Week of October 14-18

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Hello Everyone!

This week was a very busy week in our classroom! We are still learning about Fall and this week we talked about pumpkins!

During circle time the children enjoyed learning our new poem about pumpkins:

Five Little Pumpkins

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate
The first one said,"Oh my it's getting late!"
The second one said, "There are witches in the air."
The third one said, "But we don't care."
The fourth one said, "Let's run, let's run!"
The fifth one said, "Isn't Halloween fun?"
Then Wooooooooooooo went the wind.
And OUT went the lights.
And five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.

When we learned this poem we used our fingers to show the ordinal numbers 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th.

Our book this week was Leaf Man, by Lois Ehlert
Here is a link to the book with some activies you may want to do with your child at home.

http://www.harcourtbooks.com/leafman/

After reading this beautifully illustrated book about a whimsical leaf man who travels wherever the wind blows, we went outside and collected leaves, acorns and other fall items so that the children could create their very own leaf men and women!

Another fun activity during grouptime this week was painting and decorating paperbag pumpkins.The children can't stop looking at their pumpkins and they add a spooky cheeriness to the classroom!

For our art project this week the children made SPOOKY SPIDERS with googly eyes. We talked about how real spiders have eight legs. Each child was asked to count out eight legs for their spiders. The spiders came out really cute and they now adorn our classroom wall!

Our writing center had many visitors this week! Joey's parents donated Halloween paper and Halloween pens and the children really LOVED them.

Fall and Apples - Sept. 30 - Oct. 3

Hey Everyone!

We had a marvelous time this week learning about Fall and apples.

For circle this week, we sang a new song about an apple farmer. It goes like this:

Was a farmer, had a tree
with apples big and red
A-P-P-L-E, A-P-P-L-E, A-P-P-L-E
apples big and red

We stuck the letters for this song in our pocket chart so we could point to them as we sing.

In Group

Time we worked on an apple tree counting game, which helped us quanitify up to five. Each apple tree had a number 1-5 on it and we counted out the corresponding number of apples and placed them on a tree.

We also worked on the first letter of our name by using playdough with letter mats. Preschoolers learned how to roll the dough into little snakes and place them on a letter mat. We used the first letter of our name first, then chose other letters that we were interested in.

We played another counting game which was actually a math story. It went like this:

The squirrel gathered 7 acorns.
He dropped 3.
How many acorns did he have left?

We changed the number 3 to represent many different amounts that the squirrel could drop. We had little acorn pictures which we could move about inside a pocket chart to make for easy counting! I kept telling preschoolers that this is the type of game kindergarteners play! They were quite proud to be playing such an advanced game. For some students this helped with counting, and for others, it helped them to be able to look at a group of objects and rattle off how many in the group there was without even counting. It fit all levels and each child got just what they needed from the lesson.

Brown pain, brown paint and more brown paint was used during Group Time to paint our hallway tree trunks. These tree trunks will stay for the year and change with the seasons. Right now there is one family tree for the AM class and one family tree for the PM class. They are currently displaying fall colored leaves. I wonder what we do with our trees in the winter? Stay tuned!

We tried a new approach to choice time. I am usually a "all areas are open" kind of gal, however I noticed that so many preschoolers are choosing the same choice spot over and over again. I want to develop our skills in all areas and open some new doors. So, this is what we tried. We only opened four centers in the room for the week. They were, Block Area, Art Center, Writing Center, and Math Manipulatives. I was so pleasantly surprised by the amount of constructive play that took place! Usually the Block Area is overrun with the boys in the classroom, but this week, many girls were busily building in block area and soaking up some of the wonderful skills learned in that area of the room. I think we will continue with this new system and see what else develops as a result. Next week, we will choose different centers to have open for the week.

Preschool screening will take place on October 15th, 16th, and 17th at Sunderland Elementary School.
Preschool screening is a time when students are taken out of the classroom to be assessed in the following areas: Large Motor, Fine Motor, Counting, Color Recognition, Other Academic Areas, and Speech. The goal of preschool screening is to find any preschooler needing additional support and to better guide our instruction of each student. I will be out of the classroom on those days as I run a portion of the screening.

Miss Kate is currently working in another area of the building. She will be returning to our classroom, however we are unsure when that will be. In the meantime, parent to teacher communication is always welcomed should your preschooler have any questions or concerns about Kate being out. I know sometimes having a substitute can be difficult on little ones, so please let me know if that seems to be the case in your home. Also, the week of preschool screenings may be particularly difficult as both myself and Kate will be out of the room and their will be two substitutes present. Thanks in advance for your help and understanding as we roll with the punches!

I'm looking forward to continuing our Fall unit next week.

Thanks,
Mrs. Reid

Preschoolers are Authors! Sept. 23rd - 30th

Hi Everyone!

A big thanks to all who were able to make it to open house! It was a wonderful evening centered around community and your children!

This week we sang a mixture of "Hello Neighbor" and "The More We Get Together" during circle. We practiced some bean bag greeting games. Some of the things we incorporated into our bean bag toss were our favorite food, greetings like "good afternoon _________", and our names. We are still getting to know one another so name games help to clear up any name confusion!

I read a book this week called "The Things I Can Do" by Jeff Mack. It's an amazing book about a little boy who is writing a book all about the things he can do. There are some funny illustrations (like the boy wearing underwear on his head) which cracked the kids up! We spent some time talking about authors, books, and how preschoolers ARE authors too! Here is the sequence:

Monday we introduced making books. Preschoolers used the stapler (ever so carefully) to staple three (or more) sheets of full sized white paper together. We talked about how their creation looked like the books we read in our classroom.

Tuesday we talked about the different topics of books. There are books about trains, dinosaurs, monsters, princesses, unicorns, plants, and many, many more. After we discussed this, we set out to think about what our own books would be about. Here are some of the topics kids chose to write about:

Princesses, family, friends, dinosaurs, a field of corn, dinosaur bones, unicorns, roses, candy, trucks, trains, and battles

What an array! So...we made our front covers and "wrote" our titles.

On Wednesday, we remembered what our book was about (preschoolers did so much better at remembering than I thought they would!). Then, we worked on the inside of our books. I taught a mini lesson on drawing people. We talked about how people have a head, body, legs, arms, hands and feet. Then we talked about adding details to our drawings like earrings, a scarf, clothing, etc. After we completed our books, each student was asked to read their book to a teacher.

On Thursday, we read our books for a second time.

Here is the 4-1-1 on bookmaking in preschool. We want preschoolers to see themselves as writers, readers, and illustrators. It builds their confidence, and let's face it...throughout school students are asked to write a lot, and I want them to have confidence and to learn that writing is a creative outlet. I will continue to encourage children to write books about events in their lives, something they seem particularly interested in, something funny that happened in class (like when Mrs. Reid says the wrong words to the circle song). An important aspect of the book making process is just when the kids think they are done...I ask them "Please, read me your book." This one simple sentence can go a LONG way with preschoolers. I never ask kids to tell me about their book or read their words for them. Remember, I want them to think of themselves as writers and readers. I also keep in mind that not all books are stories. Some books are lists, some books are facts about a certain topic, and then yes, some books ARE stories. Watching the children read their books was inspiring, so if you need some sunshine in your life, ask your preschooler to read their book to you! (They are going home next week)

Next week, we will be learning more about Fall.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the weekend!

Mrs. Reid

Finishing Up Introductions; Sept. 16-20

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

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

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!

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