Apples and Mat Man

Important Dates

·         Monday, October 12th - Fire Truck visit

Tuesday, October 13th and Wednesday, October 14th: Parent/Teacher Fall Conferences in Room 1 in the church building across the street.

·          Tuesday, October 20th – Please bring in one small pumpkin for your child by this date.  We will be doing an art activity with the pumpkin. Individual Photos (we will not have messy activities that day)

·          Wednesday, October 21st – Individual Photos (we will not have messy activities that day)

·          Thursday, October 29th - We hope you can join us for our Halloween Costume Parade around Southern Village.  Please send your child to school in their costume and drop them off at the classroom at our usual 9:00 a.m.  The Blue Whales will meet families outside in front of the church at 9:30 am. and start our parade with the Yellow Ducks class.  Families are welcome to dress up too.  Please help your child change out of their costume after the parade.  If you are OK with them wearing their costume all day that is fine too, but we will be our normal messy selves and play outside that day. 

Quote of the Week

“Do you guys sleep here?” - a valid question to me and Beth from a Blue Whale. I just hope that means our classroom feels homey 🙂

The past two weeks have been very busy in the Blue Whale’s class with lots of activities. The children have enjoyed having lunch with their friends and teachers.

One of the most important jobs in the Blue Whale classroom is to keep you, your friends and teachers safe, we are all safekeepers. Each Blue Whale told their friends and teachers they would keep them safe and added their names to the Safekeeper Box. They were so supportive of each other as they added their names to the box.

We watched our hands conduct electricity with our energy stick by making a human connection. The only way to complete the circuit and make the energy stick light up and beep is if we worked together. If someone didn’t hold hands it would not work and it would break the connection. It was a great experiment and deepened our school family bond.

The Blue Whales met Mat Man.  Mat Man is a song with pieces that help children learn how to draw a person using shapes.  The Blue Whales built Mat Man as they listened to the song.  After they each drew themselves for their first journal page. The Blue Whales will bring home their journals at the end of the year.

We had our first practice fire drill this week.  Last week we read our book about what to expect in a fire drill and the Blue Whales had great questions and discussions and were prepared for our drill. 

This week the Blue Whales were food critics.  We had an apple tasting with four different varieties of apples (Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith and Honeycrisp).  The Blue Whales tried every variety and rated them with a happy face or sad face and talked about their favorite apple variety.

We read Ten Apples Up on Top and painted with real apples.  They explored all the parts of an apple with real apples. 

We also shucked corn and painted with corn on the cob and the husks. The Blue Whales thought that was pretty funny.

Round as a Tortilla and The Perfect Square books sparked our shape discussions and interactive activities.

We had Guess-n-Tell and Ro and Nate did a great job with three clues about their items and calling on friends to guess the item.  The Blue Whales were able to guess both their items because of their great clues. 

I’m looking forward to meeting for Fall Conferences next week on Tuesday, October 13th and Wednesday, October 14th. The conferences will meet in Building 105, Room 1 which is across the street from Preschool. There will be signs in the hall to help direct everyone.  Ms. Jane will be joining Ms. Beth in the classroom on Tuesday and Ms. Kelsi will be in on Wednesday while I meet with parents. 

We are enjoying creating, moving, singing, discussing, observing, reading and playing with our Blue Whale friends.   Hope everyone has a nice weekend. 

Busy Fingers, Sleeping Fingers

Important Dates

Monday, September 28th: First Lunch Bunch and a 1:00 pick up

Thursday, October 1st & Friday, October 2nd: Fall break, Preschool closed

Monday, October 12th: Firetruck Visit

Tuesday, October 13th & Wednesday, October 14th: Fall Parent Teacher Conferences (school open)

Wednesday, October 21st: Picture Day - Individual Photos

Thursday, October 29th: Halloween Parade around Southern Village

Quote of the Week

“Let’s see how this goes.”  -- Overheard from a brave Blue Whale to another Blue Whale on the slides before they took a risk. Happy to say no Blue Whales were injured during play on the playground.

What a busy week of school.  It has been a joy building our school family and continuing to get to know each of our Blue Whales.  The Blue Whales are kind caring friends and developing wonderful friendships.  I hear a lot of talk around the snack tables about making plans for playdates and moms calling each other.  Your children are excited about their new friendships too. 

Primary colors and secondary colors, we talked about them this week. Through books and finger paint the Blue Whales furthered their color exploration.

