Pre-K Winter Weather Policy

If there is No School for RSU1, that means No School for CHOICES (Pre-K) students.

If there is a 1 hour delay for RSU1, Pre-K will have a 1 hour delay as well (except on Wednesdays ... read on).

If there is a 2 hour delay for RSU1, Pre-K will be cancelled, the thought being we don't want Pre-K families out driving in bad conditions for one and a half hours of preschool.

Wednesdays are an exception, because of the late start. A 1 hour delay on Wednesdays actually equals a 2 hour delay, when one factors in the late start time. So any delay on Wednesdays, means no school for Pre-K students.

Seems a little complex, but we are doing our best to put kids first.

caribou learning facts and decorating reindeer muffins

We learned some interesting facts about caribou (another name for reindeer) in pre-k today. Did you know that both male and female caribou have antlers? Did you know they can run really fast (48 mph!)?  Did you know the inner parts of their hooves become soft in the summer (to walk on the tundra) and then those inner parts shrink in the winter (to let the outer rims provide traction on the ice, kind of like studded snow tires)?  And, the knees of many species of reindeer are adapted to produce a clicking sound as they walk!

We also enjoyed decorating and eating reindeer muffins at the end of our morning.The kids are experts at setting the tables for a party; tablecloths, plates, napkins and a pre-k centerpiece of greens and pretend candles.

P E Team Builders

In PE today, the kids worked together in teams to build amazing structures, some of which are on display in this quick slideshow ...

Hanukkah, a holiday meant to be explored by pre-k! Playing with dreidels (oh, that fine motor skill of spinning), counting Hanukkah candles and arranging them in the menorah, turning the Foley food mills to make applesauce, and tasting latkes with families ... We are having a great week and are thankful this holiday lasts eight days.

Snap Ed

Pre-K is certainly getting a chance to exercise their sense of taste this fall. We have the privilege of participating in the federally funded SNAP Ed program ( Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) here at Dike Newell School. The goal of SNAP-Ed is to improve the likelihood that people living within a limited budget will make healthy choices and choose active lifestyles consistent with the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans and MyPlate. Ms Gherkin comes to our class once a month with different foods for us to try and talk about. This time she brought grapes, kiwi and star fruit.

trying stone soup

Stone soup was popular with many children and their families today. Most kids tried it, a few said, "No thank you, "and a few said, "More, please!" Thank you for contributing vegetables, helping the kids to peel and chop, and joining our autumnal celebration.



A few folks asked for the recipe for the oatmeal bread that we served with the soup that day. It is a favorite of my family...

Nathaniel's Oatmeal Bread
2 c boiling water
1 c oatmeal (any type will do)
1/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c maple syrup
2 t salt
2 T butter
Stir the above together and cool to lukewarm.
Dissolve 2T yeast in 1/2 cup warm water.
Stir the above into the first lukewarm concoction. Start adding flour, 1 cup at a time, until you have a stiff dough. (About 6 cups?) Divide into three sections. Form each section into a long rope (you may have to let each "rope" relax for a few minutes as you try to elongate the ropes.)  Braid the three ropes and place on a cookie sheet. Let rise until double in bulk (I always do just the one rising for this bread.) Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes, or until the tops of the braid are nicely browned.

There were several adaptations of the recipe - different combinations of sweeteners - but this is the version that my son, Nathaniel, likes the best.

Stone Soup

I hope you have all enjoyed the famous fictional feast book titled Stone Soup, this version by Ann McGovern. To celebrate the harvest, and clever thinkers who persevere, we like to make Stone Soup in our class. Lots of willing family members came this morning, ready to take on the challenge of using sharp utensils safely with preschoolers. Our classroom was abuzz with happy kids helping to peel and chop contributed vegetables with family adults. A former pre-k student, now kindergartner, stopped by and a look of happy memory spread across his face, as he realized that it was Stone Soup day in pre-k. Here is a glimpse for you, too:

 

Just before dismissal, we assembled the big pot of soup as we re-read the book ... It is bubbling away on my stove as I write. Pre-k families are welcome to join us at 11:30 tomorrow (Tuesday) for a tasting.

