January 26, 2018

Thank you again to all those parents who came to school to join us for Parent Visitation Day this past Tuesday! The boys and girls had so much fun sharing all they have been learning with you!

The Pre-K students did a great job with their penguin directed-drawing activity during Parent Visitation. Check out the finished products! They are hanging in the hall for all to see.

Reminders:

• HCA is collecting empty paper towel cardboard rolls for a service project. Please save them and send them into school throughout the month of January. Thanks in advance for your help!
• Show and Tell on Wednesday, January 31, will be something that begins with "L."
• February Scholastic Reading Club orders are due on Thursday, February 1. If you would like to order, please send in the order form with your child or place your order online at https://clubs.scholastic.com/home with code H7WXZ.
• Please make sure your child wears sneakers to school everyday! If there is a need for boots in the morning, please pack sneakers for your child to change into.
• We have been working with the children on putting on their coats and zippering and buttoning them independently. Please have them do this at home as well. They are all capable of doing this on their own - we just need to let them!
• Please make sure your child finishes breakfast before he/she comes to school. We do have children with food allergies and we want to ensure that everyone is safe!

Dominic completed the 100 Board! He placed
the numbers in groups by tens and then
ordered them from 1 to 100!

George is using the Insta-Learn Board to
spell four letter phonetic words!

Maddie is working with the Pink Tower/Brown
Stair to build some challenging patterns!

Marianne had a great Show and Tell this week
- a bee hive! The boys and girls loved
examining it up close and even got
to see a bee inside!

This week, we learned about Mo Willems, the author and illustrator. We reviewed that an author writes the words in a story and an illustrator draws the pictures. Our Weekly Reader taught us how Mo makes his books and we learned about the characters in his stories. The boys and girls enjoyed reading and listening to Mo Willems stories all week long.

Malayka loves Mo Willems' books!

Jonathan is showing us which step shows
the editing process in the book.

Blaine is tracing Mo Willems' characters' names.

Have a great weekend!

January 19, 2018

This week in the STEAM Lab we learned about engineering! First, the students watched a short video that taught them about engineering. They learned steps to take in the engineering process and to ask questions like: What is the problem? What can I use? When is it solved?

Mrs. Zwilling talked to the students about all the snow we have been experiencing. She used cotton balls to represent the snow. Then, she presented them with a task: to build something using the ZOOB pieces to help them move the snow. She told the groups that they had to follow 3 steps in the engineering process:

#1 - Talk about your plan and imagine what your project 
will look like.

#2 - Build your project together.

#3 - Test your project to see if it works!

This was a challenging project for the students. Working in small groups can be a difficult process for four and five year olds, but with some guidance, the students did an amazing job! It was exciting to see them brainstorm and work together as a team!

This week, we also focused on writing our names - like the Kindergartners do! Each child was given a handwriting worksheet with his/her name. We talked about how the first letter of their names should be a capital letter, and the rest should be lowercase letters. The students practiced holding their pencils with the pincer grasp, tracing their names, and then writing their names independently.

We even took some breaks to exercise our fingers when they got tired from all that writing!

The boys and girls LOVE learning new things in class each week and are so excited when they reach their goals. Some of their favorite things to do are the Montessori lessons and the Weekly Reader - and, of course, play with the toys!

"Mrs. Barrera, do you know what 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9
equals?" Kent solved it! It's 45!

 

We are excited for you to see your children in action next week for Parent Visitation Day on Tuesday, January 23! We are keeping with our normal Tuesday routine so you will be able to see what a typical day in Pre-K looks like.

Reminders:

• HCA is collecting empty paper towel cardboard rolls for a service project. Please save them and send them into school throughout the month of January. Thanks in advance for your help!
• Show and Tell on Wednesday, January 24, will be something that begins with "H."
• February Scholastic Reading Club orders were sent home early. The due date will be Thursday, February 1. If you would like to order, please send in the order form with your child or place your order online at https://clubs.scholastic.com/home with code H7WXZ.
• Please make sure your child wears sneakers to school everyday! If there is a need for boots in the morning, please pack sneakers for your child to change into.

Have a great weekend! Go, Eagles!

Welcome Back!

Welcome back!  It is great to finally be back in school and getting back to a routine again!

The students are slowly adjusting back to life at school. This week, we have spent some time reviewing our lessons from before Christmas break and making some arts and crafts projects to display in our classroom.

Kent completed the Long 10 Chain. He skip
counted by tens all the way to 1000!

Alexa made a pattern with the Knobless Cylinders
and built a tower - almost as big as she is!

Students made snowmen from the letters in
their names. They traced each letter in their
names and cut out all the pieces on their own.
We ordered the snowmen from smallest
to tallest to see who had the shortest (Kent)
and longest (Jonathan and Marianne) names. 

We are going to work a lot on writing our names correctly - capital letter first, followed by lowercase letters. A great resource to help with this at home is www.handwritingworksheets.com. On this site, you can create personalized handwriting worksheets for your child. We will be using them in class as well.

Throughout the second semester in Pre-K, we will be focusing a lot on developing the children's independence and preparing them for Kindergarten. This will involve things from simple daily tasks to academic areas as well. For example, all year long, the children have been unpacking their things when they come in in the morning. Now, we are also asking them to pack their things at the end of the day (not always an easy task for a Pre-K student, especially after rest time!).

At this point in the year, the children should be able to put their coats on independently and we are working with them to zipper and button them as well.

Caleb is all ready to go home!

Reminders:

• HCA is collecting empty paper towel cardboard rolls for a service project. Please save them and send them into school throughout the month of January. Thanks in advance for your help!
• There is no school on Monday, January 15, due to the MLK, Jr. Day holiday.
• The deadline to order from Scholastic this month has been extended to Tuesday, January, 16. If you would like to order, please send in the order form with your child or place your order online at https://clubs.scholastic.com/home with code H7WXZ.
• Show and Tell for next Wednesday, January 17, will be something that begins with G.
• Please make sure your child wears sneakers to school everyday!

#FlashbackFriday to our Scavenger Hunt with our fourth grade
buddies (and Mrs. Mossor) before Christmas break