School notes

Districtwide

No school

There is no school Monday Jan. 21.

Twin Bluff Middle School

Report cards

Second-quarter report cards will be mailed home the week of Jan. 21.

Spelling bee

The school spelling bee will be 1 p.m. Jan. 24.

Burnside Elementary

Music classes

Second-grade music classes will enjoy a presentation called “Music is For Everyone.” Two musicians from Apple Valley, Minn., will use the oboe and string bass to give an introduction to musical concepts.

Fourth-grade music classes will travel to Macalester College in St. Paul to watch Sowah Mensah and his African music ensemble. Classes are in the middle of their annual drumming unit and will use this visit as a prelude to Sowah’s residency with them at Burnside in May. Red Wing Public Schools/Jones Foundation grants are giving Burnside students these enrichment opportunities.

Art classes

Second-graders are learning about masks from around the world and making a plan for a mask they are going to design themselves.

Third-graders are learning all about the process of printmaking and have started their relief print design to be etched in Styrofoam.

Fourth-graders are studying the Pueblo Indian people of New Mexico and learning about the storytelling tradition of native peoples. Students are going to create an animal or person out of clay that expresses their own storytelling idea.

Sunnyside Elementary

Walking Wednesday

On Jan. 16, 25 students participated in the Sunnyside Sneakers. Winners were Eli Hanlin, from Ms. Rak’s kindergarten, and Laci Linder, from Ms. Hicks’ second grade.

2013-14 kindergarten

A parent informational meeting for all parents of incoming kindergarten students will be 7 to 8 p.m. Thursday Jan. 24 at the Sunnyside Elementary School cafeteria.

Colvill Family Center

Colvill Kids 3’s

Miss Katie’s classes will read “The Three Bears” by Paul Galdone. They will sort objects by size, practice counting to 10, sponge paint brown bears and play in the puppet theatre. They will taste porridge.

Colvill Kids Mixed Ages

Ms. Lila’s classes will be learning about how we are all different this week. They will read “The Color Of Us” by Karen Katz, color a picture the color of their skin and draw a smiley face. Also, they will use pieces of blue and green tissue paper on a world picture.

Colvill Kids 4’s

Miss Catie’s classes are saying thank you to all moms for coming to Muffins with Mom day. Students are reading “Sleepy Bears” by Mem Fox and learning the letter Jj with Jumping Jill. They will have pajama day Thursday or Friday.

No School

Colvill Kids and Head Start will not have school Monday Jan. 21.

Early childhood screening

Open early childhood screening dates are Feb. 7, Feb. 21 and March 14. The state of Minnesota requires early childhood screening for all children before they enter kindergarten. Screening is provided at no cost. Please call 651-385-8000 to schedule a screening time for your child age 3 or over.

Red Cottage Montessori

Animals and shapes

The children of Red Cottage have enjoyed a peaceful yet intense week of learning. Many of the younger children are learning the names of farm animals and their young as well as the names of many shapes: circle, square, equilateral triangle, trapezoid, hexagon, rhombus, rectangle, curvilinear, oval and ellipse.

Bats, teeth and hiking

Extended-day children have researched bats, sewed “tooth” pillows for the tooth fairy, written a list of the wildlife and signs of wildlife they have discovered on hikes, drawn maps of the world and labeled the continents, and practiced addition with beads with exchanging.

Skin colors

With Martin Luther King Jr. Day next week, the class looked at the idea of skin pigment. Children used many shades of make-up foundation with cotton swabs as brushes to create new skin shades on paper. The extended-day children then did a scientific experiment using salt and pepper to see how gradual amounts of pepper (acting as pigment) deepens the shade of skin (salt). They also explored the idea of why people have different pigment, which relates to a person's native proximity to the equator.

They read about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and summarized his passion by agreeing that he believed that all people of all skin shades are valuable, equal human beings. Thankfully, all of the children couldn't understand how anyone could feel any other way!

Outside

Outside was a week full of wildlife and signs of wildlife. Children hiked the deer trails behind the school up the bluff and discovered deer tracks of many sizes, deer droppings, deer urine, deer beds, raccoon tracks, raccoon droppings, two woodpeckers, one chickadee, wood chips at the base of a tree from woodpeckers, one vole, dozens of vole tunnels, one bald eagle and lots of mud.

Adventures in Learning Preschool

3-4-year-olds

The children had a “White Day” and sang snowflake songs, threw a snowball (Styrofoam ball) into a bucket and had a white hunt. The students have been working hard on independently dressing in their winter outerwear. They enjoyed a donut at the bakery after their field trip to the Red Wing Public Library.

4-5-year-olds

Q is for queen. The students glued various-sized cardboard tubes together to make a castle. While wearing crowns, they then practiced the mixing of primary colors to make secondary colors to paint their castles.

The students pantomimed various winter activities to learn about the season of winter. The students discussed winter while they walked to the library and bakery.

Under the Rainbow Child Care Center

Martin Luther King Jr.

The children in Karmen's classroom learned about Martin Luther King Jr. The kids are also learning to share and learning about friendships.

For art, they enjoyed making foil handprints, writing with shaving cream and practicing brush strokes during painting exercises. They also had a lot of fun dancing and listening to songs about kindness and sharing.

Winter fun

Mary Ann's children learned about winter fun this week. They read "The Snowman,” "A Little Bit of Winter” and "Flannel Kisses.” Students worked on learning about the color blue, circles, the number 6 and the letter Ww.

The children had a lot of fun making marshmallow snow people, and snowflakes. For one of their enrichment activities, the children made some yummy snow cones.

Jumpstart

The Jumpstart class had a lot of fun learning about hibernation and bears. They read many books about hibernation and discussed what it means. The children also discussed what the difference between migration and hibernation are. They had fun making a bear mask, bear cave and bear puppets. This last week everyone brought in a bear and wore their pajamas.

His Kids Child Care

3-4 Discovery Preschool

The winter theme continues with children exploring ice. The children conducted science projects by filling ice cube trays with water and placing small items in the liquid. Seeing the transformation after the ice was frozen was fun. Children also painted with ice; the cold on their fingers made for lots of surprised faces.

The children read "People in Winter" by Martha E.H Rustad and "The Mitten" by Jan Brett. They also made snow flake name chains and discovered the letters in their names. Hot chocolate was served at snack time and children shared stories about sliding.

The Second Step lesson this week focused on the fair way to play.

4-5 Kindergarten Preschool

Children explored winter time with lessons about snowman and polar bears. Children played the game "Polar bear, Where are You?” and it was fun to see how the children reacted to being found. The letter Nn was introduced, and children made a noddle winter picture along with a very long list of Nn words. Stories of winter animals and how they live were read.

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