Bugs

Last week we focused on caterpillars & butterfiles. We are very excited that our caterpillars have created their chrysalises this week (some of us even got to see them forming in action!).

This week we made a list of all the other bugs we could think of, what they can do, and what they have (body parts). This activity challenges the children to expand their vocabulary using descriptive words. It was also a bouncing off point for our week of bug study! We made ladybugs & beehives and decorated pots with bug stickers to do some more planting. We had real bug specimens in our science center to examine with magnifying glasses and plastic bugs in our sensory table and block area to create habitats. We loved catching them in our bug catchers, too. We even found some real bugs outside!

Miss Kelsi taught the classes about beekeeping (her family used to keep beehives). This was a very helpful lesson, since many of our friends have been afraid of the carpenter bees we often see on the playground. Miss Kelsi showed us the hat beekeepers wear and explained that it’s white because that is not a threatening color to bees (they are mostly agitated by black & brown bears!). She also told the class that if you move slowly & calmly the bees will be calm, too. And finally, she showed us the smoker that makes the bees sleepy and calm. Hopefully these lessons will be remembered the next time a bee flies too close!

It was a beautiful, warm week and we spent lots of time outdoors! We enjoyed some picnic snacktimes and found signs of Spring everywhere. In addition to the bugs the MWF class found & the bees that were “playing tag and hide and seek”, the T/Th class discovered baby birds hiding in our bike shed and witnessed them learning how to fly!

We were so happy to have sunny days for our Picture Days. Our Ladybugs looked so cute all dressed up and smiling for pictures ❤️

Don’t Forget!!: We have been learning songs for Preschool Sunday with Miss Vicki and all practiced together this week during Chapel. Please bring your children on Sunday at 8:40 so they can sing for you and the Christ Church congregation!!!

Next week we will be doing a project for Earth Day. If you have any colored bottle or pouch tops, please save them and bring them to school on Monday or Tuesday! Thank you!!

CCP FELLOWSHIP NIGHT - Let’s have dinner together at Town Hall Grill on Tuesday, April 23, anytime between 5:00-7:00pm. Please come! Town Hall Grill is giving CCP a portion of the proceeds for that night, so we are calling this a Fellowship FUNdraiser! ;-)

SAVE THE DATE- The Ladybugs will be celebrating their parents with a special Pastries with Parents morning on Monday, May 6 & Tuesday, May 7th. We invite mom and/or dad to come grab a pastry & take a cute photo with your child at drop off. Your child will have a special gift for you to take home! This is our time to show our love for you as Mother’s Day & Father’s Day approach. ❤️

Have a wonderful weekend with your Ladybug!

Miss Sue, Miss Jenn, & Miss Kelsi

Caterpillars Arrival!!

We have visitors in our classroom this week….the Caterpillars!!!! We are so excited to have 5 live caterpillars. We observed that they were very small on Monday, and noticed they have already grown much bigger by Friday. We read From Caterpillar to Butterfly and learned about the life cycle of a butterfly. Maybe they will have spun their chrysalises when we return on Monday!! We found models of the life cycle in our sensory table along with pasta shapes to represent the eggs (tiny shells), caterpillars (rotini), chrysalis (medium shells), and butterflies (bowties). We sorted them and had fun hiding them among the flowers. Of course, we also read The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Everyone helped tell the story as they clipped pictures onto the caterpillar to go along with the book (sneaking some fine motor work in with the clips….heehee).

We enjoyed making many butterfly art projects this week, too. We colored coffee filters and sprayed them, then added a clothespin body to turn them into butterflies for our bulletin boards. We made scratch art designed butterflies. We practiced following lines with markers to make designs on butterfly wings. We even tried rolling playdough snakes and bending them into caterpillar & butterfly shapes. But the most fun of all was squirting paint from bottles onto wings and then folding the butterfly in half to make a symmetrical butterfly!!

So many big scientific words were learned this week!!! Symmetry, Metamorphosis, Chrysalis, Molting. Our Ladybugs were fascinated! We used a mirror to talk about symmetry some more- holding up half a butterfly to see the other half appear in the mirror. Miss Jenn also used a balloon to demonstrate how static electricity can move things. We each rubbed it on our hair and then saw how the static energy could make the tissue paper butterfly wings (and our hair 😆) move! Magic!!!!

April certainly is living up to it’s reputation as a rainy month! We had to find some ways to move and get our wiggles out inside this week. Our butterfly theme was the perfect inspiration. We had so much fun dancing with our scarf wings or butterflies on a stick. We listened for the matching colors in the song and then danced into the center of the circle with our friends. We also acted out the caterpillar’s metamorphosis as we crawled through a tunnel like a caterpillar, spun around on the dot to make our chrysalis, and flapped our scarf wings as we became beautiful butterflies!!!

We are looking forward to exploring & learning about other types of insects next week. If anyone finds a bug they’d like to trap and bring to show, we have the perfect little bug box to keep it in for the day!

We celebrated three more 4 year olds this week!! Happy Birthday to Cailan, Eden and Autumn!!!

REMINDERS:

Wednesday & Thursday (4/17 & 18) are Picture Day!!! We will be taking a class photo, too.

