This newsletter is designed to provide you with an overview of our curriculum for the month, highlighting the fun ways in which we learn through play!  Additional learning centers that are always available and also change bi-weekly include the library corner, puzzles, flannel board, blocks, cars and trucks, manipulative toys, the “free craft” area, and the large gross motor playroom.

CIRCLE TIME

Doctors/Hospital:  This popular topic helps the children work through their worries or fears as they compare stories of their doctor and hospital visits.  They also enjoyed identifying and trying out the many different instruments that might be found in a doctor’s bag.    
 

Under the Sea:  The children love looking at pictures of fish, dolphins, whales, and coral as we discuss what lives in the sea.  It’s also fun to feel and talk about the many different shapes and sizes of shells that exist in this awesome world God has created! 
 

Dinosaurs are one of the most favorite discussion topics!  The children are proud to share their knowledge (which is often more than the teachers!) and enjoy trying to pronounce those long, difficult names.  

SMALL GROUP

Small groups this month are devoted to reviewing the many skills we’ve been practicing since September, including the most important part of preschool:  social skills.    Progress reports will soon be coming home, which will reflect the observations we have been gathering throughout the year during circle, story, small group, and play times.  We don’t do any formal individual assessments, as we know that children are constantly learning and develop-ing.  We prefer to observe skills in a more relaxed group setting, acknowledging that children also learn from watching each other.  
 

CRAFT

Band-aid Art: During  doctors and hospitals week the children decorated black paper with band-aids using regular, neon-colored and sparkled band-aids!   Opening the band-aids provided a fun way to practice fine-motor and problem-solving skills.  Some found it challenging at first, but with practice they all found a way to open the wrappers successfully!  We hope you enjoyed viewing their creations on family night.  They sure enjoyed making them.

“My Favorite Recipe”:  The children were asked to tell us how to make their favorite food!  We wrote down their “recipe”, and they then drew a picture of it.  This was fun for us, and we learned many new ways to cook macaroni and cheese and hot dogs (two favorites!)  It was a great cognitive activity for the children.  They had to create a mental picture of what was used to make their recipe, think about how it was cooked, and then give us the words to write.               

Sculpting:  We are currently using brown cornstarch dough to make dinosaur bones!    

MATH

Geometry:  We started the month with Geo Boards.  The children stretch elastics across small nails to create different shapes and designs on the boards.  

SCIENCE

Thinking & Problem-Solving: Marble works is currently keeping the children busy in the science area.   They are experimenting by building towers, making sure it all slants downward, then dropping a marble into their tower and seeing where it will come out!  What's nice  about this is that each tower built is different from the first. 

WRITING/LANGUAGE CENTER

Eye-hand coordination and fine-motor skills:   Pictures of doctors’ instruments are attached to clipboards along with a sheet of tracing paper.  The children are practicing tracing the pictures using either crayons, markers, or colored pencils.  Some children have also enjoyed coloring them in when they were done.  During our under-the-sea theme, there were pictures of fish for tracing as well as a memory type game where the children enjoyed finding and identifying the matching fish.
 

CREATIVITY ROOM

Exploring the World Under the Sea:   The children are having a lot of fun learning and using their imaginations as they play with a variety of plastic fish floating in warm turquoise-tinted water in the sensory  table.
 

Experimenting with color: You have probably seen some beautiful green and blue dolphins or fluorescent yellow & orange fish coming home.  The children are proud of the beautiful sea creatures they’ve been painting!   

Also available at the easels are brightly colored bingo daubers which the children use in different ways.  Some pictures are full of colorful dots, while other children try rubbing the daubers across the paper creating an effect that looks more like it was painted on.
 

DRAMATIC PLAY ROOM

Imaginary play, sharing, co-operation:  The Dramatic Playroom is back from outer space, and has once again returned to its regular housekeeping theme. We have also added stethoscopes, thermometers, blood pressure cuffs, a plastic hammer for checking reflexes, an emergency room medical cart with real sound effects and an x-ray machine, as well as hospital scrubs to go along with our doctor/hospital theme.  Children love to be sympathetic helpers toward others. 

The Dramatic Playroom will soon be transformed again into Dinosaur Land!
 

MONDAY EXTENDED DAY

The children have been excited about our adopted pet Snowy the Snow Owl!  Each week a child will have a turn to take Snowy home to spend the week.  We love hearing about Snowy’s adventures when he comes back to school on Monday, and look forward to hearing many more!  We have also loved the many games we have played such as Scrambled Eggs, Messy Back Yard and The Driving Game.  During our latest craft, we made silly putty.  It’s amazing watching just two liquid ingredients turn to putty so quickly!
 

FRIDAY EXPANDED

We recently introduced our new class pet "Piglet" to our class.   The children enjoyed writing an adventure story at school, and they will soon be able to have an adventure of their own at home.  Each week a different child will have the chance to take "Piglet" home for the week and write a short story about their adventures with him. 
 

MUSIC AND MOVEMENT

Rhyming, Singing and Dancing:  “Boom, Boom Ain’t It Great to Be Crazy”, “Silly Willy”, “Rhythm in My Fingers”, and the “MacChicken Dance” have been lots of fun this month. We’ve also been romping and stomping to the dinosaur beat as we enjoyed singing “I Love to Be a Dinosaur”,   “Dinosaur Rock & Roll”, and “What Did the Dinosaurs Say?”.   

  
May you enjoy the end of winter, and the promise of Spring!

Miss Kelly

Miss Nancy

Miss Meg

Miss Julie

Miss Brenda

Miss Maryann

Miss Chris

Miss Andrea