CHRISTMAS PARTY!

We will be holding our Christmas party on Wednesday the 16th! Please send your child in their favorite pajamas! We will be having hot cocoa, stories, movies, popcorn, and more! We plan on watching The Grinch (the older cartoon version) and possibly Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer while we teachers pull out the kids one at a time for testing. Just checking up on where each child is at and getting our homework folders ready for the first of the year. :) School will be out after this Wednesday and will resume on Tuesday, January 3rd. THANKS!

Tuesday, December 6th...

Letter N/Noisy Scooter Sound

Today we continued our focus on the Letter N / Noisy Scooter Sound.

We read the classic Christmas poem, "The Night Before Christmas"

We followed up with our "Night" theme in Arts and Crafts and the kids got to make their own night scene using a sheet of star stickers (the kids could barely contain their excitement when I handed them their own sheet of stickers) and white crayons on a dark blue construction paper background!

Monday, December 5th...

Naughty and Nice...
Letter N/Noisy Scooter Sound

Today we introduced the Letter N or Noisy Scooter sound (imagine the whine of an electric scooter... nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn).

During Circle Time we played a game involving a group of "Naughty" preschoolers (not ours, of course, but some cute stick figure drawings such as Wilma Whisperer, Connie CandyEater, Sammy Sing TOO Loud, and their friends). The kids in the class got to help us decide how the naughty kids could change their behavior to nice. We then read the fun book, Elf on the Shelf and got to meet and name our own little class elf (Morning Class Elf is named "Red Hat" and Afternoon Class Elf is named "Gabby"). Red Hat and Gabby will be watching over us and making nightly reports to Santa, then returning and hiding in the classroom for the kids to find each day. There may also be mischief involved where the elves are concerned. :)
The "N" sound is often confused among preschoolers with the "M" sound. We will be working on differentiating the two in preschool. Feel free to quiz your child at home (what sound does MOUSE begin with? - point to an M and an N and have them sound it for you).

In Arts and Crafts we glued together our Christmas Countdown Chains (OH BOY there was a lot of glue today)! 20 more days!

We are now incorporating Christmas songs into our Singing Time routine, YAY! Today we sang "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and "Jingle Bells". Can't wait 'till tomorrow!

PARENT NOTES: The last day of school in December will be Wednesday, December 14th and school will resume again on Tuesday, January 3rd. Please remember to pay your December tuition before then, it sneaks up quickly! Thanks.

Wednesday, November 30th...

LOVE IS IN THE AIR...

Today we celebrated the marriage of Miss Q to Mr. U.

Tuesday, November 22nd...

Playing Catch-up!

Looks like I've got a little catching up to do on the blog! Luckily I've got a little down time this week -
remember NO MORE SCHOOL this week -
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Tuesday, November 8th...

Letter L

Today was all about LEAVES! We had a great time looking at and comparing different types of leaves. We looked at size, color, shape, and more while picking out the best specimens for our leaf rubbings.

We read The Leaves on The Trees...

In addition to our leaf rubbings, our classes each participated in other leaf activities. Miss Jodi and Miss Tiffany's classes hung their leaves on colored paper in the windows for a fun decoration! They are waiting to see if the sun will bleach the leaf design onto the construction paper. In Miss Jamie's classes we pressed leaves between the pages of some pretty big books! We will check back on them on Monday to see if they are ready to be laminated.

Monday, November 7th...

Letter U/"Uh So Sad" sound

Today was UPSIDE DOWN DAY here at Little Readers! The kids had a good time noticing all the "upside down" things in the classroom. Some they caught on to right away, in fact before circle time had even started I caught a couple of the kids "helping" me out and fixing things that had been turned upside down in the Circle Time Chart. Other things were less noticeable and the kids discovered them as our lesson developed.

