Ronald McDonald is Coming

Ronald McDonald heard about what the children in 411 are doing for their community service project and was so delighted he decided he wanted to come and pick up all the donations for the Ronald McDonald Metro St. Louis Charities in person!  He will be at United Services room 411 on December 22nd, 2010 at 9:30 a.m. to meet and greet all the children who bring a donation.  To celebrate the children in 411 will be baking cookies for all the children at the center who bring a donation and will serve them milk and cookies to celebrate the season of giving.

It is important for the children to understand why they are doing the project, so here is a little holiday story to share with them each day until Ronald McDonald comes to our school.

Once upon a time in a magical place called United Services room 411 there was a wonderful group of giving children.  They were all special friends.  Some of their friends and some of their teachers children had at one time been very sick, and this made these very kind children very, very sad.  Their friends had been in the hospital for a long time, sometimes a week or longer, and their mommies and daddies had to stay with them at the hospital for a long time.  The mommies and daddies got very hungry and sleepy but they didn't want to leave their children while they were sick.  They didn't know what to do.  Their clothes got stinky, they needed to take a bath, but they didn't want to get in their cars and drive all the way home and leave their sick children at the hospital all alone.  What were they to do?  The parents were so sad!  Ronald McDonald heard these sad parents and wanted to make them smile.  He knew if the parents were happier, not hungry and had clean clothes and could take a nap they could hold their sick kids and make them feel better faster and then their kids could get better and they could go home and go back to school and play with their friends.  So Ronald thought and thought.  How could he help?  Then he came up with a wonderful idea.  He could build a special room right there at the hospital just for the mommies and daddies so they wouldn't have to leave their children and drive home to wash their clothes or take a nap or a shower.  This room at the hospital would have a shower.  This room would have a kitchen.  This room would have a washer and dryer.  This room would have a TV and a sofa and soft comfy chairs where the mommies and daddies could take naps.  Maybe there would be games for the mommies and daddies to play.  And maybe Ronald could get nice people to come in and bake cookies and cakes so the mommies and daddies would have yummy things to eat while they waited for their sick children to wake up from a nap or to get done with the doctors.  That was a great idea!  So Ronald got his friends together and they built this super special room at the hospital where Leah and Landon and Noah and Ms. Brenda and Ms. Debbie's children went when they were sick.  And Leah and Noah and Landon's mommy and daddy didn't have to leave them and go home when they got stinky and needed to wash their clothes or take a shower.  Nice people baked cookies for Landon's mommy and daddy.  Noah's mommy took a nap in the soft chair and Leah's daddy took a shower in Ronald's nice bathroom.  The parents were so happy with the special place at the hospital Ronald McDonald made for them that they were able to take extra special care of Leah, Noah and Landon and they got better and were able to grow up and come to school and play with us every school day.  And they all lived happily ever after.  The end.

This is a picture of the Ronald McDonald Family Room that many of our families have used.  We would like you to show this picture to your child when you read the story so they can start to visualize where the parents went when they took a shower or ate cookies or washed clothes.  This will help them understand where the items we are collecting will go when Ronald McDonald comes and takes the donations away in his van.  The point of this project is to teach the children the value of giving and the fact that what they do impacts the lives of others.  We will be adding more home-school connection activities to the blog over the next week and a half.  Thanks for continuing this learning activity at home.

Donation List for Ronald McDonald House Charities

Ronald McDonald House Charities of Saint Louis website link

For our classroom community service project we are collecting items for the Ronald McDonald House and Family Rooms.  You can go to the link above to get more complete information about this charity.  We have also set up a page just for communicating about our classroom project.  You will see flyer's, posters and power point presentations about our project over the rest of the school year.  We are doing this project in honor of several of our students and teachers that have used the St. Louis Ronald McDonald House and Family Rooms Charities and have benefited from them directly.  Let us teach the children that no matter how small you are you can always make a big difference.  Start collecting these items.  Bring them into the classroom.  We will create a collection box.  We will also arrange an after school field trip to deliver these items so the children can see the Ronald McDonald House in person and see where the donations are going.  The information below came directly from the RMHC website.  I included it into this post so you could see how many people RMHC helps each night. 

To keep our Ronald McDonald Houses and Ronald McDonald Family Rooms running as a home, we rely on Wish List item donations. Fifty-nine families stay at our Houses each night and we could use your help in making their stay as comfortable as possible. More than 4,000 families use the Family Rooms each year as well.
We also have eight long-term apartment families who stay at RMHC anywhere from three months up to a year. Many children living in the apartments are immune suppressed. Because of this, these families must cook for themselves. Every week the families fill out a shopping list and we try to fill it and deliver it to them. We are especially low on food items and cleaning supplies. We could use your help!

