Getting Ready for Shoes

Our exciting shoe project will start on Monday, 3/28. For our first class, please have your kids wear any footwear that they normally wear at home - slippers, slipper socks, flip flops, etc. Please do not buy anything new for this day. Don't forget to also bring regular shoes that can be worn for outside play.

On Wednesday 3/30, please have your children wear their favorite footwear - boots, ballet shoes, sandals, etc. Bring regular shoes for outside play if their shoes are not appropriate for the outdoors.

Please volunteer to be our visiting expert on shoes. Your kids will love to hear you speak to the class. The sign up sheet has already been posted.

If you are wondering what these pictures represent, look closely again. Our students traced their feet on the concrete with chalk. Some even wrote their names and shoe sizes. Can you spot the size 10?

Some kids also made face portraits using objects from nature. How creative!

Other reminders:

• Our student-made Utopia directory is now complete. The kids wrote their names, addresses, phone numbers, and nuggets of information that they wanted to share about themselves.
• Please bring shoes to donate to the school's shoe drive.
• The parent conference sign up sheet will be posted on Monday, 3/28.

Have a dry week!

A Musical Treat!

The highlight this week was certainly our trip to the San Francisco Symphony. The kids and parents loved hearing live orchestral music on such a grand acoustic stage. The theme of the musical experience is "telling stories through music." Image is from http://www.sfsymphony.org.


Of course, everyone was thrilled to hear the grand finale - the music from John Williams' Star Wars soundtrack. Nostalgic parents and action-loving kids couldn't help but hum the familiar tune along with the Symphony. Image is from www.amazon.com.


Upon returning to the classroom, we asked the kids to draw their favorite part of the field trip. Most of them chose the extremely adventurous (and safe) school bus ride.

We are in the process of making a "Class Book," a small directory for this year's class. Each student will create his or her own page and add in some pieces of information.

Stay dry! Spring is just around the corner.

The Final Touches

Our Utopia gallery is now up on display. Though a number of students are still adding finishing touches, most of our kids are now published artists!
The experience of creating one's self portrait was meant to teach the kids to follow a structured process. We all enjoyed brainstorming, planning, producing, and publishing our work.
The students also had fun adding different colors and textured items to make their unique pictures come alive.
The children used various materials in their portraits. This includes objects from nature such as acorn caps, pistachio shells, flower petals, and small leaves. We also utilized store bought materials such as yarn, beads, gems, and pipe cleaners.
Our field trip to the San Francisco Symphony is this Monday, 3/14. Remember that this Friday, 3/18 is a school holiday. Enjoy the long weekend!

Self Portraits

This week, our young Utopians focused entirely on themselves. Not in a selfish manner but for a creative art project. Our students made their very own self portraits. The kids drew the different parts of their faces which we put together at the end of the week.

The nose was the last part of the face that was drawn. Our students learned to identify the parts of the nose - the bridge and the nostrils.

Watch out for our new and improved gallery next week. We will decorate our space with our embellished portraits, which we will be the focus of next week's brainstorming sessions.

The children also assembled intricate ramps. They tried rolling marbles, magnet balls, cars, unifix cubes, and practically anything they can think of. The different ramp models that they have come up with made the balls roll down, go up, turn left, turn right, and even jump. Without them knowing, they were learning about physics!





Reminder: our field trip to the San Francisco Symphony will be Monday, March 14. Utopia will be closed during that day. If you will not be joining us for the field trip, we will see you on Tuesday.

Finally, please check the St. Thomas More website to register for Utopia's fun-filled summer program. We can't believe it - summer is already around the corner!