Videogram from Kristin

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Graduation celebration

It's time to say. Good-bye.
Our year has come to an end.
We’ve made some cherished memories
And many more new friends.
I've watched your children learn and grow
And change from day to day
I hope that all the things we've done
Have helped in some small way.
So it's with happy memories
I send them out the door
With great hope and expectations
For what next year holds in store.

Ms. Kristin (copied from another website- source unknown)
My Time & More Preschool

There are sure signs the year is at a close...

... children are writing their names independently
... children have filled their phonic chart with super stars
... all of the pre-kinders are reading phonic books with proud smiles
... the word wall has no empty letters on the alphabet
... the days are warmer
... the butterflies have emerged and are ready to be set free

It has been a year filled with many firsts and a few lasts. I hope you took the time to cherish them all - I know I tried. Your children have grown and learned a lot and I feel very lucky that I have gotten to share my Tuesdays with them.

Have a great summer!

Upcoming important dates:

Tuesday, May 29th - Last day of preschool celebration

Friday, June 8th - Slip n slide Water Fun day
potluck for all past & future preschoolers and siblings

Thursday, August 2nd - Meet the teacher open house for preschoolers

Tuesday, August 7th - First day of preschool for Tuesday students
Wednesday, August 8th - First day of preschool for Wednesday students
Thursday, August 9th - End of first week of preschool

They're here......

Get ready to be EXCITED!!!! They're here.......the small one may be called Explorer, another might be named Brownie, one of them might be called Climber since he loves to climb and still another may be named Muncher... Get ready for some excitement as these little guys transform before our eyes! Other names to consider may be Stretcher, Miner or even Chyrillisa. No matter what names are chosen - these caterpillars are sure to be the center of attention for learners of all ages! May's preschool theme focuses on butterflies and their life cycle. I am thrilled to report that today the caterpillars have arrived! We will be watching them grow, make their cocoons and turn into butterflies. Our last preschool class will be the last Tuesday in May. We will celebrate the year and share a few songs with any family that wishes to attend. Please mark your busy calendars and bring your camera :) We continued in April to work on fine tuning our writing skills as well as our reading and math skills. For writing we started our review of grip and how to correctly form each letter. We also continue to expand our writing of numbers. In reading we worked on digraphs: ch, sh, th and wh as well as word families, such as -at, -it and -ug. We introduced the first 20 site words as well. In math, we worked on adding 1 to a number (2+1=3, 5+1=6, etc). During the activity a student rolled a dice, then counted out a specific nmber of students who then stepped into a square taped on the floor to be part of the equation. Finally the equation students all moved to the last box to be counted and added together.

April is focused on phonics

Students are working on practicing and adding to their phonic knowledge in April.

We are working on blending - where students say individual letters then blend them together until they read the whole word as one word. We are also working on word families and rhyming words. We continue to practice listening for the first sound in a word to identify the letter with which the word starts.

Some students completed a worksheet to practice the SAM reader site words.

Students created -at word family flip books by trying out new letters in the beginning of the -at ending. They checked with me to read their new word. If they discovered a word, they wrote that letter on a piece of paper which was stapled to their very own -at flip book.

They all worked on blending word puzzles.

We started a lotto game to recognize beginning letter sounds.

In Spanish, we are singing the months of the year and the days of the week.

April

It is time to review the core phonics to make sure the pre-kinders are ready for their future adventure as kindergarteners.

All students are especially working hard to make sure they are Phonic Super Stars. Most of them have a star on every letter/word card on their letter ring! Many have even earned Super Stars on the individual cards for phonics they know. Keep working on their letter rings at home.

Pre-kinders have started SAM site words on their letter rings. Once they have earned some stars on these cards, I will send home their first SAM reader book. We worked on word families and blending letters.

When reading at home, please practice and talk about reading strategy number one:
1. All letters make a sound! (so sound it out)
This is the first and most basic reading strategy to keep your child from guessing. It doesn't work every time. It is the first and best strategy to start.

We also introduced the consonant digraphs: ch, th, sh, and wh
A diagraph is when two letters used together make a single sound

see my kvetonpreschoolpage on you tube for some favorites I have added including the jolly phonics song, first 24 high frequency words, I can write my numbers song

Rainforest Wrap Up - part two

More pictures of all the fun we had...

Rainforest Wrap Up - part One

We finished up our rainforest unit. Highlights included:
* Science words - camouflage, habitat
* water cycle - evaporation, condensation, precipitation
* evaporation experiment with the aqua mat - one inside & one outside to see how the one outside had the water evaporate faster
* camouflage experiment where green toothpicks in grass were harder to find than the red toothpicks in the grass
* 4 layers of rainforest, animal facts
* Spanish song - "Yo fui a la selva tropical" mariposa, mono, vibora, hormiga
* art - made mardi gras bird masks, made monkey masks, made sock snakes using AB patterns with shapes, made ants painting paper towel rolls and adding eyes, feet, and antennae
* colored rainforest books, colored and painted rain forest mural, made coffee filter butterflies
* tasted rainforest products (mango, coffee, cinnamon, coconut, macadamia nut, chocolate, banana, pineapple) and graphed results of taste taste
* made homemade "rainforest oatmeal cookies"
* made a layered cup to eat of the layers of the rainforest
* assembled a huge floor puzzle of the rainforest
* played animals ABC lotto game

Phonics fun and rainforest treats

This digital scrapbooking design personalized with Smilebox

Enjoy these pictures. We have been having so much fun learning about the 4 layers of the rainforest, the animals that live there, the products that come from there and even about the climate and the water cycle.

