News and photos

A few notes:
-Conference slips have gone home and you should have received an email from me as well.  Many of you have signed up.  Please let me know if you'd like a conference.

-Scholastic book club flyers have been sent home.  It's a great way to get Christmas gifts for all the children in your family.  There is a link in this blog to order.  The Pete the Cat books are always a favorite of preschoolers.

-Ms. Janie is coming back on the 19th! We are so excited.

-Ms. Sandy is doing her lead teaching project this week meaning she has done the lesson planning and will run our group times and transitions throughout the day.  She has set the classroom up for learning all about pizza.  Pizza is a fun theme as we can incorporate so many different things such as learning about shapes, parts to a whole, the letter "P", and so on.  We will taste test toppings and graph the results.  One of my favorite parts about preschool is that we are learning all day long but the learning is so much fun and natural.

-October was a busy  month.  Check out our pictures below.

The fire department visited our Wed/Friday class in October. 

We acted out the spooky walk with our Tues/Thursday class.  Here is Collin crawling through the "grass."

Feeling the "cold and slimy" in the cave.

"Rattling bones and ghostly moans."

Couldn't get enough of the cold and slimy.

Happy 5th Birthday, Kyle!

Happy 4th Birthday, James!

We carved a pumpkin on the morning of our Halloween party!  Ryan enjoyed it!

Sophia

Christopher

Collin

Ethan

Zander

Kyle

Aiden

Maddie

Acting out one of our favorite October stories, "Big Pumpkin" by Erica Silverman.

Riley

James

Hailie

Donnie

Riley busy in our pizza parlor.

Bree serving up a pizza.

Our pizza making station.

A couple of our class chefs.

Gabriel the chef.

Collin the customer.

Busy making pizzas.

Corn starch and water make for a fun sensory experience.

Gabriel

This is Noah and our Tap-it.  The Tap-it is an interactive device similar to a smart board but designed specifically for various levels of competence.  We really enjoy the website starfall.com. 

Some news...

Dear Families,

I wanted to let you know about some exciting news for my family.  As you may know my husband and I have a 3 year old little boy named Oliver.  Our family is growing and we are having another little boy.  Our baby is due in March.  The plans are for me to work as close to my due date as possible and stay home with the baby for 8 weeks.  I plan on being back at school for most of the month of May.  We already have a substitute teacher lined up.  Her name is Holly Brock. She worked as my substitute when I had my first child.

Ms. Holly will get to know the students well before my maternity leave because she will be subbing for Ms. Janie beginning Friday.  Ms. Lynda Higgins has been working in Janie's place since the beginning of the school year and we are sad to see her move on.  She has been such an asset to our class.

Ms. Janie is doing well.  She has received great news at her last appointments and we anticipate her to continue to heal well and join us in the near future. 

Ms. Sandy continues to be in our class. She is our student teacher from the University of Cincinnati.  She will be with us until December 1st.  She has also been a huge asset and the students have really benefited from having her as a teacher.

Any questions please never hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,
Gretchen

Halloween Party

Halloween Party

You are invited to join us on October 30th or 31^st from 1-2 p.m. for our Halloween Party. 

We will have a special group time, craft activity and trick or treat in our classroom.

No costumes allowed but of course Halloween themed clothing is great.

You may also bring in or send in an item for the children to collect trick or treating.  No peanut or nut products please. Besides candy you can send in items such as pencils, erasers, stickers, rings etc… 

We have 9 students in our Tues/Thurs class and 7 in our Wed/Fri class.

Preschool News

We've been busy.  These last couple weeks we've transitioned to a fall leaf theme.  We have taken nature walks around our school to collect leaves.  We've played with corn in our sensory table.  We've explored the fall colors of brown, red, green, yellow and orange.  We've read many fall stories and talked about season changes.  We are practicing putting on our own jackets and zipping all by ourselves.  Our dramatic play center has been busy since we've added baby dolls and dress up clothing.  Next week it'll become a pumpkin farm!  We've completed many craft projects.  One that we sent home already was the corn letters.  Each child explored the first letter of their name in a new way by gluing corn kernels on paper.  Teaching literacy with the young child can be done in so many fun ways such as the corn tactile letters but also by making letters out of play dough or practicing letters in finger paint.  There are many stages of literacy development.  Some children are still scribbling which is a completely normal developmental stage.  The key in literacy development is to celebrate each stage.  Look for a handout soon in the take home folders with the stages of literacy development. 

Our fall celebration will happen on October 30 and 31st from 1-2 p.m.  You are invited to join us for a special snack, group time and a little trick or treating.  Due to allergies in the class please wait until I send home a list of safe treats to bring in or send in with your child.  More info about the parties will be coming soon. 

Any questions please never hesitate to call, email or write me a note.  I am very much looking forward to this school year.  Both our classes are full of fantastic students who are creating great friendships. 

Here are some photos of our fun finger painting sensory experience from this week. 

We painted with apples!

During group time we talked about all the things you can do with apples.  The students were happy to hear that painting was one of them.  We painted with apples on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. 

Snapshots of our classroom

Here is our reading center.   We are fully stocked with books all about apples.

This is one of our language charts.  We will work on simple adding and subtracting.

This is one of the first songs we will sing in the morning.  This helps with name recognition.

"I Spy" center.  Each bottle is filled with little objects to spy.  This helps with communication and cognitive skills.

Our math game.  Students will be able to roll a die, take turns, sort apples and so much more.  Ms. Sandy made this game and I'm sure the students are going to enjoy it.

This is our science center.  The students will be able to experiment with magnets.

The dramatic play center will be a kitchen for the next couple weeks.

The manipulative toy area where we work on fine motor and problem solving skills.

Your child will have an opportunity to sign his or her name everyday at our sign in center.  Remember scribbling is one of the first stages of writing.

This is the writing center.

This is our chart where your child will place his or her name to let us know he or she is at school.

Another language chart which works on color recognition.

Welcome

Hi Families,

I am so excited to start this school year.  I'm also excited that you are checking out our class blog.  I think this blog will be a great tool for you to use to stay connected. 

Thank you to all of you who sent in paperwork and stopped by these last two weeks.  If you haven't turned in your paperwork make sure you do so by your child's first day of school.  The earlier the better.

Remember to send in:
A family photo (you can email me one and I can print it if you'd like)
Nap items in a bag to keep at school
A change of clothes for accidents or big spills
Diapers, pull-ups, wipes etc... if needed

Many of you already have your child's communication folder in hand.  If not, you will receive it on the first day of school in your child's backpack.  Make sure you check your child's folder and backpack regularly.  At the beginning of the year there seems to be a lot of paperwork that needs to be sent back and forth from home to school but I promise this slows down as the year progresses.

Update on Ms. Janie: As some of you know she had back surgery over the summer.  She also ended up with a couple complications that have caused her recovery period to be a little longer.  She will not start the year with us but she plans on returning as soon as she can.  Ms. Lynda Higgins will be our classroom assistant while Janie is out.  Ms. Lynda has substitute taught for both Janie and I in the past.  She's a great fit for preschool.

Ms. Sandy Lemmink will be our student teacher until December.  Her and I have been very busy setting up the classroom.  She is fantastic.

We are starting out our year learning about apples.  Photos to come soon.  We will paint with apples, sort apples, taste apples, read books about apples, and so much more. 

Remember you can always call, email or write in the communication folder with any questions or concerns.