Hello preschool families! As the seasons begin to change, the preschool classroom is following right along.
This week we have been talking all about apples! We have a great mentor text, The Apple Pie Tree, by Zoe Hall which tells the story of how an apple grows. Students have been creating their own apple crafts and have gotten an introduction to the letter A. If you have been hearing some new songs at home, it's probably because we spend a lot of time singing in preschool! One rhyme and song I taught the children is called Five Little Apples. It's a finger counting song that the preschoolers love to act out. We also sang a silly song that helped us play with the sounds we hear in words called Apples and Bananas. Next week we will be doing some apple investigating as part of a science lesson where we will use our senses (taste, sight, smell, touch, and hearing) to see what we notice about apples. I hope you are all enjoying some fun fall activities when your child is home from school, I know I am and I love to hear the preschoolers talk about their favorite experiences! :) Ms. McKay
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Dear Preschool Families,
Welcome to preschool at Middleton Elementary! I am so excited to have another year of learning underway. The first two days of preschool have gone amazingly! I have enjoyed meeting all my new students and look forward to meeting a couple more as the month goes on. Thank you to parents that have already sent in your beginning of the year paperwork, please remember to send in this information as soon as possible if you have not already. A couple important reminders for parents as we begin the year: students should come with a healthy snack and a water bottle or drink each day. Many kids find themselves getting thirsty throughout the day, especially as we are spending time outside on the warmer days. Please remember to send your child's folder back to school each day so I can send home reminders and your child's work. While MES does not have a required school supplies list, some helpful things our classroom always needs are: liquid/foam soap dispensers as our students can't always reach the school installed soap and baby wipes for our little messes. As always, thank you for allowing me to teach your little ones and I look forward to learning more about our preschoolers and their families! :) Ms. McKay Hello preschool families! As the year approaches a close, we are still finding plenty of time to have fun in preschool! This week we have been exploring dinosaurs, a real favorite for many of the students. We have explored a variety of dinosaur books, including, How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food? and If The Dinosaurs Came Back. We have created dinosaur fossil exhibits using play-doh and Q-tips, modeled dinosaur tracks in the play-doh, created dinosaur puzzles that were sent home, and done some dinosaur dance moves.
The date is set for our end of the year preschool graduation celebration! It will take place on Tuesday, June 19th, at 10:00am. Parents and family members are welcome to attend our celebration where we will have light refreshments, a slideshow, student performances, and a short graduation ceremony. Any parent wishing to donate juice, a special snack, or small plates are more than welcome to- please just let me know so I can plan ahead to fill in any gaps! I look forward to celebrating a year of accomplishments with you and your student. As always, thanks for all that you do :) Ms. McKay Our reading specialist Mrs. Richardson wanted to pass along a note about STEM versus STEAM.
Many families are hearing more and more about STEM or STEAM night activities at their child’s school. What is the difference between STEM vs. STEAM and what do the abbreviations stand for? The acronym “STEM” stands for: science, technology, engineering and math. The acronym “STEAM” stands for science, technology, engineering ART and math. As many of you know, at MES we have chosen to include “art” (for example: product design) into our STEM program, making it STEAM. Recently we hosted our first STEAM night for all families and it was a huge success. The focus of STEAM is to motivate and engage students in real-world activities. In the 21st century it is important to provide students with thought provoking and diverse, critical thinking opportunities that are student-centered that challenge creative thought in innovative ways. Educating the whole child to become a global citizen is becoming more and more important in the world we live in. Visit this website for creative activities which can be done at home using household items (Stem or Steam) but most importantly have fun with it! http://www.readingrockets.org/article/stem-tools-home Hooray for spring finally having a day that feels like spring! I am so excited for the weather to be nice so our preschoolers can enjoy more like outside learning. We have been exploring topics like weather, gardening, plants, and insects in our classroom. Some fun activities have included: investigating the similarities and differences between seeds for different plants, planting our own seeds, looking for a rainbow of colored plants in a seed catalog, and reading bug-themed stories such as The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Students have been excited to spend time outside and have been sharing lots of fun outdoor activities they like to do at home!
