Pre-Primary Room 3

April News

As we dive into April we look forward to learning about Islands and Volcanoes and bringing in fun experiments in the classroom for our children! We will introduce Australia to our students and speak about New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands! In April we will read the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr., a personal favorite!

March Recap

March was one of our favorite months in the pre-primary classroom! We started the month with learning about germs and practiced handwashing through our practical life activity. Our children enjoyed learning about prehistoric animals. We introduced fossils of dinosaurs and what they mean through our circle time discussions. Children then continued to familiarize themselves with them through matching picture cards that were available on our language shelf! Our students also had the opportunity to match the dinosaurs to their fossils in our science area. All throughout March we focused on Dr. Seuss books and enjoyed circle time discussion of Dr. Seuss. We celebrated him on the second week of March with our Spirit Week, thank you all for participating!

Apart from prehistoric animals our students also learned about the continent Africa. Children had an opportunity to practice their paper ripping skills through necklaces that resembled the African necklaces! Our students also created images with tissue paper that resemble the continent Africa. Informational picture cards about Africa and their traditions were available for our students to look at in our Geography area. We also celebrated St. Patrick’s Day by creating shamrocks and rainbows! The final letters of the alphabet w, x, y, and z were reviewed this month. Our children had the opportunity to review the letter with items such as a watermelon, a yo-yo, an x-ray image, and a zebra!

So far, our children have been very busy in the preprimary classroom from mastering practical life activities to learning about our different continents!

February Recap

This month we learned about Cultural Awareness and Friendship. We had circle time discussions about what friendship means to us, we also talked about how important it is to treat our friends in a respectful manner. In the Practical Life area children practiced using tongs, spooning work (with several different sized spoons) to work on our fine motor skills as well as hand-eye coordination. Children also had the opportunity to demonstrate to their friends how we carry a rug in our classroom during circle time! This month our book was “Little Blue & Little Yellow” which was presented during a circle and made available for our kiddos to read in our language area.

In February our preprimary class learned the letters “s, t, u, and v” through items like a tooth, a unicorn, and a violin along with tracing the Sandpaper Letters. We also learned about the Terracotta army and ancient China and the Children enjoyed painting their very out Terra cotta soldiers! The Great Wall of China was introduced to our students, and they were fascinated by it! We had a fun Valentine’s Day party, our friends enjoyed sharing all our goodies to their friends and enjoyed the fun activities as well as eating all together!

January Recap

This month we learned about the places where it gets very cold and talked about Arctic animals such as: snowy owls, an arctic fox, a polar bear, a muskox, a walrus and seals. Children enjoyed creating art such as: polar bears out of tissue paper, coloring the animals from The Mitten and placing them inside a mitten just like the story! This month we explored letters such as o, p, q, and r through items such as orange slices, and pies to identify the letters.

The month of January was a busy but great month back! Aside from talking about animals that live in cold environments, children had the opportunity to learn how an environment gets snow. The class enjoyed making their very own snow for our classroom with ingredients such as baking soda and conditioner. Children had fun keeping snow with Arctic animals in our classroom for them to use. In our classroom we also spoke about hibernation and the animals that hibernate during the winter. Children also got to create their very own igloos out of cotton balls!

December Recap

I want to begin by extending a heartfelt thank you to everyone for joining us for our wonderful Holiday Concert. It was truly a magical experience, and I greatly appreciate all the time and effort you put into practicing the songs with your children. Your support made this event so special!

Welcome Ms. Crystal! Please join me in giving a warm welcome to our newest teacher, Ms. Crystal! She and I will now be co-leading the classroom. Ms. Crystal is incredibly kind, and she brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in Montessori teaching. Please don’t hesitate to introduce yourselves, ask questions, and help her feel at home in our community.

December highlights this month; we focused on perfecting our Circle Routine during morning gatherings. This routine helps children understand classroom rules, establish daily and weekly schedules, and prepare for upcoming activities.

We also explored the spirit of the season by learning about different holidays, including Hanukkah and Christmas. The children enjoyed hands-on experiences through holiday-themed activities on the work shelves, giving them a glimpse into these wonderful traditions.

Throughout December, the children worked on a variety of skills, including Nuts and bolts work to enhance fine motor control, stringing beads to build hand-eye coordination, and practicing the letter “N” to strengthen literacy skills.

We also read the classic story The Giving Tree, which sparked meaningful discussions about kindness and giving. To celebrate the season, the children crafted beautiful holiday art, including ornaments, menorahs, and nutcrackers.

