Apples, Apples Everywhere! 🍎

🐞🐞🐞

Starting off with some important dates and reminders…

1. The Chapel Hill Fire Department will be coming to CCP on Monday, October 12th, around 9:15am. I would love to encourage my Tuesday/Thursday grownups to bring their children to this special experience. All will get to meet firemen/women, learn about fire safety, and will get to sit in the firetruck. Great photo opportunity!

2. Fall Conferences will be held on October 13th and 14th. Sign-ups are listed below (correctly this time). If these dates don’t work with your schedule, we will need to arrange an alternate time to meet.

   MWF Ladybugs:

   https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0A4EAAA928A4FB6-66404807-fall

   T/Th Ladybugs:

   https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0A4EAAA928A4FB6-66404782-fall

   • There will be a substitute with the class during conferences on Tuesday, October 13th, and Wednesday, October 14th.

3. On Friday, October 16th, preschool is CLOSED for students (Professional Development for Teachers)!

4. Send a pie pumpkin to school by October 19th.

5. Fall picture days are October 20th and 21st with David Gallatly. Family photo sessions will be held on October 21st for anyone who is interested.

6. October 28th and 29th - Ladybugs & Frogs Halloween Parade- stay to watch our quick parade around Ascension Hall at 9:15. Parents will need to help with costumes. Ladybugs will celebrate with a party in our classroom after the parade.

7. Spirit Days - November 4th and 5th!

8. We are a NUT FREE, SESAME FREE, and BANANA FREE classroom! Please check labels to make sure snacks do not contain nuts, sesame, or banana.

9. Please check your child’s cubby daily for papers.

10. Check out our photos posted on the website! Use the password CCP-26/27 to enter the parent portal and find the class albums.

11. Please have all Ladybugs use the stairs, and NOT play on the steep hill next to the stairs. We know (and understand) the temptation over how fun the hill looks to roll, run, or climb down, but we care so much about their safety even when not in our care, and would love your help to reinforce what we have been teaching them about safety.

🐞🐞🐞

Onto our week…

This week was all about apples. We learned about the parts of the apple - skin, flesh, stem, leaf and seeds. We read that apple seeds are also called pips! So funny! We discovered that if you cut the apple’s top off (horizontally), there is a star inside, and if cut vertically, it doesn’t look the same. The seeds are more easily accessible when cut vertically, and we counted how many were in our apples. All apples have ten or less pips.

We pinned “apples” pom poms onto our classroom apple tree, which was perfect for to fire up those fine motor skills. We made painted apple trees using our hands as the trunk and branches, along with the apples we cut to stamp apples onto our trees. Our apple theme extended into our dramatic play area, where we pretended to be chefs and baked apple pies with our tea parties. Our cinnamon oat sensory table this week included pie tins, foam apples, and felt apple toppings.

The most exciting activity was making our own applesauce! All of the children used Montessori knives to help cut apple slices into small pieces to add to our pot. It was a challenging task that required good fine motor control, but we saw that some of our Ladybugs must be practicing their sous-chef skills at home. They were so proud to be able to help! We read our recipe, added some water and cinnamon, and set the Instant-Pot for 8 minutes. The hardest part was waiting for it to cool, so that we could try it! Unfortunately, we had to pass most of the applesauce cups to the parents for them to cool, so we will need to find out next week who was brave enough to try something different.

We had a blast using the our bodies, colorful scarves, and the rhythm band to move with the tempo of the music with Miss Crysta-Anne this week! Pastor Lee shared a story about him lighting the candle at his church at only eight years old. Lighting the candle showed him that God was always in the house with him while he prayed, read the Bible, and told stories about Jesus. Most importantly, he learned that the light was symbolic of God’s light that we take into the world and share with those around us.

We can’t wait to keep the fall fun going next week with more seasonal activities, hands-on learning, and lots of autumn adventures. 🍂

We would love to paint pumpkins with the class, so we’d like to request that you send a small “pie pumpkin” — they are usually about 6” — with your child by October 19th. Thank you!

