January 23-27
Irvington Pre-K Newsletter January 23-27, 2012
Hello Pre-K families! We hope you enjoyed this exciting week of polar animal facts and fun. The students have pretended to be waddling penguins, barking seals, swimming narwhals, lumbering polar bears and giant walruses with whiskers and long tusks. Ask your students if they remember which animals live in the Arctic and which live in Antarctica. A big thank you to Phoebe and her family for the fantastic variety of snack, the humus and snap peas were a big hit!
This week our Person of the Week is Phoebe Jacobs. Phoebe is 4 ½ years old, has blue-green eyes, blonde hair, guesses that she weighs 40 pounds and is 3 feet 5 inches. Phoebe wants to be Queen when she grows up, and her favorite colors are purple and orange. Some of her favorite foods are little circle candies, pizza, and noodles. Phoebe also likes Playdate PDX, having play-dates with her friends, and going to the Children’s Museum. A few things she doesn’t like are eating worm cupcakes, slamming the door when she is mad, and pineapple pizza. If Phoebe could have 3 wishes, she would wish to be a princess, ride a Unicorn-Pegasus and to have a pet Unicorn-Pegasus. It was wonderful to get to know our interesting Person of the Week a little bit better!
This week we started a few new things. During our choice time students can now work on some “homework” if they choose. The homework sheets have numbers, letters and simple patterning to encourage those students who want a challenge. We offered a Polar Animal word search and an ABC trace, which makes a penguin. These are completely optional, but we have noticed some students wanting homework. Also, we have encouraged students to engage in Reading Buddies. This is where one student “reads” and the other listens and asks questions. This builds pre-reading skills like making predictions, comprehension, and story-telling. Next week we will be learning about various modes of transportation during our Transportation unit, and our Letter of the Week will be O. Please assist your child in choosing appropriate share items that are related to our theme or to the Letter of the Week. Thank you for your support in this area, it really does make a difference!
On Monday, we began our discussion of the polar regions and talked about the North and South Poles and the unique climate in these regions. We talked about the very cute but very strong polar bear. These beautiful animals can be over 9 feet tall and eat about 150 pounds of blubber each day. Many students shared their experiences visiting with polar bears at the Oregon Zoo, and watching them swim and play. We read The Polar Bear Paddle, Polar Bears Live On Ice, Over In the Arctic, and Polar Animals. This was a great selection of both fiction and nonfiction books. Students made Person of the Week pages for Phoebe for our project, and also enjoyed a variety of polar animal coloring sheets. During share, Lily brought in a dolphin chain necklace, which is very old, Lucia shared her night-light that changes colors, Ben brought in his ninja Lego figure that comes with a jet pack, Brady shared a nickel that “my mom gave me and now I get to keep it” and Helen Colletti also shared a nickel that has “two pictures on it.” During our morning and afternoon circles we also read Zachary’s Person of the Week book, and interview since he was absent on Friday. Students enjoyed playing with the shaved Ivory soap in the sensory table, and creating large foamy caves for the polar animals.
On Tuesday, we learned about the very unusual narwhal. The narwhal is part of the whale family and only lives in the Arctic. Students made guesses as to why the narwhal has a horn, which is actually a flexible tooth on the top of its head. Many students guessed that it was for protection or catching food, which is what some scientist believe, but scientist also think it may be used to communicate. Each student got a copy of a narwhal and colored it however they imagined, and cut them out and placed their narwhal in the “ocean” to show the social nature of these interesting animals. We read some narwhal facts from Polar Animals, and also read Penguin Pete’s New Friend, and The Hat. During share, Netta shared a book called The Best Nest and she showed us several “silly” pages, Zachary brought in a bag of noodles, some “straight ones and curvy ones”, Tessa shared a nickel that “my dad gave me and I can keep it” and Phoebe shared her Fancy Nancy : Heart to Heart book, and showed us her favorite page. Today we also celebrated Phoebe’s 4 ½ birthday. Students made pages for her birthday book, sang Happy Birthday to her and Phoebe shared photos of herself over the years. Today as a special surprise, we got to spend our usual outside time in the afternoon in the warmth and comfort of the gym! Students had fun playing lots of different group-games, and bouncing and chasing balls!
On Wednesday, we discussed the walrus. The walrus lives in the Arctic, uses its long tusks to lift itself out of the water and its whiskers to look for food. Walruses can weigh up to 4,000 pounds (that’s like 100 Pre-K students)! We read Walruses: Animals That Live In the Ocean, the section on walruses in Arctic Animals, and The Pigeon Wants a Puppy (see if you can you guess why?). The students had fun making and playing with the walrus puppets we made for our project. Each student cut, colored and glued shapes onto a paper bag to resemble a walrus. During share, Willem brought in a neat arrangement of nine nickles, Darwin shared a necklace that spells Darwin, Mary shared stuffed penguin named “Penguie”, Dane shared ninjas from his Lego collection, Isa told us about all the “N’s” in her last names. The students also enjoyed playing with the snow and the polar animals in the sensory table.
On Thursday, we discussed the super adorable and ever popular penguin! These swimming birds live only in the Southern Hemisphere, and are very well equipped to deal with very cold temperatures. The fathers are the ones to care for the egg, while the mothers search for food. We read many books like; Penguin Dreams, Penguin Pete’s New Friend, Up and Down, Hello Arctic, Treehouse and Penguins. The students practiced waddling with pretend penguin eggs between their feet. For our project, students made penguins from cut pieces of black and white construction paper. These wonderfully original creations are hanging on the wall, please come and see. During share, Liam brought in a black nut necklace his mother got in Hawaii, Kate shared a notebook that she uses for drawing and coloring, Olivia shared a USA puzzle map with the state of Nebraska attached and a ice skating penguin, Paxton shared two ninjas and a baby stuffed penguin, and Quinn shared a rock hammer and told us his father uses it to find rocks.
On Friday, we talked about seals, which are the only animals that live in both the North and the South Poles. Everyone loved the cuteness of baby Harp Seals, which get their name from the black pattern along the backs of the adult seals. The seals are great swimmers and can hold their breath for long periods of time. Some of the books we read are Animals of Snow and Ice: Harp Seals, Seals, and Big Fuzzy. We also read Phoebe’s Person of the Week book and her interview. During circle, we played a fun game to help us review where the animals, and what is unique about each animal. The Pre-K students are so smart! Today we also talked about how we can help make our school and cleaner and safer place to be. We focused on the issue of dog poop on our playground. Of course, this was fun because everyone got to say the word poop! Students made drawings and we added th
eir words to create signs to be hung around the school. Some of the signs say, “Please pick up your dog’s poop”, “Keep your dog on a leash” and “I don’t like seeing dog poop everywhere.” We discussed how our action can help make a difference in our school, which is great start to community action. Also, the Penny Program has been very popular, so if you want more details or suggestions on how to make it work for you and your child, let us know. Thanks for another terrific week!
The Prek Team
