FIRST P RESBYTERIAN P RESCHOOL NEWSLETTER

1 F IRST P RESBYTERIAN P RESCHOOL . N EWSLETTER. FALL 2011. N OTES FROM THE D IRECTOR. Hello Parents, It's hard to believe that Fall is here. We have been so fortunate to have great weather for lots of outside play. It seems like our pre- schoolers can't get enough of the playground: swinging, running,, climbing, and sliding. As faculty, it's amazing for us to see how they've already grown so much in the past two months. Thank you for Notice: sharing your children with us! It's getting cold out; please be sure your child has a warm coat, a hat, and mittens as we will still be playing outside in the fresh air. Also, if your child is ill, has had a fever or vomited; they should remain home The beginning of a school year is such a busy time: the children are for 24 hours before returning to school. We are going to do our best to getting used to a new routine, meeting new friends, and separating from home (for just a few hours!). All of the children have been doing keep everyone healthy during these germy months.

2 Thank you! awesome. Sometimes there are a few tears, but once they realize it's going to be a lot of fun, those tears dry right up! Upcoming Events: Gym Classes start on November 2nd We had a wonderful Halloween Party on October 29th. The kids had a lot of fun decorating pumpkins and masks, making Halloween beaded School Pictures on November 8th & 9th and sand art jewelry, and making ghostly Halloween picture frames. Yankee Candle Fundraiser: Merchandise should be in just before Thank You Thank You . Thank You to all of the parents who helped Thanksgiving Vacation (11/23 11/25). set up, decorate, worked stations at the party, made snacks, donated Ladies Night Jewelry Sale on December 2nd (details coming). drinks, and helped clean up. The party was a huge success thanks to all of you who made it happen! Santa's Visit (tentatively scheduled for December 12th & 13th). Mrs. Sarah is back starting November 1st for Gym Classes with all of our children. I have sent home Gym Helper sign ups.

3 It's a great time to play with the kids. Mrs. Sarah has lots of fun activities that get everyone moving. Soon the Holiday Season will be upon us. I love seeing the children hard at work making special decorations and gifts for their families. The kids enjoy having their family visit their school for Holiday activi- ties. I know that all of our boys and girls are very good, so I'm sure that we'll have a visit from the Man In Red . Please feel free to stop in with any questions, concerns, or feedback: my door is open. Warm Regards, Alice Chapman, Preschool Director Mrs. Kowalski's 4PK Class recently visited the Ridge St. Firehouse FALL 2011 P AGE 2. M RS . F ORTIER & M RS . M ORPHIS 5 D AY P RE -K. Falling for 5 Day Pre-K! Our Pre-K classroom began its journey this year by getting to know one another. We began September with an ALL ABOUT. ME unit. We discussed our individual differences, created an all about me poem, colored a classroom portrait and shared our all about me bags. We learned a lot about our new friends!

4 The children also had their FIRST walk to Crandall Library. They were great! A special thanks to all the grown ups for walking with us. The children love to see their families accompany us! We continued the month by learning about hot air balloons. The children learned the mechanics of flying a hot air bal- loon ..what makes it ascend and descend and the properties of air. We painted hot air balloons at the easel. Everyone loved making their balloons as colorful as the ones we saw in the pictures! Some made striped balloons, others chose one color, and some had flowers too! It's great to see their creativity and imagination soar! September continued with learning about apples. We learned the parts of an apple, how apples are grown and compared their similarities and differences. Once we had learned all we could, we made applesauce and our own apple pies! Everything was delicious! We also celebrated the birthday of Rey and Curious George. We love that monkey! What a fantastic beginning to our new school year!

5 I am so proud of your chil- dren! They have made a wonderful transition from home to school. Our classroom is full of children who come in ready to play and learn each day! They are truly awesome. October brings more exciting learning adventures. We began the month with a fall theme. We explored pumpkin art, pump- kin science, and pumpkin math. We will continue our month with looking at the changing autumn scenery, scarecrows, squir- rels, and a visit to The Garden Barn for a hayride and to pick our own pumpkins! Our class will learn a lot about fire safety and visit the Ridge St. Fire Station. We will celebrate Ste- ven Kellogg's birthday and read his books. The rest of the month will bring owls, bats, spiders, and a few Halloween favorites like ghosts, skeletons, and mummies. We will end our month with our school's Halloween party and of course, our classroom parade. M RS . K OWALSKI & M RS . S CHULZ 4 D AY P RE -K. The boys and girls in our 4-Day Pre-K classroom have all the ingredients needed for a successful school 're energetic, curious, adaptable, and eager to learn- a winning recipe!

