Thank you for all the family involvement and support!

From Family Literacy Night to parent conferences, it has been so good to connect with you all! We deeply appreciate your valuable insight and personal investment in the children and their preschool experiences, and we can’t wait to continue this collaboration with the children’s “All About Me” days!

All About Preschoolers

Each child is about to have a day that centers around learning about him or her. On every student’s day, we study his or her name and compare letters with all our friends; we draw portraits of that student and compile them in a book that he or she can bring home; we have a scavenger hunt for all the places in the classroom that we can find that person’s name; and perhaps the most important part of the day involves you! Someone from each child’s family comes into the classroom to read his or her “All About Me” book for story time. It’s so much fun to learn new things about our friends, their families, and the things that are most important to them. The children love hearing about their similarities and differences and developing questions about each other.

Reading Buddies

Each Wednesday morning, the children have teamed up with our fourth grade friends for “Reading Buddies”! The preschoolers love spending some time with the big kids and reaching out to the larger school community.

Thankful Preschoolers

We have been talking about how Thanksgiving is a day to be thankful for the people and things that make us happy and healthy. In response to this, the preschoolers have written and illustrated “Our Thankful Book”. Here are their responses: 

“I am thankful that my mom takes me on special rides.”  ~J.R.

“I am thankful when my daddy and mommy rub my back.” ~ Elsie

“I am thankful for my Jenny and my Dada and Jack.”     ~Jack

“I am thankful when Mommy brings me juice at night time.” ~Ololara 

"I am thankful for hot cocoa on a rainy day." ~Harper

"I am thankful when my mommy tucks me into bed." ~Natalia

"I am thankful when my dad helps me brush my teeth before bed." ~Silas

"I am thankful for everything, like my mommy and my daddy and my baby and my toys." ~Hudson

"I am thankful for my messy, messy room." ~Sami

"I am thankful for my bubble bath and my doggy." ~Lorelai

"I am thankful for my whole, whole, whole family." ~Maeve

"I am thankful for my mom and my dad and my whole entire family, even my dogs!" ~Eliah

"I am thankful when I get a band-aid on a boo-boo." ~Andreas

"I am thankful for lunch and smoothies and apples and cocoa." ~Reece

"I am thankful for my lovely mommy and daddy and kitties, Teddy and Shima, and Alex, and my toys." ~Evan

"I am thankful for mommy and daddy." ~Sean

"I am thankful for my monster trucks and when my daddy plays games with me." ~Ozzy

"I am thankful for apples and bananas and oranges." ~Kyle

                                                       

To see the children’s illustrations, come visit the classroom and see our book! 

Pelham Library 

On each Thursday, we have begun visiting the Pelham Library! The children enjoy a story time by the librarian followed by an opportunity to check out books, which are kept in the classroom. What a great resource!

And a final note... 

As the cold weather has begun, please be sure that your child wears warm pants, winter coats, hats, mittens,  boots, and snow suits when necessary. We request mittens rather than gloves because they are warmer and much easier to put on a class full of little ones! Lastly, please be sure that any extra clothes at school are also weather appropriate. As always, all clothing and winter gear should be labeled with each child's name.Thank you!

Family Literacy Night was a huge success!

Thank you so much to all who participated! It is amazing to be part of such a supportive and dedicated community. I'll start planning a Math Family Night for some Wednesday night in January. In the meantime, enjoy the photos. Happy reading!

Family Literacy Night

Wednesday, October 23rd

6:00-7:00

Dear Preschool Families, 

You are invited to the classroom for some storytelling, reading, rhyming, and alphabet games! The children have been practicing and are ready to teach you some of their favorite activities that promote pre-reading and pre-writing skills. Come have fun, spend some quality time with your preschooler, and learn about preschool literacy!

And also...

The children would like to make this a pajama party! Bring your kids in their pajamas, and we’ll end with a group bedtime story!

Learning from the Season

The preschoolers have been learning and playing with lots of autumn-inspired activities. Come take a look!

Literacy

Have you seen the star hidden inside every apple? We have! The children have been learning Ellis Paul’s poem “The Star Inside the Apple”, and they’re getting very good at it! Written on large easel paper in the classroom with pictures representing some of the words as reminders, this poem has quickly become memorable to our class. As teachers point to the words, children say the poem. While they’re not quite reading in the way that adults define it, they are using their pre-reading skills to recognize that print carries meaning, that each group of letters surrounded by a space on either side is a word, and some are even starting to notice beginning letter sounds. Very impressive stuff, preschoolers! Meanwhile, the kids have been exploring this star on their own with apples in our classroom, dipping them in paint to make apple prints, sketching our bowl of apples and painting the sketches at the easel. Our Preschool Art Gallery is really filling up! 

Beginning Number Concepts

Measuring spoons and cups have played a big role in our new fall sensory table! Preschoolers enjoy scooping and pouring the contents of one container into another to see if they’ll hold the same amount; at the same time, they’re  exploring the different feelings of smooth corn kernels, rough hay, soft and velvety leaves, and squishy foam pumpkins. What’s coming next? We’ll start counting the seeds inside each apple’s star. Does every apple have the same amount of seeds? Ask the preschoolers next week, and they’ll be able to tell you!

Science and Nature

The children have been keeping a close eye on our class tree, ready to document any changes that may occur with their next tree art. They have sketched the tree with pencil, traced it with marker and painted it at the easel. Spending so much time with their art has gotten us really thinking about the different part of the tree and how they will change before our eyes over the course of the year. We can’t wait to see  these changes really start to show!

Fun and Confidence through Music

We started a preschool percussion ensemble! Students took turns to be the conductor and use hand signals to instruct their friends when to play loudly, moderately, and softly as well as when to begin and stop playing. It was fun to use new instruments and great for everyone to practice being the leader and the listeners.