I look forward to meeting with you at conference time on October 13th and 14th. Ladybug conferences will be held in Building 105/room 3/5.

Have a wonderful weekend with your sweet Ladybugs!

Miss Lisa, Miss Phoenix, and Miss Jennifer

Our Five Senses, Names, and Fine Motor Skills on Fire!

🐞🐞🐞

Starting off with some reminders and important dates…

1. We will have our fire drills on October 5th and 6th. Miss Shelly will just use a signal for attention to keep things very calm - no loud alarm to scare us. We will just be practicing how to line up and go to our safe spot outside quickly, and will have gone over our fire safety books within our classrooms.

2. The Chapel Hill Fire Department will be coming to CCP on Monday, October 12th, around 9:15am. I would love to encourage my Tuesday/Thursday grownups to bring their children to this special experience. All will get to meet firemen/women, learn about fire safety, and will get to sit in the firetruck. Great photo opportunity!

3. Fall Conferences will be held on October 13th and 14th. Sign-ups are listed below. If these dates don’t work with your schedule, we will need to arrange an alternate time to meet.

   MWF Ladybugs:

   https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0A4EAAA928A4FB6-59016565-copy

   T/Th Ladybugs:

   https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0A4EAAA928A4FB6-59016547-copy

4. On October 16th preschool is CLOSED for students (Professional Development for Teachers)!

5. Fall picture days are October 20th and 21st with David Gallatly. Family photo sessions will be held on October 21st for anyone who is interested.

6. October 28th and 29th - Ladybugs & Frogs Halloween Parade- stay to watch our quick parade around Ascension Hall at 9:15. Parents will need to help with costumes. Ladybugs will celebrate with a party in our classroom after the parade.

7. We are a NUT FREE, SESAME FREE, and BANANA FREE classroom! Please check labels to make sure snacks do not contain nuts, sesame, or banana.

8. Please check your child’s cubby daily for papers.

9. Check out our photos posted on the website! Use the password CCP-26/27 to enter the parent portal and find the class albums.

10. Please have all Ladybugs use the stairs, and NOT play on the steep hill next to the stairs. We know (and understand) the temptation over how fun the hill looks to roll, run, or climb down, but we care so much about their safety even when not in our care, and would love your help to reinforce what we have been teaching them about safety.

🐞🐞🐞

Onto our week…

We’ve had such an exciting two weeks exploring the world through our five senses. We engaged in hands-on experiences that helped bring the learning to life. We popped popcorn, which engaged all five senses. We explored our sense of taste, by trying foods with different flavors - sweet, salty, bitter, and sour. In addition to smelling the healthy foods we tried in class, and in our snack packs, our sensory oat table this week was scented with cinnamon. We used our sense of hearing while chewing/biting our foods at snack-time, and listened to songs of varying tempos in both our brain breaks and music class. Through art and sensory play, we touched a variety of textures - smooth, rough, hard, soft, bumpy, prickly, creamy and sticky. Each activity was filled with discovery, curiosity, and lots of fun!

We had so much fun exploring our senses and creativity by using the book: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear helped us to practice using our sense of sight, as we followed a colorful journey through animals and patterns. The repetitive text also supported language development and prediction skills, which the children really enjoyed. We used stick and hand puppets to show our understanding, both as we were reading, and during our center play, played book/picture matching, a memory game, and engaged in imaginative play in our dramatic play area. We got adventurous with a process art activity - making collage art just like Eric Carle! Our fine motor skills were on fire!

We’ve also been focusing on our names. Most of the Ladybugs recognize their written names, but learning to spell it, and identifying the individual letters, is the next level skill we will be learning. When we arrived at school after checking in, we all had to find our names at the table, and later around the room. It was very exciting to all — to both see and find our names.

We were so lucky to have such beautiful weather this week, and we all made the most of it! We had a blast exploring all of the new outdoor activities - walking across the balance beam (learning that our arms can help us to balance), playing in the sandbox, “making food” in the play kitchen, raking leaves, zooming down the slides, and going on imaginative adventures aboard the “pirate ship.” It was a joyful week full of movement, creativity, and sunshine!

