Week of December 12th

Stories:
Gingerbread Baby by Jan Bret
Gingerbread Boy - Richard Egielski

Small Group
Gingerbread Names
Gingerbread Puzzles
Positional Book

Choice Time
Painting Gingerbread Houses
Lincoln Logs
Blocks
Writing Center
Sand Table

We will be practicing for our family party this week as well.

December 5th

Last call for Pajamas for our Scholastic Pajama drive!  We will collect new pajamas until Dec 9th.

****Snow***
We had our first taste of snow, and the kids loved it!  We will try and go outside everyday as long as the temperature is above 25 degrees.   Please send your children to school with snowboots if there is still snow on the ground (grassy surfaces), if it is snowing or there is more than a small amount already on the ground please send in snowpants as they love to sit or kneel in the snow. We will help the children learn how to put them on themselves.  Snow mittens are important to keep there hands and fingers warm and dry.  If you would like to leave any snow gear here at school please let me know.  My last request is that each item (left and right) are labeled.  It makes it easier to return the item to the correct owenr.  Thank you in advance for your help with this.


We are continuing our unit on friends while we read the many stories of the gingerbread man.  In the first tale that we read, the Gingerbread Man by Karen Schmidt is tricked by a fox who tells him to come a little closer then gobbles him up.  In the next version by by Catherine McCafferty, the fox helps the gingerbread man cross the river before he gobbles him up.  In the third version, the Gingerbread Girl by Lisa Campbell Ernst, she is able to trick the fox.

       


We have been working on our life skills 2 & 3 about following directions. The Lucky Ducks will continue to work on following both one and two step directions right away while we introduce our 4th preschool life skill - When something is too hard, find a teacher and say,'Help Please'.

Small Groups
Extending Patterns of gingerbread boys and girls - these pattern strips will remain at school to be used as part of our family party.

Decorating Group Gingerbreads - Students will need to discuss, share ideas and compromise how they would like to decorate on large gingerbread.

Sequencing gingerbreads by size and matching them to the correct size house.


Choice Time:
Kitchen - Today the Lucky Ducks helped set up our new bakery.  They created baking pans (cardboard and tin f oil), found gingerbread shapes and selected small items for eyes and buttons.  They will be baking gingerbreads in our oven with playdough

Art - Oh the glitter!  The Lucky Ducks love glitter and this unit leads to so much glitter.  They are decorating there gingerbread friends this week.  We will begin to work on a large group gingerbread house as well.

Math - building patterns with unifix cubes

Playing Candy Land

Sensory Table - Lacing Pasta

Scholastic Pajama Drive - We are collecting new pajamas of all sizes until December  9, 2016

December 1st is our day for conferences.  Please remember this is a time for adults only.

Scholastic orders - Please order by December 2nd at noon - The coupons we sent home are active on December 1st.  If these books are a surprise please let me know and we will send them home in a bag.

Save the date:  December 22nd at 10:30 is our family party.

This week in the Lucky Duck Room.

Stories -
Dandelion by Don Freeman
Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister

Small Groups
Making a Dandelion puppet
Coloring a rainbow fish by following directions (ie color 3 scales blue)

Choice Time
Lemonade stand
Sensory Table - Stringing Pasta
Playdough
Rug - Trains
Blocks - Small Wooden Blocks
Number Puzzles

Pajama Pinata Party

We wish you and your family a wonderful Thanksgiving.

November 23, 2016

Today we are having our pajama and pinata party.  Yesterday the Lucky Ducks were busy decorating our Pinata box that we will open today.  We also made play dough turkeys during our art time as well. 

Stories this month
Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza
Mathew and Tilly
Hooray A Pinata
Letter to Amy

Small groups
- Today - Color a pinata by number
-Yesterday - Sequencing a pizza
Last Week
-I can be a good friend- selecting things we can do to be a good friend
-Decorating Stationary and Mailing Letters (I hope you all received them!)
- Journal Pages

Choice Time:
Lemonade Stand
Pizza Art
Ipads
I am thankful for Handprints
moon sand
puzzles

Scholastic Pajama Drive

The 8th-Annual Great Bedtime Story Pajama Drive

Dear Parents,

It’s time for the annual Scholastic Reading Club Great Bedtime Story Pajama Drive benefitting Pajama Program, a nonprofit organization that provides new pajamas and books to children in need—especially those living in group homes, shelters, foster care, and orphanages.  

