Grove School

Our Earth~EPS Room 6

Deedra McLeod — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:59:34 +0000

After we worked together as a class for several days our paper-mache Earth is finally complete. We started with a blown up beach ball and covered it with newspaper strips that we dipped in a special paper-mache mix that Ms. Deedra created. Next, we painted our earth blue to represent the water and green to represent the land. We used our hands to paint the earth. Our earth is finally complete. Look at our finished product that we are so proud of.

Volcanoes are a Blast!

Katie Markelz — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:55:17 +0000

During our last week of studying “The Earth” our preschool classroom became fascinated with a volcano they saw pictured in one of our library books. The curiosity of what a volcano is, and how it helps shape our planet, turned into a week-long project!

First, we used our classroom Smart Board to watch a real volcanic eruption.

Next, we used recycled plastic, cardboard and plaster to structure our own model volcano.

Next, we looked at various pictures of volcanoes to determine what colors of paint we needed to paint our model volcano.

Finally, we took our volcano outside and talked about what ingredients were needed to create a chemical reaction for our model volcano to erupt!

We’ve never seen our class so excited!

Fun In The Grove!

Alysia Romano — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 15:38:45 +0000

Whether caring for our plants or playing the giant xylophone the Grove is never dull for Pre-K Room 3. We have been enjoying watching our plants grow and even began keeping track of how tall they are. Playing the xylophone and climbing on the steppers (including singing and dancing on them) is always a great time.

Recently we had the excitement of ladybugs. We received a bag of live ladybugs and released them in the Grove to help our garden plants. There were so many of them and we had them crawling all over us. Everyone thought it was awesome. Even Ms. Lorrie got in on the action.

Transportation Fun from EPS Room 6

Deedra McLeod — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 19:00:54 +0000

Our EPS classroom had a fun month learning all about transportation. Sailing boats, driving cars, counting buses we did it all this month. Everyone had so much fun learning the parts of a car and making and pretending to drive our classroom car. Hope you enjoy a few moments in our classroom.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Victoria Duckworth — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:00:57 +0000

In Preschool Room 1 we have been excitedly talking about the Spring. The children have been noticing all the changes that occur in the spring, including warmer weather, flowers and baby animals. We even found a bird’s nest on the playground and are watching for baby birds! A few weeks ago we planted some flower seeds in our classroom and have been hard at work taking care of them. We fill our watering cans with water from the rain barrel outside and also make sure they are getting plenty of sunshine. Last week we started to see our hard work pay off – our flowers are growing! We used a ruler to measure and discovered our plants are now 1 inch high. We are predicting that this week they will be 2 inches! Our planting project has helped the children to understand and have an appreciation for how things grow. Planting also encourages responsibility, as we need to water and care for the plants everyday. The children have been so excited about taking care of their plants and seeing the results!

Pre-K Room 2 experiments with 3d Paint

Kaitlin Fairchild — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 00:35:05 +0000

This morning, our class made our very own puffy or 3d paint! We took turns measuring, pouring and mixing the ingredients. It is a very simple recipe! All you need is salt, flour and regular paint. Some of our creations were too gooey! Some were too chunky! And some were just right! We had a BLAST with this project today.

Experimental Writing

Katie Markelz — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 17:26:48 +0000

Who says you have to write with a pencil? Who says you have to write on paper? This week our Preschool classroom learned about different tools, how they are used, and who uses them. While exploring the variety of tools in our classroom, we learned the importance of writing tools such as pencils, crayons and markers, but can we write with anything else?

We took several trays of sand into our outdoor Grove classroom, along with a box full of different experimental writing tools including paintbrushes, sticks, rocks, shells, pipe cleaners and even recycled water bottles! Then we got to writing!

“Cat In the Hat” Balancing Graphs

Leah Hull — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 14:27:17 +0000

We read the book, “Cat in the Hat” by Dr. Seuss and noticed that the Cat loved to balance different things on his head, tail and hands. So we decided it would be fun to do some balancing ourselves. We used blocks, bean bags, books and green tape to practice our balancing skills. We made lots of predictions before counting to see how long something would stay standing, or how many objects we could balance on top of something. Afterwards we talked about what a graph was and how it works, and then we graphed our answers.

Objectives:

Following Directions (sitting behind the green tape, sitting in front of the paper, counting together, etc)
Counting and number recognition practice
Practice on making predictions
Graphing practice

Meet Ms. Katie

Lorrie Schelkle — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 16:21:50 +0000

Hello everybody! I just moved here from Fleetwood, Pennsylvania; a small town where there are cornfields and soccer fields on every other corner. I was born and raised in Fleetwood and grew up playing tennis, basketball, and soccer. Since I could remember I have been an avid TarHeel fan, following their tennis, women’s soccer, and men’s basketball programs. It was not until my freshman year in college when I first went to a game at the Dean Dome, and along with falling in love with Roy and the boys even more, I fell in love with the town. It took me a little while to take that step forward in following my dream to relocate to North Carolina but I am here and could not be happier. It has only been a short time that I have been here thus far and I am more and more impressed each day by what this state has to offer in its scenery, culture, recreational opportunities, and especially the people. I have already made some great friends.

As a young child when I was not on some form of sports court, I remember playing “teacher” with my brothers and friends. It was not until I was a sophomore in high school that I knew what age level I wanted to teach. The opportunity to watch 6 young children between the ages of 3-9 helped shape a decision that changed my life. I went to a local state college, Kutztown University, where I earned my Bachelors Degree in Early Childhood Development and Elementary Education. Throughout my college career and first few years after, I found places to teach where I made tremendous friends and gained valuable opportunities, however I never found the “perfect” fit. Family and friends tell me it is because I have extremely high expectations for the type of school I would like to be a part of, but the glory of that value is it is exactly how everyone should approach their education- with high expectations. I have a wide range of experiences with kiddos 2 months to 13 years old in a variety of settings including public and private schools, sports and outdoor recreational camps, coaching athletic teams, and tutoring programs.

I am a firm believer that hard work and dedication will help you succeed in anything you want to, and I strive to improve education with young children every day. Children are some of the most creative and imaginative beings on this planet, and we all can learn from every smile, laugh, and intense stare of curiosity we are part of. I am thoroughly excited to join The Grove School and am eager to become part of what seems to be a fabulous family!

“Winners are just ordinary people, making an extraordinary effort!”

Painting with Tires

Lauren Renfro — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 21:28:35 +0000

During our Transportation unit, Preschool students learned about different ways to travel. One of those particular ways was to travel by car or truck. To elaborate on this topic, students used the wheels on different toy cars to paint with. Students rolled the car tires through the paint and then roll the paint filled tires across their paper. This was so much fun for them, most of them rolled and rolled until their paper was completely filled with tire tracks. We also discussed other ways to travel including, train, bike, bus or motor cycle, or by air; airplane, hot-air balloon, and helicopter.