January 19, 2012

Announcements:

• The volunteer sign up sheet for the carnival is in the entryway of the school! Please sign up for a time slot!  This is a fun event for everyone!
• Please make sure you received your letter from Carol and Mary this week!

Activities:

• Healthy kids helpers:  Brandon and Catie
• Projects:  Number books and Teddy Bear Collage
• Dora's clues:  mop, pail, sponge - Dora wants to clean!
• Mortimer the puppet introduced the letter "L" - he found a lollipop!  Try to think of other words that start with the letter "L" this week!
• Mailbox: We found an experiment called "bust the bag!"  You need a 5x5 piece of paper towel - put 1.5 Tbsp of baking soda in the center of the square and fold up the square.  In a small ziplock bag put 1/4 cup warm water and 1/2 cup of vinegar.  Carefully hold the folded paper towel inside the corner of the ziplock bag and zip it shut.  Shake the bag and quickly set the bag down and watch and listen for a bang! *Careful, do this experiment over your bathtub - it can be messy, but very amazing for the kids!
• Excuse for snack exercise:  We matched an animal, and dropped a cotton ball into a bucket for our two exercises this week!
• Stories: Living in the Arctic - what kind of animals live in the arctic?  seals, penguins, walrus, whales and reindeer!; Penguins Snowy Day, and Penguins Big Hill.
• Songs:  Drink Hot Cocoa; The More We Get Together; Slippery Fish

January 12, 2012

Announcements:

• Please note a typo on the January calendar - there is NO SCHOOL on Thursday Jan 26th and Friday Jan 27th!
• Please note the carnival invitations sent home in your child's backpack!  Send them to family, friends & neighbors - it's lots of fun games and prizes for the kids!  There are more invites at the school or just copy yours!
• Raffle tickets for the carnival were sent home in your child's backpack!  We do have more at school if anyone wants more!  As we did last year, we are selling fewer tickets so the odds of winning are much higher!

Activities this week:

• Topics: 5 senses and poison
• Healthy Kid Helpers : Braxton & Molly
• Projects: Carnival invite and snowman!
• Dora's clues: small, medium, and large octagons - we talked about thins shaped like an octagon: stop signs, some umbrellas, etc.
• We've got mail!  We had a taste test: 1) salty = chips, 2) sour = baby dill pickles, 3) sweet = M&M's!
• Excuse for snack activity: 1) match snowman and his hat, and 2) look at the letters in each child's name!
• Mortimer the puppet introduced the letter K this week!  He was the king of the forest!  Practice the "K sound with your child this week!
• Poison:  We talked about different poisons and also about "Mr. Goodarm".  Mr. Goodarm helps us pick up things that are only good for us and helps us think about what we should do if we see something that looks good but we're not sure what it is =  Go talk to your parents about it!
• Books: Jamberry, and Big Smelly Bear.
• Eyes and Ears Songs: 1) Senses - sung to the "Muffin Man":  Oh, do you use your ears to hear, Your ears to hear, your ears to hear?; Oh do you use your ears to hear?  Oh, yes!  We use our ears! (repeat with eyes to see, mouth to taste, nose to smell, and hands to touch)  2) sung to "Are you Sleeping":  Ears are listening, Ears are listening; Listen now! Listen now!; Let's make a little noise, Make a little noise!; stomp, clap, clap; stomp, clap, clap!
• Be sure to check the Friday PreK page and the updated Photos page!

January 5, 2012

Announcements:

• The monthly newsletter was sent home in your child's backpack- please read for important details!  
• The carnival is coming up - Friday February 10th - help spread the word, this is a fun family event!
• Math and Storybook totes are available to check out from Small Wonders - enjoy!
• Remember to send shoes to wear during school when boots are worn - thanks!
• Conferences will be on March 9th, sign up will be posted in the school in February!

Activities this week:

• Projects: Celebrate 2012 Decoration, or Hat!  We also worked on a story in our booklet called "Once Upon a Time...."
• Mortimer the puppet: introduced the letter "J"!  he was jingling - he found jingle bells in the woods!
• We've got mail:  We found an experiment - "Iceberg Bottles"!  Here's how we did it:  Fill a 20 oz water bottle 3/4th full of water, add glitter, craft foam pieces, game pieces, etc. in the bottle and freeze.  Examine and watch it melt.  Remember to look at it the next time you come to school and see what happens!
• Dora's clues: Blue marker, blue paper, blue crayon: we found that Dora had a fun book about Blue!
• Music: "I'm a Little Snowman" - sung to "I'm a Little Teapot":  I'm a little snowman, short and fat; Here is my broomstick, here is my hat; When the sun comes out, I melt away; Down down down down - Oops I'm a puddle!
• Books:  Snowmen at Night - what do snowmen do at night?  Slide around?  Sip ice cold cocoa?  Have snowman races?  Throw snowballs?  When Winter Comes - this book was all about that changes that happen in the winter - where do caterpillars, mice, and other creatures go in the winter?
• Excuse for snack exercise:  1) Carry a styrofoam snowball with tongs from point A to point B, 2) Roll a snowball to a friend!
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Tuesday, December 20th

Announcements:

• Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!  Remember school is off until Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012!

