World of Bounce and Future Field Trips

I am working with our bus garage to re-schedule our World of Bounce field trip and I'll let you know when it will be in January as soon as we work out our schedules. 

I also wanted to let you know that we're planning on going to the AHA Museum in Lancaster in February.  I'll work on those dates as well and let you know as soon as possible.  The cost of that field trip is $5.00 for children as well as adults.  We do have funds available so please let us know if it's a hardship for you as we'd love to have all the children and as many parents attend as well.

Christmas Around the World

So far, we have learned about children in The Netherlands, Israel, The United States and India.  We're learning a little more about our world and where these countries are located on our map and how they celebrate in December.  The children are busy singing about reindeer and snowman and enjoying every song!

We have our World of Bounce field trip this Thursday and I will send home a reminder but please send in a lunch for your child and also make sure they're wearing socks as they need them on in order to bounce.  Of course, it's been quite chilly so I'm sure they will have their socks on!  The trip will be in our regularly scheduled school day so the buses/PICCA vans will run their regular schedules.

Santa will be coming to school next Tuesday, December 21 at around 10:30 and we'll take pictures of any students that want to talk to him!  Then on Wednesday, December 22, the last day of school before our Christmas Break we'll be swimming so please send in their swimming suits and towels.  We'll also have our Christmas Party at 2:00.

It's been a busy month and we're enjoying every minute!  We will open up a gift wrapping center tomorrow where the children can use tape and scissors to wrap up gifts from the play area to enhance their play time as they pretend to give presents to each other!  It should be great fun as they cut and wrap away!

Our Christmas Tree

We decorated our classroom tree yesterday and it looks beautiful as all the children helped and they enjoyed the icicles a lot! I'll send home pictures so you can see their wonderful accomplishment!  We will be studying how other countries celebrate Christmas and we will be learning how children are both alike and different in other countries of the world. 

Santa will be visiting our school at 10:30 on Tuesday, December 21 and I will try to get a more exact time that he will see the children in the Red Room in case you want to stop by.  We will be taking pictures but you're always welcome to join us in the fun!

Looking Ahead to December!

We have a lot going in in December and I will send a paper home with all the dates and events on it after Thanksgiving but I wanted you to know what's coming up in the Red Room!

December Events in the Red Room

Swimming Dates will be:


Wednesday, December 1 and Wednesday, December 22






World of Bounce Field Trip:


Thursday, December 16-I will send home an information sheet and a permission slip for World of Bounce after Thanksgiving.






Santa’s Visit:


Santa Bob will be here on Tuesday, December 21 and we’ll take pictures and share them with you!






Christmas Party:


Wednesday, December 22 is our last day of school before Christmas. At snack time, which is at 2:00, we’ll have our Christmas Party and you’re all invited!






Christmas Vacation:


Thursday, December 23-Sunday,January 2, 2011. School starts again on Monday, January 3, 2011.

Thanksgiving Week

Tomorrow we will eat our Thanksgiving lunch together and the children will wear the Indian necklaces that they made and either their Indian headdress or their turkey headdress that they created....it should be a lot of fun!  We'll send them home tomorrow so you can enjoy them too!  This is a finger play that we liked learning a lot last week and I wanted to share it with you:

Our Turkey is a Big Fat Bird

Our turkey is a big fat bird. (hands to your side and rounded to show size of turkey)

He gobbles when he walks. (move thumb to fingers as if talking, saying, gobble, gobble, gobble)

Our turkey is a big fat bird. (hands to your side and rounded to show size of turkey)He waddles when he walks. (move hands at your side back and forth as if waddling)

 

Our turkey is a big fat bird.  (hands to your side and rounded to show size of turkey)He spreads his tail this way. (spread fingers on hand like a fan)

On Thanksgiving Day our fat bird lifts his wings and flies away. (flap arms to fly)

We'll have school tomorrow, Tuesday, November 23 and then we'll be off for Thanksgiving and we wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with your family and friends.

Swimming and the Food Pyramid

We'll be swimming this Wednesday, November 17th and I'll send a reminder home on Tuesday.  We've introduced the Food Pyramid this week. There's a great website with ideas for preschoolers at My Pyramid for Preschoolers and it's worth checking out.  It's interactive and you can input the specific age of your child and get an individualized pyramid plan.The children are learning to categorize familiar foods on our food pyramid and we'll start talking about eating healthy foods vs. non-healthy foods and what it means to be healthy and active. 

We are continuing our study about Pilgrims and Indians and the Mayflower.  Our corn seeds that we planted a few weeks ago needed to be transplanted so they're in a larger container.  So far our sunflower and pumpkin seeds have sprouted and we're still hoping our apple seeds will sprout this week.  We made Indian bead necklaces and headbands.  We'll wear them for our Thanksgiving Feast on the 23rd and then we'll send them home with the children.  The whole school eats a Thanksgiving Feast on that day.  We're making place mats that share some of the things we're thankful for and we'll use them at our Feast. 

We made bird feeders out of pine cones rolled in peanut butter and then rolled in the sunflower seeds that we harvested.  With the great weather this week, we hung them up as soon as we did them along with some ears of corn.  We hung them on the tree that we can see out of our classroom and we hope to be bird watching soon!

