PRE-K 4 NEWS!!!
JUAN DIEGO ACADEMY
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Fall weather is upon us. Sometimes we are having very chilly morning recesses. It would be a good idea to start sending a jacket daily starting next week. It looks like we have 2 warm days ahead but October weather can change quickly.
Spirit wear is here for those of you that ordered early September. You may have your child wear Spirit wear starting this Friday. They may wear their Spirit T-shirts and jeans every Friday or Seahawks wear is still allowed on Fridays. Brown envelopes need to be returned by no later than Tuesdays in order to be rewarded with Spirit Dress day. We will let you know if your child cannot wear Spirit Day dress if you have forgotten to return the Brown Communication envelope.
If you bought a Sweatshirt with School logo, children may wear those daily like their sweaters and vests. Please know that for Mass we need to be wearing a school sweater, school vest or sweatshirt with school logo.
Progress Reports are coming home next week. Please know that most children are at the "Beginning"(1) stage of learning concepts in Spanish. We are sending you information on the progress your child is making in our Spanish immersion curriculum. Progress Reports are not Report Cards. Report Cards will go out in December. By then we should see much more growth and more "Developing"(2) in their stage of learning concepts in Spanish. You do not have to return Progress Reports. We will draw up a new one in the Winter and Spring. If you have any questions regarding the Progress Reports, please know that November 23rd and 24th will be Parent Conference Days. But of course you may set up an earlier one at anytime by calling the office.
Our Promethean board is finally in working condition. This is a teaching tool that will provide our children with many more opportunities to experience the language on the big screen and help teachers enhance their lessons with visual representations of vocabulary we are learning.
Homework assignments are explained at length in the homework assignment sheet. It is best if you do a little homework each day. But that is completely being left to each family to decide. Just remember to help your child hold their pencil correctly and help them apply the needed pressure as they write or color with crayons. Something to watch for when children are coloring with crayons is that they move their hands back and forth as they color. Some children tend to stay coloring on the same spot not knowing how to move their hand to cover more space. The other hand is the helping hand that holds the paper down. Pre-writing sheets need to be done in pencil only. Homework folders due on Mondays!! Thank you parents for partnering with us. Below you will see some pictures of some really nice homework turned in by Vicky!
Dates to Remember:
Oct. 22nd- Wild Hare Organic Farm-Pumpkin Patch trip. Drivers be here by 12:00 to load up the kids and leave to be there by 12:30 p.m. Mrs. Farias will go ahead in her car to make sure I am there before parents show up. We will be dividing up into two groups for the tours. Pre-K 3 is one tour and Pre-K4 is another group. Parents please watch that your children stay with the tour guide at all times. They will miss out on important activities if you go off by yourselves with your child. They will be digging up potatoes and picking apples from the apple tree etc.
Sunday, Oct. 25th- Come to our Halloween carnival. Children may come to some classrooms to trick or treat from the teachers!!! It will be between 1p.m. and 1:45 p.m. Then they can go up and enjoy the festivities in the school cafeteria. Parents if you can donate a bag of candy for our Halloween carnival, it would be greatly appreciated.
Our Pre-K 4 Room parents are: Monica Anaya (Joshua Cordoba's mom), Tiffiny Yi (Talo's Mom), Alyssa Illich-Ware (Sophia's mom) and Anita Stubbs Lemus (Rio's Mom).
Room parents will be given phone numbers to contact you whenever we have a Pre-K class party or event that requires your participation. They will be in charge of preparing games or activities for class parties. Because of our Halloween carnival on the 25th, we have not heard whether we will be having individual Halloween parties on the 30th. As soon as we hear from our principal, we will let you know. Since it is short notice, teachers can probably handle the party for Halloween if allowed to happen.
CURICULUM NEWS!
WHAT DID WE LEARN THIS WEEK?
Oral Language. This week we will finish our senses theme with the touch sense. Book “Our senses” – “Los sentidos”
We will itroduce the farm. Books “Farm Animals”/Animales de la granja and “Old Mc Donald has a farm” – El viejo Donaldo tiene una granja.
We are going to review the body parts and will be introducing the theme of the muscles. Book “Our muscles” – “Los músculos”
Vocabulary. Muscles – músculos, skin – piel, mobile – móvil, push – empujar, pull - jalar
ESTRELLITA phonics: This week we will be introducing the students to three new letter sounds represented by real objects and visual images. Literature connected to objects presented will be read to the children with follow-up drawing activities. The letter sounds for this week introduce the soft sound of “g” as in gato, hard sound of “g” as in gemelos(twins), and “ch” as in chiles. We will be reading a book on different kinds of chiles and compare size and color.
The Math tubs this week involve fine motor coordination using tweezers and Halloween pom poms that they need to pick up with tweezers, count and place in cupcake pan that shows a particular number. We will also play a body part naming bingo game using puppets to enhance the fun! This is a teacher center. Students will review shapes by using dot to dot plastic templates that they need to color in and then connect to form a “rombo, triangulo, rectangulo, circulo, y cuadrado. Apple tasting to review parts of an apple using a peeling apple machine and the children will take turns turning the handle. We will graph the yellow, red or green apple they like the most and count seeds. Halloween lantern art project with shapes that they use to decorate their project will also be teacher directed.
Religion:
The children will learn simple ways to pray spontaneously and will also participate in simple traditional prayers like “Our Father” – “El Padre Nuestro”.
Also we will learn about the Saint for this week Saint Therese of Lisieux and how she always felt Jesus’s love.
Have a wonderful Weekend! Sincerely, Sra. Farias, Sra. Lambrecht, y Sra. Puryear