It's been a great first week of school! We've spent the week adjusting back to school, our daily schedule has changed, the classroom is laid out a little differently, new adults, and new classmates. During centers, we have focused on the expectations during center time. We review our visual strip of expectations before we begin our table top activity. Next week, we will continue to build on classroom expectations and our daily routines. After hanging up our backpacks and removing our snack, we will then work on name recognition. Each student has a small bowl with pop blocks with each block having an initial of their name. Students will work on finding their name in a small field, putting the blocks together, and for some putting the blocks together in order to spell out their name. During circle time, I am also going to introduce our new morning circle song and it's motor movements. The link to the song is on the home page.
Speaking of songs, I have attempted to make some youtube playlist of songs I frequently use in the classroom. One playlist is used during circle time, one is the Barefoot Books publishing videos, books that are read frequently in the classroom, and the last one is some videos that I will show the projector screen. Check out the link, I hope it works! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUlLRotJCSZqlBzTnH_kodw/playlists?view_as=subscriber Books we read this week: I Like Me! I Like Myself! I Have Shapes I Like Colors Spot Loves School Sensory bins: Sand and sea shells Water beads
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There was a quote largely displayed in my fifth grade social studies classroom that read something along the lines of "everyday is a gift and that's why it's called the present." It has been many years since I've sat in that fifth grade class singing the 50 states song in alphabetical order and playing a class Oregon Trail game, but I still remember that quote. This week, the team and I have received gifts and cards for Teacher Appreciation Week. Thank you, for your generosity! I love coming to work everyday and being greeted with a smile or wave. Everyone has grown so much this past year. I'm looking forward to Open House on May 24th. Open House is from 6-7 pm and it is for students to show off their classrooms and all the work they have done throughout the year. Stop by any time during the hour and stay as long as you like! We will be hard at work decorating the classroom, so there might be fewer instagram pictures of our bulletin boards between now and Open House. :)
Just over three weeks left in the school year and still so much fun to be had! This week we have been reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar. First we listen to the book being read by the author, Eric Carle, then I read the book and students take turns putting food items on the white board. During centers I work with students on art activities with a focus on the book. Other themes we will be exploring are butterflies and flowers. The new sensory bin features different types uncooked pasta noodles. The water table has been turned into a flower garden with real soil and fake flowers. There is also a smaller sensory bin with black beans and food items from the dramatic play area to continue with the spring time theme. Still coming up: -Progress Reports will be sent home the last day of school -The last week of school I will be sending home all extra clothes and diapers. -ESY Greenbrook Elementary June 11-July 6th no school on July 4th, school starts at 8:15. As always email me any time with questions or concerns! This lovely sunny weather has created plenty of water play opportunities. Last week, we brought out the water table on the playground and this week we have filled buckets of water and with big paint brushes are painting the planter boxes outside. I have also watched students ride around the bike track on tricycles. Students remaining on the track has been an area that we have been working on all year, now with only a few reminders everyone stays on the road!
ESY or extended school year or summer school this year is from June 11-July 6 with no school on July 4th. ESY will take place at Greenbrook Elementary. If we have not already met regarding adding ESY service minutes, I will be reaching out to you individually and sending home amendment pages. The purpose of ESY is to prevent regression over an extended break or who have demonstrated a long recoupment period of previously taught skills. Recommended services will be provided during the classroom minutes, just as they are now. However, recommended service minutes could be different from what is offered during the school year and will be reflected on your amendment. As I mentioned above ESY is about maintaining previously taught skills. The summer session is typically very play based with lots of water play opportunities and working on their self-help skills with any necessary clothing changes from water play. There are typically different students from the other preschool classes who have also been recommended for ESY. Teachers and service providers are also be different. Transportation services do continue over ESY. The entire session goes by very quickly! Please let me know if you have any questions regarding ESY. I will do my best to answer them, if I don't have the answer I will reach out to find you an answer. Have a great day! Hi Everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful break, did you do anything fun or different? One day I drove out to Ocean Beach, but otherwise just stayed in town. There are only about eight more weeks of school, can you believe it? It seems like both a lot of time and no time left at all!
Some center themes for the next few weeks is firefighters. Lots of activities with red, orange, and yellow. The fire station will be out almost everyday to build on social skills and interacting with our classmates. Next week, the fine motor center will be making a short little fire truck. Each page will be a different art medium with a fine motor focus. Sensory bin idea at home all can be found at your local Dollar Tree -party/gift bag filler paper (red and yellow) -corn kernels -small orange cones -plastic helmets -firetrucks (might not find at Dollar Tree) -spray bottles -bead necklaces (red and blue) cut into quarter Spring break starts Friday March 30th and runs the first week of April. Hope everyone has a great school break and stays healthy. The spring allergies are starting to sprout, I’m hoping most of us will be able to wipe their own nose by the end of the school year. :)
After break we have seven straight weeks of school, then one more three day weekend, then four more days of school! In those eight weeks, K1 will be busy prepping for the remaining IEP meetings, Open House is at the end of May (more information once I receive it), and many spring art and sensory activities. Enjoy your spring break enjoy some time outside together! The rainy days are creating some opportunities for more playtime and inventive ways to use our gross motor muscles. I'm thinking tomorrow we will have a dance party. If you haven't seen your little one dance to Justin Timberlake's Can't Stop the Feeling then you are in for a real treat. I'll try for a video clip tomorrow.
