Dear Yellow Duck Families,

Well, like they say, time flies when you’re having fun!! It has been a pleasure and a joy teaching your children this year. Miss Carina and I laugh every day. The funny stories, songs, big hugs and moments where we see connections happening (both academically & socially) make our job the best in the world. We have enjoyed each day watching them bloom and grow in the CCP garden.

We hope you spend your summer with your Duck noticing what they are observing and are able to put off loading the dishwasher, mowing the grass, or even cooking dinner (breakfast for dinner is the best!). I feel like we spend the first year encouraging our little ones to crawl, walk, and then run. Then we spend the next 17 years trying to catch them. Before you know it, they will be driving and graduating. Don’t miss it!

Thank you again to our parent reps, Carol Ann & Carrie who have worked beside us to make this a memorable year of preschool. We had so much fun celebrating with you today 🎓

And thank you all for your support, kind words & cards, generous gifts to us and the classroom and for trusting us to care for and support your children as they grew and learned this year. We will miss our Ducks so much & will be thinking of them as they start their next school year.

Wishing you well!

Much love, Miss Sue & Miss Carina

Time flies

REMINDERS:

May 18 & 20- NO LUNCH BUNCH this week- PICKUP is at 12pm M-Th (dismissal is immediately following celebration on Fri.)

Friday, May 22- join us for our graduation celebration! We will only be at school that day from 9-10am. After dropping off in the classroom, we’ll ask you to get a seat in Ascension Hall for our ceremony where we’ll meet you at about 9:15. Following a few quick songs we will all head to the playground (weather permitting) for refreshments & fun. Our fantastic room reps have planned for an ice cream truck & lots of great photo ops during our party 😃 (in the event of rain, we will celebrate in Ascension Hall). Then we must say our goodbyes & head out by 10am so that the Ladybugs can use the playground for their celebration.

YELLOW DUCK NEWS:

These last couple of weeks together are all about celebrating the connections we have made with each other- the friendships we have formed & the growth that each child has made this year.

Our always treasure-hunting crew (most often found hunting for treasures on the playground) hunted for special beads in our huge collection of miscellaneous beads gathered in the sensory table & used them to create jewelry. Then we went on the search for letters hiding throughout the room- first using a recording sheet to match uppercase letters and then matching lowercase to uppercase. Our letter-masters also enjoyed putting on puppet shows for their friends using our letter puppets. We even “hunted” for animals in an eye-spy type story that had us counting by 10s.

Our animal lovers (the beanie baby pets are featured in all types of play almost every day!) enjoyed taking care of the animals in our Animal Shelter loft space & helping to get the animals adopted by their classmates ❤️

We had a blast decorating mortarboard hats to use during our celebration next Friday and took a walk through the village together to celebrate our last Lunch Bunch with a picnic in the Southern Village green. We took advantage of a beautiful windy day to try some kite flying, too (lots of symbolism there…our Ducks spreading their wings and flying 🥺).

We had one final bday celebration- mine : ) - complete with full size donuts! Sorry parents! Thank you all again for making me feel so loved. Birthday hugs from our sweet Ducks are the best gift of all.

Next week we will be re-visiting some of our favorite classroom toys that we haven’t seen for a while and helping to clean up our room for the next group of Yellow Ducks. Involving the children in the process of cleaning & preparing for the next class shifts their focus to being the “big kids” moving up. Each day we remind them of all their accomplishments & assure them that they are ready to go on to new adventures!

We can’t believe the year has gone so quickly!! We will be soaking in every moment next week.

Enjoy your weekend!

Miss Sue & Miss Carina

Happy Mother's Day

PLEASE make plans to join us for our graduation celebration on May 22! We will only be at school that day from 9-10am. After dropping off in the classroom, we’ll ask you to get a seat in Ascension Hall for our ceremony where we’ll meet you at about 9:15. Following a few quick songs we will all head to the playground (weather permitting) for refreshments & fun (info regarding plans for that & ways you can contribute will be coming soon from our wonderful room reps, Carol Ann & Carrie). We must say our goodbyes & head out by 10am so that the Ladybugs can use the playground for their celebration.

REMEMBER-

May 11 & 13- Last Lunch Bunches

May 18 & 20- NO LUNCH BUNCH- PICKUP is at 12pm M-Th (dismissal is immediately following celebration on Fri.)

YELLOW DUCK NEWS:

We continued having fun with dinosaurs this week. The children created some very detailed dino-lands with the play set. We also used sunprint paper to create dino jungle scenes. It was a very cool process involving arranging our material on the paper, setting it in the sun and then “developing” the picture by dipping it in a water bath. Check them out in the office hallway!

We have been reading about other reptiles & amphibians and enjoyed making cute little turtles from recycled fruit cups (while wearing the cutest animal masks that Miss Carina snagged from a neighbor!).

Will brought Uno Attack for his guess & tell this week, and we all had so much fun!! Most everyone was familiar with regular Uno, but this version spits out random amounts of cards when you have to draw from the pile! 😮 There were tons of giggles while we reviewed numbers and practiced taking turns. We were also impressed to see that our Ducks were all great sports & accepted defeat gracefully. Thanks for sharing your game, Will!

We made our final journal entry this week- our 3rd self-portrait. This time everyone had a mirror to use as they drew themselves, paying attention to all the details.

It finally rained, so we had one of the only indoor recess times that was necessary this year. It was lots of fun playing “Keepy Uppy” (as the kids named it) with a balloon and then using them for some indoor baseball practice. Afterward, Miss Carina led a relaxing yoga class before heading back to the classroom.

We had another birthday party this week, also! We celebrated Kathryn’s 5th birthday on Friday. Welcome to the whole hand club, Kathryn 🖐️

Of course, the best part of the week was creating special Mother’s Day cards for our moms 🩷🩷 We hope you enjoy reading your child’s impressions of you- they are so funny & sweet. Have a wonderful Mother’s Day! I hope you get pampered & loved on by your sweet Ducks as you deserve to be.

Miss Sue & Miss Carina

ROAR!!

We came to school on Monday to find 4 of our 5 butterflies had emerged from their chrysalises. Luckily we were there to see the final butterfly appear! We watched as it flapped it’s wings dry & enjoyed having them in our class for a while. Then we released them among the trees in the picnic grove. As the butterflies exited our room the classroom was taken over by dinosaurs!

The eyedroppers were put to good use as we used our strong fine motor skills to squeeze vinegar on dinosaur eggs to hatch baby dinos and experiment with baking soda to make volcanoes erupt. The egg hatching took lots of perseverance & patience, but the prize was their very own dinosaur to keep! And the volcanoes required trial & error to come up with the correct combination of ingredients to cause an eruption. Everyone was also excited about making their own fossil using a dinosaur to make a mold and pouring plaster into it. Very cool!

