Pre-K Corner 2008-2009

WEEKLY UPDATES

FIELD TRIP PHOTOS

HELLO and WELCOME

We are certainly looking at a very EXCITING year for Pre-K. I will still be the lead teacher and my teaching day will remain Tuesday. My teachings are based on the Kindness Curriculum and include doing a weekly problem-solving circle.

More about what we intend to specifically teach in a later e-mail.

The other teachers will be Genevieve who will dedicate her teaching time to math and writing readiness. She will also take charge of the field trips.

Silver will be with us full time as of September and will do current events and map study.

Kelly's first time in Pre-K will put her focus on language development.

Veronica, who is a brand-new aide at our school will be "the floater" and apply herself wherever she is most needed at any given moment.

Dana Woodrow, Alexa's mom, has agreed to be our Science Teacher next year. I am thrilled with this addition and I know she will do an outstanding job for your children.

There is a $30.00 material fee for the Pre-k materials and please pay this to Karla Claeys in September. Also, your children will be going on field trips chaperoned by you, the parents.

It does look like a very exciting new year and I look forward to meeting with you all at a to-be specified evening in early September.
- Karla

GOALS FOR OUR PRE-K CHILDREN:

Personal/emotional development
Enjoys School
Is usually happy
Shows awareness of others' feelings
Willingly tries to solve problems
Makes decisions independently
Assumes responsibility
Seeks adult help when needed
Accepts changes when explained
Is willing to speak in front of a group
Handles situations without aggression
Dresses appropriately for weather/planned activity

Social Development
Follows school rules/follows directions
Shares with classmates
Takes turns
Is helpful to others
Participates in most activities and discussions
Respects others' property

Health and Safety
Independently washes hands
Uses tissue when needed
Is able to appropriately cough and sneeze
Is able to take care of bathroom needs (wiping is a MUST before Kindergarten)
Stranger awareness
Phone number and address awareness
911- awareness

Work and Play Habits
Is careful to do best work
Usually completes a task
Is able to ask for, work with and put away materials wanted
Willingly participates in most tasks
Is growing in creativity and imagination

Here in Pre-K we talk a lot about "PRACTICE".

Practice is what allows a child to ultimately own and produce a skill. Practice is what creates a brain connection to master a skill. Studies have shown that to make ONE brain connection or own one skill, the child needs about 2000 practices. Please remember this when you ask your child to follow certain rules.

ROUTINES help a child practice the sequence of events. They provide a level of consistency, which allows a child to experience things over and over in predictable ways. This predictability helps a child practice routine events and rules, feel safe, and be successful.

IN PRE-K WE ESTABLISH THE FOLLOWING ROUTINES:

• Find your name card and sit down cross-legged behind it
• Locate and bring your power voice to your mouth
• Greet your neighbor to the left of you
• Follow the directions your teacher gives you
• Recite your Pre-K pledge

AT HOME YOU COULD ESTABLISH YOUR OWN ROUTINES IN AT LEAST FOUR AREAS:

• Bedtime
• Mealtime
• Leaving the house
• Having alone time

OUR PLEDGE

Each day when we do our circle time or at times of conflict between the children we recite our pledge:
With your hand on your heart and your other hand keeping this hand warm "I pledge not to hurt anyone with my words, my hands, or my feet"

ABOUT OUR ANIMAL SELVES

We all know that children come from the stars, choose their parents and live for a long time until their job is finished and they return to the stars. What you may NOT know is that before your child got to be a boy or a girl they were related to their very special animal.

We will do a magical and imaginary forest walk and when we get very quiet our animal self comes to embrace us. We will identify our animal, write it in our name care and translate it into several languages.

Our next step is to take walks to our Library and research our animal self. We have also collected many books on many of the current animals.

