Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Gingerbread Baby

The Learning for Life Preschool is planning for a fun and eventful December.

We would like to wish everyone a Happy Holidays filled with family joy and cheer. It is our hope that love and kindness will fill our preschool as the kids participate in our preschool Christmas activities.

Christmas is a great opportunity to teach our children about friendship, love, service, and giving. It is also a time to celebrate the things that our important in our lives. As always we will not be discussing the religious aspects of Christmas.

Some of the fun filled activities we have planned this month include; decorating gingerbread men, hanging stockings, singing carols, silver & gold day, making ornaments, card making, Christmas projects, Holiday party/program, Gingerbread Baby play, and much more.

Be sure to check the calendar for event dates.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Canned Food Drive

In November, our preschoolers collected over 200 cans for Josephs Store House. Thank you so much for supporting this activity! The kids truly loved this and learned a great lesson in giving.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

New Preschool Class for 2009/2010

The Learning for Life preschool is happy to announce the addition of a third preschool class. We received enough applications for two full classes of 4 year old preschoolers. We are excited about this addition and are looking forward to many exciting things this year. September 14th is our first day of school.


3 yr old Miss Debby, Miss Lynn T/Th 8:15-10:45 am $65
4 yr old Mrs. Horne, Miss Lynn M/W/F 8:15-10:45 am $85
4 yr old Mrs. Horne, Miss Debby T/W/Th 12:15-2:45 pm $85

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Preschool Open House

Preschool Open House will be held Wednesday, Sept 9th from 7-8pm. This is for all new students and their families. Please come tour the preschool, meet your teacher, bring school supplies, and participate in a scavenger hunt. We look forward to seeing you there!

Monday, May 4, 2009

Preschool Graduation

The Learning for Life Preschool is looking forward to celebrating our school year with a special preschool graduation.

It is scheduled for Wednesday June 3rd. This event will be held at Carlton Elementary School at 6:30 pm.

All preschoolers will participate in the graduation, not just the kids attending Kindergarten next year. It is a celebration of the many things we learned this year. The kids have been working hard on a little program to share with their parents. We hope to see you there!

In My Garden

In April, we had a lot of fun with this theme. I think the kids enjoyed digging in the dirt the most.

Some of our highlights include: Bunny Easter Egg Hunt, planting peas, worm discovery and making our worm farms, the garden wall mural, Earth Day Celebrations, recycling and litter patrol, Mr. Winky (our new class tortoise), baby chicks, making stepping stones for carnival, and much more.

What a great month at preschool!!

April Pictures




Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Thank you Flavors of Carlton

The Learning for Life Preschool is grateful for the generous donations from Flavors of Carlton.

What a thrill to have so much community support!
Thank you!!

We received $6,800 in total donations.
Our preschool plans on using this money to further develop our discovery centers. This includes literacy tools, books, listening center, etc.

As our families have been affected by the economy, we would also like to provide scholarships to those in need.

Learning for Life strives to be available to all families. It is our goal to keep tuition costs low and we are always seeking resources for scholarships.

Enrollment for 2009/2010

We will begin accepting preschool applications from our returning preschool families April 1st.

Attached to this newsletter is a “re-enrollment” form for those wishing to return to the Learning for Life Preschool next year. Please submit the form to a classroom teacher with your $50 non-refundable registration fee.

New families may begin registering May 1st.

Registration packets can be picked up at the preschool, CES office, and CTC.

The “new family” packets are available now, but will not be accepted until May 1st.

In My Garden

This month your child will be participating in a variety of fun and educational activities and experiences as they learn all about gardens.

We will be holding a preschool Easter egg hunt, dying eggs, focusing on fundamentals, digging in the dirt and much more.

Please note the calendar concerning Kindergarten round-up, garden service project, and the Easter Egg Hunt.


We would love to have parent volunteers to help with the Easter Egg Hunt and the garden service.

Please let a classroom teacher know if you are willing and able to help us out.

Thank you!!

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Little Gems Grocery Store


During our Gilbert House Field Trip, we discovered a very cool play grocery store. This was a popular spot for our preschoolers.
We would like to develop a grocery store of our own at preschool. We already have a play cash register, two shopping carts, and a few food items. We need your help in creating our pretend grocery items. Please save your empty cans, boxes, jars, etc...leaving the labels in place. We will use packing tape to reseal the containers to stock our grocery store.

