Valentine's Day Box

Valentine’s Day Celebration will be on Friday, February 13^th.  In the case of a snow day, our celebration will occur the next school day we have. 

                                AM Celebration will begin at 10:00 a.m..

                                PM Celebration will begin at 1:30 p.m.

Parents are welcome to join us!  We will have Valentine’s themed events in each of our centers.  Parents and other guests will be invited to join your child as they explore these centers.  We will also personally pass out valentines into our friends’ boxes and enjoy snacks before our day ends.  PLEASE SIGN UP FOR OUR LIST OF ITEMS IN THE HALLWAY FOR OUR CLASS PARTY.  We are always looking forward to celebrating in our classroom!

If you choose to bring Valentine's from your child, please ensure they bring a Valentine for each child.  Attached is a class list.  We encourage you to let your child write their classmate's name on their valentine while also signing their own name representing who the valentine is from.  (PLAN AHEAD AS THIS COULD BE A LONG TASK THAT MIGHT BE BEST OVER A FEW DAYS)  Also, please help your child decide if they want to either make their own valentines or purchase pre-made store versions; either way the children LOVE seeing the personalities of their friends through these tokens.

FAMILIES WILL MAKE THEIR VALENTINE'S BOX AND BRING IT IN ON FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13TH.  Please DO NOT bring in the box prior to the day of our party.  Allow your child's imagination to be used in their creation of their box.  Please ensure your child's name is visible and large enough for a child to see and read as STUDENTS will distribute their valentines.

Remember this is a project for you and your child to do together.  There will be flaws, it might not be perfect (but it will totally be perfect to them); but the point is that THEY made it.  Their sense of pride when they create something is amazing!  Encourage them each step!

Here are some ideas of Valentine boxes with directions:

Made from a cereal box

Made from a recycled milk jug

15 Awesome Ideas for boxes with pictures

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOUR CHILD'S NAME IS LARGE ENOUGH ON THE BOX SO OTHER CHILDREN CAN VISUALLY SEE WHO'S BOX IT IS IN ORDER TO PUT THEIR VALENTINE TO YOUR CHILD IN THE APPROPRIATE BOX.

Jefferson County Welfare Society Field Trip

Thank you for helping to support the Pre K community project by helping to bring items in for the Jefferson County Animal Welfare Society.  Our students were able to tour the facility to see how their donations will help their community as well as had a great lesson on the responsibility of having a pet.  

Thank you to the families that drove out in the snow to participate in our day!  Everyone had a great time!

January 13-- 23rd

Thank you Shade family for bringing in Jujuberry to the class. A great preparation for our visit to the animal shelter to see how our students need to remain calm around new animals. The students in the morning Pre K class absolutely loved the opportunity to meet your new family pet.

Also this week our students continued their growth while working with the Bee Bots. Programming the bumble bees to move around their grid from numbers 1 - 20 continues their growth in number recognition as well as using some cool technology to lead the way.   Students were able to either work in small groups or solo.

With indoor gross motor we have been connecting more involvement with catching and throwing balls. Teaching children to keep their eye on the ball with small soft tosses while indoors helps with safety as well. Their faces when they catch it is amazing! To become a greater challenge, they get to try to clap once or twice before catching the ball.

Have you seen how awesome your child can write their name? Here we are connecting each child writing their name with an additional hand eye coordination of letting them paint (it's just water) over top of their name. Practicing forming letters in different ways is strengthening their literacy while having a little fun while we do it.

Here is a fun idea for upper and lower case practice. Using clear spoons for upper case letters and white spoons for lower case letters , students work in small groups to match letters together. Working together as a team is encouraging for both students that have a strong knowledge to strengthen their leadership and also gives encouragement to student that haven't yet mastered this area.

Introducing the ruler and what it is used for was a fun activity this past week!  Students measured the length of their pieces of yarn then wrote the number on their given line.  Connecting number recognition, use of a ruler, and writing made this project a triple win!

January 6 - 9

Welcome back Pre K!  2015 is bound to bring us great things!!

We celebrated National Bubble Bath Day, as students brought in their rubby duckies for a "river race."  They had so much fun using their own personal straw to blow their ducky from one end of the river to the other.  Watching their strategies as they altered them to get their ducky to go faster has shown a lot of growth in each little one.  So much fun watching the competitive side come out in a healthy way.  We even had cheerleaders that wanted to stay and watch each person go to cheer them on.

Bringing snow in from outside was pure joy for them.  Their face lit up when they saw us bring it in.  We also froze water this week in cups to let them stack large ice cubes to see what would happen when they slid.  Some of the kids quickly learned to pack snow onto the ice to then stack them.  Smart brains!

