Hello preschool families! The month of May really flew by, I can't believe we only have 12 days of preschool left before summer! That being said, I wanted to write an update on what we've been learning as well as information for the end of the year celebration!
In the preschool classroom we did units on insects, farms, construction, and vehicles over the past month. Students created their own caterpillar paintings with paper towel tubes, played with farm animals in the mud and gave them baths in the sensory bin, used tools in the construction zone to build towers and buildings as well as knock them down, and used cars to paint race track pictures; among many other fun activities. We read books like The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Freight Train, The Very Impatient Caterpillar, and Book! Book! Book! to relate to our themes each week. Students have also enjoyed using chalk outside on nice days, completing obstacle courses in the gym, and singing lots of songs. As the end of the year quickly approaches, I would like to invite all families to a end of the year classroom celebration. Students will have a chance to sing and dance for you as well as watch a slideshow of pictures from our year of learning. Light refreshments will be served, I am looking for volunteer donations. And if it's nice, we can all go play outside on the playground! This will take place on May 19th, a Wednesday, at 10am. We will continue to have preschool after this date, and we will try to pack in as much fun as possible! One final reminder, as it gets warmed, students often get thirsty during their school day so packing a water bottle or extra juice box helps them stay hydrated. Thanks for all you do! Ms. McKay
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I hope all my preschool families had a wonderful and relaxing April vacation! Pretty soon it is going to be summer break, it's just around the corner! Preschoolers are going to be learning all about gardens, plants, and insects as we head into the gardening season of Spring. Ask your child about our classroom sensory bin which is filled with "dirt" (black beans), bug manipulatives, leftover Easter grass, and colorful insects and flowers with hidden letters! Students can work on sorting types of insects, arranging by color, pattern making, and letter ID in this fun and play-based activity. Students also were introduced to a new dramatic play center where they can run their own flower shop complete with rainbow bouquets and play money. Each of the fun centers in my classroom is actually a sneaky way to incorporate early learning concepts such as matching, sorting, classifying, and social skills like sharing and taking turns. Students may have a special surprise to share with you at home in a few weeks related to our gardening/planting unit, so stay tuned!
:) Ms. McKay I am also including a note from our school reading specialist, enjoy! Choosing Books at the Right Level for Your Child. Where Nature Meets Story: As spring arrives, we welcome the warm weather whole heartedly. Connecting children and nature by either reading books outdoors or going to the library and finding nature based literature helps reconnect students to the outdoor world we have missed during the winter months. Picking JUST RIGHT BOOKS for children can be challenging. One simple way to pick books is by using the five finger rule. According to Reading Eggs this is how to find JUST RIGHT BOOKS for your child. The five finger rule The five finger rule is a quick and easy way for your child to check if a book is suitable to read on their own. Before they start, ask them to turn to a random page in the book and read it. For every word that they don’t know, they should hold up a finger. Your child can use the following guidelines according to how many fingers they hold up: 0 or 1 – Most probably too easy for your child. 2 – A good choice that will give your child a reasonable challenge and allow them to learn new words. 3 – Your child might need some help, but still a good choice if they’re up for a challenge. 4 – May be too difficult for your child to read on their own. If you are on hand to give them help or read along with them it can be suitable, but if they are reading on their own, choose a different book. 5 – Most probably a bit too advanced, try a different book. Scholastic is a great place to look for book ideas for your child. Here is a website with book ideas by age. https://www.scholastic.com/parents/books-and-reading/books-and-reading-guides/recommended-childrens-books-by-age.html Sue Richardson Reading Specialist Hello preschool families! I hope all is well with you and that your family are enjoying some outside time despite the weird weather we have been having. Preschool has been spending lots of time on the playground on the days when it's not raining. We are still wearing snow gear while there is snow on the ground, but just be aware that once the snow is gone, the structure and ground will still be wet so students might want to have snow pants or an extra layers of sweatpants in case they get wet while playing on those melty days.
This past week and next, we are celebrating Easter and springtime in our classroom. We read the book, "Are You My Mother" by P. D. Eastman to think about springtime birds hatching and matching babies with their mamas for different animal types. We have played in a sensory bin filled with Easter grass, Easter eggs, and small toys that students can fill and hide. We have created Easter bunny shape pictures and baked in our class "bakery" in the dramatic play center. Students had a fun time opening Easter eggs in a letter scavenger hunt, working on their letter identification skills and matching skills. Kids love hunting for and opening Easter eggs, so what better way is there to incorporate those preschool academic skills like letters, numbers, shapes, and following directions! One other activity the students have really enjoyed this week is Easter themed yoga! Students have practiced new poses like "Easter basket", "egg hunt", and "Easter bunny". Next week students will decorate eggs using Q-tips and paint, learn about setting a table, matching baby animals to their mothers, and practicing ordering numbers 1-10, just to name a few of our fun activities! Have a wonderful weekend! :) Ms. McKay Hello preschool families! This month is flying by, seems like April vacation will be here before we know it! I hope you are enjoying what is hopefully the last of the snow we will get and spending lots of time soaking up some much needed sunshine outside. In the preschool room, we have spent the past two weeks exploring nursery rhymes and fairy tales! As it is our school-wide literacy celebration, the preschool students have joined in by learning about some of the most simple stories- classic nursery rhymes. Students built walls for humpty dumpty in the block center, retold classic nursery rhymes with puppets and story boards, and created humpty dumpty projects where humpty was put back together with Band-aids! We have read many classic nursery rhymes and paired them with fun songs and videos to engage the children.
