PRESCHOOL NEWS
ST STEPHEN PRESBYTERIAN PRESCHOOL
NOVEMBER 2012
DATES TO REMEMBER
November 1-16: Thanksgiving Food
Drive Collection
November 8 & 9: Petting Zoo
November 12: Veteran’s Day
(SCHOOL CLOSED)
November 13 & 14: Family Chapel Time
November 21: Staff Development
(SCHOOL CLOSED)
November 22 & 23: Thanksgiving
(SCHOOL CLOSED)
******
PETTING ZOO
The Petting Zoo is coming to St. Stephen
Preschool on Thursday, November 8th and
Friday, November 9th during school hours.
The children will visit the animals on our
grassy field during their normal outside
playtime. We will take plenty of pictures
to share with you.
THANKSGIVING
CELEBRATIONS
The children at St. Stephen Preschool
will celebrate their friendships by sharing
food on Monday, November 19 &
Tuesday, November 20 during the midmorning snack time. A sign-up sheet for
snacks will be posted outside your child’s
classroom. What better time to pause and
give thanks for our many blessings.
Happy Thanksgiving!!
******
CALENDAR REMINDERS
FOR November:
The Preschool will be closed on
Monday, November 12 in observance of
Veteran’s Day.
The Preschool will be closed on
Wednesday. November 21. The Preschool
staff is attending our CPR/First Aid
recertification training that day. We will
reopen on Monday, November 26, after the
Thanksgiving holiday.
NOVEMBER 2012
2 PRESCHOOL NEWS
SAVE LIDS TO SAVE LIVES
Your lid counts!! We have
mailed in over 600 pink Yoplait yogurt lids
supporting Breast Cancer Research through
the Susan G. Komen Fund. Each lid is a
$0.10 donation that would otherwise go out
with the trash and into our landfill. This
way, we win both ways. Please ask friends
and family to collect their lids as well. We
are happy to mail all the lids for you, so
please continue to turn in your clean lids to
Room 5 or to your child’s teachers.
Thank you, Miss Jeanie
******
THANKSGIVING FOOD DRIVE
TO BENEFIT
IMPORTANT REMINDERS
SIGN IN/OUT: Please
remember to sign your child in
and out on the roster found
either on the clipboard or the
inside of the classroom door. It
is required by law and enforced by the
State of California to sign your child in and
out upon drop off and pick up each day.
KIDS KLUB PICK UP: Please be sure to
pick your child up by 2pm. If there is an
emergency, please call the office and let us
know whether you will arrive after 2pm.
******
DID YOU KNOW…?
We will be collecting non-perishable
food items and monetary donations to serve
families in need this Thanksgiving. You
may drop off these items in the Preschool
Office from November 1-16. Thank you
for your generosity!
Their specific needs for food donations this
year are:
Roasting chickens
Cooking oil
Sugar
Salt
Evaporated milk
Rice
Pinto beans
Spaghetti
Spaghetti sauce
Flour
Canned vegetables
Jelly or Gelatin
Canned fruit
Black beans
******
Did you know that you
can drop your child off at
preschool as early as 8:00 am? We will
keep track of the days you use our Early
Bird program and simply add the charges
to your monthly tuition. The charge is $3
per half hour. You are welcome to use this
program whenever you need it – no
advance notice is required. There is also a
Monthly option for Early Birds. See Leslie
or Tara in the office if you have questions.
Note that the teachers will open the
classroom doors promptly at 9:00 am.
This is your cue to enter the classroom
without incurring Early Bird charges.
*****
3 PRESCHOOL NEWS
CLASSROOM NEWS
Room 1
Thank you all for helping us with
our Halloween snack, Halloween
festivities, and also for the pumpkins,
gourds, and Indian corn.
November will be busy with many
Fall projects. We will be observing nature
around us to see what changes Fall brings.
The colors, the weather, the falling leaves,
and the Holidays add their magic to the
season. Some of our Fall activities will
include the sense of taste and smell, leaves,
food, farm animals, families,
Thanksgiving, and our very favorite, the
Petting Zoo!
Love, Miss Maria & Miss Sherry
Room 5
We are enjoying all of our beautiful
family trees. It’s fun to see how we are
alike and how we are uniquely different. If
you haven’t already seen them, you’re
welcome to come in the classroom and take
a look anytime.
We’ve been busy reviewing shapes
and colors, as well as working with
scissors, on our cutting skills, pencil
holding and beginning name writing. We
will continue these activities throughout the
school year in many different ways.
All the children have been busy
making artwork to decorate our
room…don’t we look festive? We’ve been
singing many Halloween songs, including
one of our favorites, “Roll Those Pumpkins
Down to Town,” which you may have
heard at home.
NOVEMBER 2012
Thank you for all the Fall items,
pumpkins large and small, gourds, and
Indian corn. They are fun to explore
through our senses – the way they feel, the
way they look, and how heavy and light
they are.
November brings us such excitement
with the presidential election, why we vote,
and discussing what makes a good
classroom leader. We look forward to
hearing the children’s answers.
Towards the end of the month,
Thanksgiving activities will include
families, friends, being thankful, and of
course, turkeys.
Be sure to check out Parent Board
outside our classroom for any important
information, special sign-ups, and
announcements.
