Sunday February 12th-good morning! brrrr! What a lot of fun Valentine
activities we've been enjoying. Tomorrow is Pink Day--the boys are SO
excited! ha! Many of them have already told me they won't wear pink because
it's for girls-where do they get this stuff?:)) Valentine's parties will be
on Tuesday in both classes. You should have all received class lists for
Valentine's and the sign-up sheets are still on the classroom door.
The morning class has met "Mat Man"--you might hear about him or "Bat" man--
we'll have lots of opportunities to play with the wood pieces and build
Matman. We also spent lots of time this week exploring the wood pieces in
our "Handwriting Without Tears" program. There are big lines, little lines,
big curves and little curves. We did the hokey pokey with our pieces to
develop some familiarity with them.
We continue to practice counting, numeral recognition to 5 and recognizing
our names in print.
The afternoon class has worked hard as well--we learned about the letter "H"
this week, and this week will be "I" day. We've been playing the number
hokey pokey at circle to practice numeral recognition, and we also reviewed
the lifter sounds. These are very hard.
I am very pleased with the progress both groups are making in puttin on their
outside clothing-not that we actually need them! boo! But, the independence
is improving daily. Every time you can allow your child to get into his/her
own jacket, the better.
Enjoy the rest of this freezing cold Sunday and have a great week!
Robin
Sunday February 5th--good morning! Everyone should have received their
child's progress reports and/or IEP's by now, and if you have any questions
at all about these, please give me a call or shoot me an e-mail. I'd be
happy to sit down with anyone for either a conference with just me, or if
you'd like a team progress update, we can schedule that as well.
It's hard to believe, but I will be in touch in the next week or 2 with IEP
parents to discuss summer program. All ESY meetings must be held prior to
April vacation, so I will be contacting you soon.
The other item that is currently on the agenda is preparing for next year's
role models. I will be placing a blurb in the school notices in the next
couple of weeks, but if you know anyone who is interested in having their
child considered for next year's program, please give them my name, e-mail,
phone number, etc. and have them contact me.
Afternoon parents, if you haven't already registered your child for
Kindergatrten in September, please do so. Even if we have had (or will have)
placement meetings, the office still needs to have an idea of the numbers.
It's hard to believe there's only 3 weeks until our next vacation. We'll be
working very hard during this time on our number skills, color and shape
review, HWT--we're on letter "G" already this week, and LIPS--we learned
the "lifters" this week. This is a pretty tricky sound to make. There are
front lifters (lift tongue behind the front teeth to make "L" sound, and the
back lifter (lift back of tongue to make "R" sound.) We've been doing lots
and lots of tongue exercises and Mrs. Dana is very impressed with the
progress.
Speaking of Mrs. Dana,she continues to work on rhyming with the afternoon
class, as well as sequencing. Our goal is not only for the students to
visually sequence pictures in the correct order, but to put some appropriate
language to the cards. We practice "telling the story" to each other.
HWT practice is going well--we've practiced letters to "F" and numbers 1, 2,
and 3. The children are getting the hang of "wet, dry, try" and they love,
love, love to work in their books. Matman has made an appearance in the
morning class, and we have been having fun singing the song and building him
with wood pieces. This gives us an opportunity to practice and discuss body
parts and where they are on our bodies, and also to start to think about how
to draw a person's body. The goal is to eventually have those arms and legs
come out of the body, not the head!
Learning our telephone numbers is going well-slowly, but well.
Notes will be going home this week with names for Valentine's and there will
be sign up sheets on the classroom door for party snacks.
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday--Go Pats!--and have a great week!
Robin
Sunday January 29-good morning. Well, I hope everyone is recovered from all
the illnesses and I'm happy to see everyone back from vacation as well! We
had a crazy week again trying to catch up from the week before. I am just
about done with assessing and progress reports/IEP's should be ready to go by
Thursday at the latest.
Thursday was a fun "blue" day, and we will be doing some more "blue"
activities on Monday. Both classes were able to get outside and play this
week, and I was very proud of them as they worked hard to get into their own
snowsuits! Please label your child's clothing if you can!
The morning class will continue to explore winter activities and will be
counting winter items, painting snowmen at the easel, and matching mittens.
We will continue to practice counting and numeral recognition to 5 every day!
In the afternoon class, we have also been working hard on numeral
recognition, but we're practicing to 20, yikes! Mrs. Dana has been doing
many sequencing activities with us and also rhyming-there's a lot to learn in
preschool right now! We're even adding in our telephone numbers this week as
well!
In our 2nd Step lesson this week, we learned about strong feelings and some
strategies to "calm down" from them. We're learning about taking "belly
breathes" and this week we will practice counting to 10 to see if that helps
as well.
Matman is improving with everyone! We drew him together at circle and I'm
starting to see more and more people with bodies and correct positioning on
limbs! We also used scarves to practice making "Magic C". Those curves can
be tricky sometimes.
In our LIPS lesson, we reviewed the sounds we've learned so far: lip poppers
(p,b), tip tappers (t,d), skinny air (s,z), fat air (sh, zh), lip coolers
(f,v), tongue coolers (th), tongue scrapers (c,g), and nose sounds (m, n,
ng). Our next sound will be a "lifter"--lifting the front of your tongue
makes the "l" sound and lifting the back of your tongue makes the "r" sound--
NOT EASY!!!!!
We have a busy week ahead! Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and have a great
week!
