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

Merry Christmas!

Well, we survived the last week of Christmas excitement!  And what a fun week it was.  We had a balloon-style countdown.  Each day we popped one balloon that had a message hidden inside.  The messages were fun activities we could do that day.  The message in Wednesday's balloon was to enjoy a picnic snack!  Click here to see pictures of our picnic fun.  The students enjoyed making Christmas tree sensory bottles, gingerbread men, and of course, their gingerbread houses!  Click here to see pics of our gingerbread man craft.  

Our Christmas parties were a hit.  We had fun playing Christmas bingo, watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and decorating gingerbread houses.  A huge thank you goes out to Stacey May, Bill Harstad, and Jennifer White for volunteering to help out with house decorating.  Thanks also to Olivia's Grandma and Sobey's for donating all of the icing.  Click here to see pictures from our party fun.

The PreK staff was so spoiled, thank you for all of the wonderful gifts.  We will certainly be enjoying them over the Christmas holidays.  

MindUp Curriculum
This week in the MindUp Curriculum, we began talking about how other people are feeling.  The concept of considering things from someone else's point of view can be difficult for PreK.  I used the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears to bring in this concept.  We went through the story and chatted about the different characters and how they might have been feeling.  I asked questions like, "why do you think Goldilocks ate the bears porridge?  Maybe she was hungry?  How do you think that made the bears feel?  How do you think Goldilocks felt when she woke up?"  

I also introduced the students to the concept of being an optimistic or pessimistic thinker (using a happy or sad brain to think about things).  These are some big concepts for PreK, but I plan to review them continuously throughout the year to help reinforce the idea.  

In the Gym

Last week worked on our locomotor skills and body awareness while we had some hula hoop fun.  The students enjoyed turning hula hoops into cars while we played red light, green light.  We also used the hula hoops for a version of musical hoops while dancing to Christmas music and then finding a hoop to stand in when the music stopped.  

Coming Up

In the New Year our theme will be SPACE!  

Important dates:

• January 9th - classes resume 
• January 11th and 12th - early dismissal days
• the morning class will dismiss at 10:25am
• the afternoon class will dismiss at 2:15pm
• January 20th - Picky Eating FOP 
• 9:30 - 11:00am
• January 23rd - No PreK today 
• Black Gold ECS Teachers' Meeting Day

I would like to wish everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  

See you in 2017!

It's Been a Cold Week!

I think we are all feeling a little stir crazy after being stuck inside for SO MANY days.  Hopefully the weather will smarten up soon so we can take the kids outside for some much needed fresh air!  We stayed warm this week by baking cookies for Santa.  The kids had a blast rolling, cutting, and decorating the cookies.  They were delighted to each take a couple home for Santa.  The true test will be if they can stop themselves from eating them before Christmas Eve!  Click here to see some pictures of our cookie fun: Cookies for Santa

Welcome Mrs. Watt!

We are thrilled to announce that our educational assistant Mrs. Watt is now working with the afternoon class as well as the morning class.  Welcome to the afternoons Mrs. Watt, we are so excited to have you working with both of our classes!

A Group Effort

We had fun strengthening our fine motor skills by working together to cut, draw, and glue to create snowmen with our classroom occupational therapist, Mrs. Sangster.  Each child had different tasks to complete to help make our snowmen a success!  Click here to see some of our teamwork in action: Group Snowmen

In the Gym

We were so excited to see "Pool Hall Games" set up in the gym this week.  The kids enjoyed learning about foosball, air hockey, shuffle board, and ping pong as we tried out the different games.  Click here to see some action shots of our game time: Pool Hall Games

Sensory Bags

I hope your children were able to communicate to you what the baggie with shave cream inside was all about.  That was a snowman sensory bag - we worked hard to draw the faces on those bags.  The students loved squishing the bags to move the carrot nose around.  

MindUp Curriculum

This week we began chatting about mindful movement.  How does your body feel when you exercise?  How does your body feel when you are relaxed?  What tools can we use to help our body relax?  We can use deep umbrella breathing to help calm our bodies down.  

We also began to learn about mindful balancing.  We worked together to see how tall of a tower we could build out of blocks.  We found out that we were able to make our tower even taller if we were mindful about our stacking and thought about our actions before adding a block to the tower.

Christmas Party

We will be having our Christmas Parties on Thursday, December 22nd.  The morning Monday/Wednesday students are welcome to join the Thursday morning class, and the afternoon Monday/Wednesday students are welcome to join the Thursday afternoon class.  

This day will be a wear your pajamas and bring a stuffed animal day!