OUR FOCUS

• Self-esteem, kindness and socialization
• Math development
• Language and letter recognition
• Science and curiosity

WHAT WE NEED FROM YOU

1. There is a $30 Pre-K fee for materials used exclusively by the Pre-K-ers
2. Please make your check out to Karla Claeys as I will be purchasing the materials and budgeting the allocation of funds
3. For all Pre-K parents to be VERY generous with donating time, effort and presence to this special program so that we may add and enhance diversity and exposure for all your children as well as the staff
4. A three-ring binder to keep and collect special art and other important contributions from your child

PRE-K WEEKLY UPDATES

Week of September 15, 2008

Britton:

Hello There!

Yesterday's first science class was lots of fun! We started out with asking all the kids what they thought science was

and explained that scientists do three main things:
1) Look (study/observe)
2) Make Guesses (hypothesis)
3) Check their guesses (experiment)

I told them I had some experiments for them to do with water. I explained how water is made up of molecules (tiny parts) that like to hold onto each other tightly and not let anything get between them. This is what happens when something floats-- the water molecules holding each other are strong enough to hold up the floating object. Then I explained that sometimes certain things can get through-- like a big kid breaking through a line of small kids holding hands tightly.

Since we had 24 children (!) we broke up into 3 groups of 8 to test water, make guesses and check it out.

Float/Sink
"Which will float and which will sink?"
"Float! Sink! Float! Sink!" Gloria Miros
"Mine [the almond] went underwater" "It sank?" "Yes, it went underwater" "It went down to the bottom?" "No, it went underwater and floated!" Austin
"The chalk sank!" Julia Ng-Heth

The first group selected from various objects (an almond, a glass jar, its metal cap, a rock, a cotton ball, a pin, string, a tube, a mollusk shell, a crayon, sheets of foil, a natural sponge, a piece of wood, a superball) and tried to guess if they would float or sink. Some of the objects floated-- the shell when faced cup-side up, the wood. Some sank after time- the sponge, the cotton ball. But there were some fun surprises: the almond started to sink, but then hovered just under the water's surface; the foil floated when flat, but sank if crumpled up; and the glass jar and its cap sank alone, but when put together they floated! AT HOME: Continue this experiment during bath time or, when you are cooking, in the kitchen sink. Let your child check out different common household objects, including some that change or can be changed to effect the outcome.

Sinking Shapes
I brought in two tall hurricane vases and filled them with water. The kids were given small pieces of clay and asked to make different shapes to see which floated or sank, or which ones sank faster than others. We found that balls sank and boat-shapes floated, and bowls filled up with water and sank, too! It was tricky to make a shape that stayed afloat, and alot of fun to make balls and toss them in with a Plop and a Splash!

Pepper and Soap
In this group the kids were given small petri dishes with water. I then asked them if they thought pepper, which I showed them, would sink or float. Most said sink. I let them sprinkle lots of pepper on their water and we found it floats, unless your mix it up, and then some of it sinks.... Once everyone had some pepper floating (preferably a fair amount covering the water's surface) we introduced dishsoap. The kids got to use eyedroppers-- they really enjoyed this!-- to squeeze a drop of soap onto their water and watch the result-- awesome! If you have never seen this one done before, I highly recommend you let your child show you at home-- it is really quite amazing. We talked about the soap being like the 'big guy' breaking through the water molecules' hold on each other.

It was a great start to what I can only hope is an exciting year of looking, guessing and checking with all of your little scientists!
Enjoy playing with these ideas at home.
Until next Wednesday!

Britton Walker

Week of September 22, 2008

Britton:

Hello Fellow Parents!

Before I go into this week's science lesson, I just want to say how
lucky I feel to be able to explore all this interesting subject matter
with your kids-- they are the best! I have been having a great them
with al of them-- and I love that they seem to be having just as much
fun, too! Thank you for sharing them with me, so to speak.

This week we continued our investigations into the amazing world of
water, and we talked about how magical it is that water gets bigger
when it gets cold instead of hunkering down and pulling in on itself
(like we do!).

I reminded the kids about the word molecule and how it is the smallest
piece of something. Then I had the kids show me what they do when they
are hot (get all slouchy and kind of 'melt' and want some space from
other warm bodies) and then what they do when they are cold (hold
their arms close to their sides, snuggle up against other people or
warmth).

I told them that water molecules do the opposite-- they hug each other
when they are warm (as we checked out last week) and they keep each
other at a distance when they are cold. To give them a visual, we
pretended they were water molecules, and hugged in tight to each
other. I taped out a circle around them in this position and then
asked them to become ice. I demonstrated that an ice molecule might
hold it arms in front of itself, still touching its friends, but
keeping some personal space. They then pretended to be ice as I taped
another circle around them.

Now here is where we ran into a small snag, as some of the kids didn't
realize they could step out o the first circle to 'expand' and I
didn't realize this would be an issue-- whoops ;-)!! but we made it
through and taped out a new circle and then stepped back to look at
the difference in size-- the ice circle was bigger! We then checked
out a bottle of water I had left in the freezer and saw how it was
cold and had pushed out the bottom so it no longer sat on the table
without falling over.

Next they each got a piece of ice in a small cup and we asked them to
describe it. There were lots of "cold! icy!" comments, and then some
more specific ones:
Tristan: It feels frozen.
Josie and Rafael: It feels like snow.
Zoe: It feels like slippery stuff. It feels like popsicles!
Sara D: It smells like tuna. (Guess I better check my fridge's water
line... ;-) -- Britton)
Kaden: It smells like ice.
Tristan M made a fabulous discovery-- the ice gets smaller when you
suck on it!

Then we started talking about what happens to ice. Like, what if we
left it outside? (Everyone was positive it would melt.) Or, what if we
put it in the freezer? (Tristan said it would grow ice on the ice in
the freezer. Everyone was pretty certain it would stay icy.) And, what
if we left it outside but in the shade? Aha!! Now we were on to
something: Sara G said she thought it would stay ice because sometimes
the shade is pretty cold, and Audrey said she thought it would turn
into water because the shade might not be cold enough. So we left a
couple ice cubes int he sun in the garden, a couple stayed in the
freezer and a few more went into the shade on the porch. And we
decided we would check them at lunch to see what had happened.

Next we checked out the ice once more, noting how it was similar in
feel to rocks, and wondering if it would float or not based on the
experimenting we did the week before. The class was split in two about
this, with many saying "Float" and many saying "Sink". I filled a
large, tall container with water and marked the water line on a piece
of masking tape... and then dumped a whole bag of ice right in... and
it floated of course! But we also noted how the waterline went way up
the side of the glass and we talked about why that was and what made
that happen. Then Silver tried to jump in to see if the water line got
any higher, but alas, he did not fit, so we got to put our hands and
arms in to see it rise just a little bit ;-).

We ended it all by checking on our ice samples-- and we found that the
freezer kept the cubes frozen and the sun melted the cubes outside as
expected. The ice in the shade proved both Audrey and Sara G right--
it did melt a little, but not nearly as much as the sun did! Hooray!

And so ended a fun adventure into the world of ice! I do have to add,
tho, that Mage, my daughter, came up with what would have been the
perfect ending if only PreK lasted another half hour-- she suggested
we go home and crush that ice into little bitty bits and pour yummy
stuff on it in pinks and purples and make a sweet treat... So if you
are so inclined to have a fun snack at home, simply blend up some ice
in your blender, scoop it into a small bowl and drizzle maple syrup or
one of those Italian soda flavorings (ie: Torani syrup, like they have
in coffee shops) or even some grape or apple juice simmered down to a
syrup-like consistency, sit down with your big pre-k'er and se what
interesting facts they can tell you about ice!

Till Next Week!
Britton

Week of October 6, 2008

Karla:

Week of October 20, 2008

Britton:

Hello Parents!

Sorry for the silence (especially when so many of you have expressed your pleasure and gratitude for these little email updates). I am trying to get back on track here, but have a few weeks to cover, so I will try to be brief (not my strong suit!).

On Wednesday October 1st we discussed the Water Cycle (after the first two classes discussing water's properties, this was a nice tie-in to the environment and weather and seasonal changes). We discussed how water evaporates with the warmth of the sun-- how those molecules get warm and start moving around really fast. We boiled some water and looked the steam rising from the hot water. We also noticed how, when we covered the container, the inside of the cover became wet and covered with water drops that eventually ran down into the container again. I explained the water cycle's step of condensation-- how the warmed molecules float up in the sky as gas (steam or vapor) and cool in the upper atmosphere and form clouds. When enough water molecules cool down in these clouds (or the water on the inside of the cover), they start to 'hold hands again' as we have been talking about in our other water experiments, and get too heavy to stay up in the air, causing precipitation-- rain, snow, sleet, hail, etc. The water that falls is then collected in rivers, lakes, oceans and underground reservoirs to become part of the cycle once again.

To demonstrate this cycle, we made our own little universes-- each child made an enclosed terrarium to take home and observe. Hopefully most of you have yours by now and that it is still 'living'! (This seems to be one of the few 'houseplants' I haven't killed yet.) Within this terrarium your family can witness the water evaporating, condensing, precipitating and collecting over and over again! If you have any questions, if it isn't surviving/thriving, please feel free to email me and I can help you out, send you more info, etc.

On Wednesday October 8th we had our first field trip to the Nicasio Valley Farms Pumpkin Patch. I would like to say I was totally prepared with awesome science-y activities that rivaled the Bounce House, Mega-Slide and hay ride, but alas, I did not! Having just come out of the worst of a sinus cold, I was not quite up to that speed!

On Wednesday, October 15th we took a Nature Walk behind the preschool to see the leaves of some local trees and plants. We identified willows and noted how they like to live and grow right out of the creek bed; bay,and how its leaves look like willow, but they smell different and we use bay for cooking; live oak, with it's pointy 'spines' making its leaves 'ouchy'; and madrone, with it's red, 'sunburned' bark. We also heard a good warning about poison oak: Leaves of Three, let it be, and spotted quite a bit to avoid. We learned that poison oak is always able to make us itchy-- with little stick-stems in the winter, or buds in the spring, green leaves in the summer or colored leaves in the fall-- it always has the oils that make us react so we need to be careful and Stay On the Paths! We each found a leaf near the tables and set about checking it out with our magnifying glasses-- very cool! Then we made a few large-leaf rubbings to see the veins and details up close and personal-- and a bit magical, too, to see the leaf appear on the page as we drew with the crayon!

This week, October 22nd, we continued learning about leaves and the change of season. We made Leaf Books: each child picked out a leaf and studied it using the magnifying glasses and then drew what they saw in their book. On another page (or two or three pages-- they liked this part ;-)!!) they made a rubbing of the same leaf or a new one and they decorated the front cover however they liked. We also played the Tree Game-- not all of the kids got to this as we ran out of time, a hazard when we have so many and only an hour ;-(. In this game, the children had to stand on their roots (a paper plate taped to the floor) and stay firmly planted (hard for some to remember that a tree cannot dance, hop or run!). Then the Nature Fairies would come and shine sunshine and sprinkle rain (bits of colored paper, yellow and blue) so the trees could grow leaves, which were green from the chlorophyll that is made when the tree gets lots of sunlight. Once each of the kids had managed to get ahold of some water and sunlight pieces without leaving their roots, they earned two green leaves. We then discussed how the seasons were changing and how Fall, or Autumn, has less sun than in the summer. Again the Nature Fairies came around and this time they only sprinkled rain, since it was Fall, and then the green leaves started to lose their chlorophyll and were 'changed' into red, yellow or orange leaves. To end the game, we had the kids hold their leaves out overhead as I talked about how cold it was getting now that winter was coming on, and how it made them sleepy and want to rest until the sun came out again. As they 'drifted' off to sleep for the winter, they let go of their leaves and they fluttered down to the ground-- very sweet representation of Fall!

I hope the kids are still enjoying all of this-- and I hope it is sparking lots of fun conversations and explorations at home as well! Feel free to explore the leaves by your home and see what you have out there, do some leaf rubbings of the leaves in your yard-- just avoid the Poison Oak leaves, please!

Britton
For a list of local trees and pictures to identify them by their leaves, go to www.wildcarebayarea.org and check out their Junior Botanist tutorial, specifically the Tree Study section, clicking on the specific trees for pictures and rhymes:
http://www.wildcarebayarea.org/downloads/botanists/treekit/TreeStudyKit.html

Week of October 27, 2008

Genevieve:

In Math Readiness durring the month of October we introduced measurement, counting, sorting, and shape recognition. We used everything from rulers, our fingers and counting seeds to our bodies, feet and hands to measure out a map and laundry on a clothes line to count in sequence. We are all enjoying ourselves and looking forward to November. In the month ahead we will introduce cutting out shapes and working with scissors to dress our paper doll selves, ryhming and shape bags. These activities will focus on fine motor, coordination, thinking, counting, sorting and catagorization. We will use our hands our bodies, concrete objects and most of all our brains to work with math readiness this month.

In Early Literacy for October we practiced writing our names, recognizing letters, working with story cards, singing songs and took a walk to the library to check out our first book. We end each group with a story and discussion and are really enjoying this portion of pre-k. For the month ahead we will be discussing books and all the componenets that make them up; words, illistration, ideas and the story. We will picture read from our library books and illistrate our interpretation of the book. We will continue to practice writing our names durring each class, talk about Thanksgiving traditions and write our own Thanksgivings story. We will end each class reading one of our books checked out from the library and continue discussing what makes up a book and what we liked best about each story.

I'm having a great time with your pre-kers and look forward to the month ahead.
Have a great week,
Genevieve

Britton:

Hello Fellow Pre-K Parents!

Here is an update on the past two science classes, both big hits with the kids and teachers alike!

10/29- MarinTreks: Reptiles, Bugs and Snakes with Mr C.

Mr C came in today to talk to us about some critters he has-- and we even got to touch and hold some of them! We saw baby walking sticks (actually we had to 'find' them in their small crate 'cause they look just like plants-- great camouflage!)! At first we saw one or two, but when we looked more closely, we saw a bunch in there. When we held them, they were very delicate, a bit tickly and some of us felt they were hard to feel at all since they were so light and little. Mr C told us we needed to be really careful with them as it is very easy to hurt them if we are too rough. We all did a great job!

Mr C then introduced us to Tiny, who was not very tiny at all-- he is a great, big South American Ornate Horned Frog! He comes from the rainforest and he eats bugs, small critters like mice and lizards-- even frogs like himself! Ewww! Because he was not a vegetarian, Mr C said he occasionally likes to nibble on small fingers, so we left Tiny in his container, where he hung out in the water-- 'cause he is an amphibian and needs water and land. Mr C also said he other reasons we don't handle frogs are that a)their skin is very thin and can easily soak up germs from our hands, b) sometimes their skin has poisons in it that can make us sick, and c) because they hop away, of course! ;-) it turns out that our Charlotte has a Horned Frog as well at her house!

Then we met Champion, a ball python who was about 1.5 feet long--tho we rarely saw him stretched out because ball pythons like to curl up around themselves, and whatever they are attached to, and form a ball shape-- go figure! He was very gentle and the kids felt he was slimy, smooth, and soft. Several kids held him; only a few opted out. Genevieve said she has a snake, too, and shared with us about snake poop-- fascinating!

It was a wonderful demonstration and the kids behaved very well! I was very proud of them for their gentleness, great questions, and good hand washing (as we washed our hands before, between and after holding each animal, to keep the animals and ourselves safe).

MarinTreks (Mr C and his wife) can also come to parties in the Bay Area, if anyone is interested. There are flyers on the bookshelf under the bulletin board at sign-in. (Kids must be 4 or older to participate.)

11/5 The Five Senses- Sense of Touch

Today we started discussing our senses, and we began with Touch. May I just say right here-- Eureka! Today went fabulously from a teaching standpoint-- everyone got to explore at their own pace and each child was able to spend as much time checking things out at each of four Experimentation Stations. It was exciting and fun!

First we discussed senses and what they are (ways to get information about things all around us) and what they are (Touch, Taste, Smell, Hearing and Sight; Kaden said senses were the trees-- which we discussed meant that he was using his sense of sight to learn that there were trees around us!) We talked about how today would be a time to explore our sense of touch. The kids felt some different things I had brought in to feel: fake fur, crinkly 'ribbon', silky fabric, chamois cloths, a wool-like washing mitt, toweling fabric, and such. We realized we didn't need to wait for the samples to come around the circle-- we could feel all around us: our pants, our shoes, our hair, ANYTHING!
Next we discussed what we used to touch with- everyone agreed we used our hands, so we took of our shoes and socks and felt with our feet, then sat on our hands and tried to feel things still-- and we realized we could feel with other parts of our body-- cheeks, tongues, etc. I asked the kids what covered our hands, feet, cheeks, tongues, etc that we felt with--
Audrey: Gloves! Gloves cover our hands!
Tristan T: Ssss......Skin!
We agreed that we felt with our skin, and parts in our mouth that also had 'skin'...

Then we headed off to explore our stations:

How Things Feel.... On Our Tongues
With Josh, the kids experimented with how water, bubbly water and ice felt on our tongues:
Bubbly water:
Rafael: It was spicy!
Gloria: It felt like it was going to explode!
Ice Cubes:
Mage: Cold-- very cold!

How Things Feel..... On Our Hands
With Monique, the kids felt different substances: shaving cream, honey and oil.
Zoe and Julia A: Slippery! (Oil)
Stella: Slimy! (Oil)
Ben and Sara D: It feels Gooey! (Honey)
Sarah G: It feels like oil-- it is sticky! (Honey)
Rafael: It is sticky and Slimy! (Honey)
Sara D: Look-- It's squishy! I want to get more on my hands! (Shaving Cream)
EvaJoy: It feels slimy. (Shaving Cream)
Jonah M: Ewww, Yuck! (Shaving Cream)
Zoe: This is too messy! (Shaving Cream)

How Things Feel.... On Our Feet
Yesterday, with the excellent help of Mage and Julia Arthur, I made a tactile rug for the kids to check out today in class. Genevieve assisted the kids in walking respectfully along it. She noticed that Karim was the first one to stop to wriggle his toes on each section-- bumpy plastic, two types of sand paper, ribbed rubber flooring, and sticky exposed contact paper. Gen also noticed that the kids really liked the sticky paper-- she said they wanted to go thru again and again just to get to the sticky part, it was almost like a drug for them ;-). The children were excellent at following the two rules they had for the tactile rug: 1) walking feet only and 2) respecting everyone's personal space. I was very impressed!

How Things Feel... Compared to Different Temperatures
With me, the kids tried to 'trick' their sense of touch by testing different temperatures of water. We had three containers of water-- #1 (room temperature), #2 (warm/hot) and #3 (icy cold). We felt container #1 first- those who said it was warm then felt the warm/hot water of #2. After a few moments of feeling this, they checked the temp of #1 again-- and most felt it as cold, even tho they had just said it was warm! If they said #1 was cold, we then felt #3, followed by a check of #1's temp-- where it usually now felt warm! Amazing! The kids had a blast going back and forth, always feeling the #1 (room temp) water in between the other two temps and noticing how it seemed to change.

All in all, we had a great time. We even had time to get back in a circle and discuss what we had observed. Try this at home with your kids-- point out the way different things feel, let them have small samplings of ingredients you are using when making dinner-- let them feel them, mix them, what have you. Use lots of different descriptive words to describe what you are feeling to give them a wide vocabulary and a better chance to more accurately explain what they are learning and sensing in their world. Help them notice the differences in bath water, ice water, etc. Always remind them to not touch with out asking, in case it is sharp or hot or in some way dangerous. Make your own tactile 'rugs' simply by lining things found thruout the house in a row on the floor or by filling a small, shallow box with things like crumpled paper, dried beans, etc (just make sure they aren't slippery, tho, so the kids don't fall).

Until next time!
Britton