Welcome to November Preschool Families!  This month is going to go by so quickly, but it is going to be another fun one.  I have a few bits of information and reminders I would like to start with and then I will share some Halloween party pictures.  Spoiler alert:  we had a mummy paper fight!

Boxtops

Your older students may have already shared with you that we are having a box tops contest at Wellman Elementary.  We are trying to collect 2,000 box tops by Nov. 13.  We sent home a turkey paper to return your box tops on yesterday.  Please check your student's folder and send back what you can!

Classroom rewards

In our classroom we are using DOJO as a behavior management/reward system.  We have used it very little until now, but this week both class decided on the prize they would be working towards.  The morning class has decided on a party day and the afternoon class has decided on a pet day.  These are ideas straight from their little minds and we are more than willing to make it happen when we reach our goal.  Individual students can also pick a prize from the prize box when reaching their individual goal.

Book Orders

We will be sending home book orders tomorrow.  There are some great rewards for November so check it out.  Books make fantastic Christmas gifts, so order now.  Our class order code is PDVY2.  Orders will be due on November 18 in order to ensure delivery before Christmas.

Family Project

Friday we will be sending home TWO feathers for our first family project.  We would like you to be creative and decorate the bigger feather with anything from home.  (macaroni, glitter, stickers, cereal, paint, whatever you choose)  For the smaller feather, have a discussion as a family about what it means to be thankful.  Choose the thing you are most thankful for and write it on your feather.  We will be using these for a family bulletin board.  PLEASE take this time to spend as a family.  Life is so busy and hectic these days, we could all use a little extra family time. We cannot wait to see what you come up with!

Weather

This is a quick reminder about appropriate outside wear for your students while at school.  We spend a minimum of 20 minutes outside when the weather is appropriate and our playground is not shielded from the wind.  We would prefer to have your students dressed too warm and be able to take layers off as appropriate.  Please send hats and gloves and coats as appropriate.  Soon, we will be needing snow pants and all that get up.  EEEEK!

Also, we are working hard to encourage independent dressing as the cooler weather approaches.  When there are 14 preschoolers needing help with every outside item they wear the process of getting outside can be very overwhelming. If you are willing and able, we would appreciate your help in teaching and encouraging this independence in your student at home as well.  Please feel free to practice putting on coats, snow pants, gloves, and boots/shoes.  Zipping practice is also needed.



Ok, now for the fun stuff!  Halloween party pictures!  We had a blast partying together and working hard for our treats.  Again, we really appreciate all of the donations and volunteers that helped to make the party possible!

We played 5 games. The Spider game, Witch game, Pumpkin game, Mummy game, and Halloween Toss.  It was almost unanimous that the spider game was their favorite.  I hope you didn't miss out on the picture of Ms. Stacia demonstrating how to play the Witch game. ;)

October is quickly coming to an end.  I am sure that you have noticed the worksheets and/or heard from your students that we have officially began practicing our letters.  I talked with a few of you about how we follow the Handwriting Without Tears approach to learning how to write letters, here is what that looks like.

We are currently working on the letters we call "frog-jump capitals."  All of the letters in this group start with a big line down and then we "jump" to the top, by picking up our pencil and moving back to the top of the big line before finishing the other lines of our letter.  For example; you might hear your student say these things when writing the letter D.  "Big line down, jump to the top, big curve to the bottom."  The letters included in this group are:

F     E     D     P     B      R     N     M

We work with one letter on Monday and Tuesday and move to a different letter on Thursday and Friday.  I encourage you to talk about/practice writing/build/ and look for these letters as you go about your day.

This is what letter practice looks like right now in Preschool

Also, we have officially started our "Star of the Week" fun.  This week's stars of the week are Alex from the morning class and Abe from the afternoon class.  Next week's stars will be Brennick and Adin.

Upcoming events include:

Friday, October 23:  The Library will visit to read to us

Friday, October 30:  Fall/Halloween Party

Note:  I would like to try a "trick-for-treats" obstacle course at our Halloween party.  If anyone is interested, we could use some non-candy "treats" (pencils, balls, Halloween trinkets, etc) I am aiming for about 5 obstacles, so we would need 5 different types of treats, 30 treats each.  Please let me know if you are interested in contributing "treats" for our party.  

Because I just flooded the feed with a lot of reading, I thought it might be more fun see what your kiddos have been up to lately.  I hope you'll enjoy these "snapshots" of our work here at school.