November Recap

November was such an incredible month! Thank you all for attending the parent-teacher conferences. It was wonderful getting to speak with each of you and learning more about your children and families. I truly value the time we spent connecting. This month, we’ve been focusing on Virtues and Values, discussing topics such as friendship, kindness, and helpfulness, all leading up to our Thanksgiving celebration. In art, the children have been busy creating beautiful leaf prints by dipping leaves in paint and pressing them onto paper—it’s been a favorite activity! We’ve also been reviewing the names of vegetables, making vegetable booklets that are displayed on our classroom door. Our letters this month were I, J, and K, and we also explored the United States of America. The children have created wonderful booklets featuring state animals, plants, and flags, which are proudly displayed on our themed shelf in the classroom. We also had a fun activity where the children shared a Thanksgiving photo.

October Recap

October has ended, but Pre-Primary had a very fun month! This October, our main theme was the Solar System & Space. We discussed there are eight planets in our solar system, and we even created all eight using handprints and paint. We also dedicated time to Fire Safety Week. The class discussed the importance of dialing 911 in emergencies and talked about different types of emergencies. We practiced our safety procedures, experienced the sound of the fire alarm, and talked about what to do if we ever face a fire emergency. To top it off, the children had a great time making firefighter hats. We’ve had some fantastic Show & Share moments this month, and the kids loved participating. We also made a cozy fall sensory bin and celebrated the Scholastic Book Fair by sharing our favorite books. Thank you to everyone who purchased books for our classroom – your support means so much. As October wrapped up, we dived into the life cycle of a pumpkin and decorated pumpkins in class. For our last show and share, students brought photos of themselves from Halloween.

September Recap

Pre-primary had such a fun September! Everyone did so well for the first month of school. We covered many topics, worked on different activities and had fun art projects. Some highlights for September were we introduced the Continent song, and now we are slowly moving into associating the different colors with the names of the continents. We also had show and share days. My favorite show and share were the letter “b”, everyone brought in many unique and fun items that day.

Our book of the month was a very sweet book called the kissing hand. Lastly, we learned about diversity and friendship which we made such an awesome wreath using everyone’s handprints and different skin color. Thank you again to everyone who came to Back To School Night a few weeks ago. I loved that everyone had such great questions and suggestions to better our classroom. Don’t forget to bring a light jacket labeled with your child’s name on it please. September 30th-October 13th is our virtual book fair. Our goal is to raise $1000 as a school so our next bookfair can be on campus! Please help us reach our goal by purchasing books for our child. We will also have a Wishlist for our class if you would like to donate any books.

Summer 2024 Recap

Salutations Families!

Summer has officially come to an end. Our summer has been filled with such fun adventures, activities and new friends. The first week of summer we started with a bang with our Party in the USA theme. We created the American flag by using concept art using markers. We used forks and blue, white, and red paint to create some amazing fireworks! The following week we decided to chill by the ocean. We learned about sea animals, we played some fun games of “go fish” with ocean animals on the card, and then we painted some amazing jellyfish, sharks, and clownfish. Afterwards we collected a bunch of items around the classroom and outside, just like collecting seashells from the ocean. We used these items to create sensory bottles. We also practiced recycling by making our sensory bottles from plastic bottles donated by Ms. Stephanie. Thank you, Ms. Stephanie! As we held our sensory bottles, we noticed they looked a bit like rocket ships. Inside the sensory bottles the paint would swirl around like our galaxy. So, we tried to zoom to space. But then we realized that we had no rocket ships, so we had to make our own from different shapes, such as rectangles, squares, and triangles. After building our rocket ships and exploring space. We had to return to earth that Friday. We had a scientist, Professor Egghead, come and speak about dry ice. Doctor Egghead did an experiment with dry ice, and she sent balloons flying across our classroom. We decided to do a few experiments of our own by creating some volcanos on our playground using vinegar, baking soda, and some paint.

In August we learned about animals and pretended to be all sorts of farm animals. We also learned that pigs love rolling around in mud and dust to clean their bodies. We made some amazing pigs that we then threw dust on. The following week we decided we wanted to learn about camping. So, we collected a few items from the classroom and made some tents and camped inside our classroom. We made a pretend fire pit, and used the tables, cushions and rugs to make our tents.

To prepare for our academic school year we have started reviewing our routines for the classroom. So, every circle time we practice rolling our rugs, taking out work, putting things away, and pushing in our chairs. Like all amazing things, our summer has come to an end. The second to last week of summer we had a foam party, and every day was a different, fun theme. During spirit week we got to celebrate our culture by coming dressed in your traditional garments or have a fun art to do with the class!