Newsletter - March 23-27, 2015

Welcome Spring!!! 

Spring was our theme for the week. We welcomed this beautiful season of re-birth and renewal with many fun spring time activities! Our spring reading list included How Do You Know It's Spring? (Allan Fowler), The Happy Day (Ruth Krauss), The Wind Blew (Pat Hutchins), and It's Spring (Samantha Berger & Pamela Chanko). We sure enjoy reading books more and more every day!!!

We diligently worked on our spring art projects. We sponge painted with purple and white for our April door decoration, made V is for Violet Vase pictures, continued painting tree branches and gluing pom-poms on them as well as created spring flower pictures.

Circle time was spent reviewing the calendar and weather, counting our friends, discussing the new spring season, explaining what happens in the spring for our weekly language experience chart, and conducting a windy experiment. Using a small fan, we predicted which items would or wouldn't “blow in the wind.”

Wednesday Class

Thursday Class

Additional activities this week included dinosaur play, kitchen center, sand table, science center (wind table), block center, table top (puzzles, writing practice, green play-dough and green gak).

Well, as usual, March has come in like the lion that it is and continues to stay that way.

Special News

We will have pajama day on Wednesday, April 1^st. Remember to wear your favorite pajamas to school!

Reminder

Next week is a 3-day week. Spring break begins Thursday, April 2^nd. We return to school on Monday, April 13^th (make-up snow day).

Have a “Springy” Weekend!!!

Sheri, Joyce, Fabi & Bethany

Newsletter - March 16-20, 2015

Green was our theme during this third week of March.

We painted shamrocks at the easel with green and white paint! We also began painting twigs all different colors. Using our imagination, we created fabulous objects with green play-dough, shamrock cookie cutters and lots of green “loose parts” such as pipe cleaners, gems, beads, and craft sticks. So much green fun!

Additional activities this week included the sand table, kitchen center, block center and table top. During story time, we read some great books such as I am a Big Dinosaur (Francois Crozat), Clever Tom and the Leprechaun (Linda Shute), and as requested by Thomas, Two Little Trains (Margaret Wise Brown). On St. Patrick's Day, we read Green Eggs and Ham (Dr. Seuss) and had a fun green eggs and ham snack. It wasn't really green eggs and ham but rather a white chocolate wafer with a green M&M on top of a square pretzel. YUMMY!

Think Spring! Happy Weekend!

Sheri, Joyce, Fabi & Bethany

Weekly Newsletter - March 9-13, 2015

WHAT WE DID THIS WEEK

It was dinosaurs galore this week at Creative Kids.  And the dinos sure were a-stomping!!!  Our dinosaur reading list included The World of Dinosaurs (Melvin Berger), Story of Dinosaurs (David Eastman), Bones, Bones, Dinosaur Bones (Byron Barton), and The Dinosaur (Anna Milbourne & Mandy Field) as well as a book on CD, Dinosaur Pet (Marc Sedaka).  We also read and looked at many more dinosaur books on our own during book time!

Dinosaur art projects included dinosaur feet and sponge painting dinosaurs.  Since our letter of the week was T, we also made “T is for Tree.”

Circle time was spent reviewing the calendar and weather, counting our friends,  and creating a dinosaur anchor chart.  Thomas informed us that some dinosaurs are herbivores and some are carnivores. We also did the “Dino Pokey” and “Stegosaurus Hop.”

Additional activities this week included digging for dinosaurs in the sand table, block center (with dinosaurs), train tracks and table top (green play dough with what else, but dinosaurs)! 

We have our new assistant, Ms. Joyce with us now every Tuesday and Thursday and she jumped right in this week. 

Welcome back to Jacob. We're sure glad he's feeling better. We missed him last week.

We're looking forward to Monday when we will be welcoming two new friends, Stephanie and Caitlin!

