A Visit from Dr. Landau

Pre K had a special visit from Dr. Landau, our Deputy Superintendent at the end of the day!  It started as a Sing-A-Long, turned into dancing, and was a HUGE AMOUNT OF FUN!

Block Play

Many people don't realize the importance of playing with blocks.  It's just a fun activity for kids to do, right?  Wrong!  (Smile!)  When children are in the block center they:

-develop large and small muscle control
-improve eye-hand coordination
-explore spatial relationships and comparisons of sizes and shapes
-plan and solve problems while working with other children
-use their imagination to build things like castles, zoos and towers
-ignite creativity as they are allowed to bring other things into the block area (like dolls, cars etc), and dramatic play begins!

Here are some pictures of our cuties in the block center this week.  The discussions involved in some of these amazing structures....WOW! It was really cool to observe, as many of the children started off by themselves, and were soon all involved in making different parts of a city!  I can't wait to see what they will be up to next!

Week 3 Pictures!

There are a lot to look through...it has been an exciting week!  Don't forget that you can download all of the pictures off my picassa album. :-)  Have a wonderful weekend!

Friday Update Week 3!

How are we in Week 3 already?  Wow!

It was so wonderful seeing so many of you Wednesday night!  Thank you for coming!  I know you have had lots of information thrown at you during the past few weeks.  Please do not hesitate to contact me if you need any clarification.

The yellow starfish are doing a fabulous job, are figuring out our routines, and are becoming pros!  Here are some of the events this week.  Please take a few minutes to discuss them with your child.  We…

*brainstormed lots of ways we can be KIND and RESPECTFUL to our friends. (focus: friendship)

*graphed the number of letters in our classmates names. (focus: graphing, more)

*learned the words and hand motions for Hello Neighbor and decorated a copy for our Songs and Poems folder.  Please have your child teach you the hand motionsJ

*read the book “Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie jar, and made our own book.

*went to the “construction zone” and built houses with blocks.

*decorated paper “friendship” dolls to look like us! (focus: body awareness/friendship)

A LOOK AT NEXT WEEK

Next week we will continue our theme of “About Me”, this time focusing on ourselves and how we are alike and different from our classmates.  We will do some work with colors and we will also introduce the first letter, Ss.

HOMEWORK

In the zippy pouch today you will find your child’s first “homework” assignment. Please take a few minutes this weekend to find items for color collage.  The whole family is welcome to help!  Have funJ

A MESSAGE FROM MR.GEOFF

August 26-30

Fun Room

We spent the week doing obstacle courses that helped develop our static and dynamic balance by tipping side to side and walking along various balance beams.  We also, jumped over and off of tactile discs. 

Learning Focus

Dynamic and static balance, engaging the vestibular system and sequencing. 

Terminology

If you would like further explanation as to the terminology presented in the Learning Focus section, please send me an email for further clarification.  I am hesitant to provide definitions here because I do not want this to become too cumbersome. 

Library

Preschool :  What Game Shall We Play? by Pat Hutchins was read in the library this week.  Preschool will continue with their author study of Pat Hutchins for the next few weeks.   

Prekindergarten:  Aaron’s Hair by Robert Munsch was read in the library this week. Pre-K will continue with their author study of Robert Munsch for the next few weeks. 

Each child checked-out one book on Wednesday of their own choosing to take home.  Please remember to return the library book by the following Monday, so your child is able to choose another book next Wednesday.   If you are in AM Preschool, please return the library book by Tuesday.

If parents would like to checkout books from any of the SAS libraries, please just present your SAS card to the librarian. 

Parent Volunteers Needed

The ECC Library is looking for parent volunteers to help organize and reshelf books.  If you are interested, just contact me via my email address below.

Grandparents

We are inviting grandparents to become involved with our ECC library time.   We invite any grandparents who are in Singapore to come read a traditional story from their culture or a favorite story of your grandchild.  For grandparents not in Singapore, we invite you to join us digitally.  Similarly, we would like you to read a traditional story from your culture or a favorite story of your grandchild by making a video of your reading and send it to me.  We would request that the stories be read or translated into English. 

Parents of ECC students, if your parents would be interested in this idea, please pass this message and my email address to them.  I will contact them to discuss this in greater detail.

Geoffrey Rodocker   grodocker@sas.edu.sg   

REMINDERS

*Return library book (in bags) on Monday.  You will get a new one on Wednesday.

*FRIDAY FOLDERS COMING HOME TODAY!!!!  Please have your child read their poetry and song book to you and return them on MONDAY.

*Return color homework on Monday.

