Friday Update April 30

April 30, 2015 

                                                

Dear Parents,

So many thanks again to all of you who made our Staff Appreciation Day so special.  I felt very appreciated!!!!!! It was also another fun and busy week with our cuties.

This week we…

*went on our field trip to Sungei Buloh—the cuties have not stopped talking about the things we observed!!!!  We are doing many follow up conversations, activities and inquiry.

*visited the Primary School and attended a kindergarten assembly in the Elementary Theatre! They told/showed us why kindergarten is awesome! We saw “Under The Big Top” done by the perceptual motor class.

*Started talking about a very special person in our lives…MOM!  We will continue with this next week.

*used plasticine/clay to make insects and gave them a habitat to live in. These came home with your child (if they didn’t last week—we were finishing them at different times!)  Take a look at how beautiful they are and discuss all of their parts with your cutie!

*Made fun “artsy” insects with craft items.

*Practiced insect patterns, and had fun with insect addition to 5 using manipulatives.

*counted insects.

*read The Grouchy Ladybug and made beautiful ladybug creations.

*continued on with discussions and inquiry into ants.

PRE-K CELEBRATION AND PORTFOLIO SHARING

The children have been working hard on their creative writing books, alphabet books and song books throughout the year, and have a short insect book to read to you. 

We will be celebrating these things, along with sharing portfolios at our end of the year celebration.

Please join us to help celebrate our accomplishments while we 

*go through our creative writing, alphabet and song books with you and read a small insect book to you,

*reflect on your child’s Pre-K year as we share our portfolios with you

*watch a slide show of our Pre-K learning experiences

Friday, May 22, 2015

11:15 am

E115 (our classroom)

*Please let me know if you CANNOT make it to the Celebration and Portfolio Share so that I can make arrangements for someone to be with your child.  You are welcome to join your child for lunch right after our portfolio share and then the whole ECC will participate in a Sing A Long in the ABC hall.

INTEGRATING INTO THE PRIMARY SCHOOL

During the last month of Pre-K we try to give the children plenty of opportunities to visit different areas of the Primary School and interact with many of the PS faculty. In May we will also have a magic show in the kindergarten group room, visit the kindergarten classes, go to the library to have a story with Mrs. Cuthbert and eat snack in the Primary School cafeteria. By June your children will be Kindergarten experts!  Please see list of dates below….more details will be provided as the dates get closer.

A LOOK AT NEXT WEEK

Next week we will introduce the letter Xx and continue with insects, focusing on butterflies.

Upcoming Dates and Things to Remember:

*Return library books and blue bags on Monday.

*Check the blog for pictures from this week!

*SUMMER BIRTHDAYS: if your child's birthday is in the summer and you'd like to celebrate it during snack time (9:15) or lunch time (12:40), please send a note and we will celebrate!  J  We don’t want to miss anyone! Let me know what day works for you.

*IF you are leaving early, withdrawing from SAS or will be missing certain days over the next few weeks, send me a note. This will help me manage those last-minute details regarding report cards, work sent home, portfolios etc.

*Friday, May 1^st:  Labor Day—NO SCHOOL

*Monday, May 18^th:  LATE START—School starts at 10:00am

*Friday, May 22^nd: PORTFOLIO SHARE and Parent/Child Sing a Long--Starting at 11:15am (Parents are highly encouraged to attend this day J)

*Tuesday, May 26^th: Wet Day (Students only) Details and information about clothing and swimsuits to follow. We will put out the pool, play with shaving cream and get messy!

*Thursday, May 28^th: Magic Show (Students only) We will walk to the primary school, have an opportunity to play on the kindergarten playground, watch a magic show and enjoy a popsicle.

*Friday, May 29^th:  Pre K Visits KINDERGARTEN! (Students only) We will walk to the primary and visit kindergarten rooms, play on the k playground, listen to a story read by Mrs. Cuthbert (PS Librarian) and have a snack in the primary school cafeteria.

*Monday, June 1^st: Vesak Day—NO SCHOOL

*Friday, June 5^th:  Last Day of School!—11:30am dismissal

Thank you!!!  Have a wonderful weekend!!!!  Lynsey and Aidah

**Some of the pictures from the field trip will not load!  I will keep trying and will get them us as soon as I can :-)

Friday Update April 20 to 24

                                                

It was another busy week in Pre K! We continued our insect unit (finishing with bees, looking at insects in general, and talked about ants and ladybugs), and had a fun yellow day! J  We also celebrated Kayla’s birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAYLA!!!)

This week we…

*learned the sound, hand motion and letter formation for the letter Yy.

*added yellow yarn to our feely letter Yy.

*brainstormed words that began with Yy and added them to our alphabet journals.

*chopped and diced mango, bananas, peaches and pineapple and mixed in yogurt to make “Yummy, Yellow Yogurt”. (Can your child sing the song to you? The tune is “Apples and Bananas” I like to eat, eat, eat, yummy yellow yogurt....)

*learned about Vincent van Gogh and painted yellow sunflowers just like his famous painting. 

*caught and counted little yellow ducks in the water table.

*practiced programming our “bee bot” around obstacles.

*played a matching game with letters and sounds.

*sang “Mr. Sun,” “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” “6 Little Ducks,” and “You are My Sunshine.”

*used great speaking and listening skills as we shared the contents of in school “Yellow Day” show and tell. I am VERY proud of how the cuties did on this!

*helped set up and make props for out “Ant Hill” dramatic play area. 

*played Buggy Bingo and practiced writing our numbers to 20.

