Preschool
LETTER FROM MRS. LEANY
News
October 2014
Dear Parents,
We have had a wonderful start to the school year. We spent this month
learning school rules, making friends, checking out the classrooms and
our exciting play yards, and beginning to learn letters and numbers. We
have had some interesting science experiments and enjoyed our cooking
activities. Spanish, movement, library, and sign language have enhanced
our learning experiences.
I wanted to remind everyone of the starting times for class. Jackrabbits
and Coyotes start at 8:20 a.m. and Hummingbirds and Quails start at
8:30 a.m. Our morning usually starts with a special reader right after the
bell rings. When you come in late the doorbell ringing disturbs the story,
especially when our special reader is a young student. Saying good bye is
an important part of transitioning from home to school each day. It
makes the transition so much smoother if you arrive in enough time to
say good bye on the playground. If you want to come in and sit with us
for story time that is awesome, too. Trying to say goodbye, when we are
already reading, is difficult for you and your child. I know that sometimes
things come up and it is hard to get to school on time. I also realize this is
preschool. However, the habits that we teach our children now, will stick
with them the rest of their lives.
As always, if you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, I would
encourage you to contact me either in person, phone, or by e-mail at
[email protected]. I teach in the Coyote classroom each day, but I do check
my messages throughout the day. If it is an emergency, please call the
school office (760) 328-0861 and let them know you must speak with me
and to put you through to the Coyote Classroom (ext. 257).
Don't forget our after 4:00 p.m. cell phone number is 760 610-3791.
IMPORTANT DAYS
October 3 Morning Assembly
(Celebrating Birthdays 10/110/17)/ Free Dress/ Pizza Day
October 4 Movie Night at the
School
October 8 Preschool/Pre-K
Picture Day (Dress Uniform
Required)
October 10 No School (Staff
Development Day)
October 18 Homecoming
(7pm Kickoff)
October 24 Morning
Assembly (Celebrating
Birthdays 10/18-10/31)/Free
Dress Day/Pizza Day
October 31 Halloween
Parade to Kindergarten
Be on the watch for
information about our Living
Desert Trip for Pre-K and our
Fire Safety Day for the all of
the classes.
COYOTE NEWS
We had so much fun getting to know each other and learning about
being a good friend. We are all such good bucket fillers. Illustrating and
writing the first stories for our own journal was exciting. Remember, you
can look at it anytime during the year and will get to take it home on the
last day of school. Our focus this year will be recognizing the lower case
letters, the sound for each and how to write them properly. We started
with a, t, and c. We will learn numbers, their quantity, and numerical
order. So far we have practiced the numbers, 1, 2, and 3. I was impressed
with how well your children know the colors and shapes. We are working
on our scissor skills and using a correct pencil grasp. We have had some
fun with our science and cooking activities. We have enjoyed dance with
Ms. Patty, Spanish, going to the library and playing in our favorite
centers. Thank you for filling my bucket by letting your child spend each
day with me.
JACKRABBIT NEWS
We have had a wonderful month getting to know our Jackrabbit friends
and families. The children are enjoying their classroom helper jobs and
are settling into their daily routines beautifully. We are a bucket filling
school and we will continue to fill each other’s buckets every day. The
letters we worked with this month are c, a, and t and the numbers are 1,
2, and 3. So many of them already recognize these letters and numbers
so well and we learned the signs for them too. The Jackrabbits have had
so much fun exploring, learning, and playing in our centers. The cars and
trains have been a big hit with the boys, while the girls are enjoying our
dress up area. We even started Spanish with Mrs. Marron and dance
with Ms. Patty. In October, we will focus on new letters, numbers, songs
and so much more. The theme next month will be “Fairytales,” Fire
Safety, and Halloween! It’s going to be so exciting! I want to thank all the
Jackrabbit parents for doing such a great job in preparing your children
for their school day.
Birthdays: We love to share
birthdays with your child. You are
welcome to bring in a small cookie
or cupcake to share with your
child’s class. Please make sure your
child’s teacher knows in advance
what you are planning to serve.
