January 9-13

Beaumont/Alameda Pre-K

Newsletter for the week of January 9-13, 2012
This week was an excellent second week of the year!  We had fun learning all about Animals in the Winter.  We transformed our classroom into a hibernation den, and things really became cozy on Friday for pajama day.  We talked about the changes different animals and insects undergo during the winter, and the various ways they spend their time during this chilly season.  We discussed what animals do when food is scarce, and even made feeders to provide our bird friends with a snack!
Gus Lizzotte was our person of the week this week.  We loved learning new things about Gus this week!  He is 5 years old, weighs 50 pounds, is 3’ 10’’ tall, has brown eyes, and brown hair.  Some of his favorite foods are macaroni and cheese, candy, ice cream, cookies, and doughnuts.  His favorite colors are grey, green, and yellow.  When he grows up, he wants to be a dad.  If he could have three wishes, they would be to have a lot of dogs, to have a guinea pig, and to have a soft, fluffy cat.  Some of the things he likes are watching TV, wrestling with his dad, looking at books, and eating candy.  Thanks for being a great helper this week, Gus!
Next week our theme is Pet Week.  On Thursday Jan. 19th, a friend of the Pre-K will be bringing her Pygmy goats into our classroom!  We will be learning about exotic and unconventional pets that day, and we’re very excited to meet them.  They’ll be here once in the morning at 10AM, and again in the afternoon at 12:30PM. Our letter of the week next week will be ‘Mm.’ Also, starting next week our morning and afternoon sign-in system will be changing.  The students will be provided with a reusable laminated sheet of paper to write their name on each day.  Their name and date will be written at the top, and Mon-Fri. listed on the side.  The students will get to practice writing their name each day when they arrive at school.

Thanks and Reminders

*Thank you to Deacon’s family for coming in to celebrate his 5th birthday.  We very much enjoyed looking at all of his fun pictures.
*Thanks to Margaret’s family for bringing in our fruit and veggie snacks this week.
*Thank you to Karen our guest gym teacher this week.  We had so much fun with you!
*Thanks to Nina our librarian friend!  We loved reading with you
*There will be no school on Monday, January 16th to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. day.
*Please remember to bring your sheets back on Monday
*Our potluck to celebrate the New Year will be Friday Jan. 27th from 5:30-6:45PM, and will be held in our classroom.  There’s sign-up sheet for food, clean up, organization, etc.  We hope you can make it!

  • Parties, If you can not invite all the children to your child’s parties, please make sure that your child understands that s/he should not talk about the party before and after the event. It’s very hard for children to understand why they were not invited and it really hurts their feelings.

Penny Program

As a fun and positive way to link together good choices both at home and in our classroom, we are going to have our families start implementing our positive reinforcement activity, the “ping pong,” or star system, at home!  We’re calling it the Penny Program.  Each day after school that the student reaches their goal, when they make lots of good choices – following directions, doing their “job” or chore, when they are kind to their family, etc., their parents can bring in a penny to school the next day and put it in our reward box.  Each family can choose what a “penny day” means to them at home – what kind of positive things their child can do to reach their goal, and how many pennies they will receive.  We suggest families choose one or two things they would like to work on home, and give a penny for each when the child does well that day. Parents can bring in pennies for good behavior at home to add to the classroom reward box. We will set a classroom goal, and when we get a certain number of pennies, we will reward the students with an ice cream party!  We hope that you’ll join us in participating in this fun and enriching idea.
We will explain this program in detail for the children on Tuesday.

The Week in Review

Monday: Today in Pre-K we began our unit on hibernating animals. To begin, we had the children make a list of animals that they thought would hibernate. They came up with: tiger, bear, lion, monkey, bat, bird, baboon, porcupine, wombat, bush baby, butterfly, spider, ape, ladybug, wolf, kangaroo, beavers, chipmunk, lemur, fish, deer, and squirrels. The teachers did some research and found out that the animals that actually do hibernate are: bears, bats, butterflies, lady bugs, (some) lemurs, (some) fish, and chipmunks. We also began the letter Ll today. Daphne shared a Lip gloss and a Leopard. Lola shared a picture of herself and her nanny, Maggie. Kate shared Light and a Lip gloss. Leo shared a Lion and himself. During circle time, we read the book Mice Squeak, We Speak and Clancy & Millie and the Very Fine House.