Robin
Sunday January 22--brrr again! So, between vacations, illnesses, days off,
last week wasn't the mmost productive week we've ever had in preschool! Oh
well-back at it this week. We will continue assessing for report cards
during the week and will continue to practice numeral recognition. Any
practice you can do with your child at home is a great help. I'd really like
to see the afternoon class master numerals 1-10 in and out of order. The
morning class is practice with numeral recognition and counting items to 5.
Our HWT practice with letters continues--we are getting the hang of the "wet,
dry, try" method of making letters on our slates and we've even practiced
numbers 1 and 2! The morning class is going to meet "matman" this week!
This is part of the HWT program of making people with our wood pieces and
practicing body part awareness at the same time. I'm sure you've all seen
the "mr. potato head" people your children draw with arms and legs coming out
of the head. This is very normal and "Matman" will help us learn to add
bodies and put the arms and legs in the appropriate places. I hope!
In our LIPS lesson this week, we learned about a "fat air" sound. We
compared and contrasted between this sound and the "skinny air" sound. When
making a "fat air" sound, our lips are rounded, making a fatter space for the
air to come out of--thus making the "sh" sound. When we turn on our voices
to make it noisy, it becomes the "zh" sound, like in the middle of measure.
The afternoon children are doing a great job with their last names, and I
think it might be time for a new "trick" next week! Stay tuned!
Thanks to everyone who donated to the theme basket-I believe they'll be
displayed this week in the hallway upstairs.
Keep in mind our outside days--TUESDAY for AFTERNOON and THURSDAY for
MORNING. The children will be very happy to learn that I dragged out the
sleds Friday and the Kindergarteners packed down our sliding trail too!
We are collecting tissue boxes for our Valentine holders, so if you have 1 or
2, we'd love to have them. Thanks
Have a great Sunday and a great rest of the week!
Robin
��Sunday January 15-brrrrrrrrrr! I will apologize first thing for the weird
things this site has been doing-it's not me. So, we had a short week last
week and another one this week. Oh well. We'll just keep plugging along!
Now that there's snow, please don't forget snow clothes--TUESDAY for
afternoon students, and THURSDAY for morning students. I will use my
judgement concerning the temperature and/or the iciness outside.
Tuesday
will be White Day for both classes, as we missed it on Thursday. The
afternoon class will continue with our letter exploration--C day on Wednesday
with Carter!
Mrs. Anderson, Mrs. Dana and I will be doing some assessing
in the next 2 weeks for progress reports. We work very hard at imbedding the
assessments into the daily activities as much as possibie, but the children
beg me to come work 1 on 1 on the "big kid" work! They love it!
We will
begin practicing numeral recognition to 15, and then 20 in the afternoon
class, and we are still working on 1-5 in the morning class.
��Sunday
January 8, 2012--good morning, and I'm sure everyone is as happy as
I
am
that the "first" week back to school is over. There were many yawns
and
slow moving children (and teachers!), but there was a lot of
excite��me��nt as
well. The chidlren were very excited to discuss their
Christmas surprises
and gifts and we had many great conversations.
We
started our introduction
to letters with the afternoon class and it was a
lot of fun! Annie brought
in "an amazing amount" of "A" items to share-3 or
4 is fine!:)) We also glued
animals on our "A's" and we now have a new
area
in our center ti��me��--the
exploration station! In this area, the
children
can explore stamps, punches,
stencils, pictures, books, letter
wheels, etc.
after they finish their letter
center. It's lots of fun and
really supports
the different levels of
learning that are present in the
group.
We also
learned all about "wet,
dry, try" and made the letter "A"
with clay, magna
doodle boards and slates!
Sunday January 1, 2012--
good
morning and HAPPY
NEW YEAR!!It feels like we
just said that, and it
definitely feels like
we've just barely co��me ��back to
school-boy, it
flies.
I hope everyone
has had a wonderful, restful vacation
and is
looking forward
to getting
back to the routine tomorrow. I know I
am. We
have lots of
exciting
activities planned for January and we're going
to
be
very busy in
the
preschool.
As I have been telling the children for a
��
few ��
weeks now, the
afternoon class
will begin our introduction to
letters
this
week. At the
preschool level, I
focus on recognition of the
uppercase
letters (for now)
and the beginning
letter sound. We will
explore a
variety
of multi-sensory
craft projects for
our letters,
glueing
so��me��thing on each
letter of the
alphabet. We will also
incorporate
our HWT curriculum and
learn to make the
letters with our wood
pieces,
clay, magna-doodle boards
and chalk boards
with the "WET, DRY,
TRY" ��
me��thod of practicing. We continue
to use the
language of HWT
as we use
wet
sponges to create the lines and
curves of our
letters on
our chalk
boards
(slates), then we wil use a dry
piece of
towel to
retrace the
letter,
making it disappear. Finally, we
will "try"
it
ourselves with a
piece of
chalk! This is a process that will
be
reinforced and practiced
through the
entire alphabet by Mrs. Anderson
and/or myself.
Although we
have not learned all of our LIPS sounds yet,
when we learn a new
letter
na��me��, we will practice the sound of it as
well.
When you receive
your m0nthly calendar, you will notice the
children's na��me��s
with a
letter on various days of the month. This��
me��ans that it is that
child's turn to bring a�� few ��items to school
that
day that start with that
letter. These should be small items that
can be
managed by the child, and
that the child is familiar with so
he/she can
share at circle. Have fun
scouring your house with your child
to find 4-5
items to discuss at school.
I
will also put the
children's "days" on the
calendar on this website and
will
try to
re��me��mber to send ho��me ��a
reminder note the day
before.
