Easter Basket Making

With Easter and the Easter Bunny on it's way, we have been busy making Easter baskets for all of the children to take home. Some have had to take them early, since they will not be here next week. Geno received his early and he was quite proud.

Trip to the Farm by Our School

All of the students in playgroup, preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten have been enjoying time outside with the great weather.

They have played outside at the playground, went on nature walks in the forest, and visited the farm across the street where students can see horses, calves, and cows. It is great to have spring finally here.

Kaia's Show and Tell

Kaia brought her sister's doll named Daria to Show and Tell because she likes her sister so much. Thank you for sharing with us today Kaia. It helps us to get to know you better.

Robyn's Show and Tell

Robyn recently had her Show and Tell and she brought in her favorite barbie doll. Thanks Robyn for sharing it with us. It helps us get to know you better.

School Satisfaction and Fedback Survey

I would like to thank those parents ho took the time to fill out this survey. If for some reason, I didn't have your email, please feel free to answer it here: Feedback and Satisfaction Survey
Thanks for your time.

The Beehive School Promotional Video

Show and Tell with Tais

Tais brought her favorite horse for Show and Tell. Thank you Tais. It helps us get to know you better.

Outside Fun

Luvina's Show and Tell

Luvina brought in her battery operated cat that meows and rolls over. All of the students had a chance to see it and share in Luvina's favorite toy. Thank you Luvina for bringing in your special cat and allowing us the chance to get to know you better.

Making Healthy Sandwiches

This week, the preschoolers and kindergartners had the chance to make healthy sandwiches as part of their Food and Nutrition Unit. Students learned about all of the different vegetables such as cucumbers, red peppers, lettuce, carrots, and tomatoes.

The students were then given the choice to decorate their sandwich with any vegetables they liked, making a face on top of the sandwich. Some students used cucumbers or tomatoes for eyes, red peppers for a mouth, lettuce for the hair, and even carrots for the ears.

Students then had a chance to show their creations to the class. Luvina even stated that her sandwich face looked like her Dad.

After they had the chance to share their creations, they came to snack and gave a sandwich to all of the playgroup students as well. Great job students!

Kim's Show and Tell

Today Kim brought in a red car, named the fast McQueen Car and his special bear “Matsi” to share at Show and Tell. Thank you Kim for allowing us to get to know you better!

Melanie's Show and Tell

Show and Tell has become a wonderful addition to the preschool curriculum. Each student brings things that they would like to share with the class. They are not only able to work on improving their public speaking skills, but their language development as well. Here is Melanie's Show and Tell. She brought in her Barbie Horse and her princess dress. Great job Melanie. Thanks for allowing us to get to know you a little better.

Preschool Phonics

Pre-school has been spending time on phonics. The phonic of the week has been the Gg sound. The vocabulary of the week included grapes, goose, giraffe, and the color green. Mr. Frog came to class to help them learn their phonics too. Great work preschoolers!

Horton Award

The book Horton Hears a Who came out in 1954 by Doctor Seuss. The book tells a tale of an elephant who hears something on a speck of dust, and believes that he must keep the tiny speck safe at all costs. It is discovered that the little speck happens to be a little planet, which Horton ends up saving and the motto of the mayor is "a person's a person no matter how small."

I have chosen to call the name of this award the Horton Award because it is the little things that a person does throughout the day that can really make a difference. Today's certificate was awarded to Sam for his leadership in group discussions, participation, and listening skills. Great job Sam! Your efforts do not go unnoticed!

Spring Faces

In playgroup, students have been working on creating our display board and chose to center it around the theme: Spring Picnic. We have been able to integrate our food and nutrition unit on our display board by by creating a spring picnic that includes pasta, apples, beans, and bread which were all part of our weekly vocabulary. We then took a picture of each student holding a specific fruit that we were studying, glued that picture to the back of a paper plate, then had them glue silk flowers around it and put them up as a reminder of our class community. If you have a minute, please come and check the board out. The students are very proud of it.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

Today at the Beehive School, we celebrated Saint Patrick's Day as part of our celebrating different cultures in the curriculum. Ms. Nadine shared with the students why some people celebrate Saint Patrick's Day and then students practiced counting shamrocks and singing. We hope that this day brought luck to each and every one of you!

The Chicks Have Arrived!

In playgroup today, students learned about the life cycle of a chicken. They also counted the chicks in the classroom, classified them by color, and then were able to take turns holding them. It was an amazing experience for the students to have a chance to interact and study live animals up close. Great science lesson Ms. Nicole!

Our National Heritage

So far in playgroup, we have put up the flags that represent each child and where they come from. It is hanging up above the chalkboard in the playgroup room as a reminder of how unique and diverse we are. I hope to have all of the playgroup children displayed soon.

Horton Award

The book Horton Hears a Who came out in 1954 by Doctor Seuss. The book tells a tale of an elephant who hears something on a speck of dust, and believes that he must keep the tiny speck safe at all costs. It is discovered that the little speck happens to be a little planet, which Horton ends up saving and the motto of the mayor is "a person's a person no matter how small."