As the year begins to come to a close, I want to invite parents and families to attend an end of the year graduation celebration for our preschool class! I know some students will be spending another year in preschool, but many of our students will be moving on to Kindergarten. I am planning for this event to take place during the last, or second to last, week of school (June 11th-14th or June 18th-21st). Please let me know if your child WILL NOT be attending either of these weeks so that I can plan to have all our students included. Once I have set a date, I will send home an informational sheet with times and what to expect on this day. Thanks again for all you do to support your students at home! As always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me through e-mail or phone at any time! :) Ms. McKay Hello preschool families! I apologize for the lapse in updates, but with all this crazy weather and February vacation, I have neglected this website. Now that we are getting into March, I wanted to give families some information about some great literacy opportunities that are coming up quickly! Susan Richardson, our reading specialist at MES wanted me to share this with you: “Paws to Read” Hello M.E.S. families! M.E.S. is planning to celebrate children’s literacy in March with a “PAWS TO READ” campaign. There will be two weeks of fun school festivities from March 19th-30th. These activities will be held during school hours, with one family evening celebration! The theme is ”Paws to Read” where young readers are encouraged to read to their special pets and animal friends at home…paws to read! Festivities include: the Scholastic Book Fair beginning March 26th-30th (Paws to Read theme); an all-family “Literacy Night” with fun activities for everyone (the book fair will be open too); Special Guests from the community have volunteered to read to classes; also a surprise visit from “CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG”; and last, “PAWS ACROSS AMERICA” campaign where students read books and record them on paw-prints to be displayed on our giant Paws Across America map in the halls of M.E.S. Scholastic has offered this Book Fair website for parents, http://fyre.it/ZgrRtebo.4. Check it out! We look forward to these fun events and seeing everyone at Literacy Night!! In the preschool classroom we have been doing an author study of Dr. Seuss! His birthday was on March 2nd and we have been reading some of his popular books like "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back" and "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish". Along with reading his books, we have been practicing rhyming skills through fun songs and activities during our center time. This week, in addition to reading Dr. Seuss, we have been exploring St. Patrick's Day with rainbow crafts, gold coins, and leprechauns. I wonder if any leprechauns will visit your student's home to cause mischief! We continue to learn about the alphabet in our class as we focus on one letter per week. So far we have covered M, S, T, G, C, H, D and now we are on letter P. Students learn about these letters and the sounds they make during their morning work which you may have seen in the papers sent home with your child. A good idea to extend your child's learning is to talk about things in your house that start with the letter of the week, watch the ABC Mouse videos about the letter we're learning, and practice making the sound the letter makes. As always, feel free to call or e-mail me with any questions or concerns! :) Ms. McKay Hello preschool families! I have been so busy this month that I wasn't able to get a preschool update in. This month we have been busy learning about letters in our alphabet and snowmen. Students have created their own snowman art projects, read snowman books, and acted out a snowmen poem. We have been enjoying the snow on the playground as much as possible, as long as it hasn't been too icy or frigid cold out.
The letters we have been practicing in class so far have been S, T, M, and this week we will introduce G for Groundhog's Day. Students are learning what the letters look like, both uppercase and lowercase, what sounds the letters make, and words that start with the letter. We have incorporated letter learning into our morning work when students arrive into class through different worksheets that I periodically send home. We also have been watching the ABC Mouse letter videos that have catchy songs to talk about letters and reading AlphaTales books to learn more about words that start with our letter of the week. Today School Smiles came into our class to discuss mouth hygiene with students. Preschoolers watched The Berenstain Bears Go To the Dentist and a dental hygienist showed them proper tooth brushing techniques and let them practice on a giant set of teeth. The students really enjoyed using oversized toothbrushes to brush the teeth of puppets. I am sending home teeth cleaning goody bags from the program and I have several extras. If you would like a bag for a sibling, or an extra for your child- please let me know and I will send one home. A reminder that we do not have school this Wednesday, the 31st, for a teacher's workshop day. Valentine's Day is quickly approaching and I will be hosting a party, similar to our Christmas party! On Wednesday, February 14th, we will have a Valentine's/friendship celebration. If you have any shoeboxes lying around the house, we will be decorating Valentine's mailboxes in the weeks leading up to the celebration to collect the student's Valentines. I invite parents to join us for our celebration from 10:30-11:30am where we will have Valentine's craft activities and a special snack. I am also asking for any snack donations to make our party extra special! I have leftover juice boxes from our Christmas party and plenty of plates and silverware, but holiday treats are welcome. I will send more information home at the end of this week about our Valentine's celebration. Have a wonderful week :) Ms. McKay Happy New Year to all my Middleton preschool families! I hope everyone had a restful and joyous holiday break. I also hope everyone was able to weather this storm we had come through! It has been a crazy week with only one day of preschool, so I am looking forward to a, hopefully, full week next week. Students this week began learning about the letter S. We will continue our exploration of the letter S next week as well and will introduce a new letter, T. While we are not going in ABC order for our letter learning, research shows students benefit more from learning letters in context. For example, by learning a couple of letters at the same time, students learn how to compare the sounds and understand how letter sounds work together. You can practice at home by having your child listen to you say several words that begin with the same letter (ex. boat, ball, boy) and then asking if they hear the same sound in other words (ex. cat, toy, balloon). This phonics instruction is crucial for students are they begin their journey towards reading!