We also followed step-by-step directions to draw dinosaurs in our journals. As we approach the end of our school year, we are fine tuning our readiness skills for next year. Learning to listen & follow directions, along with self-help skills, are the #1 things that kindergarten teachers wish for in their incoming classes. Those students are coachable students- ready to learn! The Yellow Ducks were great listeners & followed each step as we taught them 😊 🦕

Our loft was a nice cozy spot this week that all the Ducks took refuge in at some point. We set up the CD player with a selection of stories to choose from & listen to on the headphones. The children did a great job learning to handle the CDs carefully and operate the player.

We want to thank Catherine’s mom & sister (another former Duck!) for teaching us about caring for pets, showing us their pet anole that they rescued from a cold winter sidewalk, and reading to us! We loved having you visit ❤️

We are in disbelief that May has arrived already & we have just 3 short weeks of school left with our friends. Please let us know if you have any days off planned in May so that we can be sure to complete any important end of year projects with your child before their absence. There is so much to do & so little time!!!!

And PLEASE make plans to join us for our celebration on May 22! We will only be at school that day from 9-10am. After dropping off in the classroom, we’ll ask you to get a seat in Ascension Hall for our ceremony where we’ll meet you at about 9:15. Following our short ceremony we will all head to the playground (weather permitting) for refreshments & fun (info regarding plans for that & ways you can contribute will be coming soon from our wonderful room reps, Carol Ann & Carrie). We must say our goodbyes & head out by 10am so that the Ladybugs can use the playground for their celebration.

REMEMBER-

May 11 & 13- Last Lunch Bunches

May 18 & 20- NO LUNCH BUNCH- PICKUP is at 12pm

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend with your Yellow Ducks,

Miss Sue & Miss Carina

Zoom Zoom Zoom...we're going to the moon!

May 11 & 13- Last Lunch Bunches

May 18 & 20- NO LUNCH BUNCH- PICKUP is at 12pm

May 22nd- Our Last Day- everyone is invited to join us for a celebration of the Yellow Ducks from 9:15-10:00. More info coming soon!

YELLOW DUCK NEWS:

We had an exciting week of space exploration. Our astronauts loved learning about the planets, galaxies, stars and rocketships. We cut out rocketships and used air power to launch them with a straw. Mission Control was very busy in the loft! And we made beautiful solar systems with stamps & paiint.

Our own planet, Earth, got a special day- Earth Day! We worked together to make a beautiful Earth for our hands to hold. We sang “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”. During our discussions of ways to take care of our Earth, so many friends knew that we need trees & plants to make oxygen for us…such smarties! Everyone planted grass seed to grow a yard. Fingers crossed that these do a bit better than our beans from Jack & the Beanstalk week 🤞

Of course, the most exciting part of the week was the trip to Morehead Planetarium!! Thank you all for taking time to join us and make this trip possible. It was such a special day.

Ready for college life

We hope you enjoyed our music performance on Thursday. We are so proud of these kids ❤️🎶

We even celebrated 2 more birthdays. The Yellow Ducks have had a very busy week!! Happy Birthday Aubrey & Ava! Welcome to the whole hand club 🖐️!

And last but not least, we had a special guest reader on Friday. Reese’s sister (a former CCP student as well) came to read us a fun story. Thank you so much, Rowan!

Have a wonderful weekend with your Duck!

Miss Sue & Miss Carina

The Ducks are Busy Bees

Tuesday, April 21st – Important Information about the Planetarium Field Trip on Tuesday, April 21:

We will be taking the city bus and leaving preschool promptly at 9:00 am to walk to the bus.  In order to catch the bus, we will not be able to wait for any late arrivals. Please meet in our classroom by 8:50 am and we can all walk together to the bus stop.

Please pack your child a snack and drink.  Before we enter the  Planetarium we will be eating snack as a group outside.  Eating and drinking is prohibited in the Planetarium.  After snack we will explore the exhibits and at 10:30 am we will watch our Planetarium show.  After our Planetarium show we will walk back to the bus to return to preschool. We are very excited to take the bus and see the planets!

Thursday, April 23rd - 🎼 Casual music program. Please drop your child off by 9am on Thurs., 4/23 and meet us in Ascension Hall at 9:15 to hear your child sing a few songs they have been learning in music class with Ms. Vicki.

May 22nd- Last Day- everyone is invited to join us for a celebration of the Yellow Ducks. More info coming soon!

YELLOW DUCK NEWS:

This week we watched as our caterpillars grew, formed their Js at the top of the cup, and even got to watch as the last one spun it’s chrysalis around itself on Friday. We counted up from April 7 (the day we got them) and determined that Kathryn, Olive & Reese predicted correctly that it would take 9 or 10 days until they made the chrysalis. We have made new predictions about how many days it will be until they emerge as butterflies! We also put our beaded caterpillars into paper bag chrysalises to follow along with the life cycle.

The bugs in our sensory table liked our sticky swamp made from soaked chia seeds, but not many of the Yellow Ducks did 😆😆 We discovered it was also not our favorite thing to try to clean up, but had some very helpful friends who offered to help wash the bugs. We are attempting to grow some chia by the window instead.

The Yellow Ducks used bubble wrap stamps to print hexagon honeycombs and drew (and cut out!) bees to add to their hive.

They also learned about Vincent Van Gogh and drew their own starry night pictures using wavy line & spirals.

The Ducks are very excited to learn more about the planets and outer space during out trip next week. They are especially excited that our friend Diana will be coming to join us, and Ayzal will be returning from his long trip ❤️

At this time of year strong bonds have formed & preschoolers are learning to navigate between different friendships- sometimes resulting in hurt feelings. This week we read the story, “Chrysanthemum”. It’s a story about a little mouse named Chrysanthemum who is teased for her long name. Each time Chrysanthemum was teased, a large paper heart was crumpled a little. By the end of the story, the heart was in a ball. We tried to smooth it out, but the wrinkles remained. We reminded the Ducks that words can hurt others’ hearts, so we should be careful in choosing what we say to others. We hope that is a lesson they will carry with them throughout life.

Last but not least- we celebrated Lilly and Kennedy’s 5th birthdays this week. Happy Birthday girls! Welcome to the whole hand 🖐🏼 club.

Have a wonderful weekend with your growing Ducks,

Miss Sue & Miss Carina

oh…by the way- did you know that Miss Carina is an author? She self-published her very own story of the Adventures of Doug. These are stories that she verbally tells to the class often during snacks or lunch (Doug is her dog). The children loved hearing the book she created for them : )

Caterpillars Come to School!

Wednesday, April 15 - Spring picture day. We will have both individual and class photos done.

