October 21-25, 2019

We had a wonderful day last Friday celebrating Founder's Day. The middle school students did an excellent job leading us in all the games, activities, and service projects. Cornelia Connelly would have been so proud of the joy and community seen at HCA!

The boys and girls did a great job at Show and Tell this week. We had some excellent clues that helped us guess the /t/ objects that the students chose to share.

CJ shared his tennis racket.

Pre-K students were scientists! First, we discussed what it means to sink and what it means to float. Then, we did an experiment with candy corn and built rafts to hold the candy corn and keep it from sinking.

The first raft was a flat, square piece of aluminum foil. The students added pieces of candy corn one by one to see how many the raft could hold.

The raft held 9 pieces of candy corn before it sank. The boys and girls noticed that the water was slowly creeping onto the raft as they added the candy corn. We took some time to problem solve how we could fix that. Georgie had an idea! "We need to build walls, Mrs. Barrera! Walls on each side so the water can't come in!" We built our new raft and then, slowly and carefully, the children added the candy corn one piece at a time. The boys and girls counted along excitedly as they added the pieces.

We were AMAZED to see how many pieces of candy corn the new raft held before it sank - 59 PIECES! Although it was disappointing when it sank, the boys and girls were impressed with how much stronger the second raft was than the first. The best part? They were able to use their math skills to determine how many more pieces of candy corn the second raft held than the first - 50 more pieces! We sure have some smart Pre-K students at HCA!

Looking ahead:

• Please remember to send in your $5 for the Mission Party by October 30! This money covers the cost of the party as well as a donation to the Providence Center.
• Pre-K students will be attending the Book Fair on Tuesday, October 29. If you would like your child to purchase books, please send money in an envelope with his/her name on it. We will help the students purchase their books.
• There is a half day on Thursday, October 31, with dismissal at 12:00 noon. There will be no lunch and no HCA Plus that day.
• There is NO SCHOOL on Friday, November 1.
• Our next show and tell will be on Tuesday, November 5. The topic will be something that begins with /r/.

Mission Party reminders:

• Students should arrive to school at regular time in their costumes and sneakers. 
• The parade will begin at approximately 8:15 am.
• Dismissal will be at 12:00. If you would like to take your child home earlier, please just let me know.
• Please refer to the email that was sent for more details.

Happy birthday, Asai!  Thanks for sharing
the delicious muffins with us!

Don't forget to send in your items for the food drive!  Our class has already collect over 100 items!  We are trying to reach a school-wide goal of 1000 items. Please send in non-perishable goods, as well as dog/cat food. Thank you for helping Camp Out for Hunger!

Have a great weekend!

October 14-18, 2019

This week, we had a group lesson on the Knobless Cylinders. The children learned to grade cylinders by both width and height. Then, they learned about patterns and how to create them using the cylinders. It takes A LOT of patience and concentration!

The Pre-K students worked on an AMAZING art project this week. They made a mosaic to spell out "Pre-K" that is displayed in our classroom. First, they used their fine motor skills to tear paper for the mosaic. Then, they worked together to glue all the pieces on the letters. It was wonderful to hear the boys and girls make comments like: "Guys, we all need to work together so this will work!" or "This is teamwork!"

Look at the beautiful finished product!

We have been working on learning how to eat over the table and use good manners! The boys and girls are learning how to spread out their napkin during snack and lunch, set up their food, pour their own drink, and clean up after themselves. Have them show you at home!

Don't forget to send in your items for our Camp Out for Hunger food drive!

Thank you to those who have sent in items so far!

Looking ahead:

• Show and Tell will be on Thursday, October 24.  The topic will be something that begins with /t/. 
• The Mission Party will take place on Thursday, October 31. Students should come to school dressed in their Halloween costumes. More information will be sent home next week!
• There is NO SCHOOL on Friday, November 1 for a faculty in-service.

Pre-K friends are the best!

In case you missed it, check out our debut on CBS3 flying like the Eagles! #FlyEaglesFly #FlyHCAFly #EaglesEverywhere

Please keep sharing the video on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!  We would love for the Eagles to see it!

Have a great weekend!  Fly, Eagles, Fly!

October 7-11, 2019

We have had such a busy week in Pre-K! 

