If you need to schedule a large item pick-up to be donated to the Foundation Garage Sale,
Please call Patti Lavender: 770-552-1162
We are planning to schedule pick-ups for Sunday afternoon, April 27th, but we may be able to make other arrangements.
Garrison Mill has recently established a Foundation whose purpose is to provide resources above and beyond what the County and the Garrison Mill PTA is able to provide. Please visit their web page to find out more about who they are, what they do, and help support their first fundraising event. You can visit them at: GME Foundation.
Welcome to APRIL!!! (almost)
The boys enjoyed our last unit on transportation...there's was so much to learn, talk about, act out, play....it was surely fun!
Next is our Unit on Spring Time! We'll be using a wide assortment of children's literature and activities to hi-light vocabulary, identification of objects and pictures based on attributes, categories, and spacial concepts.
Please continue to ask your boys to label colors of things...preferably flowering trees, flowers, flower pots, spring things with a specific-basic colors. I'm hoping to instill a love for Hide and Seek/I Spy - so that they are excited to look for things in the immediate environment. They are beginning to show a consistent understanding of adjectives, color combinations, and placement/prepositions.
Thanks for all of your support in everything that you do. I can't believe that it's so close to the end of the year already.
~Wow~
Lori
Wow- The year is flying by. We've just finished up our Dinosaur unit and have jumped into "Things that Go" - transportation. The target vocabulary is as follows:
Train Car Truck Bus Boat Plane Balloon
Go Wheels Stop Go Fast Slow Road
Track Sky Beep Honk
We have several craft activities, cooking (following directions) activities, along with games that will teach prepositions and signs, as well as review what we've already learned!
Please encourage your boys to make vehicle sounds as they play.
Have a great week!
Ms. Lori
We've just finished out book unit on the Napping House. The boys really enjoyed the story and all of the art projects that went along with it! Next, We will be reading The Gingerbread Baby, by Jan Brett and Gingerbread Boy, by Paul Galdone.
I'm not sure why I didn't think of it earlier, yet, I am going to include a link so that you, too, can learn the signs for this unit's vocabulary. This way you can practice with your boys at home too!
Baby Cat Dog Fast Fox Goat House Pig Run
http://www.aslpro.com/cgi-bin/aslpro/aslpro.cgi
To get optimal involvement in this book unit too, we will be doing be simple art, music, and cooking activities. This provides us with opportunities to practice on sequencing, prepositions, and following one step directions (just to name a few things)!
As always, I am thrilled to have more time with all of your boys...They're growing up too fast :(
Have a great week!
Hope everyone had a relaxing, family filled, Thanksgiving holiday break! Our next story is The Napping House, by Audrey Wood. This story not only has the repetition of language, yet beautiful illustrations that will provide visual cues for the boys when asked questions about the story.
Some of the key vocabulary in this story is familiar to the boys and provides another opportunity to generalize words and themes that they have already learned this school year! It lends itself to lessons about day vs. night, weather, a review of some animal signs, some new vocabulary, and continued work on verbs and prepositions.
I'm hopeful that you'll take a few minutes to read to the boys, either this book or related literature. Some suggestions are;
Goodnight Moon
Goodnight Owl
When I'm Sleepy
Happy Birthday Moon
Mooncake
How Many Feet in the Bed
Know that I'm looking forward to another few weeks with your little people! I am truely thankful for them - each and every day!
Take care-
Ms. Lori
We're off to a good fall season! The boys are adjusting to the new "coat routine", the tissues coming at their noses, and the increased handwashing! As the weather gets colder, we'll have more and more "functional opportunities" to work on dressing skills, so we should see great strides in that area too!!!
The boys continue to "Wow" us daily with all of their new abilities...whether it's a new word or sign, a whole sentence, a spontaneous request, or just following a new routine...they are all doing great things!!!
Our next thematic unit is a "thanksgiving-ish" story that I can't wait to share with the boys!!! We'll be reading, I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie, by Alison Jackson. The key vocabulary of this book is food -
pie squash pot cider Thanksgiving
salad cake dry roll bread
turkey eat swallow old lady
It is an interactive story that is sure to engage them!
Hope you have a great week!
OHHHHHH.............SO SILLY............SKELETON HICCUPS is our next Book Unit...The boys will be giggling their way through the story as the Skeleton can't seem to get rid of his Hiccups...A very cute, entertaining book!
We will be talking about Body Parts again...(the foot bones' connected to the leg bone...the leg bones' connected to the ....) They will be going on an scavenger hunt to find "what comes next" in the book, making funny art projects and cooking yummy snackes. As we move closer to Halloween, we will be learning about the change in weather, apples and pumpkins, and other "fallish" things!
THANK YOU for sharing your boys with us each day! They are growing by leaps and bounds!!!!!
I'll keep you posted on what's coming up next!
Take care~
Ms. Lori and Ms. Shilpi
We've just completed our unit on "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?" Please continue to talk "colors" with your boys! Over the next two weeks, we will be talking about the farm and farm animals. Our story is, The Big Red Barn, by Margaret Brown. During this unit, we will focus on farm animal names, the sounds they make, attributes of the animals, counting, and positional concepts.
As always, try to give your boys an opportunity to show off what they're learning! Read related books and sing animal songs. Also, remember to loop back to previous unit studies and review the vocabulary. Be sure to give them plenty of opportunities to "get it right". Model the correct response to your questions and keep it positive!
Have another great week! I know we will!
Ms. Lori, Ms. Shilpi, Ms. Susan, Ms. Charlie, Ms. Deb, and Ms. Andrea
Parents~
Over the next two weeks we will be reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See? by Bill Martin Jr. In this book, a series of animals are asked "what do you see?" A final animal sees a group of children and their teacher. This story introduces many color words in a very repetitive and predictable pattern. The children will be exposed to color names, animal names, and will be asked to answer questions related to the story using words, signs, and/or pictures.
We will also be doing many craft and cooking activities related to the book. So, if a "blue horse" comes home, know that it's part of the story and not a mistake!
Lastly, I just wanted to say again that your son(s) are doing amazing things each and every day. We are so thrilled with the progress that they've made - in such a short amount of time - it's truely AMAZING!
You should be VERY proud!
Have a great week!
Ms. Lori, Ms. Shilpi, Ms. Susan, Ms. Andrea, Ms. Debbie, and Ms. Charlie