Our Morning classes made "UGLY" pictures to take home to Mom and Dad! We basically gave them free reign with the arts and crafts material and let them build whatever they pleased. Kids love to be in on little jokes and we told them that their Mom's were probably going to tell them how CUTE there pictures were and then they would have the opportunity to look horrified and tell them that they were actually VERY UGLY PICTURES! They couldn't wait!

Our Afternoon classes got to mix Upside Down Day with our UMBRELLA theme (of last week). We got to paint using our breath and straws today. The kids loved blowing through their straws and watching the watery blue paint (aka rain) spread across the paper. Then we decorated our umbrellas and added them (along with our straw, as the handle) to get the finished product!

We read "Mr. Funny" by Roger Hargreaves today.

Wednesday, November 2nd...

What a day!

Our regularly scheduled day was upset by the power outage today! Miss Jamie's classroom was too dark to hold class in so we had to improvise. Lucky for us the windows at the school kept the school lit up pretty nicely and the sun shining in kept us warm. We had thought we could go all day, until the water started drying up in the bathrooms! Right around this time, the teachers started getting calls from their own kids at school asking to be checked out. So, Miss Jamie made the call to cancel the Afternoon session.

Of course immediately following the last call/text sent out - the lights came back on. Figures. We are looking at having a make up day for the Afternoon session and will let you know what we come up with. Meanwhile...

We focused on the Letter U/Uh So Sad sound today...

We teach this with a simple little activity. We build up a block tower and when it comes crashing down (while we are trying so hard to carefully place the tippy-top piece on) we exclaim "Uh...so sad"! Then we have the kids chant along with us, "Uh... So sad".

Yesterday's rainstorm was a perfect segue into our UMBRELLA theme today. We got to paint using our breath and straws today. The kids loved blowing through their straws and watching the watery blue paint (aka rain) spread across the paper. Then we decorated our umbrellas and added them (along with our straw, as the handle) to get the finished product!

Today was a little chaotic (too much play time is TOO MUCH, even for the kids believe it or not), but we learned a few things and will be incorporating them into our emergency plan. Number one being that we do not have enough water on hand. Miss Jamie will be making a trip to the store for bottled water soon, and maybe a 5 gallon or two for storage (toilet flushing is pretty high up on a preschoolers priority list). :) The second thing I will be buying is BATTERIES for the CD players - the kids were really annoyed that we couldn't just plug them in and play our music as usual. Other than that, the kids didn't really seem to mind that the lights were out.

Tuesday, November 1st...

Letter H/Running Hard sound

We actually introduced this sound yesterday, but are pretty sure it got lost in all the chaos and fun that make up our preschool Halloween Party!

The sound we are going for is made when you run really hard and fast and find it a little hard to breath.. HHHHHHHHHH. It is important to note that is just a breathy sound, their is no vocalization from the throat or vocal chords.

We read a book titled "The Hiccupotamus" by Aaron Zenz



However, our main theme today was not hiccups, it was HANDS! We spent some time thinking up things that we need our hands for, then our teacher (attempted) to draw pictures of our ideas.

In arts and crafts we used our hands (traced) to make animals, there were a few options, but turkeys seemed to be the popular choice. Earlier in the day, we introduced our new month - November and there was a discussion about turkeys and Thanksgiving. We even learned a new song about Turkeys!

Monday, October 31st...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

(pics and description from our party coming soon)

Wednesday, October 26th...

MORE MONSTERS!

Today we read a fun book called "I Need My Monster" by Amanda Noll.



The illustrations in this book are AMAZING! This is Herbert the Monster who has never even scared a kid before (but don't worry, he has read every book on the topic). Miss Jamie really enjoys voicing all the different monster characters in the book. :)


Today in Arts and Crafts we started with a giant block letter M and turned it into our very own MONSTER!

We made the most of things today by singing all our Halloween songs, only a couple of days left before we switch to our Thanksgiving theme!

