A Blessed Advent Season ;)

Hello Great Preschool Families!

I hope this finds you all rested from our Thanksgiving holiday. It was so great to see you back this week! May this blessed season of Advent give peace and joy to you all.
Thank you so much for all the parents and grandparents who were able to make our little Thanksgiving Recital and Fellowship time. I thought it went well. I hope you all enjoyed it as well.
This week's theme is a bit different. When I taught older grades, I would use literature-based thematic units. I am trying this for the first time with the preschoolers. So far, so good! We will be using Laura Numeroff's books "If You Give....". The classes all will start off the week with " If You Give a Moose a Muffin" . I have activities in Math Station, Art Project Station, and Working with My Teacher Station all based around these books from Ms. Numeroff. We will certainly try to get through most of these books this week but I encourage you to look up this author if you do not already know her.
Here is the rest of the week's study points:

Color of the Week: Purple
Number of the Week: 6
Letter of the Week: M
Theme of the Week: Laura Numeroff
Science theme this week: Dinosaurs and their fossil prints
Special project this week: Making our Advent Wreaths and starting our Jesse Tree !
Group Math Project- Graphing our Favorite Cookie!

PASTA Fundraiser:
Remember, our fundraiser, "Fun Pasta" is due on Tuesday! Bring in order forms and payments collected.


Science Day Field Trip coming up!!!
Tuesday and Wednesday we will be sending out the Works Field Trip permission slips. Please fill these out and submit payment ($5) to Mrs. Burd by this coming Friday December 2nd.
I will ask that all parents to drop off and pick up the children at The Works. Please look for the permission slips that will be in your child's folder Tuesday and Wednesday. Please refer to your permission slips for day and time as it applies to your child's class.

Check Those Folders Please ;)
Please check your child's folder for important information but more importantly to check out all the wonderful work your sweet precious one is doing at school. I encourage you to inquire about the work/projects. The kids are constantly asking, "Can I please take this home to show Mommy and Daddy?" They are so proud of their work.


POLAR BEAR Pre-K PARENTS:
On December 6 at 1:30pm, the Polar Bears will take part in our school Christmas Program.
We will be doing a class Christmas poem, Away in the Manger, and the song S-A-N-T-A. The first and second grade will also be putting on their program as well. I am not sure if we are before or after the other performers. (Remember...This program applies the Polar Bear Pre-K ONLY!!!)
I have sent home a line of the poem I would like for your child to memorize. Please work with them at home. More to come on this!


Concluding Thoughts:
After a long break (such as the one we are coming back from) some of the children will have a hard time transitioning back into the routine of things. This is normal and we completely expect this. It seems especially hard for younger ones (3's and 4's) By the end of the week or so, they will all be back in the swing of things again. Sometimes, holiday can be a double edged sword. We welcome the break but the transition back to "normal" routine can be difficult.
Rest assured all will be fine ;)

Remember us as you are working your way through your Christmass decorations. If you have some gently used / new decorations, please remember the preschool before you throw it to the curb or discard because you don't use it anymore.

In Christ,
Mrs. Burd and Mrs. Bloom

Tidbits before our holiday break

Hello Phenomenal Preschool Parents!

I just want to say how proud I am of the Penguin class. They did a great job singing their songs...even ones we sprang on them to sing at the last minute! Thank you to the Penguin parents that donated food, drink, plates and cups and that gave up their time to watch the little ones sing. We so appreciate your support and generosity.

Tuesday's Recitals:

On Tuesday, the Seals will have their Fellowship Thanksgiving Recital from 10:15-10:45.
The Polar Bears will have theirs from 2:15-3:00. Both will take place in the Lamy Center. Can't wait to see everyone then.

NO SCHOOL Reminder!
Remember, our last day of school is Tuesday(tomorrow) as our Thanksgiving holiday runs from Wednesday 11/23-Friday 11/25. We will see everyone back at school on Monday 11/ 27.

Pasta Orders:
You all will get your order forms and flyers at the recitals. All orders and monies are due November 29 to enable the orders to get to us by Christmas break. Our goal is for each child to try to sell 9 items. Any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to ask me ;)

God bless and have a super break;) Enjoy your families!

Mrs. Burd and Mrs. Bloom

Thanksgiving Edition

Happy Thanksgiving Outstanding Preschool Families!

I know it is a little early but I thought I would wish you all a blessed holiday!

PARENT-TEACHER Conferences:
I want to take a moment to thank all the parents for the stupendous conferences. I have to say in my 13+ years of conferences with many parents, our fall conferences here at SF Preschool were the most positive and upbeat conferences I have every experienced! Thank you so much! You are all such wonderful advocates for your children. It is absolutely refreshing! God bless you all.