Since 2009, caring classrooms across the country have risen to the challenge and donated nearly 400,000 pairs of new pajamas. The Scholastic Reading Club has more than matched those numbers with nearly 900,000 new books donated directly to Pajama Program headquarters, where they are then distributed across the country by Pajama Program.

Our school wants to be part of this drive so that we can help make a better bedtime for these children. Together we can help the Great Bedtime Story Pajama Drive reach even more kids with pj’s and books.

If you and your child are able to participate, please have your child bring in a new pair of pajamas to school by___December 9, 2016.

Here are some simple guidelines for the pajamas:

• Pajamas must be brand-new.
• Pajamas in all sizes are needed—from newborn to adult.
• Pajamas must be in complete sets or nightgowns.
• Pajamas in children’s sizes must be manufactured as pajamas—this ensures that they are flame-retardant and safe.

Thank you for helping us share the gift of a good night’s sleep and a sweet bedtime story.

The BECC Staff

If you have any questions please contact, Katie Roofe at roofe@bpsk12.org

PS: You can find out more about the drive and the program at: scholastic.com/pjdrive

Unit 2 Friends

No School on:

November 8th

November 10th

November 11th

November 24th

November 25th

We are beginning our next unit (Friends). In this unit, students will be talking about friendship, how to be a good friend, and ways to resolve conflicts with friends.  We will work on this unit through November and December with some Gingerbread Man stories read along the way in December.

Theme Concepts:

• A friend is someone we like and want to spend time with.  Friends like to do things together.  They enjoy each other’s company.
• We can have more than one good friend, and we might like to do some things with one friend and other things with other friends.
• Friends usually share with and help one another.
• Friends may have arguments and get mad at one another.  Usually, friends work out their problems and continue to be friends.
• We can make new friends and also keep old friends.

Key Vocabulary will include:

Friends

Party

Lemonade

Pinata

Pizza

Dough

Envelope

Listen

Share

Compromise

October 31 - November 4

Books for the week:

Little Red Hen (Makes a Pizza) by Philemon Sturges

A Letter To Amy by Ezra Jack Keats

Small Groups:

- Counting Dinosaurs

- Alphabet Memory

- Matching letter tiles to friendship vocabulary

Choice time: Choice Time will remain for 2 weeks given the November Calendar.

Art Table: Coloring

Library Area: Books about friends

Dramatic Play: Setting Up a Grocery Store - Students are busy making signs for the items on the shelves. When the get to 'play' they will first create a grocery list by selecting 3-4 items and writing down the names of those items.

Rug Toy: Rescue Heroes

Blocks - Open

Math Table - Puzzles

Literacy Table - Letter Matching

Sand Table - Looking for letters

November 7 -11

Books for the week:

Matthew and Tilly by Rebecca C. Jones

Small Groups:

• Grocery Store Counting and Coloring
• - Friendship Bracelets

October 24

Special Event:  October Soiree. We will celebrate Autumn with special activities.  The children are welcome to wear a special shirt, dress or costume on Thursday, October 27th.

Our Stories for this week include:

Possum's Moon                                                                   

The Button Box   - Just like in this story, we used my grandmother's button box to explore a variety of buttons.  Then we began to sort them by color, size, texture etc.                                                                         

Harvest Party

Handwriting -

Snipping Orange Paper to glue on to a pumpkin

Coloring Book pages

Small Groups - 

Letter Tracing on Pumpkins

Lacing Pumpkins

Roll a Jack O Lantern

Choice Time:
Dramatic Play - Playing Dress Up

Rug - Playing with large trucks
Art - Painting Corduroy and Decorating Pumpkins
Sensory - Sorting foam pieces - letters and numbers
Math Center - Making necklaces with beads.  Children will select a card and add the correct number of beads.

Magna Doodles

Cardboard Blocks

Writing Center - Coloring pages

Music
Way down Yonder in the Pumpkin Patch

Big Pumpkin

Preschool Life Skill 2 - When I give you an instruction, do it right away.  We will continue to work on response to name in conjunction with this new life skill.

