This week we finished introducing all the learning centers of our classroom.
We have Block Area, Puzzle Area, Book Area, Block Center, Dress-Up Center, Easel Center, Art Center, Writing Center (and to be announced later...the Science Center).
Students have learned how to play in centers, put things away in each center, and use the tools of each center carefully and safely. I'm so proud of how much our students have learned already!
We sang:
The More We Get Together:
"The more we get together, together, together
the more we get together the happier we'll be
'cause your friends and my friends
and my friends are your friends
the more we get together
the happier we'll be"
We even learned the American Sign Language signs to go along with the song. Ask your preschooler to sing and sign it to you!
We also learned a bean bag, greeting game for circle this week. It went like this:
"1,2, how do you do?
3,4, great, I'm sure!"
After we say the words, we choose a friend, say their name out loud, and pass them the bean bag. This was a great game to help our morning kiddos with their counting and also taught students about politely saying a friends name before hurling the bean bag their way! I like this game because it helps us learn the names of our new friends too!
We completed a fun art project on Thursday, but I don't want to ruin the surprise for Open House. Our plan is to have some new work for you to take a look at on display during Open House. Open House is on Thursday, September 27th from 6pm - 7pm.
Looking ahead, here are some important dates to keep in mind:
Thursday, September 27th - Open House from 6pm - 7pm
Monday, October 7th - Picture Day
Monday, October 14th - Columbus Day - NO SCHOOL
I am looking forward to the coming week. We will be discussing authors, what they do, and how preschoolers can be authors too! Your preschooler is a writer (even if they write scribbles, letter like symbols, or actual letters) and I hope to inspire them to write their own books throughout the year. We will begin our introduction to book making in the next week.
Excitedly,
Mrs. Reid
Monday, September 23, 2013
Friday, September 13, 2013
First Weeks of School - Sept. 3 - Sept. 12
Welcome to our BlogSpot for the 2013-2014 school year!
I am pleased to announce that the first two weeks of school went great (despite the humidity and slipper floors)! I was so impressed at how efficient and comforting parents were during drop-off. Toward the end of the week I started to see some "third week" behavior as I like to call it. The first week of school was so exciting for your preschooler that you may have thought drop off went better than expected. However, I sometimes see some separation issues begin to develop around week three. Your preschooler knows the routine and expectations and sometimes, this is when they become anxious about leaving mom, dad, or grandparents behind to start the day. I will refer you again to the drop-off tips I sent home over the summer. If you need another copy, I'm happy to round one up for you. Keep reassuring, loving, and separating in the same way you all did during the first week. In a couple of weeks, you will notice that your child is excited, once again to attend school. Keep up the great work, parents!
As for our first couple of weeks... Preschoolers have been busy learning lots of things about our classroom, routines, and procedures. During circle time we have learned songs like:
Hello Neighbor:
Hello Neighbor, what do you say?
We're going to have a wonderful day!
Clap your hands, and boogie on down
stretch up high, and turn around!
_______is Here Today:
________ is here today
________ is here today Turn around and then sit down
________ is here today!
Hickety Pickety Bumble Bee:
Hickety Pickety Bumble Bee
Won't you say your name for me?
Preschoolers also worked on learning how to be safe in Block Area, how to put things away in Dress-Up, how to wash hands before snack time, how to use the tools in Art Center and to put them in the right place when finished, and how to play with puzzles in the Puzzle Area. To help strengthen our little fingers and hands, we worked with playdough during table top choice time at check in and during choice time.
Our kiddos also learned how to safely transport and use scissors, something we will be reviewing many times in the coming months. We made beautiful mosaics by cutting long strips of paper into tiny squares and using liquid glue to glue them onto a black sheet of paper. We introduced math manipulatives during choice time like, counting bears, unifix cubes, and pattern blocks. We introduced drawing with markers and glue sticks as well.
Students learned about water colors on Thursday. We had to learn how to tickle the water with our paint brush, then tickle one color of paint, then tickle the water again and start all over! It's hard work learning something new! We worked to fill up our whole paper with watercolor paint to uncover a secret message. I will hang these up in the classroom soon! As you can see, we've been extremely busy learning about our classroom and all of the fun tools we have to help us learn.
