May 2011

Thank you for all your support this school year! Remembering back to September, we marvel at how much your children have grown!!

Happy Mother’s Day to all! Here’s a song tribute to the mommies:
(To the tune of BINGO)
We know someone who loves us so
And Mommy is her name-o
M-O-M-M-Y
M-O-M-M-Y
And Mommy is her name-o!

Last book order forms due: May 5
Sasha’s birthday: May 10
Chapel: May 19 and 26 at 9:30
May 31: Outdoor Day
June 2: Last day of preschool

For Outdoor Day on May 31, we will be playing on the playground plus adding water tables, buckets, bikes, parachute, bubbles, and chalk. You are invited to join us for snack at 10:45 either inside or outside depending on the weather. Siblings are welcome. Please have your child wear clothes that can get wet and be sure that a change of clothes are still in your tote, just in case. Please send a towel and if we could have a couple of blankets to spread for the snack that would be great.

We will be sending home brief end-of –year written evaluations for each child. Conference available upon request.

We have 5 caterpillars in the classroom that we are watching for their change into butterflies. Insects, frogs, flowers, lots of painting, some cutting are on the May agenda.

Thanks for sharing your children with us!!

April 2011

Dear Parents,

How special to have our very own Favorite Recipes Book! Thank you all for your recipes and card inserts. It certainly makes us feel much appreciated. Thanks!

March has hung on with a last sprinkling of snow, but for the most part has been “lamb-y” rather than “lion-y.” Now onto “April showers bring May flowers.”

No School on April 4- FCPS teacher work day
Book orders due April 7
Spring break April 18-April 22: No school
Happy Birthdays to both Derek and Caitlin on 4/26 !!

Spring and Easter lend themselves to many fun projects that will keep us busy the first part of the month. We’ll paint and decorate in the Easter theme and talk more about plants and growing. Are your potato eyes still growing tall? At the end of the school year last year, mine was wrapped around my carport post. Later during the summer (months after the plant was gone) I wanted to use the pot and soil for something else and lo! and behold! Didn’t I find 3 golf ball sized potatoes!!

We’ll also keep singing and having fun with numbers and letters and practice more with scissors! Thanks for sharing your children with us!!

Check to make sure you have that extra set of clothes in the tote bags! We’ve had water in the water table in the Big Room and some raindrops on the playground equipment to get us soggy and in need of dry clothes.

Happy Spring!

March 2011

Dear Parents,

Welcome to March! February certainly flew by! Thanks for sending your children for the snow day make-up day. It was fun to see them for a 3 day week!

We will be talking about weather (will March come in like a lion or a lamb?), St. Patrick’s Day, firefighters and the circus this month. We will also be reading fairy tales and doing projects and re-enactments to go along with them. Hopefully the playground will be snow and ice-free this month!

March 3- Noah’s birthday
March 10 and 31- Chapel at 9:30
March 15- Jacob’s birthday
March 17- St. Patrick’s Day: WEAR GREEN; Book orders due
March 24- Visit and puppet show by the Fire Department

Please remember to call the office if your child is going to be absent.

Check to see if you have appropriate spare clothing in the tote bag.

As always, thanks for sharing your children with us! Thanks for the nice Valentines too!

February 2011

Thank you for attending parent-teacher conferences. Please feel free to contact us with any follow up or new concerns. Remember to register for 2011-12 school year on Feb. 2.

During February we will be discussing community helpers, learning new songs and investigating patterns.

Feb. 3- Book orders due
Feb. 8 is school-wide Hat Day. Find, borrow, or make a hat to wear for the day!
Feb. 10- Chapel at 9:30; Valentine’s Day card exchange!*
Feb. 17- Chapel at 9:30
Feb. 26- Mrs. Lewis’ birthday

Please send 12 student cards to distribute which are signed on the back with your child’s name. Printing recipient’s name on front of card is optional. Here is the class list if you elect to address them as well as sign them.

Andrew
Caitlin
Derek
Drew
Grace
Graham
Jacob
Lucy
Maddie
Madison
Noah
Sasha

January 2011

Dear Parents,

Thank you for the nice goodies and gifts! Happy New Year to all!

In January we will read about hibernation, bears, and talk about differences between the seasons.

January 11 is school-wide pajama day! Your child may come to school in pajamas! (Mrs. Lewis and I will be in ours!) Slippers are optional. We will need sneakers for the playground. (Nightgowns are discouraged, but could work with pants on underneath.)

Chapel on Jan. 13 and 27 at 9:30. You are always invited to sit in with us.

Book orders are due on Jan. 13. Thanks for ordering!

