These two days we will have fun talking about snowmen, playing with snow and doing fun winter activities.  We will have snow in the sensory table again and will be making snowmen and using Mr. Potato Head pieces to make them more realistic!!  We will be doing some fine motor work and making snowflakes out of pipe cleaners and beads.  Our other centers this week will focus on review of the ABC’s and one-to-one correspondence. This week will be a lot of fun and will help the kids ease back into the school routine.

I hope you enjoyed the Holidays and enjoyed time with your family and friends!!!

Now that we are seeing snow on the ground and the temps are dropping just wanted to remind you if Fairview Park City Schools (FPCS) close due to snow or cold the DAP program will not have school as well…we follow the  FPCS calendar and call offs.

See you tomorrow!!!

This week we will devote our time at school to activities surrounding the Holiday. We will be reading stories that include manipulatives for the students to play with including, If you take a Mouse to the Movies, The First Snow and 10 on a Sled.  The housekeeping area will be designated the gift wrapping area, the sensory table will be filled with ice or scissors and pine needles or wrapping paper.  We will strengthen our fine motor skills with making candy cane ornaments made out of beads, a Q-tip snowflake and a math tree.

Wednesday is our last day with students and will be Pajama Day.  Have your child dress in their favorite pajamas and get ready for the Polar Express.  We will serve hot chocolate and cookies to the children for snack.

On behalf of the entire DAP team I would like to wish you and yours a very Happy Holiday and we will see you in the New Year.

This week our question of the week is Who makes clothing?  We will continue to ask this question all week as we read The Jacket I wear in the Snow and Mrs. McNosh Hangs Up her Wash.  The students have really enjoyed examining their own clothing as to if it soft or scratchy and if it has numbers or letters on it.  These questions are great ways to stimulate conversation with your child.

Mrs. Sheridan our Speech Pathologist will be in our room on Thursday to re-read the story The Jacket I wear In the Snow  and work on speech goals.

We will be finishing our Christmas gifts, reviewing the letters D, E and F, patterning and having fun along the way.

Winter Program: Please make sure you have turned in your seat request for the Winter Program.  If not ,you can attend the dress rehearsal on Thursday morning at 10AM. For our afternoon students who want to attend the dress rehearsal, families are responsible for them as the AM class is in session.  You will need to take them home after the dress rehearsal and bring them back for class in the PM.  ***Please be at school no later than 6:45 and in the room for the Winter Program.

We are singing, The Reindeer Pokey, Do you want to build a snowman and This little light of mine.  We are so excited to sing for you all!!

This week we will be reading Sneezy the Snowman youtu.be/uOWKdqK6O9o and the Paperbag Princess  youtu.be/hIPrb-sA6Uo

Both books talk about a variety of clothing.  Sneezy the Snowman melts at the end of the story and the children will be making a melted snowman out of glue and shaving cream.  In the Paperbag Princess, the children will make paperbag vests of their own creations to wear.  We will continue washing our clothes in the dramatic play area and sorting clothes by color.  We will be counting the clothing that we wash as our Math concept this week is counting.  As our Fundations program has come to an end with learning the letters and their sounds, we will be review the letters and sounds until we leave for holiday break.  When we return, we will begin to learn to write them using  Fundation’s concepts.

On Thursday, Mrs.Sheridan, SLP will be in the room and be a literacy center where she will read Sneezy the Snowman to the students while working on their language skills.

HOUSEKEEPING:

Picture Retakes are scheduled for  tomorrow, Monday, December 4th.

The PM class field trip will be at the Natural History Museum on Thursday this week.

We are in desperate need of paper towels.  If you could send some in that would be terrific.

The concert songs have been chosen and we will be performing:

1. The Reindeer Pokey(hokey pokey tune)  2. An original song written by Miss Alicia our music teacher (sung to the tune of Do You Want to Build a Snowman) and 3.This Little Light of Mine performed in sign language.  We will send home the words and a video of the signs this next week.  Each song is short and easy to learn.  We can’t wait!!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving full of love and family.

This week we will be finishing out our introduction of the letters of the alphabet with Y and Z. For math this week for we will be focusing on sorting. We will be starting a full week of our clothing unit this week.  The kids will start to investigate clothing and we will begin discussions about clothing. The first discussion this week will be features of clothing.  This is a very interesting unit for the kids.  They start to pay attention to things about clothing that they have never noticed.

We have ZUMBA this week on Tuesday thanks to the  PTA so make sure your child wears comfortable clothes to move in and tennis shoes on Tuesday!!

We will be starting to practice our songs for the Holiday Program which is Thursday December 14th at 7PM. More information about the program will be coming out soon.  Once I know the details I will send in an email. I know several of you are anxiously waiting for the seat assignment letters.

This week we will be doing centers based on the theme of Thanksgiving. Our dramatic play area will be set up so the kids can set the table for a Thanksgiving Feast. We will be increasing our fine motor by using turkey basters and pushing feathers across the table.  We will also be feathering turkeys using feathers and colanders. Our math will be counting turkeys, identifying the number and writing the number we will also be matching feather shapes.  Our letters this week will be W and X. Our finale for the week with be the Turkey Trot!!  We also plan on trying to do a cooking activity making pumpkin pie in a cup.