Now some housekeeping updates:
That's it for this week. Have a great night! Phew. We did it. We made it through Spring Picture Day. Overall, the day went really well. Instead of our playground time, we walked up to the office with our walking rope. Kiddos managed to sit on the risers and the four adults found room for themselves too. I thought we were done. We did it, just a class photo and good to go. Oh, we are doing individual pictures too? Oh ok. Grab the walking rope and head into the MPR. We have all the cameras to ourselves. Breaking up into four groups of three, I tell the camera people, if it doesn't work in three tries we are moving on. I'm done with my group, time to check on the others, "How's it going in here?" "We are good." Next group, oh this is too different, ok let's go, next group just one more. Great. We did it! The class picture went well and everyone tried to take an individual picture. You all know your kiddos, a front facing camera (selfie) gets a more attentive picture. Everyone should have received a Valentine's Day picture, those were all done with the front facing camera and trying to not get the adult in the picture. Anyway, it was an experience every year there will be picture day, or three, and with some Big Breaths it's over. The walk up to campus and back down was probably just as long as the entire picture day.
The past few weeks have felt busy. We are working on developing those play skills with peers, potty training for those that are showing that they are ready, eating "healthy" first and then some crunchy foods, movin' and groovin' during circle time, and ending the day with centers. Our schedule hasn't changed, yet the mornings seem to be flying by! Maybe it is because Spring Forward is this weekend. :) The themes this month is about animals. Our center activities will focus on farm, zoo, Animal Boogie animals, and wrapping up the month with dinosaurs. Be sure to check out my teacher-gram page for snaps of art work! DIY home sensory bins ideas -plastic grass and eggs: fill the eggs with animal figures, coins, candy, etc. Open and close the eggs, shake and guess what is inside, find them in the grass -corn kernels with curled pipe cleaners and animal counters: color sorting, animal identifying, pinching with fingers or tongs -lentils and animal figures: seek and find-search the bin for animals, lentils are a particularly soothing sensory experience, finding the hard animal figures won't be too challenging! Have them help you clean up any beans or sensory items that splash out of the container. A little brush and dust pan to help sweep is another great motor experience. Have fun! It's a busy transition time of the day: snack clean up and waiting for circle time to start. One is in the bathroom, one is having a hard time cleaning up the sensory experience of a banana peel, one isn't feeling well and is going home, some are outside putting their snacks away and zipping up their backpacks, some are at circle time waiting for their friends and dancing along to "Wheels on the Bus." Then the phone rings. All of a sudden you are playing 20 questions while still dancing along to Wheels on the Bus and helping kids find their chair. Oh and it's a rainy day so the physical therapist is providing service in the back of the room. Ok, everyone has made it to circle time, you look at the clock on the wall-it's been 5 minutes. Needless to say, we did some extra Big Breaths that day.
Everyday we take three Big Breaths to kick off the second circle time. These breaths help calm our bodies and self-regulate. We practice everyday so when we reach a challenging part of our day, we have the tools to deescalate. Those 5 minutes were busy, loud, lots going on, lots of people in the room, but everyone remained safe and the rest of the day ran smoothly. I know everyone has full days outside of school, or feeling like you are getting pulled in every direction, or someone is asking you for something that you don't have, or simply just aren't understanding what what a tiny person is saying! Just take a Big Breath. Enjoy your weekend, stay dry or go puddle jumping. Your little superstar will have a blast. See you Monday. Hi! How was your 3-day weekend? It was nice to have that extra day to recharge, but it made for quite a busy 4 day school week!
A class favorite book is We All Go Traveling By, it is from the Barefoot book series. If you haven't checked out this series I would recommend looking into it. Everyone enjoys the books from this collection. As part of our morning circle students are picking between two books which one they want to hear by putting their name card above the book they want to hear. Other Barefoot books that we listen to... A Hole in the Bottom of the Sea The Animal Boogie Up, Up, Up! Dragon on the Doorstep Over in the Meadow Port Side Pirates Space Song Rocket Ride The Shape Song Swingalong You can find the youtube link to the above books, by clicking the name of each book listed above. Happy reading! After last weeks post about being able to practice donning our coats, this week it is a little warm to be wearing a jacket! We are still practicing taking them off in the morning. Other self-help areas we have been working on all year has been handwashing. Everyone has shown such improvement this area! Kiddos enjoy pulling down the paper towel but then drying those little hands takes a little help. :)
It is only Wednesday and we have completed many art projects that are pink, purple, and with hearts. We used play doh heart shapes and stamped them in paint, we used pom poms and clothes pins to dot a heart, we worked on putting heart stickers on the outline of a heart. Putting stickers on the line was tricky and many put their stickers inside the heart. Developing those fine motor skills with a small sticker to peel off the paper and then put it on the paper without protesting is an accomplishment. You can smile at how hard they worked completing that activity when you see it in their backpack. Today we will complete two more heart shape activities one with paper heart cut outs and one with tissue paper cut outs. I think they will make adorable placemats if they were to be laminated. Valentine’s Day is next week and we will be sticking to our typical routine. If you would like to send a little card or “something special” for your child’s classmates, there are 12 students and there can not be any food as a little treat. Crayons, stickers, play-doh, etc are wonderful alternatives. <3 :) Just a reminder from the parent newsletter that sent out last week: As you know Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. If you are sending in a something to share with the class, we are not encouraging and food items. That said, if you have already purchased a food item, it must be individually wrapped and have no ingredients containing any nut products. Students will not be able to eat anything until they are home and a parent or guardian can decide if their child can have it. We prefer stickers or other non-edible items. Any questions, please contact the office. Thank you! Speaking of newsletters, join the PTA e-mail list to receive Live Oak updates. I’ve created a “how-to” flyer. I am putting out a new sensory table today with rice as the base with heart counting jems and pink and red cups to facilitate scooping and exploring. Picture soon! Wishing you all a great rest of your week! |
ThemesLearn with your child about the theme of the week and what you might be able to do at home. Archives
February 2019
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