Thanksgiving Recitials
The children, Mrs. Bloom and I are so excited to share Thanksgiving fellowship with and a bit of music with you all. Please refer to your invitation for time and place. See you all then. Thank you to all the parents donating to the Fellowship and Recitial. We so appreciate your generosity.

Quote of the Week:
Many times students, especially young ones, are so surprised to see their teachers outside the classroom and have some very interestings views on this. As many of you have seen, I have my office in a little room in the classroom. On Friday, one of my sweet little Penguins poked her head in the office and asked...
" Hi Mrs. Burd! Is this your bedroom?"
After hiding a chuckle, I explained to her that I don't sleep here then she said, " Oh, so is this your kitchen then?"
I love it! How precious it their perspective.

Pasta Update
I will be handing out and explaining the Pasta Fundraiser at our Thanksgiving Fellowship and Recitial. If you have any questions during the Thanksgiving holiday, please feel free to email me at my home email: michelle_rburd@yahoo.com (there is an underscore after "michelle") I will not be going home this Thanksgiving so I will be around and checking my email on a daily basis.

Concluding Thoughts:
May your Thanksgiving holiday be very blessed and joyful. May God bless you all with peace and safety during this great time of the year!

Educationally yours,
Mrs. Burd and Mrs. Bloom

"You know that Christ was rich, but for you he became poor. Christ did this so that by being poor you might become rich."
2 Corinthians 8:9

Last set of PT conferences and other updates ;)

Hello Oh Patient Preschool Families!

Hello everyone! I apologize for my delay on getting the blog updated. My dear sweet husband has been out of town since Saturday on business and so it was just me maning the Burd's nest! Needless to say, I was running my six sweeties to and fro places this weekend like the Pony Express! Simply not enough hours in a day. My sincere sorry to everyone. My dear husband came back tonight so life returns to somewhat crazy intead of perpetually manic ;)

Parent-Teacher Conferences- WEDNESDAY!
Our last set of conferences are on Wednesday November 16th from 3:30- 7. If you are unsure what your time is, please let me know and I can let you know.
A great question arose today from a parent and I thought I would address it. "Can you post your conference schedule so we can just check our time?"
Great idea however confidentiality issues do not allow to to do this. So as the Bible says..." Ask and you shall recieve." ! Let me know your inquiry individually and I can let you know your time ;)
I wanted to thank the families from last week's conferences. Thank you for your patience if I happened to be behind on a few conferences. I do respect your time that you have given to come to conferences so I will try to do better next time around. They were great and positive conferences.

Thanksgiving Invitations
By now your precious little one should have given you your handmade Thanksgiving invitation. Please know that these are not huge productions. We simply feel so thankful for all of you, that Mrs. Bloom and I thought it would be nice to have a little get together before we all leave on our Thanksgiving Break. The kids do have a couple of things planned for you I think you will enjoy. Any questions or concerns, please let me know.

Book Orders going home this week:
First, Mrs. Hammond our school librarian, wanted me to thank you if ordered from the school book fair last week! Our school did wonderfully and the school library will benefit immensly.
Second, we will be sending our December book order forms home this week. I put the due date for this round is set for early December so they will be here in time to get to you before Christmas break. If you are intending for them to be a gift, let me know and I will not put them in their backpack but give them to you "on the sly" instead ;)
If you would like to order online, please refer to the "JG..." number on the flyer. This will enable you to get online (www.scholastic.com) and order.
Lastly, please do not feel obligated to order every month these flyers are sent home. We completely understand that times are tight with the holidays upon us. We do appreciate the times you can as it enables for our preschool library to expand.

PASTA order forms are in!!!!
The Pasta Fundraiser forms and info arrived! I will explain the ordering and hand out forms at each classes Thanksgiving get-togethers next week. Thank you for your patience with the delay on this ;(

What Are We Doing This Week and Monday before Break......
All classes are learning about:
* the color gray
* the number 10
* the letter ' T '
* What was the First Thanksgiving like? discussions
* Native Americans and Piligrims
* Traditions of Thanksgiving - we are making the traditional Pilgrim and turkey crafts but are talking about Indian culture. We will be making Native American necklaces and or bracelets in most classes.
New items in our STATIONS:
*We have our puppet theater put up this week in the Imagination Station
*In our sensory table, we have rice instead of beans! (did I mention the custodial staff love me! hahaha)
*Playdoh Station!
* "T" for tractor, trains, and trucks Station- I brought all sorts of trucks for all to celebrate "t" words!
* We broke out the turkey manipulatives for the "Working with my teacher" Stations. Counting turkey feathers left and right!
*This week our Science Stations focus on the science of our senses.

