Be My Valentine!

We had a Wonderful week in PreK with a ton of Valentine's Fun! Thank you to all of the parents who sent snacks for our party.  The students always enjoy having a special snack together!

Fizzy Heart Art!

Look at all of those Valentine Bags!

I Like Hearts

To get in the Valentine mood we sang this cute little song with our students this week.  

My Heart Fills with Happiness

We enjoyed the book "My Heart Fills with Happiness" by Monique Gray Smith this week.  After reading the book we each took a turn saying what makes our heart happy.  The answers our students came up with were amazing. 

We recorded all of these amazing thoughts onto one huge heart!

This book also led us into a body awareness drumming activity where the students took turns playing a drum fast or slow, and everyone else moved their body to the speed of the drum.
  

Valentine's Stations

We set up three different Valentine stations for the students to rotate through this week.  They enjoyed experimenting with scientific concepts, getting messy, and creating masterpieces while they strengthened their fine motor skills! 

Station One: Dropping colored vinegar onto a heart covered with baking soda.

Station Two: Painting hearts using cotton balls and clothespins. 

Station Three: Painting hearts with shave cream!

Valentine's Day Party!

We had fun at our party on Thursday, almost too much fun to remember to snap many pictures!  We played some Valentine games, enjoyed a popcorn party, as well as exchanged Valentine cards and had party food.

Click here to see the rest of the pictures from our Valentine's week!

Coming Up

Next week we will be entering the exciting world of DINOSAURS!  Important upcoming dates:

• February 18th - Family Day, no school
• March 6th and 7th - Early Dismissal Days
• the morning class will dismiss at 10:36 am
• the afternoon class will dismiss at 2:16 pm
• March 22nd-April 1st - Spring Break, no school

What a COLD Week

It was a short, cold, week!  We still managed to have have lots of indoor fun!

Winter Walk

We didn't let the cold weather stop us!  We enjoyed a winter walk around the school instead of going outside.  

Mmmmm... Hot chocolate with marshmallows!

We even practiced hot chocolate breathing.  "Smell the hot chocolate, blow the hot chocolate."

Making Valentine Bags

We were busy getting ready for our Valentine's Party next week.  Each student decorated a special mail bag to hold their Valentine cards from our party.

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

Coming Up

Next week we will continue with our Valentine's theme:

• February 7 & 8: No School, Teachers' Convention
• February 14: Valentine's Party. 
• All students welcome. 
• We will be having special snacks and exchanging Valentines. 
• You do not need to pack snacks for your child for this day as we will be having party food
• February 18: Family Day - No School

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

We had another great week exploring different modes of Transportation. Highlights of the week were rescuing cars frozen in ice, driving monster trucks off ramps, and playing with the scooters in the gym. We also had plenty of opportunities to practice fine and gross motor skills with our painting and cutting activities, obstacle course, and Go Noodle. We developed our literacy skills through stories and songs. The Pre-K students loved singing, in all kinds of different voices, the Candyman, Salty Dog song. Listen to it at home here:  https://youtu.be/JJjdsm4B7bc

They also did a great job acting out our story of the week, sequencing the vehicles in order as they helped the truck get unstuck!

Car Craft

Students made these cute little cars. First by choosing a colour and painting, and then gluing on the car parts: wheels, windows, and bumpers.

Icy Car Rescue

Pre-K students squirted and hammered away until all the cars were free. Great Teamwork!

Bubble Wrap Road

The bubblewrap added a fun sensory feature to the car ramp.

Playdough Fun!

We enjoyed playing with the playdough cars and truck set during our transportation week, and the students even helped make some new playdough.

See more pics of our week here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-xk5_1H0fKkHjoqpNPSNCNmxKiXr8r4m

Upcoming!

It's an extra short week next week with Early Dismissal and Teachers' Convention.

Wednesday, February 6: Winter Walk Day!, Dismissal at 10:26am and 2:16am.

Thursday: No School, Teachers' Convention

Thursday, February 14: Valentine's Party. All students welcome. We will be having special snacks and exchanging Valentines. Watch your email for more info and to see if it's your turn to bring snacks.

Monday, February 18: Family Day

Vroom Vroom!

Last week we put away space and switched over to the wonderful world of transportation!  The students loved this little song we sang every day.  I encourage you to sing it at home as well:

Take a Trip

(sung to the tune "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star")

Take a bus or take a train, 

Take a boat or take a plane, 

Take a taxi, take a car, 

Maybe near or maybe far, 

Take a spaceship to the moon, 

But be sure to come back soon!