*Check your “zippy pouch” nightly as it often contains important information from school and then return it the next day.

*Please return lunch menus, even if your child is having lunch from home, no later than Friday. (Check off or state if your child should have ice cream)

*Please let me know if there should be any changes on the contact list in your Back to School Night packet. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Lynsey and Aidah J

Thank you Parents!

Thanks so much to all of the parents who came to our Pre Kindergarten Back to School Night tonight!  I loved meeting with all of you and telling you about the year that is in store for your child!  If you have any questions, please e-mail, phone, or check this blog!

CHOCOLATE GOO!!!

On Friday we made "Chocolate Goo" (chocolate pudding!) and finger painted with it! (There of course was some licking of fingers in between the painting!) Don't worry--we washed our hands very well before AND after this amazingly fun activity! We learned this poem:

                                                   ONE, TWO CHOCOLATE GOO

1   One, two,

2   Chocolate goo.

3   Three, four,

4   Want some more?

5   Five, six,

6   Pudding mix.

7   Seven, eight,

8   Bring your plate.

9   Nine, ten,

10  Hungry again!

See the slideshow for pictures of our chocolate goo fun!

Playground and Group Room Pictures

Bikes, blocks and fun...oh my!!!!  Our yellow starfish are flying through the days with smiles and happiness!

The importance of play

Research indicates that children learn best in an environment which allows them to explore, discover, and play. Play is an important part of a developmentally appropriate classroom. It is also closely tied to the development of cognitive, socio-emotional, and physical behaviors. But what exactly does it mean to play and why is it so important for young children?

Constructive play helps children develop social skills while laying an important foundation for reading and math. Children who set up a pretend post office or a restaurant in what is called a “dramatic play area” learn how to take turns, how to speak clearly to one another, and how to make up their own stories — stories that are the foundation for writing. And the best conversation happen in the dramatic play area! This is where children feel free to share their thoughts with their friends.

Playing with blocks teaches children the basics of math as they learn that two small blocks put together have the same length as one long block. They also learn risk taking as explore different ways to construct with blocks.

Children who never learn to play with one another , who rely on grown-ups to resolve disputes — never learn the self-regulation and teamwork for their adulthood. That is why it is so important to allow children free, unstructured play to help nurture their social and language skills.

If you are interested in reading about play in schools, feel free to click on the pictures below to connect to two articles.  I always love to read things like this. :-)

Have You Filled A Bucket Today?

We can be good friends!  In the Yellow Starfish classroom we have been talking about being safe, being kind and doing our job at school.

We read the book “Have You Filled a Bucket Today?” by Carol McCloud.  It is about how everyone carries around an invisible bucket and if you are kind to others (using kind words, helping someone out, smiling) then you fill their bucket and yours! If you dip their bucket by being mean, not including people in your play and not sharing (just to name a couple of things!) then both of you feel sad and empty.

On Friday we ended our day by sitting in a quiet circle and sharing a way that we were kind to someone else, or how someone was kind to us.  I am amazed at our class!  We have a classroom of bucket FILLERS!!!  If you want to borrow the book, please let me know!

Some second week pictures

Here are some pictures from the first part of the second week of school.  Enjoy!

Kissing Hand Cookies!

One of the first books we read in Pre K is The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn.  It is about a little racoon named Chester who is a little nervous about going to school until his mom shows him a little secret to keep her love with her.  It is a book our cuties pick up over and over again to look at!

In our classroom we made kissing hand cookies.  (The recipe is in the recipe book that will be going home at the end of the year with all of the things we make!) We tasted them at school, and then sent one home for you to enjoy with love.  See the slideshow for cookie pictures...

Friday Update 2- August 23

Dear Parents,

The first full week of school has flown by!! Our class is still a little small (we have had a couple of our friends on holiday, and are waiting for two new students to join our class soon!)  We do have an amazingly cute class though! They are good friends already!  Here are some of the things we did this week.  We…

*decorated the songs Hello and Zip-a dee-doo-dah to put in our Songs and Poems folder.

*wrote 7 all over a copy of There are Seven Days in a Week and put it in our Songs and Poems folder.

*made “magic wands” to attach to our Songs and Poems folder. (Your child will help teach you the hand motions when this comes home.)

 *played a “Fishing for Friends” game to help us learn the names of our friends.

*Read the book Have You Filled a Bucket Today?  And tried really hard to be “bucket fillers” all week.  Please ask your child to tell you about the book as we will refer to it often throughout the year.

*played “The Kissing Hand” counting game to review identifying and counting numbers to 10.

*went to the “Dramatic Play” area and used lots of language and social skills while playing house.

