Mrs. Stephanie’s
August 18-22
Beginning of the year
What a wonderful week! Thank you for making us feel so appreciated during teacher appreciation week. We truly enjoy spending our days with your kids and helping them grow. We hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and a wish all of the moms, grandmas, aunts, and important women in our students’ lives have a very special Mother’s Day!
The kids had some big noticings while clapping out syllables this week. Because of this, We had an impromptu lesson on the difference between letters, syllables, and sounds in a word. We counted how many letters we saw and compared it to how many sounds and syllables we heard in different words.This is tough work for preschoolers!
Board games continue to be a big hit for our room! We are working on counting, colors, and shapes while playing different games at our puzzle and game center.
The rain this week made for a lot of indoor time. But that meant we got to try out our parachute! We had fun going under the parachute to trade places with a friend!
May 26- No School
May 28- Last Day of School-Early Dismissal
Music And Movement
Parachute
Scooter boards
Mrs. Stephanie’s
May 5-9
Insects
What a wonderful week! Thank you for making us feel so appreciated during teacher appreciation week. We truly enjoy spending our days with your kids and helping them grow. We hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and a wish all of the moms, grandmas, aunts, and important women in our students’ lives have a very special Mother’s Day!
The kids had some big noticings while clapping out syllables this week. Because of this, We had an impromptu lesson on the difference between letters, syllables, and sounds in a word. We counted how many letters we saw and compared it to how many sounds and syllables we heard in different words.This is tough work for preschoolers!
Board games continue to be a big hit for our room! We are working on counting, colors, and shapes while playing different games at our puzzle and game center.
The rain this week made for a lot of indoor time. But that meant we got to try out our parachute! We had fun going under the parachute to trade places with a friend!
May 26- No School
May 28- Last Day of School-Early Dismissal
Music And Movement
Parachute
Scooter boards
Mrs. Stephanie’s
April 28-May 2
Insects
It’s hard to believe that it’s already May! This year has been so filled with joy because of your children. Every year our Early Childhood program asks for parent feedback to ensure we are meeting our goals. With this being the first year Werner has a preschool program, we would love to know how we are doing!
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd6McngHrYypD1uhCQgchdaDx5NKquw_4VCcOjGMKwE-9CH-g/viewform
We learned all about camouflage in nature and insects this week. We looked at pictures of different insects and talked about how they use color and shape to hide from predators in the wild.
This week we did a quick refresher on patterns. We are having fun creating challenges to “trick” the kids. It is so fun to see how proud they are of themselves when we can’t trick them!
Our ladybugs have fully transitioned from their pupa phase into adult ladybugs! On Thursday we released our ladybugs into the field and watched them as they crawled through the grass.
May 26- No School
May 28- Last Day of School-Early Dismissal
Music And Movement
Pool Noodle Boomwhackers
Mrs. Stephanie’s
April 21-25
Insects
You may have seen or heard about our ladybug larva in their enclosure. We’ve been having fun watching our ladybug larva as they crawled around their home. At this time, most of them have moved into their pupa phase. We hope that in the next week or two we will begin to see ladybugs emerge!
This week we worked on story sequencing and retelling with the story The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The kids worked hard to cut out circles to make their own caterpillar and then added the food pictures in order as we told the story aloud. You can have them practice retelling the story at home!
As we near the end of April we have been working on council beyond 20. We have also worked on counting on fro a number rather than starting from 1.
We have been bring out out board games and card games and the kids love to play them! We are working on turn taking, following rules of a game, and persisting when things are hard.
May 26- No School
May 28- Last Day of School-Early Dismissal
Music And Movement
Insect Stretches
Mrs. Stephanie’s
April 13-17
Insects
It’s hard to believe that we are beginning our final study of the year! We will be learning about insects in the final weeks of the year. The kids have already begun searching for insects out in our field. We will learn more about the characteristics of insects, where they live, and how they help us.
As we introduced our new study on insects, we read a story called Over in the Meadow by Ezra Jack Keats. We talked about what an author does and recalled other books written by the same author.
This week we focused on sorting and grouping items by size, color, shape, and other defining characteristics.
On Thursday the 3rd and 4th grade students performed their music show! We love seeing the bigger kids in action and showing off their hard work!
April 21- Mrs. Stephanie Out for the day
Music And Movement
Pool Noodle Boom Whackers
Mrs. Stephanie’s
April 7-11
Water
This week we wrapped up our study of water. The kids had so much fun on our walk to Fossil Creek Park! We saw turtles lounging on a log in the water and geese and ducks swimming. The kids did a great job looking for different items in nature with our scavenger hunt, and playing at the park was a real treat!
This week we finished up some of our end of the year literacy assessments. The kids have been so proud of how many letters they have learned throughout the year and I am so proud of them for all of their growth!
