Trick or Treat!

Check out photos from our Costume Parade and Halloween Party!  Pictures are in the October Picture Album.  Click here to see or visit the Picture Tab above.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween

This week is a fun filled week as the excitement of Halloween is filling the air!  Our letter of the week is letter Bb for bat.   Our Halloween parties are on Thursday and will begin at 10:00 (AM) and 2:00 (PM).  Please send your child either wearing their costume or send it with them.  We will take pictures before the party so please do not wait and bring the costume with you at the party.  Only room helpers are asked to attend the party, however ALL parents are welcome to join us for the parades at 10:45 (AM) and 2:30 (PM).

Check out these "scary sites"
* Monster Mash video & song.

* Haunted House: enter if you dare! (it really looks scary at first but cute at the end)

* Halloween Night video & song.

Smile! :)

This week is Character Counts Week at IPS.  We have filled the school with lots of pride and are learning how we can be responsible, respectful, caring, trustworthy, fair and good citizens.  We will continue to reinforce these positive character traits throughout the year.  If you are looking for some resources to use at home on character education check out the ones listed below.

Character Critters

Character Counts Wesbite

Our letter of the week is letter Ss, for smile!  Just a simple smile can brighten someone's day. Spider, sun, scarecrows are great "S" words.  Smores start with letter Ss and we will be making this scrumptious snack for our cooking lesson on Thursday.See the recipe here. 
Songs start with Ss....so many Ss words can you think of some at home? Our songs that we will be singing and dancing to are Eensy Weensy Spider and There's a Spider on the Floor.

Reminders:  

*  Book Fair is on Thursday.  Parents are welcome to meet their child to help them shop.  If you can't attend, there will be volunteers to help them.

* Family Fun RSVPs are due by the end of the week. I need to purchase the tickets on Friday so please send it in if you plan to attend.

* Our Halloween Parties are next Thursday, October 31st. More info to come early next week.

* Check out the October Picture Album by clicking on the PICTURE tab above.  I added some pictures from our fall hike, pumpkin decorating, and some other classroom activities.  

Coins for Cornerstone Project

Dear Parents,

This week is Character Counts week at IPS. We have many activities planned to teach our students about positive character qualities.  Trustworthiness respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship are the six pillars we will be focusing on this week and throughout the year.  The preschoolers will be doing a "Coins for Cornerstone" activity.  For those of you that are not aware of Cornerstone of Hope, it is an organization right here in Independence that is dedicated to providing support, education, and hope for the grieving. For more information, check out there website:  www.cornerstoneofhope.org.

The goal of our project "Coins for Cornerstone" is to raise $75 to donate to the Cornerstone of Hope.  The organization will use the money to purchase Christmas ornaments for the their Ornament Decoration event held in December.  This is a great way to teach our children about caring, kindness, and helping others in need.  It is also going to be a great learning activity as we will be working on identifying and sorting coins.  Later in the month of December, when we are decorating our own ornaments in class, I will remind the children (and hopefully share pictures) of how they helped other children share the wonderful experience of making Christmas ornaments.

The project will begin this week so  and continue until Thanksgiving.  You can start sending in coins whenever you would like. The coin jar is in the classroom and ready to start collecting!  You can send coins in with your child, they can do some chores around the house to earn coins, maybe they want to take some out of their piggy banks, or they can earn coins in the classroom.  During the project time, our Treasure Box days will be Coin Days.  Students who earn a trip to the treasure box will be given a coin.  They may use the coin to purchase a gum ball or they can donate it to the "Coins for Cornerstone" jar.  My goal is to help the children understand that sometimes they may have to give up something to help another person.

I appreciate you support and help with the project.  If you have any questions, suggestions, or concerns please contact me.  Our project will begin this week and continue until Thanksgiving.  Our donation will be sent to the Cornerstone of Hope on November 27, 2013.  I will keep an update on our preschool website as to how our project is going.  

Sincerely,

Mrs. Kieser

Family Fun Friday #2 Info

FAMILY FUN FRIDAY #2

THE FUNTASTIC FLUTE @ SEVERANCE HALL

               Friday, November 8, 2013                                                   10:00-10:30

Due to difficulty scheduling with The Cleveland Children’s Museum, we have a new date and a new event for our next Family Fun Friday.  Sorry for any inconvenience this change may cause.

PNC Musical Rainbow concerts introduce young people ages 3-6 to the instruments of the orchestra – one at a time. Each half-hour program will get your kids singing, clapping, and moving to the music while Cleveland Orchestra musicians and guests perform short solo selections and kid-friendly tunes, and demonstrate their instruments.

IMPORTANT INFO:

*     Cost:  $7 per child, one adult admission is free with every paid child admission.

*     To guarantee ticket purchase, please return the RSVP form at the bottom with the admission fee ($7 per child).  Cash only.  There are NO REFUNDS.

*     Purchased tickets will be sent home with your child the week of the event.

*     Please arrive by 9:45 so we can be seated and ready for the concert.

*     You may chose to purchase tickets after the RSVP date, however ticket availability cannot be guaranteed and you may not be able to purchase tickets near our group.

You can view the handout here that will be sent on with your child on Tues, Oct 15th.

P is for Pumpkin

Fall is a great time to have some family fun! Enjoy the changing leaves and cooler air and celebrate the season with some autumn-themed activities, such as fun crafts for fall and great fall recipe ideas. Click here for ideas.

This week we are exploring pumpkins.  Our letter of the week is Pp.  On Tuesday's our centers will be a pumpkin sequence (Mrs. Hall), letter p pictures/formation, and pumpkin/color bingo.  On Wednesday we will be carving a pumpkin.  

Here is the "story/song" we watched today.  The kids loved it!  Check it out and let them sing for you.
Five Little Pumpkins (you can skip the ad in the beginning). 

Pumpkin activities to try at home:
Pumpkin Sorting Activity
Pumpkin Color Matching Game
Pumpkin Number Game 
(activities from www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com)

Some new computer games to check out: Super Why is a class hit! The Fall Puzzles and Games link has lots of memory games for acorns, spiders, and other fall items. Look to the right to find the links under "Games and Activities".

PM CLASS ROOM PARTIES

Please visit the website below for information on room parties for the PM class.  The page is also under the tab "CLASSROOM CONNECTIONS" above. https://sites.google.com/site/pmpreschoolparties/

October Pictures are posted....

Check out October Class Pictures by clicking on the PICTURE tab above and then select October Class Pictures.  Enjoy all the smiles!

Apple Week

This week we explored the theme of APPLES in preschool.  Thank you to all of the parents who came out to Patterson's Fruit Farm on Friday. The weather was perfect and it was a great way to kick off our apple unit.

Activities this week centered around  apples and the letter Aa. We made an apple core craft, worked on sequencing, counting apples, and went on an apple hunt followed by sorting the apples by colors.  We have a new sensory table in our class room.  Bye bye sand table and hello apple picking!  We have apples (pom poms) and dirt (beans) that the children can pick apples using tongs and sort them to the correct color tree.  It is a SMASHING hit!  Other activities include making apple crisp (recipe here), graphing our favorite apple color, drinking apple juice, tasting applesauce, counting/writing numbers for apple seeds, and singing silly songs like Apples and Bananas.

A few stories that we will be reading include Ducking for Apples (fun rhyming story)  and Ten Apples Up On Top. Check out this animated video of the story here.

Happy Birthday Maverick!