Dear Shalsheles Preschool Parent,
Welcome to our first e-newsletter of the year! While I send communication home in the notebooks all the time, this is a way for me to update you on what’s going on in our classroom while saving school resources. I look forward to hearing back from you, whether it’s with comments, concerns, or questions.
For the afternoon, our class has been divided into two groups, based on ages. This way, no one is forced to try focusing on material that is too far above their grasp. While I encourage the girls to learn new things all the time, I feel that pressuring them to be older than they are is not only unhelpful, but harmful as well. Many activities are shared by both groups, however the younger group will NOT be doing things that are not developmentally appropriate.
The younger group is called the Pink Group. In the pink group, we are focusing on our Shapes Unit! This week, we are learning about circles. Some activities we did this week were:
Classroom Shapes Hunt-we searched the classroom to find as many circles as we could! Some circles we found in the classroom included: toy plates, cups, and bowls, beads, buttons, chairs, and bracelets.
School Shapes Hunt-we searched the school building to find circles too! Some circles we found: doorknobs, posters, lightbulbs, and elevator buttons.
Cheerio Circle Necklaces-everyone knows that cheerios are circles-and so are necklaces! We had fun stringing our cheerios onto yarn, and then got to eat the cheerios off our necklaces while we waited for our parents to come, or on the bus on the way home. So if you didn’t see my necklace, don’t worry! It means that the cheerios were yummy enough for me to finish them!
Floor Circle-we stood, walked, jumped, sat, and touched a circle on the floor of the classroom.
We also did a Circus Unit, where we talked about different circus characters, and what they might do. We made life sized clowns by tracing our bodies on paper, coloring them, drawing on features, and tracing and gluing on a hat.
Our older group is called the Purple Group. We are already working on our second letter! Our first letter was “Cc”. We know the letter “Cc” says /k/, like clown, cake, candy, and cat. We decorated our CLOWNS, just like the Pink Group. We learned about top, middle, and bottom, and about above, below, and on. We also learned that the letter “Cc” is a circle with it’s mouth open. We are always careful to leave it open!
Now we’re working on the letter “Oo”! An “Oo” is a circle with its mouth closed. We know it says /o/ like octopus, otter, and ostrich. We learned so many interesting facts about those animals while we practiced the sound of the “Oo”! We also discussed visiting the doctor, and know that when we open our mouths to say “o” for the doctor, our mouth looks like an “Oo”. We practiced sorting objects by size, using Rachel for biggest, Mazal for medium sized, and Ruthie for small. We sorted so many things from our classroom!
We’ll be finished the letter “Oo” soon, and be ready for the next one. We can’t wait to see what will come next!
Watch Us Grow! 