June 16th-Happy Father's Day to all you Dads! We spent quite a bit of time in
both classes practicing our favorite songs for our last day of school
celebrations. Everyone should have received a schedule of events for the
last week for both classes. Sign-up sheets for parties are on the classroom
door. If you did not receive the information, please contact me asap--we
don't want anyone to miss any important events!
Monday is "Z" Day in the afternoon-we made it through the entire alphabet!
The children are doing a great job with letter recognition and even wiith
letter sounds. Our number skills have improved tremendously this year as well.
I am feeling very confident with our progress and we are definitely ready to
go to Kindergarten!
Boy have we been having fun playing in the sand, inside and out in the morning
class. It wasn't easy to stay away from that huge pile of loam that someone
dumped in our playground either! So, we didn't even try!
The tractor activities were a big hit-weren't those footprint tractors the
cutest things ever?
We will continue our practicing and winding down this week. I'm finishing up
all assessing and should have progress reports and graded IEP's by next
Monday. If your child is attending the summer session, you should be receiving
an info packet any minute now. I will also have calendars for the students
that will be with me for the summer.
Enjoy your Sunday and have a great week!
Robin
Sunday June 9th-ahhhh! It's going too fast! Only 3 weeks to get everything
done! It always seems to come together somehow.
So Jack's volcano was a HUGE hit! What a great way to celebrate "V" day!
All we have left is "X"-Monday, Travis' day, "Y"-Thursday, Troy's day and
"Z"-next Monday, Mrs. Fillion's day! I've been very pleased with the level of
letter recognition in the afternoon class. We are great rhymers, and we're
also starting to learn the sounds of the letters too. Way to go!
The farm fun continues in the morning class this week with all things
TRACTOR!! Yeah-we've been wanting to talk about tractors for awhile now!
There are tractors in the sand table, we will count tractors, make cute
tractor art projects and read many tractor books! Ask your child how to do a
tractor pose with his/her body!
Mrs. Dana, Mrs. Anderson and I will be conducting informal assessments this
week and next for progress reports. It's so nice that the children still like
to do "big kid work" at this age!
I should have more details for end of year parties/show by the end of the week
and sign-up sheets will be on the door.
Enjoy the rest of your sunny Sunday and have a great week!
Robin
Sunday June 2nd--wow! What a change in weather! Love it! The afternoon class
did a great job of planting our garden on Thursday in the heat. We are going
to have tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, pumpkins and zucchini. I'm hoping to find
a couple of cucumber plants to add.
It was a quick week, but we continued with all of our activities in both
classes. We've been counting and sorting farm animals in the morning class
and this week we'll be talking about mother and baby animals.
It's been a lot of fun to watch our caterpiller grow on the bulletin board
each time we add a new Eric Carle title that we have read. The children are
becoming very good at noticing characteristics of his art work, such as the
faces in the suns and moons in his illustrations.
We've been practicing our "body checks" with Mrs. Dana and "whole body
listening". Ask you child if he/she remembers the 4 points to a body check:
1. my mouth is closed, 2. my body is calm, 3. I'm looking at my teacher, and
4. I'm ready to listen to directions. We have learned that to be a whole body
listener, we can listen with: our heads, eyes, mouth, brain, body, arms, legs,
hands, feet, heart, and we added our own: our bums because our bums seem to
resist listening sometimes!:)))
So, we're in the home stretch--there is soooooo much talk of KINDERGARTEN!!!!!
in the afternoon class. I'm still working with Ms. Sam to coordinate our end
of year programs-I thought we'd have dates by now, but we'll keep trying this
week.
Enjoy your sunny Sunday and have a great week!
Robin
Monday May 27th-good morning and Happy Memorial Day. I hope I lit the pellet
stove for the last time this weekend!
The afternoon class is soooooooo very excited for our field trip tomorrow to
Dodge's Farm Stand. We have been working hard in our garden pulling weeds,
getting ready to plant the seedlings we're going to purchase. So far, I've
heard a lot of interest in pumpkins! Oh, and ice cream!!! Looks like we're
going to have a perfect day.
Our farm activities continue in the morning class and we've been having lots
and lots of fun singing "Old MacDonald" and practicing animal identification
and the sounds the animals make. Our pigs are so cute! This week we will
have some fun with sheep, and learn a new song: "Here We Go Round The Big Red
Barn".
I have started some PALS assessments in the afternoon class (Phonological
awareness litercy screen). It shows me how much we've learned about: letter
ID, letter sounds, rhyming, print awareness.
Thursday is "U" day--Megan's day. We are continuing to explore the works of
Eric Carle--check out our caterpiller on the bulletin board--those are the
books we've read so far.
While the last day of preschool is thursday June 27th, I'll be collaborating
with the Kindergarten teachers this week to schedule our end of year
celebrations. We're going to do our best to avoid conflict for the many
families we have in common. Stay tuned!
Enjoy the rest of your sunny Monday and have a great week.
Robin
Sunday May 12th-good morning and Happy Mother's Day! Also, Happy 4th birthday
to Logan!
We've continued our Eric Carle unit this week and are having lots and lots of
fun with it. Every day when we read one of his books, we discuss his art work
and wonder how he might have created it. This week we might try to reproduce
some of his creations ourselves! We practice using the terms: title, author
and illustrator every day. This week we will meet "The Very Quiet Cricket" on
"Q" day and "Rooster's Off To See The World" on "R" day.
I think we might actually get a library visit in this week-first time in a
month due to testing schedules.
The morning class will meet Mrs. Wishy Washy this week. She is a very funny
farmer that tries to keep her animals clean. With the help of Mrs. Wishy
Washy, we will introduce farm animals and life on the farm to our gardening
activities. Over the next several weeks, we will learn about farm animals, the
sounds they make, who their babies are and who actually lives on a farm, and
who does not. We will be counting, sorting, describing farm animals and
having all kinds of fun with art projects as well.
We will continue to try to get outside at least twice each week in the morning
class, now that we're not fighting snow clothes. Please be aware that the
grass is apt to be very wet and it might also be very buggy, so make sure your
child is prepared (sunscreen too!).
Enjoy the rest of your Mother's Day and have a great week!
Robin
Sunday May 5th-good Sunday morning! Well, we had a great first week back at
school-the weather was awesome and we took full advantage of it! The morning
class was very excited to get outside every morning for a little while.
I've had some good gardeners this week, and we have plenty more gardening to
do. If you child is coming home filthy dirty, it's because we're gardening
inside and out. We have potting soil and flowers, pots, etc. in the sensory
and there's been lots of pretend play going on. We've been also pulling up
weeds in our outside garden, preparing it for our new plants.
Our new friends Hunter and Brady had a great week and are joining right in!
The afternoon class has been exploring Eric Carle this week with "The Very
Hungry Caterpiller". We read it twice, focusing on different things both
times, and then we followed up with a nonfiction book about the life cycle of
the butterfly. We even learned the word "metamorphasis!" WOW!
This week we explore the letters "O"-Antonio's day and "P"-Caleb's day! We've
also been working very hard on sequencing the days of the week, and months of
the year.
I have a new "trick" for tomorrow's arrival--hmmmmmm? I wonder what it could be?
Enjoy your sunny Sunday and have a great week!
Robin
Friday April 26th-good morning-I hope everyone is enjoying their week. I've
been relaxing and enjoying the nice weather.
When we come back to school on Monday, there will be 9 weeks of school left!
Can you believe it? The morning class welcomes 2 new friends on Monday: boys,
obviously! Welcome to our class Hunter and Brady!
The morning class will begin some fun gardening activities and explore lots of
flowers, both inside and out. The afternoon class will be learning about a
favorite children's author: Eric Carle. We will explore his books, his art
work, and a variety of non-fiction books that correlate with the themes. This
is one of my favorite themes, and we can certainly practice lots and lots of
skills: days of the week, months of the year, life cycle of a butterfly,etc.
We have lots of fun activities planned.
We continue with our letters, with "M" day on Monday (Megan's day). I will
also have another surprise next Monday for sign-in. Hmmmmmm? what could it be?
Enjoy the last of your vacation and I can't wait to see everyone on Monday!
Robin
Saturday April13th-so, now my flowers are in a coma-great! At least we were
able to get outside this week, even for a little while.
So, here we are, staring another vacation in the face. Where does the time
go? All of the pre-kindergarten screenings are done-thanks for your help. As
I mentioned previously, all the data collected will be reviewed by the early
childhood team and will help us with placements, determine what supports may
be necessary in Kindergarten, and also who might benefit from a summer session
prior to starting Kindergarten. It's also important information for me-to
make sure I'm covering everything I should to give your children as many
skills/tools as possible to make the transition to Kindergarten as smooth as
possible. I'm very excited about this new process that we've added, and if
you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to ask me.
