Bugs and Butterflies

                  

Our theme this week is BUGS! We will be learning about lots of different bugs, butterflies, the color blue, and anything else we can think of for letter Bb.
We will be learning the life cycle of a butterfly and hope to see them flying around soon.  Maybe we can catch one!
We are continuing to work on writing numbers 1-10, opposites, rhyming words, and words that start with the same sound (bug-butterfly). 
Check out some fun BUG computer games here.
Check our some bug games for number concepts.

Reminders:

* Wednesday is Grandparents/Special Friends day from 9:00-10:30.  PM Preschoolers may come but they must have transportation at 9:00 and 10:30.  
* Early Dimissal on Wednesday:  The PM afternoon will be a typical afternoon.  The rest of the  district has early dismissal.  If you wish to pick up your child at 2:15, just let is know.  This is the last early release of the year!

Family Fun Friday at the Zoo!

FAMILY FUN FRIDAY #5

CLEVELAND METROPARKS ZOO

Friday, May 24, 2013          10:00 - ???

IMPORTANT INFO:

*    I will be at the entrance to the zoo from 10:00-10:15 to pass out wristbands (where you ENTER THE ZOO NOT the ticket window).  From there we will head towards the Northern Trek first.  If you are late, please do the best you can to find us.  However I will not be able to give you a wrist band as they will not hold them at the window. 

*    Lunch:  Meet at the Pavilion at approximately 11:30.  You may bring your own lunch or buy lunch at the food court.  You may choose to carry your lunch with you or I will have a large box to store them in but the box will stay at the pavilion while we are visiting the zoo.

*    You do not have to stay with our group but it would be nice for the children to visit the zoo with their peers.

*    Dress for the weather. The trip will be held rain or shine. 

*    Our IPS Preschoolers are FREE!  Every IPS Preschool student is FREE along with ONE adult.  If you have zoo memberships you may use them.  Otherwise, you will need to purchase regular tickets at the ticket window for any additional adults or children.

Click here for the information sheet.

Seeds and Sprouts

This week we our learning about seeds and plants since April is Garden month. Spring is here and plants should be sprouting up everywhere!

Our letter of the week is Rr for roses and rain. On Tuesday we will be planting green bean seeds. Let's hope they grow!

Our song that we are learning this week is called Dig A Little Hole.

Dig a little hole

Plant a little seed

Pour a little water

And pull a little weed 

Check out these fun activties: 


Dottie's Garden (online story) 



Games for number concepts 



Tiny Seed by Eric Carle (video) 

We have continued working on writing our numbers 1-10.  Our coin we learned this week was the quarter.  "Quarter, quarter, big and bold, You're worth 25, I am told."

  

Can your child find a quarter?  Our money unit was simply an introduction to money. At this age they aren't expected to know all of the coins.  However, simple sorting or "finding" activities that allow children to explore money are great for the preschoolers.

Looking ahead....our last Early Dismissal of the year is next Wed, May 1st.  Preschool will not participate in Early Dismissal however if you would like to pick up your child at 2:15 please let us know. Thank you for your cooperation as we work through this.  This will NOT be a problem next year as there will NO early dismissals for the entire district.  

Summer Camp Info

Pre-school Summer Camp Survey When Monday July 8, 2013 at 9:00 AM EDT -to- Friday July 12, 2013 at 12:00 PM EDT Add to Calendar   Where The City of Independence Liberty Playground Bldg. 6363 Selig Drive (next to Liberty Playground - next to Civic Ctr) Independence, OH 44131 Driving Directions The Autism Society of Greater Cleveland would like to offer a min-version of our summer camp to pre-school children ages 3 to 5. The camp would be held in The Liberty Playground Building at The City of Independence Park on the following days: July 8, 9, 11, 12 from 9:00 AM till NOON If there is enough interest, we might consider adding a second week at the same location on the following days: July 15, 16, 18, 19 from 9:00 AM till NOON The cost for the camp is $300 per week. Typical siblings ages 3-5 are welcome to participate for the same cost.  All children must be completely toilet trained to attend.  We do accept County Board of Developmental Disabilities Family Resource/Camp Funds.  Some financial assistance is also available. In order to have enough qualified staff on hand, we need to know by May 15 if there are any families that would benefit from this camp.  If there is not enough interest, we will have to postpone the pre-school session until next year. If you are at all interested, please click on the link below to let us know.  If you have any questions, please call (216) 556-4937 or e-mail us at support@asgc.org Please Click Here if you are interested in Pre-school Camp

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Our Great Community

Independence is such a wonderful community and these week we are learning about community helpers.  We have talked about bakers, policemen, farmers, firemen, nurses & doctors, mailmen, teachers (of course), and many more.  Ask your child what they want to be when they grow up.....their responses are great!

Our letter of the week is letter Oo for officer.  We continued our exploration of coins and focused on the nickel this week.  The PM class started working on some simple addition using counters and the AM class is working on classifying or sorting objects into groups.

Now that the warmer weather has finally arrived, we hope to get outside and enjoy some sunshine too!

Last Week Before Spring Break!

Next week is the last week before spring break.  Our theme is Easter and we will be learning letter Ee for egg.  It will be a week filled with lots of fun activities such as painting eggs, going on an egg hunt, and on Thursday we will have a small Easter party. The head room parents will contact you if you signed up to donate.  We are trying to keep this party small and simple by just having a snack as it is a crazy week with lots of activities.

Please send in 20 FILLED eggs with your child before Thursday.  They will also need a basket or bag for our egg hunt on Thursday.

I hope everyone has a great Spring Break!  School will resume on April 8th.

**Looking Ahead:  There is an Early Release on April 10th.  IPS dismisses at 2:15 PM.  However preschool will follow their regular schedule and any parent who wishes to pick up their child may do so.  

                                                             

Spring is here?!

With the all of the snow that is falling outside it may not look like spring...but that is not stopping us from making it look like spring inside!
This week we learned about weather and the season of spring. We painted clouds, made rainbows, and sang Mr. Sunshine hoping it would bring some spring like weather outside.  Mother Nature is making it difficult to teach the young ones about spring when she keeps bringing us this winter weather!
We learned letter Uu for umbrella and also have been working on writing and sequencing numbers 1-10.

Happy 1/2 Birthday to Kylie!

OPOSSUMS,RACCOONS & SKUNKS-OH MY!

Looking for something to do this weekend?

March 24 @ 2-3:30pm

Facility: Garfield Park Nature Center

11350 Broadway Ave, Garfield Hts , OH. 44125

Price: Free

Phone: 216-341-3152

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Opossums, Raccoons and Skunks: Oh My!

Raccoons, skunks, and opossums will re-enter our lives this spring. Come explore the life cycle and habits of these amazing mammals: when do their young arrive, what do they eat and how do we encourage them to stay in the wild?

March Picture Album is here!

View the picture album for March by going to the PICTURE tab above and then selects the title March Classroom Pictures.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Lucky the Leprechaun was in our classroom this week.  He is such a clever and sneaky little fella but was kind enough to leave everyone a pot of gold!  This week we learned about and maps and explored all different types including weather maps, treasure maps, and a map of Ireland.  Thank goodness the treasure map led is to the right place to find our treasure box that Lucky took. I am sure the kids were excited to come home and tell you about this one!

Letter L was our letter of the week and we finished our last number....the BIG 1- 0, TEN!  We have continue to work on rhyming words and the PM class has added more words to the sigh word list.  To make our St. Patrick's Day complete, we painted green shamrocks and listened to the ibook of Green Eggs and Ham using the SMARTBoard to project the story from our iPad.  Gotta love technology and the itunes gift cards the kids have given me the past few years!