Pre-K Preview
April
March 31st-April 4th
Theme: Africa (Emphasis on people and culture)
Letter of the week: W-w
We will continue our theme of Africa this week, incorporating stories involving people and their way of life. Some of the books we use are: Jafta and his Family, Mama Panya's Pancakes, A is for Africa, Emeka's Gift, Learning to Swim in Swaziland.
We will take a lead from the children's interest and create an African market or continue with the exploration of animals with safari.
Math:
- Playing the game of "mancala" and finding new strategies.
- Experimenting with weights and balance scale
- Learning to use tally marks with the game of "Okoso"
- Patterns with African baskets and designs
Science:
- Learning about African animals and homes
- W is for water! Experiments with water, weights, and sink/float
Nancy and I are away for a workshop on Project Based Learning on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning of this week. Our substitute, Barbara Weiser is very familiar to our program and Pre-K children.
April 7th- April 11th
Theme: “Spring”
Review Letters: Rr-Ww
Language Arts:
- Exploring changes in the season through poetry!
- Reviewing letters and strengthening the sound/letter connections
- Labeling pictures and writing words
- Creating and illustrating our own poems about seasons!
Math:
- Two digit numbers
- Concept of more/less, odd/even
- Counting by 10, 2, etc.
Science:
- Nature Detectives- Looking for signs of spring and making a photo journal!
April 14th-18th
Theme: “Rabbit Tales”
Letter of the week: X-x
Language Arts:
- Introducing first chapter book: The Velveteen Rabbit and the series of Peter Rabbit along with countless children’s books with cute bunnies
- “Fox ends with X”- introduction to this unique sound/letter connection
Math:
- Lots of math with rabbits and carrots and eating (subtracting) and getting more (adding)
- Learning the strategies to play the game of “Tic-Tac-Toe” using X’s and O’s
Science:
- Continue the theme of spring, growing gardens, and vegetables
Friday, April 18th -Good Friday- No School
Monday, April 21st - Teacher In-Service - No school for students
April 21st- 25th
Theme: “Earth is Special”
Letter of the week: Y-y
Field Trip to Honey Hollow Nature Center
Wednesday, April 23rd 9:00am. -12:00pm.
- Insects and butterflies, flowers and trees, streams and ponds…. we will explore them all through language arts, math, and science and tie in many things we learned during the year about countries, oceans, space, animals and people
- Our emphasis will be on “Web of Life," how everything is connected and how important it is to take care of our home the Earth
- Surveying and graphing “what’s your favorite yogurt?”
April 25th-May 2nd
Theme: “Rainforest”
Letter of the week: Z-z
Language Arts:
- Learn the last letter of the alphabet! (Lots of excitement is building around it already)
- Exploring rainforest through the National Geographic video for kids and books such as The Umbrella, The Great Kapok Tree, Slowly, Slowly Said the Sloth, and numerous alphabet books with rainforest animals!
Math:
- Count down to zero, two digit numbers ending in zeroes and introduction to the concept of 100
Science:
- Learning all about tropical rain forests of the Amazon River and animals that make their home there
- Learning about layers of rainforest, finding animals, and learning to keep a journal about our findings will be all part of being explorers!
Upcoming Events
Please make note of the following events that parents are invited to:
Pre-K Alphabet Parade: Friday, May 9th at Sing-out 8:30-8:50am.
NFS Family Picnic: Saturday, May 10th (information to follow in Tuesday Update)
NFS Field Day: Monday, May 19th (Information to follow in Tuesday Update)
Pre-K show: “Two Ways to Count to Ten” Friday, June 6th, 9:00-9:30am. in the Pre-K room. This is a show based upon an African folktale that we read during our theme of Africa. We will soon be discussing the story and the characters and the play practice will begin soon after. Please let us know if your child is going to be absent on June 5th or 6th, so we can plan accordingly.
Thank you!
Ragini and Nancy