Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Mrs. Nicole & Ms. Connie's Pre-K class in the Ranch room

Our year here in the Ranch room has already gotten off to a great start!  We have an amazing class with 12 students, Ms. Connie and myself, Mrs. Nicole.  Since this class is Monday through Friday, we have already dug into the curriculum and begun having so much fun!  We begin our day with “Free Play” and our “Art” center where the kids get to create something all of their own-not just a planned craft.  This allows for creative interpretation and true artistic value to come out.  One of the girls favorite activities during free play is to make cards and letters and “mail” them to each other using our mail center and mailbox.  These are always sent with much love and care!




Another important aspect of our day is incorporating language arts into everyday play in addition to our Fundations curriculum.  This allows the kids to explore and play with tactile objects to further their understanding of our letters and sounds, while giving context to their pre-reading skills.


Three times during our day we come together as a whole group in the circle.  We go over our daily attendance chart, report the weather, look at the calendar, sing songs, stretch, share and talk about the activities we’re doing throughout the day.  The kids are already showing great ability to focus for short periods while sitting among the group.  These collaborative times are so much fun!




Lastly, one of the children’s favorite times of day, is snack!  It is a blast to sit with them and hear all about the wonderful thoughts racing through their minds.  They are not only eating, rather, they are sharing, learning to take turns, practicing manners, listening, planning, and being responsible young people!  It is definitely a fun time of day!






Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Adventures in Space (room)

The PreK Space room is off to great adventures 
and soaring high!  
We are enjoying getting to know each other and learning together. 
We have started the FUNdations program and it so exciting to see the students "echo" the sounds and letters. We have also added our Estimation Jar weekly. This is something that the students look forward to when it is their turn. 
In addition, a class pet came to our room and has already escaped on us.  We have a hermit crab that we are calling "Bee Sting,"  because of the bumble bee on its shell. The crab escaped the first night in our room and the next morning we could not find it anywhere.  We had multiple people searching, all rooms.  It is a mystery how it escaped and got out of the container.  It was found way far away for a crab near the kitchen area by the cleaning crew over the weekend and was returned to its home in the Space room.  It had survived.  But our class had a fun time writing a story of what happened to "Bee Sting" and how it escaped.  
We are "writing" a collection of class stories.  The students have great imaginations and love to read the stories, we collaboratively write as a class.  
Our class learning motto is 
"To Infinity and Beyond" 
and we are well on our way!
Some dramatic play of having "dinner" together.

We also love to play going to the store and shop.
The "store owner" asked each buyer to produce their card so she could run it!
Our class aliens!
PreK in the Arctic Room!

We are off to a great start in PreK at Chandler! We love the new school and we are having so much fun getting to know each other! The students are loving playing with blocks, reading and doing small groups and centers!



 Loving the Blocks!!




 More building and pattern blocks!







 The class is loving the reading corner. I have filled the shelves with all things Arctic and they can't get enough!










Small groups and centers are filled with all sorts of hands on learning! The students love using all the art materials, learning math from Mrs. Debbie, and writing on the white boards to practice their letters. They all work together so well and we have so much fun!












Howdy from the Ranch Room!

T/Th pm with Ms. Suzi and Ms. Carrie

We've had a great start to our new school year!  We love to see our new friends everyday.  Our class loves to play dress up, do science experiments and work together.  So far this year, we've been learning about ourselves, our new friends, our birthdays and our classroom.  Here are a few pictures of our adventures together.  It's going to be a great year!

Free art project.  We love to dress up in our western clothes!
Decorating our bodies

Snack time is a favorite.  Good food and great friends!



We love to make messes!

Making puppets of our families

Face magnets.  Can you make a crazy face?



I love my orange hair! It makes me ME!

Our pet hermit crabs.  Can you see him in the green shell? He crawled up the side of the cage near the top!

We're baking birthday cakes!

Super chef!

Fun in the kitchen

I'm a pilot!


We pick a job every day!

More snack time friends

Look how many bananas I ate! Yum!

Taste testing birthday cake.  We used all of our senses to decide which is our favorite.




Chocolate wins!  With lemon as a close second.