Important Dates

Wednesday, November 17th-Swimming

Wednesday, November 24th and 25th-Thanksgiving Break

Wednesday, December 22nd-World of Bounce Field Trip-We welcome any parents that can come with us and I'll send permission slips home right after our Thanksgiving Break

November Studies/Vision and Hearing Screenings

November will be a busy month with our studies as we have a lot going on!  We're continuing our study of seeds with our plants in the classroom.  We planted corn, sunflower, apple and pumpkin seeds and we're charting their growth. We'll make bird feeders this week from our sunflower seeds and hang them outside our window along with a bird bath and hopefully we'll attracted some feathered friends that we can observe and learn about this winter. We'll take what we've learned about seeds and start learning about nutrition and the food pyramid.  With Thanksgiving right around the corner we'll learn about food the Indians and the Pilgrims ate and how that ties into our Thanksgiving feast of today.  We're already read about Indian Two Shoes as we're starting to learn about how the Indians lived and what they ate.  We'll continue that as we learn about the Pilgrims and how they lived and what they ate.

Our Nurse Karla began our Hearing and Vision Screenings last week and she'll finish up this week. She'll write a report and let you know about her findings with your child and please contact us if you have any questions.

Swimming

We will be swimming tomorrow, Wednesday,November 3 and Wednesday, November 17th this month.  We'll try to see how that works for our children swimming twice this month.  We want it to be fun for them and not tire them out too much. During Thanksgiving week we'll set up the swimming schedule for December.  Then, it's hard to believe but it'll be 2011 before we know it!

If your schedule allows you to join us for swimming please do!  We plan to board the bus at 10:00 at Brooks-Yates and then drive to the Y.  If you want to meet us there at 10:15 that would be great.  Then we'll swim from 10:30-11:30 and change and go back to school in time for lunch at 12:00.  Please know that you're always welcome in the Red Room or on any field trips that we take.

November Menu and Thanksgiving Break

We didn't get out the November Menus in time to send home to you last Thursday and I apologize for that.  They are ready to go and you will receive them on Monday.   Here's what we'll be eating on Monday.

Breakfast:  Breakfast burrito and fruit.

Lunch:  Pizza, salad, fruit and a cookie.

So you can plan ahead, our Thanksgiving break will start on Wednesday, November 24 and we will resume school on Monday, November 29.

Great Fall Party

We had a wonderful time at our fall party and the children's costumes were marvelous!  They had fun bowling, playing corn hole, painting pumpkins, digging for treasures in the balls, getting their face painted and jumping in the bounce house.  After the party we went trick or treating in the school and they were all very pleased with their candies and their treasures!

This week we opened up our pumpkins and scraped out the pulp and the seeds.  We washed and dried our seeds and we added them to our collection of sunflower seeds and corn seeds.  We planted all of our seeds and so far the corn has taken off and we're transplanting them already as they're up to 5 inches tall!

We worked on comparing the seeds with our magnifying glasses, making groups of seeds and comparing their size to determine which pile had more and which had less.  We saved our sunflower seeds and we'll make bird feeders next and hang them outside our windows to observe all the birds coming to eat this fall and winter.

We're moving on to learning about Indians, Pilgrims, Thanksgiving and healthy eating as we learn about the food pyramid.  We'll start off our new month with a new song.  Every month we have a new song that learn as we're learning the months of the year. We also have seasonal songs and we've learned the summer song and now we now the Autumn song.

Swimming will start next week and we are determining which class will be going to the YMCA to swim each week as we're working out the amount of room on the bus.  We will send home a letter on Monday with the schedule for our class so you'll know exactly when we're swimming.



Pumpkins and Our Fall Harvest Party

We opened up our little farm market in our classroom and we voted on the name for it and "Pumpkin Patch" won so we'll be making signs for our market this week! The children are enjoying paying each other for items and helping customers. We're learning about the letter P and today we'll start learning:

Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold,

Peas porridge in the pot, nine days old.

Some like it hot, some like it cold.

Some like it in the pot, nine days old.

We're reading about how pumpkins grow and what they need to grow.  Last week we took an ear of corn from our sensory table where we're shucking it and put the ear in a container with some water. We have our first green sprout this morning! We have the magnifying glasses ready next to the ear of corn along with a sunflower head so the children can examine both of them.  We're also reading "The Little Red Hen" and we're learning about making bread and helping each other out!

We have a short week this week with Pumpkin Show starting tomorrow.  After Pumpkin Show we'll have our Fall Party on Thursday.  The children can either bring in their costumes or wear them to school.  We'll have our party from 10-11 in the morning and then trick or treat throughout the school.



Pumpkins, Apples and Farms

We're starting a new theme about farms, pumpkins and apples.  Today we set up a farmer's market in our play area.  So far in our store we have gourds, pumpkins of various sizes including mini and tiger striped pumpkins, Indian corn, and pine cones.  We have scales to weigh our pumpkins with, a phone, a phone book, a cash register (with money in it that we hand out to our customers...it's a great place to shop!), little pumpkin containers and bags to bag up your purchases.  We also discussed a name for our shop and so far we have Pumpkin Farm and Red Room Farm Market. We're going to think of other ideas for the name of our shop and then vote on it tomorrow so we can make signs for our market.  We'll also discuss other things that we might be able to add to our market.