We might not have much "work" to put on display yet, but learning about the room, tools, and how to learn and play together in preschool are all really important skills. When we take the time to deliberately teach these things in the beginning of the year, the rest of our school year progresses with wonderful learning and exploration!
In the coming week, we will aim to learn about our Writing Center and Painting Easel. We will also be introducing a new check in activity for preschoolers to do as soon as they enter the classroom. More to come on that! I am thoroughly enjoying getting to know our new students and working with our returning students as well. I feel energetic and excited for our upcoming lessons!
Important dates to remember:
Wednesday, September 18th from 6:30pm - 8pm: PTO MEETING (Door Prize!)
Thursday, September 26th from 6pm - 7pm: OPEN HOUSE
Monday, October 7th: PICTURE DAY
Enjoy your weekend. I look forward to seeing you all on Monday!
Mrs. Reid
I am pleased to announce that the first two weeks of school went great (despite the humidity and slipper floors)! I was so impressed at how efficient and comforting parents were during drop-off. Toward the end of the week I started to see some "third week" behavior as I like to call it. The first week of school was so exciting for your preschooler that you may have thought drop off went better than expected. However, I sometimes see some separation issues begin to develop around week three. Your preschooler knows the routine and expectations and sometimes, this is when they become anxious about leaving mom, dad, or grandparents behind to start the day. I will refer you again to the drop-off tips I sent home over the summer. If you need another copy, I'm happy to round one up for you. Keep reassuring, loving, and separating in the same way you all did during the first week. In a couple of weeks, you will notice that your child is excited, once again to attend school. Keep up the great work, parents!
As for our first couple of weeks... Preschoolers have been busy learning lots of things about our classroom, routines, and procedures. During circle time we have learned songs like:
Hello Neighbor:
Hello Neighbor, what do you say?
We're going to have a wonderful day!
Clap your hands, and boogie on down
stretch up high, and turn around!
_______is Here Today:
________ is here today
________ is here today Turn around and then sit down
________ is here today!
Hickety Pickety Bumble Bee:
Hickety Pickety Bumble Bee
Won't you say your name for me?
Preschoolers also worked on learning how to be safe in Block Area, how to put things away in Dress-Up, how to wash hands before snack time, how to use the tools in Art Center and to put them in the right place when finished, and how to play with puzzles in the Puzzle Area. To help strengthen our little fingers and hands, we worked with playdough during table top choice time at check in and during choice time.
Our kiddos also learned how to safely transport and use scissors, something we will be reviewing many times in the coming months. We made beautiful mosaics by cutting long strips of paper into tiny squares and using liquid glue to glue them onto a black sheet of paper. We introduced math manipulatives during choice time like, counting bears, unifix cubes, and pattern blocks. We introduced drawing with markers and glue sticks as well.
Students learned about water colors on Thursday. We had to learn how to tickle the water with our paint brush, then tickle one color of paint, then tickle the water again and start all over! It's hard work learning something new! We worked to fill up our whole paper with watercolor paint to uncover a secret message. I will hang these up in the classroom soon! As you can see, we've been extremely busy learning about our classroom and all of the fun tools we have to help us learn.
We might not have much "work" to put on display yet, but learning about the room, tools, and how to learn and play together in preschool are all really important skills. When we take the time to deliberately teach these things in the beginning of the year, the rest of our school year progresses with wonderful learning and exploration!
In the coming week, we will aim to learn about our Writing Center and Painting Easel. We will also be introducing a new check in activity for preschoolers to do as soon as they enter the classroom. More to come on that! I am thoroughly enjoying getting to know our new students and working with our returning students as well. I feel energetic and excited for our upcoming lessons!
Important dates to remember:
Wednesday, September 18th from 6:30pm - 8pm: PTO MEETING (Door Prize!)
Thursday, September 26th from 6pm - 7pm: OPEN HOUSE
Monday, October 7th: PICTURE DAY
Enjoy your weekend. I look forward to seeing you all on Monday!
Mrs. Reid
Thursday, May 30, 2013
May 20th - 24th
What a terrific week! We had so much fun learning a new counting game.
It goes like this...