Ronald McDonald Family Rooms

When families walk into one of our Ronald McDonald Family Rooms, we want them to forget they're in a hospital.

Often steps away from a pediatric or intensive care unit, Ronald McDonald Family Rooms offer a place of refuge to families in the hospital where their child is staying because of illness or injury.
In St. Louis there are three Ronald McDonald Family Rooms: one at St. John's Mercy Children's Hospital, one at St. Louis Children's Hospital, and the latest Family Room opened at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center in October 2008.
In 2009, more than 4,000 families found comfort and care at one of our Family Rooms.

Family Room Wish List

Pre-packaged, individually wrapped snack foods including:
Cookies, soups, breakfast bars, hot chocolate, trail mix, dried fruit, peanut butter or cheese sandwich
crackers

Travel-sized items:
Razors, toothpaste, toothbrushes, deodorant
Cleaning supplies:
Diswasher detergent, laundry detergent (high-efficiency), disinfectant spray, disinfectant wipes

Misc.:
Adult sizes (men and women) of scrubs, individual boxes of crayons/coloring books, adult board games

 

Gift Cards:

Sam’s, Home Depot, Lowes, Target, and gas cards
Cleaning Supplies:
Disinfectant spray, cleaner, and wipes
Hand sanitizer in the pump container
Soft Scrub
All purpose cleaner
Air freshener, (Febreze)
Liquid and soap in the pump container

Laundry Supplies:
Softener Sheets
Laundry detergent

Kitchen Supplies:
Dishwasher detergent
Ziploc baggies, (small and large)
Food storage containers with lids, (large)
Pots and pans, (approximately 16 qt.)
Event and Entertainment Tickets

volcano experiments

Ms. Sarah found these really cool volcano experiments.  Right now the kids are building some volcano's to go in their dinosaur world.  Ms. Sarah had them experiment with some different ingredients to see which combinations made the best lava.  She had three different tests.  The children invited some other classrooms to come to our room to take part in the experiment in the afternoon class. The morning class and the afternoon class did the experiments.  The video is of the afternoon class doing the experiments. 

Experiment One:
Materials Used:  Vinegar, Water, Liquid Watercolor and Baking Soda



Experiment Two:

Materials Used:  Lemon Juice, Dish Soap, Water, Liquid Watercolor, Baking Soda

Experiment Three:

Materials Used:  Ketchup, Water, Baking Soda

So which "lava" do you like best after watching the videos?  The children voted and it looks like the second experiment with the lemon juice and dish soap won!  When we finish our volcano and it is ready to erupt (and we will video that for you as well and post it) that is the lava we will use.

So, how was all of this educational?  The children were exposed to chemical reactions.  Scientific inquiry.  Forming hypotheses and testing them.  The children had to use their power of observation, had to wait turns, had to remain focused and had to work together so everyone could participate in the activity.  The children also used a tremendous amount of descriptive language to describe what they observed during the experiments.  The children had a wonderful time participating in this activity.  I can not wait to see what they do next with this unit.

The letter O

The afternoon class started learning how to draw big curve letters.  The children have finished learning how to draw all of the big and small line letters.  Now the children will be learning how to draw big curve and small curve letters.  Ms. Brenda  made learning all about making the capital letter O so much fun.  Here are some pictures of Ms. Brenda's lesson with the children on Tuesday.



The children learn how to draw the letter O in multiple ways.  They trace the letter in the air, they trace it on the floor and write in on paper.  They will explore the letter in play dough and several other ways over the next few weeks.  Make sure they get to practice making curves at home.  They also got to practice making the letter C which is also a big curve by drawing it in shaving creme. 

Remember to start drawing the letter O at the top of the curve.





See how this child is holding the crayon?  This is the proper grip for holding a writing utensil.  Breaking a crayon in half can help your child hold a crayon correctly for writing.



Digging for Dinosaurs

The children got to learn about paleontology this last week.  We created some plaster of paris rocks from them to excavate (special thanks to Leah's father for donating the plaster of paris for us).  We placed dinosaurs, dinosaur bones (found at the dollar store), rocks and shells into the wet plaster and let it harden.  We then placed the rocks out on trays for the children along with hammers, screwdrivers, toothpicks, chisels, paintbrushes and toothbrushes so the student's could get to work.  The kids had a great time unearthing the treasures buried deep in the rock.  It took all week long but finally ever dinosaur was freed.

This fossil was left behind after one of the students freed a dinosaur from it's rocky enclosure.

Drawing Dinosaurs

After snack while we are waiting for everyone to finish the children are encouraged to either draw in their journals or read books.  This child decided to do both.  I found her in library area on the sofa with the dinosaur dictionary on her lap with her journal open with her pencil busily moving across her paper.