Tuesday, April 21st – Planetarium Field Trip (Every child can have one chaperone join them and NO siblings are allowed on the field trip).  Thank you all for turning in your forms & payment. We are very excited about our trip!

Thursday, April 23rd - 🎼 Casual music program. Shortly after drop-off on Thurs., 4/23, you are invited to come to Ascension Hall to hear your child sing a few songs they have been learning in music class with Ms. Vicki.

May 22nd- Last Day- everyone is invited to join us for a celebration of the Yellow Ducks. More info coming soon!

YELLOW DUCK NEWS:

This week we have visitors in our classroom….the Caterpillars!!!! We are so excited to have 5 live caterpillars that we can watch as they become butterflies. We learned about the life cycle of a butterfly and of course, we also read The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Everyone was familiar with the story, so they helped “read” along. We made predictions about how many days it would take before the caterpillars made their chrysalises. They have grown a lot in just 4 days, so we may find them hanging in their J ready to go on Monday!

During our butterfly week we created clay caterpillars, butterflies, and other insects or flowers. The Yellow Ducks were very creative as they rolled and pinched the clay to form balls, ropes, & petals.

We also practiced cutting skills making a leaf, strengthened our hands using hole punchers to “munch” on leaves, and threaded beads in beautiful patterns to create a caterpillar for the leaf. Check them out in the office hallway!

We found a new use for some old CDs and created shiny flowers for coffee filter butterflies to land on, as well.

The Yellow Ducks own hair salon!

There was another very exciting addition to our classroom this week- the Quacky Cuts Hair Salon! Wow…did the Ducks ever have so much fun? Every child got involved in this dramatic play center. There was a hair washing station downstairs and haircuts and styling upstairs. We even expanded the shop & opened a nail salon section on Wednesday (great eye-hand/fine motor work happening there!). We heard so much great conversation between the children. This was probably my favorite dramatic play setup of the year ❤️

We will be continuing our exploration of insects next week, so feel free to send any little critters you come across in a small container for us to examine (and then release back into the wild!).

Enjoy the beautiful Spring weather with your sweet Ducks this weekend,

Miss Sue & Miss Carina

Egg-speriment

NEXT WEEK- March 30 - April 6 - School will be closed for Spring Break! We return on Tues, 4/7

Wednesday, April 15 - Spring picture day. We will have both individual and class photos done.

Tuesday, April 21st – Planetarium Field Trip (Every child can have one chaperone join them and NO siblings are allowed on the field trip).  Please return your permission form & fee by April 10th.

Thursday, April 23rd - 🎼 Casual music program. Shortly after drop-off on Thurs., 4/23, you are invited to come to Ascension Hall to hear your child sing a few songs they have been learning in music class with Ms. Vicki.

YELLOW DUCK NEWS:

This week we have continued on with comparing and contrasting different versions of a familiar story. Our fairy tale this week was The Three Little Pigs. We started with the original version, and then read, “The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig” who became kind and friendly when he sniffed in the sweet smell of flowers that the wolves used to build their final house! We’ve made our way through different endings, characters, and settings. Our ducks have now had excellent experience in how one story can be told in so many different ways. Instead of art appreciation, it is story appreciation.

Then the children were invited to make houses like the pigs did in the stories. They had to figure out ways in which to construct them using tape, pipecleaner “straw”, sticks and lego bricks. First each child worked alone, and then we collaborated in groups. We tested the strength of the houses to see which was the strongest, with a wolf (hair dryer). Ask your duck what happened. Of course, we also added three little pigs and a wolf so the story could be retold in a fun way! 🐷🐷🐷🐺

We also introduced the concept of nursery rhymes and learned they are short poems that are sometimes sung and contain rhyming words. We read Humpty Dumpty, Hickory Dickory Dock, and sang the Itsy Bitsy Spider.

After reading Humpty Dumpty we did our egg drop. We looked at some photos of example designs & discussed what materials were used to protect the egg. Then we provided all kinds of materials on our table in which the children could construct a safe fall for their Humpty Dumpty. Each child got a raw egg in a ziploc bag & had the opportunity to test their design. Most everyone thought their egg would make the trip unscathed. We first dropped them from our short ladder. Most broke. The five that did not break were then dropped over the railing of our loft. And finally the last remaining intact egg was dropped over the railing of the pirate ship on our playground and STILL survived!

Doing this experiment provided not only great fun, but so many other learning experiences. The children learned that certain materials work better than others to protect an egg. They learned to encourage the others whose egg broke. This investigation reinforced self-regulation by taking turns, using their eyes to watch, and their ears to hear if the egg broke. It enforced how to dream big. Most important of all, they learned how to accept failure (and success), and accept it well. We pointed out that this is how real scientists learn. Failure is a part of life and an important lesson, as it’s usually the way we also learn. We’d still be in the dark if Thomas Edison had given up!

We practiced number order as we created clocks and experimented with water pressure & precision aim as we sent Itsy Bitsy Spider down the spout.

We also took advantage of the beautiful Spring weather to have a picnic with our Whale friends and spend playground time playing with new friends and old.

Everyone has been excited about the upcoming Easter holiday and enjoyed painting Easter eggs at the easel and hunting for letters hidden in eggs around the classroom.

We hope you all our duck families enjoy the Spring Break week. We’ve heard there are many adventures planned and can’t wait to hear about them when you return. Bring a picture or souvenir to share at circle time!

Safe travels,

Miss Sue & Miss Carina

Spring is Here!!

CCP SCHOOL SPIRIT - Have lunch or dinner at AL’s BURGERS this weekend! March 18-22 Al's Burgers is excited to support our school this spring. Instead of a "Spirit Night," we are having a "Spirit Week" fundraising opportunity. From 3/18-3/22, a customer can bring in a coupon, donate $5 to the school, and receive a "free" burger. Use the coupons that were in the cubbies on Monday/Tuesday of last week. Thanks for your support!

March 30 - April 6 - School will be closed for Spring Break!

Wednesday, April 15 - Spring picture day. We will have both individual and class photos done.

Tuesday, April 21st – Planetarium Field Trip (Every child can have one chaperone join them and NO siblings are allowed on the field trip).  Please return your permission form & fee by April 10th.

Thursday, April 23rd - 🎼 Casual music program in the fellowship hall. Shortly after drop-off on Thurs., 4/23, your child will sing a few songs with the class & Ms. Vicki for an audience of parents and special loved ones in Ascension Hall. More details to come…

YELLOW DUCK NEWS:

It was another shortened week due to the weather, but we certainly had lots of fun while learning!

We have been discussing the life cycle and parts of a plant, and patiently waiting for our beans to sprout in their bags on the window. Finally roots and even some leaves began to grow, so it was time to pot them this week. Some of our beans are taking longer to grow. We pointed out that we all grow at our own pace.

