2/23 Classroom Update

I hope you all had a wonderful Mid-Winter break! Although we had a short week, we still had lots of fun learning about different modes of transportation. We played with construction vehicles in the sand table, boats in the water table, and cars and trains on our transportation mats. We also drove cars on letter roads, made helicopters to take us where we wanted to go, as well as practiced patterning while making name rockets. Here are a few pictures from the week:

Matching beginning sound vehicles and letter wheels!

Playing with boats in the water table!

Making name rockets!

Next week (Week of 2/26), we will be having a fun Dr. Seuss themed week in honor of his birthday on March 2nd. Each day, we will read a different Dr. Seuss story and students are invited to dress up according to our theme that day! Here are the themes for the different days of the week:

• Monday – “Fox in Socks”: Wear silly or mismatched socks
• Tuesday – “Green Eggs and Ham”: Wear the color GREEN
• Wednesday – “Wacky Wednesday”: Let’s get silly! Wear your clothes backwards, inside out, or mismatched, and/or crazy hair
• Thursday – “The Cat in the Hat”: Wear your favorite hat.

Important Dates/Reminders:

Preschool Conferences: Spring conferences for the 5's class will be held on Wednesday, March 28 from 3:30 - 6:30 pm, and conferences for the ECSE class will be held on Monday, March 26th from 3:30-6:30 pm. If you have a child both in the 5's class and the ECSE class, you only need to sign up for one conference on Monday 3/26 as Carly and I will both be there for those conferences. Here are the links for conferences:

• 5's Parent Teacher Conferences Sign Up: here
• ECSE  Parent Teacher Conferences Sign Up: here

Book Orders: Scholastic Book orders came home in your child's folder yesterday. If you are interested in ordering, please submit your order by Friday March 2nd. 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 your order for you.

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. March orders need to be placed by Friday March 2nd.

Have a great weekend!

2/16 Classroom Update

This week, we focused on Valentine's Day and friendship. During circle time, we read Valentine's Day stories about friendship as well as discussed what good friends do. During center time, we measured different items using candy hearts, wrote and drew about people we loved, made valentines for friends and loved ones, played with chocolate playdough, worked on segmenting words into syllables, and more! In our classroom Post Office, friends were able to write, send and deliver mail to other friends in class. This station was big hit! Here are some picture highlights from the week:

Sending mail in our classroom Post Office.

Sending mail in our classroom Post Office.

Writing mail in our classroom  Post Office. 

Playing in the snow!

Beginning Sound Letter/Stamp Match

Playing in our Valentine's Day sensory bin!

Making Valentines for loved ones. 

Next week, we will be learning about forces in motion as part of our Transportation theme! We will specifically be focusing on the forces push and pull while playing with various transportation toys!

Important Reminders/Upcoming Dates:

Preschool Enrollment for 2018-19: If you have younger children you plan on enrolling for the 2018-19 school year: open enrollment for 2018-19 preschool programs has now begun! The office will now process forms that are submitted both via email or in person. Enrollment forms can be found here.

Mid-Winter Break: Please remember that there is no school Monday, Feb. 18^th (President's Day) for Mid-Winter Break!

Book Orders: Scholastic Book orders will be coming home in your child's folder this coming Thursday. If you are interested in ordering, please submit your order by Friday March 2nd. 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 your order for you.

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. March orders need to be placed by Friday March 2nd.

Have a great weekend!

2/2 Classroom Update

Valentine's Day: The week of Feb. 12th- Feb. 16th will be spent participating in Valentine’s Day activities in Preschool and discussing friendship. In lieu of a party and students bringing in individual Valentines for each member of our class, we are asking for students and their families to create ONE BIG VALENTINE using a heart that will be provided by school (this came home in your child's folder this week). You can use glitter, stickers, paint, yarn, pasta, crayons….or any other materials around your house. Please return your “Class Valentine” to school by Monday, Feb. 12th so that we may share it with the class and display it for our school community.

