Since Halloween falls on a Monday it just didn’t make sense to do pumpkin and Halloween themed activities all next week after Halloween is over.  So we decided to step away from our trees study and do pumpkins and Halloween themed centers this week.  For dramatic play we will have dress up outfits and Halloween costumes for the children to play with and use their imagination.  We will have Pumpkin Playdough, Math centers using candy corn to count, along with books about bats and other scary Halloween friends.  At the end of the week we will investigate a pumpkin by figuring out if it will sink or float, what is inside and what does it feel like.  There will also be a surprise in the sensory table this week!!!

Our letters this week is a review of all letters we have learned so far..M R S T P N

Tuesday this week is the World Series Opener and Indians day in the building….wear your Tribe apparel

GO TRIBE!!!

On Halloween we will be having a building wide parade that starts at 9:45.  AM class children come to school dressed in their costumes and come in the classroom as usual. (parents make sure to either put the costume over their clothes or pack clothes to change into…we will change out of our costumes after the parade).  Then we will head over to the gym at around 9:30 and there will be donuts and a craft to keep everyone busy while we get organized for the parade. (parents/grandparents can join the kids to do the craft and to have donuts)

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 parade as well.  Just go straight to the gym with your child in their costume and partake in the donuts and craft.  We will all walk together (AM and PM)

This week we will continue our study of trees and talk about what grows on trees.  We will be talking about apple trees and other fruit trees. Our apple activities will include making an apple tasting graph, apple prints and apple cinnamon Playdoh.  Our math lessons this week will focus on measuring so we will be measuring trunks of trees and comparing. Our letter of the week this week is P which is perfect for Thursdays cooking activity of making apple Pies!

This week is one of may favorite weeks filled with wonderful Fall activities and the smell of Fall.  I hope your children will enjoy it as much as we do.

Happy Fall!

We have a busy week this week and lots to learn!

This week is Fire Prevention Week!  We will have visitors from the Fairview Park Fire Department. We will also have a Dad who is a Fireman come into our rooms and speak to the kids.  We will be talking about fires safety and prevention. This is always an exciting time for the kids.

We will also be continuing our study on trees this week.  We will be doing trunk rubbings, measuring trunks, counting rings in trees to see how old they are and talking about who lives in trees.

Our letter of the week this week is N!  So we will be talking about nests in trees, nuts that come from trees and any other N words the kids can come up with.

Also, Wednesday is Picture Day!!  Paperwork for purchasing photos/packages was sent home in back packs last week.  We have extra forms if you need then.  Remind the kids to bring their best smiles to school on Wednesday!

Lastly, thank you to all of the PM parents who volunteered for our first field trip last week.  A great time was had by all who attended.

This week in DAP promises to be AMAZING!!!!

The week is SPIRIT WEEK!!!   On Monday we are able to remain in our PJ’s when we come to school. Tuesday students are welcome to wear their best super hero outfit.  Wednesday is Hat Day and Thursday is Spirit Wear Day.  Anything with Fairview Warriors on it will do!!

We are starting a new unit called The Tree Study.  The tree study will be filled with fall and exploring trees on the EEC property. Students will become more aware of the trees that surround them and what they bring to us.  We will have an Arborist visit us along with Firefighter Adam the week of Oct. 10 for Fire Safety week.

We will begin Music on Tuesday’s for each class provided by Miss Alicia from Music Beyond Words.  It will be a fun time for all the children.

On Wednesday afternoon our students have gym with Mr. Kull .  They are learning about “self space” and “group space.”  He always has amazing activities for the students.

The letter of the week is Tt.

ATTENTION PM FAMILIES:

This Monday begins our visits from the University Circle Initiative.  We begin with a visit from the Dunham Tavern Museum staff and the children will explore an array of items all week that they have given us to explore. Then on Thursday afternoon we will go on our field trip to the museum and explore.  Please be at school at 11:45 AM and go to your respective classroom.    We will leave the EEC promptly at 12 PM and return at 2:30 PM.  If you have any questions or concerns please give us a call or email us.

We are so excited for our field trip and know that children will have an awesome time!!

Our focus questions this week are When do things happen at school ?(Monday) and

Who works at our school? Tuesday thru Thursday.

Our letter this week is R and the color of the week is Red as well to go along with the letter R.  We will teach it as R, rat, /r/.  Please try to dress your child in something red throughout the week. This will help to reinforce the color along with the letter R.  We will have rice in the sensory table to play with along with making rockets with your child’s name on it.  It will be a gRRRReat week with the letter R.  We will have a visitor to the classroom from the school who keeps our school clean and safe.  The class will be able to ask him questions about his job.  It’s Mr. Bill our custodian!!

This week we will be asking the children “What are our rules at school?”  We will review the rules in the building and with each other while we are in the classroom.

