Cars and Trucks and Things That Go!

This week has been exciting.  The kids were thrilled with our new unit on transportation.  We converted our space ship into a car wash, and it has been a HUGE hit!

We have also enjoyed several other transportation based centers including: washing cars in the sensory bin, driving cars on bubble wrap, construction vehicles in the sand table, unlocking locks, and matching the cars to their colored parking stall in the parking lot.  You can click here for a sneak peak at some of our transportation fun.

Learning About Kindness

This week in the MindUp Curriculum we began learning about kindness.  On Monday, I challenged the students - "can you perform three acts of kindness this week?"  Throughout the week, we caught the students being kind - and pointed out their actions to the rest of the class.

On Thursday, I challenged the students - "can we think of something that our entire class can do together to be kind to Riverview School?"  I was so impressed with the big ideas that your little people came up with!  After careful planning, we are going to execute our group acts of kindness next week.  Stay tuned for pictures and an update next week!  I don't want to spill the beans and wreck their big plans, so you will have to wait to find out what we are doing.

In The Gym

We had fun in the gym this week.  We worked on hand-eye coordination with the game "don't let the hot air balloon drop."  

We also worked on developing body awareness and gross motor skills by playing kick bowling.  We used stacks of plastic cups that I had found at the Dollar Store for our bowling pins.  This was a super simple, yet thrilling activity for the kids.  If you have any plastic cups laying around, you might want to consider letting your child play with them for tower building, because making the towers for bowling was just as exciting as knocking them over!

Transportation Art

The students had fun getting messy and painting with cars this week.  We also strengthened our scissors skills by each creating our own set of traffic lights.  You can click here to see some pictures of our painting with cars adventure.  

We have been singing a little song about traffic lights.  I taught the students some basic sign language (for the colors and action words) to accommodate this song - and the kids seemed to be having fun with it.  If you want to sing it at home with your child, here are the words (you can ask your child to show you the signs and actions).  

Coming Up!

We have a short week coming up.  We will be continuing with our unit on transportation.

Important Dates:

• January 31st - PD Day - no school
• February 1st and 2nd - early dismissal days 
• the morning class will dismiss at 10:25 am
• the afternoon class will dismiss at 2:15 pm
• February 9th and 10th - Teacher's Convention - no school 

Zoom Zoom Zoom!

Last week we finished up our space unit.  We had lots of fun learning about the different planets and even creating our own planet by melting shaved crayons.  The students also enjoyed the sensory experience of painting the moon using flour paint.  

We have been learning about our bodies and the labels for our body parts through a little song called "Mat Man."  This is a song from the Handwriting Without Tears program.  The students had fun singing a modified "Space Man" version of this song the past week, and then even used the song to help them draw a face on their very own astronaut!

3,2,1... Blastoff!

We had fun building and testing different rockets on Thursday.  First we worked as a team to launch a balloon rocket across our classroom.  Then, each student had the opportunity to create a straw rocket that they could launch on their own!  Click here to see more pictures of our rocket fun.

A Little Bit of Messy Play

Some of the students enjoyed salt-painting an ice star, as well as getting messy in the star slime bin during center time this week!  Click here to see more pictures of our messy fun!

Hallelujah - We Finally Got Outside!

This week, we had a BIG play outside each day.  Thank you to all of our families for remembering to send snow pants so we could take advantage of the beautiful weather.  Please be sure to send snow pants again next week, so we can play some more.  Click here to see more pictures of our sledding adventures!

The Gratitude Tree

In the MindUp Curriculum we began talking about gratitude and what it means to feel thankful.  We brainstormed things we are thankful for, and then each student added a picture of someone they are thankful for to our gratitude tree. 

Registration is This Week!

• Pre-kindergarten and kindergarten registration is coming up this week.  

• Registration is online, and opens on Wednesday, January 25th.

• EVERYONE needs to register their child for the upcoming school year.  Whether your child is moving to kindergarten, or staying in pre-k - registration is required!  

• Feel free to contact myself or the office staff at Robina Baker School if you need help with the registration process. 

Coming Up

Next week we will begin a unit on Transportation.  It will be all about cars, and trucks, and things that go!  

Important Dates:

• Monday, January 23rd - no PreK - ECS meeting and PD Day in Nisku
• Tuesday, January 31st - PD Day - no school
• Wednesday, February 1st and Thursday, February 2nd - early dismissal days 
• the morning class will dismiss at 10:25 am
• the afternoon class will dismiss at 2:15 pm
• Thursday, February 9th and Friday, February 10th - Teacher's Convention - no school 

Registration is Coming!

Welcome to Outer Space!

Happy New Year to all of my PreK families.  I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday break.  The kids seemed well rested and we had a great first week back.

This week we dove into the mysterious world of space!  It has been a bit of a messy week - the kids had a blast painting our classroom space ship.  They chose purple and blue, which some parents likely already know thanks to the bits of purple and blue hair and clothes that came home - a paint shirt only offers so much protection when you are painting something so big!  Once the space ship was all painted up our little astronauts enjoyed taking turns to fly off into space.  Click here to see more pics of our space ship.

We have been talking about the different planets.  Last week the students enjoyed using saran wrap and q-tips to paint the sun.  Click here to see some pictures of their artwork in progress.

We're Going to the Moon!

The students have enjoyed a little song I taught them called Zoom Zoom Zoom.  Here are the words if you want to try it at home - your child will likely be thrilled to show you the actions!

Zoom Zoom Zoom

Zoom, Zoom, Zoom,

we're going to the moon.

Zoom, zoom, zoom,

we're going pretty soon.

If you want to take a trip,

climb aboard my rocket ship in

5, 4, 3, 2, 1....

BLASTOFF!  

Snip, Snip, Snip

We continued to strengthen our scissors skills by cutting up small pieces of paper to "feed" some aliens that we found on the moon!  Letting your children have the experience of cutting at home (with your supervision of course) is so important to their fine motor development.  Our classroom occupational therapist Mrs. Sangster has been helping us with these verbal cues:

• Thumb and tall man (middle finger) go in the holes
• Pointer finger goes along for a ride (rests on the scissors outside of the loop)
• Thumbs up, elbows tucked in 
• Helper hand moves the paper 

It's All About Our Names

We have been working on sequencing the letters of our names.  This week we built name puzzles, as well as name space ships.  Click here to see more pictures of our name work.

Ready, Set, Go!

We had some serious built up energy with not being able to go outside, so we had lots of fun playing in the gym.  The students enjoyed playing a melting statue game.  And it was all giggles when I introduced them to laundry hamper races.  I couldn't resist getting in on the fun - the kids had to work together to give their teacher a ride in the hamper too!  Click here to see some more snapshots of our laundry fun!

Coming Up...

We will continue with our space theme for the upcoming week.  My fingers are crossed that we can hopefully get outside for some much needed fresh air!  Please try to send snow pants, a toque, and mitts every day so that your child can enjoy the snow.

Important Dates:

• January 20th - Picky Eating FOP at Riverview School.  This FOP is being ran by Blaire Sangster, our classroom occupational therapist.  Please let me know if you are planning to attend.  Child care is available if needed.  
• January 23rd - no PreK - Black Gold ECS meeting and professional development day