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St. Stephen’s Preschool has its own blog. This enables us to keep all the communications of the preschool in one place. By looking at this site, you can keep up not only with what your children are doing in the classroom, but also with what is happening in the school and with the families of the preschool.

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St. Stephen's Preschool

Red Room Update - January 23rd- 26th and January 30th-February 1

Themes:  Hibernation and Ice

This week we will be discussing hibernation.  The children will be exposed to the reasons some animals hibernate, what food sources these animals usually eat, and they will discover winter conditions are the reasons for hibernation. 

The children who want to participate will work cooperatively on making a cave.  They will be painting and adding items onto a large box so their stuffed bears may hibernate on Thursday, January 26^th, our “Hibernation Day”.   Also available at the small activity table will be a bear shape that the children may choose to decorate with paint or fur.  The paint will have coffee grinds in it to add a different texture to their work.  The paper at the easel will be cut in the shape of a bear’s head.  It’s bears everywhere!

We will end our week with a Hibernation Day . The children may wear their pajamas and bring a stuffed bear or his/her favorite stuffed animal then.  We will serve hot chocolate and popcorn.  Yum! Remember, p j’s on Thursday, January 26^th!

As the week progresses, listen out for your children singing our….

Hibernation Song (sung to Alouette)
Hibernation.  Time for Hibernation.
Hibernation.  Time to go to sleep
In the winter where’s the bear?
Sleeping in its log or lair.
Where’s the bear?  Log or lair.  OH!

We will repeat the song and add a frog sleeping by a pond or log, a snake in the mud beneath the lake, and a bat in a cave .

Next week we will be talking about ice and performing several experiments with ice.  We will explore what makes frost.  What secret ingredient did we add to our water and crushed ice to make frost?  What happens to ice when it gets warm? We’ll perform an ice trick using ice cubes in a bowl of water and a string.  Can we pick the ice cube up?  We will discover another secret ingredient that will help us achieve our goal in this experiment.

The children will make their own ice brushes by placing a craft stick into a cup of water and we will put them in the freezer overnight.  The next day, the children can have fun making their own ice scenes by using powdered paint and their ice brush.

Gentle reminder:  If you have not done so, will you please send in a change of winter clothing to replace the lighter weight clothes that we have stored in your child’s cubbie.

Thank you Red Room Friends!

Carol and Blanche

Hibernation Day Pictures

Lots of children enjoyed making igloos using sugar cubes and frosting.

 

Elizabeth, Regan & Sara making "hot chocolate" at the Coco Cafe.

 

Celie pointing to the ice mixture, she thought ice and water would melt first.

Charlie, Finley & Addison enjoying hot chocolate & trail mix!!!

5 Day Update - January 17-27, 2012

 

Baby it is cold outside!

So many fun winter activities are available in the 5 day program  in the next two weeks.  What’s better on a cold day then a hot cup of chocolate?  In the Blue room the children have the opportunity to make, serve and sell hot chocolate and treats (all pretend) at the Coco Cafe.  Next week, this area will turn into a Snow Village. 

To add to the village, each class is making a trash bag snowman.  Everyone will crumple paper to fill the snowman.  What a fun and easy way for a child to strengthen fine motor skills!  Balling up newspaper is a particularly good exercise for those children who do not particularly enjoy drawing and cutting.  The children can also choose to crumple newspaper into snowballs to be used for a fun snowball fight. 

In the Yellow room there are lots of snow related math activities. 

The sand table in the Blue Room is now filled with water and soap so the children can wash their mittens and hang them on the drying rack. They will be just like the kittens in ” The Three Little Kittens Who Lost their Mittens”,  the nursery rhyme we are learning.  Using clothespins is another great way to strengthen those little hands.   At the wood working table, also in the Blue Room, children can hammer golf tees into pieces of Styrofoam “snow” to encourage hand-eye coordination and strengthening of upper arm muscles. 

Since snow doesn’t seem to be in the forecast we have been making our own snow creations in the Green Room.  Last week, we cut, water colored, and then salted coffee filters to create sparkly snowflakes. Many are now hanging on our snow mural in the hall (see picture).  Next we will make two types of 3-D sculptures.   At the beginning of the week children can stick together biodegradable packing peanuts with water.  Then they may choose to dissolve their sculpture with water or leave it on display in the hall.  At the end of the week, they can make marshmallow toothpick sculptures which they may eat or put on display in the hall.  The 3-D art that the children will make is very hard to transport so we will take a picture of it to send home.  At the cutting table there are snowmen and mittens to trace and cut out as well as wavy, zigzag, and straight “snow paths” to cut and stamp with animal footprints. Do prewriting skills come to mind? 

In the yellow room there will be ice out for several fun science experiments.  What are the different states of matter (solid, liquid and gas)?  When does ice melt faster - when it is exposed to air, water or salt?

In all the classrooms the Ukrainian folktale, The Mitten, has inspired many of our circle and choice time activities.  We have read the very popular version by Jan Brett and compared and contrasted it to the version by Alvin Tresselt.  In the Yellow Room, the flipbook is a Mitten and the sentence builder is “Who is in my mitten?”  We are all learning The Mitten Song, which we use to act out The Mitten tale.

