Just catching up with a few December pictures of the kids. We have some from making props for our grocery store theme, and also from the day we decorated (and enjoyed eating) our reindeer muffins.

Top 10 Ways to Encourage Children to Read Over Winter Break

Okay, many preschoolers don't read too much by themselves yet. But they spend independent or buddy time with books daily here at Dike Newell. This article shares some nice ideas about vacation reading. Hope you try some!

 http://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/2013/12/07/top-ten-ways-to-encourage-children-to-read-over-winter-break-by-katherine-sokolowski/

Graphics Practice

I have a few pictures of a Tools of the Mind activity we do every other day. It is called Graphics Practice and it gives kids a venue for practicing their pencil grasp, components of letter formation and self regulation. We use white boards and classical music. I give a quick pretend scenerio (today was that we were in a van loaded with kids, and we just pulled in to Dunkin Donuts and ordered donuts for everyone.) Then I demonstrate how to make the donut shape using private speech. "Around and close," is what I'll say aloud to help my dry erase marker form a circle. As soon as the kids hear the music, they can start drawing the shapes on their own board. If I pause the music, they have to stop drawing. Look at what we are asking the kids to do -- the fine motor work as well as a self inhibitory step. Holding more than one thing in your brain at the same time is tricky and a vital component to self regulation (a major goal in our program). We get a lot of bang for the buck from this 10 minute activity, and your kids can do it.

Making Stone Soup

I wonder if you have read one of the versions of the folktale, Stone Soup? As a way of celebrating the harvest season, we reenacted the making of Stone Soup today, with parents helping students peel and cut vegetables first thing, then assembling the ingredients whilst the story was skillfully narrated by yet another mom. Many thanks to all the patient volunteers who helped the pre-k gang navigate working with sharp tools. Mrs. Bridgman has the soup pot on, bubbling away this evening, as she types this, and tomorrow we eat the soup. (Okay, just in case you haven't read the book, we do not eat any stones.) Hope you enjoy the slideshow that documents our morning's activities.


Fast forward to the next day, when we eat the soup (minus the round gray stone and the juicy beef bone ...)

October Walk in the Woods

I am late posting these nice pictures of our hike from October. We were ending the family theme for dramatic play, and highlighting things that families do together. The kids had plastic bags and the request was to collect leaves and twigs, and touch tree bark and roots, which they all did with gusto. We walked along the trail that borders our school playground.

Restaurant PlayTheme

We are well into our restaurant play theme. All of our centers have transformed into local favorites... Art has become a drive in Dunkin Donuts, Science has become Subway, Blocks has become the Farmers Market, Math has become The Cabin (pizza), the kitchen area has become our Cupcake Shop and Literacy has become MacDonalds. Kids plan and pretend to be customers, cooks, cashiers and dishwashers.

Celebrating Halloween at free choice in Pre-K

We start every day with a few minutes of free choice activities. Halloween day had a sliced pumpkin set out with some of our new magnifying glasses. The kids love to cut with scissors as a way to explore aspects of our natural world.

Also, we have a new scooter and tricycle available for the kids at recess. They sign up on a list and take a turn riding down the path to the "stop" line marked in chalk and then back.

We had Halloween songs, books, a special snack provided by a clever parent, a "magical" chairs game, and a painting project. Nice ways to celebrate an exciting holiday. Hope you had a safe and Happy Halloween!

Buddy Reading is a great activity in our Tools of the Mind curriculum. We work in pairs and pretend read a self-chosen book to a buddy while they listen. Then we switch roles. We use little cards with either lips or an ear on it, to remind us of which role we have at the time. Your kids are great at this!

Dramatic Play in the Family theme

When your kids are doing just what they are supposed to in our play centers, Mrs. Peavey and I reach for the camera and celebrate. Thought you'd like a peek at them as they play their family roles...

Creative Art

Typically we save creative art experiences for the end of our morning. It is something to really look forward to. Who doesn't like that sensory time, color and fun? Here are a few pictures from our textile arts time yesterday and from our cookie dough exploration last week ...

