Friday Update Week 6 Sept 15 to 19

Reminder:  Next week the students only have school on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  THERE IS NO SCHOOL next Thursday and Friday because of Faculty Inservice Days.

We have had a fun and busy week!!!! J This week we… 

*learned the sound, letter formation, and motion for the letter Tt.

*added triangles to our feely letter Tt.

*cut out pictures of or drew things that start with Tt.

*Made T patterns with pattern blocks

*read fiction and nonfiction books about teeth and practiced brushing teeth with Mr. Mouth (a big model of a mouth.)

*”painted” and brushed teeth pictures/cut outs (with a mixture of white paint and toothpaste) using a toothbrush. We are also making a book about what’s good and bad for your teeth.

*learned the song Little Tommy’s Toothbrush and added to our Poems and Songs Folder. We also made a paper toothbrush to go with the song.  You can hang your child’s toothbrush and song on their bathroom mirror to remind him/her to brush his teeth. Have your cutie sing the song with you (although I warn you that it may be stuck in your head for days!!!!)

*played in the sensory table with “bubber,” and revisited slime! We had some kiddos asking everyday about that slime, so it made a comeback!!!! 

*read Mr. Tiger Goes Wild, Alligator Baby, Elmer (as a review of colors and we talked about how each of us is special,) and many many more!

*visited Mr. Starker in the Middle School Library where he read Tiger Who Came to Tea, and we visited his tiger room and had a chance to bang on his big drum!

*played in the block room and made a structure of Singapore!  Lot of hands on this one!

*played with Tubes!

*finished up some A activities from last week.

NEXT WEEK

Next week we will be doing UN activities and we will celebrate USA day on Wednesday.  Have your child wear red, white and blue!

PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCES

I look forward to meeting with all of you to discuss your child’s progress. The pre-K teachers will be holding Parent Teacher Conferences on October 16^th and 17^th. During conferences we will discuss your child’s strengths as well as goals for the year. 

REMINDERS/IMPORTANT DATES

Wednesday, September 24:  USA DAY—Wear red, white and blue

Thursday/Friday September 25^th/26^th:  Faculty Inservice—NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS

Friday, October 3^rd:  UN DAY—wear clothes from home country

Monday, October 6:  Hari Raya Haji—NO SCHOOL

Thursday/Friday October 16^th/17^th :  Parent-Teacher Conferences

*Return blue Friday Folder bag and red library bag and book on Monday

*SONG BOOKS ARE GOING HOME WITH YOUR CUTIES THIS WEEK! Please have them sing with you, and return these on Monday in the blue Friday Folder bag.

*Please return Family Banners when they are finished.

*Let me know if you would like to share something about your home country for UN Week, and what date and time your would like to come in.

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

Friday Update September 8 to 12

September 12, 2014

Dear Parents,

Another exciting week in the yellow starfish classroom!                                                                                      

This last week we… (and wow we have done a lot!)

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

*added apple stickers to our ‘feely letter’ Aa.  Please add it to your feely letter ring and review Ss.

*glued pictures of Aa words in our alphabet journals, and drew pictures of things that start with A.

*learned the Alphabet Song and compared/matched the upper case letters with the lower case letters.  Can your child remember the number of letters in the alphabet?

*learned and decorated the song Apple Bingo for our Poems and Songs folder.

*Read Ten Apples Up On Top by Dr. Seuss, as well as An Extraordinary Egg, Little Blue and Little Yellow, Feelings, Alphabet Mystery, and many many more! J

*learned the story of The little Red House  (an apple) and made a riddle book to share with you.

*Read books on feelings, played feeling games and practiced different faces for different feelings.

*painted a rainbow.  Can your child tell you the order of the colors in a rainbow?

*made rainbow chains (to practice the word/preposition “through.”)

*Painted ourselves with details for our body parts and clothes.  We are practicing body parts that may not be the easiest like earlobe, elbow, waist, wrist, eyebrow.

*practiced one-to-one correspondence and using a ten frame in math to count apples and then made our own.

*made name bracelets to practice the letters in our names and other students in the class.

*made yummy APPLESAUCE and tried it out! Most of our cuties thought it was delicious!

*participated in an “exploding colors” science experiment!  Have your child tell you what happened to the colors in the milk!

*sang the hokey pokey and danced around J

NEXT WEEK

Next week we will learn the sound for Tt, and we will begin activities about families in preparation for UN Day.

UNITED NATION’S

During the next couple of weeks we will be doing activities pertaining to UN Day and family celebrations. The following 2 days are ones for which you will need to have your child prepared.  Thanks in advance for your help.

On Wednesday, September 24th  the Pre-K classes will celebrate a USA DAY with (indoor) camping, making  s’mores and western dancing. We invite every Pre-K student to join the spirit of the day by wearing red-white-&-blue, whether it is their school uniform, an alternate red-white-&-blue outfit, or full Americana attire with blue jeans, cowboy hats, boots, etc.