I throw the ball
you throw the ball
how many times before it falls?
then you proceed to throw a ball back and forth while counting. You stop on the number when the ball is dropped.
Also, we did some fun work with our names this week. A.M students covered the letters of their names with little bits of tissue paper and the afternoon students learned a little about alphabetical order! I know... can you believe we are talking about alphabetical order in preschool?!?! Well really we just thought about the alphabet and organized our names according to it! Not so hard and tons of fun looking at our own names! Preschoolers love that. Not to mention, not only are most preschoolers able to recognize their own names but names of friends as well!
We made a book all about salty pretzels too! It was a great review of counting up to 5 and the kids were thrilled that they could read the book themselves.
Lastly, we worked on constructing our very own Alphabet Big Book! Throughout the next couple of weeks, we will be squeezing in a letter here and there. We started with A and B this week. Here's how it works... we all sit together and I give each students a magazine picture. They identify the picture and we work together to decide if the picture belongs on the letter page. For example apples belonged on the "A" page but fish had to wait for the "F" page. We move quickly and keep it fun!
It goes like this...
I throw the ball
you throw the ball
how many times before it falls?
then you proceed to throw a ball back and forth while counting. You stop on the number when the ball is dropped.
Also, we did some fun work with our names this week. A.M students covered the letters of their names with little bits of tissue paper and the afternoon students learned a little about alphabetical order! I know... can you believe we are talking about alphabetical order in preschool?!?! Well really we just thought about the alphabet and organized our names according to it! Not so hard and tons of fun looking at our own names! Preschoolers love that. Not to mention, not only are most preschoolers able to recognize their own names but names of friends as well!
We made a book all about salty pretzels too! It was a great review of counting up to 5 and the kids were thrilled that they could read the book themselves.
Lastly, we worked on constructing our very own Alphabet Big Book! Throughout the next couple of weeks, we will be squeezing in a letter here and there. We started with A and B this week. Here's how it works... we all sit together and I give each students a magazine picture. They identify the picture and we work together to decide if the picture belongs on the letter page. For example apples belonged on the "A" page but fish had to wait for the "F" page. We move quickly and keep it fun!
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Important Dates and Reminders
As the year winds down I find myself filling up the preschool calendar! Here is a list of important dates ahead:
Thursday, May 30th - Group Class Photo at school
Thursday, June 6th - Tie Dye Activity (please bring a white t-shirt)
Thursday, June 13th - 12:30pm - 1:30pm - AFTERNOON class Send Off Celebration
Tuesday, June 18th - Last Day for AFTERNOON CLASS (regular day of school)
Wednesday, June 19th - Last Day of School 1/2 day with MORNING CLASS ONLY
Let me know if you have any questions about any of these dates.
Thanks,
Aleshia Reid
Thursday, May 30th - Group Class Photo at school
Thursday, June 6th - Tie Dye Activity (please bring a white t-shirt)
Thursday, June 13th - 12:30pm - 1:30pm - AFTERNOON class Send Off Celebration
Tuesday, June 18th - Last Day for AFTERNOON CLASS (regular day of school)
Wednesday, June 19th - Last Day of School 1/2 day with MORNING CLASS ONLY
Let me know if you have any questions about any of these dates.
Thanks,
Aleshia Reid
Monday, May 13, 2013
May 6 - 10
Our Sunderland Community Unit kicked off with some house building with precut shapes. We talked a little about how some people live in apartments, others in condos, and some in houses. We each built our own representation of the space we live in using precut squares, triangles, circles, and rectangles. It was a great shape and color review.
We also talked a bit about the police station in Sunderland. Police officers look for fingerprints at crime scenes, so we thought it would be fun to make our own fingerprint book. It was a great, hand on, counting experience!
Teachers created a life-sized game of Sunderland. It was a bit like candy land but instead of Peppermint Forest there were locations in our game like Sunderland Town Hall, Sunderland Library, The Post Office, Sunderland Elementary School, Frontier Pizza, and Sunderland Police and Fire Station.
Lastly, we talked about the Sunderland Post Office and took a pretend trip to mail a letter. We learned how letters are set up, drew a picture to go with our letter, placed it in an envelope, and even put a stamp on it! So much fun!
