May News This month's highlights from Judy and Tracy's Room: We were lucky to have two parents come into do special projects with the children this week. Thanks to Melissa Howe and Anne Cassels for planning  and teaching fun lessons that will help make Mothersí Day extra special for a lot of Moms After reading Mo Willemsí cautionary tale Knuffle Bunny, we made an adorable bulletin board that looks great in our dramatic play Laundromat In the science area we have beans growing in bags, flowers sprouting in recycled flower pots (milk cartons), and a jar of pond water with frog eggs in it! We are watching to see what happens with those before we bring them back to their vernal pool next week. Please sign and return permission slip by Monday for our Second Step personal Body Safety curriculum if you have not already done so. Please also return parent surveys to envelope on parent table as soon as possible! May 19: Last Day celebration ceremony and picnic lunch. We will begin our program in the High School Auditorium at 10 am. A picnic lunch will be provided by Head Start and will immediately follow the ceremony outside on the playground. April News This month's highlights from Judy and Tracy's Room: CCP #1  April newsletter This month we are enjoying our "Spring Things" theme!  We emptied our working worm habitat and all that rich soil into the sensory table and the children have been feeding, measuring, examining and holding our wiggly worms. After we are finished exploring their habitat here at school, each child will take home a worm jar of his/her very own with an instruction sheet for mom and dad. Our water table has been filled with garden hose sections, watering cans, a rain gauge, spray bottles and more! At the science table we've been sorting seeds, examining flower petals, dead insects and snake skin! At the art table and easel we have done "rain" paintings, "mud" paintings, "wind" paintings and more! As well as paint, our spring weather creations required spray bottles, pudding, fingers and a hair dryer. Good, messy, tactile fun! Our nutrition lessons included yummy Rainbow Smoothies, which used a rainbow of fresh fruits and frozen yogurt too; Garden Vegetable and dip tasting, after which we graphed our favorite dip; and ABC Muffins, made with Apples, Blueberries and Carrots. We served those at our family breakfast and they were delicious! Our math lessons included colorful bug patterning and our favorite dip graph. We also measured the children. They then painted flower stems the same height as they were, and topped them with beautiful photo-flowers for the 'Look How Our Garden Grows' bulletin board. We have read many wonderful books about the season. Next month we will expand our study of spring to include a couple of author-illustrator studies. We will learn about Lois Elhert and Mo Willems! This month's highlights from Susan and Kathleen's Room: March News This month's highlights from Judy and Tracy's Room: March 2010 Newsletter Our theme this month is The Ocean. The children have been having a wonderful time playing in our dramatic play area. The shelves are full of sunglasses, sun hats, nets, plastic fish, beach bags, beach balls and towels. We even have a colorful cabana set against a student made ocean mural! There's also an ice cream shop filled with pompom ice cream, scoops, cones the kids made, bowls, spoons and more! It's a busy center! Our Science center has four Mystery Cans. One contains seagull feathers, one has sand, one has shells and one has a starfish. The children reach and label the can depending on what the contents feel like. The sensory tables have been full of beach sand, molding sand, salt water and other inviting ocean materials. Weíve also done some experiments comparing salt water and fresh water. The kids made some coconut scented salt dough. It has a wonderful texture and makes the room smell just like sunscreen when we play with it! We've also been learning all about compound words. The ocean is full of them: jellyfish, seashell, starfish, seahorse, sailboat, swimsuit and more! The children have been learning to take the words apart and put them back together using sound and picture clues. It's a great pre-reading skill. As part of our transition plan, the kindergarten teachers and principal from CAES are planning to visit us in March. That way, we'll already have met them when we go to visit the big school in April! We are going to learn about "Spring Things" as our theme for next month! February News This month's highlights from Judy and Tracy's Room: This month the children chose to learn about pets.  We discussed how we care for our pets at home and what animals may be household pets and also found in nature. Our dramatic play area was transformed into a veterinarian office.  The children could explore animal x-rays and be the veterinarian to examine stuffed animals. We made torn tissue paper cats and dogs.  