Zoom!

We started off the week as usual with another terrific Star of the Week presentation.  Due to the Thanksgiving week holiday we didn't send home any posters for homework in order to allow everyone time with their families.  We will start sending them home again when we return from Thanksgiving break. 

Once we heard from our Star of the Week presenter we jumped into a lot of great discussion about what it might be like to travel into space for our favorite week of all: Space Week!  After gathering ideas as a large group we went to the tables to work one on one with our teachers as we filled in the blanks for three sentences about what they might think a good name for an alien, what they would do together and what you might eat with that alien.

After talking about a trip to space we did a count down to pretend to blast off into space with the trampoline.  Children all took turns bouncing as high as they could imagining they were astronauts on the moon.

 After bouncing on the moon we worked on building a few galaxies.  We learned a variety of terminology with this unit and the children added lots of stars and sparkly circles to baggies they filled with mixtures of paint to double bags.  While sealed they were able to search the galaxy they made to look for the planets and stars they put inside.

Another vocabulary word we learned this week was constellation.  We made some with stickers, marshmallows, and more.  By the end of the week, we hope your student was able to use this word at home at least once of twice.  We used an app that allowed the kids to walk around the room with their teachers' iPads looking for constellations in the classroom.

The children practiced following directions and learned their shapes as they worked with teachers to prepare a space rocket complete with foil windows.

We really piled on the activities on Friday this week as we tried to include as much of what we had planned for the week into this day after having to cancel preschool on Wednesday.  The children went from one thing to the next as they made hand print aliens, blended ingredients for science making planets with shaving cream, glue and water color paint.  

What's Coming Up?

We hope everyone enjoys this next week off for Thanksgiving and we will see you again on Monday, November 28th when we talk about cultures.

We are currently taking dues for the spring sessions for either morning or afternoon.  Please be sure to pay the $200 tuition ASAP to ensure your spot for next semester.

Our holiday party will be Friday, December 16th.  Be looking for the invitations to come home soon.

Play ball!

This week we celebrated the Cubs and other sports teams as we played ball in a variety of ways.  The first activity of the week was with football as the children played a matching game where they had to count the laces on half of a football then find the matching other half of the football to make a whole football.  Then, we flipped the pieces all over and mixed them up and played it again with actual numerals.

We didn't just work on numbers but letters this week as we passed out individual letters on paper for the children to trace with play doh and pipe cleaners to shape the letters in another way besides writing them.  Each paper had a letter with an image of a sport that connected with that letter as well.

You can't talk about sports without talking about the olympics, and since we just had some olympic events this year we talked about the rings that everyone sees when the olympics are on TV.  We used paper cups to make circles when we dipped them in paint and placed them on white paper.  Some children did their own designs with the rings while others chose to try to copy the one we showed on our screen at the circle rug.

We took a few trips to the gym this week as well and played a variety of games over the course of the week.  We played scooter ball which is a combination or soccer on scooters or volleyball on scooters.

We also played soccer a few times this week with a variety of sized balls and were surprised to see so many children brave enough to be goalie.  We usually ended up hosting a scoring contest with the children as they took turns kicking the ball in the net and learning that soccer is a game where you can't use your hands to try to score.

Hockey was a fun game we adapted this week with our blow up hockey sticks and a small foam ball.  The children laughed and laughed as they chased the small ball around the gym floor while swinging their blow up hockey sticks.

Back inside the classroom we learned what a pennant is and made some with baseballs the teachers made specifically with the letters of each child's name sketched on them.  The children had to find all the letters, trace them to be sure they were correct and then glue them down in order of their name.  

Then we had more baseball fun by threading the string for the laces on some paper plate baseballs.  Threading string into some holes punched into paper or a paper plate are perfect to work those small motor muscles that help with writing and the children love activities like this instead of having to just write on paper all the time.

What's Coming Up?

On Friday an email went out to all current and would be preschool parents about our spring semester.  We will be accepting spring tuition payments starting on Monday.  Both morning and afternoon tuitions are a one time fee of $200 this year since they both will be about 2 and a half hours.  If you have not emailed Mrs. Stary back about which session you would like and you are a current parent, please do so this coming week so we secure your child's spot.

This coming week we will be talking about space which is always a lot of fun.

Next week (the week of Thanksgiving) there will be no preschool due to the Thanksgiving holiday.  Enjoy the week off of school!