing beautifully. =)
Bubble Photo also by Ms. Kellyann
We’ve had a busy week with visitors touring Terra Luz all week. I was able to grab my camera to capture this darling little lady who will be joining us the Fall. 
Speaking of Fall, it looks like we will continue to operate Terra Luz out of the house when Fall rolls around. Several reasons—we’re waiting for the economy to stabilize a bit, for me to refine my knowledge on the business aspect of operating a preschool, as well as waiting for the right place at the right price to present itself. So, this is good because there are definitely pros to having Terra Luz in our home. We can continue to work in our large garden, we have our kitchen to do culinary activities, and the flexibility of a running a small cohesive program. This also means our numbers for enrollment are limited, and I'm just about full. Please continue to send in recyclables from the list below. Our nature table is still looking a bit bare. It’s Spring! So feel free to send in what you find from Nature. Our little Elf Boy is quite lonely on the nature table. ;)
Sunscreen: Even though we seem to be having a lot of rain these days, warm and sunny weather is right around the corner. When the days become more sunny, please apply sunscreen to your child before coming to school. You also will want to keep an extra bottle in their backpacks as well as their swimsuits since we’ll begin having splash days soon. End of Year Parent Teacher Conferences
I will be holding EOY conferences with parents the first week of June. There will be a sign up sheet on the sign in table. The 2 dates I’ll be holding these will be on Monday, June 1st and Tuesday, June 2nd. These will be very informal and will be an opportunity to go over your child’s portfolio from this year. Important Dates:
Last Day of the spring semester will be Wednesday, June 3rd, unless I can get a sub to come in for June 4th. Any volunteers from my sub list available? I will be traveling to La Paz, Mexico (way south in the Baja Peninsula for a wedding) and will need the extra day to arrive since a portion of our travel will be by bus, and I am too chicken to travel that by myself, so I’ll be meeting some other guests at the airport, and they’re leaving on the 4th.
Terra Luz will reopen for Summer Session on June 16th and the part time session will run through July 2nd (T,W,TH only). We will be closed for the remainder of July, and reopening August 4th. All the dates are on the Terra Luz Calendar on our website if you need to refer to them later. I will be attending the NAREA Summer Conference, at the end of June, but it will not affect summer school days. I'm very excited about it and look forward to this professional development opportunity. My goal by next year, is to be able to travel to Reggio Emilia to attend a group study tour. =)
Not only do we want your scraps for our compost, we also want your recyclables. We'll need plenty of the following for our projects.
Recyclable Items Needed
(washed and dried please)
Cardboard milk or juice cartons
Wine Corks
Small Shoe Boxes
Assorted Plastic Plates and Bowls
Assorted Plastic Coffee Can Lids
Plastic Jugs such as laundry detergent or fabric softener
Plastic Yogurt Cups
Plastic Netting from Clementine Box or Onion Bag
Plastic Beverage Bottle with Cap
Several Plastic Bottle Caps, (Milk Jug Caps, water, laundry, etc.)
Aluminum Pie Pans or Aluminum Take Out
Assorted cans in various small and medium sizes
Old Shoelaces (the longer the better)
Thank you!
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