HALLOWEEN PARTY

Our HALLOWEEN PARTY will be held on MONDAY, October 31st (which is nice, because it's HALLOWEEN DAY). Make sure your little ones are dressed up! At the end of the party we will be having a "TREAT EXCHANGE"... Please send TWELVE "Treats" with your child to pass out. A bag will be provided by us for the kids to collect their goodies in. MY TWO CENTS - I personally feel that the kids get quite enough candy during this particular holiday (at home, Trick or Treating, Trunk or Treats, Halloween Parties, etc...) so I prefer that you get a little creative with your "TREATS" for preschool. We love pencils, erasers, stickers, bouncy balls, hand drawn pictures from your child, little tattoos, glo bands, dollar store junk (yes, I said that - it's still better than candy), and so on. NOW, that being said - if you are putting together little goodie bags and you're just dying to throw in some sweets because it would be cute, I get that. I will still love you and, of course, your child! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!


P.S. I have had some of you offer to bring food, treats, etc... to the party. You are always welcome to do that! Thanks again!

Tuesday, October 25th...

MONSTER WEEK HAS ARRIVED!

Today we introduced the Letter M/ Millie's Yummy Cookie Sound (basically, the sound that you would make when eating a really yummy cookie). We like to work MONSTERS into the theme! We read one of our favorite monster stories... Go Away Big Green Monster by Ed Emberly


In Arts and Crafts we made our very own BIG GREEN MONSTERS! I think the kids really had fun with this one. I noticed that ALL the kids were really involved in this project and PROUD of their work!

During MUSIC today we listened to and sang "The Monster Mash"! We also took a little extra time toread a couple more MONSTER themed books that are much better SUNG than read...

PARENT NOTES: I didn't send out a book order this month because the September book order seemed like it just arrived! I have had parents ask if they can order online and I said WHY NOT? I noticed a couple orders have already been submitted online - I will send the orders in this weekend (Sunday, most likely, so consider that the due date). If you would like to order, just follow the instructions below and check out the catalogs online. I will send home the November/December bookorder flyers as soon as they arrive - hopefully next week! Thanks!

OUR CLASS ACTIVATION CODE IS: DX48H

It's so simple! Here's how it works:

• SIGN UP at www.scholastic.com/bookclubs. On the parent page, click the "Register" button in the "First Time Here?" section. Register for your own user name and password. When prompted, enter the one-time Class Activation Code shown above. This unique code ensures that your order is sent to me.
  
  
• SELECT the books you'd like to order -- choose from thousands of titles -- many more than in our monthly flyers.
  
  
• SEND your order to me online by the due date and your child's books will be delivered directly to my classroom.

Ordering online is fast, easy, and secure. If you have ANY questions about this, feel free to call me @ (801) 623-1150

If you have a little extra time, here is a fun YouTube of someone reading Go Away Big Green Monster...

Monday, October 24th...

Letter S / Water in the Sink Sound

In keeping with our Fall theme, we read a fun story about a little old lady who was not afraid of anything! The kids had a lot of fun acting out the different parts of the story.

At the end of the story a SCARECROW appears and we now have our theme for Letter S!

In arts and crafts the kids did their very best coloring and tracing as we worked on this...


PARENT NOTES: The kids ARE READY for a new routine! They are used to us, the surroundings, the rules, etc... and are ready to move on to the next step. As teachers, we are especially excited because this gives us more teaching time with the kids. When the kids arrive at school, we now have quiet activities set up in each of the classrooms. The kids now go directly to their classrooms and after all (or most) of the children have arrived (which has been only a few minute wait - THANKS to you parents getting them there on time) we begin our Circle Time and teaching activities. We then continue on with Snack Time, Arts and Crafts, Games, THEN when they are getting fidgety we finally have Free Play! We then have cleanup with about a half hour left to Sing and Dance! This new routine has been wonderful and we are already able to see the children growing!

Wednesday, October 19th...

Letter S / Water in the Sink Sound

Today we introduced the Letter S! We listened to the water turned on in our bathroom sink today and vocalized "SSSSSSSSSSSSSS" right along with it. More importantly, today was all about SKELETONS!

