Hello!
This week we will be taking a break from learning about winter and talk about Chinese New Year. This year is the year of the rooster in the Chinese zodiac. We will be reading books that relate to China, Chinese zodiac creatures and the Chinese New Year holiday. We will read the books Noodle Magic, Jill and the Dragon, What the Rat Told Me, The Pet Dragon and The Runaway Rice Cake. Students will be creating some cool crafts including a Chinese New Year crown and a dragon puppet! In small groups, we will be working on letter recognition. This will be differentiated by students identifying letters by their sound, receptive identification of letters and the matching of letters. The other group will continue to work with shapes (identifying side, angles, lines and curves). During our math talk we will begin to compare numbers that we have previously explored (1,2,3,4,5). If your child has not come home with a book recently it is because they have not returned their library book. If you are wondering what they are missing, feel free to ask or e-mail me and I can let you know. Remember to read AT LEAST 2 books with your child daily! This makes such a huge difference in their academic future! Have a nice weekend! Mandi Heiser
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Greetings, I hope everyone has transitioned back into the school routine. This week, we are continuing to learn about what people do in the snow. We have read The Snowy Day, The Jacket I Wear in the Snow, Snow, No Two Alike, A Perfect Day and When it Starts to Snow. We will be graphing our favorite snowy day activities. We have been exploring snow through our insta- snow in the sensory table. This is “fake snow” is a polyacrylate that students helped make to play with in the classroom. It looks and feels like real snow! We also have been decorating snowflakes at the light table. The snowflakes are microscopic photographs of real snowflakes that the students can explore and decorate. Questions they can explore through this area: “How many sides does a snow flake have?”, “Do they look the same or similar? And How so”, “What do you notice about the snowflakes shape?”. We have completed some great art activities based around snow. One activity we finished last week included the main character (Peter) from the classic tale The Snow Day. Students painted with the snow paint used the book to see what types of tracks Peter made in the snow. After referencing the book, they created one type of track on their picture. This is a great way to discuss, recall and interact with literature! Students also created snowmen by using the letter of their name. Students first counted how many letter are in their name. Counted out the snowballs and then wrote their letters on the snowballs. They then glued them on and decorated them. This a great way to work on 1:1 correspondence and letter recognition. This week at small groups, we will be exploring and creating shapes. We will discuss sides, lines, curves and angles through hands on exploration. We will also be identifying what the main character in the Snowy Day, heard, saw and felt. Our letter of the week is U. Please send in your U pictures no later than Thursday. We also have started a “Good Citizen of the Day” board in the room. We have been talking about what it means to be kind and how to be a good citizen in the classroom. Each day, students are encouraged to look for good citizenship around them (such as: a friend helping them get their coat on, someone inviting them to play, cleaning extra well in the classroom….ect). They then tell the class how their peer was helpful and we will add their name and what they did to the board. This is a great way to encourage kind behavior and to help build good citizens of the w orld! Have a wonderful week! Mandi Heiser [email protected]
Reminder! Winter break begins- December 24-January 9th. If you came to the parent/child activity on Friday, you hopefully gained some great new ideas of activities to do at home with your child! Research suggests reading 2+ books to your child daily is essential from their brain development. Use the break to catch up on some good reading!
See you on January 9th! Greetings!
This week will be our last week until winter break! We are finishing up our unit on gingerbread men. We will be reading The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School and doing a scavenger hunt to find him using clues to guide our way. On Thursday, we will be decorating gingerbread cookies. While we set up for decorating, the children will be watching the Snowy Day in the annex. If you signed up to help, we will see you at 10:30 (am) or 2:45(pm). Friday, we will be having a Parent/Child Activity from 9:15-10:30 in the cafeteria. Parents will be let in the building at 9:10. Please remember to help your child learn to independently put on their hat, coat, scarf, boots, snow pants at home. We want our students to be able to dress themselves as much as possible. If you can purchase mittens rather than gloves, we would much appreciate it. Mittens are much easier for kids to put on independently. We have been practicing putting on our winter gear in the following order: 1st snow pants (if you have on shoes you must take them off first), 2nd. Snow boots 3rd. Sweaters & Coats 4th. Hats & scarves 5th Mittens or Gloves. It would be really helpful if you practiced the same order at home as well. Once the weather warms up will resume going outdoors to play. We will go out and explore in the snow. Please be sure to dress your child in snow boots and snow pants. Waterproof gloves/mittens are also helpful. If you have any snow pants or boots that you would like to donate to our classroom (for children who do not have them) we would be very grateful. Thank you again for all your assistance with the new arrival and dismissal procedure. When there is inclement weather the Pre-K staff will open the doors 5 minutes early so that parents and children can sit at the back three tables of the cafeteria instead of waiting in the frigid weather. Thanks! Have a great break! Mandi Heiser [email protected] Reminder!