Info on Turkey Trot:

Please join us and cheer on the students in this fun run/walk around the school campus.  The students need to be dressed in athletic wear (including tennis shoes)  as well as for the weather, ie. coats, hats, mittens.  Please note the Turkey Trot will be cancelled if there is heavy rain or snow.   The AM DAP students will report to the Gym at 9:15 and run/walk at 9:30.  The PM DAP students will report to the gym at 1:15 and run/walk around 1:30.  Students still report to their classrooms just like any other day. The teachers will get the students ready for the run/walk when it is time and will see the parents cheering us on as we run/walk.

REMEMBER NO SCHOOL NOVEMBER 20-24 WE ARE HOLDING PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCES

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with family!!

This week our focus will be on seasons and the different clothing we wear to keep us warm etc.  In our housekeeping area we will be using items given to us from University Circle Early Learning Initiative.  Our housekeeping will be a forest with all the woodland animal puppets.  The kids can dress up as rangers and take care of the animals.  This is a nice transition from trees into our clothing study.

Our letters this week are U and V. Can’t believe we are almost done with the alphabet!!

If you haven’t signed up for parent teacher conferences and would like to meet please sign up on sign-up-genius. Here is the link:

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0c4daca72ba4fe3-parent

Our Turkey Trot is right around the corner.  Please join us and cheer on the students in this fun run/walk around the school campus.  The students need to be dressed in athletic wear (including tennis shoes)  as well as for the weather, ie. coats, hats, mittens.  Please note the Turkey Trot swill be cancelled if there is heavy rain or snow.   The AM DAP students will report to the Gym at 9:15 and run/walk at 9:30.  The PM DAP students will report to the gym at 1:15 and run/walk around 1:30.  Students still report to their classrooms just like any other day. The teachers will get the students ready for the run/walk when it is time and will see the parents cheering us on as we run/walk. 

PM students only:

Our next field trip will be this Thursday November 9th.  We will be visiting Nature Center at Shaker Lakes. Make sure your child arrives at 11:45, the bus will be leaving promptly at 12:00.  Reminder: no back packs on field trip days.

This week we will finish out our Halloween theme finishing out with ghoulish, ghostly, and BOO-tiful centers.  We will finish out our Halloween day by frosting sugar cookies and decorating them to look like Jack-o-lanterns.

The rest of the week we will be finishing out our trees study by discussing the seasons and how we need to start changing what we wear because of the temperature.  This is a great lead into our next study which is clothing!!

Our letters of the week are S and T.

REMINDER FOR HALLOWEEN ACTIVITIES:

On Halloween we have a building wide parade at 9:30. Parents can arrive at 8:45 and go directly to the gym where Principal Ms. Trish will provide glazed donuts for all.  You can have your child already dressed in their costume (parents make sure to either put the costume over their clothes or pack clothes to change into….we will change them after the parade)  At 9:15 the students then report to their classrooms.  If weather permits we then walk out the back doors of the gym and parade around the building.  Parents, Grandparents etc. then stand outside along the sidewalks and take pictures as the kids parade around the school.  Anyone is welcome to watch.  PM students and family are welcome to join the donuts and parade as well.  We will walk to together AM and PM and you can retrieve your child at the end of the parade.

Classroom treats are welcome to hand out to each child but we will not be eating the treats at school.  They will go home in the child’s backpack.  If you decide to send treats in just make sure there is enough for each child (AM 11 and PM 11) and we will help the students disburse them to their friends.

Since Halloween falls on a Tuesday next week we decided 2 days of Halloween was just not enough. SOOO this week we will be doing all Halloween themed centers in our classroom this week.  Our housekeeping area will be changed into a costume shop where the kids can buy and try on costumes.  The math this week is about graphing and we will be graphing ghoulish and ghostly items.  The letter this week are Q and R we will paint with Q-tips and glue ribbon on our R’s.  This week is such a great week.  The kids are always so excited for Halloween!!

Here are the details for the Halloween parade for next week:

On Halloween we have a building wide parade at 9:30. Parents can arrive at 8:45 and go directly to the gym where Principal Ms. Trish will provide glazed donuts for all.  You can have your child already dressed in their costume (parents make sure to either put the costume over their clothes or pack clothes to change into….we will change them after the parade)  At 9:15 the students then report to their classrooms. (parents can then start moving to the parade route) If weather permits we then walk out the back doors of the gym and parade around the building.  Parents, Grandparents etc. then stand outside along the sidewalks and take pictures as the kids parade around the school.  Anyone is welcome to watch.  PM students and family are welcome to join the donuts and parade as well.  We will walk  together AM and PM and you can pick up your child at the end of the parade.

Classroom treats are welcome to hand out to each child but we will not be eating the treats at school.  They will go home in the child’s backpack.  If you decide to send treats in just make sure there is enough for each child (AM 11 and PM 11) and we will help the students disburse them to their friends.

Children Trick-or-treating — Image by © Royalty-Free/Corbis

We had so much fun last week and will continue this week learning about trees (this is week four of six.) We will talk about food that is grown from trees and the letters O and P. We have several fun activities planned around the letters including painting with purple paint, stamping the letter O, making letters out of orange play-doh and re-visiting the book Henny Penny.

REMINDER: Next Thursday, October 19th is picture day for the entire DAP program. Please return the picture order form on Thursday the 19th.

Thank you to Mr. Shulte for visiting our classrooms this week and talking to us about fire safety.  The kids had a great time trying on his fireman apparel!!!

It’s that time of the month when snack is due. Just in the next few weeks start sending in snacks and juice for the classroom.

Thank you!