Back to School Night - We will have our back to school night tomorrow - on Tuesday, October 18th from 6:30-7:30.  I will give an overview of our classroom curriculum and expectations then parents are welcome to explore the classroom.  This night is for parents only, please.

We will continue our first unit of Family through the month of October. In this unit, students will be exploring and talking about families and the many different ways family members relate to and help one another.

Theme Concepts:

• Family members have role names (mother, father, sister, brother, etc)
• Some family members live together, some live in other places but are still family members.
• Grown-ups in a family take care of children. Younger children need more care. Older children can help take care of younger brothers and sisters.
• Families do things together that are fun.

Our Stories for this week include:
Whistle for Willie - Ezra Jack Keats     

Corduroy - Don Freeman

Handwriting -

Creative Creatures - adding googly eyes and pipe cleaners to playdough balls

Pop Tubes - working on hand strength

Coloring Book pages

Small Groups - 

Corduroy Buttons Math Book

Rhyming Words

Picture Matching/Beginning Sounds

Choice Time:
Dramatic Play - We are creating the Lucky Duck toy store.  On Tuesday, the Lucky Duck friends will be deciding on a name and creating signs for our store.  Students will take turns shopping and using the cash register to buy toys from our toy store just like Lisa in Corduroy.

Rug - Playing with toys from the toy store
Art - Painting Corduroy
Sensory - Sorting foam pieces - letters and numbers
Math Center - Shape sorters

Writing Center - Coloring pages

Music
Way down Yonder in the Pumpkin Patch

Big Pumpkin

Preschool Life Skill 2 - When I give you an instruction, do it right away.  We will continue to work on response to name in conjunction with this new life skill.

October 11

We will continue our first unit of Family through the month of October. In this unit, students will be exploring and talking about families and the many different ways family members relate to and help one another.

Theme Concepts:

• Family members have role names (mother, father, sister, brother, etc)
• Some family members live together, some live in other places but are still family members.
• Grown-ups in a family take care of children. Younger children need more care. Older children can help take care of younger brothers and sisters.
• Families do things together that are fun.

Our Stories for this week include:
Whistle for Willie - Ezra Jack Keats     

Corduroy - Don Freeman

Handwriting -

Isolating a finger to make pumpkins on a vine

Working on our coloring book of colors

Small Groups - 

How many ducks in the pond? -

How can I help my family? - Picking chores students can do at home

Sorting Pumpkins by size

Choice Time:
Dramatic Play - Kitchen
Rug - Big Car ramps
Art - Painting pumpkins
Sensory - Finding pumpkins in the hay
Math Center - Pattern blocks
Literacy Center - Talking about our families and making our family trees

Writing Center - Writing Vocab words

Music
Way down Yonder in the Pumpkin Patch

Preschool Life Skill 2 - When I give you an instruction, do it right away.  We will continue to work on response to name in conjunction with this new life skill.

Back to School Night - We will have our back to school night on Tuesday, October 18th from 6:30-7:30.  I will give an overview of our classroom curriculum and expectations then parents are welcome to explore the classroom.  This night is for parents only, please.


As always please contact me with any questions or concerns, via email, note or phone call.  I look forward to getting to know your children and the great year ahead.

Columbus Day

Monday, October 10th  - No School on Columbus Day


Acorns, Acorns All around!

The Lucky Ducks today had a blast playing with acorns.  They enjoyed rolling them down the slide, collecting them, counting them, comparing which ones had more yellow and which ones had more brown.  Given their interest in acorns, we will be adding stories about acorns into our week as well as singing the song "I'm a nut."  Please check out our playground pictures with acorns.

October 2nd

October 3

We will continue our first unit of Family through the month of October. In this unit, students will be exploring and talking about families and the many different ways family members relate to and help one another.

Theme Concepts:

• Family members have role names (mother, father, sister, brother, etc)
• Some family members live together, some live in other places but are still family members.
• Grown-ups in a family take care of children. Younger children need more care. Older children can help take care of younger brothers and sisters.
• Families do things together that are fun.