I've been looking forward to this week's upcoming "rainbow" activities in both
classes. We'll be having so much fun. We have rainbow numerals to sequence,
rainbow books to help us practice colors (3's), rainbows to paint at the
easel, rainbow jello to 'cook" , rainbow art projects to create and anything
else we can think of!
We'll also be exploring the shape: oval this week in both classes, at our
appropriate levels. Wow, purple was our last color to learn, and now oval is
our last shape to learn. Can you believe it?
Thursday is "L" day in the afternoon class? I wonder what Mrs. Lamontagne has
up her sleeve for her day!:))
The morning class will have the opportunity to attend the 2nd Grade
performance on Thursday morning--I've heard it's really, really cute.
Graded IEP's and progress notes will also be going home on Thursday, or even
sooner, if I get my act together!
Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and have a great week!
Robin
Sunday April 7th-good morning! My crocuses have bloomed-there is hope! While
it's still been pretty chilly, it's been great to get outside and play on the
equipment in the playground this week! The children were very excited to get
back up to the Kindergarten playground to play!
What fun we had this week in the morning class singing about ducks and mud!
We even played in the "mud" and ate it too! The water table was a huge hit
and will be open again this week. If your child comes home with wet sleeves,
that's why-sorry, but it can't be helped-it's just too much fun! You should
have heard the afternoon group as they were holding a very exciting, noisy
race to fill buckets with water-it was REALLY loud, but really cool!
The morning children met "Mat Man" for the first time on Tuesday. He's a
person we can make with our wood pieces from the Handwriting Without Tears
program. We were mostly talking about body parts and identifying whose pieces
were the "same" as the ones on the model of Mat Man that I had already
created. This is the first step in our HWT curriculum. After some modeling,
some of the children attempted to build their own people. Becoming familiar
with the pieces and all the different things we can build with them is great
exploration for us. Next year, we'll start to use the pieces to make letters
and shapes too!
Thanks to afternoon parents who were willing to pick up a little late last
week so we could compete the screenings. I'll be done this week. Grades also
close this week, so I'll be working on progress notes and grading IEP's as
well-all to go home before vacation! As always, I'm happy to schedule a
parent/teacher conference with anyone.
The afternoon class explored some sound/symbol association this week--we used
letter cards with pictures and practiced the sounds for each letter. Many of
them already have a good start on this skill!
Monday is "J" day-Jack's day, obviously! Thursday is "K" day-Kaitlyn's day!
Thursday is also Purple Day in both classes-our last color, can you believe it?
Enjoy your Sunday and have a great week!
Robin
Sunday March 31st-good morning and Happy Easter! What fun we had in both
classes decorating our eggs on Thursday. If you didn't see a colored egg come
home with your child, pleeeeeeeaaaaaassssseeeee check the backpack!!!!!haha
So, all this snow is starting to melt and it is getting very muddy! Yeah!
Perfect for our mud, duck, worms and rain activities this week. The morning
class will be getting some hands on practice with "mud" and worms. We will be
rolling playdoh worms (great fine motor work) and maybe even painting/eating
chocolate pudding mud! As always, we are continuing our color, number and
shape practice and many of us are learning to trace our first names in
uppercase letters, starting at the top.
The afternoon class will continue with our "Weather" unit and we will even
make some weather patterns tomorrow. I've been hearing lots of descriptive
words while we talk about the weather each day and we're really beginning to
think about appropriate clothing for the weather that day.
Our "wet, dry, try" lessons have been going really well with Mrs. Anderson,
and the children are really becoming good at identifying the names of the
strokes used to make the letters we learn: big line, little line, big curve,
little curve, and our favorite: diagonal!
Wednesday is "H" day-Troy's turn and Thursday is "I" day-Travis' turn. Make
sure to get out and enjoy the sunny day before the rain comes tonight!
Have a great week!
Robin
Sunday March 24th-good morning! Hippity, hoppity, Easter's on it's way! and
you can certainly tell from all the bunny and egg activities that are coming
up this week! The 4 yr olds did some beautiful painting at the easel on
Thursday and they also had lots of fun decorating their egg wreaths with q-tips.
We've been focusing on "quality work" the past week and will continue this
week with our latest weather books that we're coloring. At first there was a
push to finish quickly, but we talked abut how few authors and illustrators
completed an entire book in one day!
We will cover the letters "F" and "G" this week along with our Easter fun.
I will begin the Brigance screenings in the afternoon soon, so the data can
also be used for progress reports that are upcoming. If you have any questions
about the screen, feel free to ask.
Be sure you child is dressed appropriately on Wednesday (afternoon students)
as we are going to try to have an egg hunt outside. Keep your fingers crossed!
The morning class will also explore all kinds of "egg" activities. The
sensory table is full of Easter grass and eggs! What fun! Some of the eggs
have things inside that we're trying to identify by the sound. It also takes
quite a bit of "finger work" to open and close those little plastic eggs.
Enjoy the rest of your sunny Sunday and have a great week!
Robin
Sunday March 17th-good morning and Happy St. Patrick's Day! We had some
leprechaun fun on Thursday, and everyone was rocking their green for Green
Day! It was a very fun day.
Our bunny theme continues in the morning class, but now our bunnies will be
more "Easter Bunny-ish"! We will continue with our silly carrot counting and
practice numeral recognition with our Bunny/carrot number match games. There
was some very nice coloring in our Bunny coloring books and the macaroni
activity was lots of fun.
This week we'll explore some more counting and sorting with Easter counters
and and even practice jumping and hopping in our bunny ears!
The afternoon class was very busy this week and we were very glad to have
Kaitlyn and Elizabeth back from vacation! We missed them a lot.
We were a little thrown by the addresses on Monday, but they're definitely
becoming more familiar with them. Monday will be "D" day-Riley's day and
Thursday will be "E" Day-Elizabeth.
We were originally scheduled to have our whole group movement/language day
this week, but we've pushed out to next week, so maybe we can have an Easter
Egg hunt outside. Shhhh!
Role model screens will be held on Friday April 5th from 12-2, so if you have
interested friends, please tell them to call me asap. thanks.
Afternoon parents, if you haven't registered your child for Kindergarten,,
please do that asap--we will be conducting screenings for all incoming
Kindergarten and First Grade students this year. I will begin the screening
process in our classroom during the month of April. I will be sending home
some social/emotional and self-help questionnaires for you to complete, and I
will also be completing a "school" version of the same questionaires. All of
this information will be valuable to the Kindergarten teachers as they get
ready to plan their curriculum in September, and it's also the same
information I'll be looking at for our report cards as well.
IF you have any questions about this process, feel free to ask.
Thank you IEP parents for your quick turn around on the ESY paperwork--I'm
almost all done! Next will be the scheduling of annual IEP meetings-the
majority of those will be scheduled in June to write 2013-14 plans.
It's very hard to believe we're starting the end of year processes
already-good thing the year isn't going to end any time soon! I think we're up
to June 27th at this point-blah.
We're still looking for the 3 yr old's class book about hats and
mittens-please look around your house and return it if you happen across it.
thanks.
Enjoy your corned beef and cabbage and have a great week. Keep your fingers
crossed that Monday's snow is insignificant, and not the 6 inches they're
predicting right now! Yikes!
Robi
Sunday March 10th-good morning! Did everyone remember to "spring" ahead? I
sure did enjoy the day off on Friday-remind me of that the last week of June!
The afternoon class "met" Weather Bear last week, and we've been talking about
different kinds of weather and the types of clothing tht would be appropriate.
We've been having fun dressing up our bear every day in his very stylish
wardrobe!
We also talked about the shape: diamond. We realized that what makes it
different from a square is the DIAGONALS! We practiced making diamonds with
playdoh, and also on geoboards with elastics. They're still pretty tricky for
us to make with our pencils--if you look closely at your child's name, many
times the "A" is leaning on its side so the first line is straight up and
down, or has a curved line--that's why we use the language "slide" to talk
about the diagonals-picture a playground slide.
We had our first letter day on Thursday. Antonio did a great job!--the large
letter "A" that came home is what we'll be doing for all the letters of the
alphabet. If you don't see a particular letter come home, that's probably
because your child's letter is hanging in the classroom, and will come home
eventually. Wednesday is "B" day and Thursday is "C" Day-Caleb's day. (check
the "what's coming up..." page to see when your child's "day" is.
Thursday is Green Day for both classes.
Ok, Travis, here comes my next trick!.....The 4 yr olds will be signing in
with their addresses tomorrow! yikes!
The morning class is continuing with our "bunny" fun. We read a "Little
Bunny" book about the bunny discovering some playdoh, and creating a variety
of animals. It was a counting, and predicting book. I placed some small
bunnies in our playdoh, and we had lots and lots of fun creating!