The Mitten Song
(Tune: Farmer in the Dell)
The mitten in the snow,
The mitten in the snow.
Help us please so we won’t freeze
The mitten in the snow.

 

A ______squeezes in,
A ______squeezes in.
Help us please so won’t freeze,
The mitten in the snow.

*Add different animal names in the blank.

It may be cold outside, but in the 5 day program at St. Stephen’s,  the opportunities are definitely heating up!

Fondly, Your 5 Day Teachers

Toddler Room Update - January 16-20, 23-27

Theme: Snowmen/Sizes

The children in the Toddler Room have been hard at work learning about snowmen and creating some of their own. Throughout our discussions about our theme, we have also been using snowmen to help us learn about small, medium, and large sizes.

We are reading plenty of winter books, including Snowmen At Night, The Jacket I Wear In the Snow, and The Snowy Day. 

Many of our centers in the classroom revolve around either the snow or size theme. At the science table, we are matching mittens to put on, then exploring “snow” (dry milk) and drawing different size shapes with our fingers in the snow. The fine motor table has a cut-out felt snowman, complete with hat, buttons, carrot nose, and eyes to put together on a tray. At the cognitive table, students are working to sort animal cards in two ways. First, they work to categorize the cards by whether the picture is of a big or little animal, followed by matching the big and little cards of the same animal. The block center (which includes people, animals, and soft/hard blocks) has a variety of like animals of varying sizes for the children incorporate during imaginative play.

During art, the students are working both independently, as well as collaboratively, to create different size snowmen. First, they will create their own snowman by piecing together 3 different size circles, with the largest on the bottom and smallest on top. They will then use a shaving cream/glue mixture to turn the snowman white and place 6 charcoal buttons, two charcoal eyes, and a carrot nose on their creation. They will then decorate a black hat with red cotton balls. Once we’ve completed our small snowmen, we will begin work on a larger, whole-class snowman project. We will use the same shaving cream/glue mixture but add blue food dye and all together finger paint on three large circles. We will spend time comparing the size differences between each of the three circles in the large snowman, as well as the overall size between the large and small snowmen we will have made.

We are still singing our snowman song and have now added motions. Please ask your child to sing it for you!

I’m A Little Snowman (Tune: I’m a Little Teapot)

I’m A Little Snowman, short and fat.

Here is my scarf, and here is my hat.

When the snow is falling, come and play.

Build a snowman everyday!

Thank you, again, to those who signed up to bring in January play-doh – we’ve loved having the fun colors.

A reminder: if you have not done so already, please send in a pair of warmer, winter clothes for us to keep at school in case we need to change your child. We will swap them out for the summer clothes, which we’ll send home in your child’s bag.

Ann, Mary Beth, and Ashley

5 day Reminder!

Dear Parents,

We are all very excited about celebrating Hibernation Day on Friday!!! Children may wear their pj's on Friday. Please leave all lovies, stuffed animals, dolls and blankets at home. We would hate for anything so special to be lost or left at school!

Fondly, Your 5 Day Teachers

TMO Thursday/Friday Update - January, 2012

Even though the weather can't make up it's mind, the TMO Thursday/Friday class is focusing on cold wintry weather in our classroom. We have started the new year talking about everything related to winter - snowflakes, sleet, snowmen, different cold weather animals (polar bears, penguins, hibernating animals), cold weather clothes, and cold weather.

During Circle Time the children have been dressing our "weather bear" paper doll for the cold. They always insist that he wear his "cool" sunglasses.

THE JACKET I WEAR IN THE SNOW by Shirley Neitzel has been a great compliment to our talk about appropriate cold weather clothes. This class loves books and other books we have been reading are: AMY LOVES THE SNOW (Julia Hobain), COLD WEATHER (Melvin and Hilda Berger), SNOWY WEATHER DAY (Istelle Feldman) and HOP TO THE TOP (Helen Lester). We try to get the children to talk about the stories and guess what will happen next. This helps them use new words and begin to organize their thoughts.

Since we have snow on our minds, we have been painting snowflakes and doing our "snow dances" - so beware!

To the children's great delight, we have introduced the sensory table (a large table filled with rice). They have enjoyed measuring and pouring and searching the rice for hidden items. This is a great place for all kinds of activities - fine motor, eye/hand coordination, exploration, sharing, group dynamics and fun! (They may come home with rice in their clothes and shoes!) As we continue our winter theme through this month and into February, we will also be talking more about the ideas of friendship and feelings. Since holiday break we have noticed your children wanting to play more "with each other". They are noticing each other's feelings more and are concerned if someone is upset. We always try to get them to use their words to identify their feelings and their friends. Two books we will be reading are: FRIENDS (Rachel Isadora) and THE FEELING BOOK (Todd Parr). THE FEELING BOOK is great. This colorful stick figure book depicts many different emotions and sets the tone that we all have different kinds of feelings and that's okay. Imitating the feelings and being silly is fun and gets everyone involved. We will be making Valentines to share.