Registration and conferences are coming up!

We will have a sign up sheet for a 15 minute parent-teacher conference outside the classroom door on Jan. 6. These are informal conferences to share information about your child and his/her day at preschool and to discuss plans for next year. Please jot down questions/concerns you may wish to address during your timeslot. Please arrange for child care during your conference time: one suggestion being coordinating back-to-back slots with another parent to trade off time watching the children. Phone conferences are also an option.

Registration for the 2011-12 school year will begin for enrolled students and their siblings on Feb. 2 at 9 a.m. Please submit your paperwork on opening day! Registration will be open to the public on Feb. 7.

Please double check that you have season-appropriate change of clothing in your totes. We had the soap dispenser at our sink moved from the back to alongside the faucet!! That should mean fewer “wet-to-the-elbow-sleeves” reaching for the soap!!

Check weather forecasts. We go out daily. Layers work well. Please label hats and mittens. We have suggested that mittens go into the hats, and then the hat bundle goes inside one sleeve of the coat. So, when we grab the coat from the hook, it’s altogether with us in the classroom to put on and mittens less likely to be dropped along the way.

Kiss and Ride is being encouraged!! Your child is helped from the car, supervised into the building, and greeted near the coat hooks! Plus they feel very independent!

This group has made so much progress since September!! We are very proud of them, yet we know that coming back from a two week layoff may warrant a tad of re-adjustment. We’re here to help things go smoothly! Looking forward to 2011 and thanks for sharing your children with us!!

December 2010

Dear Parents,

Thank you for the Soup’s On!

The December calendar is as an attachment. Please print it and post it on your refrigerator! Thanks! There are only 5 times that we meet together in December and one of those days, Dec. 14, is the Field Trip to Robinson High School for the Tiny Tots Concert. Please look for a driver sign up sheet outside our classroom door. More details to follow.

Book orders have a quick turn-around time this month! Please submit orders online or send an envelope with your forms by Dec. 2 to insure a timely delivery. (We will brown bag the orders to keep any gifts a surprise.)

Madison is turning 4 on Dec. 12! We would love to have a shared snack. Please check with me on which day is best.

Our sing-a-long is on Thursday the 16th at 11:40. You are invited to meet us upstairs in the sanctuary to sing along with us! As always, you are welcome to join us for chapel time. December’s Chapel times are 12/9 and 12/16 at 9:30.

Have a very safe and happy Thanksgiving! And Merry Christmas!!

November 2010

Dear Parents,

Thank you for coming to Open House. It was good to have so many visitors! Thanks also to Mrs. Frank, Lucy’s mom, for volunteering for room parent duties.

For November: Please note the following dates:
Nov. 1 and 2- No School
Nov. 11- Book orders due, chapel at 9:30
Nov. 15- Graham’s birthday (celebrated on 10/16 at preschool)
Nov. 18- Chapel at 9:30
Nov. 24, 25, and 26- No School: Happy Thanksgiving.

Please look for the November calendar being sent electronically also. Show and Tell names are listed (S&T) each school day. Mrs. Lewis and Mrs. Jones are taking a show and tell turn each in Nov.

We are having great fun with stories and also books on tape, projects with glue, and some practice with scissors. The Halloween collages outside the classroom were interesting to watch materialize: fascinating watching the fascination with what the glue would do on the paper via a Q-tip!!

We love the big easel paper too! Three shades of orange to start with and amazing how a painting can turn out!

Please practice getting sleeves back to right side out. We are having good success with “flipping” the coats over our heads to get them on.

We had a fire drill and everyone was “quick and quiet” and followed expertly! We emphasized, “That was for practice. No real fire!” Great job, guys!!

We will let you know which December Tiny Tots concert we decide upon coming up in December.

For November, we will discuss being thankful and sing plenty of turkey songs.

Thanks for using Kiss and Ride! Happy November!

September 2010

Just a quick wrap-up of our hour this morning follows-

We had nine of the twelve enrolled in the room with us. Thanks for coming.

Mrs. Lewis and I had a good time getting to know the boys and girls a bit better and we will be there for you on Tuesday!

The play dough was a favorite. Everyone was at the play dough table for at least a little while (Jacob and Graham being with it the longest making cut-out stars into muffins). Grace went to the big blocks first and Andrew and Derek went to the magnetic blocks. Sasha and Maddie rotated the room and were very happy with doing that.

Mrs. Lewis started recording in her notebook the votes that were taken to an important and serious household survey including the following:

-who has a sink at home?
-who has ice cream at home?
-who has a bed at home?