We put one of our ears of corn in a dish with water in it to see what will happen and we'll observe any changes that we see.  We'll document any changes by writing about it and drawing what we see.

The computer is well liked by all the children and they are learning to navigate and choose which games and stories they enjoy.  It's been wonderful for the children to learn some independence with the computer and to see them so successful!

I sent home Scholastic book selections if you're interested and reminders about school pictures on Wednesday and our trip to Circle S Farms on Thursday.  The children are getting very excited about the trip as we read about pumpkins on the farm today and how they will get to pick out their very own pumpkin and play in the hay barn.

October Plans

It's hard to believe that it's October already!  We'll start off the month learning about fire safety since it's fire safety week.  We'll look at how to be safe and learn to stay away from dangerous things that are hot.  We'll learn the 911 song and how and why you need to get out of the house or school if it's on fire and not to hide from the fireman.  We'll make ladder snacks from graham crackers, frosting and pretzels and fire truck cookies this week.

Next week we'll start our units on pumpkins, harvest and what happens on a farm.  This will help us as we visit Circle S Farms where we'll actually see a farm in action.

We'll also start on PBS Kids Island on our classroom computer.  The link is PBS Kids Island and it's a wonderful site that is free.  You need to sign up with your email address and set up a password but it has a lot of pre-kindergarten skills to work on in a very fun way.  I'll introduce that to our children but feel free to use it at home too.  Starfall is another great site that is free and has many fun games to play for your preschooler.  Preschool Library is another favorite of mine that has many choices for you to explore.  They have a story about firefighters that we will be visiting this week and the activities that go along with the story.

Dates to Remember:

• Wednesday, October 13th-School Pictures.
• Thursday, October 14th-Circle S Farms field trip with the rain date on Tuesday, October 19th.
• Wednesday and Thursday, October 20th and 21rst-we are off for Pumpkin Show so there's no school on those two days.
• Thursday, October 28th-Fall Harvest Party at school from 10-11:00 am.  The children can dress-up and we'll have games and pumpkin painting.  I will send home a paper with more details.

McDonald's-Fun Was Had by All!!

I'm sure you're children are arriving home very tired!  It was a beautiful day for a walk to McDonald's.  As soon as we arrived we ordered our food and the children sat around the tables with us in the playland area.  The staff at McDonald's was very helpful in getting us situated.  After eating, the children took off their shoes and entered into the playland area and had a blast.  There weren't very many children there besides us so it was nice as we had enough room to play.  It was wonderful to see the children interacting with each other and learning how to maneuver the tunnels and slides.  It's encouraging to see the children developing friendships and learning how to problem solve.  Many of them were helping their classmates as they were a bit timid in trying out some of the tiers and tunnels.  They gained a lot of confidence and they were very proud of their new accomplishments.  It was a fantastic trip!

McDonald's!

Every morning this week my morning message has been about our trip to McDonald's as we're counting the days! The children have been so excited as the number of days gets less and less and now.......finally we're going tomorrow!

The weather forecast looks great so we're looking forward to a great trip tomorrow and I'll write about it tomorrow night!

The Human Body

This week we'll be looking at the human body as we continue learning fun songs like the Hokey Pokey and Head and Shoulders. We will also compare our body with the insects body as we sing the Insect Song that follows the tune of Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes but it uses Head, Thorax, Abdomen, Abdomen. We found many creatures outside on our walks so we talked about their body parts and this week we'll take a closer look at them and compare them to ours!

Nurse Karla will also be conducting Hearing and Vision Screenings this week and next week and she will send home a paper about it with your child.

We will also finish up our All About Me books that the children are authoring and we hope to have them ready to send home sometime next week. The children are very excited about our McDonald's trip! We have it marked on the calendar that we use everyday so they are learning about the meaning of words that deal with the passage of time, such as weeks, next week, and just how hard it is to wait for the trip!

Last week we made goop, which is cornstarch and water, and it makes a wonderful mixture that acts like a solid and a liquid. It's a wonderful feeling when you get your hands covered in goop and it's very easy to clean up! You just add a little bit of water to a box or two of cornstarch in a bin and you can play for quite a while as you roll it into a ball and then watch it disinegrate in your hands and become a liquid. The children enjoyed experimenting with this this mixture!

I will be sending home some questionnaires with your child tomorrow and if you have any questions about any of them or anything else about your child's classroom please let me know and I'll be happy to talk it over with you. We are thoroughly enjoying the children in the Red Room this year! It's a wonderful group of children and we are learning a tremendous amount each and everyday about friendships, trying new things, and about letters, shapes and sounds!

Our Five Senses

This week we are starting to learn about our five senses! We are using them in so many ways! It's so fun when the children learn about their senses and they start pointing out how they are using them. We have definitely used them when we're outside on our walks and on the playground. We've also been using our senses with our afternoon snacks and with our Fruit Loops yesterday we collectively decided that we used all of our senses with that snack!