Watch out American Idol and the Voice - we are singing like crazy these days and the students are quite the performers!

We are singing the 4 layers of the rainforest song.
We are singing a song in Spanish called "Yo fui a la selva tropical" (I went to the rainforest).
We are singing two versions of the water cycle song.

We finished all 26 letters of the alphabet today too as far the phonics and the letter of the day. We will continue to work on mastering the sounds each letter makes and build even more skills to develop a solid foundation for reading. Check out the kveton youtube preschool page for a video clip of the letter activity today during arrival time. I love the enthusiasm and natural excitement for working as a team on the alphabet match and the floor puzzle.

Rain Forest Transformation

We have been learning and singing about the rain forest. Today each preschooler shared a fact they knew about the rain forest. They knew a great variety of animals in the rain forest and all the layers too.

Here is our rainforest song:

There are 4 layers in the rain forest, 4 layers
There are 4 layers in the rain forest, 4 layers

Forest floor, understory, Canopy, emergent layer.
There are 4 layers in the rain forest, 4 layers.

The emergent's home to birds, and butterflies.
Butterflies!
The emergent's home to birds and butterflies.
Butterflies!
The trees are so high that they almost touch the sky.
The emergent's home to birds and butterflies.
Butterflies!

The canopy is like a big umbrella.
Big umbrella!
The canopy is like a big umbrella.
Big umbrella!
Monkeys, sloths, orangutans, eat all the fruit they can.
The canopy is like a big umbrella.
Big umbrella!

The understory's home to many snakes.
Many snakes!
The understory's home to many snakes.
Many snakes!
They eat cats and bats and rats,
And they like the gnats for snacks.
The understory's home to many snakes.
Many snakes!

The forest floor is dim and dark and wet.
Dark and wet!
The forest floor is dim and dark and wet.
Dark and wet!
Oh, the ants go marching by,
As they watch the birds up high.
The forest floor is dim and dark and wet.
Dark and wet!

There are 4 layers in the rain forest, 4 layers
There are 4 layers in the rain forest, 4 layers

Forest floor, understory, Canopy, emergent layer.
There are 4 layers in the rain forest, 4 layers.


*************************************************

We focused on the canopy layer today. We made monkey masks and colored canopy animals to add to our class mural.

Our letter of the day was Qq. We started a quilt with a picture the children drew and a handprint.

We listened to the song/video clip (under my youtube page under favorites) "I can write my numbers." All the preschoolers impressed me with writing their numbers 0-9. To follow up on this, we played "what number am !?"

We read the story, "The Great Kapok Tree" by Lynn Cherry. Students were also excited to see our very own version of the great Kapok tree in our preschool circle time area. Hanging are clouds from our bonus craft day and the coffee filter buterflies we made when learning about the emergent layer last week. This is such a fun theme!!!

Rain Forest learning and mardi gras?

As we are currently learning about the rain forest AND it was going to be Mardi Gras, I decided the children could make bird mardi gras masks. We had a focus of the emergent layer of the rain forest which is the top layer. Mostly birds and sometimes butterflies are at this layer. We sang our rain forest song, we made bird masks, we made coffee filter butterflies and also misted water on our plants that we planted on the first day of the unit. Working on completing our mural of the 4 layers of the rainforest some students colored birds or butterflies. Look for their work on the mural of the rainforest layers. We add more each class until we will have animals in all the layers.

Outside, we explored the concept of camouflage with red and green toothpicks I had painted. I sprinkled them in the grass and the students had 2 minutes to find as many as they could. They found all 25 red ones and only 21 green ones. It was a very hands on way to understand and see camouflage in action. Plus it was so much fun.

Our letter of the day was Gg so we also painted green grapes with our fingers dipped in green paint. Students also love writing in water markers or even paint brushes dipped in water on the aqua mats. They practiced the letter of the day - g

We continued the fun on Friday with a bonus craft day for current preschoolers and future preschoolers where the students could make a cloud for the forest and worked on painting a huge strip of paper green for a vine. I was getting ready to transform the wall by the circle table into our very own "Great Kapok" tree.

We love preschool!

Valentine's Day is always a special day. It was a treat to spend it with such a sweet group of children!

The letter of the day was "C" and the day was filled with candy.

We counted candy into muffin tins numbered 1-12.

We sorted Valentine heart candies by color practicing the count and say strategy as well as organizing the candies in lines. Then we talked about who had the most or least of the colors. We graphed the results and discovered there were a lot more yellow candies than the other colors.

We also practiced making patterns. The children reviewed that patterns repeat and created AB patterns to demonstrate their understanding. Then we introduced a new pattern: ABB. The practiced making this new pattern and evaluated their peers' patterns. Sometimes they "caught" where the pattern didn't repeat and offered ways for the other child to fix it until they all proudly presented their very own final ABB patterns.

The children made Valentines to take home with plenty of glue, stickers and hearts.

They had a heart maze to practice their lines and writing skills.

The children had fun singing a Valentine song while passing out their Valentines to each other.