This week, we learned about the five major food groups, read lots of stories involving food, and did some fun cooking in preschool! On Monday, we read "Dragons Love Tacos" and made tacos. On Tuesday, we read "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" and made chocolate chip cookies. On Wednesday, we read "Stone Soup" and made our own variation of stone soup, and on Thursday, we read "If You Give a Pig a Pancake" and made pancakes.Here are some picture highlights from the week:

Assembling tacos in our taco bar

Making chocolate chip cookies

Playing Food Groups Bingo

Practicing reading and writing "I like"

Sorting Foods by Food Group

Making "Stone Soup"

Enjoying our Pancakes!

Next week, we are going to be learning about the Winter Olympics! 

Important Reminders/Upcoming Dates:

Preschool Enrollment for 2018-19: If you have younger children you plan on enrolling for the 2018-19 school year: open enrollment for 2018-19 preschool programs has now begun! The office will now process forms that are submitted both via email or in person. Enrollment forms can be found here.

WECC Illness Policy: Please keep your child home if they are throwing up, having diarrhea, or if they have a fever. Our rule at WECC is symptom free for 24 hours. Thank you!

Winter Progress Reports: Winter progress reports came home this week in your child's folder. Please let me know if you need another copy!

Family Sensory Night: On Wednesday February 7th from 6-8 pm, Woodcliff will be hosting a Family Sensory Night for preschool families! Come and join us for some fun and messy sensory activities during the long stretch of winter. If you plan on attending, please sign-up with the number of family members attending on the sign-up sheets next to the tablets in the front entrance!

Mid-Winter Break: Please remember that there is no school Monday, Feb. 18^th (President's Day) for Mid-Winter Break!

Have a great weekend!

1/26 Classroom Update

This week, we learned about ways to stay healthy and help protect ourselves from getting sick. Our preschoolers were very excited to play in our classroom doctor's and dentist office, and we learned about many of the tools they might see at the doctor. We also finished up many of our progress report assessments this week. We can't wait to share with you all that we've learned!

Learning about beats and rests with Ms. Janet

Listening to the baby's heartbeat in the doctor's office

Cleaning teeth in the dentist office

Next week, we will be learning all about healthy eating and nutrition. Each day, we will cook our snack based on our story that day. On Monday, we will read Dragons Love Tacos and make tacos. On Tuesday, we will read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and make cookies. On Wednesday, we will read Stone Soup and make vegetable "stone" soup and on Thursday, we will read Pancakes! Pancakes! and make pancakes. All recipes are peanut and gluten free! 

Important Reminders/Upcoming Dates:

Preschool Enrollment for 2018-19: If you have younger children you plan on enrolling for the 2018-19 school year: open enrollment for 2018-19 preschool programs has now begun! The office will now process forms that are submitted both via email or in person. Enrollment forms can be found here.

WECC Illness Policy: Please keep your child home if they are throwing up, having diarrhea, or if they have a fever. Our rule at WECC is symptom free for 24 hours. Thank you!

Winter Progress Reports: Winter progress reports will be coming home in your child's folder this coming Thursday, February 1st.

Family Sensory Night: On Wednesday February 7th from 6-8 pm, Woodcliff will be hosting a Family Sensory Night for preschool families! Come and join us for some fun and messy sensory activities during the long stretch of winter. If you plan on attending, please sign-up with the number of family members attending on the sign-up sheets next to the tablets in the front entrance!

Mid-Winter Break: Please remember that there is no school Monday, Feb. 18^th (President's Day) for Mid-Winter Break!

Have a great weekend!

1/20 Classroom Update

Happy Saturday! In keeping with the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we focused on celebrating our differences and the importance of kindness to all people this week. We discussed some of our similarities and differences as a class, and wrote about things that make us special. We also thought about ways in which we could make the world a better place, played with multicultural dolls in our dollhouse, sorted things that were the same/different, practiced drawing Mat Man using multicultural crayons, and much more! We also conducted an egg experiment to illustrate that although people may look different on the outside, that we are all really the same in many ways and can have lots of similarities on the inside.

Sorting objects, letters and words that are the same and different

Drawing self-portraits for our portfolios!

Practicing writing the letter O in our HWT workbooks!