We will also explore diamonds tomorrow with a collage and some shape sorting.
We continue to practice recognizing our first names by glueing things on the
letters for reinforcement. Tomorrow we have bunny macaroni in all colors for
this activity!
Remember, no school on Tuesday. I'm taking applications for role models for
next year, so please get the word out to your friends! thanks.
Enjoy this beautiful, sunny Sunday, and have a great week!
Robin
Sunday March 3rd-good morning. I hope everyone had a fun-filled, relaxing
vacation and is ready to get back to work! The snow can stop any time now,
thanks.
I'll start with a couple of housekeeping items so I don't forget. We are
missing a class book in the morning class. It's a blue covered spiral bound
book with hats and mittens. If that book parked at your house, could you
please send it back to school so we can continue circulating it. A new one
will start circulating tomorrow--it's about our exciting bear hunt last week!
It looks like we'll have more opportunities to play in the snow in the next
few weeks, so don't forget boots and snowpants--TUESDAY for afternoon,
THURSDAY for morning.
It's that time of year to begin screening role models for next year. Morning
parents, remember that your child will go to the afternoon class next year.
Please, please let me know asap if that schedule isn't going to work for your
family, so I have time to fill your child's slot. Also, let your friends know
to look in the school announcements and give me a call if they are interested
in looking into our program!
Finally, no school on Tuesday March 12th-teacher workshop day, and voting day!
So, the work begins in the afternoon class. We will begin our introduction of
letters this week. Each week for the remainder of the school year, we will
explore 1 or 2 letters. We will take turns bringing 1 or 2 items from home
that begin with the letter sound, and we will decorate large letters with
crafts materials that begin with that letter: apples buttons, corn, etc. If
anyone has any craft items at home that would be appropriate to put on any of
our letters, we would appreciate them. I'm always looking for new ideas!
Each day the children will be able to go to the "Exploration Station" where
there will be stencils, stamps, HWT pieces, books, etc. that all correlate
with the letter of the day. In other words, we will be immersed in that
letter all day! We will begin to talk about the LIPS sounds that we have
already learned and which sounds go with which letters, and we will also begin
to practice making these letters in our HWT lessons. Lots and lots of
learning!!!!!
The afternoon class is going to meet Weather Bear tomorrow and we will add
"weather" to our daily circle time activities. Each day we will discuss what
the weather is outside and use lots and lots of descriptive language in the
process. Then we will have fun dressing up Weather Bear in clothing
appropriate for the day! We look forward to this part of circle every year!
Our shape for the month of March is a diamond (kites, get it?) and we will
also begin learning about our addresses-but not this week. We have enough new
for one week!
In the morning class we will be having lots and lots of "bunny" fun for the
next few weeks. I will be introducing a selection of Alan Baker "Little
Bunny" books to help us practice our colors, counting, shapes, and language
building. Bunnies like carrots, so I think we're going to have to explore
carrots too! We're going to have so much fun!
We will also explore diamonds in the morning class, as well as the color green.
We're going to be very, very busy!
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and I can't wait to see all my little friends
tomorrow!
Robin
some information from last week's newsletter was deleted for our own safety.
See you next week!
Sunday February 17th-good morning. Yeah, it's snowing (insert sarcasm here)!
Thanks to everyone who sent in goodies and/or supplies for our Valentine
Parties. The children in both classes had a wonderful time. We are always
very fortunate to have plenty of yummy treats!
We will use up the rest of those conversation hearts this week by counting,
patterning, graphing, and glueing them on the numbers in our telephone
numbers! We will also continue in the afternoon class with a few more
fun "Pete" activities involving sequencing/counting and also some letter
recognition/familiarity. We will begin our letter recognition in earnest
after vacation, covering 1 or 2 letters each week for the remainder of the
year. For each letter, we will explore hands on activities that reinforce
the letter's sound and each child will have a turn to bring in and share a
few items from home that begin with that letter.In our Handwriting Without
Tears curriculum, we will move to the next phase of the program called "Wet,
Dry, Try." This is a process that we will use to learn to form the letters
(uppercase only). First the teacher prints the letter on our little
chalkboards and the children use a wet sponge to trace over the lines to
erase it (WET), the next step is to repeat the process with a piece of
papertowel (DRY) to remove the entire image. Finally the children are given
a piece of chalk to make the letter themselves (TRY!). This 3 step process
really reinforces correct formation, utilizing the language we've already
learned, and gives us great pride in drawing a letter all by ourselves.
The morning class will continue their bear fun by bringing in a favorite bear
from home (one that isn't afraid to sleep over please!). We will discuss,
describe, play with and, shhhhhhh! if those bears get naughty over night and
go explore the school, we might even have to go on a "bear hunt" to find
them. It should be lots of fun.
On a more serious note, the school will be having a "lockdown" drill on
Monday, and we practiced in the 4 yr old class on Thursday. Our conversation
started by discussing what we knew about emergencies. The children have a
pretty good understanding about "bad guys", "strangers", and fire. We
reviewed our safety plan for going outside the school--fire drill, and then
we brainstormed a safety plan for staying inside the school. We discussed
the need to stay safe from strangers, bad weather that could break our
windows, and sick animals that try to get too close to us. I told the
children that this plan would be called a "lockdown" plan because we could
lock our doors.
When we came out, we debriefed by explaining the process to Mrs. Dana and
Mrs. Anderson. I was able to assess their comprehension of the procedure as
well as look for any anxiety. We discussed what would happen if I was absent
and I told them that Mrs. Lamontagne would take care of them. We had to
continue through the entire scenario of "what if" any one of their teachers
were absent to finally, "what if there were no teachers and we were all by
ourselves?" Everyone seemed comfortable with my statement that "that's not
allowed." We went on to discuss that Mrs. Lamontagne and I (or any of their
teachers) would ALWAYS take care of them and keep them safe at school and
that children are always safe when they are at school.
I told them we were going to practice again on Monday so Mr. Chauvette could
see our plan. And then we went to centers!
I have made the decision (with the team) to not try to explain this process
to the 3 year olds due to their cognitive level. I do not believe they would
have any understanding of what we were doing and why, and I anticipate a very
unsuccessful experience for everyone. We would simply implement the same
protocol.
Please let me know if you receive any negative feedback from your child after
this exercise, and if you have any additional questions or concerns, please
see me as soon as possible. Thanks for your support.
After vacation, I will be touching base with parents of "IEP" children to
discuss summer programming. I have had great success in the past few years
using "paperwork only", but if you are interested in a team meeting to
discuss ESY (Extended School Year), by all means, let me know.
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday, and if you are "off" tomorrow, enjoy your day!
Have a great week.
Robin
Sunday February 10th-wow! I guess that got that one right! I hope everyone
is cleaned out and with power.
We're looking forward to a fun Pink Day/Valentine's Day celebration on
Thursday for both classes. The sign-up sheets are on the door, and everyone
should have already received the Valentine list for their child's class last
week. We're still looking for a few more tissue boxes for the afternoon
class-we'll use paper bags for the morning children.
Did you see the amazing button patterns on the "Pete" bulletin board? The 4
year olds are having lots of fun with patterns, and Pete!!!! We have some
more Pete fun in store this week, as well as our Valentine projects.
The morning class learned a new way to sort their bears this week-by size.
We have 3 different sized jars that we pretended were pools for the bears to
swim in, and we also have 3 different sized houses for the bears to go in
after their swim! It's going quite well!
This week we'll practice counting sets of bears to 10, and also continue with
our shape pages. The rectangle bread tags were cool, and putting "circle"
stickers on our circles was fun,too. This week we'll tear paper (super fine
motor work!) to fill in our triangles, and glue beautiful glitter inside our
heart shapes.
Well, unfortunately, progress reports might be delayed 1 more day since I
wasn't able to consult with Mrs. Dana and Mrs. Anderson on Friday. Again,
please let me know if you would like to schedule a parent/teacher conference.
I anticipate lots and lots of boots this week-thank you all so much for
helping to keep the boots in the hall. It minimizes the mess on the floor a
little.
Enjoy the winter wonderland out there and have a great week!
Robin
Sunday February 3rd-Happy Birthday Mrs. Lamontagne! Ok, so I spoke too soon
about a full week-maybe this week? I sure hope so.
We did have a fun start to our Teddy Bear unit-check out the Teddys on the
bulletin board-they definitely have their own personalities! During some
informal assessment last week, I was very impressed with the morning
children's ability to count sets to 10-now we just need to learn the numeral
symbols that go with the sets! We will continue to practice numeral
recognition this week as well as continueing to practice that great counting!