Next Sunday is Preschool Sunday!!! Please arrive at 8:40 on Sunday, April 21. Parents, please bring your child to the Disciple room (where we have music with Ms. Vicki) to meet the teachers and me. Then adults may go have a seat in the Sanctuary. The children will sing early in the 9:00 service and then the teachers will take the Ladybugs, Ducks, & Whales across to the fellowship hall for some fun activities. They will take the Frogs to the nursery/Frog room. Please mark your calendar because we need ALL the beautiful little voices to make our joyful song! The service only lasts about an hour.

CCP FELLOWSHIP NIGHT - Let’s have dinner together at Town Hall Grill on Tuesday, April 23, anytime between 5:00-7:00pm. Please come! Town Hall Grill is giving CCP a portion of the proceeds for that night, so we are calling this a Fellowship FUNdraiser! ;-)

SAVE THE DATE- The Ladybugs will be celebrating their parents with a special Pastries with Parents morning on Monday, May 6 & Tuesday, May 7th. We invite mom and/or dad to come grab a pastry & take a cute photo with your child at drop off. Your child will have a special gift for you to take home! This is our time to show our love for you as Mother’s Day & Father’s Day approach. ❤️

Have a wonderful SUNNY weekend with your Ladybug!

Miss Sue, Miss Jenn, & Miss Kelsi

Happy Easter!

During this short week we used eggs in many ways. We matched halves of eggs marked with numbers and dots and then counted that many erasers to put inside. Some of us even put the eggs in order from 1-12 as they went back into the box! Our Ladybugs are getting good at recognizing numbers up to 12 since there are 12 friends. We practice saying each number everyday when we choose our spots on the carpet as well.

We really enjoy playing games now and have become much more patient taking turns. We played Easter Bingo this week. Usually we have a smaller number of squares on our cards, so the object is to cover them all to get Bingo. This time there were a LOT of squares, so we learned to look for a line of 4 down or across to get our bingo. It was challenging and took careful visual discrimination, but everyone figured it out (sometimes with helpful friends pointing it out for them). We love to yell BINGO!!!

It was a bit of a rainy week, but we managed to have lots of Easter fun anyway!! Thank you all for contributing to our egg hunts. Whether our hunt was held outside or indoors, the Ladybugs all had a blast searching for their 6 eggs. Not only was it just plain fun, but we got lots of practice counting to make sure we had 6 in our bags. We were also so proud of our sweet Ladybugs for working together to help friends who were still searching! And did you notice that the children wrote most (if not all) of the letters for their name on their Easter egg bags??! Wow they are growing by leaps & bounds lately!!

In chapel Miss Debbie has been pointing out the stained glass windows as we read each story of the Bible. Last week we noticed the window with Jesus riding the donkey into Jerusalem and the palm branch that people waved to welcome him. This week we looked at the window portraying Jesus on the cross and learned that even though he died that wasn’t the end…Jesus was alive again! Miss Debbie offered us all our own palm branches to take home. We followed up by making our own beautiful stained glass window pictures for art. We hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend with your Ladybugs!

We will miss you next week while we are closed for Spring Break, but will see you all back again on April 8!!

REMINDER- School Photos (including a class photo) will be taken April 17 & 18th

Preschool Sunday is on April 21st- please bring your child to sing with their friends!

Miss Sue, Miss Jenn, & Miss Kelsi

Down on the Farm

With the arrival of Spring, the Ladybugs have been learning about gardens and farms. At the beginning of the week we all planted grass. We are anxiously waiting for it to grow so that we can use our scissor skills to give our “grassheads” haircuts! We also talked about favorite vegetables (carrots and corn seem to be the big winners) and sorted fruits and vegetables by whether they grow above or below ground. We had fun cooking and serving food in our farm market dramatic play area and playing with animal puppets, too.

We sang Old MacDonald and read stories about the farm. It was fun creating our own paper plate farm animal art! We had some very creative animals! We even did the chicken dance! 🐥

We also experimented with funnels and corn in our sensory table & measured flowers using playdough, buttons, and beans. Miss Jenn showed us how to mix a solution that would make corn dance!!! Amazing! The Ladybugs have been practicing spelling and writing their names, too. We used Read, Write, Build cards with our name cards, magnet letters (thank you to Emma Dougherty for a generous donation!!), and wipe off markers to practice this week. It is so exciting to see the progress our young friends are making!

We celebrated Isabelle’s 4th birthday this week, too. Happy Birthday Isabelle!!

Next week we will have some more farm fun and celebrate Easter. We will be having our egg hunts on Wednesday & Thursday. If you haven’t already done so, please send 6 trinket-filled eggs at the beginning of the week!! We will decorate bags and each child will collect 6 eggs during the hunt.

School will be closed for Easter and Spring Break from Friday, March 29-April 5th.

School Photo Days will be April 17th & 18th.

Preschool Sunday is on April 21st. Please bring your Ladybug to sing the songs they have been learning with Miss Vicki!

Have a wonderful weekend with your little Ladybugs!

Miss Sue, Miss Jenn, & Miss Kelsi

Rainbows & Sunshine

Everything was rainbows & sunshine in the Ladybug room this week! 🌈 ☀️

We learned about the primary colors and practiced mixing them to create more colors. Everyone loved painting at the easel and with watercolor paints to create orange, green, purple, browns and grays. We read a Peter H. Reynolds series of books about art that included The Dot, Ish, and Sky Color. The theme of these books is creative self-expression and stresses that there is no RIGHT way to do art, and art does not have to be perfect.