Both class pictures and individual pictures were a big success - lots of smiles from everyone!

We had a great science class! We took what we learned from Mrs. Mueller in art class and did an experiment on primary and secondary colors. The students know that red, yellow, and blue are the primary colors and orange, green, and purple are the secondary colors. 

The students watched in amazement as
we added food coloring to the water.

They waited patiently as we mixed the primary colors
together...

and giggled with glee when they saw
the secondary colors form!

The students correctly predicted that red and yellow make orange, yellow and blue make green, and red and blue make purple. "Mrs. Barrera, we learned that in art with Mrs. Mueller! We remember because we are smart!"

We also spent some time decorating our classroom for October and fall!

Pre-K and Kindergarten students partnered up to start working on our first service project! Stay tuned for more information!

Looking ahead:

• There is NO SCHOOL on Monday, October 14.
• There is show and tell on Wednesday, October 16. The topic will be something that begins with /m/. Please have your child prepared to share 3 clues about the object they chose to share.
• The Halloween Mission Party is scheduled for Thursday, October 31. Please refer to the email that was sent out earlier this week. Children should come to school dressed in costume (with sneakers). We are planning many fun games and activities for the students! Dismissal will be at 12:00 noon that day and there will be no HCA Plus. More information will be sent home soon!

#flashbackfriday to our Blessing of the Animals last week

Meeting Mrs. Barrera's cat, Pudge

The whole school gathered together outside

Meeting one of Caroline's cats

Lucas and his mom and their dog

Meeting Mrs. DeBardino's dog, Bella

Giving our blessing

One more extra blessing from CJ

Enjoy the long weekend!

September 30 - October 4, 2019

We are working so hard on our Montessori lessons!

Lucas is working with the Number Rods and Cards to show
quantities and order numerals from 1 to 10.

Harper is building the Pink Tower from
largest to smallest.

Panos is using the Cards and Counters to order numerals
and show quantities for 1 to 10. 

Chase is using the Oak Leaf puzzle to grade
from smallest to largest.

Asai is using the Spindle Box to show
quantities from 0 to 9.

CJ is using Color Box 2 to sort picture cards
by color.

Kaleo is using the Red Rods to grade by size from
smallest to largest.

Braden is using the BFOG Letter Box to sort
picture cards by their initial sounds. 

Grace is using the Geometric Solids to sort objects by
their shapes: cone, cylinder, cube, and sphere.

Sydney is strengthening her fine motor skills by spooning.

Mason is using the Sandpaper Letters
to practice letter sounds.

Georgie is practicing tweezing to strengthen his pincer grip.

Jennah is using the Brown Stair to grade by width and height.

Maya is practicing her lacing skills.

Caroline is proud of her work with the SMAT letter box
where she sorted picture cards by their initial sounds.

Peyton is working with the Maple Leaf puzzle
to grade from smallest to largest.

This week, we had a very special surprise! Braden's cousin, Nick Hague, is a NASA astronaut currently finishing up his mission on the International Space Station. We were able to watch a live feed from space!

We saw firsthand what zero gravity is like when Astronaut Nick did a flip in mid-air!  The boys and girls were AMAZED!

Looking ahead:

• Monday, October 7 - Show and Tell /s/
• Please help your child choose an object that begins with /s/ and be prepared to share three clues to help his/her classmates guess what it is.
• Wednesday, October 9 - Class pictures 
• Don't forget to have your child wear his/her HCA Class of 2029 t-shirt!
• Thursday, October 10 - Individual pictures
• Free dress
• Please make sure to return your child's picture envelope on or before Thursday.
• Monday, October 14 - NO SCHOOL for Columbus Day
• Thursday, October 31 - Halloween Mission Party 
• More information will be sent home soon!
• Dismissal for all students will be at 12:00 noon.
• Friday, November 1 - NO SCHOOL for Faculty In-service
• Be sure to follow us on Instagram @hcadrexelhillec!

As you may have read about in a previous blog post, the students are really enjoying saying good morning in their own way before they come into the classroom each day. We definitely have a class of Eagles fans this year - they insisted that I put up an Eagles logo so they could "fly" into the room in the morning. The Eagles would be proud!  Fly, Eagles, Fly!

Have a great weekend!