I have chosen to call the name of this award the Horton Award because it is the little things that a person does throughout the day that can really make a difference. Sarah has been a great listener and helper in both small group and large group discussions and always works hard on her work. Keep up the great work Sarah! It doesn't go unnoticed.

Singing with Ms. Laura

Toby's Show and Tell

Each child in preschool will get a chance to share something that is special to them and talk about it. Today Toby brought in his scooter and told the class how important it is to wear good shoes to brake with and always wear your helmet. Here are some photos of Toby sharing his information. Great job Toby!

Horton Award

The book Horton Hears a Who came out in 1954 by Doctor Seuss. The book tells a tale of an elephant who hears something on a speck of dust, and believes that he must keep the tiny speck safe at all costs. It is discovered that the little speck happens to be a little planet, which Horton ends up saving and the motto of the mayor is "a person's a person no matter how small."

I have chosen to call the name of this award the Horton Award because it is the little things that a person does throughout the day that can really make a difference. Shemija exemplified this the past two weeks by always listening and participating in school. Great job Shemija! Keep up the good work; it doesn't go unnoticed.

Our National Heritage

This week, I am planning for playgroup to receive a flag or flags that represent each child's national heritage. We will go through the colors of each flag and then hang them up in the classroom under the title: Our National Heritage, serving as a constant reminder how diverse and unique we all are.

Spring Faces

Today in playgroup we worked on creating Spring Faces by taking a paper plate, gluing silk flowers around the edge, and placing each student's picture in the middle holding a piece of fruit. These will be displayed on the bulletin board in our classroom showing how important each and every student is to the learning process.

Combined Class on Fridays

Starting in March 2010, Ms. Nadine will be teaching a combined playgroup and preschool class. Here is a photo of some of these students working on their food pyramids and painting their vegetable song sheet.

Villad's Show and Tell

Today Villads shared his Show and Tell to the class. He brought in two vintage campers. The students each had a chance to see them. Great job Villads! Thanks for sharing your interests with us. It helps us to get to know you better.

Preschool Learning Games

Students in the preschool class were able to learn to play some educational games in class this week and also learned the importance of taking turns. Highlighted in this photograph is Toby, Tais, Villads, Kim, and Melanie. There is nothing better than learning and having fun!

Arda's Show and Tell

This week, Arda brought in his Batman costume and a Batman car and told his friends in class why he likes Batman so much. He told them that "he likes to go to Carnival as Batman because he is strong and has muscles." He also stated that "the Batman car is good because it’s fast and I can play with it.” Thank you for sharing your interests with us Arda. It helps us to get to know you better. Great job!

Karolina's Show and Tell

In preschool this week, they have started another unit called "Show and Tell" that takes place during second lesson time. The students are able to bring things from home to share with the class. This not only helps students improve their language and public speaking skills, but it allows them to share something about themselves which creates a positive school climate. This particular day, Karolina was showing the class her stuffed animal named after her best friend Shanice. Great job Karolina!

Preschool Fruit Baskets

The preschool has been studying food and nutrition and the importance of eating healthy. As part of their overall lesson, they created water color fruit baskets that included bananas, pears, lemons, oranges, grapes, and strawberries.

They also created vegetable collages that included onions, broccoli, red peppers, and corn. While studying vegetables, and looking specifically at how they grow, what they look like, and how they taste, they have been learning the phonics of the letter "V." I think they did a fantastic job on these works of art and I am happy to know they are on display in the classroom for everyone to see.

Baking Bread with Preschool, Pre-K, and Kindergarten Students

Students in the preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten classes spent the day learning about and baking healthy whole wheat yogurt bread. Students first needed to learn about all of the ingredients needed for the recipe, and took turns adding the dry ingredients and mixing that with the yogurt.

Once they had all of the ingredients mixed well, they needed to transport the ingredients from the big bowl into their tiny baking tins to get them ready for the oven.

The students really love to have a chance to bake and be part of the process. I still believe that they enjoyed eating the whole wheat yogurt bread with marmalade jam the best!

Food and Nutrition Unit

The whole school has been focusing on our new unit which is centered around food and nutrition. Our display board in playgroup has to deal with the theme of a spring picnic, and I thought it would be nice to also hang a picture of each playgroup student holding one item from all of the food groups. Here is the collection of playgroup students I have so far: Clara, Mia-Lena, Sarah, Alicia, Constantin, Cameron, Elena, Anna, Geno, Christian, Henry, Patricia, Kayla, Olivier and Lukas. Great job students! Look for these photographed faces in the classroom.