Activities:

• Our healthy kid helper this week was Emma!
• Projects: We worked on a story for our booklets, "I would love to get...."
• We had fun with the parachute today!  We put bells on the parachute and listened to them as we sang jingle bells!
• It was so fun opening our great gifts form our friends at school, thanks for participating in the children's gift exchange!
• The children also got a present from Small Wonders: in the bag there is a blue bouncy ball, the teachers wanted you to know!  They also got a noise maker and some books and a candy cane! :)
• We excused for snack by: matching the bags of toys: small, medium, and large
• Dora's clues were: tree, popcorn, bowl - Dora's backpack was stringing popcorn to decorate the house!  We found a paper with 5 candles hiding on the paper - have fun finding them!
• Books: We read Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer today!

December 15, 2011

Announcements:

• Reminder - We are doing a $5 gift exchange on Tuesday - please bring a wrapped gift to exchange!
• Please read the Winter Carnival information sheet (green paper) sent home in your child's backpack!  This will be held on Friday February 10th, 2012 at the New Prague Middle School!  Please help with silent auction items, tickets to events, or gift baskets if you are able!

Activities:

• Projects: We wrapped our families' holiday presents!  We also made a Rudolph - the children's hands were the antlers! :)  We had lots of fun with this!
• Mortimer the puppet introduced the letter "I" this week - he found an Icky Insect!  See if you can find other words that start with the letter "I" with your child!
• We had fun playing our instruments - we played soft, loud, slow, and fast, and even got to march in a band around the room!
• We've got mail: We found bottle instruments!!  You can also do this at home!  Take a plastic pop or water bottle that has been washed out, put something inside such as: macaroni, rice, sand - screw the cover on tight!  We made different types of instruments - find out which items made loud or soft sounding instruments!
• Dora's clues this week were: red crayon, red marker, and red paper - Dora brought a book about red!
• Excuse for snack: 1) Choose a card with an activity on it: flap your arms, wiggle your hips, etc...  2)  Match the mittens exercise!
• Song:  I'll Be Wearing: (sung to She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain":  I"ll be wearing (two warm mittens) when it snows. (clap, clap), I'll be wearing (two warm mittens) when it snows (clap, clap); I'll be wearing (two warm mittens),   I'll be wearing (two warm mittens),   I'll be wearing (two warm mittens), when it snows! (clap, clap).... repeat with other winter clothing items!
• Books:  Cordoroy's Christmas - what did corduroy get for Christmas? : skates, a sweater, and a doll!; Dream Snow - This is a great story about a farmer who feeds his animals - he puts on his warm red coat, boots, and gloves and decorates a tree for them and leaves them each a gift.
• The Heathy Helpers this week were: Lydia and Laine!
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December 9th, 2011

Announcements:

• Reminder - please send shoes in your child's backpack to wear during school!

Activities:

• Healthy Kid Helpers this week were:  Will and Andrew!
• Projects: We made our family Christmas presents with our own decorated wrapping paper!
• Mortimer the Puppet: Introduced the letter H this week!  He was so Happy and he had a Heart!
• Dora's clues were: hearts - 3 different sizes!  We learned about small, medium, and large!
• What fits inside?  We looked at a bunch of boxes all different sizes and decided what would fit inside the boxes!  
• We dismissed for snack by: 1) Matching the hearts, and 2) Matching the evergreen trees - small, medium, and large!
• We've got mail:  This week we found an experiment in our mailbox called "Curious About Chalk"!  We learned about the characteristics of chalk, and what happens when chalk gets wet through this intriguing investigation!  We described how dry chalk looks and feels and how it is powdery when dry, and how it writes on paper.  Then we dipped the chalk in water and described how it felt and how it wrote on the paper, and compared how it was different than when it was dry.  We figured out that chalk absorbs water and this changes its' texture!  Then we experimented with dipping the chalk in brightly tinted water and described what happened.  Ask your child if the chalk wrote differently after it was dipped in colored water?  We also tried dipping the chalk in more than one color to see what happened when we mixed the colors!
• Books:  This week we read:  Snow Dance and 5 Little Penguins Slipping on the Ice!
• Song: "Wake Up" (sing to the tune of "Are You Sleeping?"):  Wake up fingers, Wake up fingers; Rise and shine, rise and shine; It's time to say good morning, time to say good morning; Wake up fingers, wake up fingers!" (repeat with: fingers, arms, head, eyes"
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December 1st, 2011

Activities this week:

Art projects:  This week we worked on painting a "beautiful tree" and made a bell collage!

Our theme this week was : Friends around the world!

Books: Whoever You Are: This is a great story about children all over the world: smiles are the same, so are hurts, cries, joys, love, and pain.  Can You Say Peace?:  This is a book about all of the different ways children around the world say peace!

We've got mail!  This week in our mailbox we found a book The Color of Us - we looked at our skin and found out that we all have different shades of skin color.  We also looked at a book about Dumbo from Japan.  Children all over the world like to read - we just speak different languages!  We also looked at some things from Norway.

Mortimer the puppet introduced the letter "G"!  He found some Gum, he wants to chew it and have some Gooey Gum!  Ask your children about other words that start with the letter G!

We excused for snack this week by: 1) Finishing the Pattern, and 2) Matching objects!

Dora's Clues: bathtub, towel and soap.  We found out Dora wants to make sure we keep ourselves clean!

Song: "Drink Hot Chocolate" (sung to the tune of "Peanut Butter and Jelly"):  First you take the packet and you rip it, you rip it! (pretend to rip a package) x2 (repeat this verse); Chilly chilly weather.  Hot cocoa! (hug self and then fan self) x (repeat); Then you hold the packet, and you pour it, you pour it! (pretend to pour mix); Then you pour hot water, and you stir it, you stir it! (pretend to stir); Then you hold your mug and you (blow), (blow); Then you take a swallow, and you smile, you smile! (smile)