Pumpkins, Spiders, and Christmas? Oh my!

Pumpkins

We had a fun week exploring (and exploding!) pumpkins.

Students worked on those important hand-eye coordination skills by hammering golf tees into pumpkins. We were impressed by how well of some them could manipulate a hammer!

During circle time, we build our language skills through stories and songs. The students loved helping us add characters to the felt board story! Here is an action poem we learned; try it at home! 

The Pre-K students loved making fizzy pumpkin art so much last week that we thought we'd try some more sciency fun with real pumpkins! Students learned how to do a step-by-step process and we saw some pretty neat results! Our recipe for pumpkin volcanoes is: 

First, add a squeeze of dish soap.

Next, pour in a cup of baking soda.

Last, pour in a cup of vinegar.

Look what happens!

Spiders

After singing, a familiar spider action song to build our literacy skills, we created some cool spider web art using a marble. Students carefully moved their pan so the marble would roll through the black paint making a web effect wherever it rolled. It was a neat way to see cause and effect in action. Check out our webs below!

Zones of Regulation

We started to introduce the Pre-K class to the 4 zones of regulation. We started off by talking about different feelings we have and the best zone for learning and playing (green). Miss Kayla read us a story about feelings and we created a Feelings Face with food that was also a pretty fun snack! 

Christmas 

Yes, you read that right! We did a bit of Christmas Art this week to prepare for a special fundraiser Robina Baker does each year. The kids create a unique piece of art that is made into Christmas cards. We will post a preview soon and you will have the opportunity to order a set of your child's cards, if you'd like. 

Halloween!

October 31st: Halloween Party!  All students are welcome! Students can dress up. We will be having a school-wide Halloween parade in the gym at 9 am, followed by a party in the Pre-K classroom. Our afternoon class will do their costume parade at 12:45 pm. Thank you to the parents who volunteered to carve pumpkins with us! We have a few parents bringing special snacks, thank you parents! You do not need to send snack on this day unless you think your child would prefer to bring something familiar. 

See more Pics from our week by clicking here. 

Coming Up!

November 1st: PD Day, No School

November 7th and 8th: Early Dismissal

November 12: Mid-term Break, No School

Warm Fall Days

We were loving the beautiful fall weather this past week.  We took the kids outside every opportunity we could!  Spending time outside running, climbing, and exploring nature is a wonderful way to help your children develop body awareness, hand-eye coordination, as well as fine and gross motor skills. 

Scientific Pumpkin Art!

We had fun exploring scientific concepts this week painting pumpkins with baking soda water and dyed vinegar.  The students were thrilled with the bubbly reaction.

We had different fall and Halloween themed stations for the students to enjoy this week during their free play/center time.  Our centers tackle different developmental and social skills including sharing, fine motor development, and hand-eye coordination. 

Halloween Art Exploration

Making Leaf People

Making Leaf Soup

This was a gross motor station of transporting stuffed
animals down the hallway using plasma cars.

You can click here to see more pictures from our week of fall fun.

Coming Up

This week will be all about Halloween!  Important upcoming dates:

• October 23rd, 4:00 - 5:00 pm - Parent Teacher Meetings for our community students (students that only attend school two days per week)
• While parent-teacher meetings are not commonly done at the PK level, we understand that some parents are anxious to hear how their children are settling in to the school routine.  Please let us know if you would like to book an appointment.
• October 22-25th - Book Fair
• We will be taking our students to see the book fair on Monday and Thursday this week. 
• You are also welcome to take your child to the book fair anytime throughout the week if you would like to make any purchases.
• October 31st - Halloween
• All students are welcome to attend during their regular time slot (morning students in the morning, and afternoon students in the afternoon)
• We are looking for volunteers to help with pumpkin carving on this day.  If you are interested in carving pumpkins with us please let us know and we will sign you up!
• We will be asking different families to send party snacks throughout the school year.  This allows each family to have a turn and ensures that we don't end up with more party food than we can eat.  Please watch for the email coming home if it is your turn to send a snack this time!
• November 1st - PD Day - No school
• November 12th - No School - Midterm break 

All the Leaves are Falling Down!

Even though there was snow on the ground, we had a week of fall inside our classroom!  We developed our early literacy skills by singing this cute little song:

ALL THE LEAVES ARE FALLING DOWN

Tune:  “London Bridges Falling Down”

All the leaves are falling down, falling down, falling down   (Imitate leaves falling down)

All the leaves are falling down, it is fall.

Take the rake and rake them up, rake them up, rake them up  (Imitate raking leaves)

Take the rake and rake them up, it is fall.

Make a pile and jump in it, jump in it, jump in it,  (Children jump forward)

Make a pile and jump in it, it is fall.

We used bundled up Q-tips to make our own fall trees!

Emergency Evacuation

We practiced what to do if there was an emergency evacuation this week.  The students followed directions very well and we were so proud of how quiet they were when we lined up outside!  The students were thrilled to enjoy some time at the park when we were done our practice drill.

Pictures Pictures Pictures!

I finally have the green light for picture sharing - yay!  Thank you for filling out your verification forms.  

Water Table Fun

Cheese!  Winter dress up fun


Click here to see more pictures from this past week.

October 1-4

Fun in the exercise corner

Stuff the turkey

Who knew Spiderman likes pizza?

Click here to see more pictures from this week

September 24-27

Terry Fox Run

Park time!

Dress Up!

Click here to see more pictures from this week.

September 10-20

Pete's Pizza... Yum!

Pete's sensory walk - so squishy!

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

My First Day!  Click here to see the rest of these precious snap shots.