Our Stories for this week include:
Peter's Chair - Ezra Jack Keats

Noisy Nora - Rosemary Wells

Handwriting -

Making a fall picture using cotton tipped applicators

Working on our coloring book of colors

Small Groups - 

Playing Memory with paint chips

Book Browsing - Students will look for specific pictures, words and/or lettersPositional Book
Size Sorting

Choice Time:
Dramatic Play - Taking care of babies
Rug - Legos
Art - Marble painting leaves and acorns
Sensory - Bean Table
Math Center - Adding apples to match the number on the apple tree
Literacy Center - Rhyming Cards

Writing Center - Writing Vocab words
Easel - Painting Leaves and Pumpkins

Music
Head Shoulders, Wheels on the Bus, If Your Happy and You Know It

Preschool Homework - For our first unit, please send in 3-5 pictures of your family by Thursday, October 6th.   We will be using them to create a project about family in our classroom.  We will be cutting and laminating the pictures before they are returned to you.

Back to School Night - We will have our back to school night on Tuesday, October 18th from 6:30-7:30.  I will give an overview of our classroom curriculum and expectations then parents are welcome to explore the classroom.  This night is for parents only, please.


As always please contact me with any questions or concerns, via email, note or phone call.  I look forward to getting to know your children and the great year ahead.

September 26th

This week we will begin our preschool curriculum. The curriculum we are using this year is Opening the World of Learning (OWL). The first unit is FAMILY. In this unit, students will be exploring and talking about families and the many different ways family members relate to and help one another.

Theme Concepts:

• Family members have role names (mother, father, sister, brother, etc)
• Some family members live together, some live in other places but are still family members.
• Grown-ups in a family take care of children. Younger children need more care. Older children can help take care of younger brothers and sisters.
• Families do things together that are fun.

Our Stories for this week include: 
Oonga Boonga - by Frieda Wishinksy
Peter's Chair - Ezra Jack Keats

Handwriting -Working on our coloring book of colors

Small Groups - 

Journal Page
Coloring our House
Adding our families to our house

Choice Time:  
Dramatic Play - Kitchen
Rug - Doll Houses
Art - Open exploration
Sensory - Water Table
Math Center - matching to numerals
Literacy Center - Making words with letter tiles
Easel - Painting Peter's Chair

Music
Head Shoulders, Mat Man, Open Shut Them

What's Coming Up

Preschool Homework - For our first unit we will be asking for 3-5 pictures of their family from each child.  We will be using them to create a project about family in our classroom.  More information will be coming out soon.

Back to School Night - We will have our back to school night on Tuesday, October 18th from 6:30-7:30.  I will give an overview of our classroom curriculum and expectations then parents are welcome to explore the classroom.  This night is for parents only please.


As always please contact me with any questions or concerns, via email, note or phone call.  I look forward to getting to know your children and the great year ahead.

We had a great first week of school!   Pictures will be posted to our Lucky Duck blog this week.  In order to view the pictures, there are a few steps to follow.  First I will send out an email inviting you to view the pictures.  You will need to accept this invitation with your email then log into the Lucky Ducks Picture blog and sign in with the same email.  The intention is to allow only Lucky Duck families to view the pictures and is not open to everyone.  These emails will be coming out this week.

September 19, 2016
Our Stories for this week include: 
Preschool Day Hooray
D.W.'s Guide to Preschool

Handwriting - We will be learning about Mat Man.  Students help build Mat Man with wooden pieces as we sign the Mat Man song.  Students are also given the chance to draw Mat Man while listening to the song as well.

Small Groups - We are continuing the year with "All about me"
Apple Counting
Matching letters in our name
Rolling a dice and adding stickers to a grid.
Matching colors with our ducks in a pond

Choice Time:  
Dramatic Play - Kitchen
Rug - Potato Heads
Art -  Open exploration
Sensory - Sand and construction trucks
Math Center - putting apples on trees
Literacy Center - Magna Doodles
Blocks - colored cardboard blocks

Music
Head Shoulders, Mat Man

What's Coming Up
Preschool Homework - For our first unit we will be asking for 3-5 pictures of their family from each child.  We will be using them to create a project about family in our classroom.  More information will be coming out soon.