Pictures from Dot Day!

Free play fun!

Hello Preschool Parents!
I wanted to give a quick update on some new/modified Preschool procedures.

Arrival and dismissal times:
Now that we have a couple weeks of school under our belt we would like to modify these times slightly, based on when the largest number of students are able to arrive.  AM Students:  Please arrive to school between 8:00 and 8:10.  We have students arrive to school by bus as early as 7:50, so we would like to start our day as close to 8:15 as possible.  Dismissal will be at 11:15.  PM Students:  Please arrive between 12:05 and 12:15.  We would like to start our day at 12:20.  We have some students with us until 3:40.  Dismissal for parent pick-up students will be at 3:10 so that you can be in and out before bus traffic.  Students that leave with a sibling or on a bus will be dismissed as usual.(No changes here)  Keeping the majority of students as closely grouped as possible will allow us to make the most of our learning time here at school.

Also, because we have had ample time to acclimate our students to the routine of school, we would like to ask that you encourage your student to be responsible for themselves during arrival time.  Try to say goodbye to your student at the door and let them be in charge of the rest of the routine.  Your student will walk into the classroom all the way to the coat room and hang up their back pack (this prevents a traffic jam at the door), bring their folder to the basket, use the bathroom, wash hands, do attendance, and return to the table for a table activity while we wait for everyone to arrive.  YES!! They can already do this for themselves.  We are quick learners in Preschool.  Kaleen and I are here to help, should problems arise during this routine, so you are free to go once you have said your goodbye.  Thank you for helping your student to be responsible for themselves at Preschool.

Preschool Problem Solving:
You may have heard your student expressing a new phrase this week, as we have begun talking about how to solve problems in preschool.  As you can imagine there can be any number of "problems" a preschooler has to solve every day.  Where do I put my paper towel after I use it?  What do I do when a friend takes my toy?  How do I play with a friend?  The blocks area is full, what do I do now?  This week we started talking about staying calm and "using our words" to solve problems.  We practiced a very simple phrase "Please, Stop.  I don't like..." This helps our friends to know that we do not like what they are doing and we can move on to fixing it.  If you have similar problems with siblings or visitors, or even you, yourself, please feel free to encourage them to use this phrase, by reminding them to "use their words."

We have learned so very much in just a few short weeks of school!  We can walk in a straight line without talking inside the school, many of us can already write our whole name, how to listen to a story, and how to play with friends.

On Tuesday we practiced a Tornado Drill.  The afternoon class did SO well! (Morning did not participate)  We all followed directions and stayed quiet until it was all clear.

As always please let me know if you have questions/comments/concerns!

Upcoming dates and Events:

Tie Dye on Friday, September 25 at 9AM and 1PM.  Please remember a shirt if you haven't already.
Flouride treatments on Monday, September 28
October Snack Sign up will be coming our next week as well.
Book orders Due October 6
Parent/Teacher Conferences Tuesday October 6 I will be sending out a sign up sheet that correlates with sibling conference times.
Parent/Teacher Conferences Thursday October 8.

Hello Parents!  We are blissfully aware that we have survived our first week of Preschool.  I am sure this week was just as hard on many of you as it was on our students, but I assure you, we ALL had a fun time and are quickly learning what school is all about.  Last week we spent a lot of time getting familiar with our classroom, our friends, our teachers and schedule.  This week we will begin a more in depth discussion of what happens at school.  What are the rules? How do we use glue and scissors? What are some kind ways to play with our friends?  A few of our students are returning from last year so they might already be familiar with this material, but it will be a great reminder to them, and a great experience for our new friends, if those students help us out by being good models and leaders.

Upcoming events:  School pictures are Friday, September 11
                               Flouride will be done on Monday, September 28

Here are some pictures from our first few days of school!

Taking a break from Recess

We have done a lot of sharing of our names and things we like.  Learning how to take turns speaking is a hard job to do.

Sensory Table 

Dress Up

Playing play dough at the art center

We have made some pretty awesome creations at the light table

Science Center

Blocks Center

The Library

The Writing Center

 Please note:  I have also added a closed group to my Facebook account for preschool family use.  Only the immediate family members of preschool students will be added to the group for the safety of our children.  It is a private group so that only invited members may see the information posted.  If you wish you join the group, please click or search for Preschool at Wellman Elementary on Facebook.