Pre-K

Ms. Anna's Blog Feb 12-17

Hi Families!

We have a great week coming up! As Valentine's Day approaches, we will focus on friendship, cooperation, and sharing. We will send and receive Valentines, have a party or two, and incorporate social learning, language arts, and math skills into our play! 

Please see Ms. Christina's email about our optional field trip on Tuesday, Feburary 14th. After school, (12:45) we will visit Sterling House, a senior citizen home, and pass out Valentine's cards to the residents and staff. This will be a very special activity that will help the children approach the holiday in a tangible way and engage them in service learning! I encourage everyone to participate and share this wonderful opportunity to help our community! 

On another note, I have introduced a character education approach that is used at Sam Houston Elementary. The idea is that each person has an invisible bucket, and when it's full, we are happy and feel special. When people around us dip into our bucket (or treat us badly), we feel sad or angry. We are encouraging the children to be "Bucket Fillers"--or people who share, are kind, and help those around them. This ties in well with our Valentine's Day trip on Tuesday. We are "filling the buckets" of the elderly, who may not get many visitors, but a smile from a child will do wonders! 

Character Education is an ongoing endeavor, and I will be pulling from many resources (books, professional development trainings, etc), including some concepts from Pirkei Avot--or ethical teachings from Judaism. Many preschool programs throughout the Jewish community, and elsewhere, pull from these teachings. While an occasional word may be in Hebrew, the ethics are universal. To do a good deed is a Mitzvah, ((MITZ-vah) and being kind, courteous, and helping others is something every child can learn to do!

Valentine's Party News:

On Monday and Tuesday we will have Valentine's day parties at 10am. Feel free to bring an optional snack for the party. Parents are not required to attend, but are more than welcome to if they wish. 

In the morning, I will set out our bags for Valentine's cards. Upon arrival, please help your child distribute the cards, so that we can open them after snack. Please bring a Valentine card for all the children in the class, enough for 12.



Thank you for your help! Please feel free to contact me with any questions!

Sincerely,
Ms. Anna

Ms. Anna's Blog Feb 6-10th, 2012

Hi Families!

We are kicking off a two week unit on Communication, Sending Messages, Friendship and Valentine's Fun! This week, we will focus on the Post Office, writing and mailing letters, and exploring shipping materials. We will have a Post Office in the dramatic play area, work with packing materials, and even mail a letter to ourselves at Cornerstone. We will also send a postcard to Ruari in Germany!

In other news:

This week, I will be leading Community Circle on Friday at 11:30. We will listen to Israeli music, dance, make Israel flags and try some traditional Mediterranean foods!

As Valentine's day approaches we will focus on friendship, demonstrating kindess towards others, and using nice words with our friends. We will also be making Valentines for the elderly and deliver them personally at a nursing home. This will be an optional outing for parents and students after school. This is a great service learning opportunity for you and your child, and I am so pleased that we have the chance to help our community! ***Time and date TBA. ***

We are also planning a field trip to the Post Office up the street on McKinney. Mary Michaud (Brian's mom) is working very hard to get a group tour set up for Feburary 16th. As soon as we work out the details with the Post Office, we can solidify this date. I will keep you posted!

Valentine's Day parties will be held on Monday and Tuesday, Feb 13th-14th. Keep your eyes peeled for more information!

Looking forward to a fun and interesting unit!

Sincerely,
Ms. Anna

Hi Families! We are continuing

Hi Families!

We are continuing our focus on construction, building things, and robots this week! We will explore the uses of robots, how to make our own, and invent new robots!

Last week, the kids enjoyed Ms. Whitney's community circle, painting with tools, and learning about new machines. They especially liked when Katie's dad came to visit with his Rocksaw on Friday and try on hardhats, vests, and headphones. They even got to try their hand at spray painting the grass (and a shoe or two!) Thank you Mr. Ryan!

This week, we will have Show and Tell on Thursday and Friday. Please have your child bring an item that is small enough to fit in a brown paper sack -grocery or lunch sized. We will play a guessing game with the items--much like the game we play with the Magic Tool Box.

Also, please remember to bring any recyclable building items you may have, such as cardboard boxes, pvc, plywood, foam core, or other materials you need to get rid of. We will be constructing robots and other structures with these materials.

Looking forward to a great week!

Thanks,

Ms. Anna

Ms. Anna's Blog, January 23-27, 2012

Hi Families!

We are kicking off a two-week unit focused on Construction, Building Things, and Robots! This week we will look at blueprints, repair our home center, and explore the building materials that the Three Little Pigs used. We will work with craft sticks, Lincoln Logs, and other materials to build structures and towers. We will also look at simple machines, like pulleys, ramps and levers, and explore how they work. These next two weeks will be a hub of activity!

Over the next two weeks, we will be collecting cardboard boxes, wood, plywood, foam core, pvc pipe, or anything else you may have around the house or left over from a Home Depot trip. Exploring and building with these materials will help the children understand how we construct our buildings and enhance their problem-solving skills as they work with these new items.

Take Home Ideas for Parents:
Make a Construction Book: Take your child to Home Depot, Lowe's or another Home Improvement store and look at all the different materials that we use to build things. Take a picture of your child next to that item. Which materials interest them? What are they most curious about? Incorporate sensory experiences--How does the item look? Feel? This is a great way for parents to turn a common trip to the store into a great learning experience! 

