Apples

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).  All the Blue Whales tried every variety and rated them with a happy face or sad face and then picked their favorite apple variety. 

The Blue Whales enjoyed listening to The Leaf Thief and talking about wind. They used their own wind to create some fall leaves.   

We read Ten Apples Up on Top and tried to paint ten apples on top of our heads with real apples.  The Blue Whales tried to stack apples to discover for themselves how hard it would be to stack 10 apples.  And our Blue Whales had fun trying to walk around with one apple on top of their heads.  They explored all the parts of an apple with real apples. 

We had Guess-n-Tell and Liam did a great job with three clues about his item and calling on friends to guess the item.  The Blue Whales were able to guess Liam’s item because of his great clues.

Henry’s family read an exciting pirate book to the class to celebrate his birthday.  Henry treated his friends to delicious muffins and a fun pirate goody bag.  The Blue Whales enjoyed our first birthday celebration. 

I really enjoyed parent conferences this week. I appreciate all of you taking the time to meet with me and strengthening our home and school partnership.

Important Dates and Information for October:

·      Friday, October 13th and Monday, October 16th - Preschool is closed for Fall Break and Teacher Professional Development

·      Tuesday, October 17th – Celebrate Kellan’s Birthday

·      Wednesday, October 18th – Individual Photos by David Gellatly (we will not have messy activities that day)

·      Wednesday, October 25th – Fire Truck visit (always dependent on any emergencies that may come up)

·      Tuesday, October 31st - 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 9:00 a.m.  The Blue Whales will meet parents and special grown-ups outside in front of the church at 9:30 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 

·      If each child could bring in a small pumpkin by Monday, October 23rd, we will be using them for an art project.

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

Colors

Primary colors, secondary colors and achromatic colors we talked about them all this week.  The Blue Whales had many opportunities throughout the classroom to further their color exploration through playdough, paint, watercolors, and adding color to oobleck.  We introduced paint card samples and talked about hues and shades of color. 

In the classroom the Blue Whales experimented with oobleck consisting of cornstarch and water.  Our little scientists decided how much cornstarch and water they needed to get it to the consistency that suited their play.  Lots of learning and discovering going on through the smiles.  It was messy but lots of fun!  And our Blue Whales helped clean up the big mess.

The Blue Whales are working hard identifying their names and their friends’ names.  These letters have meaning to the children.  We learn, explore and make connections with letters during our morning song using a simple tune and name cards.  The children are having fun singing and excited to shout out their friend’s name without realizing all the learning that is happening. 

What beautiful families you all have!  The Blue Whales were so proud to share about their families with the class.  They did such a great job as a presenter and an audience member. 

We read a story about Hank the pill bug (aka rollie pollie).  During the story we tried to figure out what information was based on facts about pill bugs and what was from imagination.  After the story we talked about some fascinating facts about pill bugs and we could verify what was true in the story we read.  A favorite activity when we go outside is to search for rollie pollies.

We had Guess-n-Tell and Olivia did a great job with three clues about her item and calling on friends to guess the item.  The Blue Whales were able to guess Olivia’s item because of her great clues.

Outside on the playground the children were engaged in some amazing building. The imagination, cooperation and conversations that led to these successful group activities was so heartwarming and inspiring to see.  We are so proud of our creative and kind friends.  

I’m looking forward to meeting for Fall Conferences and having a conversation about your wonderful children.  The conferences will meet across the street at 105 Market Street.  Please use the street side door and follow the signs for the Blue Whales.  Ms. Raquel will be joining Ms. Beth in the classroom on Monday and Tuesday while I meet with parents.  The children were able to meet Ms. Raquel this week.

Important Dates and Information for October:

·      Thursday, October 12th – Celebrate Henry’s Birthday

·      Friday, October 13th and Monday, October 16th - Preschool is closed for Fall Break and Teacher Professional Development

·      Tuesday, October 17th – Celebrate Kellan’s Birthday

·      Wednesday, October 18th – Individual Photos by David Gellatly (we will not have messy activities that day)

·      Wednesday, October 25th – Fire Truck visit (always dependent on any emergencies that may come up)

·      Tuesday, October 31st - 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 9:00 a.m.  The Blue Whales will meet parents and special grown-ups outside in front of the church at 9:30 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 

·      If each child could bring in a small pumpkin by Monday, October 23rd, we will be using them for an art project.

·      We need 4 LARGE pumpkins for the classroom, if anyone would like to donate a pumpkin it would be appreciated.

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

Shapes

Shapes, shapes and more shapes were the focus of the week in the Blue Whale classroom.  We read some wonderful stories about shapes and explored shapes in different ways throughout the classroom.