Our kitchen area became a flower shop. The Ducks worked in shifts as floral designers and cashiers. Customers lined up to place an order and went to play until their flowers were delivered!

Everyone had fun experimenting with a prism to catch the sunlight from our windows just right to make a rainbow…on our floor, the walls, and even on our friends!

We added rainbow blocks to the building center and made connect the dot rainbows in our journals, too. We learned about the artist Alma Thomas who made mosaic art, often using rainbow colors and began making a collaborative mosaic mural that we will continue next week.

We celebrated Saint Patrick’s Day with some tattoos brought in by Olive and had TWO birthday celebrations!! Owen’s mom & dad came on Wednesday with treats and his favorite story to celebrate his 5th birthday. And Miss Carina brought dirt cup kits and fun goody bags to celebrate her birthday on Thursday. Happy Birthday Owen & Miss Carina!!

Carina & I would also like to thank you ALL for making us feel very special during our Teacher Appreciation week! You have been so generous and kind. We had such a yummy lunch from Al’s and were touched by all the beautiful pictures, flowers, and sweet gifts…we have been showered with kindness and love. Thank you for making us feel so appreciated. We love our school family!

We’d like to remind you that as the days grow warmer, we all get thirsty!!! PLEASE make sure to send a water bottle to school (we can refill it as needed) and apply sunscreen before school as well. Thank you!!

Have a wonderfully, warm Spring weekend!

Miss Sue & Miss Carina

Who Will Help?

March 18-22 - Let’s have lunch or dinner at AL’s BURGERS! Al's Burgers is excited to support our school this spring. Instead of a "Spirit Night," they are proposing a "Spirit Week" fundraising opportunity. From 3/18-3/22, a customer can bring in a coupon, donate $5 to the school, and receive a "free" burger. The coupons will be in the cubbies on Monday/Tuesday of next week (one per order). Thanks for your support!

30 - April 6 - Spring Break!

April 15 - Spring picture days. We will have both individual and class photos done.

April 21st – Planetarium Field Trip (Every child can have one chaperone join them and NO siblings are allowed on the field trip).  Please return your permission form & fee by April 10th.

April 23rd - 🎼 Casual music programs in the fellowship hall. Shortly after drop-off on Thurs., 4/23, your child will sing a few songs with the class & Ms. Vicki for an audience of parents and special loved ones in Ascension Hall. More details to come…

*SPECIAL REQUEST- The Ducks will be doing a special “egg drop” STEM experiment during the last week of March. We need recyclables to use in our creations to protect our egg! Please send recyclables (washed out containers, small boxes, packaging materials, etc) ASAP. Thanks! : )

YELLOW DUCK NEWS:

We had a very exciting week, despite the very short time we had with our Yellow Ducks due to the shortened week. Our fairy tale was The Little Red Hen and, just like the book, we asked our young friends “Who will help?”. Everyone had a hand in measuring, mixing, and kneading our “Bread in a Bag” (here’s the recipe if you’d like to try it at home: https://busytoddler.com/wprm_print/bread-in-a-bag )

Then on Tuesday we made our own butter to spread on our bread, of course! We learned how the fat separates from the cow’s milk to make cream at the top. Then everyone got a little cream in a cup to 🎵Shake, Shake, Shake 🎶 as we danced. We noticed when it stopped sloshing around it had become whipped cream, and then when we heard a liquidy noise again our butter was done! We poured off the buttermilk & spread our homemade butter on our homemade bread 😋. It feels good to make things on our own!

We also read Rapunzel this week. At our math center we used links to make Rapunzel’s hair different lengths according to the number on the card. It was fun to make jewelry & practice patterning as well, all the while working those fine motor skills as we linked them together.

Thank you all for taking time to meet us this week to talk about your Duck. It’s always such a pleasure to share with parents the areas where their children are successful. We couldn’t be any prouder of these small humans for all they have accomplished this school year so far, from learning numbers and letters, to figuring out how to navigate the waters of several social situations. We have modeled and taught them how to become a team and to care for one another. Introverts are finding their voices, the unsure are taking chances and believing in themselves, and everyone is finding out that even adults like Ms. Carina and I don’t know everything and are still learning and practicing to get better at something.

Several parents asked about ways to work on academic skills at home in preparation for kindergarten, and we suggested making learning a game. Here are a couple of ideas for easy games to play at home with supplies you probably already have on hand.

The first are math games using a deck of Uno cards: https://playpartygame.com/kids-party-ideas/fun-games-you-can-play-with-uno-cards/

And the next is a game I’ve used for years called Kaboom. You can change the “kaboom” sticks to other actions (at Christmas I make them HoHoHo sticks and everyone has to hohoho like Santa when one gets pulled). It’s a fun quick game to play! https://themanylittlejoys.com/alphabet-kaboom-a-simply-brilliant-preschool-game/

Try one this weekend & let us know if it was a hit : )

Have a great weekend with your sweet Ducks,

Miss Sue & Miss Carina

Once Upon a Time...

UPCOMING EVENTS:

March 11 & 12 - Conferences - School is closed to allow for spring conferences, but our playground is always open! Feel free to plan with another parent to watch each others’ children on the playground during your conference times. We ask that you please come without children to conferences, so that we can have a private conversation about your student’s progress.

March 30 - April 6 - Spring Break!

April 15 - Spring picture days. We will have both individual and class photos done.

April 21st – Planetarium Field Trip (Every child can have one chaperone join them and NO siblings are allowed on the field trip).  We will provide more information next week during conferences.

April 23rd - 🎼 Casual music programs in the fellowship hall. Shortly after drop-off on Thurs., 4/23, your child will sing a few songs with the class & Ms. Vicki for an audience of parents and special loved ones in Ascension Hall. More details to come…

*SPECIAL REQUEST- The Ducks will be doing a special “egg drop” STEM experiment during the last week of March. We need recyclables to use in our creations to protect our egg! Please send recyclables (washed out containers, small boxes, packaging materials, etc) ASAP. Thanks! : )

YELLOW DUCK NEWS:

Did you guess from the blog title that our framework for learning this month will be fairy tales? Fairy tales spark imagination and offer moral lessons. Children can learn from the characters’ mistakes which helps them develop critical thinking skills. These stories can also help children confront real-life fears and anxieties in a fantastical setting. Best of all, they’re so much fun! We will be reading alternate (or fractured) versions of the tales as well. These stories encourage critical thinking, creativity, and humor by challenging the traditional, often rigid, structure of the original fairy tales.

After a lively discussion of what constitutes a fairy tale- magic, animals that can talk, fairies, make believe!- we began by reading Jack & the Beanstalk (and the alternate version- Jack & the Beanstalk and the French Fries!). Everyone planted a bean in a bag. We are eagerly watching & waiting for them to sprout! We used real leaves to make prints to add leaves to our classroom beanstalk. And in our sensory table our Ducks found matching upper & lower case letters laid by the golden goose.