*reviewed what we know about bees and wrote in our creative writing journals.

*made a “What is an insect?” book that the cuties can read to you!

*did some reading about ants.

*made ant habitats/colonies/hills with many different rooms.

*learned about the life cycle and jobs that ants have, and compared them to what we know about the bee life cycle and their home and jobs.

A LOOK AT NEXT WEEK

Next week we will not be introducing a letter, but reviewing them as well as continuing with our insect investigations, going on our field trip, joining a kindergarten assembly in the elementary school, and having a day off on Friday! J

Upcoming Dates and Things to Remember:

*Return library books and blue bags on Monday.

*Check the blog for pictures from this week!

*SUMMER BIRTHDAYS: if your child's birthday is in the summer and you'd like to celebrate it during snack time (9:15) or lunch time (12:40), please send a note and we will celebrate!  J  We don’t want to miss anyone! Let me know what day works for you.

*IF you are leaving early, withdrawing from SAS or will be missing certain days over the next few weeks, send me a note. This will help me manage those last-minute details regarding report cards, work sent home, portfolios etc.

*Monday and Tuesday, April 27^th/28^th: Ms. Lynsey at Reggio Workshop with ECC. (I told the cuties today I would be here, but not here J)

*Tuesday, April 28^th: Teacher Appreciation Day J YAY! J

*Wednesday, April 29^th: FIELD TRIP to Sungei Buloh (we don’t have many chaperones, so if you want to volunteer, you still have a chance!)

*Friday, May 1^st:  Labor Day—NO SCHOOL

*Monday, May 18^th:  LATE START—School starts at 10:00am

*Friday, May 22^nd: PORTFOLIO SHARE and Parent/Child Sing a Long (please put this on your calendars for sure!  Your cutie will share their portfolio and I will have a slide show of our year.) (the Portfolio Share will be before lunch—time still TBD, the sing along right after lunch.)

*Tuesday, May 26^th: Wet Day

*Thursday, May 28^th: Magic Show

*Friday, May 29^th: Kindergarten Visit

*Monday, June 1^st: Vesak Day—NO SCHOOL

*Friday, June 5^th:  Last Day of School!—11:30am dismissal

Thank you!!!  Have a wonderful weekend!!!!  Lynsey and Aidah

Friday Update April 17

April 17, 2015

                                                

Dear Parents,

We are continuing our unit on insects, and our cuties are getting it!  They love to play “insect” in our dramatic play, look for insects outside, and tell everyone they see all about insects!!! (Ask your child about insects—six legs, two eyes, antennae, 3 body parts (head, thorax, abdomen), exoskeleton, etc.)  The students were really into bees, so we focused on them this week. J

*SONG BOOKS ARE GOING HOME THIS WEEK!  Please sing some songs with your child as they “point” to the words with their magic pointer and return the song books on Monday. They don’t have to sing all of the songs, and you are welcome to help them out at any point. J

This week we…

*learned the sound and letter formation for the letter Qq.

*added “quilt pieces” to our feely letter Qq.

*read the story The Kindness Quilt and each decorated a paper quilt square to add to a class quilt.

*we made Queen and King crowns.

*learned the song 5 Little Ducks and practiced making the /qu/ sound as it was sung and we subtracted our ducks!

*read books about the life cycle of a bee and created our own bee hives complete with eggs, lavae, pupae, queen bee and worker bees. Can your child tell you the life cycle of a bee?

*used hexagon blocks as cells and created a “buzzing beehive” to focus on shapes as well as how insects work in a colony.

*painted pictures of bees and insects and talked about the number of various body parts they have.

*used alphabet stamps to sound out some simple words.

*made a “What is an insect?” book.

*continued with “6 buzzing bumblebees.”

*Made insects with pattern blocks and graphed how many pattern blocks we used for our insects.

*practiced writing our name in lowercase letters, and practiced writing our lowercase letters.

*made AB, AABB, ABC patterns with insects of all kinds.

*had bee costumes in our dramatic play (the cuties LOVED this!)  There were a lot of bees buzzing around.  (And I loved hearing the vocabulary being used by the kiddos!  Entomologist, honey, thorax….it was so much fun!)

*sang “Bringing home my baby bumblebee and our other insect songs.

*we had Reading Buddies with Ms. Derksen’s first grade class.  We loved hearing them read to us!

*had fun building structures in the block room.  A lot of our cuties made insects and insect homes!

*we made yummy insect cookies! (Not out of insects, but made to look like insects J)

A LOOK AT NEXT WEEK

We will introduce the letter Yy as well as continue with our insect unit.

Upcoming Dates and Things to Remember:

*Return library books and blue bags on Monday.

*Check the blog for pictures from this week!

Some dates to keep in mind for the rest of the year….  More details to follow on many of them, but mark your calendars!

*Wednesday, April 29^th: FIELD TRIP to Sungei Buloh (forms to come home next week.)

*Friday, May 1^st:  Labor Day—NO SCHOOL

*Monday, May 18^th:  LATE START—School starts at 10:00am

*Friday, May 22^nd: PORTFOLIO SHARE and Parent/Child Sing a Long

*Tuesday, May 26^th: Wet Day

*Thursday, May 28^th: Magic Show

*Friday, May 29^th: Kindergarten Visit

*Monday, June 1^st: Vesak Day—NO SCHOOL

*Friday, June 5^th:  Last Day of School!—11:30am dismissal

Thank you!!!  Have a wonderful weekend!!!!  Lynsey and Aidah