Happy "Birthday" Reese!

Today we celebrated Reese's birthday. We had a fun time singing Happy Birthday cha cha cha.

(Posting pictures of myself on this blog is my least favorite part of my job ;) I guess it just shows my true love for these kids!)

We also learned Hickory Dickory Dock, and sang the ABC song to the tune of 99 bottles of Pop on the wall (which helps get rid of the "ell-em-en-o-pee" letter :)).

Also today:

The kids loved learning about feelings last week, and still enjoy making silly faces whenever they can. One child showed me her silly face today, and suddenly EVERYONE had a silly face.

We learned about Red, the letter D, and 911 today. It was a lot to take in, so we switched things up a bit by having recess in the middle of the class instead of at the end. The kids thought it was a fun surprise, and got to get their wiggles out for our next activity. (This also accounts for why were so late getting out today. I got so mixed up, I didn't realize we needed to start packing up until it was 11:45! SORRY!).

Red: Have your child point out things that are red around you at home, as you drive, or go for a walk. Another fun idea is to have them go on a red scavenger hunt. Have them put red things in the bag, or give them a digital camera, or throw-away camera, to take pictures of red things. This works well for anything, really. i.e. things that start with "D," or things that come in 2's.

D: We learned about Ditto Dog today as we studied the letter D. The puppets your child brings home every tuesday are a consistent way to teach the alphabet. We do the same activity with each letter, so the children recognize that they are learning a letter, and know what to expect. Ask your child about the sound "D" makes, and what the dinosaur in the story said when Ditto the dog found him. We also read a fun book about the letter "D" and each child got to find something in the book that started with the "D" sound.

911: In preparation for our Police and Fire field trip on the 7th, we talked about 911. We discussed what an emergency is, and why someone would call 911. (If you see a fire in your house vs. you've lost your shoe). They used the photo-copied telephones to practice dialing the numbers 9-1-1. Have a talk with your child about when it is appropriate to call 911 and help them practice saying the numbers in order.

We also played animal dominos today. I often find that the children become overwhelmed if I try to do too much at once, so we took a little break today to play a fun game. Not only did they have a blast, but were able to practice positive interaction with their peers. Taking turns, not having a match on their turn, and being happy for friends who did well are all things that helped us learn important lessons today. Not to mention the really cool pattern we built!

Classroom Changes:

We are so excited to have two new boys in our class! Deakin will finally have someone to share the girls' attention with :). Judd and Lincoln are expected for our Thursday class, and we cannot wait!! We will miss our cute Reagan, but we are exicted for her to go to Miss Monique's 3-day class. We'll see you at the parties, Reagan!

Happy "Birthday" Riley!

Today we celebrated Riley's birthday. She chose to sing Say, Say my playmate for her song and got to make a special birthday hat! She brought cookies for her special birthday treat, and all the kids enjoyed them. What a fun day :).

Today we talked about feelings! We read a wonderful book, which I would certainly recommend to anyone. It was called The Way I Feel by Janan Cain. Ask your child about words like shy, frustrated, jealous, excited, and of course happy, sad and angry.

For one of our art projects we colored self portraits, and I let the kids pick an emotion that they wanted to show. It was fun to see all the surprised, excited, happy and angry faces.

The highlight of the day was making our "All about me" cookies. This was great for the kids to develop fine motor skills and a sense of importance by frosting the cookies themselves, and decorating them however they wanted. We got to see all sorts of artistic displays as the kids used licorice, pretzels, M&M's, gummy worms, and candy oranges to express themselves.

Some thoughts from Miss Penny:

• We've been learning how to hold a pencil the correct way. Help them make a gun with their first finger and thumb.
• We're also working on writing from right to left. It helps if you point to the words as you read a book to your child, so they can see for themselves which direction they flow.
• Make sure you feed your kids a good breakfast before school to fuel their highly absorbant brains! They are learning so much and moving so fast that they need those calories and proteins to keep up.


• If the garage is open when you come, it means I am watching for your kids. As soon as the garage door opens, you can either send them back or walk them back. No need to wait for me!


• Homework books! We've already learned letters A, B and C, as well as number 1. Help your child spend a few minutes every day working on those pages of their books. It is important for them to learn to manipulate a pencil, even if they can't finish everything. Anything is better than nothing :). They also need to know that Mom or Dad or Grandma is interested in what they're learning at school. Note: If your child is completing everything quickly and you think they need a little more challenging work, let me know and I can add a supplement. (Keep in mind that our class has children that are barely 3 to children that will turn five this month, so we have a WIDE range of skill levels).


• Our class is doing so well with cooperative play! I've been really impressed that even the younger kids are great at sharing during choice time.


• I have so much fun with your kid, and always hear something that makes me laugh. Today one child announced she was going to be a mom. Another promptly said she was never getting married. This was followed by an announcment by one child that she was getting married to her dad. After that another announced that she was going to marry Santa Clause. Not to be topped, another child announced she was going to BE Santa Clause.
  

Lovely Library!

