12/4 Classroom Update

Important Dates/Reminders:

Scholastic Book Orders: Last week, I sent home Scholastic Book orders in your child's folder. This book orders are due by TODAY (12/4). You can order books online by completing the steps below. You may also turn in your paper order and payment to me and I will input and send in your order for you. This will be the last Scholastic book order until January, so if you are ordering books as a gift, please let me know so I can get them to you discreetly!

1. Go to the Scholastic Reading Club Website here.
2. Click Connect to your Teacher and enter our class activation code: PJFBX.
3. Then click to order from this month's flyer. Our default flyer is the "Early Childhood" flyer; however, you may order from any of the flyers. You can view more details about each book and add them to your cart by clicking on them in the flyer. 
4. After selecting your items, click on the cart to create an account or sign-in to your existing account in order to check-out.  
5. Orders need to be placed by Friday, December 4th. 

Kids Food Basket Donation Drive: Every November, we hold a Kid's Food Basket Donation Drive/Fundraiser. Kid's Food Basket is a local non-profit working to combat childhood hunger. This year's drive lasts from November 9 through December 11. Each class will be competing to collect the most of the following items: fruit cups, pudding cups, applesauce cups, and meat sticks. Please bring any donations you may have to class and I will put them in our class donation box. Thank you to everyone who has already donated and for helping us support such a wonderful organization!

Warm Clothing: As it gets colder, please send your child with warm clothing for outside time each day. Many items look similar, so please label your child's coat, boots, hat, and gloves/mittens. We go outside daily as long as it is not raining and the wind chill is above zero. If there is snow in the forecast or on the ground, please also send your child with snow pants as well. 

Winter Break: There will be no preschool classes starting Monday, December 21 through Friday, January 1. School will resume on Monday, January 4th. 

T/Th 3's Class:

This week, we read the classic story The Gingerbread Man and engaged in lots of fun gingerbread themed learning experiences. During circle time, we read different versions of the story, practiced retelling and discussed how popular stories can have many different versions! During centers, we made gingerbread men with gingerbread playdough, sorted gingerbread men by color, practiced retelling the story of The Gingerbread Man with interactive books, and painted and constructed our own gingerbread men. We also had so much fun playing in our classroom Cookie Shop/Bakery! We also learned about the letter J and turned our hands into jellyfish for our letter books. Our social skill theme for the week was "How is your Engine Running?" We discussed how we each have engines inside that can run too slow (feeling tired, lethargic, or sad), just right (happy, calm, ready to learn), or too fast (wound up, upset, feeling out of control). We practiced identifying how our engines were running and practiced some strategies we can use to slow our engines when we're going too fast like deep breaths, taking a walk, taking a sensory break, stretching, etc. Here are some picture highlights from our week in 3's:

PM 5's Class:

This week in 5's, we learned all dinosaurs! We  learned basic facts about dinosaurs (i.e. how we know about dinosaurs, when they lived, what they ate, about different types of dinosaurs, etc.). We also learned about what paleontologists do, what tools they use, and how they piece together dinosaur bones like a giant puzzle. We pretended to be paleontologists digging for dinosaurs in our classroom sandbox.  We compared our feet to the footprint of a T Rex and were surprised to find that all of our feet put together were still smaller than a T Rex footprint! We explored some of the different theories as to why dinosaurs are extinct, and simulated a volcanic eruption. This week, our focus letter was the letter S. Ms. Traci graciously brought in her son's middle school class pet (a snake!) for us to learn about, touch, and hold. During centers, we also spent some time continuing our discussion on gratitude and things we are grateful for. On Monday, we wrote thank you letters to healthcare workers for all their extra hard work during this time and colored pictures that are now on display at Blodgett Hospital. Here are some picture highlights from our week in 5's:

Have a great weekend!