After playing with our larger lacing letters the Ladybugs were sad that they couldn’t take them home, so they were very happy to see rainbow and letter beads at the round table this week for making necklaces that they could keep! We saw some patterning happening and many friends finding the letter beads to make their names.

For science, we watched crystals grow on a pipecleaner rainbow that Miss Jenn made and then the MWF friends grew their own crystals. We used a magnifying glass to examine crystals in a geode. We also had fun adding hot water to Skittles and watching a Skittles Rainbow grow!!

Both classes contributed to making a rainbow collage mural, too.

We had a special visit from Eden’s dad who came to teach us about yet another community helper this Wednesday. He is an officer in the Army National Guard! Everyone had a chance to try his helmet on (wow it was heavy!!) and saw pictures of the giant aircraft that carry trucks to army bases. He gave everyone a sticker representing his unit. Thank you for your visit and your service, Josh!!

And finally we had FOUR birthday celebrations this week!!!! Wow!! Happy Birthday to Charlie, Wesley, Oli and Jackson!!

Remember: We will have our Easter Egg Hunts on Wed, 3/27 & Thurs., 3/28. Please bring 6 plastic eggs pre-filled with non-candy trinkets (stickers/ party favor type stuff) by March 26th. The eggs will be combined and then hidden for all the children to find. They will each bring home 6 eggs in the “baskets” we are making at school. Thank you!

Spring Break- school will be closed from 3/29-4/5

School Photos will be taken on April 17th & 18th

Preschool Sunday is on April 21st! Please bring your child to join in singing the songs they have learned in music and chapel to the Christ Church congregation.

Have a wonderful weekend with your little Ladybug!

Miss Sue, Miss Jenn, & Miss Kelsi

Dr. Seuss

We had some fun with this short week and celebrated all things Dr. Seuss!! We explored Oobleck (cornstarch & water mixture) and marveled at how it could be both solid when we pressed on it, but liquidy when we held it loosely. We let it ooze through our fingers and dug beads out of it, too. Fascinating!

We had show-and-tell with our silly socks! Everyone worked hard on some patterning, whether it was painting or cutting stripes for the Cat’s hat or building patterned towers with Duplos. We had some wacky fun coloring upside-down under the tables after we read Wacky Wednesday. And we practiced lots of rhyming with matching rhyme cards and a silly song called Willoughby Wallaby. We had fun rhyming each other’s names. 🤣

We’d like to thank all of the parents for taking time to meet with us to connect and discuss how your Ladybug’s year is going! They have grown so much in these 6 months.❤️ We really appreciate you sharing your insights from home with us, too. We try to support each child as a whole person, and their experiences outside of school affect how their day goes just as much as their interactions at school do.

You received an email from Miss Debbie today inviting our preschoolers to the church’s Easter Egg Hunt on Sunday, March 24th. I’m sure that it will be lots of fun to see each other out on the Southern Village lawn! While you are preparing eggs to donate to the church hunt, please fill 6 eggs to donate to our own egg hunt!! Our class will be doing an Easter egg hunt during school on March 27th & 28th. We will hide the eggs that you bring and the children will all bring 6 eggs home in the “baskets” we make at school.

Reminder: School will be closed from March 29-April 5 for Spring Break.

Have a wonderful weekend with your little Ladybug!

Miss Sue, Miss Jenn & Miss Kelsi

Construction, continued

The Ladybugs have been busy builders this week. We have experimented with gears and built rolling cars, spinning trees and simply just enjoyed the way they work together when connected. We also used cups, sticks and tape to build enclosures, bridges and more for toy animals. Everyone had to collaborate to use the loose parts to make their creations.

We used tanagram shapes to build pictures and letters, too! In our sensory table we used construction trucks to move kinetic sand and rocks around. Kinetic sand is so fun and helps children learn about textures, shapes and cause & effect. It is mesmerizing to watch as it goes from a firm ball to a soft growing pile of sand. It is so calming!

The T/Th class had a visit from one of our community helpers- Charlie’s dad, Dr. Nassef. He talked to us about what a pediatrician is and how they help kids stay healthy. He showed us some of the tools he uses to figure out what’s wrong, so that he can prescribe the right medicines when someone is sick. Everyone had fun using the stethoscope to listen to Dr. Nassef’s heart and laughed when he blew a glove up into a balloon!

In chapel Miss Debbie told the story of the Good Samaritan and reminded us that we can all shine our lights by being helpful and kind, just like the Good Samaritan. We noticed lots of friends doing helpful things for each other ❤️ Later we noticed that the book Molly’s mom read asked, “Why would dragons help you rebuild your house? Maybe they’re good Samaritans.”!!!

We celebrated Molly’s half Birthday on Thursday! Her mom brought popsicles, and she read Dragons Love Tacos. Happy 1/2 Birthday Molly!!

Next week we will be celebrating Dr. Seuss!! Have your child wear silly, fun or mismatched socks on Monday/Tuesday to go with our story- Fox in Socks! It is a short week- school will be closed on Wednesday & Thursday for our conference days. We look forward to meeting with each of you!

Thank you for your donations of tissues, wipes and heart boxes! We are all stocked up now : )

Have a wonderful weekend with your little Ladybug!