How tall are you in snowballs?  A super fun activity where we measured each student by "snowballs" and then allowed their imagination to go as they decorated their snowman.  Connecting more Math, each student wrote numbers on their snow balls as they counted how many snowballs tall they were.  

We use a lot of glue sticks in our class, but not often do we use Elmers glue (the kind you squeeze).  What a great fine motor activity to have more practice how to effectively squeeze out the glue with just enough strength to cover the lines of our snowflakes.  When they were done, we covered them with glitter and they will be hung around the classroom this week.

Shhh!  Do you hear that?  Placing jingle bells inside of boxes added loads of excitement as students were able to build with the boxes and blocks together.  Connecting sounds with an activity like building brought their imagination to life even more!

What a gem we have in Miss Scooter!  She takes time each week to prepare a fun felt scene for students to spend time putting together in any way they like.  Here is a snowman with extra pieces to decorate and accessorize.  

Learning a new gross motor game this week was fun!  Spinning the wheel, seeing what activity the class is to do and then showing them a number (how many times we are to do the activity).  Associating gross motor with cognitive growth, like number recognition 1 - 20, is providing more hands on ways to learn.

Painting with water.  Who doesn't like to write their name?  :)  Here students are showcasing how they wrote their name in chalk and then used a paint brush and water to follow over top of their letters.  Connecting again, cognitive growth with fine motor skills, another great way you too can do this at home! (This center will be available next week as well as each student was not able to attend due to snow delays)

Fine motor practice as students used a knife to cut pieces off of a banana and then put together their own miniature snowmen.  Their faces when I mentioned they were allowed to use a knife was priceless!  Parents you have done a great job teaching them the safety of not using them.  Questions like "is my Mom okay with this?" and "Are you going to tell my Mom I used a knife?" were heard.

I used The Pampered Chef's "My Safe Cutter" knife.  A great knife that does cuts through cooked meats and veggies/fruits but does not cut flesh or uncooked meats.  Great tool to use at home if you want your child to gain more independence at meal times or more fine motor and hand/eye coordination skills.   

December 16 - 19

I apologize as I hadn't confirmed this post a few weeks back.  Enjoy some insight of what your little ones may have already shared with you!

Lily, our class elf, has been quite busy keeping up with watching over our little ones at the school.  The kids all love coming in to the class and finding what great things she has done.  Our class elf encourages our kids to have great behavior as she learns from them and her behavior "reflects theirs."  Here Lily has prepared herself morning breakfast.

When we return from holiday break, indoor gross motor activities will be so important!  One of their favorite activities is the parachute.  Finding fun ways to help them practice gross motor activities like balancing on one foot, hopping, etc. is valuable to their growth.  If you are interested in coming in to help teach a great gross motor activity, please connect with Miss Shelly.  We would love to have you!

Another gross motor activity they greatly enjoyed was our snowman!  Having the opportunity to throw bean bags and knock over "Frosty" was so much fun!  Learning how to take turns was an even greater lesson.  Watching their faces light up when they threw a bean bag and knocked over more than one piece to Frosty was priceless.  Another lesson practiced, was learning how to play then pick up as each student had to replace the pieces to Frosty before the next person could take their turn.

Miss Shelly spends a lot of time at home preparing new fun games that everyone can enjoy and grow with.  Here is an example of something you can do at home too!  Writing words on our Pre K lines (it is important for our students to continually see the proper formation of letters in all areas) and then searching for the same letter to place on top of them.  I have chosen to write letters on small wooden blocks (also works their fine motor skills in their patience in turning the blocks to find the right letter); we also have used milk jug tops or Popsicle sticks.  If you don't have anything like this, cut up pieces of paper and write a letter on each piece.  It's just the idea of looking for the matching letter and saying each letter out loud as they place it on the card.  An advanced version of this, write each word in lower case letters and encourage them to match the upper case to the lower case letter.

Every student practiced great fine motor skills as they each wrapped their own present to their loved ones.  In the writing center they were able to write a card to their loved one as well choosing a greeting to write and their name.  What an awesome job they did!

A little bit of extra fun in our dramatic play area as we turned the kitchen around and created a fire place complete with cookies, hot chocolate and sharing holiday stories.  Each student also got to see their stocking hung.

Enjoy a great holiday!  We will see you in 2015!

1 Hr delay

Jefferson County Schools is on a 2 hour delay.  

There will be no AM Pre K today, January 6th.