December 12-16th

Beaumont/Alameda Pre-K

Newsletter for the week of December 12-16, 2011

We had a wonderful ending to 2011 this week in Pre-K! We began the week by transforming our pretend area into a bear cave! The students were able to wear bear heads and hibernate with other bears, all on a bed of fur! We also made lots of snowflakes out of all different sorts of materials, talked about the fun activities we like to do in the wintertime, and discussed the signs we see all around us that show winter is coming.  We made colorful snow-people out of paper, and had a spectacular Snowflake Party for our last day of Pre-K 2011!  We were invited to have a Pajama Day as part of our Snowflake celebration, and we really enjoyed being in our cozy PJs all day long.  We had homemade sugar cookies in the shape of snow-people, and decorated them with frosting and rainbow sprinkles.  We also had a “snowball” fight with marshmallows outside!  Sticky, sticky fun.  This week was a fabulous way to end our 2011 school year.  We are really looking forward to seeing each other in the New Year when we return from break.

Deacon Wilkins was our Person of the Week this week. From Deacon’s book, we learned that he is 4 ½ years old, weighs 50 pounds, and is 3 feet 6 inches tall. Deacon’s eyes are blue and his hair is yellow. Deacon likes to eat cake, ice cream, and tater tots. His favorite color is pink, and when he grows up he wants to be an ambulance! If Deacon had 3 wishes, he would wish to have a cat, to have a goldfish, and to have Dalmatian. Deacon likes to play with his brother and go to school. Our friends had lots of kind words to say about Mr. Deacon!

Thanks and Reminders

*Thank you to Leo and his family for providing fruits and vegetables for snack this week.

*Thank you to Nina from the Albina Library for reading to our class this week!

*Thank you to Coco’s family for bringing in a new set of Legos for our classroom!

*Thank you to all of the families for a wonderful 4 months

*When we return from break, we will be doing “back to school” review. We will also be talking about friendship and manners.

*The letter of the week will be Kk.

*Please return your full day child’s rest time sheet when you return from break.

The Week in Review

Monday: Today in Pre-K we began studying winter. We read the book Winter and learned all about hibernation. The students we excited to see that we transformed their space station into a bear cave. The letter of the week this week is Jj. The following friends shared: Kate shared Jewelry, Lola shared a Jewelry box, and Leo shared orange Jell-O. Deacon was chosen as the Person of the Week this week. For our special project, we made pages for Deacons book.  Today was Teacher Lacey’s birthday…the students had so much fun making her cards and making her “cakes.” Happy Birthday Lacey! We read the book Stella Queen of Snow and Snow Day.  In the gym we played medicine ball. Some choices we offered were Legos, winter coloring sheets and Play-Doh.

Tuesday: Today was a fun day learning about winter.  We focused on snow and snowflakes.  We started the morning by reading a lovely book about a mother and daughter watching the first snowfall of the year called “First Snow.”  We talked about what we see outside that shows that winter is here.  Some examples we thought of:  It gets cold, you can see your breath, there is frost everywhere, and there are less animals around (they are hibernating).  We read a Simply Science book called “Winter,” and learned some fun facts about snowflakes.  We discovered that each one is different and that they are made out of little ice crystals.  We also talked about how snow is water; when it’s warm it rains and when it’s cold it snows!  We used mixed media (coffee filters, paper, water color spray) and scissors to cut out and decorate our own special snowflakes.  Look for them in our classroom windows!  Today was another fun letter ‘J’ sharing day.  Henry showed us his shirt from a benefit run/walk he did called Jingle Bells, Gus brought in one of his Jacks, Gabriel showed us some of his sister’s lovely Jewelry, and Coco shared a holiday ornament that had a picture of herself, her sister, and her cousin.  We wrapped up the day with a frosty outing outside.  We drew on the sidewalk with chalk, played with our toys, and at the end, we collected things from nature to put in our cricket cage. What a super fun day.

Wednesday: Today we read the book Frosty the Snowman. For our special project we made snow people. The students were given different color and sized circles and several different options to decorate their snow people and snow scene. In the afternoon, we played “four seasons”(four corners) in the gym. For the letter Jj sharing, Daphne shared Jewelry. Outside it a beautiful sunny crisp day and we enjoyed ourselves immensely! We imagined snowflakes falling on the ground and rolling up snow people. We pretended to ski across the field and danced in the pretend flakes.

Thursday: Today in Pre-K we had a really fun day! We began the day by reading The Gingerbread Baby. Our special project was to make our very own gingerbread “babies.” The kids enjoyed making their crafts while singing “Frosty the Snowman.” In the gym, we played FREEZE tag, in celebration of the cold winter months! The following children shared for the letter Jj today: Chase shared a picture of his baby sister, Jocelyn, the months January, June and July, as well as a Jigsaw puzzle. Simone shared Jingle bells. Benton shared a Jet he made. Charles shared a Jar of Jewels he collected at his old school. Dominik shared a Jack in the box. Vincent shared a Juicy Juice box. Tess shared Skippy Jon Jones! This afternoon, Nina, from the Albina Library came in to read to us. She read the book Wait for Winter…we really enjoyed the story! As a special treat this afternoon, we watched a short clip of “Frosty the Snowman.”

Friday: Fabulous Friday!  We started the by reading Deacon’s Person of the Week book.  Our class had a lot of kind things to say about our friend Deacon.  Thanks for being a great helper all week long, Deacon!  Then, we had our Snowflake Party!  We decorated cookies in our Pajamas, and had an amazing time. The cookies were in the shape of snow-people, and were delicious and homemade.  We adorned them with raisons, golden jimmies, and rainbow sprinkles.  It was beautiful outside today, and we took advantage of that by playing in the field this morning.  We also read a Jan Brett book today called Berlioz the Bear, and we really enjoyed it.  We wrapped up our letter ‘J’ sharing today.  Beck told two Jokes for his sharing, Maggie showed us her birthday book because she has a July birthday, Quincy shared a fun picture of her brother Julian standing on her Dad Jimmy’s head!  Gilbert shared his Jacket, and Ella shared a picture of Jaguar.  We wrapped up the day by talking about all we’d learned this week.  See you in 2012!

Have a great holiday! See you January 3rd 2012.