This week we will be exploring whether or not all balls bounce.  If a ball is heavy does it bounce?  We will be using tubes and ramps to see if all balls roll and bounce.  We will be reading the book called Bounce and the Fairy Tale, The Three Billy Goats Gruff.  Challenge your child at home to find a ball that rolls.  See if you can roll the ball down many different ramps.  Create your own ramp using paper towel tubes or swim noodles.  Building with your child creates hours of fun.

Our letter of the week is Z and our math lesson is on subtraction and addition.  We will be finishing up our Mothers day Gifts that I know the children are excited to give to you.

A great big Thank you to everyone who honored the teachers last week for Teacher Appreciation week.  Truly it is our pleasure to work with your child.

Our study this month is BALLS.  We will investigate how they bounce, roll, size and what kind.  The students will play with a variety of balls, paint with them, measure them and explore what in on the inside of them.  We will also do two science experiments in which we will make our own bouncy balls. For math this week we will be measuring and we will be reviewing the letters Y, U, J, X, H, and N.

As we begin to wind down the school year we will try very hard to play outside each day.  It is prohibited for us to apply sun screen to your child at school without a medical statement from your doctor.  If sunscreen is a summer protocol for your family, please apply it to your child before they come to school each day.

If you attended the ice cream social and art show last Friday thank you for coming.  It was a huge success!!

PM Class ONLY:  Our last field trip will be back to the Music Settlement however this time we will be exploring outside and water. We advise you to wear boots as we may be getting WET and possibly MUDDY as well!!

It is hard to believe that school will be ending soon.  Our last day of DAP is the same as the district June 8, 2017.  The children have learned so very much this year and we are super thrilled to have been witnesses to their success.

REMINDER: THIS WEEK IS A SHORT WEEK.  (NO SCHOOL THURSDAY) WE WILL BE LEAVING AFTER SCHOOL WEDNESDAY TO ATTEND A EARLY CHILDHOOD CONFERENCE.  THIS IS SUCH A WONDERFUL CONFERENCE AND WE ALL LEARN SO MUCH.

We started out our study of living and nonliving this past week with a lot of fun items that the kids really enjoyed!  This week we will continue our study by investigating more about ants and butterflies and their life cycles.

Our butterflies and ants were delivered over the weekend so the kids will have a great time helping put them into their habitats we have for them in our classroom.

Letter of the week this week is U.  This week we will be exploring things that are living and non living.  We will sort items in the sensory table, use clip cards to strengthen our fine motor and work on our art projects that will be on display during the ART SHOW on April 28th.

We will enjoy an Earth day Assembly on April 18th and honor our earth with an Earth Day Project.

The rest of the month we will be focusing on the topic of living and nonliving, talking about Spring and life cycles. For the PM class, our field trip this month will be to the Botanical Gardens.  We will be using all the material that the Botanical Gardens has provided for the PM in both classes.

We will read the story The Caterpillar and the Polliwog by Jack Kent.    https://youtu.be/A3Wo15Sr4vA

For art this week we will continue to add artwork to our nature mural which is outside our classroom.  The housekeeping area has been turned into a flower shop, the sensory table is a pretend planting station with real dirt and pretend flowers  We will also be working on our art projects for the Art show which occurs on April 28th.

Our letter this week is J and Math will include sorting items based on living and nonliving along with using spring items. This coming week school will not be in session on Friday or Monday of the following week in observance of Good Friday and Easter.

We will have an Earth Day assembly on April 18th and celebrate Earth day on April 22.

As we begin to wind down for the year, if you are interested in having a conference about your child’s progress please send me an email.  We would be happy to sit down with you and talk about your child’s progress and the future.  It truly has been an amazing year with a great deal of educational growth and tons of fun!!.

IMPORTANT***** DAP will be cancelled on May 4th as our whole staff will be attending  the (OAEYC) Professional Development Early Childhood Conference on that day.  Thanks for your understanding!!

The theme for the next few weeks is reduce, reuse and recycle.  We will be learning about how it is important to recycle and take care of our planet.  Throughout the unit we will be building with “garbage” painting with a variety of non-paint brushes and finding ways to feed the birds, grow plants.  It should be very fun and creative.  If you have any empty milk cartons or gallon jugs, please send them in to school.  We will attempt to make bird feeders out of them.  Have your child help you recycle items at home.  This is a great sorting activity along with being socially responsible.

