Parent Notes

Parent Notes--
Our last day of preschool will be May 14th. Tuition for May will be $50.00 Thanks!

May Calendar:
4th-7th: Letter Y
11th-14th: Letter Z




Monday, September 23, 2013

Busy Lil' Bees





Theme:  We finished up our letter "A" unit with some fun apple activities.  We also learned about letter "B/b" and experimented with some awesome bubbles.

Show & Tell:  We had a good time looking at what "B" things were Brought to school:  Balloons,
Baby jaguar, water Bottle, Berry, Blue headed hero, Bear, Book, ....

Choosing Time:  Big Bricks, small Blocks, Books, Babies, Busy Bee Game...









Question Board:
  1. Have you ridden on an airplane?  This one was fun.  One clever kiddo wanted to answer, "Yes, I'd really like to go on an airplane..."  :)
  2. Do you like Blue?
  3. Do you like Black?

Music & Movement:
  • I'm Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee
  • London Bridges
  • Bumble Bee Dance
  • Bubble Gum
Art:
  • Apple Tree:  We stamped the top of the tree using a real apple top.  Then we painted the trunk brown.  We glued on apple cut-outs and added other interesting features such as grass, sky, bugs...
  • Bubble Painting:  There were 3 colors of paint mixed with bubble solution.  Each child had a turn to BLOW through a straw into each of the colors.  We caught the bubbles on a piece of white paper.  The patterns we "caught" were so interesting.  When the paint was dry we glued letter "B's" to our pictures.
  • Letter "B" Bee Masks

 
 
 
 




Math:  We played an apple tree counting game.  We took turns rolling a Big dice and then placed the corresponding number of apples onto one of our apple trees.  After all the apples were on the trees, we rolled the dice again.  This time we took turns picking the apples off of the trees.

Science:  What shape can we find inside of an apple?


Snacks:
  • Cheese Sticks & Granola Bars
  • Fruit Roll-ups & Graham Crackers
  • Peanut Butter Bees, Bannans, & "B" Bread
Books:

 Berenstains' a Book (Bright & Early Book. )
Big Is Big and Little, Little: A Book of ContrastsHush, Little Alien
The Berenstains' B Book by Stan Berenstain
















Monday, September 16, 2013

Amazing Kids

Theme:  We finished up our unit on ourselves.  We learned some fun facts about one another.  We sat in a circle.  I told the children that I wanted to show them something AMAZING.  One by one, each child took a turn peeking at a mirror inside my box.  :)  We discussed what features we have on our faces (eg. 2 ears, 1 nose,...) so that we can practice drawing ourselves.  We also began learning about letter "A".

Choosing Time:  Alligators, Animals, Foam Blocks, Cut out "A/a", Zoob, building blocks


Books:



Science:
  1. Each of us were measured to see how tall we are and how much we weigh.  We will do this again at the end of the year to see if we have grown.  The curling ribbon was cut to each child's specific length. We had fun doing movements with our ribbons.
  2. We learned about ants.  An ant has 3 body parts, 6 legs, and 2 antennae.  Ants live in colonies with one queen.  We put an ant puzzle together as a class.
Music & Movement:
  • Ants Go Marching
  • Criss Cross Applesauce
  • Open Shut, I like to Cut
  • Stand Up 
  • Blast Off Like an Astronaut
  • I've Got a Wiggle in My Toe
  • Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
  • 10 Little Monkeys Swinging in a Tree
Art:
  • Self-Portraits
  • Paper Dolls
  • Letter "A" with fingerprint Ants marching Around
Letter Learning:  We practiced identifying the letter "A/a"  We practiced making letter "A" sounds and then we tried to write "A".  Some "A" words we discussed are:  ape, apple, alligator, apron, astronaut, amazing...

Snacks:
  • AMAZING chocolate cookies
  • Apricot fruit leather, Apples, Animal Crackers
  • Apples, Cheese Sticks
Show & Tell:  Some of our fun items included favorite stuffed animals, an apron, applesauce, an amazing water toy,...

Question of the Day:
  1. Do you like Alligators?
  2. Do you like Ants?
  3. Do you like Apples?

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Welcome to School!

What did we do at school? Here's the Kit & Kaboodle:
We had a great first week of school!  We spent a lot of time learning each others names, cutting, and gluing.  Using scissors correctly is a hard task to master.  Please take some time over the weekend and help your child to cut.  Draw some lines on a paper and let him/her do it.  Or, if they don't want to stay on the lines, just let them practice cutting a paper to pieces :)  This builds muscles that will help them with their small motor skills (which includes writing).  Also, the concept of gluing is foreign to some.  It takes some time to understand that the glue goes on the back side of the picture and then is turned over to stick it where it belongs.  We will be doing lots of gluing and cutting this year.  If you can practice these skills at home it will help to reinforce what we learn at school.

Choosing Time:  When your children come to school there will always be a few options of activities for them to choose from.  This week we had cars, ponies, dragons, dinosaurs, cutting, puzzles, duplos, doll-house, bristle blocks, and play kitchen.  Usually, there is at least one activity that involves the theme/letter of the week.

Music & Movement:
  • The Hokey Pokey
  • "Please & Thank you" song
  • "I like to Cut"
  • "(Name of child) is wearing (name of a color on one's clothes)"
  • The Friendship Music Walk
  • Snack Song
  • Clean-up Song
  • Good-bye song
  • "Wash your Hands" 
Games:
  • Beanbag Name Game
Snacks:
  • Popcorn & Marshmallows
  • Goldfish Crackers & Banana Bread
  • Graham Crackers & Grapes
Art:
  • Flowers
  • "David" pictures
  • Free choice Drawing (I asked them to draw something they love to do)
Show & Tell:
It was so fun to see all of the pictures of your children's fun summer experiences.  Some of the fun and interesting things we learned about one another include:  One child went to Mexico, one went to Hawaii, one went shooting, one can "surf", one loves to swim in her pool, one went to California, one went to Lagoon,  ....

Question Board:  This year there is a special magnet for each child with his/her name and picture on it.  When they come to school they look at the Question Board and then answer the question with their magnet.  I am hoping that this will be fun for them to recognize their own names as well as become familiar with other words such as "Yes," and "No."  Make sure to ask them each day what was on the Question Board.  We only had one time when a kiddo didn't know which way to answer because he'd never been camping before.  So, I asked him if he would say, "Yes, I'd like to go camping", or "No, I do not want to go camping."  It was pretty cute.  The other questions were, "Do you like to swim?" and "Do you like to slide?"

Books:

David Goes to SchoolHow Do Dinosaurs Go to School? If You Take a Mouse to School

Circle Time:  We took a short walk around to learn where the bathroom is and how to wash our hands properly.  We learned some rules that we need to keep while at school.  I asked the kiddos why we need rules.  One answered, "Because it keeps us safe."  And then another quickly added, "Hey, just like Jesus does!"  Too sweet! We will be reviewing our rules often:  Looking eyes, listening ears, sit on pockets, quiet voices, walking feet, and STAY IN the classroom.