Important Dates
· Tuesday, October 14th and Wednesday, October 15th: Parent/Teacher Fall Conferences
· Tuesday, October 21st – Individual Photos (we will not have messy activities that day)
· Tuesday, October 23rd – Please bring in one small pumpkin for your child by this date. We will be doing an art activity with the pumpkin.
· Thursday, October 30th - 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 9:25 a.m. 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. Our room parent, Annie, will be in touch with you about a classroom Halloween party that day.
Quote of the Week
“We got a toolbox for your tools. Oh thank you for buying that.” – Even in their imaginary play on the playground this class is so kind and polite to each other.
The past two weeks have been very busy in the Blue Whale’s class with lots of activities and visitors.
Faye’s mom, Heather, led a music class for us in the classroom. We had so much fun singing, dancing, listening and playing instruments. And we had a special live performance of Heather playing the violin. This is a passion and business for Heather so feel free to reach out to her in the hall if you are interested in her music classes.
The Blue Whales met Mat Man this week. 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 then picked 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.
To continue with the apple fun, we made applesauce. The Blue Whales helped peel, slice and core all the apples. We added lemon juice, water and cinnamon to the apples and cooked them in an Instant Pot. We enjoyed our homemade applesauce with lunch.
The Blue Whales enjoyed listening to The Leaf Thief and talking about wind. They created some silly leaf people.
Palmer B.’s family read a fun Puffin book to the class to celebrate her birthday. Palmer B. treated her friends to ice cream sandwiches. The Blue Whales enjoyed our first birthday celebration.
We had Guess-n-Tell and Palmer B. did a great job with three clues about her item and calling on friends to guess the item. The Blue Whales were not able to guess Palmer B.’s item. We were lucky enough to have a tap dance demo by Palmer B. in her tap shoes that we didn’t guess.
Lydia’s big brothers, Eric and Everett, joined us one morning to read books to the class. Eric is a former Blue Whale, and it was wonderful to have him and his brother in the classroom. The Blue Whales really enjoyed listening to them both read.
In Chapel this week we were joined by Pastor Kristin and learned all about Noah’s Ark through song. The teachers and children participated joyfully with beautiful singing voices.
I’m looking forward to meeting for Fall Conferences next week on Tuesday, October 14th and Wednesday, October 15th. 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. Kelsi will be joining Ms. Beth in the classroom on Tuesday and 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.