Terrific Trees

Dear Preschool Families,
     We are nearing the end of the 1st Quarter already!  This year is flying by.  The first round of assessments are finished, WHEW!  I have been doing classroom observations and taking notes on the children's work habits.  Report cards will be sent home at the end of the month.  I look forward to discussing your child's progress at conferences on 10/30 and 11/6 (and a few Friday conferences as well).  If you haven't signed up yet, there is more information below.   
     The 4 and 5 year old children have begun working on the "My First School Book" from the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum.  The Handwriting Without Tears program compliments the Montessori Philosophy with a lot of great hands on activities to prepare the children for reading and writing.
     This week, we began our "Letter of the Week" activities.  Our first letter was M and next week's letter is S.  Each week, there are several multi-sensory activities that help the children learn letter names and sounds and also how to write the letters.  In the last newsletter, I listed several of the activities associated with Letter of the Week.  Alphabet Exercises are one of the activities.  During Alphabet exercises, the teacher holds a letter card with a picture and the children stand up with their hands over their head and say the letter name, then they put their hands near their shoulder or mouth and use a tactile cue (such as touching the nostril while making the /n/ sound), then touching the toes and saying the name of the object in the picture.  Alphabet exercises happen each day and we review the letters we have learned as the year goes on.  
     We have also started our tree study.  This week we took a tree walk to the front of our school and looked at 3 different types of trees.  We talked about the parts of the trees.  We will be taking more tree walks in the upcoming weeks to observe the changes in the trees.  

HOMEWORK...
*Bring in something from a tree (fruit, bark, leaves, stick, seed, etc...)  Please DO NOT bring any nuts as we have children with severe allergies and we want to keep everyone healthy.  


HELP NEEDED...
*We would love to have some pumpkins and gourds to study and use for various works in our classroom.  If you would like to donate, please send at any time.  Any size or quantity is greatly appreciated.  We will use these in several areas of our classroom.  
*We have a couple bikes and tricycles that need some minor repairs.  Please let me know if you are able to help.
*We are all out of sidewalk chalk for the playground.  If you would like to donate some, you can send it any time.  The children are very interested in chalk this year.  

REMINDERS...
*When you and your child arrive and are waiting for school to start, please wait near the fence alongside the grassy area (not in front of the classroom door).  As soon as the classroom door is open, your child can walk to the door and enter the room.  When everyone waits near the classroom door, it is difficult for the families in Mrs. Langworthy's class to get to their door.  If you have a family member or childcare provider that brings your child, please pass this information along.
*The back parking lot and driveway are for staff use only.  Please do not park in this area of use it for drop-off and pick-up or turn around space.  Using the driveway also poses a safety issue for families walking to/from their cars.  Thank you for your cooperation.    

Conference sign up:
Sign Up Genius for Parent Teacher Conferences

Scholastic Book Order are Due 10/17.  Remember, every time you order from Scholastic, we earn free books and materials for our classroom.  You can order online by clicking the link: scholastic.com/readingclub