We sang Where is Thumbkin and practiced finger isolation.  And that led us to our discussion about busy fingers and sleeping fingers.  Thumb, pointer and tall man are the busy fingers and ring man and pinky are the sleeping fingers.  Each child received a cotton ball for ring man and pinky to sleep on while the rest of their fingers stay busy.   This is helping your child develop a tripod grasp which will help them manipulate many things including toys, tweezers, glue and writing utensils.  We read books about a mouse and a squirrel that we had to take through an adventure in each book using our busy fingers. 

Our friends worked on prewriting activities by tearing paper and making paper plate self-portraits.  Each Blue Whale looked in the mirror trying to match paper strips and crayons to their skin color, eye color, lip color, hair color and any other important attributes.  They are hanging up in the hall and each one is so unique with added details that were important to each child.     

We had our first Music & Movement class with Ms. Crysta-Anne on Wednesday.  The Blue Whales sang and danced. The first Chapel was on Thursday with Pastor Lee.  The children really enjoyed listening to a story in the beautiful Sanctuary and getting the opportunity to ask Pastor Lee individual questions after Chapel. 

We had Guess & Tell and Sri and Ronan did a great job with each of their three clues about their items and calling on friends to guess the items. The Blue Whales were able to guess both Sri and Ronan’s items because of their great clues. 

All the Blue Whales took home a pet goldfish. We read the book Not Norman about a goldfish. Each Blue Whale created their aquarium, caught their fish and named their goldfish. It was very exciting. I noticed how excited the parents were when I told them the goldfish were not real 😄

On Monday we will have our first Lunch Bunch.  Please label your child’s snack separate from their lunch.  Please remember to pack a nut and sesame free lunch and snack. Please include any needed utensils, napkin and water bottle.

Lunch will be every Monday and Wednesday and pick up will be at 1:00 pm. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we will continue with pick up at 12:00 pm. 

Fall Conferences are on Tuesday, October 13th and Wednesday, October 14th. Today I sent out an email with more information and a Sign Up Genius link to sign up for a conference. I am also including the link here in the blog https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0C49ABAB2BA5FFC34-59032952-blue.

We are enjoying creating, moving, singing, discussing, observing, reading and playing with our Blue Whale friends.   Hope everyone has a nice weekend. 

School Family

Important Dates

Wednesday, September 23rd: First Music Class with Ms. Crysta-Anne Thursday, September 24th: First Chapel with Pastor Lee Monday, September 28th: First Lunch Bunch and a 1:00 pick up

Quote of the Week

“You are lucky I can leap.” — one of the amazing talents a Blue Whale can tap into when they are faced with trying to avoid an ant hill

Classroom News

We had another successful week of school.  We have quickly become a school family.  Ms. Beth and I are enjoying building relationships with each of your children and learning about all our wonderful students.  The Blue Whales are kind friends and enjoy playing with each other and are developing lovely friendships.  The Blue Whales are working hard on using their words, listening to their friend’s words and keeping their hands and feet to themselves. We have such lovely and happy children that we will be in a harmonious classroom routine in no time. 

Each Blue Whale had their first job this week and they did a great job.  When they arrive on Monday they can check out their new job for the week. 

Our first Tell Us Tuesday was a success. The Blue Whales were so excited to share about their item or tell the class something important to them.

We read some engaging books this week. We talked about our emotions and what it is like to feel more than one emotion at a time. Everyone contributed to our discussions.  We also read a book about scribbles and a tiny whale named Gigantic.

The Blue Whales helped decorate the classroom with hand made sparkly whales and brought home their own color emotions monsters.

We will always have play dough out for the children. This simple activity helps build their fine motor skills and sparks their creativity. Another activity we have in the classroom this week is Magna Tiles on the light table. The Magna Tiles encourage teamwork, improve focus, boost motor skills and teach shapes.

Each child received a special ball of white magic dough and if their dough changed colors it meant we are going to have an awesome school year. Lucky for us everyone’s magic dough changed colors and we are looking forward to an awesome year!

Ms. Beth and I are so appreciative of our supportive parents with your kind words and items for our classroom. Thanks so much for being a part of our school family.

We are enjoying creating, moving, singing, discussing, observing, reading and playing with our Blue Whale friends.   Hope everyone has a nice weekend.

Thankful for a Wonderful Week!

