Preschool News
Miss Courtney and Miss Amy's Preschool Class
This Week
On Monday, Miss Becky taught us about Listening Larry and Whole Body Listening. We learned that our whole body can be a good listener. Our ears help us listen, eyes help us look at the speaker, our hands stay still, our feet criss-cross, our body's facing the speaker, our brains thinking about the things the speaker is saying and our hearts to feel how the speaker is feeling. We use the phrase "whole body listening" MANY times during the day. Miss Becky will be repeating a similar lesson next week to just reinforce it once more and will send home a letter and interactive sheet for you to be able to talk to your child about it! We also made Apple Trees using real Elmer's glue! We have done very little with the real sticky stuff and some of our friends didn't love it! Miss Amy and Miss Court like to have extra fun with those friends and put it all over their hands and arms. Overall, it was a successful project and we were excited with our final products. As we have stated before, many of our projects are about the process not the product! We also had a little bit of time to do some outside centers and enjoy the sunshine (FINALLY!)!
Tuesday, we used that lovely Elmer's Glue once again. This time, we were focused on the product, as we were asking the children to make patterns using the different colored apples. We were very impressed with the skills of the friends in our class! Please continue to make patterns with your kiddos at home! Miss Kara also came in to do a fun matching gross motor pose game with us! She hid paper pumpkins around the room that had an animal on it. When we found the pumpkin, we had to find the friend who had the match. When Miss Kara called on our pair, we had to show Miss Kara and the class how that animal moves. Then, as a class we did that movement! Although the pictures look a little crazy, it was really a fun activity with lots of movement! We also had a mystery reader! Ian's dad, Mr. Super Awesome Daddy Baldoni came in to read us three very great stories! Miss Amy and Miss Courtney want to give Ian's daddy a lot of credit for keeping our attention for so long! We talked about the books he read again on Wednesday!
Wednesday, we had a crazy day!!! During choice time, a couple friends chose to write letters! They wanted to practice. Other friends worked with rocks that have letters on them to create their names. Some friends worked with Miss Becky to play an alphabet game. Other friends worked with Miss Jean doing a number game! Again, this is a time that the students get to make independent choices! We are so proud of our friends! They are asking to do all these fun academic activities! We learned a new dance for Justin Timberlakes "Can't Stop This Feeling", that we follow on GoNoodle.com. The kids LOVE it. We also visited the Book Fair in the big kids hallway, talked to Mrs. McGinley, our guidance counselor about the word respect, played a really fun listening game in the classroom and we even had time to go outside on the playground! We were all VERY tired by the end of the day!
Thursday, we loved making applesauce together! First, we got into a semi circle and washed our hands. Next, we had a chance to make guesses for how we could get applesauce from an apple. Some people guessed that you squeeze the apple. Others guessed that you slice up the apple. It was fun to hear their ideas! Everyone scooped apples into the foley mill ( one of our tools) and then we all got turns to mash, stir, and handmix the apples into applesauce. We all had to smell, touch and taste it. We even got o shake in some cinnamon. Our room was buzzing with excitement! We are very proud of your kiddos for trying something new!
On Friday, we drew on large pieces of paper during choice time, played an alphabet identification game and we did some lacing. Then we read a nice story called The Busy Year. Miss Kelly worked our fine motor skills with some play dough. We had to roll our play dough into snakes and into small, medium and large balls. This is difficult for some friends, so please continue to practice this at home with your kiddos! We enjoyed the nice weather at the end of the day by playing outside! It was a great week!
Next Week
We also are going to be spending a lot of time focusing on how our names are spelled and what letters they are made up of! Anything you can do to reinforce this at home is helpful!
Reminders
October 12th - No School
October 17th - Picture Day
October 21st - Field Trip to Johnson's Farm