This week is the letter S.  We have started to introduce a Literacy curriculum which is also taught in Kindergarten (Fundations).  It introduces the terms skyline, plane line (middle line) and grass line-bottom. The students will practice writing the letter and getting familiar with the terminology.  The children will see the letter S and picture of something that begins with S and then make the sound ie) S, snake /s/.  This will be how we will teach the children the letter and the corresponding sound.  It is amazing how quickly they will pick up the sound and letter identification.  We will also begin to assess all of our students in the next few weeks as the Ohio Department of Education strongly suggests that all of our students are assessed within the first 30 days of school.  This works as a baseline to see what the students know and what they need to learn, this helps drive our instruction and focus on what needs to be taught.

If you have not filled out your transition from day care to school sheet and or roster I will be sending then to you via email or in back packs.  Please make sure these are filled out and sent back before the end of the week. The Step Up to Quality folks have not come yet but they could any day. Thanks for your help!!

The ASQ link should be open to us soon. When it is up and running we will let you know.  Seesaw is up and running in both AM and PM classes.  If you have not signed up yet follow the instructions that were in the email.  If you have any problems please let me know.  We will try to upload pictures and videos at least twice a week if not more!!

Parent Teacher Conferences will be here before we know it.  We will be sending out sign up sheets via Sign Up Genius if you have not already signed up for a spot.

PM Class ONLY:

In the next week or so we will be sending out our sign up sheet through Sign Up Genius for the first field trip to the University Circle Initiative which will be Dunham Tavern.  More information to come in the next week or so on the museum.  We can allow 5 chaperones per field trip per class along with staff.
       Come and join the fun!

Once a stagecoach stop on Buffalo-Cleveland-Detroit post road, the Dunham Tavern Museum is the oldest building still standing on its original site in the city of Cleveland. The 1824 home of Rufus and Jane Pratt Dunham in midtown is now a designated Cleveland landmark listed on the Register of National Historic Places. In stark contrast to the cityscape that surrounds it, the museum and its gardens offer a glimpse of history and insight into the lifestyles of early Ohio settlers and travelers. – See more at: http://www.universitycircle.org/destinations/dunham-tavern-museum#sthash.Ph2lVdQQ.dpuf

Welcome to school!

Everyone seems to be slowly settling into the routine in the classroom.  Thank you for helping your child adjust to a new routine.

The unit we are working on within the Creative Curriculum is Beginning the Year. This week our Focus question is “What should you do if you get scared or sad at school?”  Thus we will be investigating our feelings and how to deal with them when they occur. The student’s will be playing a feelings memory game , matching feelings pictures and  identifying how they are feeling each day when they come to school.

The students will read Glad Monster, Sad Monster by Ed Emberley and create their own faces of how they are feeling.  I am positive the faces they make will be amazing!

A few notes to families:  If you have not filled out your transitions plans and roster sheets please do so and send them in.  I will be sending out an email with the attachments for you to fill out if needed.  Snack is due.  As the weather begins to change, please dress your child in layers.   We will go outside to play each day and want them to be comfortable.

For the PM class, we have gym with Mr. Nate Kull on Wednesdays.  Please make sure your child wears gym shoes.

The schedule for the field trips for the PM class has just arrived and we will be sharing that information with you all very soon.  We are so excited about this new adventure the afternoon DAP class will participate in and look forward to our first trip!  Can’t wait!

Read about this new exciting opportunity here:

http:/http://www.fairviewparkschools.org/early-education-center-dap-program-awarded-12000-grant-from-martha-holden-jennings-foundation-to-participate-in-university-circle-inc-early-learning-initiative/

Rawr! Quack! Tweet! These are some sounds you may hear our kids making in our classroom this month for Animal month! Lots of fun to be had. We just finished out the week focusing on introducing lots of different animals and talking about what noises they make and climate they live in. This next week we will focus on where the animals live and their habitats. Lots of animals live in places we have never seen, so it will be fun to explore their homes further and things they do in their homes! Stay wild!

This week in DAP, we will be following the rainbow and its many colors around for Color week! Spring is coming and there are lots of new spring flowers and buds and colors all around us, so it is time to explore those more and create a colorful week of fun! To go along with Color Week, the kids are permitted to wear specific colors on certain days. The following is the schedule to wear colors:

Moday: Red

Tuesday: Orange

Wednesday: Yellow

Thursday: GREEN for St. Patrick’s Day!

It is going to be a wonderfully colorful week in DAP!

This week in DAP will be focused on ABC’s and 123’s! Since we are going into the 3rd quarter, it is time to review and practice everything we have learned in school so far. We have learned so much, and now is the time to put it to use and show what we know! We will be reviewing the letters A-U which we have covered so far, and numbers 1-10. We will also be covering math, rhyming, letter sound identification, shapes, and colors. It will be a busy and fun week in DAP!