Quote of the Week

“You two are great teachers!” — An amazingly kind Blue Whale sharing their thoughts

Our visitation days and first day of school went so well!  We enjoyed getting to know your sweet Blue Whales.  They were so excited to see old friends and welcoming to new friends.  We heard kind words and saw lots of sharing and cooperative play among friends.  It has been a wonderful start to a new school year.  Next week we will continue to discuss classroom routines, emotions, rules, our schedule, prayers and singing classroom songs.  Classroom jobs will start on Monday and your child will have a new job each week. 

Ms. Beth and I have chosen some wonderful books to read and discuss with the children during story time.  We feel truly blessed to be able to spend our days with such a wonderful group of children.  And thank you to all our amazing families for your support, kind words and fulfilling some of our classroom needs so quickly. 

Thank you for signing up to provide play dough for the class.  I was amazed how quickly the slots were filled. I appreciate your support. We need enough play dough, either homemade or store bought, for 15 children. 

I have included the QR Code for our Blue Whale Wish List.  This QR Code will also be hung up outside the classroom.  I will keep it updated throughout the year with needs and wants for the Blue Whale class.  Thank you for your consideration.

I have updated the class photo album link with photos from both visitation days and our first day of school. 

We are looking forward to creating, moving, singing, discussing, observing, reading and playing together.  Have a great weekend! 

Apples and Mat Man

Important Dates

·         Monday, October 12th - Fire Truck visit

Tuesday, October 13th and Wednesday, October 14th: Parent/Teacher Fall Conferences in Room 1 in the church building across the street.

·          Tuesday, October 20th – Please bring in one small pumpkin for your child by this date.  We will be doing an art activity with the pumpkin. Individual Photos (we will not have messy activities that day)

·          Wednesday, October 21st – Individual Photos (we will not have messy activities that day)

·          Thursday, October 29th - We hope you can join us for our Halloween Costume Parade around Southern Village.  Please send your child to school in their costume and drop them off at the classroom at our usual 9:00 a.m.  The Blue Whales will meet families outside in front of the church at 9:30 am. and start our parade with the Yellow Ducks class.  Families are welcome to dress up too.  Please help your child change out of their costume after the parade.  If you are OK with them wearing their costume all day that is fine too, but we will be our normal messy selves and play outside that day. 

Quote of the Week

“Do you guys sleep here?” - a valid question to me and Beth from a Blue Whale. I just hope that means our classroom feels homey 🙂

The past two weeks have been very busy in the Blue Whale’s class with lots of activities. The children have enjoyed having lunch with their friends and teachers.

One of the most important jobs in the Blue Whale classroom is to keep you, your friends and teachers safe, we are all safekeepers. Each Blue Whale told their friends and teachers they would keep them safe and added their names to the Safekeeper Box. They were so supportive of each other as they added their names to the box.

We watched our hands conduct electricity with our energy stick by making a human connection. The only way to complete the circuit and make the energy stick light up and beep is if we worked together. If someone didn’t hold hands it would not work and it would break the connection. It was a great experiment and deepened our school family bond.

The Blue Whales met Mat Man.  Mat Man is a song with pieces that help children learn how to draw a person using shapes.  The Blue Whales built Mat Man as they listened to the song.  After they each drew themselves for their first journal page. The Blue Whales will bring home their journals at the end of the year.

We had our first practice fire drill this week.  Last week we read our book about what to expect in a fire drill and the Blue Whales had great questions and discussions and were prepared for our drill. 

This week the Blue Whales were food critics.  We had an apple tasting with four different varieties of apples (Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith and Honeycrisp).  The Blue Whales tried every variety and rated them with a happy face or sad face and talked about their favorite apple variety.

We read Ten Apples Up on Top and painted with real apples.  They explored all the parts of an apple with real apples. 

We also shucked corn and painted with corn on the cob and the husks. The Blue Whales thought that was pretty funny.

Round as a Tortilla and The Perfect Square books sparked our shape discussions and interactive activities.

We had Guess-n-Tell and Ro and Nate did a great job with three clues about their items and calling on friends to guess the item.  The Blue Whales were able to guess both their items because of their great clues. 

I’m looking forward to meeting for Fall Conferences next week on Tuesday, October 13th and Wednesday, October 14th. The conferences will meet in Building 105, Room 1 which is across the street from Preschool. There will be signs in the hall to help direct everyone.  Ms. Jane will be joining Ms. Beth in the classroom on Tuesday and Ms. Kelsi will be in on Wednesday while I meet with parents. 

We are enjoying creating, moving, singing, discussing, observing, reading and playing with our Blue Whale friends.   Hope everyone has a nice weekend.