October News #2

 October 27, 2022

Hello PreK Families, 

Earlier this month we learned about the fall season and leaves. The students enjoyed collecting leaves and other items from outside and examining them in the classroom. We sorted leaves by color and noticed the different leaf shapes.  We also read Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert and made nature collages with our collections. This week, your child brought home a story retell activity from the book, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves by Lucille Colandro. You can have your child retell the story to you and use the articles from the bag to help them. Here is a link to a read aloud of the story if you do not know the book. 

We have been doing some projects about pumpkins and the Halloween holiday this week. We looked at real pumpkins and sorted them by their sizes. We also tapped a real pumpkin with pegs and hammers, then we cut it open and looked at the seeds. We even counted some of the seeds. We will make a class book about pumpkins. We read many books about pumpkins including Pumpkin, Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington, The Littlest Pumpkin by R. A. Herman, and The Legend of Spookly the Square Pumpkin by Joe Troiano. We have learned the song The Five Little Pumpkins and we made a mini book about it too. This week, we have done some projects related to Halloween. We have also read stories including: Go Away Big Green Monster by Ed Emberly, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat by Lucille Colandro, Five Little Bats Flying in the Night by Steve Metzger, and The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda WIlliams. 

Halloween is coming up next week. At our school, we do not dress up in costumes while at school. We will have a special snack and do some fun things related to Halloween. If you would like to send in any of the following items for our snack on Monday, please let me know. We have 15 students in our classroom. And we do not have any allergies in our group. 

• 3 packs of juice boxes. 

• 2 bags of popcorn or 2 pouches of microwave popcorn

• fruit for the class

• 1 class treat

• plates

This year, a team of teachers worked together to apply for a grant from the Children’s literacy Foundation (CLiF). Our school was the recipient of a CLiF Grant and we are eligible for an additional opportunity. If at least 80% of parents/caregivers and students agree to read together at least twice a week, CLiF will provide the school with a fun family night, complete with an author visit and treat!  Please sign one of the contracts and return it to school to help us achieve this goal. There will also be a copy in your child’s bag. 

Thank you, 

Amy 

IMPORTANT DATES

11/3 Early Release (at 12:30) - PTC

11/4 No School - PTC

11/11 No School - Veterans Day

11/18 No PreK - ECP In-Service

11/23-11/25 - No School - Thanksgiving Holiday

October News

 October 5, 20222

Hello PreK Families, 

The students are really enjoying their specials classes each day. The schedule is as follows: Monday- Spanish, Tuesday - PE & Library, Wednesday - Art, Thursday - Music, and Friday - PE. The students are getting to know these new teachers and trying out new activities. 

Each month we usually cover two units of study that are related to the season or holidays in that month. Sometimes we also study topics because we have a high interest in a topic.In September, we learned  about apples. During each unit we read many books, do projects, have discussions, sing songs, and participate in other learning activities to build connections on a topic. When we learned about apples, we read Ten Red Apples by Pat Hutchins, Ten Apples Up on Top by Dr. Seuss, and My Apple by Kaye Davies and Wendy Oldfield. We made a graph comparing our favorite color apples, we played counting and sorting games about apples, and we made applesauce and wrote a class book about it. 

We a recurrently working on fall. Next we will learn about pumpkins and Halloween. If your child has a small pumpkin or gourd at home, he or she may bring it into class next week. 

We have started reviewing/learning the uppercase letters using the Fundations Literacy Program. We will review 3 letters per week and should finish the introduction of the uppercase letter by the holiday break. Then we will learn how to write the uppercase letters. We learn the letters in the order of how they are written. Some letters have straight lines, some have curves, and some have a start and a jump to them.  

In our class, we use direct instruction to teach students to make good choices about their behavior. Social development is an integral part of PreK and school and affects all areas of learning. One of our main goals for students is to be happy, confident learners who can solve problems and work collaboratively with others. Being able to make good choices when they are alone and interacting with others is a BIG part of that.  In our classroom we have started learning about good choices to support their social-emotional behavior. We review the expected behaviors in all settings (school, home, community) and across the day. Clear, consistent expectations are paired with visual supports, and expectations are almost always stated positively. We also teach lessons from Second Step. This is a social emotional learning program that teaches concepts with puppets, story cards, songs, and role playing activities. Each week, we cover a new idea. 

Our school picture day is Wednesday, October 19th. You should receive an order form from Lifetouch. You can read the order form and pay by check or order the pictures online from their website. 

Parent Teacher Conferences are coming up in early November, on 11/3 and 11/4. There will be an early release day on Thursday and no school on Friday. You will receive a sign-up to schedule a meeting time soon. All of the early childhood PreK Programs in our district use a program called Teaching Strategies Gold to rate individual student development and progress.  In the meeting we will review initial TS Gold social-emotional progress reports (for 3 and 4 year olds) for your child as well as, initial math and letter assessments (for students who are 4 or older). 

Our class also participates in Scholastic Book Clubs. Our first class order is due on October 14th. With a $25 order, you can pick a FREE $5 Book (use code: READS). You can Shop Our Class Page: https://orders.scholastic.com/K3677 or Shop Digital Flyers for Our Grade with Your Child: https://clubs.scholastic.com/prek.  Please share the Class Page link to extended family and friends. All orders also earn FREE Books for our class.  Class Code: K3677

Thank you for your support!

 

Ms. ZAYAS

IMPORTANT DATES

10/10 NO SCHOOL - Indiginous Peoples’ Day

10/11 NO SCHOOL - Teacher In-Service 

10/19 Picture Day

10/21 No PreK - ECP In-Service