Miss Sue, Miss Jenn & Miss Kelsi

Construction Zone

In this very short week we have been talking about builders and construction. We had a visit from Reese’s dad on Wednesday. He is a cabinet builder and brought some of his tools to show us, along with a cabinet door that he built. We enjoyed using his tape measure to measure some items in the classroom, as well as ourselves!! Thank you, John, for teaching us about your job!

Everyone had fun trying to build a tower or other building that would stay standing in the Quake game. As we turned the dial from 1 to 5, the building began to shake harder and harder. We were learning that our buildings need a stable base to help them stay up. But, of course, what preschooler doesn’t love making the building crash down!!! There were lots of giggles at this center.

And speaking of building…we noticed there was a huge brick wall on our bulletin board when we came in this week. What is the wall for? Humpty Dumpty! It took some skill to put Humpty together again. We had to maneuver the pieces correctly to get him back into an egg shape and then mend him with band-aids so he wouldn’t fall apart. Every preschoolers dream!!! They got to use LOTS of band-aids, however they found that they are very sticky. It took a lot of careful fine motor skills to peel and stick them onto Humpty! Then we read After the Fall by Dan Santat. Humpty Dumpty was scared of heights after his fall, but in the end he was brave and climbed back up again. The surprise was that after he grew brave he cracked out of his shell & he was a bird….ready to spread his wings and fly!!! We hope our Ladybugs will remember his story as they grow and try new things. We know they can do anything they set their minds to and will spread their wings, too ❤️

Last, but not least, we celebrated Laoise’s birthday this week! Her mom read the perfect story about having Spring Fever. I think all of the Ladybugs had a bit of Spring Fever this week!! Everyone was FULL of energy!! Happy Birthday, Laoise!

Most of you have already chosen a conference time from our Sign Up Genius. Thank you so much for being so prompt about doing that! If you haven’t signed up or spoken with me about alternate plans, please take a moment to do that now. We really value this chance to connect with you about your child’s preschool experience this year. Thanks!!!

MWF Class sign-up: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0A4EAAA928A4FB6-48029353-march

T/Th Class sign-up: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0A4EAAA928A4FB6-48029352-march

We would appreciate donations of the following items- Clorox wipes, tissues and empty heart shaped Valentine candy boxes (if you have them leftover. They are to use with next year’s class). Thanks!

Have a wonderful weekend with your little Ladybugs!

Miss Sue, Miss Jenn, & Miss Kelsi

Dr. Love

This week was full of love and doctors….hmmm all of our blogs have led me to song titles recently! Lol. Anyway, we were very happy enjoying our pancake breakfast together all cozy in our pajamas. We were so excited to sit at the big tables that the Whales & Ducks use for snacktime. We are so grateful to the wonderful parents who helped make this event so much fun for our class. Thank you!!

The Ladybugs were also SUPER excited to share and receive Valentine cards!!! They all waited patiently while each friend passed out their cards and could hardly contain themselves as their bags filled up. We noticed that they all made sure the bag came home with them at the end of the day!!! There were some very big smiles and big hugs between friends, too! Miss Jenn, Miss Kelsi & I really felt the love, too. Thank you for your cards and gifts. ❤️

We have continued our unit on community helpers. We drew pictures and wrote in our journals about what jobs we might want to do when we grow up. In our centers this week we have been playing doctor and dentist. The grocery store was converted into a doctor’s examination table. We used stethoscopes to listen to hearts and otoscopes to check the babies ears. Some friends were being veterinarians, too.

During our dental health discussion we learned it’s important to brush twice a day to keep sugar monsters from forming plaque on our teeth. We also took turns trying to floss the yucky (playdough) food out of (ice tray) teeth. It took quite a bit of dexterity to work the floss back & forth between the teeth. We also sorted out foods that are bad for our teeth (and need extra special brushing) and those that are healthy. It was very silly using toothbrushes to brush away marker spots from our “smiles”, too!!!

On Friday, Dr. Park (Jennifer’s husband) came to teach us about the different tools that doctors use. He showed us the mask that the anesthesiologist uses to give people sleepy medicine, a stethoscope, a reflex hammer and a tuning fork (an old fashioned way to test hearing). He also taught us how to feel our pulse! Thank you for coming to visit, Dr. Park!

School will be closed on Monday & Tuesday for Winter Break!

I will be sending an email shortly with the link to sign up for March conferences. School will be closed during conference days, March 6th & 7th. Please make arrangements to have childcare during the conference, so that we can all chat as adults and without disruptions. We promise it will be quick! Often parents have arranged to watch each other’s children (play on the playground!) while they have their conferences.

Enjoy President’s Day weekend with your little Ladybug,

Miss Sue, Miss Jenn & Miss Kelsi

A Little Love in our Heart

As we continue sharing ways that we can be kind and helpful, the Ladybugs added hearts to the tree on our bulletin board. Each heart tells the story of a way that our friends have shown love for each other this week. From sharing toys, giving turns, helping to cheer up a sad or hurt friend, assisting a friend with clean up or zipping their coat…our Ladybugs know how to show love ❤️

We prepared for Valentine’s Day by decorating our mail”bags” that we will use to collect our cards next week. Everyone added letter hearts to make their name and then used stamps & stickers to make their bags unique and beautiful!

The children have been learning about the letters in their names in many other ways in our classroom recently. Since everyone rose to the challenge of recognizing their name even after they all turned into the same shape dots, we decided that it’s time to focus on each individual letter in their names and the sounds that they make. This week we’ve tried building names using letter beads and playdough cookie cutters. We also sang our hello song by spelling names instead of saying them.

