Week of January 28th

This week was all about the letter F!   We did all kinds of fun activities that helped us learn the letter F and the F sound.    I am thinking about doing 2 letters each week from now on because the children are doing an amazing job and learning so very quickly.    But the news that excites me the most is that we are going to start blending all these sounds in the next few weeks!   I am sure you know what that means!   It means you are about to have some little readers!   I can hardly wait! 

On Thursday, we took our very first field trip to the Jacksonville Public Library.   Can I brag??   ( I have eye witnesses to verify this information)   My sweet little Pre-K students were the best kids at the library!  They were the ONLY children who remained on their bottom and listened to the story.  They also raised their hands and asked good questions. They knew all the letters in the book that the librarian was reading!  She was very impressed.   I even had several people ask me what preschool we represented.    I was beaming!!!  ( I still am!)     

I hope you enjoy the pictures from this week.  See you next week! 

Click  READ MORE  to see our pictures. 

January 21-24

What a FUN week we had in Pre-K! 

This week we reviewed letters A, B, C, D, T, S, M, and P.    During our morning circle time, we enjoyed our new favorite song, "Who Let the Letters Out."   The children love singing the letter sounds and acting them out.   Nearly all of the children can now name all of the letters and are about 80% accurate on naming letters sounds!    I am so very proud of them.     We also sang a new song called, "I Spy Shapes".  During this song, the children walk around the room and find all kinds of shapes.   I have been quite surprised at the shapes they have found.  To be perfectly honest, I have never noticed that our chairs have triangles on them!   I love to see them thinking "outside the box"! 

We also spent some time this week practicing for the Kitty Stone Talent Show.   We will be singing, "I've Been Working On The Railroad".    The children are excited about performing.   

Last but not least, we had a SNOW day on Thursday.    It was a surprise activity to wrap up the book that I chose to read this week.   Each morning, we read "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats.   We loved reading about Peter and his snow adventures.     After last week's promise of "real" snow that never happened, I decided to bring the snow to us!      We combined corn starch and shaving cream in a big bucket.    It was definitely a sensory experience!   I must confess, I may have had the most fun! Pre-K is SO much fun!   We made snowballs and little bitty snowmen.    We used our imaginations and had a blast!   I hope you enjoy the pictures and the video (its on the post after this post).

Next week, will be focusing on letter F.   I am very excited about our Fireman craft that we will do on Tuesday.     Don't forget, we have a field trip to the Jacksonville Public Library scheduled for Thursday, January 31st.   The preschool storytime will be "Alphabet Adventures".   I may be partial, but I can just about guarantee that I will have the smartest preschoolers there!   

Love, 

Mrs. Weathers    

Please click the READ MORE link below to see pictures from the week. 

SNOW DAY

January 14-17, 2013

This week we focused on the letter P! The children are getting into a good habit of listening to beginning sounds in words. Many times, out of the blue, a student will run up to me and say for example: "puh-puh pencil!" or "puh puh pizza!". They are becoming much more aware that letter sounds are in ALL of our words!   This really excites me!  

We spent extra time this week working on handwriting. It is very difficult for little hands to hold a pencil. They are learning and making progress. I have an assortment of pencils. Some children use typical pencils and some children use fat pencils. Please work with your child at home. They need lots of practice.

Enjoy pictures from this week.

Next week we will be reading, "The Snowy Day". I have a fun "snowy" surprise in store for my sweet little ones!
Mrs. Weathers

Alex is painting the letter P!

Jacob is sorting the buttons

RJ is gluing popcorn on the letter P

We had a popcorn snack afterwards!

We had a first grader come and read to us!

Making letters out of Play-Doh

Luc is matching the letters

January 7-10, 2013

What a wonderful week we had in Pre-K!     It was so nice to see all the sweet little faces after our Christmas break.   The children seemed very excited to be back at school.    They were eager to see each other and talk about all the special things that Santa brought them.  

This week, we have focused on the letter "R".   During circle time, we have been playing I-spy and locating "R" all around the classroom.   We even found "baby" R in our room!   We have also been talking about the five senses.   In math, we are looking at bar graphs.   We added some brand new Dr. Jean songs this week.  Some of our favorites include: Alphabet Phonercise, The Numeral Song, and Rhyme Time.    Next week, I will introduce "Who Let the Letters Out".   This is a fun song that reinforces each letter sound through dance and movement.   I think the children are going to love it!

We have also started doing center time.   I made a chart with pictures of each center and I move their pictures around during center time.   They spend about 8-10 minutes in each center.   We usually have time to rotate at least 3 times, sometimes 4.    They LOVE our new center shelves.   They are having a blast playing "games".   They have no idea how much they are learning!

I am looking forward to some fun activities this month.    I think there might be some "SNOW" in our forecast!

I will post again soon.
Mrs. Weathers

Abbie is writing the letter R in shaving cream! 

Center time!

Fine motor skills/Upper and Lowercase letter recognition

Jacob is making "R"ainbow person!  Look at the crazy Rainbow hair!

This is our center chart

We hung our rainbow people in the hallway.  It really brightened things up!

Fine Motor Skills/ Counting and Patterns

Last Day of School

Wrapping up 2012 in Pre-K

The past two weeks have been super duper busy!   We have been doing a "secret" project just for Mom and Dad.   It kept us quite busy!   I know that the parents are going to enjoy the beautiful calendar that showcases the child's hand print for each month!   We also have been continuing with our curriculum and learning about all different kinds of emotions.   We are getting really good with recognizing the different emotions that we can feel each day.   The children are doing an incredible job at naming letters and sounds.    Ask your child to tell you about "tricky" letters.    Each morning, I flash letter cards really fast and try to "trick" the children.   They love this game.   They request to play it every day!    This week, I introduced the children to patterns.   We all sat together on the carpet and made patterns with our shapes.   Some children made simple patterns with colors and other children surprised me and made patterns with shapes.   I love to see how the children learn from each other.   Everyday is a blast in Pre-K!       

 

We had a great time at our Christmas Party!  We love The Polar Express!

I love when the children say, "Mrs. Weathers, can you take our picture?" Well, of course, I can!!    I think Abbie is playing peek a boo with me, 

We celebrated Layna's birthday!  She is 4!   What a big girl!

The children loved opening presents! 

R.J. is decorating his sugar cookie with yummy sprinkles!

I had to take a picture of our finished product!  Whew!  That was a a lot of hard work!  I am very excited about how the calendars turned out.   I know that the parents are going to enjoy them!

I couldn't resist taking a picture of Abbie.   She LOVES icing!

Luc loved decorating his cookie with mini marshmallows.   Yum!                                                                                                          

 This will be our last blog update until we start back in January.   I have some exciting things planned for next semester.     The students will be introduced to learning stations.    I will be incorporating many Montesorri activities in each learning station.    The stations will be placed in one of the following groups: literacy, math, fine motor, self care tasks, technology, sensory, and creative play.    I am looking forward to a wonderful new year!