Dates to Remember:

• McDonald's Field Trip on Thursday, September 30th-please send in your permission slip in as soon as possible.
• Wednesday, October 13th is School Picture Day. Please send in your order form and payment in with your child anytime before that date.
• I will be sending home permission slips for our next field trip which will be on Thursday, October 14th to Circle S Farms.

As always, if you ever have any questions please call me at the school or send in a note with your child!

The Gingerbread Man

We read The Gingerbread Man story both yesterday and today and the children loved the story! Today we made our own gingerbread cookies from scratch and they were a lot of fun. We decorated them with icing, raisins, and chocolate chips and they were delicious. We have great cooks in the Red Room!

We sent home permission slips for our walking trip to McDonald's on September 30th. If you have any questions about the trip please feel free to call me at school or write me a note.

There Was an Old Woman

We've been enjoying our walks and our playground time this past week with the beautiful weather. We've taken a few different walking routes to see the sights and hear the sounds of the last few days of summer. We also took pictures of trees around our school so that we can compare them as the seasons change. We walked close to the pumpkin water tower and the children enjoyed that! In circle time, after our walk, we discuss what we saw and heard and we're learning a new song about September and about summer. We heard some insects that we think might be locusts so we read about the locusts and saw how they looked in our library book. Later on this week we'll learn a new song about the parts of an insect as we compare that to our body parts as we sing, Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.

The children have a little book about the nursery rhyme, There was on Old Woman Who lived in a Shoe. They colored their books last week and we'll use them this week in circle so they can follow along as they learn the words. This week we'll start a new rhyme called:

My Ten Fingers

I have ten fingers-1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 (point as you count),

and they all belong to me (point to self).

They can do many things, would you like to see? (point to a child).

I can raise them up high (say in a high pitch as you raise your hands).

I can bring them down low (say in a deep voice as you lower your hands to the floor).

I can clap them in front (clap in front), I can put them behind (hide hands behind you).

I can creep them to the top of my head (crawl up your face), and jump them into my lap to hide (quickly move them to your lap and out of sight).

Our Daily Schedule

Now that we've settled into a bit of a routine, I wanted to share with you our daily schedule so you'll get a glimpse into your child's day!

Our Daily Schedule

The children come in, unpack any papers or lunchboxes that they might have in their backpacks and share a hug or two if they want. Then we have a notebook for each child with a sample of their first name and they write their name on their own and we have a date stamp so they stamp their work with today's date. They put their notebook in a bin when they are done and then they are free to play. We go to the bathroom and then it's time for Morning Welcome.

During Morning Welcome we sing a welcome to school song for each child, give more hugs for those that want it, read our morning message and then pick jobs for the day. I write a brief message to the class in the morning either pertaining to the theme or the day's activities. I always start with:

Good morning,

Today is Monday (or whatever the day of the week is)

Then I write a few sentences.

I always sign it with.......Love,

Ms. Hilda

This morning message allows me an opportunity to talk about so many things and I can point out letters and punctuation marks. The children are learning about question marks and periods right now. Then we pick our jobs for the day and we head up to breakfast.

After breakfast we are taking advantage of the beautiful weather and either playing on the playground or we're taking a walk. We come in and have a drink at our table in the Red Room and then we bring our chairs over to Circle Time. At circle we start with the calendar and the weather and we also discuss the season and we sing songs about the month, days of the week and the current season. Then we get to move around a bit with an action song. We do a shared reading of a nursery rhyme or a rhyme that pertains to our theme. Then I have the children move in close to my chair for our reading time so that they can all see the pictures and we can discuss the book together.

We go to the bathroom and then it's Activity Time. Activity Time is when the children have free play in our play area of the Red Room and we pull them out to do art and to work at the table with one us. We might do this individually or in small groups. We also open up the sensory table at this time. After we clean up we play a game at the table before heading up to lunch. This game varies from fingerplays such as "Where is Thumbkin?" to clapping out the syllables of their name to playing listening games where I make a noise and they have to identify the sound as a whistle, a drum or a timer for example.

After lunch we go to the bathroom, brush our teeth, and relax for a few minutes and watch a video with our favorite stuffed animal. Some of our children nap at this time and the other children either go outside for a walk or we go to the Yellow Room to play games with their friends.

We go to the bathroom and then head back to the Red Room to reunite with our friends that took a nap and we all have snack together. We end our day with music which might be singing action songs, playing musical chairs or marching in a parade. We sing a goodbye song to all our friends and gather our backpacks and then we head up to the buses!

I hope this insight into our day helps and please let me know if you have any questions!

Thanks,
Hilda

Enjoy the Fruits of Your Labor!

I hope that you're enjoying the fruits of your labor today as we have a day off from school and hopefully you're enjoying family and friends this weekend! We will have a short week this week with only three days but we'll make the most of the days we have together as there's much to learn in preschool!

Last week we read about families and what makes up a family....people that we love, whether they are near or far! This week we'll start concentrating on each child and their valued place in the family and within their new community, the preschool classroom. It's a new beginning for our children as they realize they are part of a new group with new rules, new friends and new things to learn everyday....it's all very exciting!

