Recent Happenings

ECS Pre-K Classroom News
AM Edition November 19, 2004

A Peek at the Week

This week we learned about Tools and Utensils. We talked about many common tools and utensils, and what these items are used for. We also talked about how our hands can be used as tools, such as when we open our milk, and while finger painting. At the science table, the children used magnet wands to “find” the paperclips inside a bottle filled with sand, and another bottle filled with purple water. The children also walked around the room finding other objects which were magnetic, such as the legs of the chairs and tables, the filing cabinet, the art drying rack, door knobs, etc. On Friday the children will attend an assembly about dancing. Be sure to ask your child about it.

Centers: Finger painting, little tikes tool bench with legos and tools, dollhouse and furniture, coloring turkey pictures, Science table with magnets, and a Magnetic Leap Frog letter activity.

Vocabulary: hammer, nail, tool, screwdriver, drill, saw, nut, bolt, utensil, whisk, spatula, spoon, fork, knife, can opener, magnetic, metal, and magnets.

PT Group: Renee came up with a very creative obstacle course this week. The children had to obtain all of the ingredients for a Thanksgiving meal. They walked across a balance beam where they picked up one plastic vegetable, then went through a tunnel where they picked up a fruit, rolled across a mat and got a “roll” or other bread, then hopped on a trampoline, and finally walked on a path of circles where they picked up a plastic turkey or ham. The children then sorted the items back into their appropriate categories by placing them in a basket for the bread, etc.

Speech/Language: Mrs. Mishou was out sick on Wednesday and Thursday this week. Bowen-mishou@cromwellct.org

THANK YOU’s!: Thanks to Robyn Casella (AM class) for donating the leap frog alphabet letters refrigerator game, both classes have enjoyed these very much already. These are a great idea for a Holiday gift... some parents told me at conferences that you already have these letters and love them! Mrs. Polezonis (PM class) donated a homemade stop/go sign for the bathroom door. It is Velcro’d to the door, and the children change the sign to show whether the bathroom is occupied or not. What a great idea! She also donated some glue sticks, and picked up crickets for the frogs this week, so thanks again. Thanks to those parents who sent in the cards from magazines…these will be great for the children to practice cutting anytime!

Help needed: those items mentioned previously...thanks again to everyone for your help!

Looking Ahead: Next week we will be talking about Thanksgiving, and furniture/utensils. It will be a good time to discuss table manners and the items on the table during meals.

Reminders: Both AM and PM classes will meet as usual on Monday and Tuesday next week. On Wednesday, there is only AM class, NO PM Class on Wednesday November 24^th. There will be no newsletter next week due to the shortened week. Enjoy your holiday!

A Peek At Our Week

Apples, pumpkins, and farms were the topics again this week. During circle we continued to work on rhyming words related to farms, such as cow-now, pig-dig, etc. We also continue to work on rapid naming of letters and numbers each day. The children do well attending to the activity and participate enthusiastically. The children cut out their sponge painted leaves from last week, and they are hanging in the classroom, very colorful and each one unique. As part of a continued focus on Science in the Pre-K, we received some new wooden blocks this week. The children have enjoyed exploring these new blocks, and creating many unique buildings. The children can make predictions about what will happen when blocks are positioned a particular way, guess why something does or doesn't work, etc. This activity is great for learning about concepts such as shorter, taller, longer, biggest, etc.

Centers: Farm animals and barn with blocks, shelf toys, kitchen, coloring, Look What I Can Do, writing in journals, and farm puzzles.

PT Group

Since last week went so well, we repeated last week's activity. The children pretended they were the wind blowing leaves off of the trees in autumn. Two or three children were designated as the trees covered with leaves (colored scarves). The "wind" came along, took one leaf, and brought it to its corresponding colored circle. This was a great color recognition/sorting activity as well as a great movement and creativity activity. See the web for pics.

Help needed:

During parent conferences many of you asked for a wish list of items we need in the classroom. We decided to try including a few items in the newsletter when we are running low. This seemed to work well for the spoons and napkins; please let us know if this method does/doesn't work for you. We Are also including one no cost item you may have at home.