Making Collections Math Game

In Pre-K, we play a math game called Making Collections. It is played with kids working in pairs. One student is the "hand" and one student is the "check." Each role has specific tasks, which, when I sit down to explain it, seem a little complex for pre-k kids. Yet, I'm writing to say it went so well today! Lots of choices to make, one to one correspondence, counting aloud, turn taking, and positive interaction with a peer.  I'm including some pictures of half the class, with the other kids in the background. (Pictures of kids will even out over time ...)

Shaping bagel dough

Mrs. Ricciardone brought in bagel dough for us to shape and play with recently, and to ultimately use at our Dunkin Donuts and Farmers Market centers.  We will paint and decorate the baked products, declare them as non-edible props, and sell them in the above "restaurants." Today at snack, we enjoyed a batch of homemade bagels to eat, plain or with peanut butter or cream cheese. (This batch was untouched by pre-k hands - but don't tell the young bakers please.)

Playing Restaurant

Hi Families,

The Pre-K gang is well into the dramatic play theme of Restaurants, and I wanted to share a slideshow of the kids playing in the different centers. Hopefully, you are also seeing the change of themes as you review your student's play plans with them at home. You may hear plans about, "I was the cashier, or the waitress, or the ice cream scooper, or the customer, or the driver at Dunkin Donuts, or the farmer at the Farmers Market." Queries you might have for the kids to encourage role speech and actions are, "What does the waiter/waitress say to the customer?" "What does the customer do at Subway?" 

Halloween Heads Up

Dear Pre-K Families,

Just a heads up for pre-k students ...We will not be wearing costumes to school to celebrate Halloween. As always, the kids are welcome to dress with seasonal flair, but the excitement factor beyond that is too much for our classroom. Thanks for your understanding.

Love, Mrs. Bridgman

P.S. Don't worry that we ignored Halloween altogether ... the kids assembled "Kick the Can" ice cream ingredients before recess, took it outside and had fun rolling the can on the ground, and swinging the can by the handle. After P.E., we all had a delicious tasting of homemade ice cream while we watched a 3 minute Halloween music video with tame witches and ghosts. Lots of fun!

Painting Props

Dear Pre-K Families,

Maybe you've heard ... We are changing play themes from Family to Restaurants! This past week has been our theme building week and our play centers are slowly transforming into these restaurants -- Dunkin Donuts, Subway, Domino's Pizza, The Spaghetti Restaurant, Dot's Ice Cream, and The Farmer's Market. The kids would tell you that the transition is way too slow - they want to start playing right away! But it does take time for this to happen. To this end, we painted some props on Thursday. Not for faint-hearted teachers, to let 4 and 5 year olds loose with brushes and paint, but it was really fun. Your kids were totally regulated while we painted, as well. We painted two cars (for the drive-in at DD's), a drive up window, and an ice cream freezer.

Buddy Reading

Dear Families,

One of our Tools of the Mind (that's our pre-k curriculum) activities here at school is Buddy Reading.   Kids each choose a book, are paired with a partner, and are given a little card with either an ear or lips on it. The lips "reads" her or his book first, while the ear listens. They switch cards and switch roles after. The kids are practicing those all important pre-reading skills, how to handle a book and pretend read, how to converse with a peer and engage in positive social interaction, how to take turns independently, and strengthening oral language skills and building vocabulary. Here is what it looked like today! (oops - I see I've left several students out of this slideshow - will make up for it later!)



More buddy reading ...

Pictures from September

Sorry to take so long to put up a slideshow of our pre-k gang. We were waiting for a few more media permission slips to return. We do not use children's names on our blog, and it is a great way to get a peek into our classroom.




Today we supported our Family play theme by making sock babies. The kids each stuffed a sock, named their baby, and wrapped them in a warm blanket. Most kids chose to bring their babies home, so perhaps there is a new stuffy/lovey living at your house tonight! (The kids look so serious -- I think they are feeling the responsibility of caring for a new baby?)