The children’s names and those of their friends & family are special and give the alphabet meaning to a three year old!! Once they can recognize their written name, children usually begin to rote spell their name (often without yet actually being able to recognize & name those individual letters in print). We move on to breaking down the names into each letter & it’s sound and then work on the skill of using those letters in the correct order to build those names and other words. Some of our Ladybugs are even writing their names independently already! Everyone learns at their own pace, and we try to support each of them where they are in that journey.

We found many other uses for hearts this week, too! We found conversation hearts in our sensory table and graphed them on a chart. And we did a science experiment using 3 liquids- water, soda and vinegar- to see how the conversation hearts would react in each one. We had fun watching the bubbles in the soda carry the hearts up and then pop to make them fall. They were dancing!!!

Which is a perfect lead in to the finale of our week- our Valentine Dance!!!! We are so grateful to the parents who helped make the dance happen this year. It was beautiful and a total blast! We might be a little biased, but we think our Ladybugs were the cutest out there on the dance floor!

That wasn’t the only special event this week, though. We had a very special visit from Griffin’s dad, Coach Pat. He came to teach us about his job as a football coach. We learned some moves, got to hear how loud the coaches whistle really is, and all did a special Ladybug cheer at the end!

Thank you to all of our parent visitors for volunteering to come in and share with the class a little bit about your jobs. The kids are loving it!! If anyone else (especially in the T/Th class since we only have 1 scheduled for them) would like to visit, just let us know!!

And we had THREE birthdays this week!!! Happy Birthday to Miss Kelsi, half Birthday to Reese, and early Birthday to Bo!! How exciting 🧁

Next week promises to be a busy one, too, with Pancakes & Pajamas on Monday & Tuesday and our Valentine’s celebrations on Tuesday & Wednesday!!! Don’t forget to wear your cozy pjs to school and bring Valentine cards for your friends.

School will be closed for Winter Break on February 19th & 20th.

One last little reminder- PLEASE help us keep all of our friends safe by making sure that lunches & snacks are nut & sesame free! We’ve caught a few items in the past month that needed to be sent back home. Thanks!

That’s all for this week. I hope you enjoyed some time outside with your little Ladybug on this beautiful day!

Miss Sue, Miss Jenn, & Miss Kelsi

A Little Help From my Friends

This week the Ladybugs have been talking about ways we can be helpful and show kindness. We started by brainstorming and came up with this great list:

We found lots of ways to work together, cooperatively, in our classroom and ways to show kindness. We created giant hearts to decorate for Valentine’s Day and helped each other put together puzzles. We made cards to give friends and loved ones and used beads to make friendship bracelets. We even cheered on the snails in the Snail Race game as we took turns moving the snails to get them to the finish line. We read Daniel Chooses to Be Kind. Daniel Tiger gets to be king for the day and learns that being helpful and kind is the most important royal duty!

We then talked about people in our community that help us. We had fun working and shopping in our grocery store, dressing up as community helpers, and building a town full of trucks driven by our community helpers. Our week ended with our first visit from one of our parent community helper volunteers!! Miss Erica (Jackson’s mom) came to teach us about her job as a physical therapist. She read us a story about her job, and then we practiced some exercises with her! Thank you for sharing with us Erica!

Next week we will be getting ready for Valentine’s Day!! Bring in your cards for your friends anytime. We will have the children deliver them to their friends’ “mailbags” on the 13th and 14th! Don’t Forget- Pancakes & Pajamas Days will be the 12th & 13th.

We hope you will join us for the CCP Valentine’s Dance on Friday, February 9th from 6:00-7:30!! It will be a fun night for all the classes, parents, and teachers to celebrate and socialize together ❤️

Have a wonderful weekend with your Ladybug!

Miss Sue, Miss Jenn & Miss Kelsi

January has gone so quickly!!

January is almost over already! How did that happen? Our Ladybugs were busy talking about hibernating animals and winter in general this week. We had the Three Bears visiting in our kitchen. And at circle time we matched animals with the place that they hibernate- bears aren’t the only hibernating animals! For example, turtles & frogs go in the mud and groundhogs go in their burrow (more on that next week!).

Goldilocks made the 3 Bears a meal

We also made beautiful watercolor wax resist paintings of snowflakes and attempted drawing our own snowmen in our journals at our art table. Our science this week was learning about animal tracks and comparing their sizes. We used unit blocks and our own feet to measure the differences. We attempted to make snow dough on Friday. It was an experiment, so those don’t always end up exactly as expected. But we still had fun mixing it and trying to make snowballs.

The Ladybugs are ready for new challenges, so we’ve been working on letter and number recognition quite a bit. This week we took out some puzzles that not only work on spatial awareness and geometry, but the foot & hand puzzles required us to work on putting the numbers on the toes and fingers in the correct order. We had fun fishing in the “ice” for letter and number fish to match to their puzzle board, too.

Don’t forget to begin working on Valentine cards for all the Ladybug friends (12 students including your own Ladybug). If you give them a few at a time to work on, the children will enjoy creating this special gift to exchange with their friends on February 13th & 14th. We will be talking about kindness, love and friendship as we prepare for the holiday.

