Snowmen Fun!

Snowman Place Mats

With the return of wintry weather , it was time to create some new art for our snack time placemats. After watching a lovely book called, Snowballs, the Pre-K's created their own snowman on a snowy background. Using a q-tip to paint with is a wonderful pre-writing skill. We also developed pre-numeracy skills while comparing the size of the snowballs as we built our snowman (large, medium, and small). They turned out so unique; we'll enjoy seeing our art everyday while we have snack. 

Collaborative Art

It was a team effort to make the most beautiful decoration for our upcoming Christmas concert! Each student was hard at working painting and decorating a paper plate. We used the paper plates to create an astounding Christmas tree! Be sure to look for our masterpiece next week at our concert!

Christmas Concert

We have been busy practicing our concert songs. Our students are pretty excited to perform for you next week. Our concert will be happening on Wednesday, December 4th at 6:30 pm. Doors will open at 6:15 pm - you can drop your child off in the classroom with us and then go find a seat for the big show!

Christmas Party

Our Christmas parties will be happening on Thursday, December 19th. The Monday/Wednesday students are welcome to join in the fun during their regularly scheduled class time (either the morning or afternoon).

• We will be asking some parents to send snacks for our special day, watch for an email soon to see if it is your turn!
• We plan to decorate gingerbread houses with our students. We will be asking each family to send a small bag of candy (one kind is fine) and we will mix all of the candy together for the students to share so they each get a variety of candy to use for their house. 
• We are looking for a couple of parents to help out by making icing! If you can make some icing for us please let us know and we can share our Royal Icing Recipe.
• Our afternoon class is still looking for volunteers to help out with our Christmas party! If you are interested in decorating gingerbread houses with us, please let us know.
• This day will also be a pajama day, don't forget to wear your coziest pajamas for our last day of classes before the New Year.

More Pics of our week can be found here!

Coming Up

• December 4th and 5th - Early Dismissal Days
• the morning class will dismiss at 10:45 am
• the afternoon class will dismiss at 2:25 pm
• December 4th, 6:30 pm - PK and Kindergarten Christmas Concert
• December 19th - Christmas Party Day! All students are invited to attend
• December 20th - January 5th - Christmas Break, no School

Comfort and Joy

This week started with PJ Day #2, ended with Cookies, and was filled with all kinds of fun in between!

The Pre-Ks have been practicing singing Christmas songs for our upcoming concert on Dec. 4th. We can't wait to perform them for you! You can practice at home too - the songs were posted in last weeks blog, feel free to have a look!!

PJ Day #2

Repetition of familiar stories is wonderful for building literacy. The class was really engaged in our retelling of  Goldilocks and the Three Bears. It was great to hear them chime in and read along too! After the story, we had to go for a walk while our porridge cooled, then we got creative by adding all kinds of toppings to our own bowl of porridge as part of snack time. The Pre-Ks are pretty great chefs!

Sometimes I Feel Like a Fox

We read a new story this week. In this beautifully illustrated book, we met many animals and acted out their sounds and actions. We chose one of the animals and created our own mask by painting, gluing, and sprinkling glitter on paper plate halves.  They turned out so wonderfully unique!

Cooking Making

The Pre-Ks followed a recipe and mixed, mashed, and stirred some delicious cookies! The recipe has just a few ingredients and are healthy enough to be called Breakfast Cookies. Here it is in case you want to make some at home!

Mash 2 bananas

Add 1 cup of oats

1/2 cup of chocolate chips

1 tsp vanilla

a sprinkle of cinnamon

Bake at 350 F for 9 minutes on a greased cookie sheet.

You may wish to double the recipe, they are so yummy!

See more pictures of our week here!

Upcoming

• December 4th and 5th - Early Dismissal Days
• the morning class will dismiss at 10:45 am
• the afternoon class will dismiss at 2:25 pm
• December 4th, 6:30 pm - PK and Kindergarten Christmas Concert 
• December 20th - January 5th - Christmas Break, no School

Pajama Fun!

Well, that might have been the shortest week in PK history! We missed seeing our Monday/Wednesday kiddos this week, we hope everyone has enjoyed a relaxing break from school!

The students were excited to wear their pajamas to school on Thursday. After reading Goldilocks and The Three Bears we made porridge for a special snack. We had to take our bears for a walk because just like in the book, our porridge was "too hot." Our students enjoyed being chef's and jazzing up their porridge with milk, bananas, raisins, coconut, and brown sugar. Delicious!

We also brought our bears to the gym and had fun shaking them in the parachute!

Snow Pants

Now that winter is settling in, please send snow pants, a toque, and mitts to school with your child everyday. If some of our student's are missing their proper winter gear we have to keep the whole class inside. Also, please be sure to label ALL of your child's winter gear. We already have had a couple of mystery toques floating around the hallway.

On that note, if anyone has old snow pants or other winter gear that they want to get rid of, we will happily take any donations for our 'extras' bin. 

Christmas Concert

Our PK and kindergarten Christmas Concert will be on Wednesday, December 4th at 6:30 pm. We introduced the songs to our students on Thursday and will be practicing daily until it is concert time! These are our songs if you want to practice at home as well:

Jingle Bells

Jingle bells, jingle bells

Jingle all the way,

Oh what fun it is to ride

In a one-horse open sleigh,

Jingle bells, jingle bells

Jingle all the way,

Oh what fun it is to ride

In a one-horse open sleigh.

Dashing through the snow

In a one-horse open sleigh

Through the fields we go

Laughing all the way.