We all had a wonderful time at Chapel this week with Pastor Kristen. We talked about standing tall and sharing our light and love with all around us, and all caught that light in our hearts to be able to share!

In music and movement with Miss Crysta-Anne this week, we sang songs, listened to different tempos of music while using rhythm shakers, and moved our bodies. We are definitely settling into our new Wednesday and Thursday routines. These days are such fun-filled - and busy - days!

Next week we will start exploring all things Fall!

Have a fun-filled weekend with your sweet Ladybugs!

Miss Lisa, Miss Phoenix, and Miss Jennifer

I Have 5 Senses

🐞🐞🐞

Starting off with some reminders and important dates…

1. FALL BREAK - Thursday, October 1st, and Friday, October 2nd.

2. We tentatively have our fire drills on October 5th and 6th. Miss Shelly will just use a signal for attention to keep things very calm - no loud alarm to scare us. We will just be practicing how to line up and go to our safe spot outside quickly, and will have gone over our fire safety books within our classrooms.

3. The Chapel Hill Fire Department will be coming to CCP on Monday, October 12th, around 9:15am. I would love to encourage my Tuesday/Thursday grownups to bring their children to this special experience. All will get to meet firemen/women, learn about fire safety, and will get to sit in the firetruck. Great photo opportunity!

4. Fall Conferences will be held on October 13th and 14th. You will be receiving an email with a link to sign up for our Fall Conferences. If these dates don’t work with your schedule, we will need to arrange an alternate time to meet.

5. Fall picture days are October 20th and 21st with David Gallatly. Family photo sessions will be held on October 21st for anyone who is interested.

6. We are a NUT FREE, SESAME FREE, and BANANA FREE classroom! Please check labels to make sure snacks do not contain nuts, sesame, or banana.

7. Please check your child’s cubby daily for papers.

8. Check out our photos posted on the website! Use the password CCP-26/27 to enter the parent portal and find the class albums.

9. Please have all Ladybugs use the stairs, and NOT play on the steep hill next to the stairs. We know (and understand) the temptation over how fun the hill looks to roll, run, or climb down, but we care so much about their safety even when not in our care, and would love your help to reinforce what we have been teaching them about safety.

🐞🐞🐞

Onto our week…

This week we have been learning about our five senses. We explored books on each of the senses, and discovered that certain experiences allow us to use more than one of our senses. Air-popping popcorn provided a multi-sensory experience that engaged all of our five senses: the sight of kernels rapidly transforming and expanding, the distinct sound of popping that built anticipation, the warm, toasty aroma that stimulated appetite, the light, crisp texture felt when handled or bitten, and the subtly sweet, nutty flavor that satisfied our palates. This combination created a unique and memorable sensory experience, even without the added oils and flavorings.

YUM! Air-Popped Popcorn - A Multi-Sensory Experience!

Since tasting is a multi-sensory process that goes beyond the tongue, we got to do a taste test, and talked about the taste buds. While the taste buds detect the basic tastes - sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and savory (although I didn’t include savory this year), our other senses play essential roles in shaping the full experience. Sight influences our expectations through color and presentation. Smell works closely with taste, as aroma enhances flavor perception. Touch contributes through texture and temperature, while even hearing - such as the crunch of a crisp food - can affect how we perceive freshness. Together, these senses helped us to identify and enjoy the wide variety of flavors we tried. We tried sweet apples, sour lemons, salty pretzels (two types), bitter arugula, and I added a sweet (safe) chocolate semi-sweet morsel to see where they though that fit in. They felt like the morsel was both bitter and sweet. The favorite in both Ladybug classes was the chocolate morsel. We loved how all that we did together allowed us to experience flavors in a more meaningful and memorable way.

Another Tasty Multi-Sensory Experience!