We have been playing lots of fun games with numbers. Next week we will be playing game with cards and dice to continue to work on our numbers and counting.
We did a fun Sink or Float experiment this week. We talk about making a hypothesis and got to take data on whether or not each iteam we tested would float.
April 21- Mrs. Stephanie Out for the day
Music And Movement
Lettercise!
Mrs. Stephanie’s
March 24-28
Water
We had a fun week in preschool! The warm weather allowed us to spend a lot of time outside. We spent a lot of time experimenting with water. We are talking about the different states of water (liquid, solid, gas). Our sensory table was filled with fake snow that absorbs water. We were able to play with it and see how much water it could absorb. We made chalk paint to use outside. And we conducted a small experiment on evaporation.
This week we read a nonfiction book about frogs. We learned about how they grow from an egg, into a tadpole, and into a frog. We had fun pretending to be tadpoles and frogs as we moved around the room!
This week we used tallys and charts during our many science experiments. We love using these tools to help us visualize our data and keep track of all the new words we are learning!
Please remember to return your child’s permission slip for our field trip to Fossil Creek Park. We welcome any parents who would like to join us on this trip!
April 10- Field Trip
Music And Movement
Five Green Speckled Frogs
Five Little Ducks
Mrs. Stephanie’s
March 10-14
Water
Our new study is up and running and the kids are already loving learning about water! This study is a mini-study and will only run for a few weeks after spring break, but we have a lot of fun things to explore and do!
We have begun by talking about how we use water and will be exploring different habitats with water when we return from spring break.
To end our study, we will be taking a walking field trip to Fossil Creek Park, Watch for that permission slip to come home on Monday, March 24.
This week we read The Rain Came Down. We also began our study using a topic web to document what we already know about water and to help us decide what we would like to know more about.
The kids have gone crazy for patterns. We have seen them looking for patterns all around them and creating more complex patterns in their play. After break, we will be returning our focus to our number identification and number sense skills.
Spring has sprung in our flower beds. Our tulips are starting to grow and we decided they needed some protection from the many feet around our door. We worked on our tying skills by adding some bright string to our string lines!
March 17-21- Spring Break
April 10- Field Trip
Music And Movement
Five Green Speckled Frogs
Mrs. Stephanie’s
February 24-28
Buildings
This week we wrapped up our building study by planning and completing our Build It! projects. We spent time talking about planning our buildings, drawing blueprints, and creating some incredible structures! The kids had so much fun coming up with their designs and making them a reality with all of the materials we had to choose from. Thank yo for all of your help making this project a success!
This week we read a few stories about Little Critter, Just Lost and Shopping With Mom. We used these stories to talk about emotions and how to regulate them. We also made predictions about what we thought might happen next in the story as we read.
We have heard so many of our students using the names of 3 dimensional shapes! This has been a big focus during our building study and the kids have all really picked up on them!
With the unseasonably warm and sunny weather we made sure to spend extra time outside this week. We have had the opportunity to play with water and start looking for signs of spring!
March 3- No School
Music And Movement
3 Step direction challenges during transitions (tip toe, then hop, then walk backward)
Mrs. Stephanie’s
February 3-7
Buildings
Our building study is well underway. We have learned about safety equipment we use when building, and had so much fun trying them out in our dramatic play area. This week we worked on our cooperative skills by working together to build a structure with a partner. We will also be talking more about structures and how to make them strong, or sturdy.
Our final checkpoint for our TS Gold assessment begins Monday. The kids are showing so much growth, and I can’t wait to see where they go from here!
We have begun reading different variations of the story of the Three Little Pigs. This week we read The Three Little Javelinas, a version set in the desert. We will be using a chart to compare and contrast these two stories this coming week.
We are exploring shapes as we build. This week we learned the names of some 3 dimensional shapes: cone, sphere, cube, and cone. We will continue to talk about these shapes as we create buildings of our own.
I will be holding spring conferences on Friday, March 21. If you would prefer a home visit, please let me know and we can find a date for that visit.
February 17- No School
February 21- Conferencesl
Music And Movement
Tip Toe
Tap Tap Tap
Mrs. Stephanie’s
January 13-17
Buildings
The kids were full of energy this week. Fortunately with the warmer weather at the end of the week we were able to get outside and run around.
Next week is a short week with no school on Monday. Please send your child with a coat, hat, and gloves next week with the cold weather returning.
We had an impromptu visit from our facilities department. They showed us their plans and how to use a laser measuring tool! We will continue our buildings study and will focus on the topics that kids have expressed an interest in.
We are working on our letter names and sounds with lots of different games. One of our new favorites is:
Appy tappy tappy
Appy tappy too
Appy tappy tappy
I’ll show my letter to you!
We played a game with word problems this week in small groups. Using buttons, we practiced simple adding and subtracting problems.