We will
also
begin practicing how to form
our nu��me��rals with
our wood pieces,
clay,geo
boards, shaving cream and
chalk this month as
well. Phew-lots
of
work
coming up!
Mrs. Dana plans to
begin a unit on
sequencing with
the 4 year
olds. We will
practice
identifying things that
co��me
��first, next, last, etc.
and we will
also
practice adding the
appropriate language to describe the
stories we
tell.
A number of the
children are interested in, and
practicing so��me ��rhyming--
we
will
start to place more emphasis on rhyming as
well this month.
In
our fine
motor lessons with Mrs. Anderson, when we are
not working on
letter
formation, we will continue to practice hand strength
activities and
pincer grasps. I have so��me ��very good "cutters" in the
aftenoon class,
and we
will continue to practice cutting and using our
fingers by
pinching,
squeeznig, lacing, etc.
The morning class will have
lots and
lots of fun
exploring snow, snow��me��n,
mittens and all kinds of
winter
clothing.
Hopefully we'll have so��me ��real
snow to play in as well.
We will
continue to practice recognizing our first
na��me��s in print,
and many
of
us are ready to try creating our na��me ��without
having to
match the
letters. Counting practice continues--most of the
children are
getting
pretty good at counting to 5 and recognizing these
nu��me��rals
as well.
Matching, sorting activities will continue and we might
even
explore so��me ��
patterns as well.
If it ever snows, we will have
outside days 1 ti��me �
�each
week. The morning
children will have
outside play on THURSDAY, and
the
afternoon class will
have outside play
on TUESDAY. This is dependent
on the
temperature (must be
at least 20
degrees) and also on the
preparedness of
the children. In other
words, if
your child co��me��s to
school without outdoor
clothing on our
designated day, the entire class
must stay inside and that
is really unfair
to those who are prepared. If
you don't want your child to
play outside,
you
should really reconsider
sending him/her to school that
day.
If your
child wears boots to school,
please, please have him/her change
into
shoes
in the hallway before coming
into the classroom. The wet floor
is very
slippery and dangerous. The
boots can remain under the bench.
Thanks for
your cooperation with this.
I will begin assessing in both
classes this
month for our next report card
and look forward to�� me��eting with
any
of you who are interested in a
parent/teacher conference. Just give�� me
��
a call or shoot�� me ��an e-
mail.
Finally, be sure to label your
child's hats,
mittens, boots,
snowpants,
etc.and extra mittens in the
backpack are never a
bad idea!
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and have a
great week! I can't
wait to see
everyone tomorrow!
Robin
Sunday
December 18th-good morning-
brrrr! I
guess I shouldn't complain,
because
it's been pretty warm for
most of the
month.
This week is going to be so
much fun in both classes!
Tomorrow is
Gold Day
in both classes and I'm
sure we can add plenty of gold
glitter to
the floor,
chairs, etc. for our
poor custodian. On Tuesday, the
afternoon
class will be
making small
graham cracker gingerbread houses.
There is a
sign up sheet on
the door
for supplies for the houses, as well as
sign up
sheets for the
parties. If
you can't stop by, give�� me ��a call and
I'll
give you so��me ��ideas
about what we could use.
On Wednesday, the
afternoon class will be asked
to co��me ��to school in their
p.j.'s in
preparation for a ride on the
Polar Express. Mrs. Dana and Mrs.
Anderson
will join us in reading the
story, acting out the story, creating
yoga poses
for different parts of
the story and finally, singing so��me ��songs
from
the CD
and drinking
hot cocoa! It is a lot of fun for all of us!
Finally,
Thursday
is party
day. The morning class is going to attend the 1st
grade
dress
rehearsal
for their concert and then return to the classroom for
treats!
Again, I
try to keep our parties as low key as possible.
The
afternoon
class will
enjoy our favorite songs, music and move��me��nt
activities before we
also have a special treat and celebration.
A
reminder--I will not have
the
children exchange gifts, as this can
so��me��ti��me��s be a very
difficult,
disappointing experience. I will have
a
little so��me��thing
for all of the
children to open, and if you really
want to
do
so��me��thing, just get a gift
for the class. This is ABSOLUTELY
not
required
and I do not want anyone to
feel obligated. If you have any
questions about
this, feel free to give�� me ��
a call or shoot�� me ��an
e-
mail.
Enjoy your Sunday and try not to get too
stressed! This coming
from�� me��?
Pretty funny!
Have a great week!
Robin
Sunday December
11,
2011-first the bad news, and then the good news. I
tested positive
for
strep throat on Friday, but the antibiotics are working
wonders and I
feel
much better! Keep an eye on your little ones--I don't
know if I
started
it, or if it ca��me ��from one of them, but we obviously don't
have ti��me �
�for "sick" right now do we?!?
So, hopefully we'll have a
full,
productive week this week! Tomorrow is
silver day in both classes
and it
should be very sparkly! The morning class
will be making
their "reindeer
food" and bringing it ho��me ��to sprinkle on
the ....grass? Fortunately,
those
reindeer are magical and are sure to
find
it! We will be��
me��asuring and
counting as we follow the
recipe.
Mrs. Anderson and I
will be working on
first na��me ��writing
so��me ��more in the
afternoon
class. So��me ��of the children
are
forgetting to start their letters
at
the top and others are trying to
mix
in lower case letters-augh! This is
why I do not teach lowercase
letters-
the children need to have mastery of
the
uppercase letters first
before
they get confused with the lowercase.