Phew!  That's all the pictures we have so far, I hope you have enjoyed a little peek into our PK world!  Stay tuned for new pictures each week as our year of learning unfolds.

Coming Up!

Next week we will be wrapping up our fall unit and begin Halloween!  Important upcoming dates:

• October 16th in the afternoon - Picture Retakes 
• October 31st - Halloween Party - all students are welcome to attend!
• November 1st - PD Day - No School
• November 7th and 8th - Early Dismissal Days
• The morning class will dismiss at 10:36 am
• The afternoon class will dismiss at 2:16 pm
• November 12th - Midterm break - No School

Happy Thanksgiving!

This past week has been all about turkeys and Thanksgiving.  The students enjoyed a cute little Thanksgiving song called "I'm a Little Turkey."  I will include the words to the song in case you want to sing it at home as well:

I'm a Little Turkey 

(sung to the tune of "I'm a Little Teapot)

I'm a little turkey, look at me. (point to self)

I'm as chubby as can be. (arms out to side)

You might think I'd be a tasty bite. (rub tummy)

But I'll be hiding on Thanksgiving night. (hide face)

We strengthened our fine motor skills last week by making a turkey craft.  Cutting, gluing, painting, and making crafts all help to strengthen those essential fine motor skills that are needed for being able to hold a pencil and print letters as we get older.  

Stuff the turkey is another fun fine motor activity that we had available to the children this past week.  The challenge here is to create a turkey by poking the feathers into the holes of an upside down colander. 

We also strengthened our gross motor skills this past week by playing turkey bowling.  It was all laughs as the students stacked the turkey bowling pins and tried to knock them down with a fake pumpkin.  

Orange Shirt Day

Thank you to all of our PK families for participating in Orange Shirt Day.  It was nice to see so many of our students wearing orange as a reminder that every child matters.  We took the time on Orange shirt day to chat with our students about feelings, friendship, and being kind to one another.  We ended our lesson by singing along to Raffi's song "The More We Get Together."

Coming Up

Next week we will wrap up our unit on Thanksgiving and begin talking about Fall.  Important upcoming dates:

• October 8th - No School.  Thanksgiving Day.
• October 16th - Picture retakes in the afternoon.
• November 1st - PD Day - No School

Apples, Apples, Apples!

Last week we dove into our Apple theme.  

We enjoyed painting with apples, singing about apples, as well as reading "Ten Apples Up on Top" by Theo. LeSieg.  

In our sensory bin the students enjoyed making apple pie.  Exploring in the sensory bin promotes the development of fine motor skills.  It also allows students to have a sensory experience while exploring scientific and natural concepts.    

On Monday we made apple pie play dough that almost smelled good enough to eat.  Thank you to our special play dough making helpers!

Goodbye Miss Knull

We said a sad goodbye to Miss Knull on Thursday.  Miss Knull is moving to Cold Lake and will be teaching grade two.  You will be missed Miss Knull, thank you for all of the fun PK memories!  

Terry Fox Walk

We enjoyed running/walking around the school yard on Wednesday and Thursday to honor Terry Fox.  The students were excited to end the walk with some free time to play at the park!

Coming Up

Next week will be all about Thanksgiving and Apples!  Important upcoming dates:

• October 1st and 2nd
• Orange Shirt day 
• October 3rd and 4th - Early Dismissal Days
• The morning class will be dismissing at 10:36 am
• The afternoon class will be dismissing at 2:16 pm
• October 8th - No School - Thanksgiving Day
• November 1st - No School -PD Day

Strawberries, Blueberries, and MUD!

We had a fun week full of Pete the Cat activities!  We spent time reading "Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes" by Eric Litwin.  In this book Pete steps in strawberries, blueberries, and mud!  Some of our students enjoyed trying out Pete's walk at school as well.  Sorry about the dirty clothes and feet - I promise you the sensory experience was worth it!

Pete's Pizza

We also enjoyed a special Pete the Cat snack this week.  The students were excited to be involved in making their very own Pete the Cat Pizzas!  The pizzas were simple: a rice cake crust, followed by Nutella or Wow Butter for the mud, strawberries, blueberries, and Cool Whip.  Delicious!

Routine, Routine, Routine

Routine is SO important for little people.  We have spent the majority of our time these past few weeks working on our classroom routines.  From lining up in the boot room to cleaning up after playtime.  Routine and consistency help children to feel safe and secure in their surroundings.  

In the Gym

This week in the gym we began learning about the gym routine.  We also enjoyed time to explore different stations including scooters, hula hoops, and jumping stations. 

Library

Pre-Kindergarten will begin going to the library this week!  Students will have a chance to borrow books from the library.  Our scheduled library days are Monday's and Thursday's.  If you send your child's book back on one of the scheduled library days they will be able to pick a new book to borrow the following week.

Terry Fox Walk

Being that there is no PK on Friday, our classes will have their own little Terry Fox Walk around the school yard on Wednesday and Thursday.  You are welcome to send in a loonie or a toonie sometime this week if you want to support this cause.  

Stay Tuned for Pictures

We are still waiting for the final green light to be able to share all of the cute pictures we have taken at school.  We promise we will share them on the blog as soon as we are allowed.  They will be worth the wait!

Coming Up

This week we will begin our theme of Apples.  Important upcoming dates:

• September 26th and 27th - Picture Day
• September 26th and 27th - PK Terry Fox Walk
• Be sure to dress your child for the weather!
• October 3rd and 4th - Early Dismissal Days
• the morning class will dismiss at 10:36 am
• the afternoon class will dismiss at 2:16 pm
• October 8th - no school, Thanksgiving Day