We read Feathers for Lunch by Lois Ehlert and made our own birds. In our science center we grew a Chia-pet cat and investigated pet hair under the microscope. For the month of March the children have chosen to learn about the ocean. This Month's Highlights from Susan and Kathleen's Room: Our theme for the month of February was the Polar Regions. Our original theme was the Arctic, however, we learned along with the kids that penguins do not live at the North Pole and Polar Bears do not live at the South Pole. Since we wanted to do activities including both these animals, we changed our theme to Polar Regions. We never stop learning! We looked really closely at snowflakes. We made snowflakes with our faces. We also made edible snowflakes with tortillas lightly dusted with powdered sugar. They looked just like snowflakes but tasted much better! We also made snowman faces with rice cakes, complete with a carrot nose! Our dramatic play area was transformed into a winter camping site. Our "Polar explorers" would bundle up in snow gear, cook hotdogs and marshmallows over the fire, and write many letters home to their families. (See photo below). They took notes on the wildlife they saw and had an all around great time! We spent a great deal of time outside, hiking through the woods as actual explorers. We saw so many tracks of so many different animals. We would bring our track book and compare what we had found in the snow to the prints in the book. In doing this we learned that we found tracks of red foxes, squirrels, rabbits, turkeys, and mice. On one exciting hike we actually saw a flock of turkeys flying through the woods! (In the photo above, students put together penguins following a model created by their teachers. This involves so many educational skills, including following directions, visually tracking from the model to their own work, counting, and fine motor skills, not to mention the communication and social skills they are working on as they create together.) Our theme for March is Earth. We will not only be learning about the planet we live on but also what we can do to help keep it healthy. January News This Month's Highlights from Susan and Kathleen's Room: Once upon a time, in a land far, far away...CCP2 learned all about Fairy Tales. We read several traditional Fairy Tales as well as some fun stories with a bit of a twist on the original. There was Cinderella but there was also Bubba the Cowboy Prince. We read Jack and the Beanstalk but we also read Kate and the Beanstalk. We had such a good time listening to and comparing all the many different stories. We made some very beautiful crafts. We made magic mirrors and magic wands. Our woodworking center became "The Magic Wand Center". We made princess and prince hats and crowns with "real" jewels. We did some patterning with jewels as well.   After we read Jack and the Beanstalk, we planted some magic beans and an herb garden. We are excited to watch our plants grow. We also learned about a frog life cycle when we read The Frog Princess. After reading Snow White, we tasted apples with three different dips, yogurt, peanut butter and maple syrup. We then graphed which dip we liked the best. We made Queen of Heart Tarts when we read Alice in Wonderland and we made Granny Muffins when we read Little Red Riding Hood, We enjoyed all of our yummy fairy tale treats! The kids had fun with the castles in the block area. We also had fun in dramatic play. The area there was changed every week. The first week it was Cinderellaís castle, complete with a fireplace where the cinders were collected. Next the area became Jack's garden. It was equipped with gardening tools and boots. There was a hose, watering cans and many vegetables growing in the brown shag rug garden. The following week, it became the three little pigs' homes. There were sticks and straw and bricks to build houses with. And of course there was a cauldron over the fire for the big bad wolf. Lastly, the area became a pirate ship as we read the modern fairy tale, How I Became a Pirate. We had a visit from Peggy Roberts, the Chester Andover Elementary School nurse. She showed us her thermometer and her stethoscope. She even brought some of her Dora Band-Aids.  Steven's mom, Renata, came in to do a cooking project from her native country of Brazil with us. It was delicious! The kids have chosen to learn about the Arctic next month. They are excited to learn about the arctic animals and their habitat. This Month's Highlights from Judy and Tracy's Room: CCP 1 has been enjoying the Winter Wonderland Theme this month. Our BIG letter gallery is filling up around the top of the classroom walls. This month we added M, painted with MITTENS as our ìpaintbrushesî; I, painted using colorful melting ICE CUBES; Q covered with paper to look like a QUILT; and B painted with BUBBLEWRAP. In addition to reinforcing letter recognition and sounds, these sensory activities are fun, cooperative projects the kids really seem to enjoy. Other literacy activities included learning about and writing captions for our beautiful Q-tip snow scenes. Weíve had lots of fun with The Mitten Book, flannel board, and circle song & game. We also had a visit from ìGrandmother Winterî who read us a book by the same title. At the end of the book, she shook her quilt and made our carpet look like it was covered in snow! After the white haired lady left, one of our students remarked ìHey, Ms. Judyís back now!