Two Reminders:

1. Tonight is our Dr. Seuss P.J. Party from 6:30-9:30!
2. Wear green on Tuesday, March 17, 2015! 

Have a “Dino-mite” Weekend!!!

Sheri, Joyce, Fabi & Bethany

Newsletter - Week of March 2-6, 2015

WHAT WE DID THIS WEEK

March certainly came in like a lion this week! Hopefully we've seen the last of our snow days now.

We had an exciting week welcoming five new friends: Matthew, Kayleigh, Kendall, Liam and Maddy! We are so happy to have them join us! 

We welcomed in March by celebrating Dr. Seuss and the letter “Ss.” Dr. Seuss wrote and illustrated so many fabulous children's books it was hard to choose which ones to read. We finally decided on The Cat in the Hat, The Shape of Me and Other Stuff, The Foot Book, and Dr. Seuss' ABC. We also read My S Book by Jane Belk Moncure.

Art projects included “S is for Snowman,” The Shape of Me and Other Stuff, thing 1 and 2 handprints as well as painting Cat in the Hat hats at the easel You can see some of our artwork on our front door! Oh yes, we also painted with snow! Now that was FUN!

Circle time was spent reviewing the calendar and weather as well as counting our friends. We made some interesting creations during table top with play dough, gemstones, craftsticks and pipecleaners. 

Happy 3rd Birthday to Jacob who shares his birthday with Dr. Seuss! He's been out sick this week. We sure hope he's feeling better.

We're looking forward to seeing our new assistant, Ms. Joyce next week!

Have a fabulous weekend!!!

Sheri, Miranda, Fabi & Bethany

Weekly Letter - February 23-27, 2015

Dear Family,

It was all smiles this week as dental health was our main focus during this final fabulous week of February (also known as Dental Health Month).

We painted with toothbrushes and dental floss, painted a big tooth at the easel, discussed healthy foods to eat for strong, white teeth and read Your Smile Counts (Colgate-Palmolive Company), Moose’s Loose Tooth (Jacqueline A. Clarke) and The Tooth Book (Dr. Seuss). Songs included “This is the Way We Brush Our Teeth,” “Brush Your Teeth” and “The Toothbrush Pokey.”  After classifying healthy foods and items to keep our teeth happy and unhealthy foods that make our teeth sad, we made paper plate smiles. Our special snack included apple smiles. DELICIOUS! Check out all the pictures on our FB page!

Guess what?! We are 100 days smarter! We celebrated 100 days of school on Thursday and Friday. Thursday was our actual 100th day of school! We read The 100th Day of School (Angela Shelf Medearis), counted to 100, made 100 Days hats and placed 100 items into bottles in sets of 10. Ms. Sheri also sent home a special 100 days snack.

Our letter of the week was “R” so we read “My R Book” (Jane Belk Moncure), walked the letter R and created “R is for Rainbow” pictures.

Don’t forget to brush and floss to keep those smiles bright and shiny!

Happy weekend!

Sheri, Miranda, Fabi & Bethany

Newsletter - February 9-13, 2015

WHAT WE DID THIS WEEK

We finally had a full five day week! And a busy one it was!

Hearts and Valentines were in the air this week. During table top we traced hearts and cut them out, made love bugs by arranging the letters of our name in the correct order, played a math game with Hershey's kisses and of course, practiced writing our names. When some of our younger students practiced matching different colored hearts some of the older students also wanted in on the fun!

At circle, we reviewed name recognition and the calendar, observed the weather, counted our friends, learned our new letter of the week (Qq) and discussed the role of a mail carrier.

We read the books My Q Book (Jane Belk Moncure), Valentines for Everyone (Chris Gifford & Christine Ricci), Froggy's First Kiss (Jonathan London), and The Night Before Valentine's Day (Natasha Wing). Center time included block play, cars and trucks, housekeeping, and art.  In our art center, we painted at the easel on heart-shaped paper, made Q is for Quilt, created Valentine's cards for our families, and decorated our own Valentine's card holders.  We also danced to the "Valentine Hokey Pokey," played "Broken Hearts" and followed directions on heart cards!