Math this week focuses on counting 0-20 and we will be reviewing the letters W, L, E, V and X.  Have your child try to find an item in the house that begins with each letter.

Please note:  Kindergarten registration is April 5th in the gym from 9-12 PM and 4-7 PM.

This week we will kick off our Recycling Unit.  This unit will carry us all the way through April and lead us into Earth Day on April 22nd.  It is never too young to learn about how to recycle and how to take care of Mother Earth.  Some of the students in the PM class have already brought up how it makes them sad to see garbage on the side of roads (while riding the bus to our field trips).  It amazes us how much little eyes and ears are soaking up everything around us and already having an opinion.

Great job parents!!!

Telling our kids what we are doing and why we are doing it (instead of just having them do it) helps them form their own thoughts and opinions on everything around them.

The letter of the week is V and for math we will be focusing on shapes.

Here is some important dates coming up:

Monday night is our Pre-K Literacy night from 7-8 pm.  A surprise guest will be joining us from the Lake Erie Monsters.

Our rescheduled Pre-K math night is Tuesday evening from 7-8 pm.  Both nights will provide a great deal of information for those students going off to kindergarten.

The third quarter ends on Friday March 24th.

Spring break is from March 26-March 31.

April 5th is Kindergarten registration for those students going on to kindergarten from 9-12 PM and 4-7 PM in the gym.  If you have any questions regarding kindergarten please don’t hesitate to email me.

TOP O’ THE MORNING TO YA!!!

If you haven’t guessed yet we will be doing St. Patrick’s day themed activities all week.  As you can tell Mrs. Molly and myself are very excited for this holiday!!!

We will be focusing on EVERYTHING GREEN.  The sensory table will be filled with green items and maybe even some gold coins.  We will be playing with green slime as well.  We will be doing a review of all letters that we have covered so far by matching the gold coins in the pot.  Math will be number recognition up to the number 20 and playing BINGO.  A little extra bonus that the kids asked to do themselves is to “make booby traps to catch a leprechaun”.  We will see if we can catch those tricky little buggers.

The PM class will be visiting The Cleveland History Center on Thursday afternoon.   So we thought that we would share the play items from the University Circle Initiative with the AM class and have a week of transportation.  It should be very fun.  For math we will be counting to 20 and and for art we will make hot air balloons, stop lights and trucks.  The children will get to take apart cars and but them back together along with using a drill (pretend) to put together an airplane.   We will also learn about vehicles that transport a variety of goods on land, sea and in the air

This week we will not only be celebrating right to read week but also Dr. Seuss’s Birthday!!!

All of our centers this week will be centered around Dr. Seuss.

We have fun ideas planned everyday this week with a “dress up” theme as well.

Monday- “Sleep Book” – Pajama Day!!! one of Ms Molly’s favorite days

Tuesday- “Green Eggs and Ham” -wear the color green

Wednesday- “Wacky Wednesday “- wear mismatched clothes, backwards, inside out—get silly

Thursday- “The Cat in the Hat” – wear your favorite hat

The kids are really having a great time with the building study!!  Their imaginations are soaring and taking over in the classroom.  Everyday when the kids leave they have been asking if they can play the same centers again.  It is so rewarding to hear the excitement in their voice and watch them learn while playing and creating.

This week we will be bringing back some of the “center favorites” while throwing in some Valentines Day activities.  We will be building with Valentines heart candy and measuring how high we can get them along with some other building activities. For math we will be making patterns with the candy as well.  The letter of the week is “H” for heart.

Art this week will be a surprise and the kids are really excited about it!!

Here is a quick reminder about Valentines Day:

We will have a normal day with Valentine-ish activities in each center.  For snack we will be decorating cookies with frosting.  You are welcome to send in Valentines for your child’s class.  Please do not address them to anyone, just help them sign them. If your child is in the AM class there are 11 students.  If your child is in the afternoon class there are 1o students.  We will help your child deliver their Valentines after snack.  Any questions or concerns please don’t hesitate to email me.