Our centers this week were also focused on our multi-sensory experience. In the art center, we were able to feel various textures. We compared and contrasted each item’s different feature, and then got to create a work of art using those materials. The sensory bin included different varieties of pastas, and little hard figures, that we got to sort by color. I added a seek-and-find center, which was definitely a challenge to our little eyes, but some friends did find some pictures and hidden objects. The dramatic play center, dress-up, Play-Doh, blocks, and puzzles were also available, in addition to the reading center.

Our Multi-Sensory Art Center

So many of us are finding our names at the door all by ourselves now! We are definitely feeling more confident, and know the routine. Everyone has a job to do each week: line leader, door holder, caboose, weather helper, etc, and are becoming experts. Our class jobs will rotate weekly so that everyone gets a turn to do each job. We did great walking down the hallway to our specials this week. We are doing wonderful with keeping our bodies safe, and using hugs and bubbles while walking. All seemed excited (and maybe a bit timid) to begin our new specials.

We had our first Chapel with Pastor Lee. He told us a story about a man coming to Jesus and asking him what the most important rules are for life. Jesus told him that the number one rule was to love God with everything you have, and the number two rule was to love everybody. He taught us about lighting the candle to show that God is with us always, and had us each catch the light so that we are forever able to carry it with us. We sang, “This Little Light of Mine” at the end, and were encouraged to go out and share our light with others.

We also had our first music class with Miss Crysta-Anne. Everyone was very engaged, and loved singing, dancing, and being introduced to the rhythm shakers and stretchy band. Stretchy bands are particularly useful for teaching rhythmic concepts, spatial awareness, and teamwork, allowing us to work together to create visual patterns and sounds synchronized with music.

What a fun-filled week of sensory play! We explored, touched, smelled, listened, and even tasted as we engaged all five senses through a variety of exciting activities. It was a wonderful week full of curiosity, exploration, and lots of hands-on learning!

Next week will be a short one, but we’ll still have plenty of fun! We’ll continue exploring our senses while also beginning to focus on name recognition. We’re looking forward to another week of learning, playing, and discovering together!

Enjoy the weekend with your sweet Ladybugs!

Miss Lisa, Miss Phoenix, and Miss Jennifer

All About Me

🐞🐞🐞

Starting off with some reminders and important dates…

1. We are a NUT FREE, SESAME FREE, and BANANA FREE classroom! Please check labels to make sure snacks do not contain nuts, sesame, or banana. Also, we can not know what exactly is in any homemade, unpackaged treats, so please save those for home.

2. Please check your child’s cubby daily for papers.

3. Check out our photos posted on the website! Use the password CCP-26/27 to enter the parent portal and find the class albums.

4. Please have all Ladybugs use the stairs, and NOT play on the steep hill next to the stairs. We know (and understand) the temptation over how fun the hill looks to roll, run, or climb down, but we care so much about their safety even when not in our care, and would love your help to reinforce what we have been teaching them about safety.

5. Our shirt/donation fundraiser is coming to a close, so make sure to head to the weekly CCP blog for the QR code.

6. Chapel, along with Music and Movement, begins this coming week! YAY!

7. Fall Conferences will be held on October 13th and 14th.

🐞🐞🐞

And onto our exciting week…

So much has happened in just one short week! We have been learning all about our friends (what colors, foods, animals, etc. that everyone likes), and about ourselves (our bodies, our families, our likes, etc). We created our self-portraits this week, with the help of Mat Man. Creating our Mat Man was a fun way to learn about our body parts, in addition to learning body awareness. We really enjoyed putting together our silly Mat Man, which utilized various craft items. Our portraits came out amazing, and will be shared during family conferences in October.

The Original Mat Man - A song is available online!

MWF Mat Miss Shelly

T/TH Mat Man Paul

We added some centers this week that went along with our body parts and awareness learning. We made Potato Heads using a spinner that chose the part of the body we added, and talked about parts of the body. We touched some on our five senses this week, and used our sense of touch in the sensory bin with having to find the pieces within the beans to make a Potato Head. We used fun hand tongs to grab the pieces, and the Ladybugs even challenged themselves to clean up the beans that fell on the floor while using the tongs. What a great way to strengthen those fine motor skills.