We're also beginning work on a shape book for review. Rectangles and
triangles are really tricky to keep straight. Our shape for February is the
heart-that should be fun and easy.
Wait till you see the hallway bulletin board when you come in on Monday-it's
awesome, and just waiting for some awesome children's work to complete it!
We'll be having lots of fun this week sorting, counting and patterning
buttons, and we'll probabely be re-reading "Pete The Cat and His 4 Groovy
Buttons"!
We're continuing to assess this week, and I'm going to be absent on Thursday,
so progress reports and graded IEP's will most likely go home on Monday the
11th. As always, please give me a call or e-mail to schedule a
parent/teacher conference if you would like one.
Please send in empty tissue boxes this week, if you have them. They make
perfect Valentine boxes. I'm also looking for bags of conversation hearts
for counting, sorting, patterning, glueing, etc.
In honor of "Pete", who loves his shoes, I've asked the afternoon class to
all wear their favorite shoes on Tuesday. I'm anticipating some fun
conversation! We'll take pictures and make another class book!
I'll try to have a Valentine Party sign-up sheet on the door by Thursday at
the latest, for those interested.
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and have a great week!
Robin
Sunday January 27th-good morning! I'm afraid to even say it out loud, but we
definitely need a full week this week! It's so hard on the children
(especially the 3 yr olds) to have so many inconsistencies in their
schedules. It's definitely been a bumpy couple of weeks in the morning.
This week's activities should help: we're starting a Teddy Bear unit in the
morning class. We'll be counting, sorting, painting, all things "bears"!
Mrs. Anderson has the most amazing yoga poses for all the animals in
the "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" book-we'll be doing those this week too.
The afternoon class is going "Pete" crazy! Wait till you see the super
cute "Pete's" that will come home tomorrow! I have found lots of fun
activities for this theme that will take us right through till February
vacation! We'll also have a big surprise when we arrive tomorrow. Maybe
I'll finally trick you Travis! The sign-in crayons have changed again-hmmmm?
Both groups will have a class book circulating this week-finally, I know.
Mrs. Dana, Mrs. Anderson and I will also be doing some informal assessing
this week and next for progress reports.
I'll send home Valentine lists this week with the February calendars. I'll be
looking for empty tissue boxes for Valentine boxes, and I'll also be
collecting 10 or 12 empty pudding or jello boxes for a fun activity!
Enjoy your Sunday-stay warm! Have a great week!
Robin
Sunday January 20th-good morning! Well, the snow on Wednesday allowed the 3
yr olds to finally go sledding this week! Yeah! It was lots of fun. I give
those little ones lots of credit for climbing that hill and doing their very
best to drag up the sleds as well. Getting into our own snowsuits is
improving every week. We do it in stages: first snowpants and boots and then
add jackets and hats/mittens later. They're really getting the hang of it!
On the same note: the 4 year olds are becoming more independent as well.
Everyone can put on their own belongings and can zip their own jackets (as
long as they remember to do it before putting on mittens!)
Well, we have been "rockin in our school shoes" and having so much fun with
Pete, that I am working on a whole "Pete The Cat" unit for the 4 yr olds! I
think we're going to have so much fun. FYI-there are 3 more "Pete" books
that are coming out in the spring: I pre-ordered them from Barnes and NOble
for our class, and Amazon has them for pre-order as well.
We're going to focus on some scissor use in the afternoon class this week.
Most of the children are pretty independent, but we're noticing that they're
not all remembering to put their thumbs in the little hole and keep it on
top. Opportunities to practice at home are great. You can let your child
cut up the junk mail, old magazines and papers, for instance. They love it.
Thursday is Blue Day for both classes, and the morning class is still
practicing rectangles. We've gotten quite good at sorting by color in the
morning class, and this week we're going to try sorting by size! We're
still working on our "lick and stick" marshmallow names-there seems to be
quite a bit of eating going on, so I guess that's why it's taking a little
longer than expected! haha! We've been using marshmallows with Mrs. Dana as
well. We've been blowing them across the rug (NOT eathing those) and
practicing balancing them on our tongues-that's very funny.
Enjoy the rest of your windy Sunday and the extra day at home with your
families. Have a great week.
Robin
Sunday January 13th-good morning-even though it is foggy and yucky! I'm glad
we got our beautiful winter bulletin board completed before we lose all of
our real snow. The kindergarten class packed down our sledding trail for us,
so I hope we get to use it this week before it's gone. I'm going to remind
you all again: TUESDAY is outside day for the afternoon class, and THURSDAY
is outside day for the morning class. I'm seeing more and more independence
in putting on our own outside clothing every day!
So, the diagonal lines were as tricky as expected in the afternoon class.
We're definitely going to keep practicing. If you look at the practice papers
we made, they're pretty easy to replicate at home, if you want to practice
with your child as well. Making triangles on the geo boards (elastic bands)
was tricky for some, as well, because of the diagonals.
Our introduction to opposites went quite well this week. We tend to want to
overgeneralize sometimes, though, and find ourselves making rhymes instead.
It's a process!
We are loving patterns in the afternoon class and will be doing more and more
this week.
The morning class will begin talking about rectangles this week and continue
with fun snow/mitten activities. Marble painting was fun. It's not easy to
hold that box with both hands and move it around to make the marble move
inside! Wow! There were quite a few flying marbles!
Our counting practice continues as we count out buttons to place on snowmen.
Each snowman has a numeral on his belly! We've been reciting the poem: There
Was a Chubby Snowman!" That's really cute.
This week we're going to explore a variety of 2-piece block structures, and
see if we can replicate the structures. We're also going to have some fun
with rolling dice and building block towers with the number of blocks that we
see on the die! I wonder whose will be "bigger" or "smaller."
Outside day went pretty smoothly in the morning class as well as the
afternoon. I was very pleased with how many of the children could put on
their own snowpants and boots. We say "FIRST coats and zippers, THEN hats
and mittens"! We're making great progress.
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and have a great week!
Robin
Sunday January 6th-good morning and welcome back to reality! ha! It was kind
of nice having a short week to get re-aclimitized with schol-I was actually
surprised by some of the reactions!:(( This week will go much more smoothly-
I'm hoping!
Our room is looking very wintery with the beautiful snowflakes hanging. We
will be having lots more fun with snow and mittens. This week the 3 yr olds
will have the opportunity to paint mittens at the easel, and also explore
marble painting as well. That's always lots of fun. We'll be matching,
sorting, counting, and placing mittens in order 1-10. Our number practice
has been paying off-I am noticing many of the childen are more confident in
their abilities to label numerals.
The afternoon class will continue with name tracing-most of them remembered
to start their letters at the top. We'll just keep practicing until it
becomes natural for everyone! We're also practicing "pinching" our markers
and crayons. Did you know that if you break the crayons into little pieces
(I know, I know!), your child CAN'T hold it in a fist? That tiny piece
forces him/her to use pinching fingers.
Thanks for the support with the boots in the hallway. Hopefully, we'll be
able to get outside to play this week. It's looking much warmer! yeah!
Please label your child's "gear", as it all starts to look the same to me
after awhile!
Our class is working together with Ms. Sam's Kindergarten classes for the
theme basket: Let's Play Dress-Up.
Thursday is White Day for both classes, and the morning class will have the
opportunity to attend the band concert in the gym.
Enjoy the rest of your sunny Sunday, and have a great week!
Robin
Tuesday January 1, 2013-good afternoon and HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope everyone
had a wonderful vacation, is well rested and HEALTHY! We certainly had our
share of germs in the preschool before the break-let's hope that's the worst
of it.
Now that we have snow on the ground, I expect the children will be wearing
boots to school on a regular basis. Please have your child stop at the bench
in the hallway to change into shoes before entering the classroom, to try to
keep the floor clean and dry. Wearing boots all day is very hot and
uncomfortable and also extremely difficult for gross motor activities.
Slippers are also discouraged as we never know when we might have to go
outside for an emergency.
The more you can encourage your child to participate in the coat, hat,
mitten, boot process, the more independent your child will become. Just so
you know, ALL the 4 year olds can put on and zip their own jackets! The 3
year olds are practicing very hard and have made some great progress as well!
Snowsuit day for the 3 yr olds is THURSDAY, and for the 4 yr olds, it is
TUESDAY. Please try to remember these days. I have a few extras for children
who are not prepared, but not too many. If we're not all prepared, it ruins
outside fun for everyone. As I've mentioned before, there is a minimum
temperature limit of 20 degrees (or wind chill).
So, after all of that-welcome back to preschool! I'm happy the weather
hascooperated for our "snow" unit. I am looking forward to lots of
snowflake, snowman and mitten activities.
