Happy Valentine's Day!

We had a fun week of Valentine's activities.  We had a fun day of Valentine's Day parties on Tuesday.  Thank you to all of the parents who sent snacks for the party.  Our morning class had fun with some photo props that one of our friends brought in, you can click here to see some pictures of their photo booth fun.

We enjoyed some messy, sensory art this week.  

We used vinegar and baking soda to make fizzy heart art.  We also used shaving cream and paint to make swirled hearts.

You can click here to see some pictures of our messy fun.  Unfortunately the shaving cream hearts were too messy for picture taking, but we were able to capture some of the fizzy heart art!

Some Mindful Tasting

The students enjoyed being 'chefs' this past week by making their own ants on a log.  We had fun talking about, smelling, and exploring the different ingredients.  I was proud of the kids for "trying" their food creation, and quite a few of our friends even liked it!  We then used the celery ends to paint some beautiful Valentine bouquets.  Click here to see pictures of our celery adventures.  

Spell-A-Thon

I was proud of the students spelling their names for our PreK Spell-A-Thon.  If your child collected pledges, I sent the forms home with their results on Thursday.  Money is due by Wednesday, February 22nd.  

Coming Up

This week we will begin our exciting unit on Dinosaurs!  We will also be having pink shirt day on Wednesday.  Each student will be given a pink shirt on this day.  We will be discussing bullying, kindness, and how our actions can affect other people.  

Important upcoming dates:

• February 20th - no school - Family Day
• March 1st and 2nd - early dismissal days
• The morning class will dismiss at 10:25 am
• The afternoon class will dismiss at 2:15 pm

A Busy Week!

Last week was short, out of routine, and a whole lot of fun!  Thank you for being so flexible with the anti-bullying video and pancake breakfast days.  We had a lot of fun spending the day at Robina Baker, and I can't wait to see the finished product.  

We were spoiled by Riverview School once again with the pancake breakfast.  Our morning students were thrilled to be able to eat pancakes, bacon, and have a glass of juice in the big gym!  Thank you Riverview staff for the wonderful food and hospitality!  You can click here to see more pictures of the pancake breakfast.  

Spreading the PreK Love

The morning class completed their group act of kindness by hanging the rainbows they made around the school.  I am so proud of the splash of colour and cheer they have added to the school!  You can click here to see more pictures of the rainbow hanging.  Thank you Mrs. Rudrud for giving us a hand!

Buddy Reading

Our afternoon class continues to be spoiled every other day by the leadership students who come to read with us.  We look forward to spending this quality time with our big friends.  You can click here to see more pictures from buddy reading.  

Coming Up

This week will continue to be about Valentine's Day.  

We will be having a Valentine's Day party on Tuesday, February 14th.  I have sent home class lists if you want to make cards for your child to hand out.  I have also sent notes home to ask some parents to send snacks for our party.  Our part time Monday/Wednesday students are welcome to join us for either the morning or the afternoon party (depending on which time slot they usually attend).  Please see the note that was sent home for more details.  

Important Dates:

• January 14th - Valentine's Day Party

• January 20th - no school - Family Day 

Vroom Vroom!

It was another short week.  We continued with our transportation theme this week.  We had fun making a special hot air balloon project!  The students also enjoyed making cars from paper plates, and playing with our very messy car wash during center time.  You can click here to see some pictures from our week.

Next Week - IMPORTANT

Next Tuesday (February 7th), Robina Baker School is going to be making an anti-bullying video!  This is an exciting project that the ENTIRE school will be involved in.

What does this mean for PreK?

• We will spend the morning at Robina Baker School
• BOTH the morning and the afternoon classes are welcome to join us for this exciting project
• The Monday/Wednesday students are also welcome to join us
• We will plan to be a Robina Baker from 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
• PARENTS will be required to DROP their child off and PICK them up from Robina Baker School on this day

There will be NO regular PreK Classes at Riverview on this day

Pancake Breakfast - Wednesday

Our classes have been invited to join the Riverview pancake breakfast on Wednesday, February 8th.  The afternoon students are welcome to come join the morning kids for pancakes, bacon, and juice with our "big friends" at 8:25 am (afternoon Mom's and Dad's are welcome stay for breakfast and then take their children home after breakfast is over).

Some BIG Acts of Kindness

The students were very motivated to work on their group acts of kindness this week.  These ideas are completely student based.  I am so proud of how hard they worked and the creativeness in their thinking.  

The morning class has created four HUGE rainbows.  Their idea is to spread love and happiness around Riverview School with their beautiful rainbows.    They want to make the "big kids" happy.  Next week we will hang up our works of art and beautify the school!  You can click here to see more pictures of our rainbow process. 

The afternoon class had the idea to clean up the playground and school field.  I was amazed with how much garbage they collected - all without complaint!  The students were eager to find garbage during their winter walk and get it out of our field.  Their thinking is that this would be a kind action for the "big kids" of Riverview School.  

Winter Walk

We participated in our own little PreK winter walk this Wednesday.  We took a rather icy walk around the school.  We were thrilled when we came back inside and the Riverview office staff had hot chocolate ready for us!  You can click here to see more pictures of our winter walk fun.

Coming Up

Next week we will begin our Valentine's Day theme!  

We will be planning to have our Valentine's Day parties on February 14th.  The Monday/Wednesday students will be invited to join for their normal time slot (either the morning or the afternoon).  I will be asking some parents to send snacks for the party.  Keep your eyes out for a note if it's your turn!

I will also send home a class list if you would like to help your child make Valentine cards to pass out at our party.  

• February 7th, 9:30 am - 12:30 pm 
• PreK will be meeting at Robina Baker School 
• There will be NO regular classes at Riverview on this day

• February 8th, 8:25 am
• Pancake breakfast at Riverview School

• Both classes are invited to enjoy pancakes, bacon, and juice (the afternoon class will go home after breakfast is over)

• February 9th and 10th - no school
• Teacher's Convention

• February 14th
• Valentine's Day party  

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