Bells on bob-tail ring

Making spirits bright

What fun it is to ride and sing

A sleighing song tonight.

Jingle bells, jingle bells

Jingle all the way,

Oh what fun it is to ride

In a one-horse open sleigh,

Jingle bells, jingle bells

Jingle all the way,

Oh what fun it is to ride

In a one-horse open sleigh.

Santa Shark

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Chorus:

We wish you a Merry Christmas

We wish you a Merry Christmas

We wish you a Merry Christmas

And a Happy New Year

Good tidings we bring

To you and your kin

We wish you a Merry Christmas

And a Happy New Year

Chorus

Shake Them Santa Claus Bones

Click here to see the rest of the pictures from our little week!

Coming Up

We are excited to have another pajama and bear day next Monday! We will carry our bear theme for one more week. Important upcoming dates:

• November 18th - wear your pajamas and bring your favorite bear to school
• November 19th and 20th - Jersey Day, wear your favorite jersey to school
• November 20th - Christmas Card orders due
• December 4th and 5th - Early Dismissal Days
• the morning class will dismiss at 10:45 am
• the afternoon class will dismiss at 2:25 pm
• December 4th, 6:30 pm - PK and Kindergarten Christmas Concert 

Bears! Bears! Bears!

This week we channeled our inner bears! We had fun bear dancing, singing about bears, and painting smelly bears too!

We sang this little song with our students this week. This is a fun little action song that helps to develop body and spatial awareness.

Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn around,
Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the ground,
Teddy bear, teddy bear, reach up high,
Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the sky,
Teddy bear, teddy bear, bend down low,
Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch your toes,
Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn out the lights,
Teddy bear, teddy bear, say “good night”.

Smelly Bears

After reading Britta Teckentrup's book Big Smelly Bear we enjoy a painting sensory experience. We mixed cinnamon with brown paint to create some delicious smelling art!

Bear Cave!

We had fun creating a bear cave out of some old boxes this week. We always welcome big boxes. If you ever have a big box to get rid of, we would love to take it off your hands!

Bear Drumming and Dancing

We enjoyed watching Laura Grizzlypaws' Bear Dance on Monday and Tuesday. This video inspired us to take turns playing the drum and dancing like a bear. Our students tried dancing high, medium, and low just like the dancing we seen on the video. Here is the video if you want to watch and dance along at home as well!

Calming Tools

Throughout the school year we will be introducing our students to different tricks and tools they can use for calming and self-regulation when they are upset. One tool we practiced this week was feather breathing. This simple activity involves breathing with a feather (either blowing the feather or rubbing the soft feather on your arms, etc.) while listening to some relaxing music. It is important to introduce calming techniques to children when they are calm and regulated so they are able to use the tool during moments of frustration. 

We Remember

We had a brief pre-kindergarten friendly chat about Remembrance Day on Wednesday and Thursday this week. After discussing the importance of the poppy we created poppies to hang up in the gym for the Remembrance Day.

Click here to see the rest of the pictures from our week.

Christmas Card Fundraiser

Every year Robina Baker School does a Christmas card fundraiser. Your children have each made a cute little Christmas card that you will have the chance to order! Watch for the samples coming home over the next couple of school days. (Please note, a couple of children were absent the week we made our Christmas cards. Unfortunately if your child was not at school to make a card, you will not see a sample card coming home). 

We did cards with all of our students (even if the parents opted out of fundraising) because they are so cute! You are by no means obligated to order cards, participation in this fundraiser is completely optional.

Coming Up

Next week we will continue with our bear theme. Important upcoming dates:

• November 11th - Remembrance Day, no school
• November 12th - Midterm Break, no school
• November 13th - PD Day, no school
• November 14th and 18th - wear your pajamas and bring your favorite bear to school
• November 19th and 20th - Jersey Day, wear your favorite jersey to school

Halloween!

One Little Ghost

We learned a new Halloween rhyme this week. The students participated by listening and showing their character when it was their turn. We used pictures but you can also use your fingers to show how many.

ONE LITTLE GHOST
One little ghost flew down the street.
(Wave hand through the air.)
"I wonder," he said, "what I will meet--
(Place finger to temple, thinking.)
One hairy spider,
(Hold up one finger, then move hand like spider.)
Two black cats,
(Hold up two fingers, then put two fingers from each hand on head for cat ears.)
Three wild witches with pointy hats,
(Hold up three fingers, then place fingertips of hands together to form hat.)
Four old owls in a hollow tree,
(Hold up four fingers, then form an oval with both hands for eyes to look through.)
And five brother bats to fly with me!
(Hold up five fingers, then hook thumbs of both hands together and flap fingers for bat wings.)

Painting Ghosts

We used clothespins and cotton balls to dab paint on ghosts for art. Holding the clothespin is a fine-motor skill and great pre-writing activity.

Halloween Party Centers

During our Halloween celebrations students rotated through 4 centers. They did Pumpkin Carving, a Scavenger Hunt throughout the school, enjoyed a Light table story called The Witches Brew, and
Pumpkin Volcanoes! We participated in a costume parade and enjoyed a special snack together.

THANK YOU SO MUCH to all the parents who volunteered, sent in a snack, and dressed up your little one in a costume. We had so much fun!

See more pics of our Halloween party here.

Upcoming!

Nov 6th and 7th: Early Dismissal Days

November 11, 12, 13th: No school (Remembrance Day, Midterm Break, PD)

Nov. 18th and 19th: Jersey Day