Painting the world for our "How would you change the world?" craft

Next week, we will be learning about germs and ways to protect ourselves from getting sick. With the flu going around, this theme is very timely!

Important Reminders/Upcoming Dates:

Preschool Enrollment for 2018-19: If you have younger children you plan on enrolling for the 2018-19 school year: open enrollment for 2018-19 preschool programs has now begun! The office will now process forms that are submitted both via email or in person. Enrollment forms can be found here.

WECC Illness Policy: Please keep your child home if they are throwing up, having diarrhea, or if they have a fever. Our rule at WECC is symptom free for 24 hours. Thank you!

Winter Progress Reports: Winter progress reports will be coming home in your child's folder on Thursday, February 1st.

Family Sensory Night: On Wednesday February 7th from 6-8 pm, Woodcliff will be hosting a Family Sensory Night for preschool families! Come and join us for some fun and messy sensory activities during the long stretch of winter. More details on this fun event coming soon!

Mid-Winter Break: Please remember that there is no school Monday, Feb. 18^th (President's Day) for Mid-Winter Break!

Have a great weekend!

1/12 Classroom Update

After winter break with polar temperatures, we had so much fun learning about polar animals this week! We learned about animals that live both in the Arctic Circle, as well as Antarctica. We located both the North and South Pole on a globe and map, and discussed what the climate is like and what kinds of animals live there. We learned that there are 17 different types of penguins in the world and learned identifying features of four popular types: emperor penguins, adelie penguins, rockhopper penguins, and chinstrap penguins. After reading the sweet friendship story Penguin and Pinecone, we also made our very own adorable pinecone penguins!

Painting Polar Bears

Practicing Matching, Building and Writing Numbers

Playing with Polar Animals in the Snow Table

Painting our Pinecone Penguins

Matching Opposites

Playing with Artic Animals in the Snow Table

Important Reminders/Upcoming Dates:

Preschool Enrollment for 2018-19: If you have younger children you plan on enrolling for the 2018-19 school year: open enrollment for 2018-19 preschool programs begins on Monday, January 15th at 7 am. Monday and Tuesday only hard copies of the enrollment forms will be accepted. On Wednesday through Friday, the office will process forms that are submitted via email and in person. Enrollment forms can be found here.

Winter Progress Reports: Winter progress reports will be coming home in your child's folder on Thursday, February 1st.

Mid-Winter Break: Please remember that there is no school Monday, Feb. 18^th for Mid-Winter Break!

Have a great weekend!

12/22 Classroom Update

I am so proud of what a wonderful job our preschoolers did at our winter performance! They have been working so hard all year to learn the songs and motions with Ms. Janet, and all of their hard work really showed! I also want to say a big thank you to all of the parents who helped out with our winter party and made it such a special occasion for our preschoolers!

Here are a few pictures from our "dress rehearsal" before the real concert:

This week, we read the classic story The Mitten, and engaged in lots of fun winter and mitten related centers. On Thursday, we were able to relax by watching clips from The Polar Express in our jammies while sipping on some hot cocoa. Here are some picture highlights from the week:

Building letters with winter erasers!

Coloring and writing about our mittens! We will finish lacing them when we return from break!

Playing Gumdrop Roll & Count!

Watching clips from The Polar Express on Pajama Day!

I wanted to wish everyone a very happy holidays, and I hope everyone has a relaxing and wonderful winter break (as relaxing as this hectic time of year can be!). I am so grateful to have the opportunity to work with our preschoolers each day. They truly bring so much joy to my life, and I love watching them learn and grow! Thank you for sharing your children with me - that is the greatest gift!

Happy holidays from my family to yours!

Important Dates:

Winter Break: School will be closed Monday, December 25 through Friday, January 5 for winter break. Classes will resume on Monday, January 8.

Preschool Enrollment for 2018-19: Open enrollment for 2018-19 preschool programs begins January 15, 2018. Woodcliff will also be hosting an open house for new families interested in our preschool programs for next year on January 10th from 6:00-7:00 pm.

Have a wonderful and relaxing winter break!