The afternoon class will spend a little more time practicing our last names,
and I think we will try again with tracing and printing our first names. We
will talk about starting our letters at the top and frog jumping back up to
the top. We will also start practicing making diagonal lines next week, so
we will be better able to make the letters: A,K, M, N, V, and W. These are
pretty hard. We will also be practicing triangles this month as well, to
continue to reinforce those diagnonals.
Rhyming has been going well with the afteroon group, and we're going to
introduce opposites this month. That should be lots of fun. We will also
continue to practice our number recognition (up to 15 now!) and sorting and
patterning.
The morning class will be exploring mittens and lots of snow activities. We
will learn about rectangles and the colors white and blue this month. We
will continue to have a pretty big focus on listening to and following
directions and completing our work with a little more independence.
January is a hard-working month in school, and we wll definitely be doing our
share of hard work! I am looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow and
getting back into our routine!
Enjoy the rest of the blustery day and have a great week!
Robin
Sunday December 16th-ugh, my son is 29 yrs old today. So just imagine how old
that makes me-never mind! So, this is it-we have such a fun week planned for
both classes. Tomorrow is GOLD day-that should be fun. We will begin some
serious gift preparation tomorrow in both classes-sorry, that's a surprise!
The afternoon class learned abut "nose sounds" this week. They are very
funny-the "m", "n" and "ng" sounds. There's no air involved with these
sounds, just our "mouth motors". And we can tell the sounds actually come
out our noses, because we can trap them in there! Ask you child to
demonstrate! We had a lot of fun with those.
We did a quick numeral assessment (1-10) this week with the 4 yr olds, and
I've seen some great progress, even since progress reports! Yeah! Counting
sets is getting bette and better as well. In the morning, we've been singing
a number song every day at circle--you can do it at home too. I pass out all
the numbers (1-10) and we sing "Where is #___, where is #____? Here I am,
here I am, this is #___, this is #____, let's clap hands, lets clap hands."
The children ask to do it every day, and I'm seeng it definitely is making a
difference.
Both classes will be having holiday parties on Thursday, and the sign-up
sheets are on the door. The book order has shipped, and should be here any
minute. If yuor order is a surprise, let me know, and we can wrap it up ad
sneak it into the backpack.
On Wednesday, the afternoon class will be taking a trip on The Polar
Express! shhhhhh! We will be wearing our jammies too! Send your child to
school in jammies on Wednesday (aternoon only). Mrs. Dana reads the book, and
Mrs. Anderson has created yoga poses all throughout the story. We will act
them out, and then have a pretend ride on our chair train, while listening to
theCD. The fun will conclude with hot chocolate. I can't wait!
I hope today's weather holds off until I finish my errands, and I also hope
everyone is getting close to being done with their shopping.
You can all be sure that I will be holding your children especially close
this week,and always, and will never stop telling them how much I love them.
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and have a great week.
Robin
Friday December 7th-holy cow! holy cow! The 4 year olds have an "elf on our
shelf"!!!!! They are SOOOOOOO excited. We read the book and voted on a
name, "Reindeer" and he appeared the next day, with a letter from Santa! He
appeared in my chair, and everyone was very concerned that I would sit on him
and hurt him. I assured them that Santa e-mailed me and told me that, while
the children could not touch him, a teacher could touch him if it was
necessary to keep him safe and clean! Gabe thought we should use our tongs
that we use for fine motor activities to move him, just in case!
I am not doing this with the 3 year olds, because I have only heard from 1 or
2 of them that they are aware of this and I feel it will be more fun next
year, when they have a really good understanding of the season.
Monday is Silver Day for both classes. Good luck boys!
The morning class has been singing "Jingle Bells", and "This is the way we
look fr a tree" this week, and we had lots of fun with all of our "star"
activities." Make sure you check out their wreaths on the classroom
bulletin board (inside)--they turned into a beautiful tree!
Our classroom is looking very festive with the candycanes on the windows, the
Santa windsocks and the countdown chains hanging from the ceiling. We are
having a wonderful time. I'm seeing some really nice progress with rhyming,
patterns, sorting and number recognition in the afternoon class. They can all
tell me their last name, and recognize it when I hold them up as well.
The morning class has also been practicing numbers 1-10 each day at circle.
This is a crazy time of year--try to slow down a little and enjoy the wonder
of it all, especially through the eyes of your preschooler.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and have a great week.
Robin
p.s. we sent in the book order yesterday to be sure to have the books before
vacation, and I noticed there were 2 new ones today. I'll have to check with
Mrs. Lamontagne about these and be sure they don't slow down the total order.
I don't think it's too late, but I'm not sure because she does this for me.
I'll let you know when I know. thanks R
Sunday December 2, 2012--IT SNOWED!!!!!! Enjoy it while it lasts! I'm hearing
it's going to warm up today and be very warm tomorrow and Tuesday!
Unseasonable, but sure makes outside play time much easier!
Boy, was it ever good to get back to our routine this week. We practiced
colors, shapes, counting and numbers. The afternoon group has been doing a
really nice job learning their last names. We'll continue with seasonal
activities to reinforce those names throughout the month.
Both classes will have fun with stars this month. We will not be trying to
draw stars-I can't even do that! But we will have lots of counting, sorting,
patterning and name recognition activities involving stars.
The afternoon class learned about the letters "B" and "D" this week. Both of
those letters have big lines and curves. We played with our wood pieces and
pattern blocks to recreate these letters, and on Monday we will make them
with our clay with Mrs. Anderson. I will say that the children are doing a
great job of recognizing whether they have specific letters in their names,
and even where those letters are. We take turns discussing if we have a
letter at the beginning, middle or end, and how many of them we have, and
now, they're even telling me whether the letter is in their FIRST or LAST
names!
Let the Christmas activities begin! The next 3 weeks will fly by and will be
filled with fun Christmas themed activities.
Although it doesn't affect us, remember there is no school on Friday, and
NEXT Monday will be SilverDay! C'mon boys-let's see you rock the silver!
Holiday parties for both classes will be on Thursday the 20th and will be as
low-key as the Halloween parties. Sign-up sheets will go up next week.
In the past I've had parents ask about gifts. The children WILL NOT exchange
gifts, and if you are interested in bringing a gift for the class, let me
know and I can give a few ideas of things we need or would love.
Remember-boots off in the hall, and shoes on prior to entering. Thanks.
Please label your child's hats, boots, mittens, etc. We're already losing
items.
Enjoy the rest of your snowy Sunday and have a great week!
Robin
Saturday November24th-I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and tons
of yummy leftovers to graze on for the next couple of days!
I am soooo thankful for a full week of school, finally. The morning children
will continue practicing triangles and review circles and squares as well.
We will explore "Mouse Shapes", "Mouse Counts" and "Mouse Paint" books while
we review all of those concepts.
The afternoon children will be in for a big surprise when they arrive on
Monday! Shhhh! Don't tell them, but they will begin signing in with their
LAST names now! Yikes! We will continue to practice our first names, but
start to recognize our last names in print as well.
The afternoon class wil continue our "circle" shapes and lots of circle
activities. We will be practicing our counting and numeral recognition to 10.
Tuesday we will be visiting the library,and Wednesday is our whole group
movement/language group.
We will be introduced to the following uppercase letters: B, D, J, and P.
These letters have both big/little lines and big/little curves. You'll
notice that we haven't introduced any letters with diagonals yet--these are
later developing strokes.
Enjoy the remainder of your long weekend with your families and have a great
week!
Robin
Sunday November 18th-good morning sunny Sunday morning! Afternoon parents,
you shouldl have all received progress reports and graded IEP's(if
applicable) this week. Please, please feel free to call to schedule a
parent/teacher conference if you'd like one. I see most of you daily and
feel like we have quite a bit of communication, but I am happy to sit down
individually with anyone who would like to have further discussions.
The morning class' progress reports/IEP's will go home tomorrow-sorry, missed
those!
Tomorrow is Brown Day for both classes-missed that note too! We definitely
need to be here every day!
The afternoon class is working hard on their letters with curves: C,G,O, and
S. We've been making these letters with our wood pieces, pattern blocks, and
playdoh.
Wait till you see our awesome turkeys coming home tomorrow-the numeral
sequencing went really, really well! I'm seeing prgress every day.
The morning class continues their color and counting practice with some cute
squirrel activities. We will also have some turkey fun this week, as well.
Remember, Wednesday is an early release day, so there is no afternoon
session. Schoolwide dismissal is noon.
REMINDER: AFTERNOON PARENTS: IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY REGISTERED YOUR CHILD
FOR KINDERGARTEN FOR SEPTEMBER PLEASE DO THAT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. WE NEED
TO START EARLY TO PLAN FOR CLASS SIZES. THANKS
Enjoy your Sunday, and have a great week and wonderful Thanksgiving.
