Winter Wonderland

Winter Wonderland fun was had in PE and a special sweet Wednesday Cafe was loved by all...

Make a Smilebox slideshow

We love snow

The girls were so happy that the sleet that had driven them in from the playground earlier turned to big fluffy snowflakes. We bundled up for EE and headed out into our woods for a beautiful walk.

Hmmm.....I wonder what she is doing?

Did you ever happen to wonder, "What is my daughter doing at school right now?" Well, here is a peek at what all of your daughters were doing at approximately 2:00 a few Wednesdays ago.

We love a good book...

Guest Readers Galore!!!

Guest Reporter - Jacey

Jacey was reporter for a day: I took pictures of my friends. I took pictures of my classroom. I took pictures of important things. Snack cups are important. And Pepper is. He is important. I took pictures of my teacher. We were in math workshop. We were playing games. Candyland and math matching games. I like the ice cream game.



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We Are Thankful for Our Springside Sisters

Guest Readers Galore!

Thank you for reading to us, Mr. Megargee and Mr. DellAngelo!! We loved Noisy Nora and And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street.

A peek at our CHASS event

Here is a little peek at our CHASS event. We are hanging the birdfeeders we made in the woods. More to come soon!

Guest Reporter - Ella

I took pictures of Annie, Scarlett, Vivian, Ms. Hamilton, Mekhi, Abigail, Brielle, Bernie, Sally, Olivia, Galen. Jacey was sick that day. The girls were smiling and saying cheese. They were making funny faces. They were working hard too. I took a picture of Willaby Wallaby. He couldn't walk. He was just laying down.

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Zoo Day...Thank You Brielle!!

Thank you for taking pictures, Sarah!

From Pigs to Bears

We are transitioning from our Three Little Pigs Literature Study to our study of Bears. Here is a culminating project from our piggie days.

Guest Reporter - Mekhi

We were in class. I liked class. I was taking a picture of everything we were doing and having a good time. I even did the loft and the dolls. I took a lot of pictures. I took pictures of my friends. I can print out these pictures or I could phone them out. Science is pretty and fun. We studied about bears and the cubs. We know all about them. I really love to take pictures of some of my friends.

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Teddy Bears

Please bring in a Teddy Bear on Thursday. We will use them both in science class and the classroom.

As most of you have heard many of your daughters brought passionate ideas about the election to school today. Carie Szalay and I were observing the conversation for a bit and then I heard someone say, "You can't vote! If your mom votes for that guy then my guy will lose and we want him to win!!!" The other person was very upset and rightfully so. We first had a conversation about the fact that you have to be 18 to vote so the only people in the room who would actually be voting would be the teachers. I thought it was very important to have the girls talk about everyone's right to have an opinion and express the opinion. Later we spoke about the fact that you have to really learn a lot about what or who you vote for because it is an extremely important decision and we need to respect everyone's idea that they worked so hard on. In between we had some other conversations that I caught on video. Sorry for the low resolution. I was having a heck of a time getting the video to download. I will try and get the higher resolution movie up ASAP, but for now this will give you an idea of what your daughter may be overhearing in your conversations at home. :)

Thank you Mr. Mattson!

Bernie's Dad joined us as a Guest Reader today. What a great story he chose! Our Springside Sisters joined us.

Olivia's Report

This week Olivia is a guest reporter for the Pre-k Blog. She was given the digital camera and asked to take photos of what she thought was important in the classroom. She chose the photos she thought were "good." The photos she took are below. She noted that they were dark and next time she'd have to check the light (flash). Here is her report:

"It was very good to be taking pictures because I liked that everyone was creating so good that I might give them a treat today. We were creating everything that is wonderful."

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Some October Moments

Here are some of our October moments. We worked on a color by number picture to review recognizing numerals 3 and 4 but also to prepare us for the next day's project. Our favorite scene from The Three Little Pigs art project was created by outlining the scene with Sharpie markers, leaving plenty of white space to fill in with watercolors the following day. The color by number prepared us for this idea of leaving white space. You'll also see us painting some paper for autumn decorations, enjoying Wednesday Cafe, and building.

A little magic tree footage...

Parent Volunteer Sign Up

Look for that famous clipboard on top of the student mailboxes.

Dance, Freeze, and Count

The Ball Bounced

Learning Math on the Move

When you are four and five you often do your best learning in motion. We try to incorporate music, movement, games, and other areas of interest in all areas of the curriculum. Here is a video that shows how we have started practicing counting backwards. While each girl has her turn I am checking for proper order of the numbers, one to one correspondence, inclusion of zero (We love using zero in pre-k), and following the rules of the game. At home you can remember to use zero when counting, practice counting down, give your daughter lots of things to count in real life situations. This is where I often see girls skipping items or numbers when they count. The real life disarray of the objects, interruptions, or distractions interfere. Having practice counting in all sorts of ways will help firm up this skill. We have also been working on identifying numerals. Sometimes it may seem as if a young child "knows" her numbers but children are experts at using clues to help them. Point out numerals all around you and help them recognize what they are. This will help as we learn to write them in our handwriting program.