I have included a picture above that will give you an idea of what we need to collect.

Love Our Pets




We had a blast in February learning all about pet care. The preschoolers enjoyed taking care of our guinea pigs.

The kids made their very own Vet Hospital in our dramatic play area. This was a popular place to play.

Dr. Tresa Apke came from the Carlton Vet Hospital. We dressed up like veterinarians and worked on stuffed animals. She taught us basic pet and brought her own dog in. The kids really enjoyed using the stethoscope and other special doctor tools.


Special thanks to Bryce, Dean, Garett, and Kaydence for bringing a special share this month.

We also had a visit from Officer Hoff & Police Dog Timmy. The kids had lots of questions for Officer Hoff about the important job of his police dog.

Flavors of Carlton

Flavors of Carlton is CTC's largest annual fundraiser.

Learning for Life Preschool has been selected to be the recipient of the annual paddle raise. This is very exciting!
With this donation, it is our goal to purchase educational materials for our literacy & writing centers. We would also like to provide scholarship to families in need.

The following is more information about this event.

Now in its 6th year, this annual benefit will be held Saturday March 7th at Ken Wright Cellars.

Tickets for this event can be purchased at the community center.

Please join us in making a difference in being able to provide much-needed social and civic services to families in the Carlton & Yamhill areas!

This event is offering guests the perfect combination of comfortable wine country elegance and romance, small-town hospitality, up-close access to chefs and winemakers, irresistible auction items and the chance to make a big difference… locally.

The event will celebrate art, music, food and wine to support Carlton Together Care’s vitally needed educational and enrichment programs for youth and teens in the greater Carlton area. Fifty area artists have donated paintings, sculpture, collage, watercolor and textiles for the live and silent auction.

Fairy Tales

This month our preschool will be focusing on two of our favorite fairy tales, Goldilocks and the Three Bears and The Three Little Pigs.

Fairy Tales help to spark imagination and curiosity. Fairy Tales usually have a moral that makes sense to preschoolers. Children love fairy tales because they are usually silly and bring to life animals and toys. And best of all, reading to young children encourages them to learn to read on their own.
The preschoolers will be spending lots of time this month talking about these fairy tales, acting them out, and using their creativity in lots of Fairy Tale projects and activities.

Dr Seuss Birthday Bash

Theodor Seuss Geisel was born on March 2nd, 1904. He wrote many, many children’s books. Dr. Seuss liked to use funny made up words and animals in his books like: Fiffer-feffer-feff, Zizzer-zazzer-zuzz, and Thin-a-mi-jegger.

Two of his most famous books are: The Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham. We will celebrate Dr. Seuss and his books on “Read Across America Day”. We will have this birthday bash the week of March 3rd-5th.


In addition to reading lots of Dr. Seuss books, we will be making hats, bowties, and getting our very own cat whiskers.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

February Newsletter Items

February Theme: “Love Our Pets”

This month your child will be participating in a variety of fun and educational activities as they learn about some different animals that make good pets and how to take care of them. There will be opportunities for preschoolers to share a pet from home. This could be a stuffed pet or live pet. Please schedule a time with the classroom teacher if you have a live pet from home you would like to assist your child in sharing.

Please choose from the following dates and times.

Dates: February 24th and 26th
Times: 10:15 for am class 2:15 pm for pm class

Valentines Day:

Valentine's Day is a special time for sharing friendship and love. We will celebrate friendship with a party for Valentine's Day. On the party day, the children will play some valentine games, make a special treat for snack and take home valentines. Please have your child bring a valentine for each member of their class. I have included a class list with this newsletter. This is a great opportunity for the older kids to practice writing their names by signing the cards. Start early, and have them sign one or two a day. The valentines go home in a valentine mailbox that each child will make at preschool.

Our Valentines Day party is Thursday, February 12th. Parents should plan to stay a few extra minutes at the start of preschool to help their child distribute the valentines into the mailboxes.

February Fundamentals

Letters: Dd, Tt, Xx
Number: 7
Colors: Pink and White
Shape: Heart


Mrs. Guinea: Classroom Pet

Mrs. Guinea will arrive in our classroom on Tuesday, February 3rd. It will be a great opportunity to teach the kids pet care first hand . Mrs. Guinea will need to exercise in her ball, be fed, and her cage will need weekly cleaning. The kids will take turns caring for her.


