A Peek at the Week:
This week was lots of fun with DINOSAURS! The children were very excited about this topic, which got everyone talking. The vocabulary words discussed this week were amazing…including extinct, fossil, paleontologist, dinosaur tracks, and dinosaur bones, herbivore, carnivore, and omnivore. The children enjoyed the various centers that involved dinosaurs, and worked enthusiastically.
A big hit was making a paleontologist’s hat, and then going exploring around the classroom for dinosaur fossils (cut up pictures of dinosaurs made into puzzles). Once they found lots of pieces of dinosaur fossils, they began “reconstructing” the dinosaur. The children got very excited once the dinosaurs were pieced together.
Centers this week included: Shelf toys with dinosaur puzzles, a wind up dinosaur and a puzzle track for it to go on, coloring a dinosaur book, which included a page about themselves: Meghan-asaurus or Ben-asaurus for example. Another fun center was Lego’s with miniature dinosaurs where the children built museums or dinosaur lands.
At the Science Center, the amaryllis has begun blooming, and the beetles are popping up like crazy and are now quite active.
PT Group: None due to no school on Weds.
Reminders: If your child is going to be absent, please email Mrs. Maruschock or call the front office. If your child rides the bus, you also need to call the bus driver directly to let her know not to pick your child up.
Being Healthy: A friendly reminder that in Pre-K we encourage healthy snack choices, and discourage unhealthy snack choices. We know it’s sometimes hard to stay on track with our food choices, and the children learn from our example. Educating them early about healthy food choices will hopefully lead to a lifestyle of healthy living!
Help Needed: Unbelievably we have almost gone through our entire supply of tissues! We are asking each parent to send in a box of tissues to help replenish our stock. All of the runny, “sniffly” noses thank you!
Readers still needed: We have two openings still for parent readers on the following dates:
2/9 theme: self-care, and 3/9 theme: colors. Please let us know if interested. Thanks.
Looking Ahead: Because this week was such a huge hit, and because we have so many more fun activities to do involving Dinosaurs, we will be continuing Dinosaurs next week. Other upcoming February topics include Groundhog’s Day, Self-Care and Dental Health, Valentine’s Day and Friendship. March we will be talking about Dr. Seuss and Clifford, along with Rainbow Fish and Friendship again.
Thank you to Mrs. Savinelli for providing the class with LOTS of fun dinosaur materials for the class to use. We appreciate her thinking of us and letting us borrow such wonderful resources.
Thank you from Mrs. Camosci for a very Happy Belated Birthday. The flowers were beautiful, the muffins delicious, and the coffee appreciated, as well as the children’s thoughtful cards.
Enjoy the weekend! See you next week!
Friday, January 28, 2005
Friday, January 21, 2005
Morning Edition January 21, 2005
A Peek at the Week: This week we focused on the signs of winter, and talked about the opposites hot and cold since the weather was perfect for demonstrating cold this week. We continue to work on rapid naming of letters and numbers each day, good preparation for those children going on to Kindergarten next year.
We also continued to work on speech sounds, focusing on the “sh” and “s” sounds. Every adult working in the classroom cues the children to correct their speech using the hand signs shared at the November parent conferences. It is important that these consistently be corrected at home as well to teach your child the correct way to pronounce the words. During transition activities we have been rhyming with the children’s names, spelling their names, saying the first letter of their names, as well as calling out a number “if you are four years old, you can go wash your hands”. These are great quick ways to get the children listening and thinking. Instead of calling your child’s name when you need their attention, try spelling their name, so they get used to hearing the letters in their name.
Centers this week included: paper fun where the students could make their own creations by cutting, gluing, and coloring miscellaneous pieces of paper. The train center was set up on the rainbow rug this week, and this center is always a big hit. We set a timer to remind the children when the time is up, it is time to explore different centers. This is a good way to keep the children from getting “stuck” in one area of the classroom, and being sure everyone gets a turn in the center. At shelf toys the children had many new choices, including “tracing” numbers with their fingers on a circle which follows a track in the shape of the number.
At the Science Center, an Amaryllis bulb was planted, and its growth is being measured and graphed each day. It is currently at 15 inches and soon to bloom its flower. The children have enjoyed using a tape measure to document the growth, and have begun measuring other items in the classroom. Garlic bulbs, and catnip seeds were also planted, and their growth will also be monitored and compared to that of the Amaryllis. Also at the Science Center have been mealworms in a plastic container, feeding on oatmeal and crackers. The dramatic transformation continues: the mealworms continue to turn into the Darkling Beetle. The lid has been off of the container, and the children have enjoyed “digging” in the oatmeal to find the beetles.
PT Group: In PT Group this week the children again used yarn pom-poms and pretended they were snowballs. They pretended to be ice skating, wearing only their socks during this activity. You may have noticed your child’s socks were a bit dirtier than when you sent them to school.
Reminders: This is the last chance for the milk program, which will be starting next week.
NO SCHOOL: Wednesday January 26 for a teacher in-service day.