Current items running low on:

• Glue sticks for art projects
• A gallon of white glue (for making goop/silly putty)
• Sticky back Velcro (Joann's sells it in a box of 15 ft for approx $25.00, but can use 40% off coupon which I can provide you with).
• You know those annoying post cards that fall out of magazines? those are great for practicing cutting and "writing". Please save these and send them in to us, or use them at home with your child to practice cutting and "writing" on the lines.

THANK YOU's!

Thank you to SO MANY of you that sent in napkins and spoons! We should be all set for the year! Your prompt response is very much appreciated! Thanks to: Ben, Jared, and Nate from the morning class, and Hannah and Colette from the afternoon class. Thank you to Nate and Mr. Schmidt for tracking down crickets on Monday night. The frogs appreciate your dedication and traveling to 3 pet shops for their dinner!

If you are planning on picking up crickets for the frogs, Guppies to Puppies has been out of them quite frequently. Cozy Coe's Pet Shop at 1914 Silas Deane Highway in Rocky Hill seems to be a better choice. Thanks to those parents for sharing that info. Have heard nothing bad about Petco, just further to travel for most.

Looking Ahead

In November our topics will be: apples and leaves, Farm/Tools, Friendship/ Thanksgiving, and Furniture and utensils.

Website: To see the site, visit www.cromwellschools.com/ecs knagy@cromwellct.org

ECS Pre-K Classroom News Morning Class

A Peek at the Week
Apples, pumpkins, and farms were the topics this week. During circle we continued to work on rhyming words related to farms, such as cow-now, pig-dig, etc. We also continue to work on rapid naming of letters and numbers each day. The children do well attending to the activity and participate enthusiastically. The children worked on a sponge painting leaf activity that will be displayed in the classroom next week.
Centers: Farm animals and barn with blocks, shelf toys, kitchen, coloring, Look What I Can Do, and farm puzzles.
A BIG THANKS: Parent conferences were a GREAT success. It was wonderful having the opportunity to sit down with each and every one of you and discuss your child’s wonderful progress! I had 100% attendance at the conferences, which is extraordinary. Thanks to all of you for being such involved and supportive parents!
A new book: This week each child was sent home with a book What Readers Can Do. These books were given to the children from the Scholastic Book Club due to the great participation in ordering books for your children. Thanks for your support in the Book Clubs, and enjoy the free book at home.

Speech and Language: Please check out the below address for updates
Bowen-mishou@cromwellct.org

PT Group
During PT group this week, the children pretended they were the wind blowing leaves off of the trees in autumn. Two or three children were designated as the “trees” covered with “leaves” (colored scarves). The “wind” came along, took one leaf, and brought it to its corresponding colored circle. This was a great color recognition/sorting activity as well as a great movement and creativity activity. See the web soon for pics.

OT Corner
With the approaching holiday season I’d like to invite you all to check out some gift ideas that will be fun and encourage student’s developing pre-writing skills. (See attached Gift Suggestions List.) One of the interesting and fun activities that Mrs. Maruschock has been using in the classroom is one you could use with your children at home. They will need a clipboard with paper or a sturdy pad with shapes (or even letters) drawn down the left side of the page (i.e. circles, squares, diamonds and triangles). Then they look around the house for things that are the same shape as the ones they have listed and put a check next to the appropriate shape for each shape they find. The students really enjoyed doing this in the classroom and are so proud of themselves whenever they recognize the shapes around them. The skills they are developing include visual discrimination, visual scanning, matching, visual figure ground discrimination and form constancy (recognizing images in a variety of positions and formats as the same images). And, as always, HAVE FUN!

Looking Ahead
In November our topics will be: apples and leaves, Farm/Tools, Friendship/ Thanksgiving, and Furniture and utensils.
Website: To see the site, visit www.cromwellschools.com/ecs knagy@cromwellct.org

THANK YOU’s!
Some belated thank you’s: Thanks to Jennifer’s Mom for making the very yummy nutter-butter ghost cookies.
Also, thanks to Jared’s Mom for the popcorn goodie bags, and for the fun jack-o-lantern mask project she did with us during the Halloween party!
Thanks to Jared and Mrs. Valentin for delivering crickets for the frogs this week!

Help needed: We are running low on our class supply of spoons and napkins for snack each day. Can you help? Thanks.Our frogs eat about two dozen crickets a week, would you like to pick some up one week for us? Please let us know and we can make arrangements