Wow what a way to end such a wonderful year in the pre-kindergarten / kindergarten classroom!!!!  It was such a joy seeing 47 little happy faces dancing and singing on stage.  It is amazing how far all of the children grew in just 10 months.  They made friendships that they may have all through school, how nice is that!!  There is nothing more satisfying than seeing each child develop the confidence and skills they need to succeed in their next journey - “the big school”.  It is nice to see the children as the year went on, looking for new learning challenges - so many children were so eager to read out loud each day!!  We will surely miss all the smiling faces, funny stories and daily giggles that will now be echoing the classroom of their new school.

We hope you all have a happy, fun-filled summer and remember to keep on reading!!!

Thanks again for the chance to be a part of your child’s learning adventure!

Miss Stacey, Miss Jill, Miss Dianne, Miss Karen

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

— Dr. Seuss, “I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!”

“Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.”

— Emilie Buchwald

Upstairs May Newsletter

The month of April was a very busy month upstairs!  The children did a fabulous job on all their art work for the show - it was nice to see them all beaming with pride at their creativity.  We hope you all enjoyed the Art Show!  As a class we also learned all about the Life Cycle of a butterfly and even hatched 6 beautiful Painted Lady Butterflies.  We were able to release them over April vacation - it was very exciting to watch them fly out of their net.  Please be sure to ask your child about our butterflies.

April Pre-K Small Group - introductory addition skills w/ manipulatives, ‘one more than’ and ‘counting on’ strategy introduced with a number line; ordering numbers from least to greatest, comparing numbers, and reading 2 digit numbers in math…language - syllabication and phoneme counting activities taught to all 3 groups - sorted names, pictures and words by how many sounds they hear.  Ask your child what syllabication strategy works best for them.  A comprehensive review of rhyme, initial consonant sound and numbers 1-20 was also part of group…

During April the kindergarten class was very busy learning all about the Plant Cycle.  Each child had fun drawing the life cycle - seeds, roots, sprouts, flower.  Ask your child how the roots grow or the essential items needed for a plant to grow.  The children have been making a plant journal with words and pictures to show their plants growth.  It is amazing how tall their bean plants are getting.  Our weekly reading program has been quite successful, it is super to see how well the children are doing with their reading fluency.  Other busy choices during kindergarten have been their number scrolls - many friends are on their way to 200 while 2 friends are almost to 400 - WOW they love the challenge of writing as high as they can!  The month of May brings us to assessments for progress reports.   I will be doing a dibels and a HWT assessment on each child which will be given out with their progress report.

Our class birth year coin project has been a wonderful home-school connection.  THe children get so excited to share their coins as well as bringing in State Quarters to fill our map.  We have almost covered all 50 states!  We thought as a class we would donate the state quarters to the Hanover Food Pantry to help families in need.

During April, the children enjoyed making recycled art to celebrate Earth Day.  We talked about how important recycling is to the environment, and took a class survey as to how many children recycle at home.  We were extremely pleased to see that all raised their hands. The pre-k class joined the planting, and each child planted a radish.  The science area has been very full with visitors - they are using a magnifying glass to observe all the growing (beans, marigolds & radishes).  It is nice to hear their conversations as they compare plants with their friends.

Exciting activities for May:

We will be observing our 5 tadpoles as they grow through each stage of the Frog Life Cycle.  Miss Karen is our class nature lover and collected the tadpoles to share with the class.  Our Hygiene Drive has started - the children enjoyed decorating the box with items that will be useful to the food pantry.  We appreciate all the items that have already been brought in - the last day to donate will be May 24th - thank you so much for helping us to help families in need!

Wizard of Oz practice is in full swing!  Mr. Michael is planning on coming 1 morning and 1 afternoon a week to practice with each class.  The children are doing amazing - they are really enjoying all the cool moves Mr. Michael has been teaching - they are going to be the best Munchkins!