On Thursday, we celebrated Sophia's 4th birthday! Thank you to Sophia's mommy for the yummy munchkins and Ms. Sheri's pink heart donut. Mmm, Mmm, good! We also had a small Valentine's Day celebration on Thursday and Friday. Thank you to everyone for sending in goodies for the children! They had a great time!

We were very excited to have Ms. Caitlin, Thomas' mother join us during class on Thursday. It was an impromptu parent co-op day! Ms. Caitlin was a big help with all the children. I would like to invite all parents/grandparents to help out in the classroom on a given day if you are interested. It certainly isn't a requirement but if you're curious about what we do all day, please let me know and we’ll be happy to have you join us.

We will soon begin our student star of the week program so be on the lookout for more information.

Additionally, I have not yet scheduled parent/teacher conferences. We are a small group and since I see you all on a daily basis and we are in constant contact I feel it isn’t a necessity at this time. That being said, if you have any concerns or even if you don't have concerns but would like to sit down with me to discuss your child's progress, please let me know and I'd be happy to oblige.

Reminder: No school next week. We are on winter break!
When we return we will begin our dental health unit.

Have a loving weekend & wonderful vacation!

Sheri, Miranda, Fabi & Bethany

Weekly Newsletter

WHAT WE DID THIS WEEK

February 2-6, 2015

It was another short week for our Creative Kids due to more winter weather! Ground hogs, shadows, community helpers and continuation of the letter Pp were the themes running through this very short week. We welcomed in February with many fun activities!

Table top activities included practicing our pre-writing and cutting skills. We're making more progress every day!

At circle, we reviewed name recognition and the calendar, observed the weather, counted our friends and learned about groundhogs. We sang some songs and read the book Barney & Baby Bop Go to the Doctor by Margie Larsen.

Center time included our usual block play, dramatic play in the kitchen (we love to cook!), cutting table and art. In our art center, we painted with bubble wrap as we began our February door mural.

Another busy week and another month gone by! Next week we'll be working on our Valentine’s! We will be having a small Valentine’s celebration on 2/12 and 2/13/15. More info to come!

Happy February!

Sheri, Miranda, Fabi & Bethany

Newsletter - January 26-30, 2015

This last week of January blasted us with a blizzard so it was a short week for our Creative Kids!

Table top activities include practicing pre-writing and scissor skills as well as working on matching and visual discrimination while completing puzzles.

At circle, we reviewed name and letter recognition as well as the calendar, observed the weather, counted our friends and read the following books: My P Book (Jane Belk Moncure), Five Little Penguins Slipping on the Ice (Steve Metzger) and Cuddly Dudley (Jez Alborough). Dudley doesn't like to be cuddled and prefers to play alone. But his sisters and brothers just can't resist cuddling him because he's so darn cute! We went on a penguin hunt searching for Dudley as our friends gave us clues (under, behind, in, on) and gave him a big cuddle once we found him.

We also learned all about penguins and watched a Scholastic video about different types of penguins. Ask me if penguins fly. Music and movement activities included Penguin Play and songs.

Center time included dramatic play in the kitchen, cars and trucks, and snow fun in our sensory bin. In our art center, we made penguins out of the letter P, painted a melted snowman picture, and also painted penguins.

Our new friend, Jacob joined us this week. He will come to school on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. We're very excited to welcome him to Creative Kids Center!

Another busy (although short) week and another month gone by!

It's been “snow” much fun!

Sheri, Miranda, Fabi & Bethany

Newsletter - January 19-23, 2015

What a great week to celebrate the letter O!