With all the snow we've been getting, we are exploring snowmen and winter themes along with our letters. Students have enjoyed playing with a Christmas themed sensory bin where they can wrap their own presents. We practiced our cutting skills and number order by creating winter pictures. And we have been reading fun snowman building books such as How to Build a Snow Bear by Eric Pindler and Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner. Though much of the preschool routine has stayed the same into our new year, I have introduced the students to morning work. Each morning after students arrive in the classroom, they take care of their backpacks and snow gear and then they will find their name tag at the tables. Students will have a short activity to complete before they move on to free play. For students entering Kindergarten next year this is a good introduction to the expectations they will see. For students with one more year of preschool, this gives them an opportunity to practice skills and explore our learning topics in another style. Stay warm and enjoy the snow! :) Ms. McKay Hello preschool families! As next week is our last week together before the winter break, I wanted to have a class celebration for the holiday! As we did for Halloween, I am planning on having a special snack and some fun activities planned for Thursday, December 21st. I am inviting parents/families to bring in a drink or treat to share with the class for our party. I will provide healthy holiday options like fruit and cheese sticks. I am also going to make some sugar cookies that the children can decorate in class. If you would like to bring in a special treat, please let me know via e-mail or a note in your child’s folder so I know what to expect! For our Christmas celebration, I am also inviting parents to come to preschool for the last hour, from 10:30am-11:30am. We will have a sing-along, Christmas crafts, and our snacks during this time. If you would like to come to our party, again please just let me know so I know who to expect! As always, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me! Have a wonderful weekend :) Ms. McKay Hello Middleton preschool families! I apologize for the delayed update but things have gotten so busy with all our days off for the holiday. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends. I certainly have a lot to be grateful for, and your students help me see that every day.
Before Thanksgiving break, we did a lot of turkey themed activities with pattern blocks, coloring pages, and feathers. Now that turkey day is over, I have been focusing on some letter activities and recently introduced a winter theme. Last week, on Thursday, I introduced a new and exciting learning tool to the students- iPads! Students used an interactive shape app that helps students build their executive functioning and problem solving skills. We talked about how to treat technology safely so that students can begin to feel a sense of responsibility about these great tools. This week, we are exploring penguins and snowmen as winter draws closer. We read the book, What Do Snowmen Do At Night, which was exciting for the children as they thought about all the fun things snowmen like to do just like them! We are also reading If You Were a Penguin and The Emperor's Egg to learn some fun facts about penguins. Preschoolers are continuing to expand their play skills through cooperative activities like kitchen, blocks, and dollhouse. The students came up with their own game in the kitchen where they enjoy making me "spicy" food to eat and they anticipate my reaction to the hot dish! As the days get colder, please remember to send your child in with mittens/gloves, a hat, jacket, and when snow falls- boots. If you would like to keep any of those items at school- I have plenty of storage. Also, I will continue to send home Scholastic Book Orders as a receive the new catalogs. It is optional, but they have some great prices on books. I try to send the order out around the time I put for the final order date due, but sometimes they can get a little delayed. I also do not always see if someone orders online, unless I am checking my account frequently, so feel free to send me a message or let me know if you ordered online during the month so I can be sure to submit the order. As soon as orders are shipped to the school- I will send them home in your child's backpack. Finally, I am hoping to have a Christmas/holiday celebration on Thursday the 21st. This would be a time when parents would be invited to attend (we can choose a partial time block) and I would ask for volunteers for activity stations or donations for a group snack. I will try and send home an informational notice this week to give you time to schedule if you would like to attend. Please let me know if you do not want your student to participate in Christmas related activities or if you celebrate any other holidays that we can share with the class! I'm looking forward to a wonderful rest of the week and I'm excited seeing the student's excitement as Christmas gets closer. :) Ms. McKay |