5/31 Classroom Update

It's hard to believe that next week is already the last week of school! This week, we started learning about summer and participated in lots of fun summer activities in our classroom. The biggest hits were the addition of "The Frosty Queen" (our classroom ice cream shop) and a visit from Swiss Lane Farms. Here are some picture highlights from the week:

Ms. Annie taught us all about her family's dairy farm: Swiss Lane Farms in Alto, MI. Their family farm has been around for over 100 years!

Ms. Annie brought milking equipment to show how the farmers milk the cows. 

We got a turn to feel what the milking machine feels like on our hands. It felt similar to a vacuum! 

 

We went outside to meet some baby calves from the farm. We got a chance to pet and feed them! One was only 3 days old!

We learned about summer holidays this week: Father's Day and the 4th of July. We made some special surprises for Dad and painted fireworks for the 4th of July!

We enjoyed camping and playing in our classroom ice cream shop at the dramatic play centers!

Important Dates/Reminders:

Folders/Progress Reports: Folders and spring progress reports will go home for the last time on Tuesday, June 4th.

End of the Year Family Celebration: Please join our class and the other WECC classes on the back field/playground for a year end celebration on Tuesday, June 4th from 2-3 pm to reminisce, create summer plans and say goodbye to friends. We will provide cake and drinks!

Last Day of School/Water Day: The last day of school for PM preschool students is Wednesday, June 5th. We will be having a fun water day to celebrate our last day! Students need to come in their bathing suit and bring a towel. Please apply sunscreen before dropping them off. We will have sunscreen to reapply if necessary. If the weather doesn’t cooperate will we set up indoor activities in the gym. If your child attends child care, please bring an extra set of clothes.

Swiss Lane Farms Camps: Swiss Lane Farms offers fun summer camp opportunities for both preschoolers and elementary aged children. During the summer, kids aged kindergarten and up can come to the farm to learn about the inner working of a dairy farm and how to take care of their own calf for the week. Preschool camps begin in the fall. For more information, visit https://www.swisslanefarms.com/camps.

Have a great weekend!

5/24 Classroom Update

This week, we had so much fun camping in our classroom! We learned some camping songs, learned about different places and ways to go camping, discussed things people like to do when they go camping and how to stay safe while camping. We learned about the -ot word family, worked on retelling stories, and associating numbers with different patterns. We also finally finished up our letter books and were able to bring them home yesterday! Here are some picture highlights from the week:

Observing our butterflies in the classroom!

Letting our butterflies go!

The butterflies kept landing on us!

Fishing at the water table!

Camping out in our classroom!

After reading A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee, we experimented with building tents out of toothpicks, marshmallows, and paper. 

We built -ot word family words with playdough. 

Important Dates/Reminders:

Memorial Day: There is no school this coming Monday, May 27th in observance of Memorial Day.

Swiss Lane Farms Visit: On Wednesday, May 29th, Swiss Lane Farms will be visiting WECC to teach us all about the daily workings of a dairy farm, cows, and dairy nutrition. They will also be bringing a calf with them for us to meet!

End of the Year Family Celebration: Please join our class and the other WECC classes on the back field/playground for a year end celebration on Tuesday, June 4th from 2-3 pm to reminisce, create summer plans and say goodbye to friends. We will provide cake and drinks!

Last Day of School/Water Day: The last day of school for PM preschool students is Wednesday, June 5th. We will be having a fun water day to celebrate our last day! Students need to come in their bathing suit and bring a towel. Please apply sunscreen before dropping them off. We will have sunscreen to reapply if necessary. If the weather doesn’t cooperate will we set up indoor activities in the gym. If your child attends child care, please bring an extra set of clothes.

Enjoy the long weekend!

5/17 Classroom Update

This week, we learned about farms and the -ip word family. We learned how to say many different farm animals in Spanish, as well as the sounds they make in Spanish. We also learned about the workings of a dairy farm in anticipation of the calf visit on May 29th. On Tuesday, we took a break from learning about farms for a special visit from Ms. Holly the librarian. Here are some picture highlights from the week:

We read the short story Down on the Farm and practiced reading and writing the sight words "can" and "see."

On Tuesday, Ms. Holly visited from the Kent District Library to engage us in a fun STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) activity. First, she read us a fun story and then we played with ozobot robots!

First, we designed costumes for our ozobots to wear.

Then, we drew roads for our ozobots to follow. The ozobots are programmed to read color codes to follow color roads and change colors. 

After designing roads, we watched our ozobots read and follow our roads!

We played with our classroom farm set.

We wrote and sang our own versions of the classic "Old McDonald Had a Farm."

After reading Ms. Wishy Washy's Farm, we played with farm animals outside and gave them a nice bath when they got all dirty!

Our butterflies have hatched! We will continue to observe them as they dry out their wings and will release them sometime next week!

