Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays to all of the OCS students, staff, and families! Have a wonderful, joyful holiday season and a healthy Happy New Year!! See you in 2010!

Friday, December 18th, 2009

Friday News
Friday, December 18th, 2009

Happy Holidays! This week in preschool, our student teacher, Mrs. Gilberti began to take over some of the activities during our day. She set up some fantastic centers last week that the kids loved participating in. They decorated trees, wrapped presents, made holiday cards, and counted bows on boxes of presents. This week she is continuing her theme and extending it to winter holidays and snowy weather. These themes will continue through Wednesday of next week.
We practiced writing letter “C” this week, and the children love trying to find the letters around the room- literacy is all around us, and they are picking up more every day.

We have a new student, Lainee Henry, who will start school after our Christmas break on January 4th. I will send home an updated class list attached in January.

Please see the note about our holiday party next week, and let us know if you can attend/help. We will have our regular morning until 10:00, when parents are invited to attend. At 11:00, you can take your child home with you.

There will not be a Friday newsletter next week, as we have a short week for the holiday. I hope everyone has a fantastic, restful, safe holiday season. See you in 2010!

Mrs. Remaly and Mrs. Gilberti

Friday December 4th

Friday News
Friday, December 4, 2009

The weeks seem to be going by faster and faster as this year goes on! We began a unit on “Winter Holidays” to kick off this upcoming season. We introduced our new month, December, by tracing and practicing the letter “D.” We made scented gingerbread cookies and colored gingerbread houses.

We joined second grade on Thursday to create a bulletin board with holiday lights to tell when we feel we shine our brightest. The children came up with some great ideas of things that they thought they did well. We are bringing home our “Thankful Quilts” that we did last month with second grade which were displayed on the board throughout Thanksgiving.

Next week, we’ll continue by making candy canes with a red/white pattern, creating trees using shapes, and work on the letter “C.”

I am hoping to have a small holiday party on Wednesday, December 23rd from 10:00-11:00. Let me know if you have any ideas for crafts or activities that you would like to share. I am planning to have 3-4 activity stations set up like we did for our Halloween party.

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Mrs. Remaly

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Friday November 20th 2009

Friday News
Friday, November 20th 2009

This week we finished our unit on Fall Harvest. All of our fantastic vegetable projects are displayed in our room. I will send them home next week before Thanksgiving break. We started talking about turkeys and created our story board for the “Five Little Turkeys.” We practiced and traced letters “F” and “P.” We worked more on fine motor skills by tracing shapes to make a Native American Teepee, and we continue to practice coloring inside the lines of shapes each morning for a few minutes before announcements.

Since the weather was nice, we got outside to the playground 2 days this week. The kids really enjoyed it! We also had one “surprise” fire drill, and the kids did an excellent job remembering what to do!

Just last week I mentioned we had two substitute classroom aides- this week things have changed, and from now on, Mrs. Gilberti and I will be in the classroom. Mrs. Gifford joins us about an hour each morning. I know some parents had questions, and just wanted to make sure I gave you the latest information. The kids have adjusted well to meeting new people and remembering new names. If there are any changes, I will be sure to let you know.

We have just three days of school next week. Although the school follows an Early Dismissal schedule next Wednesday, it does not affect our preschool day. School next Wednesday is still from 8:30-11. There will not be a Friday newsletter next week.

I hope everyone has a safe, happy, and wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!See you on Monday, November 30th to begin a unit on Winter Holidays- it’s coming so fast!

Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Remaly

November 13th, 2009

Friday News
Friday, November 13th 2009

This week in preschool, we began a theme of “Fall Harvest.” We talked about vegetables and made pictures of broccoli, carrots, potatoes, and corn that we have displayed in our classroom in a basket. We talked about how the fall is a great time for gathering vegetables to bring to Thanksgiving dinner. We have enjoyed some silly stories about turkeys in preparation for the upcoming holiday.

We traced letter “F” this week, and worked more on the sounds of the letters in our names, the syllables in our name, and rhyming words.

Next week, we will focus more on turkeys as we use projects to target numeral recognition, counting, color words, and fine motor skills.

We welcome Mrs. Angela Gilberti as our student teacher! Mrs. Gilberti will be with us until Christmas break! She will begin to plan for and teach some of the parts of our day in the weeks ahead.

Because Mrs. Ruskan is needed somewhere else in our building, we have been spending our time with some new classroom aides- Mrs. Laura Smorto and Mrs. Jessie Guia. You may be seeing one of the two of them outside in the mornings. We are thankful to have such great people in our classroom each day.

Next week, we will introduce a theme of “turkeys” in preparation for Thanksgiving. Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Remaly

November 4th 2009

“Friday” News
Wednesday, November 4th 2009

We had a short week this week. We finished tracing and writing capital and lowercase letter “H.” We started recognition of letter “P.” We will begin next week with a unit on Fall Harvest in preparation for Thanksgiving. We will talk about fruits and vegetables and target the letters “F” and “V.”

Because the weather has been chilly this week, we practiced some gross motor skills by having scooter races in the hallway. The kids really loved this, and we hope to get them out again soon.