Ms. Carole Dawn, "What are you drawing?"
Ashley, "A stegosaurus."
Ms. Carole Dawn, "Cool.  How do you know it is a stegosaurus?"
Ashley, "Because it has spines on its back, see?  Look in the book Ms. Carole Dawn, it looks just like the stegosaurus in the book.  Let me show you."
Ms. Carole Dawn after looking at the picture of the stegosaurus that Ashley showed her in the book, "You are right, stegosauruses do have spines on their backs!"
Ashley smiles at Ms. Carole Dawn like Ms. Carole Dawn is about the dumbest teacher that has ever lived.  Ms. Carole Dawn smiles like Ashley is about the smartest preschooler that ever lived!



Making a Dinosaur World

The children decided to create a total 3-D world for the dinosaurs in the block area.  They started by painting the sky and the grass on paper to place onto the walls.  The children worked as a class to create the scenery.  They studied books in the library area and did research by studying the dinosaurs habitats (yes, ask them about habitats) and they talked about what they would like to add to their dinosaur worlds habitat.

Creating the sky

The next thing the children wanted the dinosaurs to have were trees.  You wonderful parents sent in paper towel rolls and crepe paper.  We set out paint, Popsicle sticks and tissue paper and let the children create. We also found some plastic plants and cut them up so the children could use those to create foliage for the herbivores to eat.

 

One child using his imagination to create this wonderful tree for the dinosaurs

A dinosaurs habitat.  The children painted Styrofoam blue for lake water and another piece of Styrofoam green for land to graze on.  You can see rocks and shells that the children have used to add to the habitat.  The children are able to stick the plastic plants into the Styrofoam to create multiple habitats. 

Look closely, this dinosaur has laid an egg!  Actually the egg is one we found at the dollar store that came with tools for excavating what is inside the egg.  What is inside the egg?  Dinosaur bones!

The children became very interested in dinosaur eggs after finding out that dinosaurs came from eggs.  Some of the children wanted to create a nest so the mother dinosaurs could lay their baby eggs.

Watch out, the T-Rex is coming to get you!

 

Dino Learning

In these pictures the students are using the felt board to reenact some of the dinosaur stories they have been reading in the library area. 

Ms. Christine working with students on prepositional words.  It is important to work on concepts such as on, off, in, behind, around, under, on top, bottom and through with children.  These prepositions and concepts are the building blocks of descriptive language and we spend a lot of time working those descriptive words into the children's vocabulary and daily projects throughout our curriculum.



Ms. Sarah gets to learn all about a pterodactyl from one of the student's during small group time. The children are getting really good at learning how to research using the books in the classroom library and taking the books to other areas to expand their knowledge.





Laurie Berkner - We are the Dinosaurs

We are the dinosaurs!!!!!!

Welcome to the wonderful world of dinosaurs and all that we are going to learn over the next few weeks.

The children have shown a great interest in learning about dinosaurs so we have introduced the unit.  This last week has been spent doing research.  They looked through books in the library area to learn about dinosaurs to investigate their environments.  They also did Internet research to discover what a paleontologists was and to learn more about volcanoes.  They started learning how to excavate items in the sensory table.  The children practiced mathmatics by working with geometric shapes with a special tessellation dinosaur puzzle.  They developed their gross motor skills by walking like dinosaurs using Romper Stompers (I loved those things as a kid) while listening to the song "We Are The Dinosaurs, Wadda Ya Think Of That?  It is a very catchy tune! I will put the children's video by the artist on the blog for you.

Keep checking back often over the next few week to see what new exciting things the children are doing in the Land of the Lost!  We will be excavating dinosaurs, rocks and shells out of boulders made out of plaster of paris (thanks Leah's dad for the donation).  We will also be making our own volcanoes out of clay that will erupt using baking soda and vinegar.  The children will also be painting and creating their dinosaur world in the block area.  Look for pictures to be posted as they use their creativity, research and artistry to recreate the setting for their dinosaur play.

Friends researching dinosaurs together.

 

This child drew this picture of a dinosaur after he finished researching dinosaurs in a book in the library area.  He told me that the spikes on the tail are like the spikes on the tail of the dinosaur in the book.

Children working together exploring the new dinosaur items in the sensory table.  Dinosaurs, brushes, logs, trees, rocks and other items were placed in the table to encourage the children to pretend being paleontolgists.

This child is working very carefully to remove all "dirt" (cornmeal in this case) after looking up excavation on the internet and watching a video of a dinosaur dig in progress (National Geographic and Chicago Field Museum are great on-line resources if you want to support further exploration with your child at home).



Pretend play in the sensory table.



Look out, it is a herd of dinosaurs coming!  Can't you hear how loud they are?  Can you feel the ground shaking?

I found these at Barnes and Nobles for $5.99 on clearence.  It is a magnetic board with an instruction book and foam puzzle pieces that are also magnetic.