The Ducks have really been working hard to strengthen their fine motor muscles all year & are ready to do some more complicated cutting. They cut out swirly beanstalks and crowns this week. The princes & princesses also loved using shaving foam “mortar” to build castles in the sensory table.

The game Pretty, Pretty Princess was also a hit. The children have been learning how to take turns, count and help others count, and lose gracefully. Pretty much all the important things in life!

We continued with Goldilocks & the Three Bears next (and the alternate version- Goldilocks & the 3 Dinosaurs). After the story was read, we set the table in our dramatic play area complete with different sizes of chairs, dishes, “beds”, and bear headbands . The story was then played out again by the children moving through the story on their own. Doing this allowed them to practice story sequencing, retelling, and practicing with size order. They were learning again without even realizing it. We’re sneaky aren’t we?

We’d like to thank former CCP student Brooks, brother of Aubrey, for visiting at circle time to READ to us. How inspiring to hear another child, not an adult, reading stories to us! He read one of our favorite books, Find Fergus 🙂

We had some beautiful weather this week and finally got the bikes back out of the shed. The Ducks have some speedy legs & enjoyed racing as well as some leisurely rides around the lot. Don’t forget to lather up with sunscreen before school!!

Wishing you all well with our jump ahead as the clocks Spring Forward this weekend!

Enjoy the weekend,

Miss Sue & Miss Carina

We've Got Spirit! 🎉

UPCOMING EVENTS:

This Sunday is Preschool Sunday! Your children will sing some special songs near the beginning of the 9:00 worship service and we will celebrate the CUMC Preschool Ministry. Please meet us in the Disciple Room at 8:40. We need everyone’s beautiful voices 🎶

March 11 & 12 - Conferences - School is closed to allow for spring conferences, but our playground is always open! Feel free to plan with another parent to watch each others’ children on the playground during your conference times. We ask that you please come without children to conferences, so that we can have a private conversation about your student’s progress.

March 30 - April 6 - Spring Break!

YELLOW DUCK NEWS:

We had such a great week being silly together. Thank you all for participating in our silliness. We had almost 100% participation EVERY day!! That is some amazing school spirit!

We discovered that the Tar Heels fans highly outnumber the rivals, our class can really pack away the pancakes, and everyone loved glow day the best.

There was some “work” done in between all the shenanigans. On Monday we took out those boats we made last week and experimented with how to make them sail. Of course, the Ducks knew we needed wind, and they tried blowing on them, using a paper fan, puffing air at them with a baster and even finding items in the classroom to wave. I believe they found the fan and trays made the most wind.

We played rhyming bingo, learned about the letter Q, and traced & then wrote our names in our journals this week. And as we played in the water table we experimented with measurement & volume.

We also wrapped up our Community Helpers study with a visit from Dr. Iglesia, Catherine’s mom. She brought her dental dragons on Friday to teach us about her job & dental health. Thank you, Carol Ann!!

We learned about another artist this week. Tyree Guyton used junk and bright colors to transform neglected houses in his old neighborhood into works of art. The Ducks used recycled supplies to create houses and painted them with neon paint on Glow Day. They certainly brighten up our room!

Sadly, we also said goodbye to one of our Duck friends this week. Diana will be going to a new school with her little sister, so we all wished her well and had a goodbye party with her dad. There were LOTS of hugs. Her dad read See Ya Later, Alligator …and we will!! Diana plans to join us for some special events when she can. In fact…she will be back this Sunday for Preschool Sunday!!! We hope we’ll see you there, too 😃

Have a great weekend with your sweet Ducks,

Miss Sue & Miss Carina

All Around Town

Our Spirit Week is finally happening!!! Here is the list of events this week:

Monday, Feb 23rd– Silly Socks Day -wear your silly (or mismatched) socks

Tuesday, Feb 24th– Team Tuesday (wear your favorite team’s gear)

Wednesday, Feb 25th- wear your PJs for Pancakes in Pajamas!

Thursday, Feb 26th- Glow in the Dark Day (wear white or neon clothing- we will supply glow sticks, etc at school).

Friday, Feb 27th- Freaky Friday (go wild with crazy clothes combos or crazy hair…or both!)

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Sunday, March 1 at 8:45 -Preschool Sunday. Your children will sing some special songs near the beginning of the 9:00 worship service and we will celebrate the CUMC Preschool Ministry. Please arrive at 8:45

March 11 & 12 - Conferences - A sign up genius link was emailed to you on Monday for you to sign up for a conference time. School is closed for spring conferences, but our playground is always open! Feel free to plan with another parent to watch each others’ children on the playground during your conference times. We ask that you please come without children to conferences so that we can have a private conversation about your student’s progress.

March 30 - April 6 - Spring Break!

Thank you all for joining us for Donuts with Grownups! We hope you felt loved by your sweet Ducks and enjoyed spending a moment in the classroom with them.

All throughout this month we have been discussing our communities. We have talked about the towns each of us live in, the jobs that people do around town, and ways to move around town (transportation). This week our loft turned from doctor’s office to dentist’s office with the addition of a special hippo patient that Aubrey brought to share with the class! It was also fun playing letter Bingo by erasing the “cavity” letters from teeth as the letters were called. We even had some new “teachers” leading circle time for the dinosaurs 🤣

In our sensory table we floated boats & attempted to balance people in them. We also decorated sailboats that we will try to race in the baby pools next week! There was lots of block building including roads and street signs to direct the traffic on the carpet. And it was very exciting painting at the easel with a drill (a paintbrush was taped to the drill)! It made really cool swirly patterns.

Next week, weather permitting, we plan to take a neighborhood walk to expand on our community discussion. Please send your child in comfortable walking shoes on Monday (along with their silly socks 🤪).

At the beginning of the year each child drew a self portrait. Mid-year we like to re-evaluate that skill with another self portrait. This time we thought back to when we made symmetrical snowflakes & noticed how faces are also symmetrical. Everyone then worked with a photo of half of their face to draw the symmetrical side. It was a challenge. Many wanted to draw a whole face on the blank side of their paper. We used erasers for the first time, so we could go back and change things to make them match on both sides. It’s ok to make mistakes and revisions! I like to remind our young Ducks that they are doing their work just like a 4 yr old…and that’s perfect. We are here to learn & grow together. I think everyone was pretty proud of themselves when they were done!

I’ll tell you another thing that they should all be very proud about- this week Miss Vicki began teaching the 4 yr olds how to play handbells. These are not jingle bells. They are color coded & child sized handbells that require special technique and effort to play them correctly. The Yellow Ducks listened attentively to the instructions and were able to play their bells as their colors were called- one hand holding the bell & the other resting behind their back. Miss Vicki has a special song planned for them to learn once they master the technique.