î Our water table has been filled with ice, snow, plastic arctic animals, hidden letters and many different tools and manipulatives! One week our sand table had a fine motor activity that created lots of pretty paper snow. In science we learned about liquids and solids, temperature changes, and we explored bubbles frozen in ice! The children painted and cut out gorgeous pastel ìtie-dyeî snowflakes that are hanging all over the classroom and even outside in the high school hallway. Except for a couple of bitterly cold days, we have been snowshoeing, sliding and shoveling outside! Please continue to send winter gear every day. We love the great outdoors! The children have expressed an interest in doing a unit on Pets, so that will be our theme for February! Children;s brains are wired to learn languages most easily in the first ten years of life. A parent in room 2 has given you each a flyer about the Spanish lessons she is offering. It would be wonderful if you are able to take advantage of this great opportunity! Snowshoeing is a big hit at Chester Community Preschool. December News This Month's Highlights from Judy and Tracy's Room On Monday, we changed the breakfast menu to have the children make "gingerbread toast". They spread butter or cream cheese on toast, sprinkled it with cinnamon sugar and decorated it with raisins. Cute and delicious! We are experimenting with and observing raisins and grapes in our science area. Ask you child about our experiment. The very talented Ms. Tracy finished sewing 4 darling gingerbread costumes which were in our Gingerbread House dramatic play area this week. The kids had so much fun dressing like gingerbread boys and girls, and looked adorable while they played! Brie's Mom, Ms. Melissa from Endless Creations pottery studio came in to make a special craft with the children on Tuesday. They all did a wonderful job listening and following directions! Check out our art gallery. It's full of terrific paintings created at the easel with gingerbread scented paint. They smell as good as they look! Ask your child to show you the Jacket Pokey! Reminder for all: Check your childís extra clothes bag in bottom of cubby to be sure the items still fit and are appropriate for the weather. Your child should have a change of pants, shirt, socks, underwear (& shoes if possible) in that bag for us to find easily. If your child has borrowed some of our extra clothing, please wash and return as soon as possible! Warm coat, snow pants, hats, mittens and boots are needed EVERY DAY! Upcoming Events: Thursday 12/17: Sing-a-long with Papa Paul at 9:45 in room 2. Wednesday 12/23: Family breakfast. Please join us for fresh fruit and gingerbread muffins when you bring your child to school that day! 12/24 - 1/3: SCHOOL CLOSED Enjoy the holiday break! Here's What's Happening In Susan and Kathleen's Room We enjoyed our unit on Gingerbread very much. We had a little friend named Gingerbread Fred who got to go home with every child and visit with their family. Fred had so much fun! He collected lots of nice gifts and had lots of nice pictures taken of him and drawn of him too! Each time he went home with someone, his adventures were written on a piece of special paper and returned to school. All these pages were collected and put together in a book called The Adventures of Gingerbread Fred. We read SO many gingerbread books! They were from all over the world. We found all the places on our map. There were gingerbread boys and gingerbread girls. There were gingerbread babies and gingerbread cowboys. There was even a Musubi Man from Hawaii! It was fun to hear the same story told in so many different ways. We did a lot of baking projects as well as creative projects. We were able to build and decorate our own gingerbread houses. We also made paper gingerbread people using our own faces. We baked gingerbread cake and gingerbread cookies. We did lots of gingerbread patterning and Goody Goody Gumdrop Patterning too. We measured ourselves with gingerbread kids to see how tall we were and then we graphed it. Our Dramatic Play area became The Gingerbread CafÈ. The ìwait staffî wore aprons and hats and took orders on real order pads. The ìdinersî read menus and ordered their meals from them. We explored evaporation. We did lots of experiments. We learned what happens when salt water and sugar water evaporate. We also put some grapes out to test what would happen to them. (They turned into raisins!) We also learned about why gingerbread people are afraid of water in all the books. They dissolve in water! Our letters for our Big Letter Gallery this month were G decorated with glittering gumdrops, N decorated with numbers and I decorated with icing. Our letter gallery is sure growing! Carolineís Papa, Papa Paul, brought in his guitar and sang songs with us. We had pajama day and sipped real hot chocolate. We listened to the book The Polar Express while we sat on our chairs set up like a train.    Upcoming Events Thursday 12/17: Papa Paul (Caroline's Papa) leads us in a sing-a-long Wednesday 12/23: Pajama Day Wednesday 12/23-1/3/10: School Closed for Vacation NOVEMBER NEWS CCP #1 November News: We have had a wonderful time with a new theme this month - ROCKS!   The Nature Museum at Grafton came for a visit and taught the children the names of different types of rocks and all about the rock cycle. As well as letting them explore many different rock samples. We learned that grains of sand are very tiny rocks. We wrote our names in sand, explored it in our sensory tables, and used colorful sand to make pretty jars of layered sand. We had a great time exploring rocks all around the classroom. We hammered and sanded and drilled rocks at the tools table. We washed rocks and then denim (think stone washed jeans) at the water table. We made rock necklaces. We weighed different types of rocks and looked at them under magnifiers at the science center. We also matched sounds by shaking containers filled with different size stones to find the ones that sounded the same. We read lots of books featuring rocks. We painted and stamped with rocks in the art center. We learned that chalk is a type of rock (limestone) and did some creative projects with it both inside and out. We started our own "rock band", using rocks as musical instruments! Our nutrition lessons were loads of fun too! We had to "stone grind" graham crackers for one recipe, we made a delicious pot of stone soup, and made tasty "rock biscuits".  