Sunday, August 27, 2017

August 27th, 2017


Our week in PreK

We had a great first full week in the PreK classroom.  The children have been learning about the routines of school including how to use different centers safely.  One particular favorite was learning about how to interact with Bubbles, our class pet (a red-eared slider turtle!).

Acting out "The Three Little Pigs" in the dress up area.






We also began talking about math concepts of matching, exactly the same, and 'the same but a little different' in small group time.  The children are fantastic sorters and have been wonderful at working together and using their words to talk about these concepts.

Demonstrating matching awareness during choice time.

Sorting during choice time.

Most importantly, the PreK students have been developing new relationships, continuing to feel safe and confident in the classroom, and having fun!

Constructing trains tracks in the block area.

Reading together.

Working with our volunteer helper, Ms. Julia, in the block area.

Writing "save signs" to keep our work safe until next time.

Mixing colors during choice time.

Happy birthday!

Next week we are looking forward to our first group work with specialists (our art teachers, Ms. Lamis Badr and Ms. Margaret Fisher will visit the classroom to work with small groups).  We will begin exploring the questions, "what is special about me?" and "what can I do?"  

Reminders

With our three-day week, we will not have a scheduled library visit this week.  We do have a make-up day on Wednesday, September 6th.  Please send your child's library bag and books to school on Wednesday, September 6th. If you wish to check out library books with your child before then, please be sure to visit the library.

On Thursday, your child took home a CAC Banner to decorate with a self-portrait, as Ms. Jackson-Jin described at our Back to School Night.  Please be sure to return to school by Tuesday, September 5th.  Click here for more information!  CAC Banners

Upcoming Events

Thank you to parents for taking time to come and discuss your child's background on Parent Day, Sunday August 27th!  It's a pleasure seeing you, as always!

We will have no school on Thursday, August 31st through Monday, September 4th in celebration of the Eid Holiday.  We look forward to seeing you again on Tuesday, September 5th!

This week, we have a house event on Tuesday.  The PreK students will not participate in our first house event, but will begin attending assembly on September 12th and attend all ES assemblies and House Events afterwards.

What is a house event?  Each child in the elementary school is a part of a color team!  Your child may be on the red, yellow, blue, or green team.  Throughout the year, the teams will have different competitions which may be based on spirit, creativity, perseverance, or courage.  For example, we may have a cheering competition, or a tug-of-war.  At the end of the year, the team with the most points wins the house cup!

Our PreK students will be matched with a "buddy" in an older class so that they have a student who will accompany them in these events.  We will be sure that our buddy class has a chance to spend time with us in the classroom reading together before the first house event so the children know each other.

Please click on this link to find out which house team your child will be on this year.  You will be receiving a house team shirt in this color soon, and you may also wish to send your child to school dressed in his or her house colors on house event days before then!  House Team Link

After-Care

Last week in after-care, the children explored the color yellow!


Making yellow play dough.



Yellow fruits taste-testing: bananas and lemons!

This week the children will investigate the color red using art activities, a fruit project (please let us know if you object to your child eating apples or watermelon during after-care), and making play dough.  

Parents' Corner

In our classroom, we take a positive approach to behavior management.  When a child makes a negative choice such as breaking a block tower or even hitting, we have to take action- but it is also an opportunity to learn.  We have found that tactics such as time-outs are not beneficial as young children need the chance to problem-solve and reflect with guidance, or scaffolding, from an adult.  Click here to read more about nine alternatives to time-outs and groundings.

Sunday, August 20, 2017

August 20th, 2017

Welcome to the week in PreK!

The children are eager to come to school each morning as we explore new friendships and learn about the classroom together.

In our PreK program, we focus on units and within these units, we will have the opportunity to study questions deeply in groups.  Our first unit of study is called "Myself, My School, and Relationships." We are beginning to learn about our classroom and how to use materials responsibly.  In the upcoming week, we will continue to learn more as a group about the routines and expectations of our classroom space.  We are also excited to get to know each other as a PreK community!  The children have begun developing new relationships and we will continue to play games and sing songs to help learn each others' names and get to know one another.