There is one last thing that I’d like to share with you this week. During our letter writing time one of the children noticed that our wipe off markers say Amazon on them. “Aha!! You are reading!”, I said. We talked about recognizing familiar words in the world around us. This is called environmental print. The next day I pulled out pictures of familiar environmental print—Band-Aid, Walmart, Exit, Lego, Paw Patrol—and students then came up and “read” it in the sentence frame: I can read ___. No, they aren’t decoding. This is preschool. The goal isn’t independent reading yet. The goal is building the foundation that makes reading possible. In this lesson, children are learning that print carries meaning, words are read left to right and top to bottom, and words are made up of letters. They begin to understand that the same word looks the same every time you see it, and that environmental print connects language to the real world. They’re building confidence, oral language, visual discrimination, and one-to-one matching between spoken and printed words. Environmental print helps children realize they already recognize words—and that print is everywhere.

Ask your child to read to you as you go about your weekend!

Happy reading!

Miss Sue & Miss Carina

Spreading Love...and glitter...everywhere!

UPCOMING EVENTS:

School will be closed Mon., February 16th for a teacher workday.

Tuesday, Feb. 17th- DONUTS WITH GROWNUPS- The Yellow Ducks invite you to pop into the classroom at dropoff for a donut and some special surprises they have been preparing for you! Don’t worry- this is a quick celebration. Just stay for a few minutes for a special moment with your child. Please let me know if you WILL NOT be able to come to drop off that day!

Spirit Week has been rescheduled once again (along with Pancakes & Pajamas). The new dates are below:

Monday, Feb 23rd– Silly Socks Day (wear your silly socks)

Tuesday, Feb 24th– Team Tuesday (wear your favorite team’s gear)

Wednesday, Feb 25th- wear your PJs for Pancakes in Pajamas! Our class representatives will send more details. You are invited to sign up to help. You may either provide items or cook/serve/clean-up pancakes.

Thursday, Feb 26th- Glow in the Dark Day (wear white or neon- we will supply glow sticks at school).

Friday, Feb 27th- Freaky Friday (go wild with crazy clothes combos or crazy hair…or both!)

Sunday, March 1 at 8:45 -Preschool Sunday. Your children will sing some special songs near the beginning of the 9:00 worship service and we will celebrate the CUMC Preschool Ministry.

March 11 & 12 - Conferences - A sign up genius link will be sent after 2/16 for you to sign up for a conference time. School is closed for spring conferences, but feel free to plan with a friend to watch each others’ children on the playground during your conferences.

March 30 - April 6 - Spring Break!

YELLOW DUCK NEWS:

The classroom was splattered with hearts, glitter, jewels & doilies this week as our busy Ducks went about creating the most beautiful pictures and cards to give to friends and family. We showed them how half a heart can be drawn on folded paper & then they practiced cutting (which they’re getting quite good at!) to make a symmetrical heart. After that they had free range to use all of the materials to design away! It may seem just like simple fun, but everyone was busy planning design, problem solving how to fit the items they wanted all on the heart, and working fine motor skills as they controlled the amount of glue so as not to make a gooey mess.

And as I promised last week, there was more beading. This time we used elastic string and pony beads. We saw some great patterning happening here, as well as at the table with our heart patterning game.

Our loft has been a very busy doctor’s office! Our Dr. Ducks have been taking notes using the keyboard and writing prescriptions for their patients. They are excellent at bandaging broken arms, legs and heads, too! Since February is Dental Health month, next week it will become a dentist’s office while we learn about taking care of our teeth.

Again, if anyone would like to share a bit about their job with the class, we’d really love to have you visit or even just send something representative of your work for your child to “show & tell” to the class!! It would be a great addition to our community helpers study.

Everyone was VERY excited to share the valentines they brought to school on Thursday!!! They each waited patiently for their turn to pass them out to each of their Duck friends to add to the bags we had created ❤️ It was clear that they were all feeling the power of love.

We finished up making gifts, our expression of love for you, to give you on Tuesday at our Donuts with Grownups celebration. We can’t wait!

We also celebrated Diana’s 1/2 birthday this week. She brought LOTS of beads back from her trip to seee the Mardi Gras parade and shared them very generously with us all. Happy 1/2 Birthday, Diana!!

Well, this email will reach you as we are all dancing away at the Valentine’s Dance! I hope you had a great time, if you were able to make it. The children have been showing us their best dance moves all week in preparation for the party.

Happy Valentine’s Day!!

love, Miss Sue & Miss Carina

A special surprise created by Miss Carina’s very talented daughter, Dallyn. Our class in miniature!! The Ducks had fun identifying each of their friends’ dolls and then playing with them in the classroom.

Love is in the Air

foot heart

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Thursday, Feb. 12th- VALENTINE CARD EXCHANGE- Please send in Valentines with your child by Thursday and our ducks will deliver them to one another using decorated bags we’ll make here in the classroom. Have your child sign their names on their Valentine cards and leave the “to” part and envelope, if there is one, blank. This way they can practice writing their own name and not be overwhelmed by writing all of their friends’ names. We have 16 Ducks in our class.

Friday, Feb. 13 from 6:00-7:30pm -FAMILY VALENTINE’S DANCE - A favorite event in Ascension Hall!! Everyone is invited! People have asked what to wear…whatever you like! Some wear jeans and others wear velvet and sparkles…anything in between is OK! Keep in mind, this is a kid-friendly, family event.

School will be closed Mon., February 16th for a teacher workday. We will be prepping for conferences coming March 11th & 12th. A sign up genius link will be sent after 2/16 for you to sign up for a conference time.

Tuesday, Feb. 17th- DONUTS WITH GROWNUPS- The Yellow Ducks invite you to pop into the classroom at dropoff for a donut and some special surprises they have been preparing for you! Don’t worry- this is a quick celebration. Just stay for a few minutes for a special moment with your child. Please let me know if you WILL NOT be able to come to drop off that day!

Spirit Week has been rescheduled once again (along with Pancakes & Pajamas). The new dates are below:

Monday, Feb 23rd– Silly Socks Day (wear your silly socks)

Tuesday, Feb 24th– Team Tuesday (wear your favorite team’s gear)

Wednesday, Feb 25th- wear your PJs for Pancakes in Pajamas! Our class representatives will send more details. You are invited to sign up to help. You may either provide items or cook/serve/clean-up pancakes.

Thursday, Feb 26th- Glow in the Dark Day (wear white or neon- we will supply glow sticks at school).

Friday, Feb 27th- Freaky Friday (go wild with crazy clothes combos or crazy hair…or both!)