Back to School Night - We will have our back to school night on Tuesday, October 18th from 6:30-7:30.  I will give an overview of our classroom curriculum and expectations then parents are welcome to explore the classroom.  This night is for parents only please.


As always please contact me with any questions or concerns, via email, note or phone call.  I look forward to getting to know your children and the great year ahead.

First Day of School!

Thank you for coming to our open house.  It was great to meet so many new friends.

As we start the year, we will be taking some time to learn about classroom expectations and routines while we get to know each other.  Some of the activities will include our morning greeting song - Hello ____. The children have the choice to bounce on or roll a big ball while we sing.

Please remember to send in an extra set of clothes in a ziplock style bag that we may keep here at school.  Please label the clothing and bag.

Preschool Life Skills are an important component of our preschool curriculum.  A complete list can be found at the top of this page.  Our first life skill is Response to Name.  When a teacher calls your name, you stop, look and say 'yes'.

Our curriculum Opening the World of Learning (OWL) - develops an understanding of literacy through reading a variety of stories multiple times throughout the unit.  This provides for students to have a deeper understanding of the story, supports understanding vocabulary as well as retelling familiar stories.

Our Stories for this week include:
Pete the Cat's Rockin In My School Shoes
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Handwriting - We will be exploring a variety of materials during this time to strengthen our hands to get ready to write properly.  Students will progress as they are developmentally ready for this task.  We are starting this week with exploring playdough -squeezing, pulling, and pushing the dough.

Small Groups - We are starting the year with "All about me"
Journal Page about School
Decorating Birthday Crowns
Decorating the first letter of their name

Choice Time:  Students will be taught how to play in each center.
Dramatic Play - Kitchen
Puzzles
Art-  Hand Prints
Rug - Trains
Sensory - Sand
Math Center - number boards
Literacy Center - Magna Doodles


Music
We incorporate music throughout our day as a motor break or transition.  We also set aside some time at the end of the day to dance and sing as well.  Children are typically given the choice of songs to sing.  This week our songs will include Bingo, Wheels on the Bus and 5 Little Ducks


As always please contact me with any questions or concerns, via email, note or phone call.  I look forward to getting to know your children and the great year ahead.

Welcome to the Lucky Ducks!

On Thursday, September 8th, Lucky Duck families are invited to come and see the Lucky Duck classroom. You can explore our classroom from 9-9:30.  We look forward to meeting all of our new friends.

Camping

Our Last Day of School is Thursday, June 16, 2016

Camping

We have begun our final unit for the year; camping. With the end of the year being so hectic and busy- I will post the books and activities for the entire unit at once. I want to make sure that you have all of the unit information in case time gets away from me! Please remember to check the “Reminders” page for any extra important information such as upcoming dates for the rest of the year!

Here are the theme concepts for this unit:

Theme Concepts

1.        Camping is an activity when people stay overnight in a temporary structure.

2.       You need to prepare for a camping trip in advance.

3.       There are many different places to go camping.

4.       There are different activities you can do on a camping trip.

5.       You need to take precautions to stay safe on a camping trip.

Questions

1.        What is camping?

2.       What supplies do you need to bring on a camping trip?

3.       Where do people go camping?

4.       What do you see on a camping trip?

5.       What activities do you do on a camping trip?

Books for the week:

Just Me and My Dad by Mercer Mayer

Bailey Goes Camping by Kevin Henkes

Absolutely Not by Matthew McElligott

Curious George Goes Camping by Margret Rey

Molly Goes Hiking by Ruth Shaw Radlauer

We’re Going On A Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen

Small Groups:

1. Patterns

2. Camping memory

3. Build a campfire art activity

4. Telling Campfire Stories

5. Just Me and My Dad Sequence

6. Tent Positional Book

7. Nature walk

8. Rhyming words

9. Camping sequencing

10. Campfire game

11. What goes camping? What does not go camping?

Choice time:

Our choice time activities will vary but will include: lacing, games, dramatic play area, blocks, puzzles, coloring, books, and sensory table.

Songs, Word Play and Letters

Our song selection will remain a secret as we are now working on our choices for our end of the year performance.