In December our theme will be Gingerbread! CCP #2 November News: Our theme for November was Bears. We learned so much about all kinds of bears. We learned that bears do not hibernate in the winter. They are actually just light sleepers. We also learned that most bears are omnivores; they eat both meat and plants. However, polar bears are the mammals that are the largest carnivores in the world! We made textured North American Bears and textured Polar Bears as well. We did patterning with bear foot prints and sequencing with Panda Bear faces. Our Dramatic Play area became a Teddy Bear Doctor's Office. The kids dressed as doctors and used all sorts of medical equipment and first aid supplies to make the sick and injured teddies feel better. The receptionist desk at the doctorís office was equipped with a phone, laptop computer and an appointment book. Some kids even became the patients and were made to feel much better as they sat in the doctor's chair. We had fun with bear snacks. The kids got to "Sniff a Snack" and guess what bear snack they smelled in a covered cup. We charted what everyone smelled and then guessed. We had some interesting guesses! We made "Beary Shakes" and Sleepy Bear Snacks too. They were all delicious. We experimented with blubber (Crisco) and cold water and discovered how warm Polar Bears are kept by that layer of fat. We built a lair and put our stuffed classroom black bear in it for light sleeping until Spring. We had a visit from the Grafton Nature Museum. They talked to us about Animals in Winter. We read lots of books about bears. We concentrated on books by Eric Carle for our author study. He has written many fun books about bears. We even made our own Eric Carle style class book! The letters we explored and added to our Big Letter Gallery were X, H and T. We filled our heart jar AGAIN! We had a teacher surprise of a Teddy Bear Breakfast. The children brought their teddy bears from home and shared a breakfast with them! Our theme for next month will be Gingerbread.                                              OCTOBER NEWS CCP #1 October 09 newsletter submission Pumpkins, pumpkins and more pumpkins! We hammered nails into them at woodworking. We measured, weighed and sketched them at the math table. We opened them up and explored inside them at the sensory tables. We read about them in the book nook. We listened to The Vanishing Pumpkin at the listening center. Each child took a pumpkin home this week as well! Our new Circle Cycle was a highlight this week too! We talked about letter P and made both large and small Ps with polka dots! We also played "Pass the Pumpkin". It's a fun game where we pass a large pumpkin filled with items whose names start with the letter P. Each child pulls out an item and tells us what it is when the song ends and they are holding the pumpkin. We play and sing until everyone has had a turn. Ask your child what his or her favorite activity was this week! We voted and the children chose to learn about Rocks next month. This month in our class the children have been learning all about things that happen in the fall. In honor of Fire Safety week, we had a visit from local firemen Ben and Chris. They taught us some fire safety rules, let us sit in their vehicles, and showed us that even though fire fighters may look and sound a little scary; underneath it all they are just regular guys who help us. We also spent time learning about apples and worms. Our working worm habitat is fascinating place to explore and get dirty! We learned a new poem about a worm hiding in an apple and made a "wiggly" art project to go with it! (We discovered that a star hides inside every apple too! Ask your child to show you.) We spent time in October searching our hiking trails for brightly colored leaves and other signs of autumn. We examined these signs of the season in our sensory table, and did some neat paintings with them too. We did crayon rubbings with the leaves. We learned a poem in which leaves were compared to cornflakes. Afterward the children made trees using the cereal! Our last week was devoted to pumpkins and the letter P. We read many books about them. We pounded pumpkins at our woodworking table, sang "Pass the Pumpkin" many times to practice words that start with P, scooped pulp and seeds at the science center, made delicious pumpkin muffins, and did lots of math where we estimated, weighed, measured and compared our pumpkins. It was a great month of fun and learning!  In November the children will choose between 'Rocks' and 'Pets' for our theme of the month. Judy and Tracy September Perfect Attendance: Kiela B Miles C Emily C Rory C Sydney H Marlayna K Carissa T Carter W CCP#2 October Newsletter: This was our last week for Fall Fun. We went for a hike and made observations of all the changes that had happened outside in just a few weeks. We were amazed at all the transformations that had happened!   