YELLOW DUCK NEWS:

Everyone finished creating their own postcard party invitation this week. We took our first short walk to go across the street to the big, blue mailbox around the corner to mail them on Friday. Yours should show up soon at your house! Thank you all for responding so quickly to our permission request this week. You are the best!

The Ducks have been busy writing letters to each other at the writing table and taking turns being the mail carrier to make deliveries around the classroom as well. And they have been caring doctors for people (and for pets!) in the loft this week. This is just the beginning of an exploration of careers and community helpers. We would love to learn something about your jobs, too!! If you would have time to stop by at the beginning or end of our day to show or tell a small bit of what you do (show a piece of equipment you use in your job, teach us a skill, share a story related to your type of job?) we would LOVE to have you! Just let me know, and we can arrange a time.

The children also worked with clay for the first time this week as they began creating special surprises for our Donuts with Grownups party. I think it surprised many how much harder clay was to roll and smoosh than playdough. It offers more resistance, providing a more intense workout for arm as well as hand muscles. Using materials with different properties such as these is also great for giving children proprioceptive feedback (a sense of body position & force).

Our fine motor skills were really put to the test creating heart wands with teeny, tiny beads this week. Everyone loved the beading so much, so there will be more beading projects coming home soon!

Since it was a bit too wet to go on our playground on Wednesday, we decided to go on a scavenger hunt! We read a story about animal tracks and then hunted around the school to find pictures of tracks. We gave each child a partner & they shared a checklist on a clipboard as they hunted. It really was a lesson in cooperation, conflict resolution, turn taking and even empathy (as they patiently helped a partner struggling during their turn). It was also just fun!! We really are hoping for warmer, dry weather next week, though, so we can spend more time outside. 🙏

Have a wonderful weekend with your sweethearts this weekend!

Miss Sue & Miss Carina

Can we come out of hibernation now…please?

With the weather putting a wrench in our preschool plans this week, there is not much to report. Our Yellow Duck friends were happy to come together for a few short hours to play and begin some prep for our Donuts with Grownups party happening in mid-February.

We also were able to celebrate Emery’s 5th birthday together on Friday! Happy Birthday Emery!

Before we left for the weekend everyone made a prediction (about as accurate as real meteorologists 🤣) about how much snow we might get on Saturday. Hopefully we get to revisit this chart on Monday to see who was the closest to the actual snowfall.

Don’t forget that we will have Spirit Week next week:

Monday, Feb 2nd– Silly Socks Day (wear your silly socks)

Tuesday, Feb 3rd – Team Tuesday (wear your favorite team’s gear)

Wednesday, Feb 4th- wear your PJs for Pancakes in Pajamas! Our class representatives will send more details. You are invited to sign up to help. You may either provide items or cook/serve/clean-up pancakes.

Thursday, Feb 5th- Glow in the Dark Day (wear white or neon- we will supply glow sticks at school).

Friday, Feb 6th- Freaky Friday (go wild with crazy clothes combos or crazy hair…or both!)

Wishing you a warm & safe weekend,

Miss Sue & Miss Carina

Winter Wonderland?

Get your calendars out! I have a bunch of dates to add to your calendars, so that you are prepared for the next 2 months. Ready?!

We will have Spirit Week next week (weather permitting 🙏)-

Monday, January 26th – Silly Socks Day (wear your silly socks)

Tuesday, January 27th – Team Tuesday (wear your favorite team’s gear)

Wednesday, Jan. 28th- wear your PJs for Pancakes in Pajamas! Our class representatives will send more details. You are invited to sign up to help. You may either provide items or cook/serve/clean-up pancakes.

Thursday, Jan. 29th- Glow in the Dark Day (wear white or neon- we will supply glow sticks at school).

Friday, Jan. 30th- Freaky Friday (go wild with crazy clothes combos or crazy hair…or both!)

Thurs., Feb. 12th- Please send in Valentines with your child on that day and our ducks will deliver them to one another using their decorated bags we’ll make here in the classroom. Have your child sign their names on their Valentine cards and leave the “to” part and envelope, if there is one, blank. This way they can practice writing their own name and not be overwhelmed by writing all of their friends’ names. We have 16 Ducks in our class.

Friday, Feb. 13 from 6:00-7:30 pm will be our annual 💕 Valentine Dance 💕 . Put on your dancing clothes and shoes! The fellowship hall will be transformed into a party! There will be snacks, a photo booth, and music for dancing! This event is for your whole family. It’s always a favorite!

Mon., Feb. 16th- CCP will be closed for a teacher workday

Tues., Feb. 17th- The Yellow Ducks would like to celebrate our parents. You will receive an invitation to stop in at dropoff for a quick snack and special gift from your child. Please try to plan to have one (or both) parents dropoff that day, if possible.

Looking ahead with spring dates -

March 1 - at 8:45 is Preschool Sunday. The children will sing a special song near the beginning of the 9:00 worship service.

March 11 & 12 - Conferences - School is closed for spring conferences, but feel free to plan ahead with a friend to watch each others’ children on the playground during your conferences.

March 30 - April 6 - Spring Break!

Ok….so now that we have that all straight, here is some Yellow Duck News:

Our multi-step winter forests worked on following directions, tracing triangles, cutting, and drawing diagonal lines (snowflakes)

Our week started with a very exciting new shop opening in the kitchen area- an Ice Cream Shop! There was a line out the door waiting for new flavors to be served. The staff kept busy clearing the cafe table, restocking the ice cream cooler and counting the money at the register. We had a surplus of employees, so the kids decided that we needed a sign up sheet!

We started our multi-day winter forest this day, too. The first step was a paint mixing study. We mixed blue & yellow, green & black, and green & white to make different shades alongside the plain green paint. When they were dry the following day, everyone used cardboard triangles to trace trees onto their paper & cut them out to create a forest. The final step was adding the snow. Making the horizontal, vertical & diagonal lines to create a snowflake is a sneaky way to develop skills for writing 😉. We have also been using chalk at the easel this week to draw. Working on a vertical surface strengthens the shoulder girdle and core, fosters wrist extension for better pencil grip, improves hand-eye coordination, and encourages midline crossing.

On Wednesday a GIGANTIC box appeared in our room! I mean…who can resist a massive box?! So many possibilities. First we tested out how many people could fit inside. We had a whole CLASS in a box (and room for more!). Of course everyone wanted to draw on (and in) it. On Friday it became a snuggly cave with pillows, blanket, bears & books. It has been great fun!

In my rush to write the blog while traveling last week, I neglected to give a shout out to Reese on her 5th Birthday. Welcome to the whole hand club, Reese! 🥳 This week we also celebrated Warren’s 1/2 birthday with some donuts and a story! They are growing up so fast!

Be safe & warm this weekend!!