February Guests

We are in the process of scheduling a few special guest to our preschool this month. Office Hoff and his police dog will be coming to our school on Tuesday February 17th. They will teach us about dog care, dog training, and the important job of a police dog.

Mini Field Trip

The kids will have an opportunity to visit a farm in Carlton. Samantha’s family (afternoon class) has many pets out on their farm. Her family has offered us the chance to ride their pony and learn how to care for it. Parents are encouraged to attend this day for safety and travel purposes. If you cannot attend, we can make arrangements for your child to stay at preschool with a teacher or travel in a teacher’s car. Each parent will be required to sign a permission slip and liability waiver for their child. The law requires all children to be in carseats. Please discuss needed arrangements with your classroom teacher. We are in the process of securing a date for this. I will send out an email and flier when it is scheduled.

Class Sharing:

Thank you to Nora for organizing this program. You should have received a letter home explaining how our share time works. Each child is assigned a specific day of the week to share. The letter included some ideas of things to bring, as well as, the importance of participating in a preschool share time. Please help your child remember their share day.


Tuesdays– Damon, Sam, Virginia, Hannah, Brady, Romy, Aubrey, and Arrow

Wednesdays– Andrew, Mikayla, Spencer, Kaydence, Garett, Madeline, and Dean

Thursdays– Hunter, Mariana, Bryce, and Samantha

Nursery Rhyme Time:

Mother Goose came to our preschool! (aka Miss Debbie) The kids learned all about Jack & Jill, Humpty Dumpty, Hickory Dickory, Hey Diddle Diddle, and many more of our favorite nursery rhymes. I recently attended a early child literacy training that emphasized the importance of teaching young children nursery rhymes. We have had great fun acting these out. One of our favorite activites was the search for Humpty Dumpty’s missing pieces. We had clues to find in the library, office, cafeteria, and in our reading buddies homeroom. The kids wore their crowns, dressed as the King’s men, and hunted down the pieces. We were able to put him back together again with the help of a few band aides.

Thank you to Hannah Hurty (pm class) and her sister Gracie (Mrs. Sisto’s class) for a great performance. During our week of Hey Diddle Diddle, these two girls came and played their fiddle. I also brought in my very old violin from childhood and the kids took turns playing it. We also jumped over the moon, laughed like dogs, and pretended to be the dish who ran away with the spoon.

We had so much fun with Mother Goose. The children brought home many projects to help them remember the nursery rhymes. We compiled a color book full of popular nursery rhymes. Each child should be bringing it home. Please take the time to continue reviewing these with your child.


Writing Center:

We have added a writing center to our discovery time. At this center the kids have an opportunity to explore different writing tools. The kids can write letters to friends, family, or work on writing their names. We have a classroom mail chart for delivering letters to friends in the classroom.


Reading Buddies:

We love Mrs. Fjellands 2nd graders! Every Wednesday their class comes to our class and reads to our preschoolers. Each child is paired up with a buddy. It is fun to watch the kids get very excited to see their new buddies. They love this.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Welcome Back!!

Thanks for your flexibility as our last week of school was cancelled. We got so much snow! Our family really enjoyed sledding, making snowmen, hot cocoa, and the extra time to play together. I hope everyone enjoyed the Holidays! I missed your kids….I’m excited to get back into our routine with preschool.

Extended Preschool Year

We have decided to extend our preschool year by one week to make up for our lost time in December. Our last day of preschool will now be June 4th. You will not owe any tuition in June. Your December payment will cover this week of school.

January Fundamentals

Letters: I, N, Y
Number: 6
Color: Blue & White
Shape: Crescent (moon)

Nursery Rhyme Time

Welcome Mother Goose to our preschool! This month, the kids will be learning all about Jack & Jill, Humpty Dumpty, Hickory Dickory, Hey Diddle Diddle, and many more of our favorite nursery rhymes. I recently attended a early child literacy training that emphasized the importance of teaching young children nursery rhymes. I have included an article with this newsletter.

Early Literacy

Our goal is to develop a love of books in each child at our preschool. It is important to provide our children with the tools, resources, and skills needed to promote reading. We want to make this a positive experience for each child! Learning to read and write begins years before your child enters school. You are your child’s first--and most important--teacher. The time you spend talking to and reading with your child will help him or her get the best possible start and be ready to learn to read. It is important that your home has the tools needed to prepare your child.