We did some cornstalk painting and made our letter C for the big letter gallery by rolling corn cobs dipped in paint on it. We also explored our acorns in the sensory table. We looked at them with magnifying glasses and cracked them open with nut crackers. When we were done with our investigation of the acorns we put them back out into nature. A mystery box was introduced into our classroom. The children asked questions to find out more about what might be hidden in there. We discovered it was flowers! They were mums and we later dipped the blossoms in paint and made patterns with big and small mums. The children also had a chance to use props to act out "The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything." They had so much fun with that activity! Our September unit about Butterflies closed with some big excitement in CCP2! Our Monarch Butterfly emerged from its chrysalis right before our very eyes! It was so exciting to watch! The next day, after it dried its wings, we let it go outside so that it could start its journey to Mexico. We saw what a long trip it was from VT to Mexico on our map. We were hoping it would arrive safely. Luckily, Rosita, a little girl from Mexico, wrote us a letter to let us know that our butterfly did arrive safely. We were so happy to hear that! Our October unit was Fall Fun. We spent a lot of time outside. We took hikes to document, with pictures and words, all the changes the new season brings. We talked about apples and learned all the parts of an apple. We tasted and graphed our favorite kind. We made a delicious apple crisp as well as yummy apple sauce. We also did many activities with pumpkins. We did LOTS of measuring in October. We used many types of measuring tools including rulers, yardsticks, and thermometers as we measured all sorts of things to do with Fall. Our Dramatic Play area became a bake shop where kids experimented with measuring cups and measuring spoons. The seed table included measuring tools to experiment with as well. We started measuring and graphing the temperature as well as the weather in our morning circle. Our visitors this month included Firefighter Chris and Firefighter Ben. They brought a fire engine and an ambulance and talked to us about fire safety. Buckle Bear also came and taught us all about safety in the car and on the sidewalk. The tooth tutor, Michelle Pinders, also came for a visit. Susan and Kathleen September Perfect Attendance: Delaney B Jazmine C Addison T Conner M A few of the students during the firemen visit. September News From Miss Susan and Miss Kathleen: Here's What's Happening! We had another fun week in CCP2! We are learning so much! This week we did some patterning with green and red grapes as we made Caterpillar Kabobs. They were yummy! We also used our fine motor skills to color and paint coffee filter butterflies. They came out so beautiful and they are hanging in our classroom. If you get a chance to come in and see them, please do. Also hanging, from our ceiling, are our butterflies we made by melting crayons between waxed paper. We read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and then made our own class book. Our Very Hungry Caterpillar ate some interesting food! We learned about the letter B this week also. We know lots of words that start with B. We got to decorate a letter B with butterflies and B stamps. We hung it in our classroom as we started our great big letter alphabet. Look for our alphabet to grow as the year goes by. We are very excited that we filled our heart jar! We will be having our Pajama Popsicle Party next week! Reminder: We have gotten some great family photos from many families! If you havenít sent one in yet, please do. We will return them to you at the end of the school year. Come Join Us! We will be hosting a Welcome Breakfast on September 24th. It will be from 8:00-8:45. We encourage all families for come join us for light breakfast on that morning. Please let Miss Susan or Miss Kathleen know if you plan to attend. Hope to see you there! Upcoming Events Wednesday 9/23: Sharon from the Chester Library to visit Thursday 9/24: Welcome Breakfast Wednesday 9/30: Chester schools are closed but preschool is OPEN! Thursday 10/1: New Unit of Fall Fun Starts! Tuesday 10/6: Preschool is closed for ESI screenings ************************************************ From Miss Judy and Miss Tracy: Welcome to Preschool! What a wonderful first week we have had here in our classroom. The children have already started to master the routines of our day. It is nice to have our returning students be such capable roll models for our new friends! This month we will be learning all about butterflies. We have a caterpillar in our classroom. We looked at it Tuesday, and it was still a caterpillar. When we looked at it on Thursday, it had already made its chrysalis! We made a prediction on the calendar when we think it will emerge from its cocoon as a beautiful monarch butterfly. We had a chance to hunt for some more caterpillars on a nature walk that we took. Although we didnít find any, we discovered lots of milkweed. That is the only plant the monarch caterpillar eats. We had a chance to make self portraits this week. We also practiced sequencing by making a butterfly life cycle. A yummy activity was making butterfly nectar and tasting it too! Family Photo Please send in a family photo with your child this week. We will be displaying them in our classroom. The photos will be returned to you at the end of the school year. Thanks for your help! Come Join Us! We will be hosting a welcome breakfast on September 24th. It will be from 8:00-8:45. We encourage all families for come join us for light breakfast on that morning. Please let Miss Susan or Miss Kathleen know if you plan to attend. Hope to see you there! Upcoming Events Thursday 9/17: Book Orders Due Wednesday 9/23: Sharon from the Chester Library to visit Thursday 9/24: Welcome Breakfast Wednesday 9/30: Chester schools are closed but preschool is OPEN! Tuesday 10/6: Preschool is closed for ESI screenings