Those that were with tears were not with tears the entire hour, but we will need to get another box of tissues in the room. Please rest assured that everything was really ok, despite those tears. And--- remember that Kiss and Ride will be available on Tuesday and it is recommended. If you elect to walk your child in, we advise you to make the good-byes simple and efficient. Develop a system such as: Two high-fives, then a hug OR a whopper of a hug and one blow- a- kiss. (Similar to pulling off a band-aid—the quicker the better). Feel free to call the office after 10-15 minutes and we can give you an update on your child.

Remember that between the two of us, we’ve dropped off 7 youngsters with all sorts of personalities at preschool ourselves!!

Thanks for sharing your children with us! See you next week.

Have a good weekend!!
Nancy Jones and Louise Lewis

Please come by and meet the teachers, see the classroom and meet a few of the other families.
To make the transition to preschool easier we are inviting families to visit the classroom in small groups.

September 7 1-1:20
Caton
Ferguson
Nguyen

If you time on Saturday, September 4 at 9, we could use some helping hands to spread mulch on the playground. Please contact preschool advisory board chair, Annie Huse, if you can lend a hand. 703 968 7782

Show and Tell Guidelines

Each child will have 10 turns at show and tell over the school year. We will have 2 students per school day and your child will have either all Tuesday’s or all Thursday’s. From each twosome we will alternate line leader/snack helper duties giving each student 5 turns with each of those jobs.

Please label your child’s item. Have him/her practice with “This is my ______.” Some will be comfortable speaking on their first turn and some may need more time. To begin with, the one item chosen could be a favorite toy, stuffed animal, book, or photo. As the year progresses we will give “themes” for the show and tells.

The teachers will take 2 turns during the year too!!

Show and Tell Dates:

Andrew C
9/21; 10/12; 11/9; 12/7; 1/11; 2/8; 3/1; 3/22; 4/12; 5/10
Andrew P. same dates as Andrew C.

Caitlin and Derek
9/23; 10/14; 11/11; 12/9; 1/13; 2/10; 3/3; 3/24; 4/14; 5/12

Grace and Graham
9/28; 10/19; 11/16; 12/14; 1/18; 2/15; 3/8; 3/29; 4/26; 5/17

Jacob and Lucy
9/30; 10/21; 11/18; 12/16; 1/20; 2/17; 3/10; 3/31; 4/28; 5/19

Maddie W. and Madison M.
10/5; 10/26; 11/23; 1/04; 1/25; 2/22; 3/15; 4/5; 5/3; 5/24

Noah and Sasha
10/7; 10/28; 12/2; 1/6; 1/27; 2/24; 3/17; 4/7; 5/5; 5/26

Monthly Themes

September: Friends/Apples/Colors
October: Pumpkins/Numbers/Shapes
November: Turkeys/Textures/Tastes
December: Celebrations/Sounds/Sense of Sight
January: Sense of Smell/ Snow*(seasons)/Review of 5 Senses
February: Groundhogs/Hearts/Community Helpers
March: Weather/St. Patrick’s Day/Community Helpers
April: Easter/Plants/Growing
May: Bugs/Ponds/Mother’s Day
June: Father’s Day/Farewells

Daily Schedule

9:00-9:30: Arrivals/Greetings/ table and floor activities
9:30-9:45: Group Music on Thursdays /Extended activity time Tu.
9:45-10:00: Bathroom break/songs/quick listening games
10:00-10:15: Story time
10:15-10: 40: Snack
10:40-11:00: Playground
11:00-11:15: Review Story/introduce concepts
11:00-11:20: Tuesday- Creative Movement
11:15-11:45: Big Room
11:45-12:00: Show and Tell/Dismissal

Play dough for the Classroom

Playdough is a favorite table activity with preschoolers! Here is the schedule and a recipe for you and your child to make the dough together at home and then share with the class. Decide on your color and any additional elements!! Be creative! (Google: preschool/play dough for suggestions or even alternate recipes)

Play dough:
2 cups flour
2 cups water (with food coloring)
4 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 cup salt
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

Cook on the stovetop (or in crockpot), stirring until thick. Knead. Let cool. Transport in a big ziplock bag.

Sept. 21 Andrew C./Oct. 5 Andrew P./ Oct.19 Caitlin
Nov. 9 Derek/ Nov. 23 Grace/ Dec. 7 Graham
Jan. 4 Jacob/ Jan. 18 Lucy/ Feb.8 Maddie W.
Feb. 22 Madison M./ March 8 Noah/March 22 Sasha

Second turn volunteer sign-up dates:
April 5__________________
April 26_________________
May 10__________________
May 24__________________