We will also begin our first unit in the PreK Eureka Math curriculum which is all about conceptual understanding of counting to five, matching objects, sorting, and then counting to ten. The children will learn these skills through games, playing with different toys and manipulatives, and songs.

On Sunday, we are looking forward to our first specialist visits: Mrs. Fitzgerald, our librarian, will visit with a traveling library of age-appropriate books, and Ms. Ghada, our Arabic and Egypt Culture class teacher, will visit to begin introducing the students to the Arabic language.  The teachers will visit the classroom in order to maximize time with the students and minimize transitions and traveling time for our youngest CAC learners.  Later, we will begin to invite our other specialist teachers, including those from P.E., music, drama, and visual arts, to join our classroom and support our unit of study in small group learning sessions.

Here are some photos from last week at school:

Exploring shells in the discovery center.

 Dot marker art at the writing table. 

Day two showed continued interest in building tall towers in the block area.

Some interest in spelling with our magnetic letters!

A classroom volunteer helper, Ms. Julia, enjoys playdough with some friends.

The dramatic play center offers a chance to try on new outfits and play with many soft toys and dolls.

Some students discovered "sticker scenes" and narrated stories using the reusable stickers.

Today we read a PreK classic, "Little Blue and Little Yellow," by Leo Lionni.

Inspired by the book, some children went to the art center to mix up some paint!

Who mixed blue and yellow together?

Several children collaborated to create a garage for all of the cars during a "snowstorm."

The children are already developing positive relationships based on shared interests and fun!


Reminders:

Every Sunday, please be sure to pack a cloth library bag to transport your child's library books home safely in.  Please label your library bag clearly with your child's name.  Thank you!

From the ES Library:

Hello, preK families! Greetings from the ES library. We had our first library session this morning and we had a lot of fun reading the book Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons. You can find an animated story version here, and lots of more Pete the Cat stories on Pete TV

Please be sure to read the print letter I sent with your child today. It describes the use of the ES library bags. All ES children must have one. Your child needs to bring his/her library bag on Sundays to transport books from home and back again. This will help build responsibility skills. 

Do also make time to read the book your child chose today before you return it next Sunday. Doing so tells them that their choices in reading are important. Enjoy your book together. Look at the pictures and talk about them before reading. Preschool children rely on the pictures to understand the story, so that is time well spent. For more tips on reading to babies and preschoolers, visit Reach Out and Read.org

Yours in reading, 
Josianne Fitzgerald

Thank you to families for packing healthy morning snacks for your children!  We have had all children eating nutritious morning snacks, and all children hungry and eating all of their lunches at lunch time!  Please be sure to pack a separate, labeled morning snack for your child and drop it off in the fruit basket by the door.  If you pack it in a baggie, it will be easier to fit and we will rinse and return the baggie to you at the end of the day.  Thank you!

Sunday is the first day of our full day schedule with core program dismissal at 1:00 and after-care available.  If you have signed your child up for after-care, please be sure to pack a second snack for after-care.

Please be sure that you have informed the teachers about your child's dismissal plans: bus, front gate pick-up, or classroom pick-up. If your child will be picked up at the front gate (or classroom) by anyone other than a parent or primary guardian, you MUST provide a photocopy of this person's photo identification in advance so that we can safely identify the individual we will be dismissing your child to.  We will not be able to release any child into the custody of an adult who has not been previously identified by a parent as authorized to pick up their child.  This does include grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other family members. Thank you for your understanding of the safety procedures here at CAC that ensure all children are safe.

Upcoming Events:

Back to School Night on August 22nd, from 5:15-7:00pm.  Please be sure that you take some time in advance to review the slideshow we have created, which includes curriculum information and examples as well as important information about the school. Click here to access the PreK BTSN Slideshow.  We're looking forward to engaging in some fun activities together and hope to see you there.  This event is for parents only; there is no childcare available.

Parent Day is coming up next Sunday, August 27nd.  This first parent-teacher conference is an opportunity for you as parents to share with us any information that will help us understand your child as a learner.  We look forward to a great day that will help support all PreK students in having a successful year!


