It was a very special week in Pre-K as we started our Christmas festivities. We put up and decorated the tree, met Snowflake the elf, and of course, had our Christmas concert performance. We are so proud of all our Pre-K's for getting on stage and giving it their all! Thank you so much for getting your little one all dressed up and bringing them to school for this magical evening. We hope you enjoyed the adorableness as much as we did!
We engaged in some pretty cool learning experiences this week.
Snowman Science
What happens when we bring snow inside? The students made predictions of what they thought would happen. Some thought it would melt or explode. We set outside to find out! The Pre-K's made a snowman in a bag and then we brought them inside to observe. After our first observation, we saw the snow had shrunk. The next day, all the snow was gone! It had changed to water! It was fun to explore this science concept.
Games Day
We hosted a Games Day this week. Students had the chance to play three different games: Pop up Pirate, Penguin Pile up, and Who Knows Whose Nose. Taking turns, sharing, cooperating, and building language skills are all developed when playing simple board games. We really enjoyed this time together.
We will be walking the Tuesday/Thursday morning kids to this fun event at the community center. Parents, you are required to sign the online permission slip through your child's Power School account in order for your child to attend.
December 19th - Christmas Party Day! All students are invited to attend
We have enough parent volunteers - thank you to those who have offered to help out!
We are still looking for a couple of more volunteers to make icing for our gingerbread houses. Please let us know if you can help out and we will share our favorite recipe.
December 20th - January 5th - Christmas Break, no School
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.
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!
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:
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.
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
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!
