Ms. Gillian PM 3 year old Class :)

Nearly at the end of September already!!!  It's true what they say time really does fly when your having fun and we are certainly having lots of that in the Forest Room :)

Last week we had the pleasure of welcoming some grandparents into our classroom to celebrate the very special occasion "Grandparents Day".  The kids loved having their grandparents in school with them and had fun showing them around our classroom before enjoying a muffin and juice together.  The kiddos performed their 2 special little songs which they had worked so hard to learn for the big day.  Before the grandparents left they were given a special little gift made with love from their little grandchildren.


Over the last couple of weeks we have covered 'Our Body' and 'Pets' units.  The kids loved learning all about their bodies from what made us move to the brain, heart and lungs... We worked on lots of fun activities around this unit.  Making a life size outline of each child and having them make the organs we had been focusing on with various art projects from puff painting brains to Qtip hand gluing...  The kiddos then put all the finished art projects onto their body outlines :) The children also had lots of fun looking at all the pairs we have on our bodies through our math projects.

While learning about 'Pets' we turned our little house into a Pet Shop which was a huge hit with the kids.  It was filled with toy animals, cash register and pet supplies.  During our Pet week as we had completed all our Zoo Phonics sounds (although we will continue to review them every afternoon to have them perfect for Pre K :) ) we began putting 2 or 3 letters/sounds together.  The whole class were so excited to 'read' the words "PET", "CAT" and "DOG" . We also practiced writing these words in shaving foam :) 
 
In Handwriting Without Tears,  Mat Man continues to be our favourite - i am asked at least once a week to do it.  They are experts at making mat man now and love to help put him together. Tap, tap, tap is a still a close second!!!

Ms. Laree, Ms.Debbie and myself feel so blessed to have such a wonderful class full of such sweet little children so keen to learn everyday. 

 

We took a break from all our learning last week to honor those wonderful grandparents in our lives! We celebrated Grandparent's Day on Monday and Tuesday, Sept. 10th and 11th. The kids were so excited to show their Grandmas and Grandpas around their room and then sing their special song for them.  They even got to make a ceramic plate together.  We appreciate the time that the grandparents took to be with us and we are also grateful to the other special loved ones that came when grandparents could not be there.  I share with you one funny story that was related to me by a Grandma that came with her grandson.  She said that before she had come to school that she had taken her grandchildren to McDonald's for lunch and they were ordering.  Her grandson  made sure that the McDonald's employee knew that they needed one "boy" Happy meal and one "girl" Happy Meal and that they also needed an "Old Lady" Happy Meal for Grandma.  Luckily, Grandma saw the humor in the statement and just wondered what would come as the prize in an "Old Lady" Happy Meal.  I find myself laughing about some of things that are said by these very bright 4 and 5 year old kids and find joy in being around them and watching them learn about their world.

Ms. Dessie- PreK PM

Mrs. Nettie's Pre-K afternoon class

Hello from Ms. Nettie and Ms. Lisa :o)

     We are already 1/2 way through September and the children are learning with each passing day. We have focused on letter's A- D and enjoy concentrating on a letter a week. The children really enjoy the object hunt for the letter of the week. This activity really gets the children thinking. I have put out objects of a letter we have learned from a previous week and also the current letter we are working on. The children then need to decide what objects belong in the container marked "Aa" and what objects go in the container "Dd".  The children have created "beautiful butterflies" and redid an old classic. Butterfly, Butterfly, What do you see? I see a _______ looking at me. 

We also made "caterpillars" made out of the letter "C". Using two different color C's we had the opportunity to practice AB patterns as well. This week our focus was letter "D" and you might have noticed some ducks  popping up at home. The "beak" is made out of 2 letter D's. We named some actions words that our duck can do that start with the letter "D".  Dive, duck, dance, dip down, draw etc.... The children sure do get thinking about words  that begin with the letter "D". We also have started rhyming words and continue to review "opposites". 

Remembering September 11, 2001

Grandparent's Day was a blast!! We thank all our Grandparents for sharing that special day with us. We also had Grandparents that were not able to join us in our heart. A big "thank you" to Ms. Melissa our Music Specialist! She taught the awesome song that the class sang to their Grandparent's to the tune of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game". She also sings a "Moose on the Loose" song that is the favorite of the class and myself. Thank you Ms. Melissa, you are AWESOME :o)

I really enjoyed the "All About Me" information that came back. The class created some personalized hanprints that came out so adorable! We hope to hang them in the hallway for parents to admire.

I know I've said this before, but your children are amazing and I enjoy each day with them. We have some special and funny moments throughout the day and Ms. Lisa and I find ourselves laughing along with the children :o)

Looking forward to sharing the holidays with them!

:o) Ms. Nettie and Ms. Lisa

We are Rocking in Pre-K!

Teaching Dinosaurs!

Making Clouds with shaving cream and glue!

 Pre-K AM is hopping!  We have been learning our Zoophonics animals and have now turned over the cards to show that the  animals are shaped like the letters they make the sounds for.  I am so impressed by how much they know!  We have spotlighted Allie Alligater (Aa), Bubba Bear (Bb), and Catina Cat (Cc) so far.  This week we are focusing on Dee Dee Deer (Dd).  The animals love all things that start with their letter!  Our Show -n- Tell has been absolutely awesome with the kids bringing in things that are that animals favorites, for example last week (Cc) we had Captain America, cats and cars brought in among other items that start with Cc.  It's been really fun! We looked at clouds and planted "carrots" last week!  This week we are looking at lots of things that start with the letter Dd like dinosaurs as you can see from the picture.  They are sure interested in them.  Can't wait to finish the week!

We also celebrated Grandparents Day for our MWF students!  It was a huge success! It is so much fun to get to know these sweet kids grandparents!  We have our Grandparent's Day Celebration tomorrow for our T/TH students and we are looking forward to meeting and celebrating with their grandparents!  We have learned a great song, "Take me to our Grandparents" that we will be singing to them when they come tomorrow!  It is so great to be able to share our day with them! Thank you to all who came and celebrated with us!  We have been working hard preparing for them to join us. They have also been so excited to show their grandparents around our class!  Thanks again for having such wonderful children!  Pre-K rocks!!

Mrs. Eileen's P.M. 2's

 

 

Yay!  We are so happy to be filling up our walls with all the wonderful art projects done by our fabulous 2's!  Our tree is full of apple's, as we introduced the letter Aa two weeks ago.  These are no ordinary apples, we had the children spread glue on the apple color of their choice and sprinkle jello on them to create a nice textured look.  To quote one of our amazing 2's, "It smells like candy."  We also made number books and had the children place 1 apple sticker on the #1 page, 2 on the #2 page, etc... and finished off the week with an alligator puppet in honor of Ally Alligator our Zoophonics friend.  

You'll notice our busy bee's and butterflies flying around our trees!  The children painted the plates yellow and black and transformed them into our very own bee's.  The butterflies were made having them use markers to scribble scrabble designs on them and squirt water on them to create a beautiful watercolor butterfly.  Bubba Bear was honored making our very own bears out of paper plates painted brown. We had lots of fun watching them not only paint the plates, but their hands, arms and occasionally a cheek!  

The 2's have been quick to pick up on our routine and it has been a joy as they recognize when it's time for singing time, washing hands, snack time and closing circle time.  During our closing circle time we've been able to introduce them to signing the abc's and some new shapes as well.  It has been a joy for us to get to know each child and see their faces light up as they notice their family collages that we've decorated the walls with...We love, love, love being a part of each child's life...thank you for allowing us to be a part of their first learning experiences!