This week we moved onto fairy tales and celebrated all the fun fantasy in our own fairy tale castle! Our kitchen center transformed into the perfect tea party spot where students practiced their best manners pouring tea and acting like princesses and princes. Students also learned about the fairy tale of the Three Little Pigs and built their own houses of straw, sticks, and bricks in the block center. Students have really been practicing their engineering skills with all these fun STEM activities! Though it's not really a nursery rhyme or fairy tale, students have really enjoyed singing along and doing the finger plays for 5 little ducklings and 5 little monkeys jumping on the bed. I'm sure many of them could sing you the song at home if it's not already one of your family favorites! As Spring begins to peek it's way out of the snow our class will begin exploring weather, flowers, plants, gardens, and insects! Please remember to keep packing snow gear for the students until all the snow has melted from our playground as they can get pretty wet from just the leftover slush. I hope to see you all at Literacy Night on Thursday, March 28th, at 6pm! I have a fun activity in my room appropriate for our youngest learners! Thanks for all you do :) Ms. McKay Hello preschool families! I hope you all enjoyed a restful February vacation and have had an easy start back to the daily routine of school again. I know I am feeling very excited for the start of spring and some warmer temperatures so that we can get back outside for recess finally! Students have been enjoying indoor recess where they get to use iPads, but we took a special field trip to the gym to try out some of Mr. Hilbert's fun gym equipment like hula-hoops and soccer balls.
This past week, students had the chance to explore the wonderful world of Dr. Seuss. We made our own truffula trees from the world of The Lorax. We counted and sorted rainbow goldfish from One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. We created zany recipes in the Cat in the Hat kitchen. And we also practiced our STEAM skills when we made giant towers and structures with the cats' hats (solo cups). We spent a lot of time exploring rhyme through small group activities, songs, and a sensory bin. Students learned the song/chant Wibbledy, Wobbledy, Woo which turns the beginning letter of their name into a W (ex. Wam for Sam) and has children listen carefully to figure out who's name rhymes with the silly word. Our sensory bin was a big hit, as it usually is, as it was filled with orbeez water beads and figurines of items that had a rhyming partner in the bin, like dog and frog. Rhyming is a key early predictor of future reading ability, so it's great to practice rhymes with your child anytime! In the coming week, I'm excited to teach children about leprechauns and their tricky ways for St. Patrick's Day. Students will have a chance to build their own imaginative leprechaun traps, count with gold coins, create a rainbow fizzing cauldron, and explore colors through various rainbow activities. Please feel free to contact me with any questions, and as always, thank you for all you do in helping your children become little learners! :) Ms. McKay Hello preschool families! Students are enjoying our new classroom center system where they get to choose their favorite activities to participate in each day. Ask your child what their favorite center in our classroom is! We have a variety of centers to target all early learning skills, they include: dramatic play, math manipulatives, literacy, art and writing, sensory, blocks, and science and technology. We change the activities available every couple of weeks so the students stay engaged with their work and exploration.
For the past two weeks in preschool we have been studying arctic animals and where they live. For our arctic animals unit, we got to do fun activities like painting with ice, melting animals out of icebergs, practicing ABCs with cotton snowballs, exploring numbers by feeding arctic animals, and building igloos in the block center. The students even cooked food for arctic animals based on what the animals eat in the wild! We watched some videos about real life arctic animals including baby penguins and baby polar bears growing up. Next week, we have a short week, but I am very excited for the students to explore our new dramatic play center! I set up a dentist's office in our classroom to help our students learn about dental health and healthy choices! I will be sending home some resources to share with your kids on teeth brushing and a fun coloring sheet that your child can use to track how often they brush their teeth. Enjoy your long weekend and I will see you after MLK Day! :) Ms. McKay Hello preschool families! The holidays are always a busy time of year for teachers, students, and families alike so I apologize for the delayed update. We have been busy learning about all different winter themes in our preschool room including: snowmen, winter animals in New England, the classic book by Jan Brett, The Mitten, and Thanksgiving. Students have enjoyed activities such as: making and decorating their own mitten to go along with Jan Brett's story, exploring where different animals live, painting the snow in front of the school, and visiting with a special guest (Ms. Watson dressed as a turkey).