Table top activities included pre-writing skills practice, color sorting and a new “Who Am I” puzzle. At circle, we reviewed name recognition and the calendar, observed the weather, counted our friends and read the books My O Book (Jane Belk Moncure), Guess Who (Margaret Miller) and Barney, What Will I Be When I Grow Up? (Maureen Balvassori). During centers we played with our cars and trucks, made tall towers and other designs with blocks, cooked in the kitchen and worked on Octopus Math. Art projects included O is for Olaf and making owls out of the letter O (and sneaking some Cheerios to eat).

On Friday, we celebrated Candice's 4^th birthday. Happy Birthday, Candice! And thank you to Candy's mom for bringing in those delicious pink and white cupcakes!

Don't forget our Frozen theme P.J. party on Friday night, 1/23 from 6:30-9:30 p.m. Hope to see you there!

Happy weekend!

Sheri, Miranda, Fabi & Bethany

Newsletter - January 12-16, 2015

It may have been cold outside, but things were sure heating up inside Creative Kids while we continued our winter theme activities!

Our letter of the week was Nn. We read My N Book (Jane Belk Moncure) & learned the sign for the letter Nn. We had a blast playing with the noodle sensory bin hunting for all of the letter N’s hidden in the noodles!

We listened to the book on tape, Frozen Noses (Jan Carr) and read The Snowy Day (Ezra Jack Keats). We made a chart listing what we know about snow, read the book, Snow (Marion Dane Bauer), then added to the chart what we learned about snow from reading the book.

At circle time, we began a new activity where we tell Ms. Sheri if the letter of the week is in our name. If it is, we get to wear the special alphabet star necklace. Allison, Andrew & Candice all have “N” in their names so they got to wear the “N” necklaces this week. We also reviewed the calendar and weather, counted the children present at circle, had fun making snow angels, and sang many snowy songs and finger plays.  We also discussed Dr. Martin Luther King and how he tried to get people who were doing wrong things to stop. And we watched this cool video about him!



We sang “Happy Birthday Dr. King” and “Let’s Be Friends.”

Let’s Be Friends (Tune: “London Bridges”)

Let’s be friends with one another, one another, one another,

Let’s be friends with one another, Let’s be friends today.

I can wave to a friend, wave to a friend, wave to a friend,

I can wave to a friend, Let’s be friends today.

 (Other verses: laugh with a friend, hug a friend, smile at a friend.)

In the art center, we decorated the letter N with numbers because N is for Numbers! We worked on a class project making our snowman names, which also helped us practice writing our names. We painted a snowy day picture using white paint, silver glitter & salt & put together a Martin Luther King, Jr. Brotherhood Book.

Reminder: School is closed on Monday, January 19th in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King. We’ll see you all on Tuesday, January 20th.


Looking Ahead

Next week’s letter of the week will be Oo.

We’re looking forward to celebrating Candice’s 4th birthday next Friday!

Note: Watch out for news regarding a special upcoming event. Hint: You won’t have to dress us when we get up in the morning!

Enjoy the three-day weekend!

Newsletter - January 5-9, 2015

Welcome Back!

This week we easily eased right back into the routine after our wonderful holiday vacation!

Our letter of the week was Mm. We read My Mm Book (Jane Belk Moncure), learned the sign for the letter Mm & practiced the “mouse” yoga pose.

In keeping with the “Mm” theme, it was mittens galore this week! We read The Mitten (Jan Brett), One Mitten (Kristine O’Connell George) and The Mitten Tree (Candace Christiansen). Our own Candice did mention that she had the same name as the author. We listened to the book on tape, Three Little Kittens (Lorianne Siomades) and played a mitten match file game & mitten shape file game. We went on a word hunt, searching for animal words from The Mitten that were hung around the classroom, then tracing the words once we found them.

During circle time, we sang our favorite songs and reviewed skills such as name recognition, calendar and weather. We also read Here We Go ‘Round the Year (Jane Belk Moncure), which is a book about the months of the year before we were introduced to the new month of January & the brand new year 2015. We also discussed our new season of winter. Brrrr! It’s cold outside!