Also, please let us know if you (or a friend or family member!) would like to visit to share something about their job. We’d love to have some of our community helpers come to visit! Dentists, doctors, artists, musicians, teachers, hair dressers, garbage men and so many more all work together to serve our community and make it a great place to live!

Have a wonderful weekend with your Ladybug!!

Miss Sue, Miss Jenn, & Miss Kelsi

We're Going on a Bear Hunt!

We have expanded on our winter theme this week by including bears in our play in addition to our polar animals. We were happy to have so many bear (and bunny) visitors from your homes! Our bears joined us in our storytime, singing & center play. We made feasts for them in the bear “den” and pretended to be bears ourselves!

Since we have been talking so much about polar animals, and now bears, we took some time to discuss other animal habitats and sorted the animals that belonged in each habitat.

We read the story The Mitten and named all of the animals seeking refuge from the cold inside the mitten. Many of us painted mittens at the easel using rollers and different types of brushes. We also practiced matching lowercase to uppercase letters on matching mittens (the patterns helped give us clues to which letters go together). We hung the mittens on a clothesline- pinching those clothespins is challenging fine motor work!!

We did some fun science experiments this week, too! We watched a snowstorm form in a jar when we mixed water & baby oil with a little glitter “snow” and added Alka-Seltzer tablets. It was a whirly swirly snowstorm just like in the Going on a Bear Hunt story!! While we talked about the snow and Arctic, we wondered “how do polar animals like seals, whales and walrus stay warm if they don’t have fur”? Blubber!!! (what a fun word! 😂) Miss Jennifer made a really cool blubber glove that we got to use to compare how our hands feel in ice with and without blubber.

Next week we’ll conclude our winter unit with an exploration of animals that hibernate.

Following that we will head into a February valentines theme and explore community helpers, too. There will be lots of discussion about what we want to do when we grow up. We would love to learn about what our Moms & Dads do, if anyone would like to come visit to share about your job during February, Just let us know!!

For Valentine’s Day we ask that everyone please send 11 unaddressed cards signed by your child for them to “mail” to each friend. Bring them by February 12th/13th (our Pancakes & PJs Days). We will make “mailboxes” at school. Give your child a chance to help create their valentines in some way. This can be by adding stickers, drawing a picture, writing their name on their own (or even just a letter or two), or decorating homemade cards. Whatever they do will give them ownership & pride and make the experience of delivering the cards soooo meaningful to them ❤️

Have a wonderful weekend with your Ladybugs!

Miss Sue, Miss Jenn, & Miss Kelsi

IMPORTANT POSTSCRIPT- Please try to be prompt during dropoff & pickup times! We have had a lot of stragglers lately. We try to wait to start our morning together, but it isn’t fair to those who arrived on time to sit around waiting and it also affects our schedule (especially on specials days) if we wait. We also don’t want your child to miss any of the FUN & learning! Thanks so much for your help with this.

The Arctic (and Antarctic!)

This week we really got into our polar theme! We worked on scissor skills and cut wings for some amazing penguins that we created. We all worked together to rescue the polar animals from blocks of ice by using pipettes filled with warm water and sprinkling salt on the ice. Some of our friends even used the Polar Express train to go to the Arctic to see the polar bears!

We also examined our names more closely to see exactly what those letters are that make our most favorite word! Everyone added letter sticky notes from their namecards to our magnet board next to the matching letters. We discovered that lots of friends have the same letters in their names. I think the letter E was found the most!! We had fun fingerpainting with shaving cream and attempting to write the letters from our names in the “snow”, too.

Last week I mentioned how independent our Ladybugs are becoming. This week a grandparent was heard in the hallway asking their Ladybug how they learned how to put their coat on ALL BY THEMSELF!!😁 If your child is still asking you to help them with their coat at home, you should ask them to show you the flip trick they learned at school! They lay their coat on the floor (inside face up), stand at the top (by the collar or hood), and slide their arms into the holes as they flip it over their head. Tada!! They are so proud to be able to do it on their own. Some of our friends are getting good at zippering, too- now that’s a tricky skill!

We all really enjoyed having lunch together this week! Thank you, parents, for being so organized keeping our snacks & lunches separated and for allowing us this special time to socialize. It was fun!!

Next week we will be doing some activities with bears, so we’d love for your children to bring their favorite bear to school for the week (or even just a day). The bears can join us in our center time play.

Reminders:

Bring your teddy bears next week!!

Preschool is closed for Martin Luther King, Jr. day on Monday, January 15.  

Winter Parent Social - Join other preschool parents after drop-off on Wed or Thurs, Jan. 17 & 18 in Ascension Hall. The Preschool Advisory Committee is providing a few treats and there will be some coffee and tea ready!

Pancakes and PJ’s will be on Monday and Tuesday, Feb. 12 & 13. This is a fun day for the children!! More information will be given about this event soon.

We hope you enjoy the long weekend with your Ladybugs!

Miss Sue, Miss Jenn & Miss Kelsi

Wishing for a Winter Wonderland

Welcome back! We hope everyone had a wonderful break. Everyone came back to school with smiles and excitement to see their friends😃. Now it’s time to jump into 2024! Time is flying by, and our Ladybugs are growing up quickly. It seems that some have grown taller in just a few weeks, and we noticed how well everyone is following directions, becoming more independent and even cleaning up quicker! And as they are changing, we recognize that they are ready for some new challenges in the classroom.