Snack time continues to be enjoyed by all. We are now having fruit and cheese prepared by the snack room moms. Any donation of fruit will be greatly appreciated and we still encourage you to send in other healthy snacks. (The children love pretzels and Nutrigrain bars.) Thank you so much.

Please remember to send hats and gloves (please label them). We will go outside unless it's realllllly freezing. Like Amy, in AMY LOVES SNOW, we might have to go outside to catch snowflakes on our tongues! We are having so much fun with your children.

Nancy and Christine

Our Condolences

Our condolences to Michael Pope, Maddie’s father, on the death of his father, Jerry Pope, January 13, 2012. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the entire Pope family.

5 Day Weekly Update: January 9-13

Brrrr, it’s cold outside but our three bears are nice and toasty in their house.

This week we will continue our discussion about Goldilocks and the Three Bears and begin to introduce our next writer, Jan Brett.  Continuing our theme of bears, we will be reading one of Brett’s books  called The Three Snow Bears.  We will also spend time reading and acting out her books The Mitten, The Hat, and Annie and the Wild Animals.  Her books have rich vocabulary and illustrations and are wonderful additions to home libraries that offer quality books. 

Our nursery rhyme this week will feature Hickory, Dickory Dock.  This is a wonderful time to read some of these stories and rhymes with your child for the first time, or again, and let them tell you more about their daily activities.

 Each room will have activities that support our readings, such as a bear’s house complete with the three bears and Goldilocks, porridge bowls, chairs, and beds.  There will be opportunities for the children to make bear puppets and retell the story at the puppet center.  They can even cut bears, bowls, and spoons out of play dough and retell the story using that medium.

In addition to the bears, the children can experience states of matter, sort bears at the math center, and write the sentence, “I see a bear.” At the end of the week, we will be making a food treat called, Brown square, Brown square what do you see?, a yummy concoction of graham cracker, bananas, and chocolate. Finally, all the children are enjoying going on a bear hunt each day during circle time.

As you can tell, we have a lot of fun and exciting activities for your child each day, so talk with them and find out what activity was a favorite.

Parent Reminders:

Please remember to send your child with coats, hats, and mittens each day so they can go outside and play even on cold days. 

Please label each article of clothing so that we can make sure your child comes home with the same item he/she left with in the morning.

And don’t forget that school will be closed Monday, January 16, in honor of Martin Luther King.

                                                                                             Sincerely,

                                                                                                  Your Five Day Teachers

 

Chilly Chili Cook Off

St. Stephen's annual Chilly Chili Cook Off is coming soon! Please join us on Sunday, January 29 from 1:00 - 3:00. It should be a fun time for all! If you would like to compete for the chili crown please fill out and turn in the following form:

 Chili Registration

Also, if you would like to set up a table at the Cook Off then please fill out the following form and return it with the $35 registration fee:

Chili Shopping

We hope to see you all there!

Red Room Update - January 2012

Happy New Year to everyone!  We have had a great start to the New Year.  All of the children returned ready to see and play with their friends, and anxious to participate in our “winter fun” activities.  We celebrated the New Year by making a colorful mural with many different textures and materials.  This is displayed in the hall for all to enjoy.  We have also made abstract pictures by water coloring, cutting the dried paper into pieces, and gluing them onto a black background.  Using scissors will be a fine motor skill that we will be concentrating on the rest of the year.

Signs of winter will be filling our classroom.  Snowmen, snowflakes, and mittens are available at the small activity table for your child to choose to cut and/or decorate.  We will be making snow by using glue and shaving cream.  Your child can have fun making snow scenes, snowmen, and comparing different animal tracks in the snow.  This is a fun process to watch as the snow dries and puffs up. 

The sculpting center is always a favorite choice for your child to create and develop their fine motor skills.  Many winter items have been added.  Other centers to develop fine motor skills include tweezers and marshmallows to count and place into snowmen hats, and blue and white play dough with scissors and winter cutters.

On our manipulative shelf, there will be a winter scarf activity that your child can make a striped pattern of their choice onto it by using colored craft sticks.  Also available will be a match the mitten game, winter puzzles, and a counting snowman game.  Winter animals have been added to our block area, and some winter clothing to our housekeeping center.

“Five Little Snowmen” has been a fun finger play the children have been reciting and acting out until all the snowmen have melted.  Soon we will be reading and dramatizing The Mitten by Jan Brett.  The children will take turns being the different animals that crawl into the mitten.

“Tell me where the animals go, when it first begins to snow.”  The next few weeks we will be talking about and exploring animals in winter.  Your children will hear and learn the concepts of the words migrate and hibernate.  We will end this unit with a Hibernation Day (date to be announced later).  On this day your child may wear his/her pajamas and bring his/her favorite stuffed animal.  We will serve hot chocolate and popcorn, and read the book Don’t Wake the Bear.  I will send a notice home when the date has been established. 

Thank all of you for your interest and support in our classroom and program.

Gentle Reminder:  Please be sure your child brings the appropriate outdoor wear on these cold days.  Hats and gloves are required to go onto the playground.

Your Red Room Teachers,

Carol and Blanche