Fourth week

I predict you may hear news from your preschooler today. We had an exciting schedule planned (our schedule is a linear posting of familiar icons that has our activities, both usual and special ones on it). Kids checked the schedule frequently during the morning. The big ticket items of our day were going to the teachers' room to view our Read for the Record book, Otis, on the big screen projector in there. We kind of pretended that we were going to the movies. The kids were very well behaved, and we'll do this again sometime for the other books on this site. Here is the link to that website (lots of great titles - a free log in):   http://www.wegivebooks.org/books/otis   .

The other exciting activity, well ... I'll back up a bit. You know we are in the midst of our family theme for dramatic play. Baking is readily considered a family activity, so yesterday we explored molasses cookie dough, as if it were playdough, for our creative art time, a multisensory activity for sure. We really got into it, sniffing the spices, gooey hands, creating different shapes and cutting them with plastic knives. Today I brought in baked molasses cookies  (made from an "unexplored" batch of cookie dough), and after rereading If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, we happily sat down to cookies and lowfat milk at the end of our morning. It was a delightful time, though perhaps marginal in the eyes of our Health Policy.

Your students are getting the hang of working in pairs, which is something we do often in pre-k. Buddy Reading, some of our small group math activities, Share the News, and creative art events are done in pairs. The kids are learning the give and take of social exchanges, and the art of negotiation and collaboration during these times, really important stuff. It is an honor to be part of the process.

 
 Have a great weekend - Mrs. Bridgman

Third Week

Hi Pre-K Families,

Another solid week, with students happy to be coming to school. We love that. Finished off this week by making our own sock babies to take home, which dovetails nicely with our family theme. Kids stuffed socks, which with the addition of magic marker eyes and mouths, a ribbon to define the neck, and a blanket, make a reasonable baby surrogate. They named and gently held their babies as we walked down the hall to meet you all at noontime. This activity also builds on the concept of "gentle hands", which is one of our class rules.

The front office has asked, with firmness, that if you are late arriving at school, please stop by the office and sign in on the clipboard. Thank you.

Next week, our class will be practicing a fire drill. Because of our shorter hours, we have missed the school wide drill with the loud alarm and all. 

We'll also be adding play planning to our dramatic play time next week. Kids choose a colored clothespin that indicates which center they want to play in. Then they will draw a picture of themselves playing in that center. This helps establish intentional mature play, that in turn, builds elements of self regulation that we are looking for.  Play plans will be coming home about every week. You can ask your students about the picture (hopefully you will see an elementary figure that represents your child emerge as time goes on.) The color marker used, will indicate the color of the center they chose.
blue - he or she went to the living room
orange - laundry
green - bathroom
brown - garage
red - bedroom
purple - kitchen

Many thanks for your tolerance with our cardboard box painting activities. With the nice weather, we have been hauling our materials outside to paint at recess. This puts some jackets at risk, though the kids are getting very adept at putting their painting smocks on over them. This coming Wednesday, we'll be painting our "washing machine" and then we'll have completed our props for the family theme.
The cardboard car, that is the focal point in the garage center, is very popular.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Bridgman

(some pictures from dramatic play)

 

Second Week

Dear Families,

Pre-K is getting their routine and procedures and schedule down pat. Enough to handle anomalies like finding the music room in the upper netherlands of Dike Newell School, and a bus evacuation drill with ease. The kids know a number of songs and finger plays (which have a link on the right hand side of the blog page, if you want to sing or chant along.) We practice our "share rule" the most and it works pretty well. It goes like this. If you want something from another person, you use your words. If they are not ready to share, they can say, "Come back in one minute." You go away for a bit, but when you come back, that other person has to share. The asker, has to practice some self regulation by waiting a bit. The giver has a minute to adjust to the idea, he or she will be letting someone else have the desired object, and then has to do so.

We went to music with Miss Cyr for the first time this week. Concepts we learned about there were echo and up and down. Also, we are slowly getting a grasp on walking in a line, and that our school hallways are a whisper zone.