We have begun making patterns with our calendar numbers (because our number sets have 2 sets of pictures to choose from). We have also changed the spots on our sign-in ladybug to all circles. It is more challenging to find the right name without the shapes as a clue. Everyone did a great job, so we will begin focusing more on the individual letters in the names and practice making the letters using various tools, too (for example- playdough, craft sticks, blocks and, of course, writing tools). We also changed the sit spots on the carpet to number spots to sneak a little numeral recognition in.

Not only have the children changed, but we talked about how the year & season have changed as well. It may not always feel like winter here in NC, but we talked a lot about winter and snow this week! Our classroom broke out in snowflakes while we were away. We practiced using scissors to cut out more snowflakes to add to our winter wonderland! And we read Little Snowflake and learned about how snow forms in the clouds, melts on the ground, evaporates into mist and goes back to the clouds! In our sensory table polar animals are playing in the “snow”! We matched shapes to find the right snow tube for each penguin and counted snowflakes to find the matching homes for the other animals. And what could be better in the winter than a nice warm bowl of soup! We loved serving up soup in our kitchen using the new soup set our MWF parents bought us from our wish list. The baby carrier has been a BIG hit in the home area, too. Thank you all so much! ❤️

We will be starting Lunch Bunch next week!!! Please remember to pack a separate LUNCH BOX to leave INSIDE THEIR BACKPACKS. Take snack out and leave it in the cubby to make it easier for the children to differentiate the two!! Please label the lunchbox and containers inside as well. Lunch Bunch will be on Wednesdays & Thursdays until 12:50. Please let me know if your child will NOT attend so that we can make pick up arrangements for you. We are very excited to have lunch with your Ladybugs!!

REMINDER: Lunches must be nut & sesame free (no hummus please), just like our snacks have been.

Happy Weekend to you all!!

Miss Sue, Miss Jenn & Miss Kelsi

Merry Christmas!🎄

This week was full of excitement and cheer. The children all had a wonderful trip in their jammies on our Polar Express! We enjoyed hot cocoa and popcorn while we listened to the audiotape (yes, we had an actual cassette tape…a lesson in history for our Ladybugs 🤣). Then everyone had a blast decorating real cookies after weeks of pretending to be bakers in our dramatic play area!

On top of all that, the T/Th Ladybugs celebrated Brooklynn’s birthday, too!!!!! We all hope Brooklynn has a happy birthday on the 20th!

Your Ladybugs were very excited to finally be able to present you with the gift that they made and wrapped all on their own. We hope it brings you joy and good memories for years to come.

And finally, after weeks of practice in music class and pep talks about being brave and supporting each other on the stage, the Ladybugs gave an adorable performance at our Christmas Concert. We are so proud of them all!!

Miss Jennifer, Miss Kelsi & I want to thank you all for being such wonderfully supportive parents and for sharing your precious children with us! We are so grateful for your kind words, such generous gifts, and the children’s sweet notes and drawings. Our hearts are full❤️ We wish you all a joyous & magical Christmas with your families!

with love, Miss Sue, Miss Jenn & Miss Kelsi

REMINDERS- School will reopen on Wednesday, Jan. 3rd and LUNCH BUNCH begins on Jan. 10th/11th

Busy Little Elves

The Ladybugs have been busy elves this week working at the toolbench building toys (and strengthening eye/hand coordination & fine motor skills 😉). They have also been preparing real Christmas gifts to give! Pastor Brandon read from the Pout Pout Fish at chapel, and Pout Pout Fish learned that a gift doesn’t need to be big or perfect, but just from the heart. Our Ladybugs created AND wrapped their own gifts that they will bring home to you next week.

They have also been decorating the classroom with gingerbread houses, ornaments, and Christmas trees. They worked on scissor skills as they cut out a triangle to build a tree and cut out items for their wish list.

Next week we will have our Polar Express Day on Tuesday & Wednesday. Send your child in pajamas (please still have them wear sneakers and jackets, because we will still have playground time).

On Thursday we’ll have our Christmas Concert at 9:30. We’d like our MWF classes to attend also, so bring your children at 9:00 on Thursday & find a seat in the sanctuary to watch your Ladybugs sing!! As the children enter to take their place for the concert please try to refrain from getting your child’s attention (there will be time for pictures afterwards). The Ladybugs will sit with the other classes to watch the other performances until it’s their turn. If your child feels they cannot participate and comes to join you, please keep them with you until the end of the concert. It can be very distracting to the rest if one of their classmates is moving about. We welcome you to take pictures of your children dressed in their festive clothes in front of our beautiful tree after the concert! Class will be dismissed for Christmas break following the show.

You should have received an email from me yesterday with information about Lunch Bunch. If you didn’t receive it, let me know!

Wishing you all a joyous weekend full of lots of festive holiday fun with your Ladybugs!

Miss Sue, Miss Jenn, & Miss Kelsi

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

The Christmas season is here and the Ladybugs are excited!! We kept it pretty low key this week and focused on the story of the Gingerbread Man.

Our kitchen turned into a bakery. There was a mixer and other baking utensils added, along with gingerbread cookie cutters. We needed eggs to crack. Surprise! They were dinosaur eggs, and we had to match the dinosaurs to put them back together. That was very exciting for a few friends in particular. Our bakers had fun adding the dough to the mixer and packing up their cookies to give to friends and teachers.

