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.

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.

School Closures and Delays

I wanted to give you the link to the Y-C school district website that contains calendar information and other useful links and info. Our first day of preschool after the holidays will be Tuesday, January 6th.

http://www.ycsd.k12.or.us/

The school district is part of an emergency alert system called flashalert. This will notify you of any school closures due to inclimate weather. It is a free service you can sign up for. Flashalert will send you an email or text message if your school district is closed or delayed. You will get this information immediately sent to your phone or computer as the superintendent reports it.

Here is a link to the system flashalert.net

Preschool Canned Food Drive

In observance of our November theme "Thankfulness" we are conducting a food drive to benefit Joseph's Storehouse, a food bank located right here in Carlton. We will be explaining to the children that it is important to be thankful for the things they have, and that it is good to help others in our community who may not have the things they need. Please have your child bring in non-perishable food items beginning Thurs Nov 6. We will bring donations to circle time and talk about how the items may help a family in need (we might even get in a little chat about nutrition!). The kids will then drop their donations in the bin, which we will deliver to the food bank before Thanksgiving. Please consider having your child bring in items throughout the drive so that they can "donate" each day we get together and watch the pile grow! Our goal is to have 100 items for the food bank!

Heiser Family Pumpkin Patch

On October 14th, we traveled to Heiser Family Farms with Mrs. Johnson and her Kindergarten Class. The weather was perfect and the kids had a great time picking out pumpkins, petting animals, tractor riding and much more. This was the first time most of the kids rode on a big yellow school bus. They loved it!

Community Helpers

This month we have been learning all about our community helpers, including…librarian, police office, mailman, crossing guard, fireman, etc.

We set up a post office in the preschool for the kids. They have had fun taking turns dressing up like the mailman and delivering the mail. Throughout the day the kids can draw pictures, write letters to other members of the class. They can even purchase (with play money) a one cent stamp. This has been fun.

Next week, the real mailman is coming to preschool to get letters the kids will mail home. On the 21st the firemen will be coming to teach the kids about fire safety and allow them to sit up in the fire truck. The kids also spent sometime this month practicing street safety. We took them up to the crosswalk and the crossing guard showed them how to safely cross a street. The police officer is coming today to teach the kids some basic safety too. He is going to finger print the kids. It should be fun!

October Newsletter Items

We had a great first month of school. Each day gets better and better for our kids! Most kids need a few weeks to transition to a new schedule and preschool is a big change in their lives. As this is our first year, we are still working out some “kinks”. Thanks for your patience as we are all learning. I wanted to make you aware of some details for October.

Drop-off time:
Our teachers need every minute they get to set up class for the day. Please do not bring your child to preschool before the scheduled time. Morning class begins at 8:15 am and afternoon class begins at 12:15 pm. Carlton Elementary begins at 8:10 am. You may need to wait just a few minutes if you are dropping off older kids. If you need to make special arrangements with the teacher please talk with Lynn for the am class and Amber for the pm class. We can make exceptions for those that absolutely need it. Please be respectful of the teacher’s prep time.

Field Trip:
Our first field trip!! We are scheduled to go to Heiser Family Pumpkin Patch on October 14th. Both preschool classes and the kindergarten classes will be traveling together by bus. It will be a fun filled day! We will need lots of adult helpers. Siblings are welcome to come as long as we know ahead of time and plan for the additional people. The cost is $3.50 per child. Adults are free of charge and siblings will also cost the $3.50. The price includes a hayride, a pumpkin to take home, petting zoo, hay maze, and much more. You can check out their website for more information www.heiserfarms.com. All preschoolers will meet in the gym that day at 9:00 am. Make sure to dress for the weather and mud. See attached permission slip for more info.

Color Day Celebrations:
Each month we will designate a special color day. Please dress your child according to the color of the day. During circle time, your child will participate in a color fashion show with Miss Debby. In September we celebrated the color red. The kids painted with red, made red pasta necklaces and red apple art projects, read books about the color red. They also ate red Jell-O, apples and drank red juice. Look at the October calendar for black and orange day. It is a great way for the kids to have fun with colors!

Separation Anxiety:
In September, our preschool kids have been adjusting to a new school and being away from home for a few hours each week. If your child has a special blanket, stuffed animal, etc., they are welcome to bring it with them to school. We would ask that it stay in their backpack and used only as needed. It is sometimes helpful to have a little comfort from home. A few children have been bringing their “item” out during circle time, which is a quiet time to learn about the calendar, sing songs, and listen to a read aloud. If you think this may help your child, feel free to pack something for them. It has been very helpful for the children already doing this.

Halloween Party:
On October 30th we will have a classroom Halloween Party. The kids are welcome to bring a costume to change into. After snack time, we will help the children change into their costumes and participate in a costume parade upstairs in the school. It will be easiest if the costumes could be put on over the clothes they are wearing that day. You are welcome to come help your child change into their costume. The am group will change at 10:15 am and the afternoon group at 2:15 pm.

Fundamental Cards:
We sent home with each child a manila envelope filled with some flashcards. At the end of each month a new set of cards will come home to add to your collection. The cards will coordinate to the fundamentals that we learn about each month. This is a great way to reinforce learning at home.

Crosswalk Safety:
The first week of October we will be talking about street safety. The children will learn all about the crossing guard and will be make their own stop sign. We will take each class up to the crosswalk right in front of the school. The crossing guard will be there to teach the kids how to safely cross the street. We will then practice crossing the street safely with our crossing guard.