Looking forward to fun filled days as the year comes to a close,

The Upstairs Teachers

The month of March was quite busy preparing for our Annual Art Show. Our incredible artists worked so hard to create their “mini masterpieces” . The artists they studied were Maud Lewis’/ Lighthouse, Joan Miro’s /Daybreak, David Hockney’s / Umbrella 1971, and Piet Mondrian’s/ Composition in yellow, red and blue. We also celebrated Dr. Seuss’s Birthday with a comprehensive study of his books and art. They sculpted with clay to create Dr. Seuss’s Hat, and drew a pencil and crayon sketch of the Cat in the Hat.

As the saying goes,  ”March Comes in like a Lion and Goes Out like a Lamb” and this March was no different. At circle each morning, the children graphed what kind of day it was - final results: More Lamb than Lion days.

In the Science Center we are observing caterpillars as they transform into Painted Lady Butterflies. Painted Lady Butterflies are indigenous to this area.  The children have enjoyed checking on their daily progress and were very excited when they were all in their chrysalis.  We are looking forward to seeing the Painted Lady Butterflies emerge from their chrysalis! The children enjoyed drawing the life cycle of the butterfly, please be sure to ask your child what the 4 stages are.

Pre-kindergarten individual small groups, covered some new as well as some old subject matter.  Rhyming words were reviewed with a variety of hands on manipulatives.  The Family and Personal Information Knowledge such as full name, address and emergency phone numbers were covered and finally - Geometry concepts were explored; Shapes, angles sides and finding similiarities and differences between various shapes. Geomags, a magnetic manipulative was used and enjoyed. Tangrams were also a hit!  We have completed our work in our  Handwriting Without Tears Journals, practicing at home is highly encouraged.

The Kindergarten class wrapped up their unit on money and time.  They really enjoyed the money poems and were able to recite them all on their own when identifying coins.  During the money unit we reinforced our counting by 5’s and 10’s - they all have it down pat!!  The children are becoming math whizzes - they are very into their number scrolls, many friends are on their way to 300 and beyond.  The weekly reading program has been a huge success - I couldn’t be more happier with the fluency and confidence each child has while reading - many enjoy bringing home challenge books for themselves - WAY TO GO!!!  We are just about finished with our Handwriting Without Tears Journals - the progress shows each day in their neat work!  During the month of April we will be planting beans and will journal the growth each day.

Important dates for April:

April 2nd CLOSED Good Friday

April 6th - Pre-K/Kindergarten Art Show 6-7

April 19th CLOSED Patriots Day

Thanks so much, any questions please feel free to ask a teacher!

Ms, Stacey, Ms. Dianne, Ms. Jill, Ms. Karen, Miss Jenny & Miss Maura

Preschool March Newsletter

February was a fun filled month. We celebrated Valentines Day and the 100^th Day. We had an exciting visit from the dentist to celebrate dental health month. And the children had a lot of fun making zoo animals to decorate for our RHS Zoo.  We also had fun competing in our own RHS Olympics.

March is expecting to come in like a lion and go out like a lamb. And on March 17 Lucky the leprechaun is sure to make a visit for St. Patrick’s Day.  The children will be hard at work in the month of March creating their own art for our art show at the beginning of April.  Each teacher will have a different artist to teach the children about and will create a masterpiece from that artist. We can not wait!!!

Birthday for March – Emma 3/1

V.I.P. for March – Nicholas 3/1, Vivien and Chloe L. 3/8, Sean and Sonya 3/15, Teddy 3/22, Thomas 3/29

The following items have been missing in the preschool classroom, please check the list and see if they went home with you by accident. Thank you!

1 LL bean blue mitten

Pair of red water proof mittens

Star Wars thermos

Black mitten with zipper and Velcro, brand –Gordini

Pair of long black gloves

Thank you very much for everything that you do for us. We are having such an exciting year with you and your children. There is more excitement to come for the end of the year!