Tabletop activities included sorting materials, pegboards, new transportation puzzles and dress-up people. At center time, we played in the kitchen, used the cars/trucks and blocks, worked in the writing center by tracing a path from Nicki to his mittens, practiced our fine motor skills while q-tip painting and completed some monster math to reinforce our counting skills. During science we read The Mystery of Magnets (Melvin Berger) and explored what materials a magnet will and will not attract.

In the art center, we began preparing our January door decoration by painting with watercolors on coffee filters to make snowflakes, decorated the letter M with M&M’s and marshmallows (& ate quite a few), made hand print mittens & painted mittens with marshmallows (of course, we ate some of these too).

We also celebrated Allison’s 4th birthday on Wednesday. Allison’s family sent in delicious cupcakes, homemade by her grandma!

A great big thank you to all of the families who joined us for our “milk and cookie” holiday open house.  All of the cookies and snacks were delicious!!!

We hope everyone enjoyed the holidays.

HAPPY 2015!!!

Have a warm and cozy weekend!

Weekly Newsletter - December 1-5, 2014

This first full week of December was a busy one! Our letter of the week was Jj. Ms. Sheri has a Jj box and she gave us clues to help us guess the items in it. We read “My J Book” by Jane Belk Moncure & practiced the sign for the letter Jj.

Jack-in-the-boxes were popping as we practiced our Jj yoga pose! Jj is for jacket & that’s just what we’ve been wearing to school now that the weather is getting colder. One of our art projects this week was dressing up the letter Jj in a jacket. Take a peek at our wall of letters to see how they look.

The holidays are happening here at Creative Kids. We read Hanukkah Lights by Dian G. Smith & My Hanukkah Book of Numbers. We began working on our recycled menorah as a class project as well as painted our paper plate menorahs. We also decorated our triangle trees with garland, star confetti and ribbon. We stamped circles on smaller triangle trees and best of all, we painted with bubble wrap for our December door decoration.

Mr. Ben (Ms. Sheri’s husband) made us homemade green playdough & we used holiday cookie cutters to make different shapes. And of course, we played in the centers, as well as practiced our writing & cutting. It was another busy & fun week at preschool!

December Happenings

12/16 – Happy Chanukah!
12/18/14 – Cookies & Milk Holiday Party – 10:30
12/19/14 – Cookies & Milk Holiday Party – 10:30
12/19/14 – Last day of school before Holiday break.
12/19/14 – Polar Express P.J. Party – 6:30-9:30 p.m.
12/22 & 12/23 – Drop & Shop – 8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
12/22/14-1/2/15 – Holiday vacation
12/25 – Merry Christmas!
12/26/14 – Happy Kwanzaa!
12/31/14 – Happy New Year’s Eve!
1/5/15 – Return to school

Looking Ahead

Letter Kk will be our letter of the week & K is for Kwanzaa so we will learn all about this holiday celebrated by African-Americans. We will continue decorating our classroom for the holidays as well as sing our favorite holiday songs.

Below is some information about Kwanzaa.

Via: DegreeSearch.org

The Seven Daily Principles of Kwanzaa

The seven candles (called Mishumaa Saba) placed in the Kinara represent the principles of the harvest (called Nguzo Saba). Each day of Kwanzaa is a celebration of the daily principle.

Umoja (oo-MO-jah)
Unity stresses the importance of togetherness for the family and the community, which is reflected in the African saying, “I am We,” or “I am because We are.”

Kujichagulia (koo-gee-cha-goo-LEE-yah)
Self-Determination requires that common interests are defined and decisions that are in the best interest of our family and community are made.

Ujima (oo-GEE-mah)
Collective work and responsibility reminds the community of the obligation to the past, present and future, and that everyone plays a role in the community, society, and world.

Ujamaa (oo-JAH-mah)
Cooperative economics emphasizes collective economic strength and encourages the community to meet common needs through mutual support.