Robin
Sunday November 11, 2012-good morning, and thank you to our veterans. Another
short week this week, and next week as well. When we finally have a full
week, it'll feel like a month!lol
The morning class is continuing with our squirrel fun. We will be counting
acorns to "feed" squirrels, and make a class book about squirrels. On
Tuesday, we will be following a recipe to make a "squirrel treat"! Our next
shape that we will be focusing on will be the triangle, and we will have fun
making colorful turkeys with triangles as well.
The afternoon class learned about big and little curves in our HWT lesson
this past week. We talked about the letters: C, G, O, and S and explored our
names to see who has these letters in our names. We also learned
about "Tongue Scrapers" in our LIPS lesson. This is a tricky sound that
involves the tongue scraping the back of the mouth. When we make it quietly,
it soulds like the "k" sound, and when we turn on our "mouth motors", it
sounds like the "g" sound. We've now learned lip poppers, tip tappers, lip
coolers and tongue scrapers. Ask your child about them and see how many
he/she remembers!
Mrs. Dana has continued to practice rhyming and says that the children are
making some nice progress! Rhyming books and games are always fun for home
too.
Tuesday, the afternoon class will have our library visit-it seems like
forever since our last visit with all the days off! We will also have our
whole group movement/language block on Wednesday.
The children are very interested in patterns, and we will explore some more
complex patterns this week. We will also practice a little sequencing, using
the language: first, next, last. Many times, we can see the sequence, but
putting the language to it is a little trickier.
I am looking forward to seeing the beautiful turkey feathers come back to
school on Tuesday. I have a poor, featherless turkey just waiting to show
them off!
So, we had some early snow and there have been several childen comingto
school in boots. The boot procedure that I would love you to help with is:
have your child stop at the bench in the hallway to remove boots, and put on
SHOES (not slippers or socks). The boots remain under the bench until
dismissal. As our outside times are at the end of the day, bringing
snowpants instead of wearing them makes more sense. Be sure everything is
labeled because it can become a free for all when we're changing. I really
want to encourage you to send shoes and not leave yoru child to remain in
hot, clumsy boots all day. They make gross motor activities even more
difficult than they need to be.
On the schedule section of this site, our outside days are listed, per class.
Tuesday for afternoon, and Thursday for morning.
Enjoy the rest of your long weekend-it's supposed to be very nice!
Have a great week!
Robin
Sunday November 4, 2012- good morning. Well, that was an interesting week! I
hope everyone has their power back on and is back to normal. My son Ryan on
Long Beach Island, NJ is working on 7 days no power! yuck. Hopefully soon-he
said it's getting pretty chilly.
So, tomorrow is our picture day, and I'm pretty sure I got the message to
everyone to bring ALL the 3 yr olds to school for the morning. They haven't
given me an accurate time, so I guess we should all be here all morning.
Tuesday--no school--don't forget to vote! And, that brings us to Wednesday,
which is GRAY DAY. Phew-time flies!
The afternoon class will be coming home with a large turkey feather to be
decorated by your family and returned by Tuesday the 13th at the very
latest.
We will be having a lot of squirrel/nut fun this week in both classes. The
morning class will be practicing our color recognition and counting to 5. The
afternoon class will be practicing numeral recognition to 10, as well as
sorting, patterning and counting nuts.
I will have a surprise for the 4 yr olds when they arrive tomorrow. Their
sign in names are now in black and white--no more colored crayone-yikes! I
guess we'll find out very quickly who actually recognizes his/her name, or
just the color of the crayon. You may have also noticed that I did not have
them trace their names this week. After lots of conversation with OT, we've
decided to give it a break fora little while andfocus more on placing the
letters in order (with cut outs, stamps, etc.) and also using our pointer
finger to make the letters in sand, paint, shaving cream, etc. We just
don'tseem quite ready to have pencils in our little hands yet, and it doesn't
make sense to force it. IF your child wants to continue practicing at home,
that's fine, just try to remind him/her to start at the top-and staying with
uppercase letters for now would probably be a good idea.
If you have any questions about this, feel free to ask!
If you want something to work on at home, I suggest shape recognition and
also numeral recognition to 10! thanks
Enjoy your extra long Sunday and have a great week!
Robin
Sunday October 28th-good morning. Is this the calm before the "Frankenstorm"?
We'll see.
What a busy, fun week we had this week! It was a little hard to concentrate
with the fire trucks right outside our window, but we had great visits with
the fire fighters on Tuesday and hurray for the fire truck ride! Thanks
Wayne Charest for our hats-you're the best!
On Wednesday, both classes had a chance to try Mrs. Moulton's spooky spider
obstacle course in the gym. It was lots and lots of fun, and grea exercise
too! There was jumping, crawling, climbing,walking, etc. and there were lots
of pink cheeks when we were done!:))
The morning class has been busy practicing listening to, and following,
verbal directions and trying to be good listeners at circle time. We keep
things moving so the little ones aren't sitting too long, but, boy, they are
an antsy group and definitely keep me on my toes!
We've been doing lots and lots of "finger" work, working with tongs,
clothespins, and even practicing with buttons, zippers, and snaps. Our "5
little pumpkins" projects were very cute and the children loved singing the
song-ask them if they can do it for you!
The afternoon class has been really working hard on correct letter order in
our names-weren't our candy corn names cool? We're also listening for rhymes
and trying to find a rhyming word for one I give them. It's coming along.
While making "Mat Man" with our wood pieces, many of the 4 yr olds also
discovered that they could make their names with the pieces too! Yeah-that's
great practice! Our drawings of people are progressing a little more slowly,
but we'll definitely keep practicing.
So, we're looking forward to a spooky Black Day tomorrow and, hopefully, a
dry Halloween Parade on Wednesday-time will tell. Thanks to all of you that
have signed up for party treats-we're never short on treats in our class!
Again, feel free to give me a call, or e-mail me with any questions regarding
the parties (or any other topic).
Enjoy the day. Let's hope for a good week!
Robin
Sunday October 21st-good morning! Not as warm as yesterday, but looks like a
nice day!
We had a very productive week this week in preschool. The sea of orange on
orange day was great! The afternoon class learned about patterns this week
and had the opportunity to practice extending some basic patterns--they're
really getting the hang of it. We also explored rhyming! That was lots of
fun as well. We really enjoyed our first trip to the library, and were a
very polite audience as Mrs. Weiss read us 2 fun stories. We will have the
opportunity to go up every other Tuesday and listen to stories, and also
explore age appropriate books on our own as well. We will not be borrwing
books this year.
The 4 yr olds will have a surprise when they arrive tomorrow-I wonder if I
can trick them?
Lots of fun activities are on the schedule for this week. Tuesday will be
our turn (both classes) to visit the fire fighters and talk about fire
prevention. On Wednesday, we will have a turn to explore Mrs. Moulton's very
cool obstacle course in the gym--have you seen it? It's awesome!
We will continue our pattern practice with fun Halloween patterns and will
also continue practicing printing our first names (in uppercase letters).
I've seen some great progress since the beginning of the year, and now we
need to "tighten up" a little!
Ask your 3 yr old to sing "5 Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Gate" for you!
It's very fun. We'll make a picture this week that will help. We'll explore
all things "Halloween" this week. There are little pumpkins to scoop the
beans in the sensory table, pumpkins at the easel to paint, mini pumpkins to
print with, and on and on!
We will also visit the fire fighters Tuesday morning. The lesson is modified
for us, and we will focus on meeting the fire fighters, climbing inside the
fire truck, and wearing our hats! Yeah!
The morning class will also have a chance to explore the obstacle course on
Wednesday-please remember appropriate "gym" clothes and shoes. thanks.
Signup sheets are now on the classroom door for our Halloween parties.
Please, please don't feel obligated to sign up forsomething every party. We
always have TONS of goodies. All3 yr olds should plan to attend!
Remember, Picture Day is Monday November 5th-I would like ALL 3 yr olds to
attend that day as well. No school on Tuesday the 6th-well planned! haha!
Enjoy the rest of your sunny Sunday and have a great week!
Robin
Sunday October 14th--good morning! A cozy, rainy morning. What a fun, busy
week we had. The apple orchard trip was a huge success! We loved the bus
ride, picked 2 huge bags of apples, visited with the baby animals, climbed
all over "Pumpkin Man" and had a great adventure trying to find our way out
of the corn maze! The rain started right after we began our trip back to
school! phew! On Wednesday we made some delicious apple sauce and there were
NO leftovers! I've had many requests for apple crisp and apple pie-we'll
definitely be cooking again this week.
The afternoon class explored rectangles this week and while we were working,
I did a quick "shape" assessment with everyone. Any opportunity you have to
practice shape recognition at home would be very beneficial for the children-
many are still working to learn the names of basic shapes.