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 introduced the Blue Whales to the artist Wassily Kandinsky.  He painted abstract art using shapes and colors.  The Blue Whales were inspired by one of his paintings and the fact that they didn’t have to know what they were creating, just see where the materials and process took their artwork.  They created some amazing art.

We had to change our season this week from Summer to Fall.  We talked about what to expect in the fall and we even saw a few leaves falling on the playground.  And we read an interactive book that shows us how a tree looks through the change of seasons.

In Chapel this week Pastor Brandon talked about how we are all unique and special.  He showed the children the unique cross he built out of legos and challenged them to build their own unique cross in the classroom.  We had a few Blue Whales who accepted his challenge when we returned to the classroom.

We had Guess-n-Tell and Rowan did a great job with three clues about his item and calling on friends to guess the item.  The Blue Whales were able to guess Rowan’s item because of his great clues.

Next week there will be no show and tell on any day, except for the Blue Whale who has the Guess & Tell job.  Instead, the Blue Whales will be taking turns each day to share about their families using the family photos displayed in the classroom. 

Next week we will continue talking about shapes and explore colors and families. 

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

Sleeping Fingers, Busy Fingers

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.    

One of the most important jobs in the Blue Whale classroom is to keep you and your friends 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. 

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 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. Vicki on Wednesday.  The Blue Whales had fun singing, dancing and playing musical instruments. The first Chapel was on Thursday with Pastor Brandon.  The children really enjoyed singing songs and dancing in the beautiful Sanctuary. 

We will be having our first practice fire drill next week.  We read our book about what to expect in a fire drill and the Blue Whales had great questions and discussions to prepare for next week. 

We had Guess-n-Tell and Vivi did a great job with three clues about her item and calling on friends to guess the item.  The Blue Whales were able to guess Vivi’s item because of her great clues.

On Monday we will have our first Lunch Bunch.  Please label your child’s snack separate from their lunch.  Lunch will be every Monday and Wednesday and pick up time will be 1:00 pm.  We are going to be working through our schedule next week with the addition of lunch, so I’m not sure if we will be inside or outside for pick up on Monday & Wednesday.  I appreciate your grace and flexibility as we settle into a routine.  I will update you with pick up instructions for Mondays & Wednesdays as we establish our routine. But for now, if you do not see us outside at the picnic tables, please come to the classroom to pick up your child. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we will continue with pick up in the classroom at 12:00 pm. 

Fall Conferences are on Monday, October 9th and Tuesday, October 10th.  I will send out an email this weekend with more information and a Sign Up Genius link to sign up for a conference. 

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

School Family

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. 

We added the fire station, fire trucks and firemen to the block area this week.  It has been a very popular center with lots of cooperative play.

Another popular center this week was the writing center where the children can use any of the art items on the table and shelves to create and experiment.  They have discovered the joys of glitter glue, tape, stickers and hole punches.  All these materials are important for developing their fine motor skills. 

We had our first Guess-n-Tell and Zoe did a great job with three clues about her item and calling on friends to guess the item.  The Blue Whales were able to guess Zoe’s item because of her great clues.

We read some great fiction and nonfiction books this week. We learned about the Shark Lady and some interesting facts about Blue Whales.  We talked about becoming a class family and everyone contributed to our class rules.  There is only one you was our theme one day and how we appreciate our friends for who they are.  Our unique creativity was expressed through rock painting, shell painting and ocean scenes. 

Next week we will continue talking about safekeepers and ways to keep each other safe at preschool.  We will be working on fine motor skills through songs and projects.  We will have our first Music Class with Ms. Vicki on Wednesday.  And we are looking forward to Chapel on Thursday with Pastor Brandon. 

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!

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, rules, our schedule, prayers and singing classroom songs.  Classroom jobs will start on Monday and your child will have a new job each week. 

This week we practiced learning all our names and recognizing our own names. The Blue Whales painted a bed for our stuffed Blue Whale and some wooden dogs for our block area.  We had our first science experiment and predicted whether it was hot and sunny enough to melt crayons outside.  We made our predictions and discovered it was, in fact, hot and sunny enough and the crayons started to melt. 

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 our classroom needs so quickly. 

If you have not brought in a change of clothes (including socks) for your child in a labeled Ziploc bag, please do so on Monday.

If you have any at home, please bring in any small scrap wood pieces and cereal and pasta type boxes for a project next week.  We could use any size cardboard boxes.  And we are always collecting any loose parts you would like to donate to the classroom.

Here is the link for Play Dough sign up https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0C49ABAB2BA5FFC34-play2.  Thank you in advance for providing play dough.   We need enough play dough, either homemade or store bought, for 14 children.  There is also a button on the Blue Whale blog page with this link.

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!