Nia (NEE-yah)
Purpose encourages the community to look within themselves as individuals and as a group to set personal goals that are beneficial to the community.

Kuumba (koo-OOM-bah)
Creativity makes use of creative energies to build and maintain a strong and vibrant community.

Imani (ee-MAH-nee)
Faith focuses on honoring the best of the traditions, drawing upon the best in people, and helps people strive for a higher level of life for humankind while affirming self-worth and confidence in the ability to succeed and triumph in righteous struggle.

Week of October 14-17, 2014

This Week

We learned about the five senses this week. We read Barney’s Five Senses by Margie Larsen and Mary Ann Dudko and See, Hear, Touch, Taste, Smell by Melvin Berger. Ask me what I use my eyes, ears, nose, mouth and hands for. During art we painted to make a five senses mobile. 

Our letter of the week is “D.”  This is the letter “D” in sign language:

We named many pictures that begin with the letter “D” (ask me about them), read My D Book by Jane Belk Moncure, sang “Dee Doodley Doo” while Dancing & watching the video (http://youtu.be/h7E-tnTiW_Y) and of course we also walked the letter “D.”  Our “D” yoga poses this week were the Dinosaur, Dog, Dolphin, and Do Nothing Pose. And we made a Duck out of an uppercase D!

We celebrated Ben’s 2nd birthday on Thursday. Ben’s mommy brought in Dunkin Donut munchkins. Dunkin Donuts begins with the letter D! They were Delicious! Thank you. 

A great big thank you also to Allison’s family! They donated an easel to our classroom & we are so excited to have another one to use! By the way, Easel begins with the letter E, which will be our new letter of the week next week!

During table top time we used play dough to make letters; practiced our pre-writing & writing skills by painting dots with Q-tips & also tracing lines & letters; put puzzles together and completed our third row of stickers on our 100 Days of School chart.  We have been in school for 30 days already! Time sure flies when we’re having fun. And we are having lots of fun! 

Looking Ahead

Our new letter of the week will be “E.”

We will continue decorating for Halloween! We will be having a Halloween party in class on Thursday and Friday, October 30 & 31 so everyone can participate! Parents are invited. Stay tuned for details. 

Creative Kids Center will also have a community Halloween party on Friday, October 24, 2014.  See our website for details at www.wercreativekids.com. Please register by 10/22 if you would like to attend and be sure to let your friends know too so they don't miss out on the fun!

Weekly Newsletter

This Week

Not only is it the first full week of October but it’s also fire safety week. We watched a fire safety video and learned what to do in case of a fire (http://clifford.scholastic.com/issues/10_02_14). Most important is “Get out & stay out!”

During art we made red fire truck pictures. This activity helped us match simple shapes (circle, square and rectangle) as well as identify and label the shapes and colors. We also painted our hands red to make a “Five Little Firefighters” picture.  We sang, “Stop, Drop and Roll” and “The Wheels on the Fire Truck.” We read Curious George at the Fire Station and Clifford, the Firehouse Dog. Curious and Clifford both begin with the letter “C.” And speaking of the letter C…

Our letter of the week is “C.”  This is the letter “C” in sign language:

We named many pictures that begin with the letter “C” (ask me about them), read My C Book by Jane Belk Moncure, sang “I’m Crazy for C” while dancing & watching the video (http://youtu.be/GDnzj88O6aQ) and also walked the letter “C.” We ate oreo cookies for snack because we all know, “C is for Cookie, that’s good enough for me!”

Our “C” yoga poses this week were the Candle, Cat, Chair, Cobra, and Cow.

Ask me which friend’s name begins with the letter “C.”

During table top time we played with play dough, put puzzles together, and built with Legos as well as some other blocks.  All of these activities help to strengthen our fine motor skills, allow us to use our imagination, and learn how to share with our friends. Some of us also practiced our pre-writing skills and some of us practiced writing our letters.

