Hi Everyone,
Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to meet with us last week. It is always good to spend time checking in with one another on the progress of your child’s development and on his or her experience in the classroom. If you have any further questions or you would like a longer time to discuss a specific issue, please let us know and we will be happy to schedule an additional time to meet.
This week, we started our new unit of exploration, “Healthy Bodies.” During the coming weeks, we will learn about food groups; nutrition; exercise; personal hygiene; and other ways we help ourselves be healthy and grow. We have introduced pretend food in our Pretend Area, we also have food lotto games and fruits to sort and count. In addition, we have a giant food pyramid on which we can attach a variety of stuffed foods.
Monday was such a blustery day. Because of the rain, sleet and snow, we had to spend the entire day indoors. We had a good amount of time to explore our new games and activities. We also did finger painting on the table with shaving cream! We smelled really clean.
On Tuesday, the children decorated white cloth aprons with fabric markers. We have sent them home for you to put in the dryer on the hottest setting for 30 minutes, in order to set the ink. Please return them to school on Monday. We will use these aprons all year long as we do messy activities. The best part is that the children will be able to bring them home at the end of the year. After lunch, we listened to “Impy Ink’s” Letterland story. Impy Ink is very special, because he invented a very interesting rainbow ink. The picture on his page depicts Impy’s incredible ink machine and Impy composing an invitation to his friend Isabella. Would it surprise you to learn that he has an iguana for a pet. He is also very interested in insects. Next week, we will meet Jumping Jim, who loves to juggle!
On Wednesday, we joined the B3s and Kindergarten for a special Morning Meeting. We spoke to the children about how it feels to be hungry, why we need to eat and how we get food. We then talked about the fact that many families don’t have enough money to buy food and they sometimes get very hungry if they don’t eat enough for lunch or dinner or breakfast. Mrs. Patel used pennies to represent people in our area who go hungry every day. We spread out 1,200 pennies in the middle of our circle. We shared that there are many more people than that in our area who go hungry every day. Each child brought home a heart necklace that holds a penny to remind us to keep people close to our hearts. Next, we talked about how people can go to a food bank or a soup kitchen to get food for free. We used words like “giving,” “sharing,” “donations,” and “caring.” It was suggested that we work together as a team and community to collect food to bring to a local food pantry. We reminded them that together they have “Kid Power!” We sent home a letter out lining the plans for our food drive next week. As the food comes in each day, we will have the children help us count it and sort it into various food groups. At the end of our food drive, we will have the children put the food into car, so that it can be delivered. Thank you for helping us with this very special and very important activity.
Thankfully, the weather was beautiful on Friday. We took full advantage of being able to play outdoors. We also decorated a sign for our Food Bank donations.
Friday was also Jaidev’s Star Day. Joining us for Morning Meeting were his mom, Elise, his dad, Arup and his big sister, Diba. Through listening to Diba read Jaidev’s Star Day Interview, we learned that when he was a baby, Jaidev liked listening to music and wiggling. Now that he is five, he likes to do back flips under water and playing Star Wars. He has three pets and his favorite foods are Mac and cheese and pancakes. For an extra special surprise, Jaidev played two songs on his violin for us. He selected two very challenging songs for us to enjoy. Elise shared Jaidev’s photo album, which contained pictures of Jaidev before he was born, as well as photos taken on the day he was born. In addition, there were lots of photos of him and his sister and photos of Jaidev on vacation in Maine and Florida. Arup did a fine job reading a series of four books based on the movie “Cars,” in character. For a special snack, Jaidev shared a fruit salad, chocolate cake and tiny hotdogs wrapped in pastry.
Some of the books we read:
On Market Street, by Arnold Lobel
Maisy Makes Gingerbread, by Lucy Cousins
Reach out and Give, by Cheri J. Meiners
What Will the Weather Be Like Today? By Paul Rogers and Kazuko
The Happy Book, by Diane Muldrow and Patti Ann Harris
The Dragon’s Cold, by John Talbot
On the Day You Were Born, by Debra Frasier
Important Reminders:
- Please replenish your child’s supply of extra clothes, some children only have shorts and socks.
- Young children need a variety of foods and plenty of them! Please feel free to pack more food in your child’s lunchbox than you think he or she will eat. We never know when a child will want just a little more to eat for snack or lunch. We want to ensure that everyone has a full and content tummy!
- Water bottles are encouraged, as we can refill them when needed.
- Please remember to take rest items home and launder them often.
- Library Books need to be returned on Fridays.
- Older students have outdoor time until 12:40 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Please wait until that time to allow Preschool children to play on the playground, as this is the only time they have to be outdoors during their busy day.
- Please remember to remove wet shoes and boots before entering the classrooms. This way our floors will stay dry. Thank you!
Dates of Importance:
We will post pictures from the week for your enjoyment in the near future.
Enjoy Your Weekend,
Ellie and Joni
