Week 3

 

Week 3 Newletter

What another wonderful week of Pre-K! I am really loving teaching Pre-K and getting to know all of our sweet kiddos. Thank you for being such a supportive group of parents.

Please access photos from the week here!

Look What We Learned This Week!

• Classroom Expectations & Routines: Students are doing a wonderful job learning the PreK way and settling into our daily schedule!
• All About Me Unit: We read stories highlighting how we are all unique, celebrating our similarities and differences, and learning to feel comfortable with who we are while accepting others.
• Daily Survey: Our class had fun answering daily questions like summer vs. winter, chocolate vs. vanilla, and cat vs. dog to learn more about each other's preferences.
• Concepts of Print & Phonemic Awareness: Through our weekly poem, we practiced reading left-to-right directionality, return sweep, and identified letters, words, and sentences. We also worked on listening for rhyming words, blending and segmenting compound words, identifying beginning and ending sounds, and counting words in spoken sentences.
• Name Activities: Students practiced recognizing and spelling their names. We counted the number of letters in everyone's name and built a class graph—5 letters was our most common length!
• Rest Time & Center Exploration: Rest time was a big success this week, with students lying quietly to relax for 30 minutes. Afterward, they dove into center time exploring dramatic play, blocks, drawing, sensory play, writing, library books, fine motor tasks, and STEM building.
• Pencil Grip Practice: We worked hard on mastering our pencil grip in our writing books! Ask your child to demonstrate the "pinch, pick up, flip, and tuck" technique: pinch with thumb and pointer, flip the pencil back to rest on the middle finger, and hide the ring and pinkie fingers in the palm.
• Specials: Students enjoyed music with Mrs. Li, art with Ms. Tara, library book checkout, and gym activities during PE with our teacher assistants.

Looking Ahead to Next Week

• Fall Apples Unit: We begin our new unit next week!
• Apple Donations Needed: Please send 2 to 4 apples with your child on Monday for painting, making applesauce, taste tests, and learning activities.
• Apple Toys Needed: If you have any unused toy or play apples at home, we would love to have them for our dramatic play center.

Thank you so much for your support and donations!

Sincerely, 
Caroline McGee

Week 2

We have had such a wonderful week together in Pre-K at OB! Thank you all so much for your support and partnership—we are off to an amazing start, and our Pre-K family is truly thriving!

Please ​check out ​Week 2 photos here!

🎒 All About Me Unit & Special Visits

We continued our All About Me unit this week! A big thank you to everyone for sending in the All About Me bags. The students loved sharing their special items and getting to know one another better!
We also had a very exciting visitor this week. Dr. Simon stopped by our classroom to read us a wonderful story!

☀️ Morning Routines & Outdoor Play

The children have done a fantastic job settling into our morning routines. Each day, we jump right into our morning greeting, calendar time, dressing our weather bear, sharing our families and head outside for some morning "warm" air and outdoor play.

📚 Literacy & Learning

We kicked off our daily read-alouds and introduced a shared reading poem to help students start exploring key concepts of print. We also began our Heggerty phonemic awareness practice! Be sure to check your child's folder today! We spent time doing lots of fun activities focused on the first letter of our names, and their creations are coming home!

🧸 Center Time, Quiet Time & Problem Solving

Quiet time was a great success this week—the students did an incredible job resting and recharging!
During Center Time, the classroom was full of energy and exploration. Students moved around the room to build with blocks, play house, create art, dig in the sensory bin, read on the couch, use their imaginative play skills, solve puzzles, create books, and use play-dough to strengthen those fine motor skills! They are doing a wonderful job playing together and talking through conflicts. We’ve been using lots of timers to help transition as well as practicing how to politely ask to take turns with toys.

🛡️ Character Building & SOAR

After centers, we enjoy our snack and water, followed by our daily character-building lesson. This week, we focused on Safety (the "S" in SOAR!) and talked about what a strong listener looks like.
Our school counselors also visited us for a fun lesson where students met Jag, our service dog! They introduced the Mood Meter and talked with the class about understanding and expressing different feelings.

🎨 Specials

The kids love winding down the afternoon at 2:40 PM with our daily Specials! This week, they enjoyed Art, Music, Library, and two energetic days of Gym! 🎨 🎶 📚 🏃‍♂️

💙 A Big Thank You!

Thank you again for all the magnetic cubes and for supporting our Pre-K classroom family. We appreciate you so much and can't wait for another great week ahead! Enjoy Labor Day weekend!

Sincerely, 
Mrs. McGee

First Day of School

 

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