Mrs. Stortini's Preschool Class News

Hello Families!

Thank you so much for braving the cold and snow to join us for our December Parent Meeting! This month we focused on what literacy looks like and sounds like in a preschool classroom, as well as ways to support your growing reader at home.

The most important thing to remember is to read together as often as possible! Everyone is a reader, no matter their age, skill level, or language. Here are three ways you can read a story together at home:

1. Talk about the pictures
2. Retell a familiar story (Ex. The Three Bears)
3. Find letters and/or familiar words

Another good resource is myon.com, a website that we have access to which provides free ebooks for fsmilies to read together at home. Everyone recieved their logon information at the meeting, as well as practiced logging in. If you are having difficulty getting into the website at home please let me know and we can work together to get it working!

Thank you so much again for joining us, please enjoy these pictures from our parent meeting!

Exploring MyOn together!

Building letters with lines and curves.

Digging for letters in the sand table!

Reminders for next week:

1. Late start on Wednesday, school will begin at 9:40am.
2. Wednesday is pajama day! Your child can wear pajamas to school if they like, but no slippers please.
3. Thursday is our winter parent fair! This is not a regular day of school; please come to Cotter from 8:40-10:10am for fun winter games and activities!

Have a great weekend!

~Mrs. Stortini and Ms. Thabet

We love the Snow!

This week the children experienced their first snow of the winter! During the week the children have been watching the weather to see when the snow was going to fall. They noticed the weather had been getting colder and were making predictions about what day of the week the snow would appear. Wednesday and Thursday during small group time we read the story Froggy Gets Dressed by Jonathon London and talked about the importance of wearing all of our warm clothes during outside time. The children then practiced putting on snow pants, boots, jackets, hats, and gloves by themselves. In the afternoon we saw HUGE snowflakes outside our windows and were able to go outside and play in the snow!

Some parents have expressed their concern that going outside to play in the winter will cause their children to get sick. Research shows that the reason many children become sick in the winter is because they are indoors for longer periods of time where the germs are trapped. Going outside provides fresh air and allows germs to escape and helps children to stay healthier. Through out the winter we will be going outside to play two times everyday (even in the snow!) so it is important to make sure your child is prepared for outside time so that they can be warm and comfortable while playing on the playground.

Here are some ideas for clothes to send to school during the winter months:

-Jacket 

-Hat 

-Snow Gloves

-Snow Pants 

-Boots 

A few reminders for next week:

-Our next mandatory parent meeting will be Thursday, December 15th at 9:00am in our classroom. This is NOT a regular day of school, please plan to come to school with your child at 9:00am and stay until 10:30am. Children will then be dismissed to get home with your for the remainder of the day.

Have a great weekend, and stay warm!

~Mrs. Stortini and Ms. Thabet

Hello Families!

Our schedule will be slightly different for next week due to late start and parent teacher conferences.

Monday- 8:40-3:20pm

Tuesday- 8:40-3:20pm

Wednesday- LATE START 9:40-3:20pm (evening conferences 4-7pm)

Thursday- NO SCHOOL (Conferences all day)

I will be sending conference time reminders home Monday in children’s folders. You can also find your conference times by clicking on the conference link at the top of our blog’s home page.

Please enjoy these pictures from our classroom this week:

During work time the children used shaving cream to practice writing letters.

Ms. Emily talked with the children about expressing emotions using kind words, and then the children used paper bags and art materials to create puppets they could practice being kind to.

Using counting bears to practice counting one-to-one correspondence.

Have a great weekend!

~Mrs. Stortini and Ms. Thabet

Hello Families!

There will be no school tomorrow: Tuesday, November 8th as it is Election Day. Don’t forget to vote, and we will see you back at school on Wednesday!

~Mrs. Stortini and Ms. Thabet

Hello Families!

Don’t forget, picture day tomorrow Thursday, November 3, 2016. We can’t wait to see all of your smiling faces in the morning!

~Mrs. Stortini and Ms. Thabet

Hello Families!

This week in our classroom the children were talking a lot about the changes they have been noticing outside outside our classroom window and on our playground. The weather has been turning colder and many leaves have begun to change color, luckily the rain held off long enough for us to go on a walk around the block yesterday during large group time. Several children noticed that the purple flowers we see along the playground fence had “gone to sleep” and that the wind was blowing “lots and lots” of leaves all around!

During small group time children explored pumpkins; making observations about the texture of the skin, the colors of the stem, as well as how heavy it was. They then made predictions about the diameter of their pumpkin (how big around it was) and checked their prediction using measuring tapes. We then recorded our findings using a chart and markers.

This week we also had an assembly in the large gym where the children listened to and acted out the story The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda D. Williams. Children were able to sing along and act out the various parts of the story using hand motions and props!

Here’s a link to my favorite version of the song on YouTube so you can sing the song at home with your child!

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid Of Anything

A few reminders for this week:

-Monday October 31st is pajama day. Your child can wear pajamas to school if they like, but no slippers please! We will be going outside to play on the playground and gym shoes make it easier and safer for children to run and play on the wood chips.

-I added three new pages to our blog! There is now a page for the classroom calendar, lunch calendar, as well as parent teacher conference appointments.

-Picture day is Thursday, November 3rd.

Have a great weekend!

~Mrs. Stortini and Ms. Thabet

Hello Families!

Thank you for attending our classroom parent meeting on Independence in Preschool, Ms. Thabet and I really enjoyed getting to see everyone! We hope that you find the strategies we talked about yesterday helpful to you at home. Here is a brief overview of the information we covered…

Along with learning academic skills such as letters, numbers, and name writing, another important skill children learn in school is how to be independent.

We teach this important skill at school in several ways:

• Consistent routine

• Labeling with words and pictures

• Encouraging self-help skills

Some ways to help children learn a new skill:

• Teach how to do skill (hand over hand, talk them through it)
• Provide opportunities to practice
• It doesn’t have to be perfect!
• Spills happen. It’s not an emergency, we just clean it up!
• Encourage their efforts

Please enjoy these pictures from our parent meeting yesterday:

Reminders for next week:

-Please wash and return nap blankets and pillows to school on Monday.

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Stortini and Ms. Thabet

This week we had a special visit from the Dearborn Firefighters who taught us how to stay safe during a fire. They talked about the importance of having a family plan incase of an emergency so everyone in the home knows where to meet once they leave the house. For example, as soon as the fire alarm goes off everyone leaves the house and meets at the tree in front or your neighbors porch.

The children were able to watch the firefighters demonstrate stop, drop, and roll incase their clothing were to catch fire, as well as see a firefighter weaing their protective gear and listen to them talk through their oxygen mask. At the end of the presentation we all went outside to look at the firetruck and listen to the siren!

Later during large group time the children worked together to write a list of important tips the firefighters gave us as well as practicing stop, drop, and roll. We also had a classroom firedrill so the children will kow what to do incase of an emergency in our classroom.

Here are some pictures from our fire safety assembly!

A few reminders for next week:

This Thursday, October 20, 2016 is our classroom parent meeting. We will be discussing strategies for fostering academic and social independence in your child, as well as answering any questions you may have. This meeting is MANDATORY and is NOT a regular day of school! Please come to school with your child at 9am and plan to stay until 10:30am. There will be a short introduction as well as hands-on activities/games for you and your child to participate in together. Once the parent meeting is over you can take your child home for the afternoon.

I can’t wait to see everyone, and I hope you had an enjoyable and refreshing weekend!

Mrs. Stortini & Ms. Thabet