October 3-7, 2011
Irvington Pre-K Newsletter, October 3-7, 2011
Hello Pre-K families! This week we sang goodbye to September and hello to October! We kicked off October by studying our communities, a logical extension of our previous units of self, family and friends. Students took a closer look at firefighters (But alas! The visit was postponed till the 18th), librarians, farmers, postal workers, custodians, cafeteria workers, and many other community helper jobs to see who is in our communities and what they do.
Thanks to Darwin’s family for the tasty snacks! If you have not signed up for snack yet, please do! We need every family to bring in healthy fruits and vegetables at least once (we will need many to bring in twice) this year so that the students can have healthy fresh food. Yum!
PPS is providing a training for parents and childcare providers on Tuesday, October 11th at the King School Library (4906 NE 6th) from 6:30 to 8:30. The training is free and includes child care and dinner. It will cover registering for kindergarten, helping children have a confident start to school, classroom expectations and curriculum, and supporting early learning every day. You can call 503-548-4400 x12 to register, and we have flyers up in the classroom if you would like more information.
This week we started sharing, in which we have students bring one thing from home to school to share. Items should either start with the letter of the week (next week: B) or be related to the unit we are studying (next week: Fall), and should not be toys. If everyone stays on schedule, we will be doing five shares a day, divided between morning and afternoon periods. We have the student doing a share sit in the big chair and show what they brought and why, and we then ask them one or two questions about the item. We say a big thank you to that student. Share provides a way to talk about letters, and is a good way for students to practice listening and empathy- learning about their friends. It can also help students become more comfortable talking to groups of their peers. This week’s letter was A, and we got some great A shares! Thanks for helping your child bring in a relevant and appropriate item!
On Monday, we read My Family Community, Places in My Community, and Career Fair as a way to kick off our theme. The students handled the firefighter’s postponement quite well! We had a new month to talk about (October has a lot of birthdays and excitement around it!); new jobs, and we introduced the alphabet bag, a guessing game we play with every letter. Lily shared a paper plate handprint that she made the day before (her art) and Brady brought in a honeycrisp apple- his favorite kind. Helen Colletti shared an experience- going to the aquarium where she touched a stingray (“it felt kinda squishy”). Great first day of share, pre-K!
Tuesday we talked about firefighters and got exited for the upcoming visit. We read Firefighters in Our Community, the firefighter page from Richard Scary’s Busy Busy Town, and Firehouse. We made a cool fire engine collage from construction paper and toothpicks for the ladder, and discussed how we “don’t want trees on fire.” Zachary shared an acorn squash that he was going to eat for dinner that night, and Netta brought in a tasty apple. Phoebe showed us a stuffed animal of Angelina Ballerina, and Tessa shared a painting of a park her dad made, “arbor art!” Isa ended share with a piece of an apple from her play kitchen.
Wednesday we looked closer at famers. We talked about where our food comes from- we can buy it from the grocery store or the farmer’s market, or grow it in gardens. Without farmers we would not have all the food we have! We read Growing Vegetable Soup, Busy Busy Town, Muncha! Muncha! Muncha!, and Shh! Everybody’s Sleeping. We all took turns planting seeds for a fun and dirty project, and students enjoyed pretending to be farmers. At share time, Willem showed us acorns from the park near his house, and Liam told us about getting to visit a firehouse and sliding down the fire pole! Mary shared that she likes to go to Legoland and gave us some A words- apple and aquarium. Dane brought in an art project he did, a colorful painted piece of wood, and Darwin shared an airplane. Leo showed us a drawing of a cute little ant, and Ben showed us ape chopsticks he uses to eat Chinese food.
Thursday we talked about libraries and librarians, and we went to the school library to meet Ms. Polacheck. She read us a few fun stories (The Boy Who Cried Ninja, 17 Things I’m Not Allowed to Do Anymore) and told us about the library. As this was in the morning, we are going to go back soon in the afternoon too! We also read Career Day, The Library, Millie’s Marvelous Hat, Night Shift, and Libraries in Our Community. To look closer at our school community, we took a tour of the school: in the morning we walked through the cafeteria and met Mrs. Diana, looked at the murals on the walls, and visited the library. In the afternoon we walked through the gym and met Mr. Barnes and visited Ingrid in her office as well. We made bookmarks together that we laminated and students took home as a fun and easy art project. Kate shared a little photo album of herself as a baby, and Olivia shared a big red apple. Paxton brought in a big pair of deer antlers (wow!) that “fell off the deer.”
Friday was our last day of talking about communities, and we wrapped it up with the ever-popular mail carriers! Students had a fun and busy day pretending to be postal workers and mail carriers. We made USPS mail bags using construction paper and yarn, and students spent the day writing notes and letters and decorating envelopes to either put in our mailbox or in their mailbags. We read Postman Pat’s Difficult Day, A is for Amos, Bus Stops, and At the Post Office. For share, Helen Cruz-Uribe brought in an atlas and showed us a cool picture from it, and told us that an atlas is a big book of maps. Aidan shared his name, and explained the shape of an A (“two I’s leaning forward and a line in between them”). Odessa showed us a stuffed apple, and Quinn brought in the Sabin Community Newsletter, since his mom is a community helper- “she brings food to new people in the community”, and he circled lots of the A’s in the paper.
Thanks for a fun week learning about the community! Next week we will be talking about the letter B and the fall! Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!
The Pre-K Team