We hid a gingerbread man behind letters and guessed which letter he was hiding under. We rolled out gingerbread playdough and made cookies and other creations. We did some engineering & used mini cups, cardstock “roofs” and gumdrops to build gingerbread houses. And we talked about what would happen if the Gingerbread Man tried to swim across the river instead of letting the fox carry him. On Friday we put a gingerbread cookie in a cup of water to see for ourselves. First he sank to the bottom, then all of his red sugar toppings dissolved and turned the water reddish, and then he started to float!! Eventually he got soggy and fell apart. Poor Gingerbread Man.

We had the most fun hunting for our class Gingerbread Man when he ran away!! He left clues for us to follow until we found him in the church kitchen with a big plate of gingerbread cookies for our snack. Delicious!

Next week we will focus on more traditional Christmas activities, and then the following week we’ll be busy preparing for our concert and celebrating with our friends!

Instead of the usual holiday party, we like to have a Polar Express Day in the Ladybug room. On Tuesday & Wednesday, Dec. 12th & 13th, your children can wear their pajamas to school (get some extra use out of those cute Christmas pjs!). They will get a train ticket to get on our snack “train” and we’ll enjoy some popcorn and cocoa while we hear the Polar Express story.

Our Christmas Concert which will be Thursday, Dec. 14 in the Sanctuary.  (It’s on a Thursday, but we want ALL our classes to come that day, so MW(F) classes, please plan to join us!) Arrive at 9:00, drop your child in his or her classroom, and have a seat in the sanctuary. I hope you can come because it is our gift of love to you!  Remember, the whole school will be assembled, so you may need to park in the municipal lots around Southern Village. The concert will only last about 25 minutes.  Afterwards you can take photos and then we will say good-bye for the Christmas holidays.

In her blog yesterday, Miss Debbie talked about wishing well and how we take a moment as a class to breathe and send love to a friend who is feeling sad or overwhelmed. It is a skill to recognize that moment and an act of kindness to react in such a loving way. Emotions are running high right now with the excitement and anticipation of the holidays! Just this week we have noticed quite a few times that your children have tried to help a friend feel better- by giving them the breathing ball, sharing a hug or just “checking in” with the friend who seems upset to see how they can help. We work on these skills everyday, along with the skills you would typically expect in preschool. Building these connections and developing empathy for each other will support them through all of their learning. We are proud to see our Ladybugs learning to treat each other with love and understanding.

We often get asked around the holidays if there is anything we could use for the classroom, and I can never think of anything on the spot. So I’d like to share our Amazon wish list with you in the event that you are wondering the same. Please don’t feel obligated in any way.

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/2GHEXHLIX551O?ref_=wl_share

Important Reminders:

1. Polar Express Day- wear pajamas Dec. 12th / 13th

2. Christmas Concert- December 14th

3. School Break starts after concert and reopens January 3rd

4. Lunch Bunch starts January 10th/11th- more info will be emailed to you soon!

Enjoy your weekend with your sweet Ladybug!

Miss Sue, Miss Jenn & Miss Kelsi

Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃🍁

Look what your sweet children said when we asked this week, “What are YOU most thankful for?”

Miss Jenn, Miss Kelsi & I hope our Ladybug families all had a wonderfully, delicious Thanksgiving Day and would like you to know that we are most thankful for you & your little Ladybugs ❤️

We will continue to talk about gratitude and giving as we enter the Christmas season! There are only 2 1/2 short weeks until our Christmas concert (9:30 on 12/14) and then our holiday break!

We celebrated Leland’s 4th birthday this week, also, and hope he had an extra special turkey day bday!!

Enjoy your long weekend!

Miss Sue, Miss Jenn & Miss Kelsi

Tell Me About Birds

Ask your children this weekend to tell you what they learned about birds at school this week! We discussed what different birds eat, and everyone chose which bird they’d like to be. Then we used tools (a pelican scoop, a clothespin beak and “claw” tongs) to try to eat like that bird. It took a lot of hand strength and dexterity to catch our meal. Some of us had fun stringing cheerios to hang in a tree as a special treat for the birds. Lots of friends enjoyed trying to use feathers to paint at the easel. It resulted in some very swirly patterns and lines. The Ladybugs started noticing the secondary colors that they created as they swirled their paint, too. We even looked at a real nest and read The Best Nest. Mr. & Mrs. Bird found some silly places to build their nest, but in the end found that their original birdhouse was the best place to lay their egg.

We continued working on developing those fine motor skills and great eye hand coordination as we decorated our “turkey” feathers with beads! And we practiced turn taking while we rolled the dice to feed a colored worm to the baby bird. We also matched letter “eggs” to the nests with the same letters.

Our Ladybugs showed SO much school spirit on Monday & Tuesday!!!! Even our friends who were not wearing red, decorated themselves with ladybug stickers. We love being Ladybugs!

Remember: School will be CLOSED for Thanksgiving from WEDNESDAY-FRIDAY next week.

AND

PLEASE MARK YOUR CALENDARS TO JOIN US (MWF CLASS, TOO!) ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14TH AT 9:30 FOR OUR CHRISTMAS MUSIC PROGRAM.

December 14th will be our last day before Christmas break, and students will be dismissed immediately after the program. Join us as we wish everyone a joyful holiday!

Enjoy your weekend with your sweet Ladybug!

Miss Sue, Miss Jenn, & Miss Kelsi