Particulars for Pre-K Families

Particulars for Pre-K Families

In Pre-K, on any given day, we are likely to use paint and glue and wonderfully messy materials, and play outside in the elements. Please consider having your child wear clothes daily that can withstand these activities. On Fridays, we go to PE in the gym, where Ms. McCauley requests that we all wear sneakers. 

Any questions, problems or celebrations? We want to hear about them. I am at school for a bit of time before and after school.  My e-mail is abridgman@rsu1.org. If you choose to communicate by e-mail, and I don’t respond quickly, our school spam filter may have not recognized the importance of your message and bumped it into spam. Please let me know and we can fix that problem.

Mrs. Bridgman

 

Family Play Theme

Dear Pre-K Families,

I wonder if you've been hearing about how we are playing "family" here in our pre-k classroom? Each traditional center has taken on an added layer of materials/props, and transformed into a room of a house. For example, the art center has become the laundry room, the literacy center has become the living room, the math center ... the bedroom, blocks ... the garage, and science is the bathroom. The kids pretend to be a member of a family, and draw a picture of themselves doing an activity in the room they have chosen for our dramatic play time. Then off they go to that "room" and try to play in their role for the next twenty minutes or so. It is an engaging time of our morning, with built in academics and self regulation and fun!

So, questions you may want to ask of your student after school might be, "What center did you go to today?" "Who did you pretend to be?" "What does the (for example) uncle, do in the (for example) garage?"

Approved volunteers are invited to join us at dramatic play time, usually 9-9:30 on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. You would be invited to take on a pretend family member role and help the kids play. It's busy and fun! I'll have a sign up calendar so you can let us know when you might be coming.

Quite soon, I will be posting pictures of the kids working and playing during our school day here on the blog. Awaiting a few more permission slips before that happens. If you have not given permission for your child's picture to be on our blog (we never use names), I will respect that wish and be filtering which pictures we use accordingly.

Thanks for getting those kids to school everyday.

love, Mrs. Bridgman

 

A New School Year!

Hello Pre-K families and Students!

Mrs. Ricciardone and I are really looking forward to seeing you at Pre-K screening on Wednesday, September 2nd, and the following day, September 3rd, at our Open House. You will have received a newsletter with details about these events in the mail.

Our first day of Pre-K is Tuesday, September 8th. Please walk your child to our classroom at drop-off time (8:15 to 8:30). Help your child get settled by helping her/him hang up their jacket and backpack, saying hello to Mrs. Ricciardone and Mrs. Bridgman, doing the Mystery Question (to be explained), and choosing a free choice activity. When you, the adult, decide it is time to leave, a matter of fact "Goodbye and see you later," works well. Please send along a healthy snack. Pick up time is at 12:00.

See you soon!
Mrs. Bridgman 

Field trip to the beach in West Bath

The weather was marginal at best this morning, but we had a great selection of chaperones on hand, and the right tide for collecting shells and looking for treasures from the sea, so we went for it. A few light and short sprinkles of rain, but temperature in the 60's and mostly just overcast ... a nice gray day. Kids and families had fun looking for jellyfish, periwinkles, mussels and clam shells. One hermit crab allowed himself to be captured and examined.

 Here's the group shot. 

"Z" Party

One of the kids' favorite activities has been working with fun learning apps on iPads once a week with Roberta Jordan of the Patten Free Library. We culminated our time with her today, by having a "Z" Party. Miss Roberta files these great apps under alphabet letter names and today was her 26th week working with our class, hence the letter Z for our celebration. It has been an amazing collaboration with the library and technology.

To prepare for the party, the kids grated zucchini yesterday, and Mrs. Ricciardone made it into wonderful zucchini bread for today. They also made a bouquet of newspaper flowers, signed a card and made little zebras to bring to the party.

In addition, Roberta authored a book especially for our class, Who Stole the Z?   You can find the book by following this link. http://www.bookemon.com/book_read_flip.php?book_id=497767&check=44007c74872beb8a15fad56f1dc0755e

Here are some pictures of our joyful learners - the kids were so excited about the celebration!

