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

Here is the link to our class book that Miss Roberta helped us produce using our iPads. It is worth reading!

We LOVE the Holidays!
by Mrs. Bridgman's Pre-K Class

To read the book online, click on the folllowing link:
Read Book Online

To read the book on your iPad, install the bookPress app and click on the following link:
Read Book on iPad

Thanks very much to Miss Roberta, and the Patten Free Library!

Dear Pre-K Families,

In light of this holiday season, preschool has been focusing on reindeer this week (we've had two reindeer visit our classroom!), and next week, we will explore a few Hanukkah traditions. If you would like to join us for latkes and applesauce on Wednesday, December 17th, at 11:40, we’d love to have you. (The kids will be making the applesauce on Wednesday morning.) 

We will not be exchanging gifts, other than our happy smiles and generous hearts, during this busy time.

Thanks as always, for all you do to make preschool a happy place for us. Happy Holidays!

Mrs. Bridgman and Mrs. Peavey

Visit to the Dike Newell School Library

Mrs. Hernandez invited Pre-K to visit the school library today. Dike Newell School PTA generously paid for a new book for each student, and we had a great selection to choose from. The kids were very well behaved during our visit, too. Here we are back in our classroom with our new books.

Stone Soup

Dear Families,

To celebrate this feasting time of year with a literacy connection, Pre-K will be making Stone Soup tomorrow. If you are able to send along a vegetable to add to the soup, or can stay for a few minutes at drop-off time tomorrow morning, and peel and chop vegetables with the kids, we'd appreciate it. We'll be assembling the soup on Tuesday and feasting at snack time (10 ish) on Wednesday. You are welcome to join us then as well - please give me a heads up, if you think you can come).

Thank you!
Mrs. Bridgman

Tuesday update ... Many, many thanks to the families who sent in vegetables and/or were willingly conscripted into peeling and chopping vegetables with the kids this morning. 

At 11:30, we gathered around the tables with each student having an ingredient of the soup in front of them. We reread Stone Soup and assembled the soup as we read. 

The soup is bubbling away on the stove as I post this tonight ... It smells wonderful. We'll serve it (minus the round gray stone) at snack time on Wednesday, around 10. Student families are welcome to join us!

Wednesday update:

Many kids tried Stone Soup today. Two asked for seconds... We had several parents join us for the "feast". Thanks for the multifaceted assistance to make this celebration happen. Soup from a stone, fancy that!

Upcoming dates

Dear Families,

Several upcoming dates to keep in mind ...

November 11th, Veteren's Day - No preschool.

Parent Teacher conferences for pre-k will be on Thursday, November 20th. We'll have a sign up sheet for the 20 minute time slots next week.

There is no preschool on November 25, 26 or 27th (Thanksgiving week).

Our dramatic play theme of "Family" will end this week. Next week we'll choose and play in our regular centers, and also include some theme building and prop making for our next play theme, "Restaurants."

Your kids are doing a nice job with their play plans. Those are the half sheets of paper that come home with a self drawn picture of the student pretending to be a family member (like a mom or the brother or the aunt or grandfather.) Planning on how one will play, then following through with that plan is a step down the road to the all important self-regulation which is a major focus of our curriculum. It would be great if you'd ask your student to tell you about the picture and what center they chose that day. There may be student drawn lines that indicate spaces for words of their message, and some beginning sounds of words on those lines for some (all kids eventually), as well as teacher written words that indicate the student's message.

We've enjoyed family volunteers in our classroom lately. Joining us any day during dramatic play time (usually 9 to 9:30 ish), or on Tuesday and Thursdays from 11:30 to 12 ish for creative art and story time, is helpful. Or give us a heads up for other times you wish to come. 

Thanks for helping us make preschool a great place!

Mrs. Bridgman

Enjoying fruit snacks, cookie dough exploration, and painting with cinnamon enhanced paint!

Hi Families,

Our school receives grant money that provides free fruit or veggies at snack time for us. Your kids are welcome to bring their own snack and/or partake in this as well. Most of the kids enjoyed the orange wedges one day this past week!

With our dramatic play theme being "family" at the moment, partaking in elements of baking by playing with molasses cookie dough (as if it were play dough) seemed appropriate and engaging. We read the favorite kid's book,"If You Give a Mouse a Cookie," rolled dough into balls and other shapes, placed them on cookie sheets, and had baked molasses cookies and milk for snack the following day. (No need to read this sentence aloud to your student, but you might be reassured to know we used different cookie dough when we baked the ones for eating ...)

 Also on the following slide show are a few pictures of the kids painting a paper plate for an apple shape, using cinnamon enhanced red paint. They really enjoyed this activity, and painted up to the very last minute of preschool time that morning.