Ms. Jill brought in a fun magnetic fishing game for us this week. We balanced on stepping stones and caught fish out of the “pond”.
January 20- No School
Music And Movement
Yoga poses (bridge, tower, tunnel)
Mrs. Stephanie’s
January 7-10
Buildings
Welcome back! We were so excited to be back in school. The kids came in full of energy and excitement!
We are beginning a new study on buildings. This study will allow us to learn more about different types of buildings, features and parts of buildings, and how buildings are made. If you or anyone you know works in a building trade and would like to be a guest expert, please let me know!
This week we read the story Three Little Pigs. We will be reading it throughout the coming weeks as well as variations on the story. We will focus on story recall and sequencing.
We are continuing to work on our numbers and counting. We are also going to start playing with numbers and what comes before or after a number when we count.
As we come back from winter break, we will be reviewing our classroom rules and routines.
January 20- No School
Music And Movement
Ceiling and Floor Game
Mrs. Stephanie’s
Dec 16-20
Signs
What a wonderful end to the first semester! The children were definitely filled with joy and excitement as the winter break was drawing near!
We celebrated the end of our Signs study by creating our own first initial signs. We will send them home when we return from winter break.
We also had a fun filled pajama day and winter party with an indoor “snowball” fight, “ice” skating, and jingle bell bracelet making. Thank you to all the parents who joined us and lent an extra hand!
While the weather has not been wintery, we tried our best to encourage some snow to fall by reading stories about snowflakes and snowmen!
During small groups this week we worked on counting, number iden, and size concepts. We also practiced our cutting skills by cutting out small, medium, and large circles to make snowmen!
On Monday we made candy cane play dough and used peppermint extract to make it smell extra special.
January 6- No School
Jan 7- First day back!
Music And Movement
London Bridge
Mrs. Stephanie’s
December 9-13
Signs
We are wrapping up the first half of the school year, and finishing up our study of signs. Next week we will be celebrating our learning by creating our own signs to take home.
Next Thursday we will be having a pajama day! After our rest time we will enjoy hot cocoa and a snack as we get ready to go into our winter break.
We have been having some fun with rhymes this week. Ms. Stephanie’s magic wand used rhyming spells to turn us into animals! The kids loved this game and asked to play it every day!
We are continuing our work on numeral identification and understanding the quantity that they represent. We also continued to create patterns sign blocks and beads. You may have seen a bracelet or two come home!
With the holidays upon us, preschoolers can experience a lot of emotions. Changes in routine can be fun and exciting, but can also be hard for some. This week we talked about having strong feelings and how to help express them and calm our bodies.
Dec. 19- Pajama Party!
Dec. 21-Jan. 6- Winter Break
Music And Movement
Rhyming Magic Spells
Obstacle Course (balancing and tunnels)
Mrs. Stephanie’s
Nov 18-22
Signs
What a week! We have loved talking about all the things we are thankful for this week. We heard from the kids that theys are thankful for their families, and we are so thankful for you, too! We hope you enjoy your week and are able to spend time with family and friends.
When we return, we will have a very quick three weeks before winter break. While there is much excitement this time of year, we will do our best to maintain our routines to help keep the kids learning and growing.
This week we read the book Bear Says Thanks. We talked about what it means to be thankful and what we are thankful for. We also read Goodnight Gorilla and tried to tell a story from just the pictures.
This week we continued to work on our measuring skills as comparative language. We had fun blowing pom poms across the table with straws and talking about how far they moved!
On Thursday, Ms. Jill brought in an obstacle course for us to try. We had so much fun working on our large and gross motor skills. Obstacle courses are a great way to use up some energy on a cold day!
Nov. 25-29 Fall Break
Music And Movement
Animal Yoga
Egg shakes and rhythm sticks
Mrs. Stephanie’s
Nov 11-15
Signs
We began to talk about the different ways we celebrate holidays this week. We will continue to talk special celebrations and about all the things we are thankful for next week.
As cold and flu season kick into gear, we could use more tissues for our classroom. Also, if your child is not feeling well please keep them home to rest.
You should find your child’s extra clothes in their backpack. Please check them to see that they are seasonally appropriate!
This week we worked on recognizing beginning sounds in words. We tried out some fun tongue twisters and listened to the beginning sounds as we said them together.
We worked this week on our numeral recognition and counting objects to make sets. We will continue to work with numerals and to build our number sense throughout the year.
This week we learned a new dance called The Brain Dance to help wake up our bodies and get us ready to learn. Learning to regulate our bodies is a major part of our day and of being a preschooler!
Nov. 15- EC Day at the Museum
Nov. 25-29 Fall Break
Music And Movement
BINGO
The Brain Dance
Mrs. Stephanie’s
Nov 4-8
Signs
This school year is flying by! It’s hard to believe we are already into November. With the changes in the weather, please be sure to send your child to school with warm coats, hats, gloves, and boots if it snows. We will try to get outside everyday even for a little bit. We will also be working with the kids on their independence with putting on and taking off their gear. Please be sure to label your child’s things in case they are misplaced!