Miss Sue & Miss Carina

Snow much fun!

Upcoming Events:

CCP is CLOSED for MLK, Jr. Day on Monday, January 19th

We will have Spirit Week the last week of the month-

Monday, January 26th – Silly Socks Day (wear your silly socks)

Tuesday, January 27th – Team Tuesday (wear your favorite team’s gear)

Wednesday, Jan. 28th- wear your PJs for Pancakes in Pajamas! Our class representatives will send more details. You are invited to sign up to help. You may either provide items or cook/serve/clean-up pancakes.

Thursday, Jan. 29th- Glow in the Dark Day (wear white or neon- we will supply glow sticks at school). IF ANYONE HAPPENS TO HAVE GLOW LAMPS AT HOME WE WOULD BE VERY GRATEFUL TO BORROW THEM.

Friday, Jan. 30th- Freaky Friday (go wild with crazy clothes combos or crazy hair…or both!)

LOOKING AHEAD - Our annual 💕 Valentine Dance 💕 will be on Friday, Feb. 13 from 6:00-7:30 pm. Put on your dancing clothes and shoes! The fellowship hall will be transformed into a party! This event is for your whole family. It’s always a favorite!

Yellow Duck News:

We created our own winter wonderland full of snowy castles, polar landscapes & snowmen this week.

 The children had the opportunity to create their own winter castles out of paper cups, paper cones, plastic ice cubes, and “snow”. We had pictures of real and pretend castles hanging by our block area that they could use for reference while building with magna-tiles and our wood blocks as well. Everyone shared some new winter capes in our dress up area. They kept us warm on these cold days!

We learned about the artist Paul Klee who used geometric shapes in his paintings. After looking at his painting Castle in Sun everyone had a chance to make their own shape castle picture.

Our arctic friends were in our sensory table playing in some snow. “Instant Snow Powder” is made of safe and non-toxic superabsorbent polymer, developed specifically to imitate most of the properties of snow. It’s actually similar to what is inside of a diaper 😄. When water is added to the dry mix, it can grow to 100 times its size. It was fun to watch it grow right in our hands before we added it to the sensory bin!

We also learned about symmetry this week. We examined snowflakes and held one up to a mirror to see the mirror image complete the snowflake. It was really fun to make blot paintings by squirting paint on 1/2 our paper and then folding it to create a symmetrical picture! We then read It Looked Like Spilt Milk and imagined what our paintings could be.

We tried finishing drawing some symmetrical shapes such as a heart, house, face and tree on white boards. This was a very tricky concept & will take continued practice.

Some of our friends were very excited (and some confused) to hear Miss Sue’s voice coming from the magic red button that appeared in our room while she was away this week. The new red button plays a recording of our letter of the week, its sound & three words that begin with this sound. The children can press the button, listen and say the sound & words, and give themselves a high-5! This provides a multi-sensory approach to make learning fun for each of our little Ducks 😊

Happy New Year!!

Upcoming Events:

CCP is CLOSED for MLK, Jr. Day on Monday, January 19th

We will have Spirit Week the last week of the month-

Monday, January 26th – Silly Socks Day (wear your silly socks)

Tuesday, January 27th – Team Tuesday (wear your favorite team’s gear)

Wednesday, Jan. 28th- Pancakes in Pajamas Watch for more details about how to help with this event coming soon from our Room Reps. But for now, please mark your calendars to send your child in their pajamas on that day!

Thursday, Jan. 29th- Glow in the Dark Day (wear white- we will supply glow sticks at school)

Friday, Jan. 30th- Freaky Friday (go wild with crazy clothes combos or crazy hair…or both!)

The Yellow Duck News:

Welcome back! We hope everyone had great family time and made some wonderful memories during our holiday break. We were happy to see our Ducks eager to be back with us and smiling at drop off on Monday. How did they all seem to grow so much in just 2 weeks??!

It wasn’t a particularly wintry week, but since it is wintertime we brought the chill into our classroom. Our sensory table was also a science center as the children played with penguins & polar bears trapped in ice. At first the Yellow Ducks just enjoyed sliding the penguins down foil ramp slides. They had races & experimented with ways to make them slide faster. Then someone had an interesting question- how can we get these animals out of the ice?? That was the problem…what was the solution? They tried banging them and chipping at them, but it wasn’t very successful. A child suggested warm water, so everyone took turns carefully carrying water from the sink to give the penguins a warm bath and melt them out. Yay! Success! The next day we used eyedroppers to spray the warm water on a new batch of frozen penguins (we are always working on our fine motor control!), and we even experimented with salt on the ice to see if that would melt it. This was a perfect example of play based learning! ❤️

We also had frozen paint popsicles to paint with this week, but the children discovered what a Pinterest fail is 🤣 Sometimes teachers’ ideas just don’t work out. That’s ok, because the Ducks are learning to be flexible and deal with disappointments. The children decided to let the popsicles thaw, take them to the easel and use paintbrushes instead. Maybe we’ll try a different method soon to see if we can create ice paint another way.

This week we also wrote our names on paper snowballs and made snowmen ⛄️. Everyone counted how many letters they had in their name. Catherine had the most with nine letters! Math and handwriting practice, all in one activity.

We also enjoyed drawing letters in shaving cream “snow” on mirrors, playing the Plus & Minus tug-of-war game, and creating designs with Lite-Brite.

At the end of the week we celebrated Mary’s 1/2 Birthday! Happy 4 1/2 to Mary!!

Have a wonderful weekend with your Yellow Ducks,

Miss Sue & Miss Carina

Merry Christmas!

What a joyful, fun week for the Yellow Ducks! Our room reps, along with help from all of you, gave the children their best day ever- full of candies and icing and fun with friends as they decorated their “gingerbread” trees. Thank you all for making their sweet dreams come true! (and sorry about the bit of a sugar rush they may have arrived home with 🤪).

We are so proud of our Ducks who have practiced for weeks learning Christmas songs to share with you at our concert ❤️ They smiled, sang beautifully and were the epitome of cuteness! Thank you for coming and filling our chapel with family and friends. I know that they felt your love and pride in them.

And another thank you… Miss Carina and I would like to extend our thanks for all of your thoughtful (and many tasty) gifts. We are humbled by your generosity. We are grateful for the cards and drawings from our Ducks, and the kind, heartfelt words of encouragement and thanks from you. And again, we thank you for the gift of sharing your children with us. Each day brings wonders, adventure, and best of all, love. Can work get any better than that?!!

We wish you lots of special moments with your young children as the holidays approach. We know all too well how quickly these years pass. Take a moment to snuggle them close, put the hustle & bustle on hold and see the magic through their eyes. Merry Christmas to you all!

We’ll see you back on January 5th!

Miss Sue & Miss Carina