Pre-K has been busy making some props for our Family Theme. Many times we'll be using cardboard boxes to make ... a washing machine, a car, pretend beds, you name it. Today we painted the beds red, outside at recess - it was a highly engaging activity! We'll be pretending to be different family members in different rooms of a house during our dramatic play time for the next five or six weeks. You might want to ask your student/s, "Who were you today?" (Typical answers would be, the mom, dad, grandpa, sister, cousin, etc.)

Scholastic book orders are due next Thursday, September 26th. Our classroom earns free books from these orders, as well as the kids getting nice books to read and have read to them. 

Thanks for a great week, and great to see those of you who could make it last night to the Open House.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Bridgman

First Day 9-10-13

Dear Pre-K Families, 

16 new students, their teachers and their families, all made it through the first day of preschool! We faithfully went through our normal schedule (including circle time, play center time, buddy reading, snack, recess, small group story time, small group math, closing group, and a creative art activity - phew!) and kids seemed well engaged. Good job getting them prepared and here! 

Mrs. Peavey and I were overwhelmed with your generosity created from our wish list. Everything requested (and more) was donated to our classroom. Many, many thanks for your thoughtfulness. We are well stocked for a long time. 

Wednesdays will be the day we have Phys Ed in the gym. If you can send your child with sneakers on Wednesdays, that would be appreciated. 

As soon as folks' paperwork giving permission to publish pictures on our school website (we never use student names) comes in, I will happily post slideshows of what your kids are doing in class and on the playground. 

Looking forward to learning lots every day. Thanks for sharing your kids with us! 

Sincerely, Mrs. Bridgman

Exploring materials in our centers:

7 Super Things Parents and Caregivers Can Do

I believe in this advice!

http://www2.ed.gov/teachers/how/early/teachingouryoungest/bookmark.pdf

Last Pictures ...

Missing you all - hope you are going lots of places, talking about everything, and reading everyday!

Lots of love, Mrs. Bridgman and Mrs. Peavey

The weather, the kids, and the tidal treasures were all just grand this morning on our field trip to the beach. Your kids were so well behaved on the bus ride. They had brainstormed about the bus rules ahead of time, and I think I heard each one say thank you to Doug, our bus driver as they exited the bus at the end of the morning. They followed our rules about staying with their big buddy (adult chaperone) and their classmate buddy. They mostly followed the rules about ankle deep wading. And hunting under the seaweed for crabs was very rewarding! (All the boating was done on the sand, though it may appear otherwise.)

The kindness bucket

Hi Families,

Maybe you have heard that our class is focusing on kindness lately? We've read a couple of books that talk about everyone having an imaginary bucket that can be filled with drops of kindness. To represent this in class, we have a clear plastic vase that gets a glass bead (a.k.a. drop of kindness) dropped in when kids are seen being kind. After a week it's almost full! Which will earn a reward -- our graphics practice time done with shaving cream (instead of white boards and markers)! Here are some pictures of kindness being shared between classmates that warm my heart, maybe yours, too.

 I'd like to offer an article about family involvement in literacy to our pre-k families ... 

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/parent-involvement-in-early-literacy-erika-burton?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=enews%20050813%20remainder&utm_content=&spMailingID=6106915&spUserID=MjcyNTI3NDg5MjcS1&spJobID=73048720&spReportId=NzMwNDg3MjAS1

Hoping you will enjoy these pictures of our camping play theme. The kids are skilled at taking on roles (the mom, the brother, the dad, the ranger, the surfer, the lifeguard, the camp store clerk, etc.) using role speech and playing out scenarios -- just what we are looking for!

Recently, during PE, Ms McCauley has divided our class into 4 teams for a relay race and team building game. One by one, members of each team run to the other side of the gym, pick up a piece of foam, run back and tag the next person in line on their team. After all the foam has been collected, each team gets together and builds a structure out of it. So, it is a neat activity that gets our hearts beating, our voices cheering for our teammates, and then our brains thinking. Here are a few pictures of the results (along with pictures of the ever popular legos used during indoor recess.)

