HAPPY 2016

 

 

 

 

Happy 2016,

I hope you and your family had a perfect holiday season!

As we ring in a New Year with wishes of new beginnings and fresh starts it is important to keep in mind and show gratitude for the people who touch our lives. I want to send a sincere thank you to you for your endless generosity and support! Prior to the holiday break the children and I enjoyed received many lovely notes and gifts. Each cookie, candy, canister of cocoa powder, half gallon of milk, paper good, gift card, glue stick, watercolor paint, ornament and family photo was appreciated! THANK YOU!

To celebrate the arrival of 2016, winter and the month of January, preschoolers will delve into new materials and learning! Over the next few weeks preschoolers will focus on a variety of math and science investigations that will encourage creativity, problem solving and perseverance by using three-dimensional building materials. Last month, students learned individual addresses, drew diagrams and constructed cardboard buildings to represent student homes. This week young mathematicians will be introduced to new 3-D wooden building blocks and will discuss their size and shape and learn a new vocabulary word, ENCLOSURE. Hollow blocks will arrive in our classroom within the next few weeks and will accompany the numerous building supplies in our current building area.

  

To expand on the idea of enclosures, students will listen to the story, Snuffles House by Daphne Faunce-Brown. Snuffles is a hedgehog that sets out to build himself a new house after his house burns down. In the story, Snuffles experiments with different shapes and designs for his house, each with their own imperfections (e.g., the round house rolls down a hill, the triangle house has too small of an upstairs) until he decides on a rectangle shaped house. After listening to the story, the children will have an opportunity to construct an ENCLOSURE for SNUFFLE while discussing the essential features that are needed for the construction of a house. Instructions for construction will be minimal to allow for trial and error and creativity to emerge! After enclosures are constructed, students will draw blueprints to document their work and diagrams will be on display in our classroom.

                     

                     We will also start the New Year with our

SEE …THINK… WONDER… GAME

by observing a AMARYLLIS BULB.

In the late fall, students were introduced to bulbs. They had an opportunity to plant tulip bulbs from Holland in the garden space behind the preschool classrooms. This activity led to many wonderings about growing things. Over the past few months children have checked to see if any greenery has sprouted and have happily commented, “Our bulbs need rain to grow” on those dark and dreary rainy days! Knowing the bulbs have been “tucked in tight” under the soil and are asleep for the winter, they are anticipating a springtime garden filled with bright tulips! Hopefully an amaryllis bulb will sprout and bloom in the warm temperatures of our classroom and provide students with a first hand opportunity to make scientific observations and predictions.

 

Reminders:

Please be sure to pack inside shoes for your child if he/she wears boots to school. Spare shoes can also be left in your child’s mailbox to avoid forgetting and daily transportation of extra gear.

Thank you, Suzanne