We had the kids a little concerned when we told them that there were REAL skeletons hidden in our classroom with us (until we explained that WE were hiding the skeletons, under our skin!). We talked about our bones and what they do for us, how to take care of them, and different foods that are good for our skeletons: milk, cheese, yogurt, and broccoli are all on the list. (We even ate a little broccoli at snack time).

We read a couple of fun stories today... Skeleton Meets the Mummy by Steve Metzger



and Skeleton Hiccups by Margery Cuyler


In Arts and Crafts we constructed SKELETONS with Q Tips and a little glue!

Tuesday, October 18th...

Letter P/Raindrops in a Puddle sound

Today was all about PUMPKINS! We read and sang our favorite little song, Five Little Pumpkins...

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate,
The first one said, "Oh my, it's getting late."
The second one said, "But we don't care."
The third one said, "I see witches in the air."
The fourth one said, "Let's run, and run, and run."
The fifth one said, "Get ready for some fun."
Then whoosh went the wind, and out went the lights,
And five little pumpkins rolled out of sight!

and another fun book, The Runaway Pumpkin...


And we played a fun game - Pin the face on the Pumpkin/Jack O Lantern! The kids had a lot of fun picking from the different options and building Jack's face!




In Art we painted paper plates orange and decorated them as Jack O Lanterns.

Monday, October 17th...

Letter P/Raindrops in a Puddle sound

Today we read a fun book called LMNO Peas by Keith Baker...

The book is a fun alphabet book all about cute little peas who have different jobs (which go along with the letters).



For a fun SNACK we served POPCORN!

In Art, we glued split peas onto a block letter P and backed it with pink or purple paper!

PARENT HELPERS...

We are looking for a couple of parent helpers to help out this coming Wednesday, October 19th for the last hour in the AFTERNOON CLASSES. Miss Jamie is heading out of town and would like to leave at 2:00, it would be great if Miss Tiffany could have a couple of parents there to help out with some fun activities from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm. Let us know if you can help!





AND FINALLY - We need parent volunteers for our HALLOWEEN PARTY which will be held on HALLOWEEN (Monday, October 31st). We are looking for 4 volunteers in the morning session and 4 in the afternoon. We will take the first volunteers who contact us either by email, text, or in person. Thanks!

Wednesday, October 12th...

More fun with the Letter I...

Today we read through this award winning children's book... Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni


It's a fun little story of an inchworm who meets a robin one day. The robin is quite hungry and decides to eat the little guy. The smart little inchworm convinces the robin that he is indeed useful for something other than his meal... he can measure his tail! After this the robin takes him to meet and measure all his bird friends.



In Arts and Crafts we used our own INCHWORM RULERS to measure insects that we had colored.

Tuesday, October 11th...

Today was ALL ABOUT INSECTS as we introduced the Letter I/Inky Marker (short vowel) sound...

The first thing we noticed at Circle Time today was that our names had been stolen - GASP! After a quick hunt, we found that a sneaky bunch of INSECTS had taken them. The children each retrieved their own name and put it back safe and sound in our pumpkin "name" patch.

The Sneaky Insects...

The short vowel I sound is one of the trickiest sounds the children will be learning this year. It's even so tricky, that Miss Nada had a hard time figuring out a sound for it. At least that's what I think happened. The sound is that of a new marker writing on a board, kind of squeaky and quick. Honestly, I don't spend a lot of time with this particular version of the sound. I rather like to use INSECTS and INCHWORMS (coming tomorrow) and even my daughter Isabella's name as examples of the "i" sound. I also teach the kids to use the phrase "Isn't that interesting" (exaggerating the short vowel "i" sounds).

After the initial introduction, we spent a bit of time rhyming words with the "i" sound in them. Examples: fit, bit, hit, lit, sit, and so on.

Today we highlighted a few insects in this handy little guide book...