We had a great time at our Field Trip to the Syracuse library. Thanks to everyone that came! The library staff was wonderful and very helpful! We got to learn a little bit about the layout of a library, how to treat books from the library, how to act in the library, and what you need to get your very own library card! We also got to listen to a VERY SILLY story! We all had a lot of fun, and I know many of the kids were able to get their very own library card. I know my own kids were super exctited about that!

Here are just a few pictures from our fun time at the library:

The Clothes I Wear

Library Field Trip: This Thursday (Sept. 18) *Please feel free to bring your other children*

Meet at Syracuse Library at 12:50
1875 S. 2000 W. Syracuse

If you would like your child to get their own library card, please be sure to bring at least TWO of the following form of i.d.:Driver’s license or state ID card, Vehicle registration, Property tax receipt, Checkbook, Bank statement, Utility bill, or Voter registration card.

Today we learned:

Today we talked all about the different types of clothes we wear, and why we wear them. It was fun to hear some of the kids' explanations of why they were wearing the colors they had on. We also learned about the letter B. Ask you kids about B.B. Bunny :).

Miss Robin came to teach us some more sign language today, as well. We learned the letters C and D, as well as the numbers 1 and 2. We also learned the words cat, candy, carrot, dinosaur and dog. We'll keep reviewing them as we go, so ask your child to show you what they've learned :).

Here are some pictures of the class and their "Picture of Me" mobiles. They were so proud of their finished products, and loved coloring them to match themselves.

More Fun Things Today:

Happy "Birthday" Candace!

• Our special Birthday-Celebration leader today was Candace. She had fun passing out her treat and making her specical birthday hat. Each child will get a chance to have a Birthday-Celebration during the year, so if your child is upset, let them know their chance will come!

• A note about birthday pictures: It seems EVERYONE wants their picture taken with the teacher EVERYDAY, so to solve the problem, I've decided to do it on their Birthday-Celebration day. Each child will have a special Miss Penny and Me picture posted on the blog just on that day.
  
  
  


• We had a our special visitor, Miss Robin, come today. She will be coming in periodically to teach the children some sign language. The kids were enthralled with her today, and learned how to sign the letters A and B, as well as the words apple, boy, ball, and alligator. Ask your child about it and see if they can remember!

• We had fun learning about different houses and where people live today. We read The 3 Little Pigs, with a new spin. The kids were great today and had a lot of fun cutting and pasting their 3 Little Pigs worksheets.
• The kids are getting so good at cooperating and working together! Today Reagan, Camille, Avery and Candace worked together to make a SUPER-sand birthday cake.
• HOMEWORK BOOKS: There's been a little confusion about this one :). The homework books are for your child to work on at home, and will probably be due in the middle of October. Have them work on them for 5-7 minutes a day, if you have time. DO NOT worry about the books :). They are to be done at your own pace and it is not completely necessary for them to be entirely finished. I was thinking we'd pass them out quarterly, but I was mistaken. It should be more like monthly, which goes along with our calendar and the letters/numbers we'll be learning. You'll notice your current homework book goes through "E."


• Forget your book orders? Don't worry, you can still send them in on Tuesday.

The Name Game

We had a lot of fun learning to recognize our names today. Ask your child to sing "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt" to you. We learned that as we marched all over today. We also played a game of hide and seek with the names that I sent home with your kids today. Post the name papers around the house so your child can gain some reconition and ownership of their GREAT name!

We also had a lot of fun learning about everyone's grandparents today. Each child drew a picture of one of their grandparents to add to our "Classroom Grandparents Quilt." The finished product was really cute, and the pictures were fun to look at. I love how kids express their feelings about things through art. We have some really talented artists in our class! Remember, today is National Grandparents Day, so have your kids give them a call and make their day :).

During choice time today, a bunch of the kids worked together to make an awesome tower. They were so proud of it, I just had to take a picture. Here is the masterpiece:

I had some requests for pictures during individual reading time while I was helping Avery get the snack ready :). They all love to have their picture taken. They feel so important!

Our First Day

Our first class went so well! All of your children were such a delight to work with. Our class has 8 girls and 1 boy, and all the girls just think Deakin is their best friend.

We had a lot of fun learning each other's names with some fun games, singing "Say, say, oh playmate," coloring pictures of our first day, going for a walk to talk about school rules, reading some books about school and friends, playing with the preschool toys, and especially playing outside for recess! We played "Who took the cookie from the cookies jar" and the kids were so cute. I had them clap their hands and then slap their knees to the rhythm, which was difficult for even myself when we got off rhythm. I was surprised at how quickly they picked it up and how much they liked it.



I also asked your children a few questions about themselves. Some of the answers were very creative and made me smile. I'll be posting them in the classroom in the next few days, so feel free to come in and take a look. You may be surprised about what your child wants to be when they grow up, or how old they said they were :).






Here are just a few "First Day" pictures:






I love how you can see a little bit of each child's personality in these pictures :)








Remember: Tuesday is our first Show and Tell. Please help your child fill the brown bag I sent home with items that they think describe themselves :).