We made "Mat Man" all together this week with our HWT wood pieces. It was
lots and lots of fun--we have a good understanding of body parts in the
afternoon class. We will continue to practice making him with the wood
pieces before we attempt to draw him. I'm sure many of you have seen the
people that look like "Mr. Potato Head" with arms and legs coming out of the
head. Our work with "Mat Man" helps us learn to make bodies and orient the
body parts appropriately. And it's lots of fun!
We had another great outside gross motor center with Mrs Anderson. There was
so much jumping, clmbing, crawling, etc. Everyone worked very hard and had a
blast!
The morning class has been exploring circes and apples this week. Painting at
the easel has been a big hit. We will borrow some of the apples from the
afternoon class, and cook applesauce this week-yum! The leaves outside are
beautiful and we'll be making some beautiful leaves inside as well.
Depending on the weather, we might even take a "leaf walk" on Wednesday
morning and explore the treasures we find. Makes for rich conversation!
Thursday is Orange Day in both classes, and we will enjoy all kinds
of "orange" activities.
As we have been adding days to our October calendar, the afternoon class has
started to notice that they appear as: apple, pumpkin, apple, pumpkin, etc.
The have also started to predict what is coming next--this week we will
identify this phenonenon as a PATTERN! We use the language "over and over
and over" to describe what is happening. We will even try extending, copying
or even creating our own patterns.
I'm looking forward to the warm up tomorrow and am hopeful for a sunny, dry
week! Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and have a great week!
Robin
Monday October 8th-good morning! Happy Columbus Day! So far, the weekend
has been a lot better than they anticipated-hope everyone's been enjoying
being outside!
Speaking of outside, the afternoon class will spend the afternoon tomorrow
outside at Brookdale Apple Orchard in Hollis! yeah! We are very, very
excited. After we pick apples, we will be able to visit with the baby
animals that live there, and explore the corn mazes as well. Hopefully,
pumpkin man will be still there so we can climb around on him for awhile
too! Please, please be on time tomorrow, as we are hoping to be on the road
by 11:45. The children and I have already discussed appropriate clothing and
footwear, as well as snacks that work for a picnic! We won't be buying milk,
so please remember a drink. Keep your fingers crossed that the rain holds
off, like Josh Judge just told me it should.
So, last week we introduced the letters: E, F, and I (apparently I don't know
the order of the alphabet!) and we had great discussions about who had those
letters in their names, and whether they were at the beginning, in the middle
or at the end. The children then had the opportunity to explore the wood
pieces themselves, as well as pattern block templates for these letters.
We also discussed how we can "sort" by soooo many different attributes. We
sorted ourselves several silly ways! It was really fun. Mrs. Dana continued
with this theme by discussing categories. The children had lots of fun with
a category game.
Boy, did our hands get a workout with clay with Mrs. Anderson this week! We
had to stand up to roll it out! phew! (this is awesome practice for fine
motor muscles!)
The morning class also explored apples this week. They worked very hard to
make a beautiful apple tree for the bulletin board, and used their finger
muscles to tear paper to decorate apples to fill the bushel basket as well.
Tearing up paper is super great work for our little finger muscles! We
learned "Way Up High in the Apple Tree"--ask your child to sing it for you!
We have especially enjoyed painting apples at the easel, and tasting apples
with Mrs. Dana.
This week, the morning class will begin exploring circles, while the
afternoon class will move on to rectangles. The reason for the difference is
this: developmentally, the children should be identifying squares and circles
during the 3 yr old year. Practicing the rectangle continues the use of
our "big lines" and "little lines" that we have been exploring in the
afternoon class. The afternoon class will revisit circles later when we
begin to use our "curves." Remember, you can always visit my "links" page to
checkout the Handwriting Without Tears program we are using. Mrs. Lamontagne
and I both attended a workshop on this program on Friday, and it was awesome!
I'm sure most of you have seen in the Thursday notices that Picture Re-take
day is Monday November 5th. That's us! I have the forms and will send them
home with we get a little closer to that date.
Regarding Halloween, apparently, I was sleeping when they moved the Halloween
parade to the afternoon! So,it looks like the afternoon class will be
walking in the parade after all! Yeah! It's at 1:00 that day and we'll have
our quick party snack immediately after. Please be sure your chld's costume
is safe for walking! thanks.
Enjoy the rest of your Monday and have a great week!
Robin
Sunday September 30th--good morning. Can you believe we are staring October
in the face? How did that happen? I guess time really does fly when you're
having fun, and boy, have we been having fun!
The afternoon class is really settling into the structure and routine of our
day. We complete 4 centers every day and the children are ready to begin
using their own "center cards" to navigate the schedule. I will be
introducing them this week. Be sure to ask your child about them. They will
really become indeent when they "read" their own card to determine "what's
next." They will match the pictures on their cards to the picture on the can
at the center. The card goes in the can while working, and comes out to
prepare for the next center. Off comes the completed picture and then we
look for the next can! Usually they have it down after a week or so!
Red Day was a great transition from our sports theme into our October theme
of apples and pumpkins. We will continue using our big lines and little
lines to make rectangles, and also to explore the letters: E,F, and H. We
will not be writing these letters or even focusing on their sounds, YET! At
this point in the year, my focus is recognizing these letters, practicing
with our wooden pieces and noticing these letters--I wonder who has them in
their names! (In the spring, we will go through all the letters again, in
alphabetical order and talk about writing and sounds).
We are exploring sounds through our LIPS program, but, as I've mentioned
before, we're not assigning letter names to the sounds yet.
Many of the afternoon students would benefit from some numeral recognition
practice: 1-10, as well as counting sets to 10. That would make for fun
games at home, counting things all over the house: socks, silverware,
crayons, toys, etc. If you need some suggestions, feel free to ask me and I
can help.
The morning class will also be exploring apples ths week and will also be
working very hard on counting and recognizing numerals 1-5. We will continue
with our "red" activities this week and sing about apples. We are also
working hard every single day to use our words, learn each other's names and
increase our independence in completing our daily routines. I'm really
seeing some great progress!
Well, now that picture day has come and gone, maybe they'll tell us when make
up day is,and we can plan for it! Maybe!
Enjoy your rainy Sunday and have a great week!
Robin
Sunday September 23rd-good morning-here's to another beautiful sunny Sunday.
We had a great "Yellow" day in both classes-the classroom was a sea of
yellow all day. We explored yellow fingerpaint, painted at the easel, had
fun glueing yellow items on a class collage and talking abut what yellow
foods we were eating at snack. I can't wait for "Red" day on Thursday!
The afternoon class worked very hard this week to practice correct pencil
grips--ask your child to sing our "Pick Up A Crayon" song for you. We also
practiced the correct way to hold scissors, both while we are using them, and
also while we are carrying them (point down, with our hard around the
point). I have some very good cutters in the afternoon class! A precursor
for cutting is tearing paper with our fingers--builds finger strength.
That's where we'll start with the morning class for awhile! We'll also be
using lots of clothespins, pegs, beads, and even some tongs this week while
we explore our materials. All of these help us strengthen our finger
muscles.
We've been practicing starting our letters at the top, and it is becoming
more and more consistent. Any reinforcement you can give at home will be
greatly appreciated.
The afternoon class had our first "LIPS" phonemic awareness lesson this
week. We learned about a sound called a "Lip Popper." When the lips are
popped together quietly, the"p" sound is made, and when we turn on our
voices, the "b" sound is made. Ask your child to show you! This week we will
learn the "Tip Tapper" sound--"t" and "d" sounds. I do not assign letter
names to these sounds this early in the year, as my focus is strictly on the
mouth and what is happening to create the sounds.
So, as I mentioned earlier, Picture Day is on Friday and they have not told
me a date for retake day. Mr. Chauvette said that if individual parents want
to bring children in on Friday for pictures,that is fine, but I will be
having the group picture taken on retake day, and we can do the individual
pictures that day as well. Whanever that might be!
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and have a great week!
Robin
Sunday September16th-good morning! I was VERY disappointed to turn on the
heat for a little bit this morning, but it looks like it's going to warm up
to be a beautiful day ahead!
Speaking of beautiful days-we had great weather this week, and the afternoon
class had a great time with their outside gross motor center with Mrs.
Anderson. She created a really cool obstacle course that everyone had a
chance to try. Her main focus was on turn taking, and following directions-
they did a great job!
Following directions has been a focal point in both classes this week, and
will continue. It's not always easy to come to school after being pretty
self-directed in our own homes. There's a lot to learn about functioning in
a group--waiting our turn, asking for permission, understanding and
completing routines, and how to appropriately use the materials, etc. It
gets better, and better every day!