Important Dates/Reminders:

Hearing and Vision Screening Results: The Kent Count Health Department visited our classroom this week for hearing and vision screenings. I sent home a blue paper with the results of the screenings in your child's folder. Please keep this paper in a safe place as you will need it for kindergarten registration.

Memorial Day: There is no school on Monday, May 27th in observance of Memorial Day.

Swiss Lane Farms Visit: On Wednesday, May 29th, Swiss Lane Farms will be visiting WECC to teach us all about the daily workings of a dairy farm, cows, and dairy nutrition. They will also be bringing a calf with them for us to meet!

End of the Year Family Celebration: Please join our class and the other WECC classes for a year end celebration on Tuesday, June 4th from 2-3 pm to reminisce, create summer plans and say goodbye to friends. We will provide cake and drinks!

Last Day of School: The last day of school for PM preschool students is Wednesday, June 5th. We will be having a fun water day to celebrate our last day! More details to come.

Have a great weekend!

5/10 Classroom Update

This week, our theme was family in preparation for Mother's Day coming up! We read lots of stories about family/mother's day and prepared some special surprises for Mom! We learned family words in Spanish, and also focused on the -it word family. On Wednesday, we had our  Spring Sing to show off some of the songs we've been working on all year with Ms. Janet. Thank you to all of the parents,  grandparents and friends who came to watch - it meant a lot to our little performers! Here are some picture highlights from the week:

We practiced sorting, reading, and writing sight words and letters! 

We read, stamped, and wrote words from the -it word family. 

We learned how to take care of babies in our baby nursery!

We had so much performing some of the songs we've learned with Ms. Janet this year!

Singing the flower song at the Spring Sing!

Proud daddies taking good care of the babies in the nursery!

Important Dates/Reminders:

KDL Classroom Visit:  A Kent District Library librarian will visit our classroom this coming Tuesday, 5/14 to lead us in some fun STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) activities.

Hearing and Vision Screenings: The Kent Count Health Department will be at WECC to conduct hearing and vision screenings on May 14th and 15th.

Memorial Day: There is no school on Monday, May 27th in observance of Memorial Day.

Swiss Lane Farms Visit: On Wednesday, May 29th, Swiss LaneFarms will be visiting WECC to teach us all about the daily workings of a dairy farm, cows, and dairy nutrition. They will also be bringing a calf with them for us to meet!

End of the Year Family Celebration: Please join our class and the other WECC classes for a year end celebration on Tuesday, June 4th from 2-3 pm to reminisce, create summer plans and say goodbye to friends. We will provide cake and drinks!

Last Day of School: The last day of school for PM preschool students is Wednesday, June 5th. We will be having a fun water day to celebrate our last day! More details to come.

Have a great weekend!

5/3 Classroom Update

This week, we learned about insects! We learned that insects have 3 body parts (head, thorax, abdomen), 6 legs, and sometimes wings and antennae. We observed our caterpillars in our classroom as they continue to grow and prepare to go into their chrysalis. Next week, we will be able to observe them in their chrysalis before they emerge in about 10-14 days. If we're lucky, we may even be able to see some of them forming their chrysalis! Here are some picture highlights from the week:

We observed our baby caterpillars and predicted what they will look like when they are adults!

After reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar, we painted caterpillars and thought about what we would like to eat if we were caterpillars!

We played with different types of insects in the mulch table!

On Tuesday, we had a visit from Ms. Sarah from the Kent District Library. She talked to us about the library, read a few stories, and led us in song and dance!

We measured different things in our classroom with caterpillars! 

We learned that butterflies are symmetrical and made our own symmetrical butterflies!

We built different types of insects using pattern blocks!

We learned about the life cycle of a butterfly and made our own model using pasta and beans!

Next week, we will celebrate family and look forward to performing our Spring Sing Concert! 

Important Dates/Reminders:

Spring Sing: Join us for a Spring Sing concert this coming Wednesday, May 8th at 2:30 pm  in the WECC Board Room. Afterwards, we will celebrate family in our classroom with a special snack and refreshments!

KDL Classroom Visit:  A Kent District Library librarian will visit our classroom on 5/14 to lead us in some fun STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) activities.

Hearing and Vision Screenings: The Kent Count Health Department will be at WECC to conduct hearing and vision screenings on May 14th and 15th.

Memorial Day: There is no school on Monday, May 27th in observance of Memorial Day.

Swiss Lane Farms Visit: On Wednesday, May 29th, Swiss LaneFarms will be visiting WECC to teach us all about the daily workings of a dairy farm, cows, and dairy nutrition. They will also be bringing a calf with them for us to meet!

End of the Year Family Celebration: Please join our class for a year end celebration on Tuesday, June 4th from 2-3 pm to reminisce, create summer plans and say goodbye to friends. We will provide cake and drinks!

Last Day of School: The last day of school for PM preschool students is Wednesday, June 5th. We will be having a fun water day to celebrate our last day! More details to come.

Have a great weekend!