With this new week and this beautiful weather we'll be talking some walks and we'll start talking about the seasons. We'll take some pictures as we walk along and we'll do this periodically throughout the school year so we can compare and see the different seasons through pictures. We'll start with a few trees near our school and observe what they look like now and we'll record the changes they go through for each season. We'll let the children compare and contrast their observations and tell us what's happening as we help them with the vocabulary using words and/or pictures. We'll also talk about the sounds of each season as we spend some time outside with our walks and our playground time. After some time outside this week we'll write down the sounds of the season as a group and gather our thoughts on paper.

Families and The Three Bears

Today we read the story of The Three Bears and learned about their familiy and we're learning about different sizes of items such as bowls, chairs and beds. The children sat very quietly as I read the story and made the voices of the father bear, the mother bear and the baby bear! I also introduced the Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear rhyme and we'll do that for several days and as soon as the children know it we'll add our own lines to it as they can see what they can do and how we can rhyme the lines. The one we're practicing now is:

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, turn around,

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, touch the ground,

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, reach up high,

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, wink one eye.

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, slap your knees,

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, sit down please.

Fun little rhymes like this one teach our children listening skills as they have to listen for the next action and it also, after a period of time, is a predictable reading text and they will join in as we read and do the actions together. I have this rhyme as a chart in the classroom so we can read it together as they become more familiar with the words. Have fun with this one and any other rhymes or stories that you read to your children!

Families and All About Me!

This week we're starting a new unit that encompasses many topics. We'll start taking about families and how special all the children are in their own family! We'll expand that to see that they belong to different groups besides their family such as their new preschool class. They will discover more about themselves as we discuss their uniqueness and how we can all be friends even though we're different. We'll sing and talk about body parts and incorporate the five senses into our play this week. We've introduced a few fingerplays such as "Where is Thumbkin?" and Whoops! Johnny and they love them! We've also been singing our way through the first week with The Gummy Bear song and the Bubble Gum song. We'll add more songs and fingerplays this week and I"ll add them here so you'll know what we're singing!

Welcome to the 2010-1011 School Year!

We've just completed our first week of school and we have a fantastic group of children in the Red Room this year! It was great to laugh, play and learn together! We read books about coming to school for the first time and experiencing new things such as new rooms, new teachers and new friends. We talked about how to make new friends too.

We made some changes within the school building over the summer and we introduced those changes to the children. The third floor has our sensory room complete with ball pits, swings, a Little Tykes climbing house, a mini-trampoline and large balls. We also have a housekeeping area, an art center and a music station for the children to explore. This week we used the sensory room and we will introduce the other areas in the next few weeks. The yellow room at the end of our hall now houses our library, puzzles, games and a listening center.

The children love music and we're already seeing songs that they like as they start to sing them throughout the day. One such favorite is about bubblegum.....if your child throws up their hands and says, "I love it, I love it", please know that's from the bubblegum song!

Barb, Gerry and I make up the staff in the Red Room we're looking forward to a wonderful year!

Last Week of School

It's so hard to believe that it's the last week of school already! Where does the time go....it's amazing how quickly this year went. We had such a great group of children and they have all grown so much in so many ways! If you have a chance this week, think back to when your child started this year and all the changes you've seen in them. It's been such a positive year with all the developments that the children have made!

We'll be having a lot of fun this week! We hope you can join us for some of it!

Dates this week:

• Tuesday, Preschool Celebration at 1:00 in our Conference Room
• Wednesday, swimming and a picnic at the Mary Virginia-Crites Hannan Park
• Thursday, the last day of school

Thanks for allowing us to work with your children this year. We've thouroughly enjoyed teaching them and playing with them!

Fathers and Mothers Week and Gathering Donations

As we just celebrated Mother's Day and we're preparing to celebrate Father's Day we'll be reading about the family this week. We have great books on the relationships of mothers and fathers and we'll be reading through them this week! We had a great day at the zoo last week and we'll be doing some writing about our experiences at the zoo. We do a shared writing together where we listen to all the children want to tell us about their zoo trip and we write down their thoughts and ideas. We want them to understand the connection between the written word and their thoughts and ideas. We'll read through our writing several times this week as we review what they saw.

We want to thank all the parents that were able to go with us to the zoo as it makes it so much fun to share our day with you and your child! We appreciate you and the time you spent with us last week!

As you might have read in the newspaper, there was a house fire in Orient last week and that was the home of two preschoolers at Brooks-Yates. We are so thankful that they are safe but they lost everything. We are collecting donations and we'll bring them to the family this Friday. The sizes that are needed are:

• Women's bouses and shirts-large, pants-size 10-12, shoes-size 5-6.
• Men's shirts extra large, pants-36 x 32, shoe size-13.
• Girls' clothes, four years old, size 5-6 clothing, shoe size 13.
• Boys'clothes, five years old, size 6-7 clothing, shoe size 1.
• Any toys for a four and a five year old.

You can bring any donations to the school and we'll make sure they get to the family.