We are beginning to introduce letters to the preschool curriculum and have worked on Mm and now Ss. As we explore these letters, feel free to continue the conversation at home, pointing out words the begin with the letter we're learning about and practicing making it's sound. This carryover helps students to really get a deep understanding of the things we teach in the classroom. At the end of this week I will be sending home a notice regarding our Christmas/holiday festivities at school! We have a special surprised planned for all grades and the preschool will also be having a class party before winter break on December 20th around 10:00am. As with the Halloween party, I encourage parents to attend and partake in the class activities with students as well as provide a healthy, but festive, snack. I know students are getting very excited as Christmas approaches! We are continuing to follow our classroom routine to help students have a sense of sameness during this stressful and exciting time of year. Having a routine at home can help kids feel more in control of their time and gives them a sense of what's happening next which can relieve anxiety and anticipation! Please feel free to contact me with any questions, concerns, or comments. As always, thank you for all you do! Ms. McKay Hello preschool families! I had a wonderful time celebrating Halloween with my class and I hope you did too! I'm sure with pumpkin carving, trick-or-treating, costumes, and other fun, you all had your hands full! I wanted to send a big thank you to all the parents who donated items for our party's snack or volunteered their time to the classroom on our party day. I know the students love seeing their families at school and it is such a big help to me to have extra hands to ensure everyone is having fun!
Now that Halloween has past, we are moving into some new topics of exploration. This week, students will be learning about their names. We will be writing our names in many creative ways including: dot markers, stickers, watercolor paint, and puzzles. I focus on student's first names when completing in-class activities but also encourage them to learn their full name (first and last) to be able to talk about who they are. Learning to recognize their name is an important skill for early literacy. Three year olds are beginning to recognize their own name and may notice other words that begin with the same letter as their own name. As children approach kindergarten (4-5 years old) they begin to recognize some letters in their name and begin to copy and/or write their name. At home you can support these skills by labeling your child's bedroom, dining room chair, or favorite toys with their name. You can play "name games" like "A My Name Is Alice" to help kids think about the beginning sounds of their name. Even talking about how mommy's and daddy's and people in their family have names helps children think more about their own unique identity! Have a wonderful day off tomorrow and stay warm! :) Ms. McKay Hello preschool families and friends! We have begun exploring pumpkins in our classroom and students seem to really enjoy having real life pumpkins to look at in our room! This past week we read "It's Pumpkin Time" by Zoe Hall and learned a little about how a pumpkin goes from a seed to a full-grown orange pumpkin. We watched a time-lapse video of a pumpkin growing which students seemed fascinated by. We also have been practicing a pumpkin song that helps students learn numbers and counting! Five Little Pumpkins is a very fun song, especially when students have their own counting mats and pumpkin erasers to "act out" the song with. Finally, we made our own jack-o-lanterns while learning about shapes like circles, triangles, and squares!
Next week we will have a sensory exploration of a pumpkin, complete with cutting it open to feel all the "guts" that are inside! If you are carving or painting pumpkins at home, have a conversation with your child about shapes, colors, or how pumpkins grow to connect their learning back to school. I also have the date and time of our Halloween parade and party! On Halloween, Wednesday, October 31st, preschool will take part in an indoor parade, complete with costumes, at 9am. Students should come to school dressed in their costume and we will keep it on for our Halloween party. I welcome families to join us for the parade where all the other grade levels will line the halls to cheer our littlest learners on. We will then take a short break to do some of our daily routines in the classroom (including having some free play time) before starting our classroom party at 10am. I realize parents may not want to come and go between the parade and party, and I am happy to have parent volunteers in our classroom for the entirety of the day. Please just let me know in advance so I know how many parents to expect and I can prepare students for the change in routine. Parents are welcome at both the parade and the classroom party! We will have fun Halloween-themed activities and we will have a special snack. That being said, I will be looking for volunteers to bring in food and drinks for our students. We currently have 9 children in the classroom. Ideas include: cheese sticks, crackers, fruit, veggie sticks, pretzels, granola bars, and juice boxes. I ask that you consider bringing in a healthy snack as too many treats may upset some of our little tummies. As always, please contact me with any questions or concerns! :) Ms. McKay Now that the fall colors are really coming through, our preschoolers are getting a chance to explore nature inside and outside of the classroom! After our apple unit, students were able to talk about how their senses help them and describe what they noticed while taste-testing different kinds of apples. Now that the leaves are falling, we took a chance to go for a walk outside this warm morning to collect leaves. We started off by creating leaf rubbings with crayons and will begin talking about how our leaves are the same and how they are different. Talking about opposites and ways things contrast help preschool aged children to think critically about the things they see. This is an important pre-reading skill that helps kids notice the subtle differences between letters.
As Halloween approaches, I'm happy to announce we will be having a class Halloween party in our preschool classroom this year! Students are encouraged to wear their Halloween costumes on Wednesday, October 31st for a school-wide Halloween parade. I welcome all parents to stay and join us after the parade to have fun festivities in the classroom. I will have the parade start time soon and will make sure to send a notice home, but for now- save the date! I will also have a sign-up sheet for what parents can volunteer to bring to enjoy during our party snack time. I hope you had a wonderfully restful long weekend, I'm excited to continue learning with the students :) Ms. McKay |