October 22nd, 2017

Our Week in PreK:
This week we continued our small group explorations of animal homes and doors / locks.  The students enjoyed looking into the concepts of nests and animal homes as well as exploring which ideas related to doors were most interesting.  We learned about the letter E and constructed some two-dimensional shapes ourselves.

The animal homes group learned about different types of animal homes through acting out where animals live with Ms. Dolly, our ES Drama teacher.  They also had the opportunity to create nests using mixed media, which was a challenge for them.  Some students opted to use pipe cleaners while others wrapped and tied string to create their nests.  This open-ended activity allowed for problem-solving rather than following a scripted set of directions to make a birds' nest; everyone's finished product was beautiful and unique!

This week we practiced our new "superpower," writing, in many ways.  The children are learning that their powers get stronger when they practice, so we used play dough, blocks, magnets, crayons, and pencils to practice the letter E.  We try to remember that "E has 3" little lines!

The children were very excited to begin thinking about Halloween towards the end of the week and wanted to begin creating their own decorations.  They took some mirrors and used their own reflections as a guide to create spooky faces including vampire faces (with sharp teeth) and monster faces (with scratches).  It's only natural that the PreK students will be excited for the Halloween celebration next week!

After learning about the characteristics of shapes last week, the students had a challenge to create their own shapes this week.  They had to remember how many corners and sides each shape had: a triangle, then a rectangle.  They had a lot of fun and demonstrated their learning using the language of sculpture!

We worked on exploding dots during small group time and enjoyed spending some time with our new friend Ms. Selena.  Here is a video clip of a student practicing with his "exploding dots" machine at our end of the day meeting on Tuesday on the document camera.

It was quite fun to watch the students move from concrete representations of the concept (using counters) to abstract (using drawings) to even more representational (using "code" of 0 - 1) over the course of the week.  Of course, for the students, the most important thing was to have fun with the machines and whiteboards!  

Here are some more photos from our week together:

Exploring light and shape.

Board games are extremely popular and allow students to collaborate, take turns, and use sophisticated social language.

Pretend play has been a popular exploration time choice this week.  "Sleepover" game!

Our classroom job of "photographer" gives us a student perspective of the day.  Everything looks good from here!

Next Week:
In our upcoming week we will continue our small group investigations into animal homes and doors.  The students will discuss three-dimensional shapes and their properties.  Our letter focus for the week is the letter D and we will explore it with a variety of multi-sensory activities.

Reminders:
Please be sure to pack your child's library books and cloth bag each Sunday for library class.  Thank you!

Upcoming Events:
Halloween!
All students come dressed to school as long as their costume will not interfere with their learning. Students in PreK put their finishing touches before the photo booth class photo & other classes after 10:30 AM depending on their photo booth time.  Room parents will arrange for a couple of parents to help with this and support the Halloween booth photo during the grade/class times if asked.

Costume Guidelines
In order for CAC to have a safe and fun Halloween everyone should check is my costume safe? We appreciate the variety of costumes and/or original designs.

• Remember come to school wearing your costume. Put make up, hairspray, etc… on at home.
• Prop headwear (hats, caps, masks, etc.) may be worn, but not during class time
• PreK teachers and room parent will assist students in getting their "finishing touches" on before the class photo, and you are welcome to join us at 2:00 in the classroom to help the students get their costumes finalized again before the Halloween Parade.  
• Leave valuable items at home
• No dangerous props ( knives, swords, toy guns, etc.) or high heeled shoes
• Headphones are okay
• Practice our core values 
• Respect - commenting positively on other’s costumes
• Responsibility - for wearing costumes according to our guidelines
• Creativity - for creating and planning your costume
• Courage - for participating in our celebration

Circle Solutions: 
This week we will be focusing on the monthly core value of responsibility.  What does responsibility look like in PreK?  What does it sound like?  How can we be responsible in our classroom and at home?

Parents' Corner:

Thank you, parents, for attending our first parent community meeting on Thursday.  It was great to discuss the curriculum with you and hear your feedback about what you have seen at home, as well.  So far the feedback on the meeting has been very positive and we have some great suggestions for topics to discuss at our next meeting.  Looking forward to next time, on Monday, November 20th at 5:00pm.

Our article this week is a discussion of praise vs. encouragement.  Rudolf Dreikurs taught, “a child needs encouragement like a plant needs water.” Praise has been proven to be detrimental to risk-taking and a growth mindset, while children who are encouraged choose more challenging tasks in the future.  The difference is subtle, but important.  When offering feedback to a child, think:

• Am I inspiring self-evaluation or dependence on the evaluation of others?
• Am I being respectful or patronizing?

• Am I seeing the child’s point of view or only my own?

• Would I make this comment to a friend?