CHRISTMAS !
With Christmas just around the corner, we would like to know if there is any family that has a small Christmas tree they would like to get rid of or allow us to borrow. In our Imagination Station, we will be having a "Santa's workshop" theme and as a part of it and allow the children to decorate the tree as they visit this station . They can also make little paper ornaments to decorate the tree. Large trees are discouraged as our room is little.
Decorations:
If any family would like to donate gently used or new Christmas decorations that we can decorate our classroom with we would so appreciate it;) (Lights are not permitted as they violate fire codes.) The children do enjoy decorating the room for the holiday season. Thank you in advance for any help you can provide with this.

Concluding Thoughts....
I would like to say THANK YOU to all the parents for the wonderful healthy snacks you are providing for your child. I sincerely appreciate your respect on our policy regarding snacks! You are all so wonderful ;)
As the blessed time of the Thanksgiving season comes upon us, Mrs. Bloom and I would like to take this time to express how thankful we are to all of you! God has blessed us abundantly by allowing us to teach and be a part of your beautiful and precious childrens' educational lives. May God bless all you!

Yours in Education,
Mrs. Bloom and Mrs. Burd

"God indeed is my Savior; I am confident and unafraid. My strength and my
courage is the Lord, he has been my savior."
Isaiah 12: 2

Q&A session and first session of P-T conferences

Hello Super Preschool families!

First, I apologize for not updating my blog until Tuesday but I was fighting some type of flu this weekend and did not feel up to doing anything other than sleeping! Today I feel much, much better...so here we go!

PARENT-TEACHER Conferences- Thursday, November 10:

Our first session of Parent-Teacher conferences start this Thursday. If you need a reminder of when and what time your session is, please feel free to email or call and I can look it up on my sign up sheets :)

Just a friendly reminder....
Sending candy/candy bars in your child's healthy snacks is strongly discouraged. If your child craves a sweety, please consider consider something like: graham crackers, lightly sweetened cereal, Teddy grahams, animal crackers, fruit roll-up type snacks. Thanks so much for your understanding on this matter ;)

Some wonderful Q&A ;)...Take a look!

1.) " I recieved a "new physical" request. Why does my child need a new one now?"
GREAT question! According to the Preschool Program Licening Rules, Chapter 3301-37, every student that attends a preschool in the state of Ohio, must have a yearly updated physical in order for our wonderful preschool to stay compliant with the state. As we have been going through our student files, we have noticed some are out of date and need to be updated. The form for this can be found on the blog site under "medical examination" form. Please make sure your physician signs this form and correctly dates it as well and includes an updated innoculation sheet.

2.) " My child talks about different station he/she works at during the school day. What are these stations?"

The literacy work stations are similar to the traditional "centers" concept. Materials in the stations are taught with and used first with the whole class. They they are then placed in the work stations for meaningful independent use. Most stations will also stay up for most of the year. I will rotate some stations out for others for the sole purpose of spacing in my classroom. I simply do not have enough room for all the stations I have or intend to have throughout the year.

Here are the literacy stations we have out at the current time"
1.) Listening Station/Reading Station- Children have the opportunity to either listen to story books on CD (I change out different ones every couple of weeks) or they can look independently at books as well. We have "friends" (beanie babies) at this station and I have modeled to the students how they can "read"to these friends. I strongly encourage the children to read by simply looking at the pictures in the book and read according to what they see. This is the first step to decoding in reading and is very purposeful.

2.) Science Station- This encourages exploration of different species in the world around us. Right now we have magnifying glasses, bugs (dead of course), pine cones, different type rocks with crystals or fossil imprints. I also rotate items at this station every couple of weeks.

3.) Math Station- The use of things like tangrams, number puzzles and other manipulatives at this station helps reinforce concepts that we teach about spacial learning, one to one correspondence, and counting.

4.) Imagination Station- currently on hiatus right now to make room for our sensory learning station (and also so I can clean it as well ;) Playing by imagining is actually learning. This will help with verbal expression and creative thinking. We recently had a "Farmer's Market" in this station with rakes, leaves, pumpkins, fruit, and a stand! It was great to see them work at this. Coming near Christmas....an elves workshop!

5.) Stamping station- This is a station that has been in the works and I have just recently made it an independent station. Last week, our letter of the week was 'H' so we had horse stamps and 'h' stamps out for the student to create pictures and the word 'horse'. Different classes will have different task with this station.

6.) Smartboard Station- This station is currently in the "independent transitioning"stage. I will work on it with the students and then the students will work on it that day. We practice writing or counting with this station. This is probably one of the favorites!

7.) Computer Station- We use the programs of "I spy", Blues Clues Learning, The Learning Company as well as the internet site called "Starfall" that re-inforces phonics, letter identification and early reading. Students are give the choice but I assign which computer they can go on since each computer have different programs that match different levels and needs.