We learned a new song to help us differentiate between Insects and Spiders, it goes like this...

(Sung to the tune of "Oh My Darlin")

I'm an INSECT
Not a SPIDER
I have SIX legs instead of EIGHT.
Three on this side,
Three on that side,
Makes me an insect-
Ain't that great!

And of course, the kids favorite song... Bringing home a baby bumblebee!


In Arts and Crafts we used stamp pads and markers to make fingerprint insects!

Monday, October 10th...

MORE GULPING GRAPE JUICE/LETTER G

Today we continued our "G" theme with the story "Grandpa Green" by Lane Smith

Here is a short trailer of the book...




Snack Time was interesting today as the kids were introduced to a variety of GREEN foods! Sugar snap peas, broccoli (with a little ranch for dipping), green grapes, and green apples were all on the menu.

In Arts and Crafts we painted our very own GREEN GARDEN, just like in the book we read about Grandpa Green. We had a good time using our hands and fingers as our painting tools!

PARENT NOTES: We sent home books (from the book orders) today, however they may be incomplete. I checked my email when I got home and realized that another box shipped separately and will be arriving tomorrow! Sorry if you were confused, everything should be fixed by tomorrow! Thanks!

Wednesday, October 5th...

Letter G/Gulping Grape Juice Sound

October is a fun month for learning sounds and "G" is a GREAT one for GHOSTS! We learned a fun story about Obedience in class today which involved GHOSTS, of course. Here is a LINK TO THE STORY we shared with the kids (we used the second story on the page). Our teachers used some fun GHOST puppets to tell the story.

We introduced the Gulping Grape Juice sound by GULPING GRAPE JUICE, of course! It was picture day, as well, so we stuck with white GRAPE juice this time around.

In Arts and Crafts each of the children decided what their GHOST would eat and then colored them accordingly (if you read the story you will know that the GHOSTS turn the color of whatever they happen to eat).

In music we are learning some fun Halloween songs: Five Little Pumpkins, Tis' The Night of Halloween, and yet another of Miss Jamie's YouTube favorites, The Skeleton Dance (below).

Tuesday, October 4th...

More Letter E / Evan's Door sound!


Today was our last day for our NAME TREE! A Pumpkin Patch will be replacing it soon!



Today we read one of MY FAVORITE STORIES of all time. I have this one memorized! This is about a boy named Edward who will not share and the kids absolutely love this book. It is one we like to pull out over and over throughout the year.




In Arts and Crafts we made these Elephants (only ours were white and had much cuter eyes)...


We also shared a little YouTube video that I love...

Monday, October 3rd...

Letter E / Evan's Door sound

Today we introduced our Letter E / Evan's Door sound. The sound is the short vowel "e" sound (eh). When we introduce vowels to the children, we always focus first on the short vowel sound. The long vowels will come later in the school year.

This sound is a little trickier for some children, they have a tendency to mix it up with the short vowel "a" sound. We have a little story about Evan's Door that we like to tell to help solidify the sound in their minds. The basic idea is that at some point in the story a little boy named Evan opens a door and it makes a creepy/spooky "eh" sound. If you really want to hear it, you'll have to ask one of the teachers to do it for you (we will just love that). :)

We also read a fun story about Edwina, a dinosaur who didn't know she was extinct.

In Arts and Crafts we decorated Evan's Door.

Wednesday, September 28th...

Today was a fun day! Our Teddy Bears were invited to school today. We had a fun day teaching the Preschool rules to our cute little animals. There's nothing quite like hearing the preschoolers explaining the rules... I get an idea of how I look to them when I see them copying me! We also reviewed the letter sounds we have been learning; a, c, and t.

We read this book...

and this book...


In arts and crafts we decorated a teddy bear puppet! Some of the classes took theirs home and others waited for the paint to dry. (We left it up to the individual teachers to choose their medium - paint, crayons, markers, etc...)