A trip to the Magic Tree

Our Handwriting Without Tears Work

Some Blue and gold footage

Discovering Hidden Shapes in our World

We used math workshop time to work in half groups. While some girls stayed inside to complete work, the other group went on a shape hunt with Ms. Hamilton. Working in half groups gives us a chance to give each girl a bit more one to one support and leads to less distractions. When we talk about shapes we use their proper mathematical names and discuss how we know how to identify them. How do you know it is a square? The girls need to articulate what they know about shapes. How many sides each shape has, how many corners, and even describing how the lines run parallel to each other, though we don't use that word yet. You can have shape hunts at your home or in your neighborhood.

Blue and Gold Make Green!!

Three Days until Blue and Gold Day!!!

Here is a link to Ms. Fish's What is Blue and Gold Day Video.

http://blogs.springside.org/groups/LSPE/weblog/883de/What_is_Blue___Gold_Day_.html

Why did my daughter write a summer story?

Learning about each other and our school is what the first two weeks of school is all about. Your daughter's summer story provided a mode of familiar content for your daughter to share a bit about herself. We were able to discuss and practice the responsibilities of speakers and listeners during our summer story morning meeting presentations. Most importantly, it is empowering to share something that you have created and answer questions about it. Here is footage from our very first summer story. Mekhi told us about her very eventful summer.

The First Walk to Our Woods

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Business, Reminders, and To-Dos

We have two days to remember this week:

PHOTO DAY is Wednesday. Your daughter may wear something special for the class picture in the morning if she likes, but please send in school appropriate clothing for her to change into after the photo. You may also send in a comb or brush if it is clearly marked with your daughter’s name.

BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT is Thursday 7:30-9:00. There is childcare available at Springside if needed. You can register online via the Springside website.


Reminders:

Although the heat wave seems to have broken, the sun is still quite strong. Please remember to apply sunscreen to your daughter each morning. This is a great habit to start and actually keep through the winter as you can get sunburned any time of year.

Please remember Springside’s shoe policy. Remember to send your daughter in shoes that are safe to run, jump, swing, and climb in. Sneakers are really best every day of school, but open-toed shoes and crocs are never allowed. Your daughter is learning to put her shoes on independently at school so don’t forget to let her practice at home.

Weather reminder – we go outside almost every day so always dress your daughter for the weather. Yes, we’ve even gone out for puddle jumping days. I know it is strange to be thinking of it but keep an eye out for snowsuits for the winter. We especially love to head out when it snows. I saw that Hanna Anderson is having a pre-season sale on winter gear. When you get the snowsuit, have your daughter practice putting it on and taking it off.


To-dos: Please send in a photo of your home by Friday. We will be using the photos for our study of Our Homes, which will lead us into Tree Homes.

Thank you!

Chester Chase

A few moments from our first day

Here are a few moments from the afternoon work time in pre-k. Eventually this time after rest time will be exclusively math workshop but for now we had a variety of math materials available along with other activities. Somehow a few girls still had enough energy to dance, dance, dance in the afterschool program!

Welcome to Pre-k!!

We are so excited that you are coming to Pre-k. Last year's class had some advice to share with the incoming girls.

Chinese Birthday Party

Brave Girls Climbing

Ladybugs

Math with Unifix Cubes

The girls have been working diligently with unifix cubes. We have been exploring measurement by volume as well as length. The girls estimate how many unifix cubes they need to fill a bucket or measure a length of yarn. Afterwards they count the actual number needed and record this data on their data sheet. We have also been recording AB ABB AAB and AABB patterns with unifix cubes.

Grandparents and Special Friends Day

There was a lot of love shared on Grandparents and Special Friends Day.

Grandparents and Special Friends Day Movie

Here is the movie we shared on Grandparents and Special Friends Day. Don't forget you can make the movie full screen size by clicking on the small square icon under the video. I had to compress the movie to get it to upload properly so the quality isn't quite what I would want it to be. Enjoy!

The Important Thing About Moms

We read The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown and then made this tribute for our moms.

We are fascinated by worms!!

It was a day of scientific inquiry last week as we spent more time with our worms.

Inquiry #1 - Will there be more, less, or the same number of worms in the worm bin?
Inquiry #2 - How many egg sacs will we find?
Inquiry #3 - How long will a worm stay on a leaf?
Inquiry #4 - How long will a worm stay under a leaf?
Inquiry #5 - How long will a worm stay on our arm?