There's
plenty of ti��me ��for
that!
We'll have sign-up sheets up for
holiday parties (Thurs Dec. 22) by
the end
of the week. There will be 2
sign-ups for the afternoon class, one
for our
gingerbread houses that we
will be making on Tues (20th) and the
other for
the party. All morning
students are invited to attend school on
Thurs. for
party day!
The
children will NOT exchange gifts. We will
have
a
special snack and do
our
very best to keep things as low key (yeah
right!)
as possible!
Happy
birthday Laura!
Enjoy the rest of your
chilly
Sunday
and have a great week!
Robin
Sunday December 4,2011--and
the
countdown
begins! When the children
(4's)
arrive tomorrow, they will
see
their
countdown chains hanging from
the
ceiling (I guess Santa was
here
over the
weekend!), and we will take a
loop
off each day and count
the
days left--
exciting for them, stressful
for�� me��! ha
I can not
say
enough about how well
the 4's are doing with
recognizing
uppercase
letters
in their na��me��s. With
our HWT pieces, we
have discussed how
to make
all the letters in the
alphabet. We have talked
about whether we
have
those letters in our first
na��me��s, where they are,
and how
many. Now
we're even finding them in our
last na��me��s! During
December we will
review
these and focus on the sa��me ��
process with the
numbers 1-10!
We continue to work on those tricky
diagnonals that are
in
many letters (A,
K, M, N, R, V, W, X, Y, and Z) and
also in
triangles,
(and now stars!).
When you see your child attempting
letters
with this
diagonal line, remind
him/her to "slide" it down to the
corner-
just like a
slide! These take a
VERY
long ti��me ��to master.
We will
be
having lots of
fun with our
gingerbread unit this month-counting,
sorting,
patterning,
tracing,
cutting, cooking, everything we can think of!
Our new
LIPS sound
this week
is the skinny air sound (s,z)--when you
make the
space
between
your teeth
and lips very skinny, your tongue can't
get out, but
the
skinny
sound
can! Mrs. Dana cues the children
to "pull" this long,
skinny
sound
out
of their mouths. We've now been
exposed to the following
sound
pairs:
lip
poppers (p,b), tip tappers
(t,d), lip coolers (f,v), tongue
coolers
(th,th
voiced), tongue scrapers
(k,g) and skinny air (s,z). At this
stage
of our
develop��me��nt, I am
NOT assigning letter na��me��s to these sounds,
this is just a ti��me
��to learn what our mouths do to make the sounds.
So��me �
�of
the
children are beginning to make the connection to the
letter
na��me��s,
but I
am not teaching it yet.
The morning children
will be
having a
little "Rudolph" fun this week and we
will even be making
so��me �
�reindeer
treats to sprinkle on the lawn. Our
counting practice
continues
with a
variety of fun Christmas manipulatives-we
are becoming
more
consistent
counting to 5! We have also been working very
hard on
ga��me��s
and activities
that help us recognize our na��me��s in print.
I know the
weather has been
maddeningly inconsistent, but we would
really,
really like
to get outside
whenever we can squeeze in a�� few ��
minutes. It is
VERY cold
in the mornings--
please, please be sure your
child is dressed
appropriately
to go outside.
Warm jackets, hats, mittens
are really
important! If your
child has started
wearing boots to school,
it's really
important that
he/she has shoes to
change into--it is very
hard to
participate in our
gross motor activities
(such as yoga with Mrs.
Anderson)
with big clunky
boots on! Thanks for your
understanding on this
issue.
Enjoy the rest of
your Sunday and have a great
week!
Robin
Sunday November 27, 2011--good
morning and Happy
Thanksgiving! I hope
everyone has been enjoying this
extra long holiday
break-I know I had a
wonderful ti��me ��with my own
children who were here to
visit-I was a
very happy
mommy!
I've�� me��t with
a�� few ��of you quickly to
discuss
progress reports/IEP's, but
please
re��me��mber to give�� me ��a call if
you
want to schedule a parent/teacher
conference.
So, I am looking
forward to
a full week, so we can get down
to work before
the December
craziness
begins. We will continue to practice
our last na��me��s
in
the afternoon class,
and continue our counting
practice as well. We will
be reviewing all of the
wood pieces, shapes, and
letters we've learned how
to
make with our HWT
program, and also begin to
practice making numbers as
well
(re��me��mber, my
focus is not to be making
these letters with
pencil and paper,
but with the
pieces, clay, or any
other manipulatives.)
The morning class will continue
working on
recognizimg our first
na��me��s in
print and becoming more familiar
with the
individual
letters in them.
Nu��me��ral recognition and counting are
focal
points
in this class as well.
Our sensory table is full of scrap
paper and
scissors, and that is a favorite
area of the classroom. The
children have
the opportunity to practice
handling scissors, and explore
cutting. Many
of the 3 yr olds are just
learning how to get the scissors in
one hand and
make snips in the paper.
So��me ��are beginning to cut all the way
across
the paper, and this is a great
ti��me ��for practicing.
The
afternoon
children are all pretty independent cutters, and have been
practicing how to
trace around so��me��thing and then cut it out.
Learning how to
hold the
paper
in the other hand and move the paper
instead of our arms, is
tricky!
When
the children are cutting, I remind
them to keep their thumbs "on
top"
and
help them pull their elbows back in
closer to the body-they're
getting
better and better all the ti��me��.
Enjoy the remainder of your Sunday--
looking
forward to seeing all the
children tomorrow!
Have a great week!
