Holiday Session '15 Begins~

Well we are all back after a long break for Fall.  I hope you are all enjoying this cooler weather.  A great time to be outside.  We have a new playground cover at McQueen which will come in handy in the hot months.
The children have resumed their routine just as never having taken a break.  Welcome to my new families!

As most of you know,  I support multi-age classrooms; my classes have children ages 3-5.  So many skills are reaped by both the older child and the younger.  Here you can see Caden helping Harper with her stringing of beads.  It warms my heart when I see this in action.   The older child gains a sense of leadership, self-worth and achievement; while the younger child accepts help, learns a new skill and a sense of accomplishment.  

                                                             Making Friends,

                                                      Working together and Sharing

                                     are all so important in the early childhood classroom.

Friendship, sharing of ideas, problem solving and creating are all part of skills that will help in future schooling.  Having fun is important too!

We've begun our fall unit with the life cycle of a pumpkin.....Seed, Sprout, Plant, Vine, Green Pumpkin, Orange Pumpkin!  See if your child remembers the sequence!  We    decorated our journals and have begun our story telling for language development.  Some great stories are being told!  LOL

                                                     Silly face pumpkins

       We worked on fine motor skills with Geo Boards, peeling stickers and lacing beads.  I will be giving a sheet to take home to work on fine motor skills, with an emphasis on holding a crayon, marker or pencil.

Great pics from playground time and Gym Class

Thursday's class enjoyed music time with Musical instruments!

Oscar the Owl is our class mascot this session and will be going home with each classmate.  We'd love to hear what your child did with Oscar.  Tell a story, add a picture or two in his travel journal!

Next week......Halloween Parties!

Community Workers Continued

We had two more visitors this week.  Nurse Jeremy Gianzero (Jaxens' dad) and our own custodian, Mr.Sam at McQueen!  The children had so much fun and love when we have visitors!

It was fun dressing up as nurses and we even listened to our heart beat!

Mr. Sam showed us how he keeps McQueen and our classroom so clean!

We ended our unit with Fire Safety as we toured our school to find fire alarms, extinguishers and emergency exits.  We had our own fire drill and the children decided to count all the sprinklers in the center!  A great math lesson!

Thursdays class had fun learning about our town workers too as they dressed up and learned about safety.

I feel very safe in class!

  We were happy to get a playtime outside on an overcast day and a somewhat lower temp!

     Fun with friends!

  And look what we saw in our parking lot!  I love when educational moments happen that I didn't plan!

   

Community Workers!

We began our Community Workers unit last week until our week was cut short with my flu and aching jaw.  Now.....a root canal coming! Ugh.      We had the pleasure of having Andrew's dad, Officer Mike Holyoak and his co-worker, Officer Dani visit our class.   The children were so excited!

We started on Monday with Mail Carriers.  They wrote many "letters" and even licked the envelopes (I"m surprised : ) We have our own class mailbox for our special mail.

                                             Everyone journaled (wrote) a note to a family member.

                    We were astronauts, construction workers and firefighters!  We talked about safety at
                          home and how many community workers keep us safe.

Officer Mike Holyoak ( Andrew's dad) and Officer Dani.  We talked about safety and how officers keep us safe.  Officer Mike showed us things he wears on his uniform that keep  him safe.  Officer Dani told us even women can be officers!
We looked at the Officer's badge and it is heavy to wear!

 
Most fun was looking at the Police Car. We all got to sit in
side the car while the lights were flashing!

             There even is a computer in the car! (We were surprised by this!)

Officer Mike and Andrew, his son.

What a fun morning we had.  Can you tell it was  sunny while we took the picture? 

Officer Dani shook our hands and we went inside to say goodbye to the officers.  They put the sirens on for us and waved goodbye until next time~

 
It was exciting that just as the Police car arrived the
mail was being picked up so we got to see the mail truck too!



We all signed a card for the Officers thanking them for coming. We painted a police car and colored a police officer for them, too!


Now we know how to be safe!

1.  Police officers help us.
2.  If someone knocks on your door at home, let an adult
answer it.
3.  In case you cannot get an adults help, know to call 9-1-1.
4.  Stay away from pools if there is no adult.
5.  If you are lost in a store , find a store worker or police
officer to help.  Always stay with mom or dad!
6. Always wear a helmet when you are on a bike, or scooter or skating!
7.  Always wear your seat belt in the car.