We have several children with
allergies and we want to make sure
to include them. We try to have the
special treat at 2:15 before we go
outside for our last recess. If your
child attends school part time, we
will make adjustments. Children are
invited to donate a new book to the
classroom library.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Lisa Marie Barker 10/2
Vivianne Spielberg 10/8
Leone Pirozzi 10/11
Quote: Pretend play leads to
real-life learning.
Anonymous
HUMMINGBIRD NEWS
In October, the Hummingbirds will have so much fun with the theme,
"Once Upon A Time." We'll turn the box in our Dramatic Play Area into a
beanstalk for "Jack and The Beanstalk." We'll make erupting snow from
the fairytale "Frozen." We'll act out "Goldilocks” and The Three Bears"
and make our own porridge. We're going to blow down straw houses in
the style of "The Three Little Pigs." We'll even dictate our own fairytale.
We're so excited for our Hummingbirds to experience everything we
have planned for them this month!
QUAIL NEWS
What a wonderful month we all had. It has been great to get to know
each of the Quails in our class and their families. We all did a great job
filling each other’s buckets in the month of September. The Quails are
really developing a great friendship. As always when the month is over,
we get so excited about what we are going to learn next. During this
month we will work on learning the letters m, r, h, p, and the numbers 4
& 5, as well as, the diamond shape. Additionally we’ll be learning about
the world of “Make Believe- Fairy Tales.” Jack in the Beanstalk, Castles,
Kings, Princesses, Frozen, Goldilocks, the Three Little Pigs etc. The Quails
will learn to act tales out. Singing “Let it go” will be a must! It would be
great to see them pretending to be Papa Bear, Mama Bear, or Goldilocks.
Oh, how fun it will be to use our imagination and pretend, pretend,
pretend...
CURRICULUM
LITERATURE CORNER
We have chosen 3 Fairy Tales
to read this month. We are
reading Jack in the Bean
Stalk, The Three Little Pigs,
and of course (by popular
demand) Frozen.
SPANISH
We will learn colors (black- negro, white-blanco, orange-naranjado,
purple-morado, red-rojo, green-verde, yellow-amarillo) and review our
counting uno-diez. We will be practicing sizes like Grande, mediano, y
pequeno as well as learning some Fairy Tale and Halloween vocabulary.
Look on your child's My Day paper to see the Spanish words your child is
learning each week.
MUSIC AND MOVEMENT
We are continuing our dance, yoga, and gymnastic classes with Ms.
Patty. Our patriotic song for the month is one we came across this
summer called American Flag and we will be singing You're a Grand Old
Flag. The children will also be learning several Halloween songs so we
can sing to our Kindergarten friends when we visit them on Halloween.
SIGN LANGUAGE
We will also be learning The
Queen of Hearts and Old
King Cole for our Nursery
Rhymes.
We have been practicing the signs for the days of the week, counting the
numbers on the calendar, the sign for friends, and the sign for family.
This month we are going to try to learn the song “If Your Happy and You
Know It”.
WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO
Dramatic Play. In the dramatic play center,
children are representing their experiences as they see them in the
world. They are building critical thinking skills, as well as, developing selfesteem and social skills. Dramatic play also promotes abstract thinking,
where children learn to think using symbols; an important skill necessary
in the foundation of learning complex subjects such as reading and
arithmetic.
NUTRITION TIP
On hot days, consider putting the sandwich in the freezer the night
before. In the morning, cut and pack it in the lunch box. They will be the
perfect temperature for lunch and you won't need ice packs.
Recipe: Peaches and Cream Wafflewich.
2 tablespoons cream cheese
2 small whole wheat waffles (I use the freezer ones)
1 thinly sliced peach
Spread cream cheese evenly on the waffles. Place peach slices onto one
waffle and close. Makes one sandwich
HALLOWEEN
We will be celebrating Halloween on Friday Oct. 31. Please bring your
child dressed in his/her costume. Remember your child will need to use
the restroom throughout the day so the costume needs to be easy for
him/her to get off. Please bring a change of clothes for your child that
day. We will go down to the Kindergarten building dressed in our
costumes at 9:00 to sing to them and Trick or Treat with Mrs. Black, the
lower school head. We will then come back to our classrooms and have a
small party in the individual rooms. The room parents will provide a little
non sugar Halloween treat for us to eat with our lunch.