We used our bodies to climb, run, dig, and play on the playground. The weather was absolutely beautiful! Thank you for sending in shoes that allowed us to be more active! As the weather cools, please ensure that a coat is provided.

Everyone is getting so good at following our new school routines and learning to be kind friends. We are so proud of our Ladybugs! In the morning, we have been successfully moving our name ladybug spots to the big ladybug on the door prior to going to wash our hands. We are becoming excellent, safe walkers. We are holding onto the railing, going both down and up the steps in our line, both to/from the playground. We have been so proud of them, as the stairs are both long and steep. We have also learned our routines for transitions, taking things to/from cubbies, and washing hands prior to/after snack. So much to learn, but we are smart kids. We can ALL do hard things.

We had a special celebration on Thursday for Jack’s birthday! We all enjoyed delicious donuts together, and both Jack and his mom shared a wonderful story with the class. There were big smiles all around as we helped him to feel extra loved on his special day. Happy Birthday, Jack!

Next week we will be learning about our five senses. Because I want all to fully experience their senses, we will be having popcorn, and some other various fruits and food items. I am aware of all documented allergies, but if there’s something specific you would like your child to not have, please let me know.

We hope you have a wonderful weekend. Please feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns you may have. We are here to support both our Ladybugs and our parents.

Miss Lisa, Miss Phoenix, and Miss Jennifer

Our First Week as Ladybugs 🐞

Hello, Parents!

Welcome to our classroom blog. Every Friday, I’ll be updating you on what we’ve been learning and doing in class, along with sharing some pictures from our week.

We had a great time getting to know one another during our small-group visitations on Tuesday and Wednesday. Everyone was so excited to see ALL of their friends — both new and old — when we came together on Thursday and Friday.

We started our week by reading “Our Class is a FAMILY,” and talked about what makes our classroom a school family. Most of you completed and sent in the All about Me page for your child, which was added to our special book. Everyone loved learning about their friends, and we will continue discovering new things about one another in the coming weeks.

We completed two fun art projects this week! Each class helped to create their unique class mascot — the ladybug — with each spot creatively designed by the children. We also made classroom family bracelets, with each bead representing a different positive character trait.

Throughout the week, we explored our classroom centers, read books, sang songs, and played together. We began learning our classroom routines, including entering the classroom, coming to circle time, and walking in a line through the hallway and to the playground.

We were happy to have nice weather to enjoy the playground! Please remember to apply sunscreen and/or bug spray to your child in the morning before school. Our playground is very sunny!

During center time we used crayons, dot markers, paint sticks, and Play-Doh to strengthen those fine motor skills in the art center. We also opened up the block center, puzzles, and dramatic-play center. The children really enjoyed exploring these new areas!

A couple of reminders:

• Please label EVERYTHING, especially water bottles. When you arrive at school, water bottles go in the carriers on top of the cubbies, so that we can bring them into the classroom.

• Please have your child wear shoes that will not slip off when they are running on the playground, preferably sneakers. The mulch does not feel good when it gets into shoes.

We had so much fun meeting everyone and watching each precious personality begin to shine! We are looking forward to a wonderful year filled with fun, friendship, and learning with your beautiful children.

Thank you so much for all of the support you have shown us during this first week! We truly appreciate the generous donations, thoughtful gifts, and kind words. They mean so much to us!

Here’s to a wonderful year together! ❤️🐞

Sending you all warm wishes for a fun and relaxing weekend!

Miss Lisa, Miss Phoenix, and Miss Jennifer

Ladybug Class Parent Orientation

Welcome to the Ladybug Class! We are so excited that your child is in our class! Here are a few notes to help you learn about our classroom.

🐞🐞🐞

PARENT COMMUNICATION:

Our classroom blog will be updated every week by 7pm on Friday with the latest news about what we have done during the week, as well as reminders for upcoming events. You will receive an email when it is posted. We also post tons of adorable photos of your kids in action in our Google album! To see our full album, use the password CCP-26/27 in the parent portal.

