When we return to school, we will begin our next unit.

When we return to school, we will begin our next unit.

Unit 3 SNOW weeks 1 & 2

After vacation week we will begin our unit on SNOW. Whenever possible we will play in the snow.

Here are the theme concepts for this unit:

• When it is very cold, sometimes it snows instead of raining
• Snow comes from the clouds
• Every snowflake is different
• Animals and people need protection from the cold and the snow
• Some animals hibernate during the winter  months
• Tools and machines keep us safe when it snows such as shovels and snowplows
• There are many ways to enjoy the snow
• When the temperature gets warmer, the snow melts
• 
  

Questions for the unit:

• What is snow?
• When does it snow?
• Where does the snow come from?
• What do you wear when it snows?
• After the snow falls, what happens to it?
• What can you do in the snow?

Week of January 2 & 6

Books for the week:

Goodnight Baby Bear by Frank Asch

The Mitten by Jan Brett

Small Groups:

Thursday - Sorting by size

January 6-110
1. Making a pair of matching mittens

2. Color animals from the story the Mitten

3. Lace the mitten and use the animals from the story to retell the story

Let's Find out About It - The states of water, hibernation, and winter clothing

Choice Time

Art Table: Cutting Snowflakes

Work Table - Sorting by shapes and colors

Easel: Snowflake pictures with stencils and glitter paint

Block Area: Marble Mazes

Library Area: Snow themed books

Sensory Table: Sand

Writing Table: writing/tracing winter words and playing with winter stamps

Dramatic Play: Making pairs with mittens and shoes

Ipads - making a snowman

Family Party is December 18th at 10:15

We have started our Gingerbread Unit.

During this unit we will be reading a variety of stories by different authors that will tell the tale of the Gingerbread Man, boy and girl.  We will make comparisons between the books to look for similarities and differences.

Activities Include:

Cooperative Gingerbread Boy and Girl

Decorating individual gingerbread 

Decorating our classroom door

Making our names with gingerbread 

Playing memory (matching pictures or by matching rhyming pictures)

Gingerbread Mazes

Choice Time

Painting Gingerbread Houses at the easel

Sweet Shop - Making Gingerbread with playdough

Math - counting gingerbread and buttons on gingerbread

Sand table 

Building with blocks

Light Table with blocks, shapes and letters

Snow Gear

Please send in snow gear on Thursday 12/5/19.  Including boots, snow pants, hats and snow mittens.   With our newly fallen snow this is a great opportunity to explore and play.  As long as the ‘real feel’ is above 25 at our playground time we will be going outside. Occasionally, we change our playground time until the end of the day.  On those days, children will be sent home in their snow gear.

Next week, Wednesday, November 27, 2019, the preschool will be dismissing at 10:40.   There is no school on Thursday, November 28th (Thanksgiving) and Friday, November 29, 2019.

We have been asked to post this by the School Nurse.

Just a friendly reminder that it is the time of year that you should be checking your child’s head for lice.  It is not uncommon to see lice at this time of year, and parental head checks are strongly encouraged. Our District’s Lice Procedures/Protocol is attached Here and please refer to the bottom of the policy for plenty of education on lice. If you have any questions, concerns, or need support, please feel free to contact the Nurse’s Office.

Family Traditions - November

Family Traditions - November

Family Project:

Please complete the sheet about traditions and return it to school along with 3-5 pictures of your family.  Thank you.

Save the Date: December 18th - Family Party - more information to follow

This month we will begin our next unit, Family Traditions.

Theme concepts for this unit are:

-A family is a group of children and adults who care for each other.

-A family tradition is a special way of doing things

-Family traditions may be connected to ethnicity

-Traditions are observed with different frequencies

-Traditions can take many forms: food, activities, and clothing

-Traditions have common themes

During this unit, we will be discussing traditions in general.  We will also be discussing how children celebrate special traditions with their families.  Some of the traditions we will include are: Diwali, Halloween, Las Ofrendas, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Ramadan, and Greek Orthodox Easter.  This list was compiled based on the information shared via our family tradition sheet.  Our focus is on how the children in the Lucky Duck Classroom celebrate those special days, (even though some are not for a few months).  When possible coloring pages related to these days will be provided for any child who is interested.

Nov. 11th (No School - Veteran's Day)

Nov 12th (No School - Professional Development)

November 13th (No School - Conferences)

November 28th and 29th (No School - Thanksgiving Break)

Books for the Month:

Bunny Cakes by Rosemary Wells

Thanksgiving by Miriam Nerlove

Full Full Full of Love by Trish Cooke

Night Tree - by Eve Bunting

Feast for 10 by Cathryn Falwell

Small Groups:

Shape Matching

Matching letters in our names

Decorating cupcakes

Fall File Folder Games working on visual discrimination, letter and numeral matching

Choice Time:

Easel: Painting pictures of birthday cakes, turkeys

Writing: chalkboards, making a grocery list

Library: Thanksgiving and November Books

Sensory Table: water - filling and emptying cups

Dramatic Play Area: setting up a grocery store

Rug Toy: Click Roads

Blocks - Tinkertoys

Oct 21

Stories 
Click, Clack, Moo Cows that Type by Doreen Cronin 

Farmer Brown has a problem. His cows like to type. -- All day long he hears: Click, clack, moo  But Farmer Brown’s problems REALLY begin when his cows start leaving him notes! 

Federick by Leo Lionni  
While the other mice are gathering food for the winter, Frederick seems to daydream the summer away.

Pumpkins by Melvin and Gilda Berger  
Fall is pumpkin time!   Simplistic non-fiction text with photographs and fun facts.

Small Groups
Tuesday - sorting leaves by color

Wednesday - sorting pumpkins by size

Thursday-  coloring a scarecrow by following directions

Choice Time
Kitchen - Fall clean up, Raking leaves and putting them in bags
Blocks - Wooden blocks and Farm animals
Table - Playdough
Math - Shape sorting by placing foam shapes into correspondence barns with the same shape
Sensory - Finding apple pom poms in Rice
Rug - Waffle Blocks
Art-  Making cows and horses