Columbus Zoo Week

We're all very excited about the zoo this week. We have been reading a lot of books about different animals that we'll see at the zoo. We've also been reading fun books about animals like the giraffe who is afraid of heights and how he gets over it. We learned what the zoo keeper does at the zoo and now we're ready to see it for ourselves! The new polar bear exhibit is open and we hope to see that too! We're sending home a reminder paper today but if you have any questions please call the school.

We are learning about the letter Yy this week and the number 13. We'll be doing a lot of counting this week as we get up to thirteen. The children are coming along nicely with learning to write their numbers as well. We'll practice writing them in shaving cream this week and that's always fun!

We'll be sending out inviations for our preschool celebration on May 25th and please let us know if you'll be coming so we can prepare our refreshments! We'd love to have you and so would your child!

We've been playing some more group games like Red Light, Green Light in the gym with both classes and they enjoy those and they're learning to listen to the signal changes! It's a lot of fun and we laugh a lot as we're running!

So Much Going On!!

With the zoo trip coming up next week we've been very interested in what animals we'll see, what they eat, where they sleep and learning about what zookeepers do. We have been learning about habitats and what animals live in the different habitats. We have a long list of all the animals that we hope to see next Wednesday.

Please sign the zoo permission slip along with the $4.00 to go to the zoo and send that in with your child. Please pack a completely disposable lunch for your child and we hope that you can join us for this fun-filled day!

We are learning about the letter Xx this week and the number 12. We are able to play on the playground on nice warm days in the afternoons and the children are really enjoying playing with their friends.

Dates to remember:

• Columbus Zoo fieldtrip on May 12th-permission slips due on May 6th.
• Raindate for the zoo is on May 18th.
• May 25th-Preschool Celebration at 1:00.
• May 26th-Swim and Picnic at the Park-please sign the permissions slips and send those in with your child.
• May 27th-the last day of school for this year.

Learning about the Zoo

This week we'll be starting our new unit on the Zoo. We'll look at all aspects of the zoo from what we can expect to see during our visit to naming all the animals that we know to learning many new animals to learning what a zoo keeper does. We'll start studying about animals and their habitats and it will be great fun to finish up our unit with the visit to the Columbus Zoo on May 12th. We'll be sending out permission slips for the trip within the next week and please join us for this trip as it's always an enjoyable day with a lot to see! We pack a lunch and spend the whole day there and we'd love for you to join us!

We will move onto the number 11 this week and the letter Ww. We have been enjoying our playground in the afternoons and will continue to go outside to play on good weather days. We will also be playing some fun group games in the gym such as Red Light, Green Light, running races and playing with the parachute.

Dates to remember:

• Wednesday, April 28th-the Green room will be swimming.
• Thursday, April 29th-the Bookmobile will be visiting our school.
• Wednesday, May 12th-Zoo fieldtrip. Please join us if you can!
• Tuesday, May 18th-Zoo fieldtrip rain date.
• Thursday, May 20th-The last IEP progress reports will be sent home.
• Tuesday, May 25th-Preschool Celebration at Brooks-Yates at 1:00. Please join us for this event!
• Wednesday, May 26th-All school swim at the YMCA and a picnic at the Mary Virginia Crites-Hannan Park. Please join us if you can for swimming and a picnic at the park!
• Thursday, May 27th-Last day of school.

April Events

We started learning about transportation last week and we'll continue this week. Last week we learned about the letter N and this week we'll learn about the letter Q. We finished up last week with the number ten and this week we'll review the numbers one through ten before moving onto eleven next week.

Dates to remember:

• Wednesday, April 28th, the green room will be swimming.
• Monday, April 26th, we'll start our new unit on the Zoo.
• Thursday, April 29, the bookmobile will be coming to school from 1:00-2:00.
• Wednesday, May 12th we'll go on a fieldtrip to the Zoo.
• Thursday, May, 20th the last IEP progress reports will be sent home.
• Tuesday, May 25th, we will hold our Preschool Celebration at 1:00 and we will be sending out invitations.
• Wednesday, May 27th will be our last swimming day. The whole school will go swimming and we will have a picnic afterwards at the Mary Virginia Crites-Hannan Park on 188. Please save that date as we would love for you to join us!
• Thursday, May 27th, will be the last day of school for this school year.

Week of Spring Break

This week and next week we'll be learning about the letter L and the number 9. Since the next two weeks are shortened weeks due to Spring Break we will stay with the same letter and number. We will also work on sequencing for the next two weeks. We will sequence stories that we're reading and we'll sequence events. For an example, we might have three pictures of a snowman out in the sun and the children need to put them in the right order with the complete snowman first and ending with the almost totally melted snowman last. Then we'll discuss the logic of why they are sequenced that way and ask questions about what the sun had to do with the snowman melting. We have done sequencing thoughout the year but we will concentrate on it during the next two weeks. We will make our Easter baskets this week and we'll put Easter grass and eggs in the sensory tables. The children love to try and match up the eggs and try to hide eggs from each other in the grass.

The green room has opened up a pizza shop in their play area and the children are busy taking each other's orders! In the red room we moved in two play work benches and numerous tools so the children are busy repairing and building.