We also began a new year long project this week.  You might wonder why some of our work doesn’t come home. Well, that’s because at the end of this school year we’ll have a big surprise for you. You’ll need to be patient! But it will be worth it!

Looking Ahead

Remember: No school on Monday, October 13, 2014. Enjoy your Columbus Day!

Our new letter of the week will be “D.” Do dinosaurs dance during dinner?

We will begin decorating for Halloween! We will be having a Halloween party in class on Thursday and Friday, October 30th & 31st so everyone can participate! Parents are invited. Stay tuned for details.

Creative Kids Center will also have a community Halloween party on Friday, October 24, 2014. Check out the community calendar on the website for details!

Our friend, Ben is having a birthday on Sunday. We’ll celebrate in school next Thursday.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Ben!

Have a wonderful 3-day weekend!

Weekly Newsletter

Last Week (Sept. 22-24)

Happy fall!

We said good-bye to summer & welcomed fall by reading “Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf,” making marbled leaves with shaving cream & paint & digging for shapes in our fall sensory bin.

 It’s “B” week!  We learned how to sign the letter “B,” named many pictures that begin with the letter “B” read My B Book by Jane Belk Moncure, sang “B is for my Body” & walked the letter “B.”  “B” week will continue into next week due to the short week.

And speaking of short weeks, Rosh Hashanah is the reason for our short week so we read Sammy Spider’s First Rosh Hashanah by Sylvia Krauss and learned a little bit about this holiday.

To help us with our letters, we’re learning yoga with The ABC’s of Yoga for Kids written by Teresa Anne Power. Each week we will learn a new yoga pose corresponding with our letter of the week.

This Week (Sept. 29-Oct. 3)

What a busy week! We had apples, honey & challah bread for snack to learn about some foods eaten during Rosh Hashanah. We dipped the apples in honey, which signifies having a sweet New Year.  Some of us liked it, some of us didn’t. But that’s okay; we all have different tastes, which is only one part of us that makes us unique.

Speaking of different, we read a flipbook called “I Am Special” & learned how people are all different.  We have different hair color, eye color & skin color. We like different foods & different toys. We also read Shades of People by Shelly Rotner, which showed us the different color skin people can have. 

You may have noticed a special newsletter coming home in our backpacks. We have a class subscription to “My Big World with Clifford” & will receive several themed newsletters this year.  One of the themes was friends & sharing. We watched a short video about friendship & talked about sharing.  Candice & Allison share blocks & Thomas shares crayons. If you would like to see the videos we watch in class you can go to http://clifford.scholastic.com/ & register for an account. Our class password is crayon. You can review all of the videos we’ll be watching as the school year progresses.   

Guess what? We have an easel in the class now! We painted self-portraits & painted lots of pictures on our new easel.  We said good-bye to September & hello to October. Did you know September had 22 sunny days, 6 cloudy days & 2 rainy days? We had the MOST sunny days & the LEAST rainy days. We also read Fall Leaves Change Color, Why Do Leaves Change Color? & I Am a Leaf to welcome October. And because it’s now October, we have a new Halloween sensory bin.

And one more thing…we are learning to write our letters using the Fundations program.  This program is used by Sachem School District. It is appropriate for our 4-5 year olds so our 2’s & 3’s aren’t expected to master this yet.

Looking Ahead

Happy October! Fall is in full swing & October has begun. We can’t wait to celebrate Halloween! Stay tuned as we keep you posted about our Halloween festivities in the next few weeks! 

National Fire Prevention Week is October 5-11. We will learn all about fire safety.

Our All About Me unit will continue as we keep exploring our five senses & learning about our feelings.

Our new letter of the week will be “C.” 