Also, please add my email, ccpredladybugs@gmail.com, to your address book so that any additional communication from me doesn’t end up in your spam folder! Please be sure to copy my class assistant & Shelly as well (Jenn Park, jjepark@gmail.com; Phoenix Ditter, phoe.ditter@gmail.com; Shelly Smith, ssmith@christmethodist.org).

If you need an immediate answer, or have an emergency, it is best to call the school office & I will be able to speak to you. Please let us know of anything happening at home that may have an effect on your child’s day or behavior, and we will, of course, do the same for you. Together we can help the children feel safe & loved, so that they can have a wonderful day!

Let us know if your child will be absent due to illness or vacation, also, so that we can plan our day accordingly. We will add them to our classroom wish well, and will send a picture to you that day, so that you can show your child that they were loved and cared about while absent. It really does brighten their day to know that they were missed!

THINGS TO SEND TO SCHOOL:

A set of labeled clothes (including socks & underwear) in a Ziploc bag.

A labeled water bottle and (small) healthy snack (NUT, SESAME, & BANANA FREE) each day.

Please DO NOT send toys to school!

**TOILET TRAINING - We expect all children to be fully trained by the end of October, if they are not already. If your child is still wearing a pull-up to class, we ask that you use pull-ups with repositionable tabs, so that it is easier to change them if necessary. If they have recently transitioned to underwear, please send multiple changes of clothes, just in case of accidents.

SPECIAL EVENTS & DAYS:

We would love to celebrate your child’s birthday at school! We also do a 1/2 birthday celebration for friends who have summer birthdays at the end of the school year. Parents are encouraged to send in a special treat such as cookies, ice cream, or cupcakes for our class of 12 children (they must be pre-packaged and labeled for allergy reasons), and your child’s favorite book to read at circle time.

We will have weekly specials on Wednesdays & Thursdays beginning on September 23rd and 24th. Chapel is with Pastor Lee, and Music is with Miss Crysta-Anne.

🐞🐞🐞

REMINDERS:

SUPPLIES:

1. Change of clothes in a ziploc bag (labeled)

2. Snack bag & water bottle (labeled *Note: A Separate lunch bag will be needed when Lunch Bunch starts in January

3. Sneakers or sandals with ankle strap only

4. If not toilet trained yet — wear pull-ups with tabs

MORNING DROP-OFF

1. Hang bag &/or coat in child’s cubby

2. Create an “I Love You” routine and use it to say goodbye at the classroom door

3. Be a confident S.T.A.R.! (Smile, Take a deep breath, And Relax)

DISMISSAL

1. We will dismiss from the classroom this year

2. Please wait until end of dismissal if you need to speak with teachers

COMMUNICATION

1. Blog posts on Fridays, CCP-26/27 to access photos

2. Email Lisa at ccpredladybugs@@gmail.com, Phoenix (MWF) at phoe.ditter@gmail.com, and Jenn (T/Th) at jjepark@gmail.com

3. Let teachers know if your child will be absent

4. Check cubby EVERY day

🐞🐞🐞

LADYBUG THEMES FOR 2026/27

SEPTEMBER - All About Me/My friends, 5 Senses, Emotions

OCTOBER - Fire Safety, Pumpkins & Halloween

NOVEMBER - Leaves, Dinosaurs, Thanksgiving

DECEMBER - Gingerbread Man, Christmas

JANUARY - Winter, Polar Animals, Bears

FEBRUARY - Community Helpers, Transportation, Valentine’s Day

MARCH - Weather, Farm Animals/Pets, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter

APRIL - Insects, Earth Day

MAY - Celebrating Caregivers, Wacky Week & Celebrations

🐞🐞🐞

We hope that last night’s parent orientation was helpful, and that this first blog post allows you easier access to the information that was covered. We are looking forward to a wonderful & fun year with your children! Thank you for trusting us with their care! We will see you all next week!

Miss Lisa, Miss Phoenix, and Miss Jenn