October 2014 Newsletter

Steward Integrated Preschool

Miss Judy, Miss Diane and Miss Robyn

We hope you enjoyed looking at your child’s All About Me book with him/her.  The children were very proud of their work!  They did a great job with the activities that were developed to help them find out more about themselves.  We enjoyed finding out more about our students as well!

We’ll have Halloween parties on Thursday, October 30^th and Friday, October 31^st.  The children will play games and have a special orange snack provided by Miss Judy. At approximately 11:15, we’ll help the children get in their costumes and then go trick-or-treating.  We’ll visit several rooms in the preschool wing.  If you would like to join us when we go trick-or-treating, please sign in at the office and come to our classroom by 11:20.

Themes

The current theme in preschool is “Signs of Fall”.  The children have been extending an AB pattern (apple-pumpkin-apple-pumpkin) on the October calendar.  They’ve been exploring guords, pumpkins, leaves and other fall items in the science center.  We put corn and fall items (e.g. leaf-shaped bowls) in the sensory table.  We put fall puzzles and the Beautiful Autumn lacing set in the manipulative area.  The children have listened to several stories about autumn including Fall Leaves Fall by Zoe Hall, The Leaves Are Falling One By One by Steve Metzger and Apples and Pumpkins by Anne Rockwell.  They used paper plates, fabric leaves and glitter to make beautiful fall wreaths.  They colored leaf shaped filter paper using food coloring, water and eyedroppers.  The paper pumpkins they painted using marbles will look beautiful on the bulletin board! 

Next week we will begin our “Halloween” theme.  The children will decorate bags for trick-or-treating.  They’ll use Bristol board, lima beans and cotton balls to make haunted houses and paper tubes, construction paper and googly eyes to make bats.  During center time, they’ll have the opportunity to paint jack-o-lanterns at the easel, put together a Halloween puzzle, complete pattern cards using bats, jack-o-lanterns, ghosts and cats and look at books about Halloween such as The Night Before Halloween by Natasha Wing and It’s Pumpkin Day, Mouse! by Felicia Bond and Laura Numeroff.  The children will participate in a flannel board activity as Miss Judy tells the story, Go Away, Big Green Monster! by Ed Emberley.  They’ll use stick puppets as they sing “Five Little Pumpkins”.  

Important Dates

Thursday, October 30th – Trick-or-Treating (T, Th class)

Friday, October 31st– Trick-or-Treating (M-W-F class)

Monday, November 10^th – Teacher Day – no school

Tuesday, November 11^th – Veteran’s Day – no school

Save the Date!  Thursday, November 20th– Harvest Feast for the T/Th class 11:00-12:00

Save the Date!  Friday, November 21st – Harvest Feast for the M/W/F class 11:00-12:00

Wednesday, November 26th- School closes at 12:00

Thursday, November 27^th and Friday, November, 28th– Thanksgiving Break – no school

Help Wanted

We need large Styrofoam trays for art projects.  Your help is greatly appreciated!

                                                           

Miss Judy, Miss Diane and Miss Robyn