Learning to write our name is important & we will use the Fundations program to acquire this readiness skill.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Weekly Newsletter

September Activities

• Identifying body parts
• Recognizing our names in print
• Recognizing and identifying letters, numbers, shapes and colors
• Learning the months of the year, days of the week and four seasons
• Tracing our names
• Exploring apples
• Discovering our new season, fall

Last Week (September 8-12)

We began our “All About Me” unit last week which will last throughout October. We identified our body parts, read the book “All About You” and began making our “I Am Special” books. We sang, “Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes.”

We also started with the letter “A” as our “Letter of the Week.” We learned how to make an “A” in sign language, named many pictures that begin with the letter “A” & sang the song, “Let’s Sing Hurray for “A.” These were just a few of the activities during our school days last week.

This Week (September 15-19)

Welcome, Sophia!

This week we welcomed our new friend, Sophia to the Tues/Thurs class. We are so happy to have her join us at Creative Kids!

We continued our “All About Me” unit and completed our “I Am Special” books.  We also continued with the letter A and learned all about apples! Ms. Sheri cut apples and we explored the core and the seeds inside. Did you know when an apple is cut in half there is a star inside?

During art, we made apple print pictures by stamping apples in paint, then stamping on paper. We made “a is for apple” pictures too.

During snack time, we tasted red, green and yellow apples. Then we each picked which one we liked best and made a class chart. We counted how many of us liked each color. Guess which apple most of us liked the best? Ask me which one is my favorite!

Some of the books we read this week were “An Apple a Day” and “I Like Me.” We also sang some apple songs including, “Did You Ever See an Apple?” and "A-P-P-L-E."

We used play dough to make the letter “A” and also to make faces.  We played with our sensory bin filled with beans and magnetic letters. We searched for the letters of our name and placed them on the magnet board.

Looking Ahead

Next week is a short week because school is closed on Thursday and Friday due to Rosh Hashanah. Our letter of the week will be the letter “B” and we will talk about our new season, fall, which can also be called autumn!

Hope you have an adventure-filled weekend and we’ll see you on Monday!

Our First Week

Welcome to Creative Kids!

As we get ready to kick off our first school year at Creative Kids, we would like to welcome all of our new students and families! We are truly grateful that you have entrusted us with your precious little ones and look forward to a fun-filled and exciting school year!

September Activities

This month we will introduce many exciting topics, including the identification and recognition of body parts, letters, numbers, shapes and colors. In addition, we will learn to recognize our names in print.

Fall Fun

September brings us a new season with crisp, cool air, falling leaves and vibrant colors. Our students are introduced to this colorful season with enjoyable activities such as creating apple prints, tasting apples and graphing our favorites (red, yellow or green), discussing what we wear in the fall and making “Falling Leaves” pictures. These are just a few of the fun-filled fall activities that we have planned.

Our First Week

Our first week in school was fabulous! While we are a small group, we had huge amounts of fun!

During our first few days we adjusted to the classroom routine, made new friends and learned the classroom rules. Remember to ask your child about their day. This will encourage open communication between parents and children as well as help develop their language skills.

During circle time, we began by singing songs to shake out our “sillies” to help us attend to the activities. We introduced the calendar by learning songs about the days of the week and months of the year. We also discussed the daily weather. We sang “Mr. Sun” every day since we had beautiful sunny days all week!

During story time we read Barney and Baby Bop Go to School and Clifford’s First Day at School. These stories helped us adjust to being at school and away from our homes.

Look for our art projects hanging on the walls! We made “O’fishally a Preschooler” handprints, decorated the first letter of our names and made “Back to School” pictures by tracing our hands.

During center time, we played in the housekeeping and construction areas as well as built with blocks and strengthened our fine motor skills with play dough.  Using our fingers with play dough will actually help us develop our future writing skills.

These are just a few of the activities we participated in this week. Next week is sure to be even more fun. We will begin our “All About Me” unit by identifying our body parts and discussing our senses, talking about our feelings and measuring and charting our heights.

Have a wonderful weekend and we’ll see you on Monday!