On Friday, October 3^rd,  Pre-K students will join the kindergarten-to-2^nd grade for the UN Assembly in the High School Gym.  As part of this celebration, students are invited to dress in the native costume of their home country, a costume representing their heritage or even a costume of a country in which they have lived or visited.

These two days will be an alternate dress days though children may also wear their regular school uniform.

HOMEWORK

In the blue Friday Folder bag is the newest homework, a family banner.  Please read the directions that are attached to the banner and return it. J  Have fun…the entire family can help with this project. J  (After this you are pretty much free from doing things at home for school!)

REMINDERS/IMPORTANT DATES

Wednesday, September 24:  USA DAY—Wear red, white and blue

Thursday/Friday September 25^th/26^th:  Faculty Inservice—NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS

Friday, October 3^rd:  UN DAY—wear clothes from home country

Monday, October 6:  Hari Raya Haji—NO SCHOOL

Thursday/Friday October 16^th/17^th :  Parent-Teacher Conferences

*Return blue Friday Folder bag and library book on Monday

*Return Family Banners whenever they are finished.

*Let me know if you would like to share something about your home country for UN Week.

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

Friday Update and Pictures: September 1 to 5

We have had another wonderful week in the Yellow Starfish classroom!!!!  

One point of interest…I have watched your cuties become more and more independent as the days have progressed! Really encourage your child to practice being independent at home as well.  Feeding themselves, starting to help dressing themselves, doing up their bags, and also starting to practice things like using safe scissors to cut will really help them out! J

This week we…

*read the book Mouse Paint (along with quite a few others such as A Color of His Own, Dog’s Colorful Day, Little Rabbit’s Color Book, and Pete the Cat (which has turned into a lot of singing! J) and learned the three primary colors. Can your child tell you what they are?

*learned the Color Song and decorated a copy to put in our Poems and Songs folder

*started the big task of sorting all of the colors from our homework, discussing the different shades of each color and creating color collages to decorate the room.

*practiced writing color words with “over-writer markers”

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

*drew pictures of words/cut out pictures of words that start with Ss in our alphabet journals.

*added sparkly, silver/blue sand to our “feely letter Ss”.

*read “S” books such as Smelly Socks and Silly Sally.

*observed (with our sense of sight) a real snake skeleton and drew a picture of it.

*played with snakes (pretend onesJ) in the sensory table

*wrote numbers on paper snakes and dotted the correct number of dots to practice one to one correspondence

*learned the poem The Sandwich and made real and paper sandwiches that are just like the ones in the poem!

*spread butter and jam on bread to make sandwiches.

*cut out a long snake to hang from the ceiling to practice our cutting

*made slime and played with it! EWWW! J Some of your cuties were COVERED!!! Don’t worry—it easily washes off J

*worked with S pattern blocks

*learned the poem “I Am Special” and drew a picture of ourselves on the poem

FEELY LETTER RING

Today your child will bring home the first of the 26 feely letters, letter Ss, attached to a ring.  Please keep this letter ring in a safe place (i.e. bed post, door knob, dresser handle). Each week a new letter will go home and your child should add it to the ring and review the sound, motion and formation of all the letters.

NEXT WEEK

Next week we will introduce the letter Aa.  We will do lots of activities with the alphabet. We will revisit our colors and All About Me and My Friends

LOOKING AHEAD TO UN DAY

I wanted to give you advanced notice that the ECC will celebrate UN activities from Monday 29 September to Friday 3 October.  On Friday, October 3^rd, we will join the rest of the Primary school for a UN Day assembly.  On that day the children may wear an outfit from their home country or a country in which they have lived or visited. Our class would welcome any parents who would like to share information or do an activity about their home country.  This would be for our class only…you don’t have to present to the entire ECC. I will send a separate e-mail/note home for this, so keep on the lookout J.

ALL ABOUT ME

This week we practiced learned specific vocabulary for parts of the body. We played Simon Says using these names and also sang Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes using different parts of the body.  We are concentrating on those parts of the body that we might not normally be familiar with:  forehead, eyebrows, eyelashes, chin, earlobes, biceps, elbows, wrists, knuckles, abdomen, chest, thighs, waist, knees, ankle, and heel.  Give your child a butterfly kiss with your eyelashes, just for fun (just flutter them against their cheek or arm! They will love it!)

REMINDERS

*Check in your child’s Friday Folder (the BLUE BAG) take everything out and return bag back to school on Monday.  We keep certain projects/activities here at school to put in your child’s portfolio.

*Return Library books and RED LIBRARY BAG on Monday.

*ALTERNATE DRESS DAY on WEDNESDAY!!!

*Please make sure you have the lunch menus back by each Friday (we always send them out on Monday—by that next Friday have them back to us) even if your child is having home lunch every day.  Keep half at home for reference

WE HAVE LOTS OF PHOTOS THIS WEEK, SO BE SURE TO LOOK AT BOTH SLIDE SHOWS!!!!!!

Have a wonderful weekend!   

Lynsey and Aidah J