Dear Rainbow Families,
The focus on Brooklyn and our homes has continued in the Rainbow Room. This week children were busy dictating letters – and drawing accompanying pictures – to send to their families. (Thank you very much for sending in your home addresses.) A trip to the post office is planned for next week to mail the letters. The Rainbows also took a neighborhood walk this week with a focus of “what do we see in Brooklyn” and then discussed their observations (brownstones, stoops, etc.) as they made the connection that their neighborhood is part of Brooklyn. They also read “La Ciudad” (authors Maria Rius and Josep Parramon), a Spanish-language book that describes the sights and sounds of a city. Our teachers translated the book as they read, plus they used several words for their Spanish words of the week:
calle – street
edificio – building
casa – house
ciudad – city
Some other books the Rainbows read this week include “B is for Brooklyn” by Selina Alko, a lively and colorful alphabet book (C is for Coney Island, P is for Prospect Park) that also includes a map of our different Brooklyn neighborhoods, and “Me on the Map” by Joan Sweeney, a playful introduction to maps and geography.
Aside from writing their letters, the Rainbows have been very busy writing and illustrating individual stories and sharing them at circle time. It is very exciting to see the children’s understanding of story structure come through as they compose their individual stories, as well as to see their joy in reading and sharing their works with their classmates. Another popular activity this week was a group art creation made with a shaving cream and glue mixture combined with different paint colors. The Rainbows delighted in the tactile, sensory experience of squeezing and rubbing the mixture with their hands and spreading it on cardboard.
Some final notes:
1) Would you please send in a shoebox with your child next week as the Rainbows are collecting shoeboxes for an upcoming project? Many thanks!
2) No school on Monday, January 20 (Martin Luther King Day).
3) Commitment letters are due on Tuesday, January 21.
Enjoy your long weekend!
Martha