Pennies, Nickels, Dimes, OH MY!

The Sea Turtles had a short week, but a great one. We kicked it off with a fun walking field trip to Santa Barbara Bank and Trust. The children received a tour, lesson in coins, saw an ATM from the back view and the vault, received plastic piggy banks with a $2 bill, and dropped off the coins collected from the coin drive benefiting Transition House of Santa Barbara. In the classroom each child participated in a coin toss and learned about heads and tails of a penny. Friday was a rainy day and the Sea Turtles enjoyed having some quality time in the classroom where they built an extensive railway they names "Island of Sodor."
Nest week we will celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday Wednesday and begin our service learning project for Storyteller Children's Center!
See you Monday!
Love, Miss Meika

Happy Heart Day!

The Sea Turtles had a great time celebrating Valentine's Day all week. We had a fabulous class party with a red food theme, gifts, balloons, and lots of fun. Thank you all for your contributions and time. I love having parents and grandparents in the classroom, very memorable. We also had time to focus on core concepts in the midst of all the fun. Patterning, letter awareness, and name writing were all practiced diligently. The boys paired up to work on an alphabet lesson and did a wonderful job communicating and problem solving together. 

Next week we will be focusing on money as we go to Santa Barbara Bank and Trust for a field trip! 

Enjoy the long weekend! See you Wednesday!

Love, Miss Meika

Love Is In The Air

Susan (Cash's mom) helping out in the classroom with an art craft

The boys playing their new favorite game: "Crab Hole"

Mason decorating a heart

 Line leader Cash passing out the snack he brought

 Dominic looking very proud of the way he stacked and cleaned up the blocks

Sea Turtles helping decorate the main bulletin board of our school

Valentine making station

Declan concentrating on numeral awareness and one to one correspondence

Dominic and Matt listening and looking at Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel

 Hover crafts, fighter jets, and much more; lots of creativity!

The Sea Turtles had a great week gearing up for Valentine's Day on Monday! From decorating the school's main bulletin board to crafts involving lots of pink, red, and white, we had a wonderful time. We are happy to have all six boys back in the classroom happy and healthy. The children have also enjoyed our newly added listening station where they can listen to classics like Caps For Sale. They continue to enjoy challenging lessons like the Valentine's counting activity where they had to count out the correct number of heart cutouts to glue onto the corresponding numeral. Friday was a special day as it was the night of our Mary Rice Hopkins concert, which was a success and a lot of fun.
We are looking forward to our big Valentine's Day celebration on Monday!
See you then!

Love, Miss Meika

The Month of Love

The Sea Turtles were at it again this week kicking off the month of February with a bang! It truly is amazing to see these boys interact with each other with such love, compassion, and understanding. We work through challenges in a collaborative manner and always want what's best for one another. Right now our favorite book is Violet the Pilot by Steve Breen, a story about a little girl who is a mechanical genius and creates flying machines. Ask your child which flying machine he likes the best, the wingamajiga or the rocket can? They also have loved playing crab hole in the lower playground sandbox working together for one common goal: crabs ;). The boys are doing a wonderful job on their top secret Valentine's Day gifts and number awareness. This past week we have missed Declan as he and his family are enjoying Lake Tahoe! We have also been discussing Connor, a new boy who will be joining our class in March. We are anxiously awaiting his arrival and ready to welcome the newest addition to the Sea Turtle classroom! 

Next week will be all about Valentine's Day! Yipee!

See you Monday!

Love, Miss Meika