11/11 Classroom Update

Important Dates/Reminders:

November is Kid's Food Basket Donation Month: Every November, we participate in a food drive for Kid's Food Basket to make supper packs for kids facing food insecurity in our community. Each class is asked to bring in a specific food item (listed below). For more information about Kid's food Basket, please visit their website www.kidsfoodbasket.org. If you would like to participate, please donate the following:

• MWF 3's: Individual pretzel, cheez-it or goldfish snack bags (1.5 oz or smaller)
• PM 5's: Pudding Cups

Thanksgiving Break: WECC will be closed Wednesday, November 23rd through Friday, November 25th for Thanksgiving. Classes will resume on Monday, November 28th

Winter Break: There are no preschool classes Monday, December 19th through Monday, January 2nd. Preschool classes will resume on Tuesday, January 3rd. 

MWF 3's Class:

This week, our theme was "Helping Hands" and we learned about the letter H. We discussed how we can have kind/safe hands at school, and all the fun and helpful things that we can do with our hands (ex. coloring, high fives, building, playing, cleaning up, waving, learning, etc.)! We sang lots of fun fingerplays like "Here is the Beehive," "5 Little Monkeys," "The Itsy Bitsy Spider," and more! We learned how to hold our crayons/pencils with a pincer grasp and practiced by doing an aim and scribble exercise. We also sang the song "Pick up a Crayon" to practice too! For the next two weeks leading up to Thanksgiving break, we will be learning all about turkeys and gratitude. Here are some picture highlights from this week:

PM 5's:

This week in 5's, we learned about the ocean and the letter O. We learned about the different zones of the ocean and the different types of sea life you can find there. We learned that a blue whale is the largest animal and measured it out with yarn on the field to see just how big they can be (up to 98 feet)! We specifically learned about sharks, seahorses, octopuses, and sea animals that live in shells. We simulated how octopuses use ink to protect themselves and read a true story about an octopus who escaped from an aquarium to the open ocean. We also learned the differences between mammals and fish and played a fun circle time game to determine whether certain sea animals were fish or mammals. Ms. Henriette graciously shared her shark jaw with us, and we had lots of fun exploring it and drawing it in our fine motor journals. Ms. Henriette is going cage diving with great whites at the end of next week, so we can't wait to learn even more about sharks after her trip! During center time, we clapped out syllables in the names of ocean animals, identified the beginning sounds in ocean words, built sea animals with pattern blocks, and enjoyed playing with ocean animals in a water tub. Next week, we will be learning about turkeys and gratitude. Here are some picture highlights from this week in 5's:

Have a great weekend!