Baking Bread in Playgroup

In playgroup, students had the opportunity to bake bread. We first discussed the food pyramid where students were asked to tell me the color of each fruit and vegetable I held up, as well as tell me what fruit or vegetable it was. We then read a story that details the steps it takes for wheat to be turned into bread. After this, students took turns practicing counting to ten with pasta pieces. After this, they put their baking shirts on and were each handed a bit of bread dough that they were to roll into a small loaf and put three slices on the top. As they did this, we sang:

Patty Cake, Patty Cake Baker's Man
Bake Me A Cake As Fast As You Can
Pat it and Prick it
And Mark it with a B
Throw it in the Oven for the Beehive and Me!

Their little loaves turned out great, and they were able to sample some for snack. Great baking playgroup kids!!

Shape Art

This week in playgroup, we have been focusing on shape art, looking specifically at the shape of a circle and triangle. The above collage shows the triangle collage and the caterpillar where students glued triangles and colored pasta onto their creations. I think they turned out quite well.

Preschool's Food and Nutrition Unit

The preschool students have been busy learning about food and nutrition including the phonic letter of the week which is “Vv” as seen in the words vegetables, volcano, violin, vest and van.

Preschool has been working on eating healthy food as well. They have been learning the different names of vegetables. In the collage pictured above, students are working on their fine motor skills using paint brushes and finding the correct colour for each vegetable. Once the pictures were dry, they cut them out and stuck them onto a large sheet of paper and made a vegetable collage.

Last week they worked on fruit and made a lovely fruit basket collage. They are able to name the different kinds of fruit and have many new works of art hanging up in the classroom.

Food and Nutrition

In playgroup, we have started a new unit on food and nutrition. Students have been learning about the food pyramid specifically about bread, pasta, fruits, and vegetables. In the classroom, we are working on a display board that has a picnic theme. It will also represent all of the playgroup children by highlighting each child holding a piece of fruit. In the collage above, it is just a few of the students photos that will be on display.

Students also made a pasta picture that incorporated learning the letter "C", the shape of a circle, and focused on their development of fine motor skills such as gluing and pasting. They then each received a blank food pyramid where they had to glue and stick different fruits, breads, vegetables, and meats on their pyramid as we discussed the shape of the fruit. They even could tell me that the food pyramid was a triangle which is our shape of the week. We have been focusing on the following vocabulary words such as bread, sandwich, flour, dough, pasta and triangle.

How to Make a Sandwich

Today in play group, the students learned about the food pyramid. They learned that it is important to eat healthy food to grow up big and strong. We talked about the different kinds of bread, cereal, and pasta there are as well as had them point out the fruits and vegetables they knew on the pyramid itself. The students then were asked what ingredients we would need to make a sandwich. Then each student was handed a piece of bread a knife, butter, lettuce, yellow peppers, and lunch meat and layered their sandwiches. The last thing they needed to do was to fold it in a half to make their sandwich. Once we made it, students were then asked what shape the sandwich became reinforcing our discussion of the triangle. They really enjoyed this lesson and loved eating them too!

Flant Stanley Comes All the Way From America

The origin of Flat Stanley comes from a book by a 1964 children's book by Jeff Brown and illustrated by Tom Ungerer.

According to Wikipedia.com, the synopsis of the book is this. "Stanley Lambchop and his younger brother Arthur are given a big bulletin board by their Dad for putting pictures and posters on. He hangs it on the wall over Stanley's bed, but during the night the board falls from the wall, flattening Stanley in his sleep. He survives and makes the best of his altered state, and soon he is entering locked rooms by sliding under the door, and playing with his younger brother by being used as a kite. Stanley even helps catch some art museum thieves by posing as a painting on the wall. But one special advantage is that Flat Stanley can now visit his friends by being mailed in an envelope. Eventually Arthur, who tires of all the attention Stanley has been getting, reverts Stanley to his proper shape through an air pump used for footballs."

This book is read by many teachers and students in the classroom across the world today. The idea of mailing Flat Stanley to relatives and friends around the world and having them document their travels has become common place in American classrooms. One of my daughter's friends, Zoe Schearer, asked if we could show Flat Stanley what it is like in Switzerland, so I introduced him to the Beehive International Preschool where students had the chance to welcome him in our classroom. I wonder where he will travel next?

Snack Time at the Beehive

Sense of Hearing Unit

This week students within the playgroup have been finishing their unit on the five senses, focusing primarily on hearing. Students learned and played several different instruments such as drums, recorders, cymbals, maracas, xylophones, and even created shakers of their own.

Students also sang songs about the five senses and reviewed what they have learned about their five senses in this unit. The above collage is of the students playing the instruments they created which they painted and threaded the bottle caps all by themselves. I think they turned out well.

Nature Hike in the Neighborhood

The students had the opportunity to go out for a nature hike this week. Along the way, students found several artifacts of nature and were proud to share them with their peers and their teachers. They found rocks, pussy willows, different colored grass, and even walked by a stream. They saw footprints of dogs, and even horses.

They took in the sights of eagles and birds in the sky as well as smells pleasant and not so pleasant that are all found in their natural settings. They saw trees starting to bud which is one of the many first signs of spring. Overall, it was a great day and a great walk in the neighborhood.