Monday, October 17, 2016

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.


Sunday, October 9, 2016

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.

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

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.

Sunday, October 2, 2016

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.

Monday, September 26, 2016

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.

Monday, September 19, 2016

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.

Friday, September 9, 2016

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.