We have just finished our Pets and Vets play theme. Thought you might enjoy a few more pictures of the kids playing during that time...


Our final play theme is Camping. Our centers will slowly transform into a (pretend) campfire center, a tent center, the camp store, the beach, the ranger station, and one more, which is undecided at this time. Props from home that would support play in these centers would be welcome!

Looking ahead, we will have parent conferences on Thursday, May 23rd (afternoon) and Friday, May 24th all day. Our last day of Pre-K will be Thursday, May 30th. Stand by for news on how we will celebrate ...

Hope you all have a nice vacation!
Mrs. Bridgman and Mrs. Peavey

After going on our field trip to see the owls, we had a Graphics Practice session where we drew owls. We used geometric shapes we already know to make up the parts of the owl/owls. They came out great!

Offering some pictures of our Pets and Vets dramatic play in action. Our centers have transformed from the Math center to the Vet's Office, from Literacy to the Humane Society, from Art to the Pet Food Store, from Science to the Pet Groomer, and from Blocks to the Obedience School. The kitchen area is still the kitchen area only with the addition of a cat. 

Owl Field Trip

Hi Pre-K Families,

We had a very successful field trip to watch the Wind Over Wings owl presentation today. The bus ride was great, and the owls were REALLY great. We saw a saw-whet owl, a screech owl and a great horned owl. Pippen and Queen Solomon were 2 of the 3 names. These were rescued owls that can never fly again, and we learned stories about how they all came to be rescued. Ask your kids about this. We learned about what we can do to help prevent wildlife from needing to be rescued: dispose of trash responsibly, recycle, cut the plastic constraints that hold cans and bottles together, and pop balloons. (Also, we are so proud to report that your kids were very well behaved!)

Mrs. Bridgman and Mrs. Peavey

Pre-K has a new play theme - Pets and Vets. I thought you'd be interested in how your kids put many of the individual shapes we practice, into making a whole portrait of a dog, or several dogs. Beautiful work! (There is also one nice picture of Buddy Reading at the start of the slide show.)  

5-2-1-0 Link

As vacation is upon us, thought I'd include this informative link from our 5210 website for your perusal.

http://www.letsgo.org/wp-content/uploads/ReduceTVToolkit.pdf

Valentine's Day in Pre-K

Well, I bet you thought you might see lots of pictures of your kids in their red and Valentine themed outfits that you sent them to school in ... Or our mini celebrations during the day ... Ha. I'll have to say, we had a very busy day getting treasured Valentines in each other's bags. It was a complex effort and involved lots of teamwork among the children. The results may not have been perfect (ie, did you get a misplaced Valentine or two in your child's bag, per chance?) and I didn't get a chance to grab the camera as this was happening.

So this post's slideshow highlights kids getting dressed for outside play independently, and the resulting play in the snow. Our RSU1 Wellness committee will appreciate this focus anyway.

Many thanks for all the thoughtful Valentines and treats that came to school yesterday. We love your kids!

Sincerely, Mrs. Bridgman and Mrs. Peavey

Painting My Favorite Part

According to Maine's Early Childhood Learning Guidelines, specifically early language and literacy, one of the indicators of what children should know and be able to do when they enter kindergarten is retell information from a story. A Tools of the Mind classroom practices this several times daily with a brief discussion about "what was interesting" or "what was your favorite part" or "text to me connections," following a read aloud story. Your kids are pretty good at it! We decided to paint our favorite part of the Eeenie Meenie Mouse story today. Using watercolor paints. A hush fell over the room as they got right down to painting. Here's what our class looked like ...

 
I'm hoping you notice the lovely hand grasps of the paint brushes and the sharing of materials, as well as the paintings themselves. Please look for them in your student's bag or backpack tomorrow, and ask your child, "What was your favorite part?" 