Painting With Cars

We strengthened our fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination through this fun sensory activity last week!  We are using our masterpieces to create new placemats.

Mat Man

We brought our friend Mat Man back again last week.  This time, we created him on the tables using shave cream.  Mat man is a body awareness program that helps to establish those oh-so important pre-printing skills.

Games, Games, Games

We had fun playing games on Wednesday and Thursday.  Games are a fantastic way to develop social skills such as turn taking, waiting, and learning to be a good sport. 

Apple Cars

 

Apple cars were a major hit during snack time for our students!  Before the students could build their car they had to taste test and choose between three different wheel options - bananas, grapes, or Cheerios.  

More Transportation Fun

Building a car wash

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

Coming Up!

Next week we will continue our transportation journey.  Important upcoming dates:

• February 6 - Early Dismissal
• February 7-8 - No School, Teachers' Convention
• February 14 - Valentine's Day party - all students welcome
• February 18 - No School, Family Day

Space Week

We had another fun filled week of space.  Our week was jam packed with all sorts of out of this world activities.  Each activity we do in Pre-Kindergarten works on developing specific skills. Gross and fine motor, pre-reading and pre-printing, as well as pre-science and math are some of the skills we are learning through our play, arts and crafts, and fun activities.

5 Little Astronauts

Number recognition while participating in the action song: 5 Little Astronauts

Repetition of rhyming poems helps to develop pre-reading skills. The Pre-K students did great helping with the rhyme and recognizing their number when it was their turn.

Blowing Rockets

Students blasted off these air-powered mini rockets using a straw launcher. It was a lesson in cause and effect as well as developing important fine-motor and pre-printing skills. Pre-K students coloured their rockets before adding the straw launcher. It was so exciting to see them zoom into the air!

3-2-1 Blow!

Galaxy Jars

Glitter jars are an awesome calming tool. Pre-K students enjoyed adding stars and choosing a glitter colour for these sparkly galactic bottles. We practiced using them as a calming activity. Students loved shaking the jars and watching the glitter slowly settle on the bottom. 

Edible Constellations

Making a special snack was a hit this week! We looked at pictures of stars and saw how stars can make pictures in the sky called constellations. We made our own with pretzels and mini-marshmallows by matching diagrams of real constellations. It was so fun to build and eat this tasty treat!



See more pics of our Space adventures here. 

Up Coming!

Next Week: Buckle Up, it's Transportation Week! 

January 22  Pre-K and Kindergarten Open House 5-7 pm
January 23  Registration opens for Pre-K and Kindergarten
February 6  Early Dismissal
February 7-8  No School, Teachers' Convention
February 14  Valentine's Day party-all students welcome
February 18  No School, Family Day

Zoom Zoom Zoom!

This week Pre-K was out-of-this-world! We started the new year off with a blast off into space! Check out our Rocketship!

We had fun painting our space ship and making it just perfect.

Sorry about the paint covered clothes, skin, and hair - sometimes there is a small price to pay for having so much fun!!

Name Rocketships

We worked on sequencing the letters of our name this week while building name rocket ships.  The students loved this simple craft that also strengthens fine motor skills.

Painting Suns

We used plastic wrap to create our own mini suns this week!

Snowsuit lesson

Dressing independently can be a tricky thing for little people.  This week we worked with our students on the correct sequence for putting on your outdoor clothes.  Since we are trying to teach our students to do their own zippers and put on their own boots, we are encouraging them to put their mittens in their pockets so that they can put them on last thing after they have finished all of their other jobs.  It can be tricky to get your boots on or do your zipper up if you put your mittens on first!

Scissor skills

We worked on our scissor skills this week. We began the week with cutting straws and licorice, and ended by cutting out paper circles to make our suns.  We used this fun little poem to help remind the students about the correct cutting technique:

Fingers in the bottom,

thumb on top.

Open the mouth,

and go chop, chop, chop!

This picture demonstrates the placement of fingers that we are encouraging our students to use.

More Space Sensory Fun!

From digging space stars out of hair gel to playing in the black bean night sky,
our space sensory experiences have been out of this world!

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

Coming Up!

Space continued. We are collecting empty plastic water bottle with lids for our Galaxy Glitter bottle activity. If you have any at home please send them in Monday or Tuesday, thanks!

• February 6 - Early Dismissal
• February 7-8 - Teachers' Convention
• February 14 - Valentines party - all students are welcome to attend!
• February 18 - Family Day, no school