We will also be making gingerbread houses on this day.  Thank you to Sobeys for generously donating ALL of the icing for our houses.  I will provide the houses.  I am asking each family to send a small bag of candy for decorating.  I will mix all of the candies together for the students to share, to ensure there is an assortment of candies for each student to use.  I am still looking for one more volunteer to help out with decorating from the morning class.  If you are interested in helping out, please let me know!

Important Dates

• December 22nd - Christmas Parties
• Wear your pajamas and bring a stuffed animal
• Bring a small bag of candy for gingerbread house making
• December 23rd - January 8th - Christmas holidays, no school
• January 9th - Classes resume 
• January 11th and 12th - early dismissal days
• the morning class will dismiss at 10:25am
• the afternoon class will dismiss at 2:15pm

Christmas Fun!

I was so proud of the great job our students did at the Christmas concert on Friday.  Thank you to all of the families who were able to come out and join the Christmas fun.  A HUGE thank you goes out to Tim Horton's for donating the hot chocolate and Timbits!  

Click here to see pictures from the Christmas activities: Christmas Fun

Mindful Curriculum

Last week I introduced the students to mindful smelling and mindful tasting.  They had fun trying to guess the different smells I brought in.  They also enjoyed using all of their senses to see, touch, smell, and taste some different foods: an orange, pretzel, marshmallow, and chocolate chip.

Getting Messy

We had fun getting messy this week.  The students enjoyed the sensory experience of painting with marshmallows.  We also worked together to make a Christmas tree by each painting one green plate that we later assembled into a beautiful work of art!  

Click here to see some of the fun we had over the past week.  

Christmas Party 

We will be having a Christmas Party for all of our students on Thursday, December 22nd.  The Monday/Wednesday students are invited to join our Tuesday/Thursday classes for the day!  The morning students will still attend their normal morning hours, and the afternoon class will come during their scheduled afternoon time.

We are going to decorate gingerbread houses during our party.  I am looking for one-two parents to volunteer for this day, and also for a couple of parents who are interested in making icing for us (I have a great recipe that I can share!)  I will supply the houses, if each family can send a bag of candy.  I will mix all the candy for the kids to share, so if each family sends one kind of candy that will be great.  Please let me know if you are interested in making icing or helping out with our gingerbread fun!  

A Week of Snowmen!

Last week we had fun learning with snowmen.  We painted with loofas to make snowman placemats.  The students enjoyed strengthening their fine motor and early literacy skills while they constructed name snowmen out of paper.  We also worked hard practicing our Christmas concert songs!

Winter Clothes

Fresh air and getting outside to play is so important.  I have been trying to take the kids outside daily.  With the exception of the days when it is too cold, I plan to continue heading outdoors as much as possible.  Please be sure to send snow pants, a toque, and mittens with your child everyday.  

Water Bottles Needed!

I am still looking for about ten more water bottles for an upcoming art project.  If you have any water bottles (with lids) that you are willing to donate, it would be greatly appreciated!

Christmas Concert

Our Christmas concert is coming up this Friday!  We have been working hard to learn our Christmas songs and we are looking forward to sharing some Christmas cheer with you on Friday at 1:30.  

Our concert will be held at 1:30pm at Riverview School in the Music Room.  We will open the doors at 1:20 to allow you time to get your child in and settled.  You can bring your child to the classroom, and then head to the music room to get a seat.  

All PreK families are invited to join us after the concert until 3:00pm for a Christmas FOP.  There will be several Christmas centers set up around the Music Room for you to enjoy with your child. 

There is no special dress code for the Christmas concert.  Please feel free to dress your child in whatever you would like for this day! 

In the Gym

We had fun last week "skiing" both in the gym and in our classroom.  I also introduced the students to the game "red light - green light."  

Click here to see pictures of our skiing adventures!

Mind Up Curriculum

This past week we began to learn about mindful hearing and mindful seeing.  This is the concept of really taking the time to focus on hearing or seeing what's around you.  The students enjoyed trying to guess what was hiding in my sound bag when we were mindful listening.  We experimented with adding food colouring to water to engage in mindful seeing.  

Click here to see some of our mindful seeing.

Coming Up

This week will continue to be about winter, snowmen, and Christmas.  We will be working all week to get ready for our big concert on Friday - we hope to see you there!

Important Dates:

-December 7 and 8 - Early Dismissal Days

• the morning class will dismiss at 10:25am
• the afternoon class will dismiss at 2:15pm

-December 9 - Christmas Concert and Christmas FOP

• 1:30 - 3:00pm