Family Newsletter 2-3-2013

Dear Pre-K Families,

We'd like to invite you to look at our bulletin board on the left side of the hall before you enter our classroom. Your kids have work displayed there of which Mrs. Peavey and I are quite proud. You will see Venger Drawings, the results of an activity where we pass around a shape (in this case a rhombus), and brainstorm about what this shape could be part of. For example,a student might say, "This rhombus could be part of a diamond ring." Then the kids draw their idea and some add writing as well. This math activity helps kids recognize basic geometric shapes, use basic shapes as building blocks in their own pictures, mentally construct and deconstruct real world objects into their basic shapes and learn about using shapes purposefully.
  
The other recent display is our Helicopter Learning Facts, a connection with our Medivac Helicopter Center and Hospital Theme in play centers. The kids listen to a nonfiction text (sometimes just a few pages of a book), and draw and write about what they thought was interesting. The purpose of this activity is to practice remembering on purpose, use drawing and writing as a tool to remember, strengthen oral language skills and build vocabulary, and provide another context in which to practice writing and letter sounds. It also helps us experience listening to different genres of literature and develop a love of reading.

I predict your kids enjoyed both of these activities. Try asking them about their work as you walk by next time.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Bridgman and Mrs. Peavey

Family Newsletter January 24, 2013

Dear Pre-K Families,                                   January 23, 2013  

Brrrr. After checking with our Dike Newell office personnel, I learned that 12 degrees (correction from the hard copy newsletter) is the magic temperature for cancelling outside recess.

  

We have a new student in Pre-K! She and her mom joined us for a quick visit today, and we’ll be welcoming her all morning tomorrow.

For advance planners, we will be exchanging valentines (simple is good) on that holiday and perhaps celebrating with a special activity, healthy snack and craft. If you wish to contribute to the Valentine themed healthy snack, please let us know. 

Sincerely,

Mrs. Bridgman and Mrs. Peavey 

P.S. Here are a few pictures of our first grade buddies reading with us on Thursday. It was a magical sound to hear the hum of all those readers sharing books with our kids ...  

          

Pre-K Week of January 15,16,17

Here is a longer slideshow from our past few days of Pre-K. You'll see a few "outdoors in the snow" pictures, as well as some nice results from our goal for independently putting on our winter clothing. We had a very exciting theme-oriented visit from our friendly Bath EMT's and firemen, which included touring the fire engine! Enjoying healthy birthday cupcakes at snack time and more play in our hospital centers rounds out the slide show.

January 12, 2013

Hello Pre-K Families,

A quick request from our school office. If your student will be absent, please call our Absence Hotline at 443-8285 and press 1 to report the absence. Thank you.

 Your kids have been doing a stellar job playing their Tools of the Mind math games recently, specifically "Making Collections" and the "Numerals Game." Both of these involve a counting game with paired math buddies. One child gets the Hand (gets to go first) and the other child gets the Check (this child's role is to briefly wait and then check the Hand's work.)The kids are looking at pictures or numerals, counting small objects to match, and then checking their work. Not only are they learning rote counting skills, but they are working in a social setting with a peer, practicing taking turns, and practicing checking their work. We are very proud of them!

5-2-1-0 material

I've been talking with the nurse that promotes healthy 5210 concepts in classrooms and the community. Thought I would occasionally share pieces of the program with you, as it is important for families of small kids. Here's one of the pages from the website.

 

Here's the link to the website:    www.letsgo.org

January 2, 2013 Happy New Year!

Dear Pre-K Families,                                       January 2, 2013

You’ve probably heard the news from your students – we are in the midst of changing play themes from restaurant to hospital. Our play centers are transitioning into a gift shop, the x-ray department, a nursery, an operating room, an optometrist office and a medivac helicopter unit! We are making some props, reading theme oriented books, and will be playing in roles of patients, nurses, doctors, receptionists, etc., next week. We are seeking some items for our gift shop – used fake flowers, plastic vases and stuffed animals (that are not sentimental favorites of your child). Also, scrubs in small sizes. Many thanks for contributing to the cause, if availability matches our needs.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Bridgman and Mrs. Peavey