*made a graph of the number of girls and boys in our class. Ask your child how many boys/girls we have.

*counted and graphed the number of letters in our friend’s names.

*Read the poem 1, 2, Chocolate Goo!  And we made CHOCOLATE GOO PUDDING, finger painted with it, and ate it off of our fingers!!!!! YUM!

NEXT WEEK

Next week we will continue learning about ourselves and our friends. 

BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT Wednesday 28^th August 2013

On this evening I will go over details of the curriculum.  I will also have the Volunteer calendar for the first semester so please bring your personal calendars to check dates.  Please let me know if you CANNOT attend Back to School Night as there is a parent activity that you will need to complete.

The evening schedule is:

 6.00-6.30 PM   Meet other parents and enjoy a cup of hot mulled cider and other refreshments.

 6:30-7:10 PM    Introductions of the ECC Faculty, General Announcements; Information about the Perceptual Motor, Chinese, Library and Speech-Language program will be presented.

 7:15-8:30 PM     In your child’s classroom to learn about their school day, the grade level curriculum and to get acquainted with teachers & other parents.

         CLASS BOOKS

Throughout the year the children will be making class books based on songs, poems, books, and themes that we cover in class. These books are always a big hit with the kids as they can “read” them on their own. This week we finished our first book, titled There is a Friend in Our Class. The book will help you and your child learn the names of the students in our class. The children will take turns bringing the class book home. When it is your turn please take a few minutes to share the book with your child (they love to read to an audience!) and return it the next day so someone else can have a turn.

POEM AND SONG FOLDERS

Next Week you will find your child’s Poems and Songs Folder in your blue Friday Folder.  This poetry/song folder is an all time favorite of my students, as they love to read it to their families. (I want to show this to you at parent night.)  When it comes home, please take some time this weekend to share the first 3 songs with your child.  The “magic wand” is used to point to the words and reinforce left to right directionality and other early reading skills.  Keep this folder in a safe place (it is very difficult to replace if lost).  Please return it in the Friday Folder (do not take the songs out) on Mondays.

FRIDAY FOLDERS

Each Friday your child will bring home a Friday Folder (This week it is not coming home) as we have kept most projects to decorate the room and add to the end of the year portfolios).  It is your child’s “homework” to share the contents of the Friday Folder with you.  The contents usually spark a memory that will get your child talking about school. Enjoy sharing the contents, keep them at home (unless otherwise specified), and return the Friday Folder to school on Monday.  This way we can begin filling it again for the following week. 

A MESSAGE FROM MR. GEOFF

August 19-23

Fun Room

This week, we focused on our bodies.  We moved around the room to music and used scarves to locate different body parts.  We also used different body parts to connect with each other (elbow to elbow, feet to feet) and used our bodies to make various statue poses.   

Learning Focus

Dynamic and static balance, spatial awareness, mapping the body and sequencing. 

Terminology

If you would like further explanation as to the terminology presented in the Learning Focus section, please send me an email for further clarification.  I am hesitant to provide definitions here because I do not want this to become too cumbersome. 

Library

Preschool :  Don’t Forget the Bacon by Pat Hutchins was read in the library this week.  Preschool will continue with their author study of Pat Hutchins for the next few weeks.   

Prekindergarten:  Get Out of Bed! by Robert Munsch was read in the library this week. Pre-K will continue with their author study of Robert Munsch for the next few weeks. 

Each child checked-out one book on Wednesday of their own choosing to take home.  Please remember to return the library book by the following Monday, so your child is able to choose another book next Wednesday. 

If parents would like to checkout books from any of the SAS libraries, please just present your SAS card to the librarian. 

Grandparents

We are inviting grandparents to become involved with our ECC library time.   We invite any grandparents who are in Singapore to come read a traditional story from their culture or a favorite story of your grandchild.  For grandparents not in Singapore, we invite you to join us digitally.  Similarly, we would like you to read a traditional story from your culture or a favorite story of your grandchild by making a video of your reading and send it to me.  We would request that the stories be read or translated into English. 

Parents of ECC students, if your parents would be interested in this idea, please pass this message and my email address to them.  I will contact them to discuss this in greater detail.

Geoffrey Rodocker   grodocker@sas.edu.sg  

Thank you. 

REMINDERS

*Updated class email phone number list will be ready for Parent Night on Wednesday.

*Parent Night: Wednesday, 28 August. 

*If your child is buying school lunch:  Please indicate, on the form, the type of drink you would like him/her to have. Please return the form even if your child is having home lunch (mark “lunch from home”)

HAVE A FANTASTIC WEEKEND

Lynsey and Aidah