Enjoy the snowy weekend! See you next week!
We also continued to work on speech sounds, focusing on the “sh” and “s” sounds. Every adult working in the classroom cues the children to correct their speech using the hand signs shared at the November parent conferences. It is important that these consistently be corrected at home as well to teach your child the correct way to pronounce the words. During transition activities we have been rhyming with the children’s names, spelling their names, saying the first letter of their names, as well as calling out a number “if you are four years old, you can go wash your hands”. These are great quick ways to get the children listening and thinking. Instead of calling your child’s name when you need their attention, try spelling their name, so they get used to hearing the letters in their name.
Centers this week included: paper fun where the students could make their own creations by cutting, gluing, and coloring miscellaneous pieces of paper. The train center was set up on the rainbow rug this week, and this center is always a big hit. We set a timer to remind the children when the time is up, it is time to explore different centers. This is a good way to keep the children from getting “stuck” in one area of the classroom, and being sure everyone gets a turn in the center. At shelf toys the children had many new choices, including “tracing” numbers with their fingers on a circle which follows a track in the shape of the number.
At the Science Center, an Amaryllis bulb was planted, and its growth is being measured and graphed each day. It is currently at 15 inches and soon to bloom its flower. The children have enjoyed using a tape measure to document the growth, and have begun measuring other items in the classroom. Garlic bulbs, and catnip seeds were also planted, and their growth will also be monitored and compared to that of the Amaryllis. Also at the Science Center have been mealworms in a plastic container, feeding on oatmeal and crackers. The dramatic transformation continues: the mealworms continue to turn into the Darkling Beetle. The lid has been off of the container, and the children have enjoyed “digging” in the oatmeal to find the beetles.
PT Group: In PT Group this week the children again used yarn pom-poms and pretended they were snowballs. They pretended to be ice skating, wearing only their socks during this activity. You may have noticed your child’s socks were a bit dirtier than when you sent them to school.
Reminders: This is the last chance for the milk program, which will be starting next week.
NO SCHOOL: Wednesday January 26 for a teacher in-service day.
Enjoy the snowy weekend! See you next week!
Friday, January 14, 2005
Morning and Afternoon Edition January 14, 2005
A Peek at the Week: More winter/snowman fun was the theme this week. Both groups painted winter scenes using white paint on blue or black paper. They also drew winter scenes using white chalk on black paper. These creations are hanging on the bulletin board in our classroom. Some of the afternoon children decided to make a “larger than life” snowman. Mark and Mrs. Dumas drew circles and cut them out on Wednesday, and on Thursday Talya, Colette, Hannah, Stefan, and Jordan joined in on the decorating. They added a hat with a flower on it, buttons, a scarf, arms and legs. The rest of the class plans on finishing it up on Friday. A picture of this creation will be posted on the website ASAP.
At the Science Center, an Amaryllis bulb was planted, and its growth is being measured and graphed each day. Since it had already started growing in the box, it started at 5.5 inches, and is currently at 8 inches. The children have enjoyed using a tape measure to document the growth, and have begun measuring other items in the classroom. Garlic bulbs, and catnip seeds were also planted, and their growth will also be monitored and compared to that of the Amaryllis. Also at the Science Center have been mealworms in a plastic container, feeding on oatmeal and crackers. This week a dramatic transformation occurred: the mealworms turned into the Darkling Beetle. The lid has been off of the container, and the children have enjoyed “digging” in the oatmeal to find the beetles, and count how many they have seen…the most reported was six.
Centers: At the block center, the children used a large cardboard box, a table, sheets, and cardboard boxes to build igloos this week. We talked about making “houses out of ice and snow”, and the students carried this out each day at the block center. Photos will be available soon. Shelf toys, coloring with chalk, painting, journals, science, and cutting were available centers this week.
Speech/Language: Bowen-mishou@cromwellct.org
PT Group: In PT Group this week the children used yarn pom-poms and pretended they were snowballs. They had lots of fun doing many cooperative play activities with the “snowballs”…including a pretend snowball fight. Due to the late opening, the AM class did not participate in PT Group this week.
Reminders: Sign-ups for the milk program were sent home this week. If you would like your child to continue or start having milk for snack each day, please send in your choice of milk and money as soon as possible.
NO SCHOOL: Jan 17th in recognition of MLK day, and on January 26 for a teacher in-service day.
Welcome/Farewell: The morning class says “goodbye” to Ryan and the afternoon class says “hello”. He will be missed by the children in the AM class, and has been greeted warmly by the PM class.
Parenting info: Please see the back of this newsletter for information regarding parenting workshops.
Have a great long weekend!
At the Science Center, an Amaryllis bulb was planted, and its growth is being measured and graphed each day. Since it had already started growing in the box, it started at 5.5 inches, and is currently at 8 inches. The children have enjoyed using a tape measure to document the growth, and have begun measuring other items in the classroom. Garlic bulbs, and catnip seeds were also planted, and their growth will also be monitored and compared to that of the Amaryllis. Also at the Science Center have been mealworms in a plastic container, feeding on oatmeal and crackers. This week a dramatic transformation occurred: the mealworms turned into the Darkling Beetle. The lid has been off of the container, and the children have enjoyed “digging” in the oatmeal to find the beetles, and count how many they have seen…the most reported was six.