Thursday Folders

Hmmm...what is this? You may sometimes wonder as you take things out of the Thursday folder. This week you will find an illustration to the question "What would you make two of?" We illustrated these after reading the Chinese Folktale Two of Everything. There is also an illustration that includes a red squiggle. We read The Squiggle, a book about a girl who finds a red squiggle and makes it into The Great Wall of China, a dragon, fireworks and more. Some girls played a math game with bears. They chose five bears from a bag. they recorded the colors of the bears in the squares and then wrote the color words. Of course, the worms came home which they are very excited about. You'll notice a lot less of my writing and a lot more kid writing in the Pre-k News this time. The girls are now writing their own articles for the news. I ask them to write all the sounds they hear in the words or sentence that tells their story. Storrie asked me why I was writing other words nearby. I told her that everyone is doing wonderful kid writing in their articles. Some grown-ups reading the news may not know how to read kid writing so I would write the grown-up writing next to it. She said, grown-ups do need help sometimes. Yes, we do!

Worms are Coming Home!!

During the past couple weeks in Science class, we set up a class worm compost bin. We have observed worms moving, studied their cocoons, and counted them to see if our worm collection grew. We also discovered that worms are great recyclers! They will eat plant leftovers and make a nice compost material that can be used on your house or garden plants. This week, your daughters have created a worm bin to go under your sink so that you can extend this experience at home!

Here's what can go in the worm bin:
-shredded paper products (not glossy pages or magazines)
-fruit and vegetable peels and trimmings
-egg shells
-tea bags
-coffee grounds and filters
-grains, beans, and breads (without butter, margarine, or mayonnaise)

What should not go in the worm bin:
-meat products
-dairy products
-oily products

Some tips:
Bury the food at least one inch deep to prevent odors and unwanted critters. Just lift a little bedding, add the food, and put the bedding back into place.
Try not to add too much of one kind of food, too many orange peels for example can add too much of a toxic chemical.
About once a week, mist the bin with water to keep it moist, just like worms like it underground. If it's too wet, add a little newspaper to soak extra moisture.
Worm composting (Vermicomposting) is not an exact science, please check on it occasionally and you may find that you have to adjust the amount of food you are adding. Your worms should be able to eat almost a half pound of food waste per day.

Springtime reminders

The warm weather is finally back. Please remember to dress your daughter in close toed shoes. Sandals, flip flops, and crocs are not permitted at school. It is also time for sunscreen to become part of the morning routine again!

What is that black box?

Here is a blog tech tip for you. The slide shows on the blog are mostly created from a web-based program called Slide. The slide show completes one or two cycles and then goes to "rest." To view a slide show again or to see one further down the blog that has already gone to rest is easy. Just click on the "embed me" tab of the slide show. Click on the thumbnail in the bottom left hand corner and the slide show will play again. Enjoy!!

Exploring letter sounds around our school

Becoming a Reader

Above all we strive to have each girl in Pre-k find the confidence to view themselves as a learner. As a learner, one thing many four and five year olds strive for is being able to read. “Reading readiness” is an intricate set of skills that have roots in your daughter’s earliest experiences. Literacy is formed on the cornerstones of four major components: reading, writing, listening and speaking. We incorporate each of these components into all portions of the curriculum in Pre-k. Along with the cornerstones and more specific details they entail (phonological and phonemic awareness, alphabetic knowledge, etc.) there are three other critical elements to reading success that must be present. These are motivation, self-regulation, and risk taking. Motivation for reading is born through positive experiences, especially being read to often. Children also connect to reading by observing adults use print and language in their world. Self-regulation involves your daughter’s ability to control her behavior. Listening to a story or directions and sitting still when necessary are skills in the classroom and in life. You'll find that self-regulation is more difficult for some children than for others, and is learned only with patience and persistence. Finally, risk taking is paramount in learning to read. Research has shown a powerful correlation between a child’s ability to read and risk taking. It takes a great amount of bravery for your daughter to take whatever skills she has in her repertoire and attempt to read aloud. Mistakes are evident and children must be willing to make them. The adults in their life must be willing to let them experience these mistakes as they continue to learn the patterns and rules of written language. Over the next 7 weeks we will continue to support your daughter in her journey to becoming a reader.

D is for Dragon Dance

What fun we had dancing through lower school and greeting our spectators. Ni-Hao!!

Our pre-k architects recreate The Great Wall of China.

How do you make a home for worms?

1. Shred paper

2. Put the paper in a bin

3. Add some dirt

4. Squirt with water

5. Add things from our classroom compost bin

How a flower makes its smell

Many girls have been kind enough to bring in the flowers blooming in their gardens. Whitney had brought in Daffodils and asked, "Ms. Moore, how does a flower make a smell?" I decided to ask the girls what they thought.

How a Flower makes its smell:

Libby From the pollen
Sky The bees because they put honey in it
The bees make honey out of flowers
Lucy Maybe the flowers have honey in them or maybe the flowers are made out of honey
Ashley I think they have honey in them. Because they are pretty.
Whitney I think there is nectar in them
Gretchen Because some have honey in them and some don’t
Ella Because they might have pollen
Storrie Because the flowers have a little seed that grows and the seed has honey in the middle of it

Our Flight To China