PreK Preview
May-June 2016
Coming Soon - Please plan to attend!!
The month of May brings an exciting time because we will begin our practice for the play, “Two Ways to Count to Ten." The performance is on Friday, June 3rd at 9:00 am. in the Pre-K room. The play is based on an African folktale. Each child is an African animal! The show is about 15 minutes long. Parents are invited. No younger siblings, please. The NFS siblings will watch the rehearsal the day before, with the Kindergarten classes in the Pre-K room. We will contact their respective teachers for permission. The children are excited, but we try to keep it low key and ask for your help in doing the same!
May 2nd-6th
Theme: African folktales/African safari
Letter of the week: Z-z
Language arts:
- We will continue our theme of Africa during this week, emphasizing people and culture.
Learn the last letter of the alphabet! (Lots of excitement is building around it already)
Math:
- Countdown to zero
- Numbers with zero
- African game of strategy: Mancala
Science:
- We will continue to explore our project-based learning project: flowers
- The caterpillars will be arriving!
May 9th -13th
Theme: Alphabet Celebration
Language Arts:
- As a culminating event of learning all the letters of the alphabet, the children will have an alphabet parade. They will create alphabet flags and sing a song on Thursday, May 12th at the school assembly.
- Review letters and sound/letter connections through games and the vast collection of the alphabet books such as Animal Alphabet, Jungle Alphabet, Dinosaur Alphabet, and Nature Alphabet (You get the idea!) If you have any kind of Alphabet book, this is a great week to share it!
- Introduction to sight words (the, is, love, etc.) and word families (words ending in at, op, in, etc.) We also will introduce easy reader books such as Bob books and the Reading Workshop books.
- Introduction to writing in a journal on a regular basis.
Math:
- In May and June, we will continue to build on and strengthen math concepts introduced during the year, through more challenging activities.
- Math concepts to be explored: Number recognition, Counting, More/less, Estimating, Measuring, Weights, Odd/even numbers, Two digit numbers, Patterns, Shapes, Deductive Reasoning activities…. there are so many possibilities to stretch our minds!!
- We will take the lead from the group’s interest and the need for the continuation of a concept to be explored.
Science:
- Metamorphosis....observing and journaling the stages from a caterpillar to butterfly.
- Project-based learning: Flowers
- “Alphabet Experiments” such as P is for Pulley, E is for Evaporation, A is for ants!
May 16th-27th
Theme: Ocean
Project Based Learning: Flowers
Language Arts:
- We will explore books about ocean creatures and adventures such as "A House for a Hermit Crab", "The Rainbow Fish", "How I became a Pirate", "Whale Song,' etc.
- Create puppet shows with ocean creatures
- Poems about ocean, sand, beach
- Make journal entries
- Continue to strengthen concepts learned during the year with challenging activities.
- Sink/float experiments
- Study of flowers
- Boats and submarines
- We will guide children with the possibilities, and let them decide what they want to learn more about!
Theme: "Fairy Tales"
During these weeks, we will explore and enjoy traditional fairy tales from Cinderella to Jack and the Beanstalk and much more!
Castles, knights, dragons, fairies and enchanted forests will be a wonderful way to end the magical school year!
The children will also create a fairy tale as a group. We can’t wait to see the budding authors and illustrators’ “Once upon a time…. Happily ever after” creation!
Important Dates:
Thursday, May 5th- Pajama Day. Wear your favorite pajamas, bring your favorite books and a stuffed animal to school and have breakfast for lunch!!
Thursday, May 12th- Alphabet Parade at assembly time (10:30am.) If you are available, you are most welcome to attend the assembly. Otherwise, the children are just excited to sing for their school buddies!
Friday, May 27th- Field Day-8:30am-Noon. Parents and siblings are invited to watch the Pre-K children participate in a variety of sports activities. Each team will consist of children from Pre-K to 8th grade! Each Pre-K child will have an upper school buddy to guide them. Please look for more details in the Tuesday update.
Monday, May 30th- Memorial Day. No School
Friday, June 3rd- Pre-K performance,"Two Ways to Count to Ten." 9:00am.-9:15am. in the Pre-K room.
Tuesday, June 14th- Last day of school.
Last day of school party: 10:30-11:30.
11:30 classroom pick up. Noon dismissal for siblings. No extended daycare available.
Thank you so much for entrusting us with your precious children. We appreciate your support. It has been a wonderful year!
Ragini-Nancy
May 16-20-Ocean/Flowers
May 23-27Ocean
May 30-June 10-Fairy Tales
June 13 and 14th-End of the year celebrations!