8.) Block Station- Students can work using different building items to create all different things. This "playing" is actually a reinforcement of math skills, creative thinking, cooperative learning and verbal expression. Also a favorite station;)

9. Writing Station- A teacher-guided station, we work on the fine motor skills it takes to write and cut. We don't always write with pencils at this station. We just recently "wrote" with Cherrios with the Penguin class! They of course were able to eat them in between ;) This activity hit on a couple of objectives: fine motor use and practice correctly "writing" certain letters of their name. Many students want to write their names with all uppercase letters. We want the student to form their names with first letter only being uppercase and the rest lower case. We have also written in shaving cream!
Currently, the Pre-K Polar Bears have started writing their poems at this station.

10.) "Working with my Teacher" Station- This station changes daily to reinforce differentstandards that we work on in our curriculum. Sometimes it is an art project or sometimes we may be creating a book!

11.) Sensory station- Right now there are dry beans at this table however this will change as our themes change. Sometimes it maybe water, or packing peanut they can work with. Other times it could be sand!

12.) Comings soon..."Games Galore" Station- Currently the Penguin class has started this station with our new class helper, Miss Angel. All classes will eventually have this station as well.


WHEW! I hope this gives you an idea of what your child does in the course of a day. They do not all hit each station everyday but through the week, they get to them all with the exception of the Writing and Working with my Teacher station. We make sure we work with every child each day.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS:
I look forward to seeing and chatting with everyone in the upcoming conferences! God bless and have a wonderful week.

Yours in education,
Mrs. Burd and Mrs. Bloom

"All praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the source of every mercy and the God who comforts us."
2 Corinthians 1:3

NO SCHOOL ON TUESDAY

Just a reminder...

There will be NO SCHOOL tomorrow, Tuesday, November 8th. St. Francis staff members will be at a professional development meeting all day. Thanks ;)

Mrs. Burd

Science field trip, book fair, & Pasta fundraiser..Oh my!

Hello Dynamic Families!~

What a week of developments! Here they are:

Field Trip: Science Day at The Works:
DECEMBER 7th for PENGUINS and POLAR BEARS
DECEMBER 8th for SEALS
What a super opportunity we have presented to us! The Works (in downtown Newark) is conducting a "Tykes Tour" that targets certain science concepts to Pre-K's. I have signed our preschool classes up for this great opportunity to delve deeper into the wonderful world of science. This "tour" will target simple machines and how they make life easier. The fee for this trip is $5. This will include the class and time for the students to explore science opportunities at The Works for the rest of their classtime. I will be sending a hardcopy permission slip and more detail home the start of next week.


BOOK FAIR:
Going home this week is a flyer for our school book fair taking place in the library on the main floor of the elementary building (the building across the parking lot from the Early Childhood building) The flyer consist of all the books the fair offers. We will go over as a class one time next week for them to "look" (not buy at that time)If you chose, you and your child can go over to the fair before or after their class to purchase any desired books.


PASTA Fundraiser:
Our preschool does 1 fundraiser a year so that we can purchase bigger items for our preschool playground. Last year, the preschool used the FunPasta Fundraising Program. It did very well and so we will try it again this year. Fun Pasta is from The Pasta Shoppe in Nashville, Tennessee. They offer specialty pastas like collegiate shape pasta, pasta salads mixes, pasta meals and soup mixes. Your child will have a order pamphlet send into his/her folder next week. We made 40% profit with this fundraiser.


A friendly reminder regarding our pick up and drop off policy:
1.) Please ensure that your child(ren) has an adult accompanying them into the building to ensure they get their things put away, they get their hands washed and more importantly, are safely to the classroom. If you have made arrangments with another parent to accompany them into the building, please give us a "heads up" that you have made these arrangements. You can send a note, call or email me. Your child's safety and security is our first concern. Please help us ensure this concern is met. Thanks so very much ;)

2.) We completely understand things happen that may delay pick-up of your child, however, if you know that you will be more than 5 minutes late, please call the classroom at:
345-4049 ext 236. Children get very anxious when his/her classmate are gone and they are still waiting in the classroom. If you call, we can reassure your child that someone is on their way to pick them up. This will help ease any fear or anxiety this wait time can create. Thanks so much helping us with this concern.


Parent-Teacher Conferences:
Just a reminder that Parent-teacher conferences are scheduled for Thursday, November 10 and Wednesday, November 16th. The Nov. 10 slots are all full however there are one or two slots left on the 16th on Nov. If you still need to schedule one, please see Mrs. Burd directly to schedule.


Have a Blessed Week;)
Mrs. Burd and Mrs. Bloom