Dates to remember:

• Thursday and Monday, April 1 and 5-no school due to Spring Break.
• April 8th-Bookmobile
• April 14th-Red Room swims
• April 28th-Green Room swims

Spring and so much to learn!

We had great fun with St. Patrick's Day last week and we're moving onto to Spring themes. We'll be looking and learning about plants, the signs of spring outside and all kinds of creepy, crawly bugs! It should be great fun! We will learn about the letter J and the number 8 this week also. We'll be learning how to measure with different forms of measurement including using scales, rulers, yardsticks, measuring tape, and liquid and dry measurements that we use in the kitchen.

The children made great selections about springtime on the bookmobile. They chose numerous books and some DVD's about bugs and spring. We will read as many as we can and we've already found a great one written by Eric Carle called The Very Clumsy Click Beetle. The children loved it and it has a great message in it about trying something several times before you can do it yourself. The children are leaning to write their letters and numbers and at times it gets very frustrating. When we are working on trying to write your name or the number of the week we are learning that it's ok if you can't write it the first time you try it but that with practice you can get better. They saw this first hand with the click beetle and how he handled it when he had to try many times.

Dates to remember:

• Wednesday, March 24, the green room will be swimming.
• April 1 and April 5, no school due to Easter/Spring Break.

St. Patrick's Day

We had great fun last week figuring out what a mouse wants after eating a cookie, what a moose wants after eating a muffin and what a pig wants after eating a pancake! The chidren had great fun guessing what each of them would want and they caught on to the cycle in the books of what the animals might want! We laughed a lot at the thought of a moose in our kitchen asking for more muffins!

This week we'll be learning about the letter H and the number 7. We'll be reading about St. Patrick and what his day means and we'll look on our maps to see where Ireland is too! We've been having fun looking for leprechauns and finding footprints around the classroom so we know they're around here somewhere!

We made blubber yesterday and the children really liked playing with it. We're also painting with marbles this week and it's great fun to mix your colors on your paper with the marbles that you have in your pan and roll them around to create different lines and colors.

Dates to Remember:

• We will have a St. Patrick's Day Party on Wednesday, Marach 17th at snack time.
• Progress Reports will be sent home with your child this Thursday, March 18th.
• The bookmobile will be visiting our school on Thursday, March 18th so please let me know if you have an special requests that you want your child to check out. They can check out books and movies. If you want your child to take them home, please send in a library card with them on Thursday.
• The green room will be swimming on Wednesday, March 24th.

Dates in March

This week we'll be learning about the letter F, the number 6 and we'll be reading from the author Laura Numeroff. She has a number of books that are wonderful for children called, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, If You Give a Cat a Cupcake, If You Give a Moose a Muffin and If You Give a Pig a Pancake. Those are just some of her books, she has several more that are fun to read! If you have a chance you can check these books out at the library I'm sure your child would love to hear them again. They're a lot of fun to read and talk about!

Here are some dates to remember for March:

• The red room will be swimming on Wednesday, March 10th.
• Our Saint Patrick's Party will be on the 17th at snack time.
• The end of the third evaluation period is this Thursday and we'll be sending home Progress Reports home next Thursday, March 18th.
• The Bookmobile will be visiting the school on Thursday, March 18th.
• The green room will be swimming on Wednesday, March 24th.

March is here!

With a full week of school under our belt again we're all in the swing of things at school! With March starting we'll start learning about dinosaurs, the letter D, and the number 5. Much to learn about as we start a new month in school!

Last week we learned how magnifying glasses worked and magnetic forces and what magnets are attracted to and what they aren't attracted to. We played games such as the Farm game where you need to match the mommy and the baby animal, color dominoes and a memory concentration game. There's so much to be learned with playing games! It's such a fun way to learn to take turns, learn the skill involved in the game and to be happy for your friends when they are successful! There are so many preschool games available and if you have a chance on the weekend....take out a game and play it with your family and enjoy!

We read about fire fighters and policeman and how they can help us and what they do in their job. The bookmobile did come to our school on Friday but they didn't stay the entire time so some of our students didn't get to visit and pick out books. They will be coming again this month so we'll be sure to give all the children a chance to visit.

Snow Days continued!

With more snow days this week, we did get to school on Thursday and we finally celebrated Valentine's Day! If your child missed school on Thursday they are welcome to bring in their valentine's cards for their friends this week and we'll make sure they are delivered! With the lack of school days last week we will continue with the letter V, the number 4 and we will move onto learning about fireman, policeman and the EMS. We touched on this in the fall and this will be a brief review for them.

The dental hygientists did get to come into school on Thursday and we will be sending home her screening assessment for your child this week. Nurse Karla will be doing her vision and hearing screeenings on Tuesday of this week. I've also extended our book order deadline so you can still send those in this week and I'll turn it into Scholastic Books on Friday so feel free to send those in any day this week.

The Green Room will be swimming on Wednesday this week and Christy will be sending home reminders on Tuesday. The bookmobile is coming on Thursday so we'll be able to make some new books selections then and our students will get a chance to visit the library on wheels!

Wintery Week in Pickaway County

What a week it's been with the snow and the wind! I'm so sorry that the Red Room missed their swimming time this week and both classes missed their Valentine's Party. We will have our Valentine's Party on Tuesday this week since we have Monday off for President's Day. Please send in your valentine cards with your child that day and we'll have our party in the afternoon.