Centers: At the block center, the children used a large cardboard box, a table, sheets, and cardboard boxes to build igloos this week. We talked about making “houses out of ice and snow”, and the students carried this out each day at the block center. Photos will be available soon. Shelf toys, coloring with chalk, painting, journals, science, and cutting were available centers this week.
Speech/Language: Bowen-mishou@cromwellct.org
PT Group: In PT Group this week the children used yarn pom-poms and pretended they were snowballs. They had lots of fun doing many cooperative play activities with the “snowballs”…including a pretend snowball fight. Due to the late opening, the AM class did not participate in PT Group this week.
Reminders: Sign-ups for the milk program were sent home this week. If you would like your child to continue or start having milk for snack each day, please send in your choice of milk and money as soon as possible.
NO SCHOOL: Jan 17th in recognition of MLK day, and on January 26 for a teacher in-service day.
Welcome/Farewell: The morning class says “goodbye” to Ryan and the afternoon class says “hello”. He will be missed by the children in the AM class, and has been greeted warmly by the PM class.
Parenting info: Please see the back of this newsletter for information regarding parenting workshops.
Have a great long weekend!
Friday, January 07, 2005
ECS Pre-K Classroom News January 7, 2005
Happy New Year to All of You! This week we learned about “Winter” and the signs of Winter, so it seemed appropriate to have an early dismissal and a day off due to the weather. The classes talked about the process of building a snowman, using a large snowball, a medium snowball, and a small snowball. Depending on each child’s skill level, the child traced three circles on white paper, then cut out the three circles, or if this was beyond a child’s ability, he/she was given already cut out circles to glue on the paper. The children were encouraged to be CREATIVE and make their snowman using a variety of paper cut out shapes and colors. These snowmen are on display in the classroom, and the variety of creations is wonderful! We continued discussing the concepts of size, pointing out other objects, such as cups, of varying sizes. Please continue to work on this with your child, having him/her point to the small one, medium one, and large one as you encounter objects in your everyday environment.
Centers: Tracing a snowman with dry erase markers, and erasing the creation when finished, coloring snowmen, sorting objects into small, medium, and large, putting alphabet “snowflakes” in order from A to Z, blocks, kitchen, and snowman project.
Vocabulary: winter, season, weather, snow, snowball, small, medium, large, put in order.
PT Group
Due to the early dismissal, only the AM class had PT group this week, which was held in the classroom. The children were introduced to the classic childhood game “Musical Chairs”. Everyone did very well following the directions to learn the game, and listening to the music to know when it was time to sit down. Great job everyone!
THANK YOU’s!
Thank you Mrs. Schmidt and Nate for donating the animal crackers for “extra” snacks, and for the wonderful “fine motor” toys donated to the classroom. And a thank you to Mrs. Arling and Jennifer for donating some puzzles to the classroom…all of this will be very useful to both classes.
Looking Ahead
We will continue talking about winter and completing many activities involving this activity for the next two weeks. On Wednesday, Jan 12th, we will be doing some activities involving sorting winter clothing. Please send in your child’s boots, hat, mittens, scarf (if you have one) and of course coat. These will be returned the same day. Thanks for your help with this.
Website: To see the site, visit www.cromwellschools.com/ecs
email: knagy@cromwellct.org
More upcoming events:
The marking period will be ending Jan 14th. If you would like to meet for a parent conference, please contact me.
Centers: Tracing a snowman with dry erase markers, and erasing the creation when finished, coloring snowmen, sorting objects into small, medium, and large, putting alphabet “snowflakes” in order from A to Z, blocks, kitchen, and snowman project.
Vocabulary: winter, season, weather, snow, snowball, small, medium, large, put in order.
PT Group
Due to the early dismissal, only the AM class had PT group this week, which was held in the classroom. The children were introduced to the classic childhood game “Musical Chairs”. Everyone did very well following the directions to learn the game, and listening to the music to know when it was time to sit down. Great job everyone!
THANK YOU’s!
Thank you Mrs. Schmidt and Nate for donating the animal crackers for “extra” snacks, and for the wonderful “fine motor” toys donated to the classroom. And a thank you to Mrs. Arling and Jennifer for donating some puzzles to the classroom…all of this will be very useful to both classes.
Looking Ahead
We will continue talking about winter and completing many activities involving this activity for the next two weeks. On Wednesday, Jan 12th, we will be doing some activities involving sorting winter clothing. Please send in your child’s boots, hat, mittens, scarf (if you have one) and of course coat. These will be returned the same day. Thanks for your help with this.
Website: To see the site, visit www.cromwellschools.com/ecs
email: knagy@cromwellct.org
More upcoming events:
The marking period will be ending Jan 14th. If you would like to meet for a parent conference, please contact me.
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