Love, Miss Jeanie & Miss Vickie
Room 2
We had so much fun with our
Halloween activities! Some highlights
were our black playdough, hammering golf
tees into real pumpkins and watching our
carved pumpkin glow in the dark. The
children also enjoyed removing a link
every day from our paper chain to count
down the days until Halloween. It was fun
to see everyone in their costumes,
too. Thanks so much to everyone who
helped!
Scissor skills were a big focus in our
class last month. We have been providing
lots of activities at the art table and the cut
and color table for the children to
practice. The growth has been amazing! If
4 PRESCHOOL NEWS
you don’t have children’s scissors at home,
you may want to pick up a pair so your
child can continue their experience at
home.
We love getting mail! We have
received postcards from all over the world
and would love to continue receiving them
through the year. If you or someone you
know would like to send us a post card, just
address it to St. Stephen Preschool Room 2
and then the school’s address.
When the cold weather starts, runny
noses are usually close behind. Teaching
your child to blow their own nose with a
tissue and then throw it in the trash is a
great way to help them become
independent and cut down on spreading
germs. In our classroom we always have
tissues within reach of the children and
encourage them to use them (instead of
their sleeves!).
This month we will focus on fall colors,
leaves, families, being thankful and of
course a turkey project or two. We hope
everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Love, Miss Sheryl and Miss Betsie
Room 3
Thank you to everyone who helped with
our Halloween celebration and who
provided food and supplies for our special
Halloween snack. Your participation and
support were essential to the success of the
morning!
This month we will be exploring the
themes of family and friends, farming and
farm life, gratitude and Thanksgiving. We
NOVEMBER 2012
are looking forward to the petting farm
visit and to our Thanksgiving celebrations
later in the month.
We’ll continue to learn to make new
friends, to communicate ideas and feelings
with words, and to build a cooperative and
respectful classroom community. These
experiences and the skills they encourage
are the necessary foundation for later
success in elementary school. Children
learn to think when they feel valued and
worthwhile, when their emotions and
actions are under control and when they
relate well to other people.
The children enjoy making scientific
predictions and conducting experiments,
which we will continue to do in November.
To support the development of children’s
mathematical thinking we’ll be doing more
measuring, patterning and comparison.
Just a friendly reminder that class starts
promptly at 9am with important
experiences and information about what
will be happening during the rest of the
morning. Also, please remember to read
the “Daily Report” posted on the sign-in
sheet each day. It will give you an idea
about what happened at school and what to
ask your child about his or her day.
During this month of Thanksgiving, we
thank you for the opportunity to get to
know your children and to support their
growth and development.
Love, Miss Carol & Miss Toni
5 PRESCHOOL NEWS
NOVEMBER 2012
MORE CLASSROOM NEWS
In October, through our “Halloween play” we learned:
Room 1:
Pre-Math:
Matched multi-colored pom-poms into egg cartons with tongs
(color recognition & spatial reasoning)
Pre-Writing:
Created spider webs with rubber bands on rubber band boards
(develop control in small hand muscles)
Pre-Reading:
Participated in an oral Halloween story with paper cut-out
(oral language and pictures contribute to stories and books)
Pre-Science:
Made fresh apple juice with a juicer
(observed physical changes from a solid to liquid)
Core Intelligence: Worked collaboratively to make pumpkin muffins
(worked with peers; follow recipe directions)
Room 5:
Pre-Math:
Glued circles, squares, triangles & rectangles onto pumpkin shapes
(concepts of shape, size and location)
Pre-Writing:
Painted on an upright plexi-glass easel to make pumpkin prints
(develop hand muscles used in writing)
Pre-Reading:
Sang Halloween songs and marble painted “spooky spiders”
(concept development across the curriculum)
Pre-Science:
Made pumpkin pancakes - measured, mixed, smelled & tasted
(whole-part relationships and concepts of volume & measure)
Core Intelligence: Collaged a giant owl for the classroom with multi-colored squares
(collaboration with peers to create an art project)
Room 2:
Pre-Math:
Estimated and weighed one of our class pumpkins
(estimation; real-world math applications)
Pre-Writing:
Made paper chains to decorate the classroom
(strengthen small hand muscles used in writing)
Pre-Reading:
Listened to a CD with various sounds & shared our guesses
(listening discrimination – an important pre-reading skill)
Pre-Science:
Observed an experiment with dry ice and soap
(create a sense of awe and wonder with science)
Core Intelligence: Created friendship collages and necklaces with classmates
(cooperative play; recognize value in peer’s opinions)
6 PRESCHOOL NEWS
Room 3:
Pre-Math:
NOVEMBER 2012
Counted down the days until Halloween using a paper chain
(counting skills; number sense)
Pre-Writing:
Practiced letter formation on dry erase boards
(develop muscles used in writing; practice hand-eye coordination)
Pre-Reading:
Mailed & received postcards from all over the world; mapped them
(encourage love of reading; connect printed words & meaning)
Pre-Science:
Compared fresh and dried apple slices; discussed evaporation
(form hypothesis; observe changes; learn new vocabulary)
Core Intelligence: Shared Halloween-themed items in our class Treasure Chest
(practice speaking in front of peers; develop self-confidence)