We will stick with our letter V this week and the number 4 since we only had a day of studying it last week! We will continue on our theme of friendship and how to play with our friends. Here are some events that are coming up this month:

• Nurse Karla will be completing our vision and hearing tests with our students this week.
• Thursday, February 18th we'll have our dental hygientists come in and talk with both rooms about good dental health and they will be doing dental screenings.
• Your Scholastic book orders are also due on that day February 18th.
• The Green room will be swimming on Wednesday, February 24th.
• The bookmobile will be here on Thursday, February 25th.

Valentine's Day and friendship

Our Valentine's Day party will be this Thursday at 2:00. We sent home a list of students and staff if your child would like to make valentines to share with their friends. We will be busy making valentine's boxes to house all of our cards and goodies this week! Please let Christy and I know if you need any more information about the party!

The Red Room will be jumping into the water this Wednesday and I'll send home a reminder about that tomorrow. Please send in your child's swim suit, towel and swimmers so we can have fun in the water! I have all of your permission slips and thanks for sending those in so quickly!

The Red Room watched a video on using your words to solve problems and to ask questions before you get mad. We watched several children playing and saw how to solve problems that come up in everyday life. The Green Room will be watching them this week. The video is from the Get Along Monsters Series and I borrowed if from the library and it's titled, 5 Ways to Work Things Out. The children enjoyed watching other children working things out and we will continue to talk about how to solve problems as they arise!

Next Monday is President's Day and we won't have school that day.

February-Love and Friendship

On Monday we'll begin a new month centering on feelings and friendship. This is such a great month to discuss how to be a good friend, what that entails, what that looks like for a preschool child and how it feels to have a friend. We'll be doing some role playing to show first hand how to ask a friend to play with you and how to take turns and play together. Along with role playing we will read books on the subject to illustrate how different characters deal with friends and we can learn from them. We wil discuss feelings and different emotions and what those emotions look like.

Just a reminder:

• Our Valentine's Party is coming up and we'll be sending home information about that.
• Swimming starts on Wednesday, February 10th for the Red Room and Wednesday, February 24th for the Green Room.
• Monday, February 15th-school is closed for President's Day

New Schedule

We will be starting a new schedule in the afternoon. While some of our students are napping the other students from both preschool classsrooms joined together and played. Starting on Monday the nappers will be in the green room and we will be dividing the students into groups in the red room. These groups will travel to different planned stations that we have prepared for them. We have named the stations to help identify the area where the children will move to and we will change that as we change our theme in the classroom. We will be start with these stations:

• The polar bears will be meeting in the play area.


• The barn owls will be meeting at the large table where we will play with a variety of mediums over the week such as play-doh, shaving cream and clean mud.


• The hares will be working on the computer for half of the time and the other half they will have a variety of art experiences such as free art, watercolor and stamping.


• The penguins will be meeting in the circle area for a variety of stories, fingerplays and songs throughout the week. This is an area that we are using to prepare our students that will be attending kindergarten next year.

We are excited about our new adventure!

We made clean mud this week and the children had a fun time mixing up the ingredients, tearing the toilet tissue and grating the ivory soap! Here's the recipe in case you wanted to try it at home.

4 bars of Ivory soap

6 rolls of toilet tissue

4 cups of water.

Grate the 4 bars of soap in a bowl. Tear up the toilet tissue and add it to the soap. Add 4 cups of water and mix with your hands until it's smooth. You can store it in a plastic container or a plastic bag and it will stay good for a long time. Enjoy and have fun with it!

So Much to Learn!

Our preschool week was filled with learning the letter C and we concentrated on just learning the /k/ sound that it makes. We looked at objects around the room that we gathered that would help the children understand the sound. Some of the items we used were couch, cards, cup, cap, and comb. We also began learning our numerals and counting one item around the room.



With the snow that was on the ground we continued to learn about seasons and what we might see in the wintertime such as snowflakes, mittens, snowmen and sleds. In the green room they made pretend snow and the children were able to play with that in the sensory table and they also practiced their letters in shaving cream! In the red room we played with real snow in the sensory table and added items such as cups, spoons and water to see how that made the snow any different.



Many stories were read this week on how animals live in the winter time. We also read stories about people in the winter and fun stories about making snowman.

Please remember that tomorrow is Martin Luther King Jr. Day and we won't be having preschool so we'll see you on Tuesday, January 19th!

A Snowy Start!

This has been quite a week back from Christmas vacation with one snow day, one late start and one early dismissal! The children did a great job adjusting to all of the changes that the week brought and we'll be carrying over the letter C, positional words and the theme of animals in winter. We'll start to work on numbers, taking one number per week, and this week we'll start with the number 1.

We will be making clean mudd this week which is a great mixture of grated ivory soap, ripped up toilet paper and water. With this clean smelling mixture we can make some great winter scenes and mold and shape ice cream cones, snowman and a zillion other shapes!

The only scheduled day off from school in the month of January is next Monday, January 18th. Brooks-Yates school will be closed for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.