6 We're discovering lots to do at the various activity centers in our classroom, and we're establishing a safe and secure environment that should make this year an exceptional one! We begin the morning when our bell ringer calls us to Circle Time , where our snack person gives us the calendar and weather report, and we see what our room jobs for the day will be. We discuss the projects and activities we will be involved with, then reveal our Question of the Day ..see if we can tell you what some of our questions have been! We're already very good at predicting what the ques- tion words are by using initial consonant sounds and context clues- an important skill for emergent readers! We conclude our Circle Time by listening to a theme-related story. When Circle Time is over, the students spend some time in the activity/play centers we have in our classroom, as well as join in a teacher-directed activity with other classmates during Project Time. Taking turns, cooperating, sharing, working of these important readiness skills are practiced on a daily basis.

7 Our projects revolve around weekly or bi-weekly themes: in September we got to know each other better during our Getting To Know You unit, then we delved into the sights, sounds and tastes of Autumn. (Ask how many apples TALL we are-we measured!) We also enjoyed our FIRST Story Time at Crandall Library in September. In October, we spent some time with our Community Helpers unit, learning how firemen, mail carriers, medical workers and other community helpers keep us safe and healthy. Highlights of our Community Helpers unit were our visit to the Ridge Street Fire Station, and our special Show and Tell presentations about what our own Moms and Dads do in their jobs. At the end of the month, we'll visit The Garden Barn pumpkin farm and have some fun making witches, ghosts and other spooky sights! After Project Time, our bell ringer gives the signal for Clean-Up Time, so we can go outside for some fun on the playground. After using our inside voices all morning, it's great to be outdoors where we can run and shout and work up an appetite for Snack Time!

8 After Story Time and snack, the students are responsible for completing their room jobs, packing their backpacks, and writing in their journals or whiteboards. We finish most mornings with Music, where our future American Idols get to belt out such classics as Willoughby Wallaby Woo and Down By The Bay - a great finish to a busy, productive morning! We're looking forward to a wonderful year of learning together! FALL 2011 P AGE 3. M RS . F ISHER ' S T HREE Y EAR O LDS. The beginning of the year is always a busy one for us in the 3 year old class. We've been getting to know one an- other and have been making fast friends. Painting and playing in the gym are what we love the best so far. But, we really do enjoy our time together playing, singing and learning lots of new things. Our favorite story is definitely, Go Away Big Green Monster . We love to boss that monster away. October brings our FIRST field trip to Sunny Side Gardens to do some pumpkin picking on October 21st. We also look forward to celebrating Halloween and parading on October 31st.

9 We have been enjoying the weather and getting lots of great playground time. Hopefully you have been getting out at home too. Snow comes too fast so enjoy this beautiful Fall Season. As always, thank you for sharing your children with us. They are a great joy and so much fun. Happy Fall!! Mrs. Fisher & Mrs. Thomas M RS . B ROMLEY -P ARKER ' S T HREE Y EAR O LDS. Our three year old class has settled in like old pros. Their line is very impressive as we make our way to the playground. What a nice group of children we have. We have been doing all kinds of fun activities and have been working very hard on all our art projects. Every one loves to be the leader and we all know our routines already. Ask us to sing you "our days of the week" song. We also love to dance and do music time, we all have our favorite songs to dance to. We have already made yummy pumpkin bread and some of us were able to crack eggs even. We were very good at slicing up apples for our applesauce , even though lots of the apples ended up in our tummies and not in the pot.

10 We will be going to the pumpkin farm soon and to the Crandall Library. Some of us have library cards already but some of us will be getting a card on our field trip. Time is going so quickly , soon it will be time for Miss Sarah, Santa and snow. We have so many fun things planned and are having such a fun time with your children. We are looking forward to the rest of the year and to watching all the progress the threes will make on their preschool journey. Mrs. BP and Mrs. Sylvia M RS . B ROMLEY -P ARKER ' S T ODDLERS. The toddlers are settling in nicely, even though we still have a few tears here and there. It is getting easier for us to have our mommies leave as we are having so much fun and are learning "that Mommies always come back!" We are making friends and using our nice words with each other and our teachers. We are such good listeners and love to sit on our circles during story time. We have been playing the beanbag music game and learning to wait and to take our turn.