Our First Week of Pre-K (August 15-18)

 

What a cute bunch of kiddos!  We are off to a great start.  The children are learning the routines and having a whole lot of fun.  Below is a slideshow of your adorable preschoolers enjoying their new class.

 

 

We celebrated two birthdays this week!

 

This week we talked about our families and made a lot of new friends. Here we are, one big happy Pre-K family!

 

 

                                             

 

We played "Red Light, Green Light" and had a lot of fun with a parachute!

 

We read "The Day a Monster Came to School", made a class list of rules, practiced our manners during lunch and on the rug (sitting still and quiet, raising our hands to talk).  We also met our 6th grade buddies on Friday!

 

 

We have three birthdays this month.  We celebrated Bella's birthday this week.  Genesis had a birthday on Sept. 16th and Scott on Sept. 29th.

 

This week we sorted and counted skittles, we made color collages, played in the pretend paint store, colored rainbow pictures, and participated in a Science experiment - milk in a dish, added food coloring and a drop of dish soap which made the colors move in the dish. We mixed red and yellow paint to make orange, blue and yellow to make green, and red and blue to make purple.  We had a lot of fun!

 

Thank you all for visiting our classroom.  We enjoyed having you!

 

We made circle collages, drew shapes in shaving cream, danced and sang the Hokey Pokey Shape Up, decorated the letter L with leaf stickers, and listened to Bible stories (Joseph and His Amazing Coat, Moses, David and Goliath, Loaves and Fishes).  We also visited the Book Fair during Library.  It was a fun week and we learned a lot!

 

 

 

 

We read with weighted pigs during Library, we visited the Farmer's Market in Dramatic Play, made our own butter (heavy whipping cream, salt and yellow food coloring) and tasted it on a cracker, we listened to the story of The Little Red Hen then made dough to make our own pretend bread (we sent it home in a ziploc bag - made of flour, salt and water), we watched a video about milking cows then practiced on our class cow (rubber glove filled with water mixed with white paint to resemble milk), we glued feathers to the letter F, played a roll, count and color game in Math, and made cows for our bulletin board in the hall (Preschool Is Moo-velous).  Farm week was very busy and I think the kids really enjoyed it!

 

Our letter this week was E.  We made forest friend feeders in Science, learned about Smokey the Bear and how to protect our forests, pretended to camp under the stars, made racoons, deer and foxes in Art.  We learned a lot about forest animals, preventing forest fires and made our own forest scene.  It was a great week!

 

We learned a lot about apples this week and we also learned the letter H.  In Math we made apple pattern crowns and got a lot of practice using our scissors to cut out those apples.  We glued hearts to the letter H.  We had an apple tasting where we ate red, green and yellow apples, applesauce and apple juice.  We found out that our class favorites are red apples and apple juice.  We did an experiment - we cut an apple in half and put lemon juice on one half, we let it sit out, when we checked it later that day we found that the apple half with no lemon juice was brown, but the other half with the lemon juice still looked white.  We read a story called "The Little Red House With No Doors and No Windows and a Star Inside".  After we read the story we cut an apple in half (crosswise) and we found the star!  We learned about the life cycle of an apple tree in Science and watched a video about how apples are grown (from orchard to grocery store).  We also made fingerprint apples (they are hanging on our classroom door) in Art.  It was such a busy week I didn't get any pictures, sorry about that!

 

Our letter this week was T, so we glued toothpicks to our letter T.  The firefighters visited us on Tuesday morning and they brought their fire truck.  We had a great visit and learned a lot!  We made firetrucks using construction paper shapes (rectangles, squares and circles) in Art.  We learned a song about 9-1-1 and when to call it (emergencies only).  On Wednesday we tasted some Costa Rican food - black beans and rice, tortillas, and fried plantains.  Ms. Iten showed us what it feels like in the rain forest during Library.  We used spray bottles filled with water to put out pretend flames in the Sensory Table and pretended to be firefighters in Dramatic Play.  We also said "goodbye" to Mrs. Stewart on Friday.  We're going to miss her!!  

 

Thank you to everyone who donated stuffing to Catholic Charities.  Our class collected 64 boxes!!

 

It was a short week, so we didn't learn a new letter this week.  This was our first week with Ms. Allie!   We made weather wheels in Art.  We listened to some Bible stories about Joseph and his brothers in Religion.  Used do-a-dot markers to complete a sheet about the number 3 and completed a letter stamp and find sheet to practice our letter recognition.  We participated in a group activity called weather for all seasons (we watched the leaves fall on our heads then scooped them into a big pile, we felt the cold winter ice, we got caught in a rain storm, and we felt the hot sun, so we jumped into the pool to cool off).  We read a lot of books about the seasons and learned some songs too!  Hope everyone had a relaxing and fun Fall Break!!

 

We learned the letter I this week and glued pictures of ice cream onto the letter I.  In Religion we learned that God created our world and everything in it.  Had a lot of fun playing in Dramatic Play with all of the Halloween decorations and the Sensory table was filled with shredded black and orange paper, bats, spiders, skeletons, etc.  We learned some fun songs (Looking for Dracula, I'm a Little Pumpkin, and If You're a Monster and You Know It) and listened to some fun flannel board Halloween stories.  We used stamps to count and stamp black cats and spiders in Math.  In Art we made candy corn (they are hanging on our classroom door).  Our Science this week was mini pumpkin volcanoes.  This week we also welcomed a new friend.  We are happy to have you with us Owen!

 

This week's letter was Ue and glued pictures of umbrellas onto the letter U.  We learned to take care of God's creations in Religion.  We celebrated Halloween with our first annual Halloween Program and we did a great job!  The Dramatic Play center was set up as a pumpkin patch where we pretended to buy pumpkins, pumpkin muffins, cookies and shakes.  In Science we learned about the life cycle of the pumpkin.  Ask your child to sing the pumpkin life cycle song.  We made a Venn Diagram comparing an apple and a pumpkin.  In Art we made torn paper pumpkins and they came out great!  They are hanging on our classroom door.  In Math we learned the letter 4 and completed a do a dot sheet. It was a very busy week!

 

Our letter this week was C, so we glued cotton balls onto the letter C.  We listened to the story of Noah's Ark in Religion and learned that God put rainbows in the sky as a promise that he would always love us and care for us.  We made fall leaf collages using leaf stamps and red, orange and brown paint in Art.  In Dramatic Play we pretended to camp out under the stars.  We used magnifying glasses (shaped like owls) to examine leaves and learned that leaves have veins (and we do too) in Science.  Mystery Doug taught us about the sounds that owls make - they don't all make the WHOOO sound.  In Math we completed a do a dot sheet about the number 5.  During Group Time we made a booklet called "Where Is The Leaf?" to learn about positional words, practiced our pencil grip to trace straight, curvy and zigzag lines on a Falling Leaves coloring sheet, and made coffee filter leaves (we colored a leaf shape with red, orange, yellow and brown markers then used a spray bottle filled with water to spray the leaf and watch the colors bleed together).  Our Sensory Table was filled with small plastic leaves, acorns, and pumpkins in fall colors. 

 

 

November was full of fall and Thanksgiving activities.  Here are some pictures!

 

Merry Christmas!

 

We had a lot of fun decorating our 100 day hats and celebrating with a special snack (cupcakes and skittles).

 

It was a busy month!  We celebrated Catholic Schools Week Dress like a Saint Day at the beginning of the month and Dr. Seuss Week at the end of the month.  We also had cake to celebrate St. Pius' 60th!!