Nature Supports Right Action

Pre-K had beautiful weather to go for a hike at Sewall Woods, a special nature preserve practically around the corner from our school. The bus ride was a highlight for many kids (thank you Mr. Charles, our bus driver), and we met our friend, Miss Becky, from Kennebec Estuary Land Trust in the parking lot at the woods. She had a neat homemade nature kit for each student, that encouraged us to use all our senses, except for taste. You will see the kids using the various items in the following slideshow. We had an hour long walk through the woods! The kids were great - everyone stayed together and hiked happily. Thank you very much to KELT and the families that joined us, as well.

Pre-K Friendship with Kennebec Estuary Land Trust

KELT (Kennebec Estuary Land Trust) has a talented naturalist who does community outreach in some of the local pre-k classrooms, including Dike Newell School. Miss Becky came to meet us today, and teach us some cool stuff about local birds. She'll come back next week to review and build upon that information. Then in May, KELT will fund a pre-k field trip to nearby Sewall Woods, where we'll hike, observe nature, and enjoy this lovely land preserve. 

Here are some pictures from today. Notice how Becky has every student's full attention.

Spring Lamb comes to visit!

First hand experiences are one of the hallmarks of quality Pre-K classrooms. We are in the midst of our Pets and Vets dramatic play theme, and Mrs. Ricciardone arranged for us to have a visit with Moses, a 2 month old lamb, with his sheep farmer, Willow. Moses and Willow delighted each of the children with patient answers to questions and allowing kids to gently pet the lamb, and sink their fingers into his thick black fleece.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Day in Pre-K

To my very humble understanding, the Very Hungry Caterpillar Day is on or around the first day of spring. We celebrated it today with Eric Carle reading to us (on you-tube) on the big screen in the PD room. Pretty exciting. Just by chance, school snack was pears, which that hungry caterpillar gobbled up on Tuesday in the book. And then we created a wide assortment of caterpillars with play dough which you can enjoy during the following slide show.

Graphics Practice

Here are some pictures of a Tools of the Mind activity we do every week. 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 scenario (today's was that we were at a park and ordering lots of snow cones.) Then I demonstrate how to make the cone shape using private speech. "Down, up, across," is what I'll say aloud to help my dry erase marker form the triangles. We'll go back and add in the snowballs, saying, "Around and close." As soon as the kids hear the music, they can use their private speech and start drawing the shapes on their own boards. 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 nicely.

Wacky Hair Day in Pre-K

Wacky Hair day, an extension of Dr. Seuss's Wacky Wednesday book title, was celebrated throughout Dike Newell School today. In addition, Pre-K enjoyed homemade wacky pretzels at snack time (the dough was mixed and shaped by our class) and got to go on a winter hike with Ms McCauley during PE. (Several kids were busy on the computer with Mrs. Perkins during this photo, so no worries if you don't see your student here -- we'll get a whole class picture soon!)

Impromptu Dance in Pre-K

With marginally low temperatures and a limited amount of time, another indoor recess was declared for Pre-K today. What to do with that extra energy??? The problem solved itself when one of our students pulled out a new harmonica from his backpack and began playing. Some kids dropped what they were doing and danced and danced!

Pre-K students celebrate Valentine's Day

Dear Families,

What fun to feel the happiness of young children exchanging valentines, and preparing for and enjoying a celebration this week! We made a good attempt at limiting the excitement factor, and spread our activities throughout the week ... decorating bags to collect valentines, mixing healthy muffin batter, not to mention the home preparation from families of the actual valentines. These were very much appreciated and enjoyed! Here are some pictures from snack time on Thursday, where we decorated our muffins and ate them up. The red objects on the "arrows" are grape tomatoes sliced diagonally and twisted to form a heart (if you use some imagination).

Pre-K at Dike Newell School is cancelled today

Dear Pre-K Families,

Our policy is to cancel Pre-K if there is a two hour delay for RSU1. No Pre-K today.

See you tomorrow!

Mrs. Bridgman

Dear Pre-K Families,

Our new dramatic play theme is "Hospital." Our play centers will be slowly transforming into a nursery, operating room, X-Ray department, the gift shop, a hospital room and one more center yet to be determined by the kids. If you have items at home that would make suitable props for these centers, we would happily borrow them for the next four or five weeks.

Thank you,
Mrs. Bridgman