02 Nov Newsletter | October 26-29, 2015
What a fantastic, fun week it was! The children and teachers were all very excited about Halloween. We spent the week learning through playing fun Halloween-themed games and reading stories!
We were able to enjoy small group activities on Monday with the help of Miss Leslie. She encouraged number recognition and fine motor strengthening by helping children string beads on numbered pumpkins. Miss Kaleigh led the children in a fun gross motor activity – Ghost Bowling! Miss Chris helped the children practice cutting and name recognition with name pumpkins.
Tuesday was our Letter-of-the-Week Day. We had so much fun putting five feathers on F. The children helped make a list of 34 words that start with F. We had a special “visitor” at our circle – Big Green Monster (a puppet.) The children got to practice telling Big Green Monster to “Go Away!”
Wednesday was our cooking day. We made “Monster Popcorn!” The children all helped drizzle melted chocolate on popcorn and add M&M’s. It was a quite a big hit with everyone! The children also practiced sorting squares by color on paper candy corns and decorated bags to use for trick-or-treat. The children also seemed to enjoy a new gross motor game in the classroom – Feed the Spider. The children had to take turns throwing cotton balls at a spider web (masking tape on a hula hoop.)
Thursday was a most exciting day!!! We walked to the Lenox Library in our Halloween costumes. We enjoyed stories with Miss Jenny and then we walked to four stations inside the library to trick-or-treat. We were so happy to have some moms join us on our walk to the library including Noah and his mom (Noah will be joining our class in January). Miss Tiffany and two more students from Miss Hall’s School joined us as well. We welcome Alba and Stephanie to our Lenox Preschool team. All the children participated in telling the story of The Little Old Woman who was not Afraid of Anything. They were each able to act out part of the scarecrow. We played a ghost numbers game to get ready for lunch. All the children seemed to enjoy the special treats for snack and lunch!
Our stories for this week included:
Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman Capucilli
Little Fox’s Surprise by Trace Moroney
Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams
Go Away, Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley
Inside a House that is Haunted by Alyssa Satin
Upcoming + Notes:
Next week we look forward to creating more decorations for our holiday tree for the Festival of Trees, our calendar craft, and more fall activities!
Due to staffing issues at the Lenox Library we will not be attending weekly story time there. We will let you know when we can resume our walking field trips to the library.
In honor of turning the clocks back and “gaining” an extra hour of sleep, Monday and Tuesday (Nov. 2 & 3) will be Pajama Days at Lenox Preschool! The children may wear their pajamas to school. Please remember that if your child wears slippers to school, they must have a sole on them.
Free play in the classroom is from 8:30am-9:10am. This is the only scheduled free play time of the day. Please make every effort to have your child at the school as close to 8:30am as possible so that he/she may have time to play with friends and get settled in before we start the clean-up music at 9:10am. Remember, play is child’s work! Take a look at this link that discusses the importance of play in preschool: http://www.education.com/magazine/article/play-preschool-matters/
Miss Courtney will be in the classroom this Tuesday for calendar craft. She will also be in all morning on Wednesday to cover for Miss Kaleigh, who will be out.
Our next fundraising opportunity will be Friday, November 13th. Please visit Berkshirepaintandsip.com to register for our Paint and Sip night. We will be painting Fenway Park! Come for a fun night of painting and socializing!
Each year we come together as a community to celebrate all we are grateful for with a traditional Thanksgiving feast. Our potluck lunch will be held on Tuesday, November 24th in the preschool. Please arrive at noon as the children will sing their autumn songs for you before we eat. Please sign up in the preschool starting on Monday to let us know what you can bring and how many guests will be attending. We are grateful every day for the opportunity to spend our days with your children!
The handy helpers for the day will be listed on the monthly calendar. When it is your child’s turn to be a handy helper he/she may bring something to school to show and share with friends. The Handy Helpers will be Cassidy & Audrey on Monday, November 3, and Tuesday will be Luci & Race!
Adventures in Aftercare – It has been a lot of fun to see the dynamics of the room change with a smaller group in the afternoons. While the afternoons are less structured, a variety of activities are offered. Group and individual painting projects, games, gross motor activities (obstacle course, spider game, outside play) and the chance to play with children they might not pair up with while the whole group is present. One of the games the children enjoyed this week was going on a pumpkin hunt (numbered pumpkins were hidden around the room, located, then put in order.) There is often the opportunity for one-on-one games as well as a little bit of quiet/down time. There is room for only six children in the afternoons. If you wish to have your child stay for aftercare we ask that you let us know as early in the day as possible.
Quotes of the Week: