PAC meeting September 24

Just a reminder:
Early Childhood will be having a PAC meeting September 24, 2013.  6:00-7:00
All parents are welcome to attend!  Janda will be available for childcare!

ECFE 2013-2014 Calendar

ECFE FUN!

We decided that we needed to go explore the courtyard at the elementary school!  There were so many neat things to see and find in there!

The fountain and the pond in the courtyard!

Okay, so you need to stand on your head to see this one!  They were looking for the fish in the pond!

Exploring the paths...

and the birdbath!

They are watching a bug that was on the flower!

We had so much fun exploring!  

Book club code

GM9K3

Use this code to order scholastic books online.  www.scholastic.com

You only need to enter the code once and then you can order anytime!

Fun Times in Adventure Preschool!

We are almost done with our second week of school!  The kids are beginning to get used to the routine and the room.  There are still some tears but, that is totally expected!  Here are some pictures from this week!

Fun with shaving cream!  Practicing writing with our fingers!

Drawing!

Trains!  

So many artists!!

Oops...sideways...

Building a castle!

Taking care of babies!!

Book Look time!

Reading fun!

So many friends!

And more trains!!

Dinner!

Loving the books!

Choosing books!

Book Look again!!

Fire Drill

We had a Fire Drill on Tuesday!  We spent a lot of time talking about how this is just a practice.  The kids did amazing!  I was so proud of them!  This is the sign that we use to talk about it.  When they hear the alarm and/or see the light flash they need to:

1. Stop - Drop what you are doing and walk quickly to the door.

2. Line up at the door - Take a ring

3. Be quiet!  

We will be practicing this with the M/W group as well.  Please talk to your child about Fire Drills and review the 3 steps above. 

Early Literacy

 

First 4 day read-aloud book! Everyone loves Pete the Cat!

Early Literacy refers to learning that begins at birth.  All the skills that we learn as infants, toddlers and preschoolers are building blocks to learning how to read!  At Adventure Preschool, we focus on the "Big 5" Emergent Literacy Skills.  

These are:

1. Conversation - Activities that promote children to think and use the words they have to communicate what they want, know or feel.

2. Vocabulary and Background Knowledge - Activities that introduce vocabulary and necessary background knowledge so children can understand the meaning of a word.

3. Phonological Awareness - Activities that get children listening and becoming aware of rhyming and alliterations (ball, bat, boy).

4. Book and Print Rules - Activities that teach rules of print such as we start to read in the upper left corner and read left to right.  Letters go together to make words, words make sentences.  Also, teaching children the parts of a book; front and back cover, spine, title, author and illustrator

5. Alphabet Knowledge - Activities that teach children their letters.  The first letter that children learn to recognize is the first letter of their name.  Typically children will point to other words that start with that letter and say, "that's me!"  That is how powerful letters are!  

Repeated readings of books is one of the most effective way to teach all of these skills!  Choosing books with lots of pictures and rhyming are very interesting to young children.  I will read the same book for 4 days.  We learn new vocabulary for those books and "play" with those words.  You can do this by pointing out different things in the pictures that may not be familiar to your child.  Then point them out in real life.  Making these connections between books and life is very important to learning new things!  

Remember:  There are a lot of skills that come before reading. 

                     * shape knowledge

                     * identifying same and different

                     * identifying environmental sounds

to name just a few.  

Book Orders and Highlights Magazine

I just wanted to update everyone:  Those of you who signed up to receive HighFive magazine, the order was placed today and you should receive your first issue in 5-8 weeks.  With your help, we earned a free subscription for our classroom and a couple of other free items!!

Book Orders will be placed on September 13.  Every time you place an order, we earn books and points for the classroom.  This results in LOTS of new books for the classroom!!  You can order online or send in the book order form with a check made out to Scholastic.  Thank you for supporting your child's classroom!

Second Day fun!

We are having so much fun!  This is going to be a great year!!

They LOVE playing in shaving cream!  And as a bonus, it cleans the tables!!

Coloring pictures is always fun!!  We have some lucky mom's who get some awesome artwork!

Concentrating!

Counting cars!  And I learned that my cars actually hook together!  That was a fun surprise!

We have the best paras in the world in my room!  I don't know how I got so lucky!  Charlie Klimek and Janda Ordal are so good with the kids!

Building towers!!!

FIrst Day of School!

I am so proud of these three-year-olds!  We only had a few tears but, as you can see from the pictures, we had TONS of fun!!

Reading Stories!  We LOVE Pete the Cat!

Trucks and Tools and Little People!

Beads!

Creating Masterpieces!

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Taking care of babies and making dinner!

More trucks!

Playing together!

One of the hardest lessons to learn at school is how to share!  We worked a lot on sharing toys today with our friends! 

FIRST DAY!

We had a wonderful first day of school at Adventure Preschool!!