We want to thank all of the parents who have complied with new entry and exit procedure. Our first priority is ensuring everyone’s safety and wellbeing. Please be sure to only enter the building when Preschool Staff member opens the doors. We realize that others may be trying to be kind or helpful by opening the doors for you, but we need to abide by the new system. If a child, or another parent opens the door before the set time of enter/exit, simply refuse to enter and let the child or other parent know that you are waiting for the preschool staff to open the doors. Thank you for your assistance in making our school safe for everyone. Dear Parents,
We just wrapped up our first week of our Gingerbread unit. We read the story the Gingerbread Man and the Gingerbread Girl (which the kids adore). Next week, we will read the Gingerbread Pirates and The Gingerbread Cowboy. We will be creating charts that compare the stories and we will create a Venn diagram that compares the two stories and will be sequencing the stories (focusing on the remembering the beginning, middle and end). Students will also be writing about how they would plan on catching the gingerbread man (would they create a trap, use a net, dig a hole, ect). We will be focusing on number 4 with our math talks. Our letter of the week is T. Please send in your small picture that begins with T no later than Thursday. Don’t forget to write your child’s name on the picture! We will have a Parent/Child Activity on December 23rd in the cafeteria from 9:15-10:30. There will be no regular class that day. Also on December 22nd, we will be decorating a gingerbread cookie. PLEASE let me know if your child has an allergy! The cookies can be very expensive for me and the other pre-k teachers to purchase, so we are asking for parents to donate items to decorate with. There will be a list of supplies you can sign up to purchase next to the sign in area. Remember winter break is from December 24-January 8th. Please remember to help your child learn to independently put on their hat, coat, scarf, boots, snowpants at home. We want our students to be able to dress themselves as much as possible. If you can purchase mittens rather than gloves, we would much appreciate it. Mittens are much easier for kids to put on independently. If you are unable to provide a winter coat, boots, gloves or other cold weather clothing, please do not hesitate to talk to me. I help find these items to donate to your child. Have a wonderful week and we appreciate your patients with the new entrance and exit routine! Thanks! Mandi Heiser [email protected] In light of school safety issues nationally, Ray is tightening security procedures for both student arrival and dismissal. Please understand our purpose for doing this is to keep every student in our school safe and to eliminate the possibility of any intruders.
During the entrance, parents will be asked to line up WITH THEIR CHILD outside of the glass doors outside of the annex (door 18-closest to 57th street). Room 411 families will line up on the left of the annex doors. Parents and students will be escorted into the building with classroom staff. Staff will be walking parents into the building at 8:45/1:10 SHARP. If you arrive after 8:45/1:10, you will need to walk to the main entrance to get a pass. Parents will enter the room, help their child take off their coats, sign their child in/out and exit through the classroom exit near the cubbies. For pick up, parents will line up outside of the annex glass doors. A teacher will escort parents into the building at dismissal. Parents will be brought in at 11:20/3:45 SHARP. If you are late, you will need to get a pass from the main office. After walking in the building with a staff member, parents will come into the room, get their child and leave through the classroom doors by the cubbies. Parents cannot leave through any other door beside the classroom exit. Please be aware that other classes of children may be playing outside so please be cognoscente while you are walking. Thank-you for your understanding and for helping keep Ray as safe as it can be! Due to a recent safety concern. starting Monday, November 21, 2016, Pre-K parents will not be allowed to wait in the building for their students to be released. Parents/caregivers cannot enter the building before class starts or before dismissal time without going to the office first.
Hello,
We will finish our discussions on Thanksgiving this week by reading the stories Thanksgiving is for Giving Thanks, Give Thanks for Each Day and There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Turkey. We will be having discussions on our family traditions and what we are thankful for in our lives. Remember! We do not have school Wednesday, Thursday or Friday. Over these days off, be sure to read with your child (3 books a day is what is recommended), have them help you cook and discuss your family traditions. The week of November 28th, we will be learning about the letter F. Please help your child find a small picture of something that starts with the letter F for our collage book. Please send this in no later than December 1. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Mandi Heiser [email protected] Parents,
Last week, we really enjoyed studying about leaves! The AM class went on a leaf walk with our 4th grade peer buddies (the pm class went on a leaf walk as well, but without peer buddies J). They had to pick 10 different leaves and we pressed those leaves in the classroom. We will use them for an art project next week. This week we will continue learning about fall and also learning about Thanksgiving. We will be discussing holiday traditions including what we eat, who we spend our holiday with and why spending time with those we love is important. We will be talking about the importance of caring for our friends/community and treating one another with care, respect, compassion and gratitude. We will be continuing to read our informational leaf books and reading some books about Thanksgiving including The Little Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie. In small groups, students will be sequencing the story There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie and they will be creating a number museum for the number two. We will be starting our math talks this week. Math talks are a way for students to understand numbers in a deeper way that involves communication and discourse. Students are encouraged to talk out the way they solve problems and prove their answer. In pre-school, this looks like students showing different ways to create a number through visual representation, 10-frames, the written numeral and pictures. After we have participated in our math talk as a whole group, students are encouraged to create the number we have studied using objects like counting cubes. They create the number and verbally defend how they made that number and add it to a class number museum where students can look at their creation but not touch (just like a REAL museum). This type of teaching is a great way for students to get hands on experience with numbers in a developmentally appropriate way that they can remember. We will be starting the letter of the week this week. The first letter we will study is L. Please send in a small picture of something that begins with L by Thursday. Remember, we do our letter in the way that they are introduced by our Handwriting curriculum (Hand Writing without Tears). This helps students learn to write each letter in a developmentally appropriate way. Thanks to all of you who came to parent teacher conferences. It was wonderful to talk to you about your children! Thanks! Mandi Heiser [email protected] |
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May 2017
AuthorMandi Heiser is a Preschool teacher at William H. Ray Elementary in Hyde Park. Categories |