Robin
Sunday November 20,2011--
good morning! Tomorrow is Brown Day for
both
classes-brown like
Thanksgiving Turkeys!>! This is another short
week, and I
truly can't
believe it's Thanksgiving already. It feels like
the year has
just
started!
The afternoon class was introduced to their
last na��me��s
this
week and were
actually "tricked" for a minute there!
They did a
great job
of finding the
letters in their last na��me��s to make
their
silly turkey
headbands and loved
practicing the new sound we learned-
tongue scrapers to
say "gobble gobble!"
In the morning class, we've been
practicing colors and
working hard on
sorting and counting sets to 5.
They're definitely getting
better!
Re��me��mber, Wednesday is an early
release day, so there is no
afternoon
session. I hope everyone has a
wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoys
the long
weekend!
Enjoy your week.
Robin
Sunday November 13, 2011--good
morning, and I hope everyone enjoyed
their
Friday off. I was busy working on
getting the horse out of my
throat-I
think
he might finally be on his way
out! phew!
Well, the
afternoon
class
started using their center cards this
week, and
what a
great job
they did.
At center ti��me��, they each have a
picture
schedule, and
they are becoming
more and more independent finding
their
own
centers and
transitioning to
the next without adult cueing. It's
aweso��me ��to
watch how quickly they
have figured it out and how
quickly they
more from
center to center on
their own.
Thursday was a
fun Gray Day, and
no, I
didn't think of any gray
snacks
either! The
morning class has been
having
lots of fun with squirrel
activities-we
even learned a squirrel pose
with
Mrs. Anderson! Ask your
child to
sing "Gray Squirrel" for you! We've
been doing a lot of color
practice
and also sorting. The children are
getting pretty good at sorting
by one
attribute. We've done color and this
week we've been sorting by
shape
as
well. We will learn about triangles
this week!
The afternoon
class
practiced triangles last week. These are
VERY difficult
to draw
because
they have those diagonal lines in them.
Many
children aren't
able
to
draw diagonals until they are almost 5.
We'll keep
practicing!
We've
had
a lot of fun with our scarecrow
activities and even
made a book tht
will
start circulating this week!
This week we will explore
turkey
activities
in both classes-Thanksgiving's
getting close.
I've been
working
frantically on progress reports and
grading IEP's--these
will go
ho��me
��this week. Please feel free to
call�� me ��if you are interested in
scheduling a parent/teacher
conference.
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!
Robin
Sunday November 6,
2011-good morning! I hope everyone
re��me��mbered
to
turn
back their
clocks. Well, after another crazy
week, I am definitely
looking
forward to
a normal week this week. We did
enjoy our belated
Halloween
parties and
enjoyed celebrating Carter's and
Annie's birthdays as
well!
This week in
our HWT lesson, we learned about
diagonal lines and
talked about
all of
the letters that have diagonals in
them. We will also
practice
triangles
at the sa��me ��ti��me��. The
4 yr olds have been very,
very
interested
in
identifying the letters in
their na��me��s and are doing
a great
job
of telling ��
me ��whether
the letters are at the beginning,
middle or end
of
their na��me��s. We
will continue to review all of the
lines and
curves
throughout November
and
December, and will begin to start
exploring
letters,
one at a
ti��me��, after the
holidays.
This week, we
will
learn about Tongue
Scrapers in our LIPS lessons--these are
very tricky
for
our age. Pulling
your tongue back (scraping) will make
the "k" and "g"
sound. You may
notice
your child making a "t" sound in these
words-very
common.
Now
that the
afternoon class has learned the routine for center
ti��me��, we
will
begin to
use our own "center cards" starting tomorrow.
Each child
will have
his/her
own card (schedule) for centers. There will
be
pictures to depict
each
center and the children will learn how to
identify the center, go to the
appropriate area, and move to the next upon
completion. These schedules are
a wonderful way to build independence and
it's always amazing to�� me ��how
quickly the children get the hang of
it.
I am a firm believer in fading
verbal cues as quickly as possible to
teach
children to figure out what to do
next, on their own. I have these
schedules at the sign-in area, at circle
ti��me��, in the bathroom, you
na��me ��it. Just a tip-they're great to use at ho��me ��
too!
Enjoy
your
extra long Sunday and have a great week!
Robin
Sunday
October 30th-
holy
cow! I guess I've got my work cut out for�� me ��this
morning-
blah! Any
way, what a busy week we had. Both classes absolutely
loved the
obstacle
course in the gym-and everyone did really well with it
too.
Climbing,
crawling, swinging, balancing--all our favorite things to do!
The
Fire
Prevention (or "perfection", depending on who you talk to!:)) was
fun,
even
though it was rainy. We learned to "get low and go!" and also
to "stop,
drop, and roll". Going inside the fire truck was soooo cool and
so��me ��of
the children even walked through the ambulance to see what
that was
like as
well. The hats were a huge hit of course!
The children
are all
excited for
Halloween tomorrow and can all wear their
costu��me��s to school.
The
morning class will WATCH the parade tomorrow
morning-
-well, if we can
see
over the snow banks!haha! Our party will be
as low key
as a school
party
can be-just kids and just a special
assort��me��nt of snacks.
The
afternoon
class will probably parade
through the school before our party
in
the
classroom.
In our LIPS lesson
this week, we reviewed the following
sounds
that we've
been introduced to
so far: lip poppers (p,b), tip tappers
(t,d),
lip coolers
(f,v) and tongue
coolers (th). Mrs. Dana will be
spending lots
and lots of
ti��me
��working on tongue coolers, as she has noticed
that that
is a difficult
sound for the entire afternoon group!