Our sensory table has been refilled with rice and letters to scoop and find. We also continue to work on our rhyming skills. This week we read Llama Llama Mad at Mama and listened for the rhyming words.
The kids have shown an interest in measuring this week. We have had fun using the measuring tape to measure our friends. We will also explore using other objects to measure such as cubes and links.
Next Friday is the EC Day at the Museum of Discovery. Join us for lunch and stay to do a fun craft with me! I hope to see many of you there!
We also have an open reader slot for next week and many open slots in the future!
Nov. 11- No School
Nov. 15- EC Day at the Museum
Music And Movement
Driving In My Car
Sammy
Mrs. Stephanie’s
Oct 28-31
Signs
We have been busy making all kinds of signs for our classroom this week! Check out the many signs we have hanging around the room the next time you stop by! We ended our week by celebrating Halloween with our party and costume parade. The kids have been so excited for this all week. Thank you to all of our families for making it a success!
We worked on our letters and letter sounds using environmental print. We also created our own silly rhymes using the song Down By the Bay. Have your child sing it with you!
This week we began talking about the 3 dimensional shapes cube, cone, cylinder, and sphere. Help your child recognize these 3 dimensional shoes as you look at buildings in town.
The Early Childhood Program is looking for a parent representative from our class to share information about what we are up to here at Werner during our monthly Policy Council meetings. If you are interested in representing us, pelase follow this link to complete the form.
Nov 4- Buster the Bus visit
Nov 7- Mrs. Stephanie out in the AM
Music And Movement
Five Little Pumpkins
Black Bat Farm
Mrs. Stephanie’s
Oct 21-24
Signs
This week we began our study on signs. The kids are already busy making signs for our classroom and school! We started off this study by taking a walk around the school to look for signs. We will continue to investigate more about how signs are used, why they are important, and where we might see them in our community. Next week we will celebrate Halloween on Oct. 31st.
This week we read the story The Little Old Lady Who Wasn’t Afraid of Anything. We listened to the story, helped to tell the story with flannel board pieces, and acted the story out! Story time has been so much fun!
This week we practices sorting and counting using candy corn. We also worked on the use of tally marks to show how many of each type of candy corn we had.
Next week we will be converting our dramatic play area into a store. As we continue to learn about signs we will also be working on recognizing environmental print such as store signs, logos, and safety signs.
Oct 31- Halloween Party and Parade
Nov 7- Mrs. Stephanie out in the AM
Music And Movement
The Apple Tree
Animal Walks
Mrs. Stephanie’s
Oct 14-17
Beginning of the Year
We had a full schedule for our three day week! We have had lots of fun finishing up our beginning of the year study. Next week we will begin a new study on “signs”. During this study we will have the opportunity to look at environmental print, talk about why signs are important, and create signs for our classroom! We will be setting up a grocery store in our dramatic play area, and would love any empty boxes or cartons to fill our shelves!
This week we went on a Bear Hunt. Not for real of course! Rather than read a book, we did oral storytelling and used pictures and actions to help us build meaning around the story. Have your child lead you on a bear hunt to practice their story retelling skills!
During small groups this week we played a dice game “Roll and Cover” to practice our counting and numeral identification skills.
Looking for a fun game to play while waiting in line or on a long car ride? Ask your child to play “My Father Runs a Grocery Store”. This game works on our colors, vocabulary development, memory, and turn taking skills!
October 22- Dental Screening
October 23- picture retakes
Music And Movement
Shake Something
Jumping and Counting
Mrs. Stephanie’s
Sept 30-Oct 4
Beginning of the Year
This week we were able to attend our first assembly at Werner! We had so much fun joining the kindergarten through second graders in the gym for a story with Axel the dog.
With the beautiful weather this week we have enjoyed being outside and playing in our mud kitchen. We will be making the most of the changing seasons and getting outside as much as possible.
Our PTA has organized a read-a-thon for the month of October. The challenge is for every student to read (or be read to!) every day in October. As part of the read-a-thon every child received a t-shirt and a book! We will have a spirit day next Thursday. Encourage your child to wear their read-a-thon shirt!
Thank you for your support with our Question of the Day as your child is entering school. These questions help us practice using charts and to talk about the idea of more and less.
If you have not yet signed up for a conference, please do so. These fall conferences are required for our program and will give us the opportunity to check in on your child’s progress so far this year. If you do not see an option that works for you, please let me know so that we can find a time to meet.
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E084CA4AC28ABFF2-51813652-fall
October 7- No school
October 10- Spirit Day
October 17 & 18- No School
Music And Movement
Freeze Dance
The Wheels on the Bus