When the children arrive tomorrow, they will be surprised to see a huge
square taped on the carpet. We will explore squares this week in both
classes. In the morning, we will be finding and sorting squares, making
collages, painting squares at the easel and even moving our bodies around the
square on the rug! The afternoon class will do these things and will also
talk about the BIG LINES that make up a square. We will be painting BIG
LINES at the easel-first vertical BIG LINES, starting at the top, and then
horizontal BIG LINES from left to right (we learned a song about our Right
Hand and have been talking a lot about left and right.)
If you're wondering what's the big deal with the "BIG LINES", our Handwriting
without Tears program uses the language: big lines, little lines, big curves,
and little curves to describe letter formation. We are becoming familiar
with the language, so that when it comes times to make some letters or
shapes, we'll know what to do!
Thursday is "YELLOW DAY" for both classes. We have lots fun in preschool
trying to see if everyone can wear clothing with the color of the day, bring
snacks with the color, or bring collage items. We make a group color collage
to hang on the wall for all the colors and they look awesome in the room.
All of the color clothing, and items make for rich language and
reinforcement. I can't wait to see a room full of YELLOW on Thursday!
Looking forward to a full week this week--hoping it will help us get over the
separation hump that a few of us (yes,in both classes) are working through!:))
Thank you to Landon's fmaily for the sandbox sand!
Enjoy the beautiful Sunday and have a great week! Remember, you can always e-
mail me any time with questions or concerns.
Robin
Sunday September 9th--good morning! I want to thank everyone for a great
first few days of school, despite the heat and humidity! Many old friends
were reunited, and many more new friends were introduced. There were a
couple of tears, but nothing unexpected--we'll see how they feel about coming
back tomorrow-that's usually the reality check! I'm looking forward to
settling into our routine and welcoming Mrs. Dana (speech) and Mrs. Anderson
(OT) to our groups. They will both be participating in the morning and
afternoon programs on a regular basis, approximately 1/2 of each morning and
from 12:30-1:30 Mon, Wed, and Thurs afternoons. In the morning, they take
turns leading part of circle time. Mrs. Dana has lots and lots of fun
singing/moving songs and lots of silly mouth exercises. We play kazoos, blow
horns or whistles and use a variety of treats to "wake up our mouths". If
you hear about "Tyler", he is not a new student, but a turtle puppet that
comes with Mrs. Dana and talks to the childen! Very cute! On Wednesday
mornings, Mrs. Anderson will be leading most of circle time with her 'bag".
she does yoga-ish (some people aren't entirely comfortable with us calling it
yoga) poses with the children. She has a bag filled with toy props to
support what we're doing. The children love, love, love seeing what is in
the bag and taking turns to choose items and discuss them. I am always
amazed at how quickly 3 year olds learn the poses and how hard they work on
them!
In the afternoon, Mrs. Dana and Mrs. Anderson are part of our center time
rotation, each teaching small group lessons at their centers. We will begin
implementing the Handwriting Without Tears pre-handwritng curriculum, and
Mrs. Anderson helps teach those lessons, usually on Mondays. On Wednesday,
she has a gross motor center, that might even take place outside when it's
nice. We work on balancing, hopping, skipping, kicking, catching, etc.
Thursday is a fine motor day and she usually assists with our arts and crafts
centers, focusing on cutting, pencil grip, drawing, utensil use, painting,
lacing, etc.
Mrs. Dana usually spends one day focusing on language concepts: categories,
sequencing, "wh" questions, opposites, rhyming, etc. and one day focused on
sound production. Her 3rd day is generally carry over from these, or spoken
language, based on the theme,and social skill support.
Speaking of themes, the 4 year olds will begin a sports theme this week. I'm
sure you noticed the bulletin board! We will have lots of fun explorng
sports based lessons and activities. Our core skills will be reinforced
through sorting, matching, counting, categorizing, motor and arts and crafts
activities. It should be lots of fun.
We are also focusing this week on correct letter formation in our first
names. I don't generally start letter formation until much later in the
year, but as preschoolers are highly motivated to write their names, we feel
it is important to teach them the "right" way up front, as opposed to
correcting later. Per our curriculum, the "right" way is to start letters AT
THE TOP! We are tracing our names with dry erase markers right now and then
in a few weeks, we'll move on to copying and eventually to independent
printing.
I will also be doing some informal pre-assessing this week to get a good
baseline of skills.
In the morning class, our focus is on learning to be at school--believe me,
that's more than enough to work on for awhile! We are learning about signing
in and finding our own cubbies, cleaning up after we play and appropriate use
of classroom toys/materials. We will be making our own placemats for snack
time, and will begin to practice recognizing our own names in print.
Doing things in a group is a very interesting concept. We're learning to
stay at circle or snack (or even in the classroom!) and to wait for
directions! I'm sure your child will come home exhausted most days-I know I'm
exhausted when they go home!:)))
Don't forget that there is no school on Tuesday. I'm sure many of you have
noticed that Picture Day is on the 28th-a Friday. I'm in the process of
working with the office to figure that out. I think we'll probably have to
wait until "re-take" day to have our pictures done. As soon as I know more,
I'll let you know.
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday (let's hope the sun really does come out) and
here's hoping everyone has a great week!
Robin
Friday August 31--wow! What a great picnic! I was so happy to see everyone
and it looked like the kids had fun! I'll be at school all day on Tuesday if
anyone has last minute questions, or wants to stop by to say hello!
Remember, regardless of your child's schedule, I would love to have all the
morning children attend on the first day of school! Enjoy your long weekend,
and I can't wait to see everyone on Wednesday! Robn
August 16th-If you were looking at my dining room table right now, you'd see
how much I've been doing to get ready to come back to school! It's been a
crazy, busy summer, but I'm starting to get excited and I hope everyone else
is as well!
We will be having our traditional back to school picnic!
• When?: Thursday August 30th (4-6 pm)
• Where?: NBCS preschool classroom
• What to bring?: potluck (I’ll bring drinks and paper products)
• Who?: Everybody! Your whole family if you want!
Below is the letter that will be coming home in your child's "mail" next week-
but I'm hoping to encourage parents to use the website more often for
information about the preschool. I will have a weekly newsletter that will
discuss our activities, lessons and exciting happenings in the classroom.
There is also a calendar page that will list upcoming special events. Please
make sure you check this page regularly.
Dear Parents,
I have tried to cover some quick housekeeping items that will help us all
avoid confusion when school starts—well, at least some of it!!!
• Tuition—due the 1st of every month--$40 for 2 day/week students , $50
for 3 day/week and and $60 for 4 day/week students. If your child does not
have an IEP, he/she is a tuition student.
• Backpacks—please send your child with a backpack big enough to hold a
separate lunchbox and all of his/her beautiful projects!
• Clothes—please send, in a large labeled zip-lock bag , a complete
change of clothes for your child (including socks and undies) that can remain
in the classroom.
• Paint—we really wear paint smocks, but the children always miss
them! Please send your child in play clothes every day.
• Snack/milk—Please send a fairly small snack (to be eaten in 10-15
minutes or so) and if you would like your child to buy milk (whole, 2 %,
chocolate, or strawberry), the cost is $.40 per day. Please set up an account
with the cafeteria—I’d prefer to not handle money this year, if possible!
Thanks!
• Shoes—Please be sure your child has shoes (not slippers) to wear in
the classroom for safety. Crocs and flip-flops aren’t safe on the playground
or during gross motor activities inside the classroom.
• Toileting—If your child is not yet toilet-trained, I will certainly
work with you to achieve that goal, but please be sure your child has plenty
of diapers and wipes each day.
• Transportation—unless your child rides the bus, please accompany
him/her into the classroom upon arrival. Children will be escorted outside
by the classroom staff at dismissal—parents can meet us at the school
entrance. Please try to be as prompt as possible at arrival/dismissal and
remember that staff is busy assisting children at this time. I am available
for phone calls any day before 8:00 and after 2:05 (also from 10:40-11:00).
• Bus transportation—please make car seat arrangements with the driver
and be sure your child’s seat is on the bus or in the foyer every day.
Sometimes drivers have extra seats, but often they don’t. When your child
turns 5 years old, he/she can be transported home on the regular bus with
siblings, if that is your choice.
• Absence—If your child will be absent, or not riding the bus as usual,
please call me in the classroom, or e-mail me and also call the bus company—.
• Photos/videos/Facebook!-please remember that this is a confidential,
special education environment, and putting photos and/or videos on Facebook
that include children other than your own, is a huge breach of
confidentiality! Yikes!
Thank you all so much for all of your support. I am looking forward to a
great year with all of your beautiful children!
If you have any other questions that I didn’t address, feel free to ask at
our picnic. I can’t wait to see everyone!
Robin