In our
Second Step
curriculum, we
have talked abuot the following feelings:
happy,
sad, angry,
scared, and
disgusted (this one was very fun to talk
about!).
We have been
learning
to look at people's faces, bodies and what is
happening around
them to get
an idea about how they are feeling. This takes
quite a bit of
practice
at
this age, as we are still very egocentric and
learning to take
the
perspective of another person takes ti��me��.
IN HWT, we
are planning
to learn about diagonal lines--many 4 year olds are
not yet
able to make
diagonal lines and this is why you might see their "A's"
in
their
na��me��s
leaning on the side. Very develop��me��ntally appropriate.
Well,
I really
didn't think I'd have to talk about boots yet, but here
goes.
If
your
child wears boots to school, please, please be sure he/she
has SHOES,
not
slippers to change in to. We will change out of boots in
the hall on
the
bench and leave boots under the bench to minimize the wet
floor in the
classroom. It's never too early to encourage your child to
try to do the
boots and shoes him/herself. I don't think this snow is
going to last long,
so I hope we won't be needing snowsuits yet.
Finally,
Tuesday November 1st
is picture retake day. Please be sure to let ��
me
��know if your child
needs a
retake, or if you missed the first one, and
you want to get
pictures taken
now.
Ok, I've avoided shoveling long
enough--Happy
Birthday to Evan! and
lets hope
we all at least have power
today while we
dig out!
Have a great
week!
Robin
Sunday Octobe 23rd-
brrrr! Good
morning! What a wonderful apple
picking field
trip we had in
the afternoon
class! The children filled 2
huge bags of
apples, 1 for the
class, and 1
for Mr. Fillion! We've already
been cooking
our apples in
the classroom
and they're almost gone! The
applesauce was
delicious and
whipped cream
was a perfect compli��me��nt for
our "Apple Crumble
Bumble" dessert! It was
very simple-we crushed graham
crackers, sugar,
cinnamon and�� me��lted
butter and put it over the apples like
you would
make
apple crisp.
Everyone in the school could s��me��ll it cooking
in
our class-
yummmmm!
We've also started talking about pumpkins and I'm
sure
you saw the pumpkin
sequence project co��me ��ho��me ��this week. The
children
have learned the
following terms: seed, sprout, vine, flower,
pumpkin and
jack-o-lantern!
We've also had lots of fun singing/saying
the "5 Little
Pumpkins Sitting on
a
Gate" poem. When the children have
finished their
work, they have
opportunities to visit the flannel board
and act out the
story on their own
or make up their own story!
This
week is another busy
week. On Tuesday,
we will have an opportunity to
visit Mrs. Moulton's
spooky spider obstacle
course in the gym-it's a big
hit
in both classes
every year! Don't forget
to ask your child about it.
On
Wednesday, both
classes will visit the
firefighters for fire
prevention
week
activities--
please don't forget your
permission slips. We
will NOT be
going
in the
simulation trailor with the 3
yr olds, just the
4's.
Thursday is not
only
BLACK DAY in both classes, but
it is also the
school
wide evacuation
drill.
The morning class will
participate with the
entire
school, and the
afternoon
preschool and
Kindergarten classes will
practice
as well, just on a
much
smaller scale!
Make sure your child has
a warm
coat, and appropriate
shoes
to walk
downtown that day.
There is
a sign-
up sheet in the classroom for
Halloween parties which will
take
place on
Monday October 31st. Thanks to
Carter, Elizabeth and Kaitlyn,
we
are all
set with paper goods for the
party, so the rest is up to you! Keep
in mind
that I keep our parties VERY
short and LOW KEY. They are
generally
just a
special snack ti��me��.
Anything
more is just too
overwhelming for the
children--oh yeah, and��
me��!:))) I am a
big fan
of "less is more" at
this age.
Enjoy your
beautiful fall Sunday--
have a
great week!
Robin
Sunday October 16th-good
afternoon! Well,
everything
went well at our house
and we're ho��me ��and
recuperating. I'll
definitely be at school
tomorrow!:))
I heard nothing
but great reports
about
last week-yeah! I
thought new black
and white sign-
in crayons would
trick
the 4 yr olds-no
such luck! The
patterns the 4 yr
olds made for
the
bulletin board look
aweso��me��! I guess
we'll have to
try so��me
��trickier
patterns
soon.
We are very excited to take a field
trip to
the apple
orchard
tomorrow
afternoon. Looking forward to lots of
delicious apple
cooking
activities.
I'm looking forward to getting back to
school and back
to our
routine! See
you tomorrow!
Enjoy the remainder
of
this sunny fall
Sunday!
Robin
Sunday October 9, 2011-good morning! I
hope
everyone is
enjoying
this
wonderful fall (sum��me��r!) long
weekend!
Red
day was lots of
fun
for both classes and we all enjoyed
exploring a
variety
of red things
and
activities. Orange Day will be on
Thursday of this
week
for both
classes.
Our square exploration went
really well and the
children will be
surprised to
see a new shape on the
rug when they return
on Tuesday!
shhhh-
it's a circle!
Circles have
curves and this week the
afternoon class
learned
about "big
curves"
and "little curves" with our HWT
program. We
learned
that we could
make
the following letters: C, S, O, G,
and Q, and
then we
checked to see who
had any of these letters in their
na��me��s.
It's exciting to
see how
the
children are really tuning into
their
na��me��s and the individual
letters that
make up their na��me��s.
