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!
Tools of the Mind
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Friday, October 23, 2015
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.
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 ...
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 ...
Tuesday, October 6, 2015
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?)
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?)
Thursday, September 24, 2015
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
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
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
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
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
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
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