Tuesday: Today was another fantastic day learning about Animals in Winter.  Our focus was on hibernation, more specifically what ladybugs do in the wintertime.  This morning on the carpet we tried an experiment: First we stood apart, then we grouped together and stood very close to each other.  We sat down and discussed whether we were warmer or colder standing close.  We learned that ladybugs gather together in big groups during the wintertime to stay warm, and this is how they hibernate.  Our special project was using a hole punch to create little ladybugs, which we glued onto recycled paper in groups to represent hibernating ladybugs.   We also had a hibernation cave in our play area today!  We used our classroom tent, some snowflakes, and white fabric to create our wintery hibernation cave.  Our second day of letter ‘L’ sharing was very creative today.  Henry brought in a picture that his sister Lucy had drawn, and also a photo of Lucy, Ella shared with us some Leaves from her house, and a little heart-shaped Lock, Gus brought in a bag of Lentils, which we  will use in our sensory table later this week, Coco shared a butterfly pillow she had made, and a recorder that she played which is very Loud, Gabriel brought in a real Lemon, and Margaret shared her toy Lantern that had a little fairy inside, and played music.

Wednesday: Today we started our day off by reading Secret in the Garden. Deacon shared a book called Big Bears Can! Hudson shared his sisters butterfly case and lipstick. Charles shared lettuce and a lion. During group time, we learned about how monarch butterflies fly south to Mexico in the fall/winter. We also discussed how birds are the same and migrate south in the winter. Our project was making our very own migrating bird, using feathers, popsicle sticks, shiny circles for eyes and paper wings. Students checked on their plant and made sure it had enough water; if it didn’t then they watered it.  In the afternoon we went outside for a brief period of time due to the wind. Students continue to thoroughly enjoy playing in the bear cave and pretending to hibernate for the winter. At the end of the day teacher Shelley read Grizzly Bear with the Frizzly Hair.

Thursday: Today in Pre-K we discussed how animals adapt to winter weather. For example, we learned that rabbits get a thick, white fur in the winter time to keep them warm and to camouflage them from predators in the snow. We also learned how other animals, like the red fox, collect food and store it to eat during the winter. For our special project, we made bird feeders out of pine cones, flour and water paste, bird seed and popcorn. We are so excited to help feed the animals! The following students shared for the letter L today: Vincent shared a Leafy sea dragon. Dani shared a Lollipop. Simone shared Lincoln Logs. Dominik shared a Lunchbox and a picture of himself and his mom when he was born. Benton shared Lots of rocks. Tess shared a Ladle and a “Little Kids” book. Chase shared Legos, Lincoln Logs, Luke, and a Letter ‘L’ magnet.  This afternoon we had a special visit from Nina, the librarian. She read the book The Three Robbers. We also met with Karen, the middle school gym teacher. We played several games with hula hoops and bean bags. It was so much fun! We also read The Adventures of Curious George.

Friday: We had an excellent day of learning today in Pre-K.  We dressed in our pajamas as a fun way to wrap up our week of learning about hibernation, and other activities of Animals in Winter.  We started off the morning by celebrating Deacon’s 5th birthday.  Thanks so much to Serena, David, and Carter for coming in and sharing pictures of Deacon with us.  Happy Birthday, Deacon!  We read a a book all about grizzly bears called Grizzly Bears, and learned that they dig to make a den with their powerful claws, and hibernate in that den for the winter.  Later in the day, we made bear masks, and were able to play in our hibernation tent in the classroom.  Today for our last day of letter ‘L’ sharing, Beck brought in a bike Lock, Lucy shared herself! and also a toy Lion, Gilbert shared his Lion pillow pet, and Maggie brought in a Lunch box,  a Lemon, and a Lime.  We wrapped up the day by reading a book that we loved very much this week called The Grizzly Bear With the Frizzly Hair.

Have a great weekend!

PreK team