We had a fantastic week learning all about the letter Ff with Funny Fish! During the week we learned about the frog life cycle and made funny paper plate frogs.  We also read our Scholastic books all about bats. We learned what the word nocturnal means and we learned about other animals that are nocturnal.  At the end of our lesson we watched a bat video on the Scholastic website and played a game to learn about how bats use other senses to navigate through the night sky.  During the week the students used the donated pumpkins in many centers.  In the pictures below you can see how the students measured the pumpkins with cubes and then put them in order from smallest to largest.  On Friday, we read our last Scholastic book for the month of October all about how a pumpkin grows.    We were also so lucky to watch a pumpkin grow on our computer too.  

We also had an assembly with all the classes about strangers.  Two martial arts instructors talked to the children about awareness.  They showed them how to know what is around them and to most importantly not fear strangers but know what to do when they feel something is wrong.  The made them very aware that a stranger is someone you don't know or don't know very well.  They showed them that a stranger could be anyone even a person who looks like a grandma.  It is a great idea to further this conversation at home as trick or treating is approaching.

This week we will not be learning a new letter or number.  There will also be no homework due this Friday.  This week we will be reading all different Halloween stories and we will be doing some fun Halloween crafts.  Please remember that our class party/parade is this Wednesday.  Please send your child to school in their costume Wednesday morning.  Wednesday is a half day so all children must be picked up by 11:30AM.  Thursday ( Halloween Day) all children are invited to wear their costumes again or wear the color orange for a small party and day of Halloween fun given by Ms. Barbara and I.

Halloween Parties & Trips

***UPDATE-Ms. Liz would like everyone to arrive by 10:45 outside for the parade on Wednesday Oct. 30th. The parade will promptly start at 11AM. ***

Next Wednesday Oct. 30th, we will be having our class party & parade.  The class parents have put up a sign up sheet outside of our classroom of certain items they would like you to bring in for our party next Wednesday. So if you have signed up please bring in your item by Wednesday morning.

During the day the children will be listening to Halloween books, play Halloween games and the class moms will also be doing am fun craft with the children.  At 10:30 AM the children will have their special snack with the class parents and then at 11 AM the children will come outside for a short parade.  After the parade all classes will separate to take a picture and then will go back inside with their teachers to dismiss from their classrooms.  If you are not able to make the parade at 11AM please remember we have an early dismissal at 11:30 AM to allow all families to attend the Clinton Place walk and the Pumpkin Patch trip.

On Thursday, Halloween Day, I am allowing all children to come to school in their Halloween costumes again! If they don't come in costume please try to send them to school wearing orange.  Ms. Barbara and I will be bringing in a Halloween snack and we are planning another day of fun games and activities.

Letter Ee & Number 5

With our short week and many children out on Tuesday, we started out the week with a letter review in the morning.  In the afternoon, we had some fun painting paper plate pumpkins!  You can find them on our bulletin board in our classroom.  On Wednesday, we learned all about letter Ee with Elmo the Elephant and in the afternoon we talked about elephant facts while we made elephant puppets.  On Thursday we learned about the number five and danced to the "Five Jive"!  We sang Halloween songs about the five little pumpkins too! On Friday, we read the story "Elmer" by David McKee about a very colorful elephant who was different than all the other gray elephants.  Elmer wanted to fit in and be like all the other elephants but then soon realized he was happiest just being himself .  In the classroom we discussed how our differences make us who we are and make us all individually special.  We celebrated this idea just the same way all the other elephants celebrated Elmer in the story by painted our own elephants all different and brightly colored.    We ended the week with a Fall activity.  We first read and sang the story " We're Going on a Leaf Hunt" while learning tree and leaf names.  Then we marched outside singing the song and went on our own leaf hunt and found five colorful leaves!

 

This week we will be learning about letter Ff and number six while working on fall and Halloween crafts.  We will also be learning about how a pumpkin grows.  On Wednesday we will be using real pumpkins to measure and sort in our Math Center.  We will be exploring the inside of a pumpkin in our science center and use pumpkins in our outdoor games.

Exercising outside for letter E!

Homework

Due to few children being in school today, we did a letter review rather than start the new letter. We will be introducing letter Ee tomorrow (Wednesday ) and the number 5 on Thursday.  If your child was in school today their homework is in their folders and all other homework will be sent home tomorrow for children who were absent today. I recommend doing the alphabet homework on Wednesday and the number homework on Thursday night.

Letter Dd & Number 5

Last Monday, we had a wonderful visit from the Maywood Fire Department! They talked to the children about fire safety.  They encouraged the children to have fire drills at home and to designate a safe place to meet outside.  They also encouraged everyone to replace the batteries in their fire alarms at home.  A firewoman put on her full equipment and mask to show the children what they would look like when trying to rescue them. In the classroom we showed the children how to Stop, Drop, and Roll and practiced dialing 9-1-1 in case of an emergency.   It is a good idea to show the children how to get to the dial pad on your cell phones if they don't know how to already. 

During the week, we learned about the letter Dd with Daisy Doll.  We made dotted D's and used dabbers to do dot art paintings (in our Art Gallery).  Through the week we learned about many different dinosaurs and read many fun dinosaur books.  Last week, we also focused on learning how to write the number and word four.

This Week:

 We have a short week due to being closed on Monday.   Starting Tuesday we will introduce letter Ee with Elmo the Elephant and we focusing on number five.

 

Letter Cc & Number 2

We had a wonderful week learning about letter Cc with Cathy Cook!  On Monday, we read and sang the Cathy Cook book focusing on the words that start with Cc.  We painted letter C's with glue and attached cotton balls on them.  On Tuesday, we celebrated the first day of October by singing our song " It's October and it's Time to Have Some Fun!" and by making  paper plate black cats. Our cats are hiding all over our classroom.   Wednesday, we focused on the number three.  We ended our week by making candy corn and doing a color mixing experiment.  Friday afternoon all the children enjoyed using only three colors ( red, yellow, and blue) of finger paint and mixing them to make many more colors.

 

This Week:

 

We will be focusing on letter Dd and number 4 this week.  Monday we will be discussing fire safety and we will be having a visit from the Maywood Fire Department ( weather permitting).  Throughout the week we will also be making Fall crafts and Halloween crafts.

 

 

 

 

Finger paint color mixing

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Color mixing science experiment

Candy Corn Craft



Leaders of the Day helping water our garden

Paper plate black cats

Cotton C's

Back to School Night

Ms. Barbara, Ms. Reham, and I would like to thank all the families who came to our Back to School Night! It was great getting to meet you all!  We are off to a great start and we know we are going to have another great year in Pre-K!