Please be sure to check the PreK calendar to the left of each blog post to stay up to date with any important upcoming events.  This calendar is updated regularly.

As always, please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions you may have.  My email address is tclifford@cacegypt.org.  See you at school!

After-Care:

Our optional after-care program begins on Sunday. The schedule will be the same for the children each day:

1:00-1:15 Story
1:15-1:30
Quiet Time
1:30-1:40
Clean Up
1:40-1:55
Snack
1:55-2:25
Activity
2:25-2:55
Recess
2:55-3:05
End-of-Day Circle
3:05 Dismissal

This week in after-care, the teachers will be exploring the color yellow with the children during activity time.  This will include making yellow play dough, working on an art activity using yellow materials, and enjoying a yellow fruit cutting and tasting activity (please let us know if you object to your child eating bananas or tasting lemons during after-care snack on Wednesday).  

Parent's Corner:

Each week, we offer a section in our blog with some helpful tips to help make a stronger connection between school and home.  In the classroom, we focus on using a positive approach to behavior management, so that children can feel empowered to learn from mistakes.  We hope that each student feels like a responsible, competent, contributing member of our PreK community.

Has your child been demonstrating some behaviors at home that seem out of place?  Starting a new routine can be stressful!  Though the children in our classroom seem very happy to come to school each day, we are mindful that there had been a major change for each of them in the past week.  Here are some resources to learn about some ways that you can help support the back-to-school transition at home for young children.



Wednesday, August 16, 2017

August 16th, 2017

Welcome to all PreK students, we had a happy and fun-filled first day of school!  Today was an exciting day for everyone as we explored the classroom, began new friendships, and most of all- played!

The children enjoyed working in all areas of the classroom including blocks and building, dress up and pretend play, art and writing center, games and puzzles, and discovery center, and our classroom libraries.  We read two stories today: The Feel Good Book by Todd Parr and Rex Wrecks It by Ben Clanton.  We also had lunch and open snack today.

Here are some photos from our first day at school together:















We are looking forward to another great day together tomorrow, and then we will have a restful weekend and start again on Sunday.  On Sunday, we will begin staying until 1:00 (our normal, full-day schedule) and after-care will be available for those of you who have signed up or who wish to sign up.

Please email me at tclifford@cacegypt.org or check in at drop-off or pick-up time if you have any questions.  I look forward to seeing you soon!

Tuesday, August 15, 2017

August 15th, 2017

Welcome to our classroom, and thank you to families who attended our new family and new student orientation today!  It was a pleasure to meet so many of you and to play in the classroom with so many wonderful students!  The children had a fantastic time exploring the room and getting to know some of the materials they will be able to use throughout the year.  We are all looking forward to our first day of school tomorrow!














Families, we will dismiss from school at 11:30 on Wednesday, August 16th and Thursday, August 17th.  For the first two days of school, please bring a light morning snack in a baggie for our fruit bowl (labeled with your students' name), a labeled water bottle, a healthy lunch, and a full change of clothes.



This morning, all of the PreK students were eager to come to school and play! We hope every morning is as easy-going as this one, but it is normal for some children to feel a bit of sadness when saying goodbye to parents sometimes.  Here is some helpful information about setting up a positive morning routine to say goodbye to your child, please take a moment to read it over.

Please be sure to let us know your drop-off and dismissal expectations (bus, front gate, or classroom pick-up) if you have not already done so.  Any changes in routine should be emailed in advance, or if changes come up during the school day please call the ES office (2755-5202), as all teachers are typically with children during the day and may not see emails. Thank you for helping to keep all CAC students safe!

Next week, we will begin a full day schedule with core program dismissal at 1:00 and after-care available until 3:00.  We will have library on Sunday and begin seeing our Arabic teacher, Ms. Ghada.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch with me at tclifford@cacegypt.org

We can't wait to see you all tomorrow. Remember, our doors open at 7:45 and school begins at 7:55.  See you then!

Ms. Mariam, Ms. Trillian, Ms. Salma, & Mr. Hussam 
Your PreK Team