PARENT NOTES: We sent home a note and form to be filled out for school pictures next week. I know my previous post has info. on the schedule that was incorrect. Here is the update: ALL THREE DAY CLASSES WILL HAVE PICTURES ON WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5TH. Even if you aren't planning on ordering pics, please be aware that their pics will be taken to use in the class photos. THANKS!

School Pictures...

I have the info. to post, but need to put it into photobucket and do some magical tech savvy stuff to it before it can fit on the blog... but, I'm too tired and I already have to write 3 lesson plans tonight. SO here is a link to the info. (Thanks to Em and she didn't even know she just made my life a little easier tonight), just scroll down a bit if you don't feel like reading about how awesome I sort of am (hahaha)... PRESCHOOL PICS INFO LINK

Tuesday, September 27th...

Friday, September 23rd...

Today we spent some more time with our "Ticking Clock" sound (letter T)... only this time we had some fun with turtles!

The children loved singing the "Turtle Song"...

I had a little turtle,
his name was Tiny Tim.

I put him in the bathtub,
to see if he could swim.

He drank up all the water (gulp, gulp).
He ate up all the soap (yum, yum).

Now he's sick in bed,
with bubbles in his throat.

Bubble, Bubble, Bubble,
Bubble, Bubble, Bubble... (etc...) POP!

In Arts and Crafts we practiced our cutting skills and decorated our very own turtle shells.

PARENT NOTE: The kids should have come home today with an invitation for their Teddy Bears to join us at school tomorrow.

Catching up!

FUNNY, I thought I posted this up last night...turns out I posted it twice on the 2 day class blog. Bleh, someday I will learn to keep all this straight. In the meantime, you can check out the posts below to catch up.

OFFICIAL PICTURE DAY INFO... Pictures will be taken at the Winkfotos studio - which just happens to be located in our very own preschool - aren't we lucky!!

Dress your child in fun bright colors, that's what preschool is all about! Em of www.winkfotos.com hasn't sent me the exact price breakdown yet. I have asked for 2 options to be available to you. One should be $20 and the other $12, I think. More coming on that tonight, hopefully.

Here is the SCHEDULE:

Miss Jamie's Morning Class: Tuesday, October 4th
Miss Jamie's Afternoon Class: Tuesday, October 4th

Miss Jodi's Morning Class: Wednesday, October 5th

Miss Tiffany's Afternoon Class: Wednesday, October 5th

Monday, September 26th...

Today we introduced the "Ticking Clock" sound, also known as the letter T. We listened to the quiet ticking of our clock and practiced imitating the sound.




In Arts and Crafts we made our very own ticking clocks to take home.

Miss Jamie has also had a little fun with the kids showing them one of her favorite YouTube videos, here it is...


Wednesday, September 21st...

More of our "Happy Annie" /letter A sound...

We read "Who Took the Cookies from the Cookie Jar?" and found out after an investigation that ANTS took the cookies!

We followed up the theme at Snack Time with "Ants on a log" (celery sticks with peanut butter and raisins). And then in Arts and Crafts we made our very own egg carton ANTS with messy red paint - always a hit with the kids!


Tuesday, September 20th...

Today we introduced the Letter A. This is our "Happy Annie" sound. Happy Annie is a cute little baby who loves being held and responds with an "a" sound (think short vowel sound "a" in your very best baby voice).

We had a fun time learning about apples with this book...
We even cut an apple in half and saw this...
Then we read "Ten Apples Up on Top"...


Singing time is always filled with lots of FUN songs, one in particular that focuses on the vowel sounds is "Apples and Bananas". We introduced this fun song to the kids today.

Monday, September 19th...

More of the "Cracking Egg" sound! Today we read a couple of fun books about CATS.

AND

Two fun favorites here at preschool! P.S. If your kids come home talking about a cat falling in a toilet, this is where they are getting it from! Cookie is a very curious cat and toilets are quite interesting it turns out to both cats and preschoolers. :) Anyhow, it makes for a fun read!