Sincerely,
your Preschool teachers,

Miss Shealene, Miss Heather, Miss Nicole and Miss Alissa

March 2010 PRE-K AND K NEWSLETTER

          March comes in like a lion in the Upstairs Classroom!  March is Ridge Hill School’s Art Month.  We spend the month of March studying several artists and then replicating the work of each artist and we culminate the intensive study with an evening Art Show is April.  Your child will learn about each artist’s history, style and influences and how to view and converse about a piece of art.  Using authentic materials and art techniques your child will participate in projects that allow him/her to create pieces similar to that of the studied artist.  We employ different teaching methods during art this month because your child is guided to recreate another’s rendering rather than art projects being open-ended and child-centered.  We feel that this short-term, teacher-directed type of art experience enhances the overall artistic experience for your child at this stage of development.  Please ask your child who we are studying each week and what he/she created.  There is a wonderful book entitled, I Am An Artist by Pat Lowery Collins that we will read with the class that would make a lovely addition to any family library and also makes a lovely gift for your child following the Art Show experience in April….just an idea.

          February was full of teeth, groundhogs, hearts, friendship, the 100th Day and finally we were treated to a visit by Dr. Pizzi and Ms. Kim who taught the children about proper dental hygiene and the importance of brushing one’s teeth before school and at bedtime.  Author, Russell Hoban, celebrated a February birthday and we read many Frances books and listened to several fun audiobooks of his works.  A Birthday for Frances and the familiar, Bread and Jam for Frances were big hits!  In March we look forward to shamrocks, rainbows, pots of gold, lions, lambs, springtime and a celebration of Dr. Seuss’s birthday on March 2nd!  Dr. Seuss books are great first readers and A Wocket in My Pocket is a great vehicle for teaching rhyming words and manipulating sounds in words.  If you are not familiar with this story please check it out with your child!  As a literature connection in Art Month we will be reading many Caldecott Award winning books and we will recognize Randolph Caldecott’s birthday on March 22nd.  The 2010 Caldecott Award winner is Jerry Pinkney’s The Lion and the Mouse, a beautiful rendition of an old Aesop fable.   If your child has a favorite Caldecott winner please send it in to school for your child to share.

          In small group the Pre-K children continue to blossom and their Kindergarten readiness skills continue to emerge.  We focused on writing numbers the HWT way through 10 as well as letters M, N and V in February.  In March we will complete the alphabet with W, X, Y and Z.  Journal writing continues to be a favorite small group activity and the children take great pride in writing their numbers and letters correctly and neatly in their special books.  Recognizing and reading numbers through 20 (and beyond), counting by 1’s, 10’s and 2’s and ordering numbers in the teens will be reinforced this month and a study of coins and their values will begin.  Rhyming, syllabication and initial consonant sounds are constantly being reinforced as well as identifying and matching the lower case letters with their upper case partners is taking place in our small groups.  Knowledge of one’s last name, phone number, street address and town are vitally important skills for this age group and reinforcement of this skill at home is always helpful for retention and confidence.  Learning all 10 digits of the phone number in order is a daunting task - some children can rattle off Mom’s cell phone number but not the home number - certainly a sign of the times!

In Kindergarten, the children have been working very hard in their HWT journals!!  We have just about finished them – it is really nice to see how much their handwriting has progressed since September.  I am thrilled to see the confidence in writing lowercase letters in their journals as well in everyday writing.  We have been doing a lot of counting by 5’s which helped us in our introduction to time unit and will come in handy when we learn about money.  It will be helpful if you practice counting by 5’s with your child, it may be a fun game to play in the car.  Time is a tricky concept for many children to understand mainly because most clocks they see are now digital and the time is much easier for them to read.  I am very happy with the continued reading success of the children – the interest and confidence continue to grow each day, WAY TO GO FRIENDS!  It is nice to see how few words are tricky for them each week, while the list of words they were able to read is getting longer!!  March will continue with time and then will move into money, as well as more independent journal writing.  As a class we will chose a Caldecott book to read and then will write about and illustrate our favorite part of the story.

If you would like to read to the class in March, we ask that it either be at drop-off or near the end of the day.  We are very busy working on our special art projects for the show and want all of the masterpieces to be a surprise!  Thank you to all the families for sending in the delicious fruit for our Friendship Day celebrations, the children really enjoyed the delicious healthy snack!

Looking forward to a fun-filled, creative colorful month!

Ms. Stacey, Ms. Jill, Ms. Dianne, Ms. Karen, Miss Jenny & Miss Maura