Speaking of na��me��s, watch out
for another
surprise when
they arrive on
Tuesday! We'll find out quite
quickly if the
students are
actually
recognizing their na��me��s in
print, or the color of
their sign-in
crayon.
Maybe I'll actually trick
them this ti��me��!:))
Our
calendar
has apples and
pumpkins on it and
we are learning that they are
in
a
pattern! We say we
know it's a pattern
because we say the "sa��me ��thing
over
and over and
over!" The
afternoon class will be making their own
apple/pumpkin patterns
on
Tuesday-they'll be on the bulletin board for
everyone to see!
In our
2nd Step lesson this week we learned abut "angry"
and discussed that
different things make different people angry and people
get angry in
different ways. So��me ��people are quiet and so��me
��people are
loud! That
was an
interesting discussion!
We learned
about "lip coolers"
in our LIPS
lesson--f and v sounds. If you
put your
teeth on your lower
lip
and then
let a stream of air co��me ��out
and "cool" your lip,
you'll be making
the
sound correctly. This is a tough
sound for many 4
yr olds to make.
The
children in the afternoon class
already know that
I will not be in school
this week-my husband is having
back surgery in
Boston tomorrow. So, if they
tell you that Mr. Fillion
broke his back,
they're close! They've promised
to
be good listeners for
Mrs. Lamontagne
and know I'll be checking for a
good
report! I'm not
worried-they're
really settling into a hard working
group.
Enjoy the rest
of this
spectacular weekend and re��me��mber I am
always
available
by e-
mail
for any questions or concerns.
Have a great
week!
Robin
morning!
Well, another busy week has flown by in the
preschool.
Picture Day went
well, and I well let you know when retake day
is
for those
who missed it
or would like to try again! haha!
Both
classes practices
squares this
week and we talked a lot about the 4
sides
being the sa��me��.
We'll
have fun with "Jack and Jill" this week in the
morning class, and we
will
also start so��me ��fun apple activities, now that
it's officially fall.
Tuesday will be RED DAY for both classes and we
will explore all the
cool
collage items and sharing items the children
bring to school.
Now
that
we
are very comfortable with big and little
lines (HWT) in the
afternoon
class,
we will introduce big and little curves
this week. I
wonder
who has
letters
with curves in their na��me��s? We
continue to
practice tracing
our first na��me��s
every day and they are
looking
better and better all
the
ti��me��. I have also
been showing the
children their na��me��s in
a variety of
formats to be sure
they really
recognize the na��me ��and
not just the color of
the card it's on.
Very
tricky!
In our LIPS
lesson this week, we learned about Tip Tappers--
the
tip of our
tongue taps
the top of our mouth (inside). We will review the
lip poppers and
tip
tappers before we move on.
We're doing lots and lots
of counting, both
rote counting and counting sets
to 10. Our October
calendar pieces will be
in a pattern, so we'll start
thinking about
patterns
as well.
Stay dry
and enjoy your week!
Robin
September 25,
2011-good
morning-another
sticky one! It was another
productive week in
preschool
this week.
Welco��me ��to our new morning friend,
Evan!
The afternoon
students
have really settled into their schedule and are
working very hard.
They
are learning the routine and are becoming more
and
more independent
every
day!
We explored "big" and "little" lines
in our HWT lessons this
week.
We
learned that we can make the following
letters with these pieces:
L, F,
E, I,
H, and T. It was fun to see who
had these letters in their
na��me��s
and we
practiced our cutting
skills to make a bunch of these
lines
to
practice at
ho��me��. Other
than learning to write our own
na��me��s, we
are NOT
yet learning
about
writing these letters on paper-
just exploring
with
pieces, playdoh,
paper
pieces, etc.
We
reviewed "lip poppers" and
will
learn a new sound this
week-"tip tappers".
In this sound, the tip of
your
tongue taps the top of
your mouth and makes
the "t" and "d" sounds.
This
week's nursery
rhy��me ��for the morning
class will be "Mary Had a
Little
Lamb"-
we
have lots of counting and color
recognition activities
planned!
Both
classes are working hard to recognize
our own na��me��s in
print and
we're
getting better every day. We will
also have a big surprise
of a
huge shape on
the rug! Ask your child what
shape it is! (shhhh-it's a
square):))
Don't
forget, Thursday is picture
day--order forms will be
going
ho��me ��
tomorrow
morning-don't forget to
return them! There is
always a
retake day
later in
the fall, and I'll let
you know as soon as I
know.
Finally, I'm looking for
full sized containers
of REAL playdoh for
the
aftenoon class-1 per student--
for our HWT
centers. I'm hoping to
keep
the "play" playdoh for "play" and
have
separate "work" playdoh
for "work."
Any donations would be greatly
appreciated!
Enjoy the rest
of your Sunday
and have a great week!
Robin
September 18, 2011--Good
morning! It's
looking like it's going to be a
beautiful fall week. Yeah!
We had a lot
of fun this past week, getting to
know each other and
learning
our way
around the classroom. The afternoon
class has
begun "centers" and
has done
a nice job of learning to remain at
their
designated center until it
is
ti��me ��to change. They've been
practicing
finding their own na��me��s
around
the classroom and
participating in the
activities.
Mrs. Dana and
Mrs. Anderson have been
with us on Mon, Wed, and
Thurs and they
are also
involved in our centers.
Mrs. Anderson does a gross
motor center on
Wednesdays, and a fine motor
center on Thursday. Mrs. Dana
alternates
between articulation practice
and language in her centers.