Another variation: How many construction zones can you find? What kind of machines and vehicles do workers use to transport materials?
What materials are they using?

Looking forward to a great unit filled with creativity, discovery, and lots of fun!

Sincerely,
Ms. Anna

Ms. Anna's Blog, Jan 16-20, 2011

Hi Families!

We have another great week planned! We will continue our focus on transportation and taking trips! We will explore ramps, pulleys, and different methods of travel. The dramatic play center has been converted to a beach destination with a boat. In order to enhance our learning center, please feel free to bring in any of the following items:

-beach items--towels, floaties, buckets, sandals, shovels, etc.
-swimming items--goggles, old swimsuits (washed), toys
-boat items--life jackets, etc.

Thank you for your help!

Hope you had a great weekend! See you soon!

Sincerely,
Ms. Anna

Ms. Anna's Blog Jan 9-13, 2012

Hi Families!

Gear up for a fun-filled week focused on Transportation! ( Gear up. Get it? Ha. Ha.) We have a great week planned! We will test boat shapes and buoyancy, graph the cars we count on the street, experiment with materials on a ramp, and go on a trip in our pretend airplane!

I have set up an airplane scene in the dramatic play center. To enhance our play, we could really utilize the following items to create an airplane prop box:

-small suitcases
-old airplane tickets
-old cameras
-travel brochures
-old vests (for children to pretend to be the stewards)
-white shirts and ties (pilots)
-any airplane items you may have at home

If you bring any items that you would like returned, please label them and we'll get them back to you.

Looking forward to a great week!

Thanks,
Ms. Anna

Ms. Anna's Blog--Jan 2-6, 2012

Hi Families!

Hope you had a great holiday! This week we will be getting into the swing of things and starting off the year with a Winter Theme. We will be experimenting with melting ice, skating on wax paper, exploring math concepts, and feeding our Letter Monster!

This semester, we will focus on kindergarten readiness through authentic play, individual learning, and large group activities. This will include incorporating calendar skills, a weather graph, large group dictation, and letter, vocabulary and number games during circle time. Starting next week, I will also include suggestions for at-home activities to share with your child.

Self-help skills are especially important this time of year. Now that we have kid-sized brooms and mops, please encourage the children to help clean up their spills. At snack time, please remember that we are serving "family style" rather than individual servings. In order to better facilitate this, please let me know if you can bring the following items on our wish list: Plastic liquid measuring cups that hold about 3-4 cups of liquid and plastic serving utensils. This will encourage the children to pour their own water and serve themselves with ease.

Looking forward to a wonderful semester! Please feel free to contact me with any questions!

Thanks,
Ms. Anna

Ms. Anna's Blog Dec 12-16, 2011

Hi Families!

Thank you for contributing to our Community Circle last week! The children really enjoyed the latkes! Thank you for bringing in items or volunteering your time! We couldn't have done it without you. Last week, the children worked on their math skills playing dreidle, counted the Menorah Candles, made latke batter, and learned all about Hannukkah.

This week will be making gingerbread cookies with Ms. Roisin and practicing our songs for our holiday show at the parties on Thursday and Friday. The children will sing Jingle Bells, Rudolph, and I had a little Dreidle. We will develop fine motor skills with present wrapping, make salt dough ornaments, and countdown the days until the Holidays!

We have a great week planned!

Sincerely,
Ms. Anna

Ms.Anna's Blog, Dec 5-9, 2011

Hi Families!

In these next two weeks, we will be celebrating Family Traditions and Winter Holidays. We will be making Ms. Rosin's famous ginger bread cookies, sushi with Ms. Eri, and Potato Latkes! We will set up our Christmas Tree in the Dramatic Play center, work on decorations, and light the Hanukkah Menorah.

I am leading Community Circle on Thursday Dec 8 and Friday Dec 9. We will focus on Hannukkah traditions, such as lighting the menorah, eating potato latkes and singing Hannukkah songs.

In order to make the latkes, we will need some parents to provide the ingredients, and others to fry the latke batter in the Parish Hall Kitchen at 11am on Thursday and Friday. The children and I will be making the batter around 10:45.

I will post sign-up sheets on the door tomorrow morning. Please bring in the items by Wednesday and Thursday. In order to save time, we will need a food processor with a grater attachment to shred the potatoes. Please let me know if you have one that we can use!

We have a great week planned! Looking forward to sharing it with you and your children!

Sincerely,
Ms. Anna

Ms. Anna's Blog - Nov 28- Dec 1

Hi Families!

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends! We are celebrating Family Traditions and Winter Holidays until the break! Please let me know if there is anything that would like to share with the children in the next few weeks. We are focusing on what you bring to your holiday tables! Cooking activities are a great way to integrate science and math into our classroom and the children enjoy learning about new foods and tasting new things!

For Community Circle on December 9, I will be introducing some Hannukkah traditions that my family shares. We will be making Latkes (Fried Potato Pancakes) and putting on a Hannukkah skit with puppets. I will put out a sign up sheet as it gets closer. We will need some volunteers to make the latkes or help with the Hannukkah skit. Please let me know if you are interested in helping!

This week, we will also be starting some morning Yoga with Samika. We will be improving our gross motor skills and calming our bodies!

We have a great few weeks ahead of us!

Thanks,
Ms. Anna