Friday Follow Up-December 18, 2009

Welcome back Diener friends. Please read below to see what your kids have been learning!!

K class: Emily

This week we enjoyed working together to make home made latkes (potato pancakes) in honor of the Jewish holiday Hanukkah. We worked together to peel, grate, and mix the potatoes with the rest of the ingredients. As we worked through each step, we learned new vocabulary and concepts. Social skills were incorporated throughout this wonderful activity!

1-2 class: Jenni

This week we enjoyed working together to make home made latkes (potato pancakes) in honor of the Jewish holiday Hanukkah. We worked together to peel, grate, and mix the potatoes with the rest of the ingredients. As we worked through each step, we learned new vocabulary and concepts. While our yummy latkes were frying we played Latka Jeopardy, which included the categories Ingredients, Utensils, Sequencing, and What Does Not Belong. Social skills were incorporated throughout this wonderful activity!

Monday in fitness we played a cooperation game sharing hulla hoops and trying to catch balloons in them, also sending the hoop from friend to friend holding hands without letting go of each other. The rest of the week we practice our dances for fri.

In yoga, worked on breathing techniques and learning to control our bodies and heart rate after being worked up.

This week in science, we wrapped up our unit on the human body. The kids enjoyed completing their Mini-Me Projects. They learned the difference between the interior and exterior of their bodies. We labeled our bones and all of the major organs in our bodies. We also discussed the functions of our bones and organs and we briefly talked about digestion.

During the last session of the Uppers Buddy Program, the kids had a great time hanging out with their buddies for the last time. We played several group games, as well as, playing Kickball and having a fabulous fashion show!

We had fun making a variety of holiday treats during the Social Club, this week. On Monday, we colored different holiday objects to that represented numerous cultures and their holiday traditions. On Thursday, we had fun assembling our Penguin
Thermometers and singing holiday music.

This week in music, we were busy practicing our songs for the Holiday and Multicultural Festival. Today we all performed our Christmas and Hanukkah songs for our parents! We all sounded beautiful as we sang songs like "Jingle Bells," "Hanukkah, oh Hanukkah," "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," and "Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel." We can't wait to come back in 2010 and keep having fun in music!


We had so much fun this week in speech and language! The Uppers enjoyed exchanging gifts during Social Skills group. All of the students managed to keep their Secret Snow Owls to themselves -- which can be quite a feat! We practiced what to do with big/little problems within gift giving situations and all of the kids were thrilled with the gifts they received! Lots of fun was had by all!

Ms. Courtney's Inters had a blast creating Rudolph puppets. They followed multiple step directions and were pleased with their creations.

Primary-This week we focused on the letter U during our weekly handwriting group with Ms. Brook. We also practiced our fine motor skills, and body and spatial awareness skills by making a tasty snowman craft using marshmallows, pretzels, raisins, and other sweets.

Inters (Ms. Jenni)- This week we participated in a large group activity with Ms. Courtney's class, making a tasty holiday snack. We used a piece of bread shaped like a triangle, and added antlers, a red nose, and other facial features using a variety of yummy treats. We got to practice both our fine motor and sequencing skills. We also worked very hard during our weekly handwriting group with Ms. Brook. This week we started learning about lower case "tall" letters.

HAVE A GREAT BREAK AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM THE DIENER STAFF!