This has been
a very busy week, as we have
begun to explore our Handwriting
Without Tears
curriculum as well as
Second Step and LIPS. Be sure to check
out
my "links" section to learn
more about these curriculas. We learned
about "lip poppers" this week--if
you pop your lips together without your
voice, it will make the "p"
sound,
but it you make a "noisy popper" with your
voice on, it will make
the "b"
sound.
We learned 2 new songs this
week: "Where Do You Start
Your
Letters?" The
answer is, AT THE TOP! We also
learned "Pick Up A
Crayon"
to practice how to
hold our writing utensils.
The children are
already
singing these songs on
their own!
The morning
class has also
been
enjoying their week and learning how to be at
school.
We are
getting more
and more independent at our daily arrival
routine and
sitting and
participating at circle ti��me��. Mrs. Dana co��me��s on
Monday
and
Thursday with "Tyler" her turtle puppet. Tyler enjoys talking
to
the
children and having them repeat back to him the silly things he
says.
We've
already started to move our bodies and mouths and practice
sounds. The
children are very excited to see him! Mrs. Anderson ca��me
��this week
with
her
bag of fun things for our gross motor group on
Wednesdays. We
are
going to
learn a variety of yoga poses and
incorporate tons of
language in
the process!
Our "Twinkle Twinkle Little
Star" activities were
lots of fun,
and this
week
we will
practice "Hickory Dickory Dock".
Thursday is YELLOW
day in
both classes.
We try to wear the color and the
morning children
will be
asked to bring
in items that can be glued onto a
color collage.
I'm going
to try
so��me��thing a little different with
the
afternoon group-
instead of
collage items, I'd like them to bring in an
item
from ho��me �
�that can
be
discussed and explored-these items will
go back ho��me��.
There
will
be notes
going ho��me ��this week as
reminders. Color days are always
so much fun!
School pictures are on the
29th-I'd like all the children to
attend on that
day, so we can get a
group photo!
Re��me��mber, you can
e-
mail�� me ��at any ti��me ��
with
questions or concerns. This is
also a great
way to let�� me ��know if
your
child will be absent. This
year, we
are
requesting a note after your
child
has been absent.
The
cafeteria has
requested that we set up
accounts for
all of the children
who buy milk.
Mrs. Lamontagne worked on
this on
Friday. Those students
who
have siblings
in the building will
just be added
to the family lunch
account
and those
who do not have
siblings, now have
their own accounts.
This should
make it
easier for you
and us. Just drop
off a check and
you'll be infor��me��d
when the
account is getting low.
Enjoy
the
beautiful Sunday we're
supposed to
have and have a great week!
Robin
September 11, 2011
Good
morning! What
a great first week we had-it feels
like we never left!
ha!
Returning
students got right to work on their
sign
in routines and did a
great job.
New students are learning quickly
as
well. We have been
learning
about
sitting "criss cross applesauce" at
circe
ti��me ��and the
afternoon
class
has been learning about raising
their hands so
a teacher
can see who
needs
help or wants a turn to
contribute. We also
learned a
very
important sign-
"toilet" and the
students are already using it
when
they
need to go to the
bathroom! I'm
very proud of them!
This week
the
morning class will begin talking about
so��me ��favorite nursery
rhy��me��s-
"Twinkle, Twinkle" and we will
also�� me��et Mrs. Dana's
friend "Tyler"
when
she
brings him to circle
ti��me ��(he's a puppet, by
the way!). Mrs. Dana
works
with the entire
morning group on speech and
language activities and
so��me��ti��me��s
she and Tyler even bring
so��me ��treats! Mrs. Anderson will
also be
joining us at circle ti��me
��this week for so��me ��gross motor
activities--it's
going to be so
much fun.
First up in the afternoon, we
will be learning the
correct way
to trace our
first na��me��s, making
sure
to start all of the
letters at
the top. We will
also be practicing
recognizing our na��me��s in
print. Any practice you can do
at ho��me
��with
this would be great!
We will
learn 2 important songs this week--
"Where Do
You Start Your
Letters?
At The
Top!" and "Pick up Crayon".
This songs
support our
Handwriting
Without
Tears curriculum and are fun
reminders for
letter
formation and
pencil
grip.
Getting used to the
more structured
afternoon session will take so��me ��
ti��me��, so
we
will still be
trying to
get outside as often as possible-when
the weather
cooperates!
Feel free to
e-mail or give�� me ��a call if you have
any
questions or
concerns,
and
here's to a great second week!
Have a great
Sunday
Robin
September 4, 2011
Good morning! I hope everyone is
enjoying
this last
blast of sum��me��r
before
we start school on
Tuesday! We had a great
turn out at the picnic
on
Wednesday night-it was
great to see everyone!
And
the food was
aweso��me��!
I will be
checking in here every weekend
to�� me��ntion
the
highlights of the
prior week and also the upcoming
week. This is an
important place to
check
for special days, items we need
for the room or
curriculum
information.
I check my e-mail several
ti��me��s each day, even on
weekends, and that is a
great mode of
communication.
During September,
we
will try to get outside as often as
the weather permits.
Please
re��me��mber
sunscreen, bug spray and safe
shoes. As the weather gets
colder, we will
have scheduled days for
outside play, but for now, we'll go
when the going's
good!:))
If you have
any last minute questions, feel
free
to e-mail�� me ��at
rfillion@nbcs.k12.nh.us any ti��me��.
I
can't wait to
see everyone on
Tuesday!
Robin
����