We drew another round of self-portraits this week. It was interesting to see the differences from their portraits done in January! Everyone has grown so much!
I’m looking forward to another fun week as we finish up our Sunderland Community Unit.
Mrs. Reid
Monday, May 6, 2013
April 29 - May 3
This week our focus was bugs and underground.
We collected bug outside and drew a representative picture of them. We collected mostly worms and ants, but it was fun to watch them squirm around. The questions we asked ourselves while collecting were: Where did you find the bug? Was it wet or dry? Was it underneath something?
We also took a close look at soil. We learned that soil is made up of dead plants, dead bugs, and small, medium, and large rocks.
Lastly, we worked on our colors by coloring a bug book. Each bug had a different color and the kids enjoyed learning the names of these new bugs.
For our art project on Thursday we made our own underground critters. They were complete with pain, googly eyes, feathers, and sparkles! Quite creative!
We will still continue to talk about bugs over the next week or so, but we are moving on into our Sunderland Community mini unit. We will talk about all the places and things that surround our school.
We learned a new game at Circle Time this week. It was the I have ______, Who has _________? game. Each student was given a card and has to say out loud "I have (the red triangle), Who has the (blue diamond). We go around the circle until all shapes have been named. It was a great review for shapes and colors.
If you visit our classroom, you will notice that we have hung up our Hyacinth paintings and our Seed growth pictures. Check them out! Children did a great job of drawing the changes that their pea plants underwent over the last few weeks.
We will be sending home plants this week. Your child should come home with a flower plant and a pea plant to plant in your yard or to keep going indoors.
We collected bug outside and drew a representative picture of them. We collected mostly worms and ants, but it was fun to watch them squirm around. The questions we asked ourselves while collecting were: Where did you find the bug? Was it wet or dry? Was it underneath something?
We also took a close look at soil. We learned that soil is made up of dead plants, dead bugs, and small, medium, and large rocks.
Lastly, we worked on our colors by coloring a bug book. Each bug had a different color and the kids enjoyed learning the names of these new bugs.
For our art project on Thursday we made our own underground critters. They were complete with pain, googly eyes, feathers, and sparkles! Quite creative!
We will still continue to talk about bugs over the next week or so, but we are moving on into our Sunderland Community mini unit. We will talk about all the places and things that surround our school.
We learned a new game at Circle Time this week. It was the I have ______, Who has _________? game. Each student was given a card and has to say out loud "I have (the red triangle), Who has the (blue diamond). We go around the circle until all shapes have been named. It was a great review for shapes and colors.
If you visit our classroom, you will notice that we have hung up our Hyacinth paintings and our Seed growth pictures. Check them out! Children did a great job of drawing the changes that their pea plants underwent over the last few weeks.
We will be sending home plants this week. Your child should come home with a flower plant and a pea plant to plant in your yard or to keep going indoors.
Monday, April 29, 2013
April 22 - 26; Welcome Back Week!
This week, we eased back into our normal school day routine.
We finished up our seed counting books and created a new book about shapes!
The shape book was a great reveiw for our afternoon group and help some of our morning group learn some new colors and shapes.
We completed our second plant observation this week. Our pea plants are growing, growing, growing. We talked about how they have changed over time and now have two drawings to track the changes.
Our upcomming unit is bugs and underground so we've been reading some fun stories that have bugs as the characters. During group time, the bug math manipulatives were a huge hit. We counted them, sorted them, matched them, and created patterns with them.
Check in activities included some bug puzzles, rubber worm sorting, and legos. Next week we will dive into our underground and bug unit a little deeper, literally!
We finished up our seed counting books and created a new book about shapes!
The shape book was a great reveiw for our afternoon group and help some of our morning group learn some new colors and shapes.
We completed our second plant observation this week. Our pea plants are growing, growing, growing. We talked about how they have changed over time and now have two drawings to track the changes.
Our upcomming unit is bugs and underground so we've been reading some fun stories that have bugs as the characters. During group time, the bug math manipulatives were a huge hit. We counted them, sorted them, matched them, and created patterns with them.
Check in activities included some bug puzzles, rubber worm sorting, and legos. Next week we will dive into our underground and bug unit a little deeper, literally!
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