It was so nice to get to see and talk to everyone at Parent-Teacher Conferences. I know I expressed this to everyone, but want to say again how extremely proud I am of how tremendous our preschoolers are doing. I know that’s a combined effort from home and school. Keep up all of the great things you are doing at home!

Please remember to return your signed report card envelope so that we can reuse them for next report card!

Have a great, long weekend!

Mrs. Remaly

October 30th 2009

Friday News
Friday, October 30th 2009

Happy Halloween!! We had another busy week of preschool! We truly enjoyed all of our Red Ribbon Week Activities. On Monday, we did our Pumpkin Hunt, following clues that led us to finding our pumpkin with the 8th graders in the library. We also made spiders that are decorating our school’s main lobby to remind us not to get “caught in the web” of making bad choices. On Tuesday, we collected cans for the food back in the area. On Wednesday, we met with 2nd grade to paint pumpkins and read Halloween stories. On Thursday we wore our team jerseys and practiced tracing the letter “H” for Halloween!

Friday, of course, is Halloween! We were all so excited about our costumes and dressing up for our party. At our party, we played pin the nose on the Jack-o-Lantern, bean-bag toss, Pass the Pumpkin, and decorated pumpkin cookies for snack. Thank you again for all of the helpers and those of you who donated items for the party- I truly appreciate your help!

Please remember that next week, we have 3 regular days of school and 2 days off. The school follows an Early Dismissal Schedule on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, but our preschool schedule remains the same. School is closed Thursday and Friday. I will see or talk to everyone at some point on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday as we meet for our conferences. If you need to change the time of your conference, please let me know as soon as possible with a note so we can hopefully arrange something else.

Be safe as you go out trick-or-treating, and have fun!

Have a wonderful weekend!
Mrs. Remaly

October 23rd

Friday News
Friday, October 23rd 2009

This week we finished our unit on leaves by taking a “Leaf Walk” and looking for the special colors of fall. We used these leaves to create “My Book of Leaves.” The children know the colors of fall leaves, and we also talked about sizes and shapes. We sorted by color and counted, too!We introduced our theme of “pumpkins” and patterned big and little pumpkins. We made a story board for “Five Little Pumpkins.” The children have enjoyed reading this story together. Their story board will come home next week and they can share it with you, too.

Next week begins Red Ribbon week here at OCS. You should have received information about the week’s events. We painted a pumpkin this past week that we will hide for the 8th graders to find. They painted and hid one for us, too! We will use their clues to try to find a pumpkin in our school somewhere! We also have a few spirit days next week, so please see your notice for the information.

Friday the 30th is our Halloween class party. Please remember it begins at 10:00 a.m. for parents. I think we have all of the goodies that we need- thank you so much to everyone who is willing to help out on this day. It should be lots of fun. I can’t wait to see all of the great costumes that I have been hearing so much about.

I have attached the recipe we used to make Pumpkin Pie Playdough- it’s very easy and the kids loved it. It made our whole room smell delicious.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Remaly

October 23rd

Friday News
Friday, October 23rd 2009

This week we finished our unit on leaves by taking a “Leaf Walk” and looking for the special colors of fall. We used these leaves to create “My Book of Leaves.” The children know the colors of fall leaves, and we also talked about sizes and shapes. We sorted by color and counted, too!We introduced our theme of “pumpkins” and patterned big and little pumpkins. We made a story board for “Five Little Pumpkins.” The children have enjoyed reading this story together. Their story board will come home next week and they can share it with you, too.

Next week begins Red Ribbon week here at OCS. You should have received information about the week’s events. We painted a pumpkin this past week that we will hide for the 8th graders to find. They painted and hid one for us, too! We will use their clues to try to find a pumpkin in our school somewhere! We also have a few spirit days next week, so please see your notice for the information.

Friday the 30th is our Halloween class party. Please remember it begins at 10:00 a.m. for parents. I think we have all of the goodies that we need- thank you so much to everyone who is willing to help out on this day. It should be lots of fun. I can’t wait to see all of the great costumes that I have been hearing so much about.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Remaly

October 16th

Friday News

We finished our unit on “trees and leaves” this week and practiced letters “T” and “L.” We still have our leaf work displayed in our classroom, and it will be coming home early next week. We will begin our week on Monday talking about Pumpkins in preparation for our class trip on Friday, October 23rd. Our target letters will be “P” and “O” for the color orange! Next week, we will also be making Pumpkin Pie Playdough for use in the classroom. I will send home the recipe we use with next week’s newsletter- it’s awesome!

I am so happy to report that our behaviors have been “soaring!” Our kite system is working out very well, and the children are really working hard to always do their best.

This week in centers the children had practice with chalkboards and chalk to practice some of the letters we have learned. They also worked on copying patterns at the math center. The art table is always a favorite, and they are getting a lot better at coloring inside the lines! We have been playing our instruments that we made in class, and enjoying moving to music.

We had a special assembly called, “Dragons and Dreams” on Thursday of this week and are attending another one with a visit from author Dar Hosta on the 21st. It’s so nice for the preschoolers to be a part of these school-wide events.


I hope everyone received the information about Halloween, as we begin our planning for a fun day.

Have a wonderful weekend- stay dry!

Mrs. Remaly

Friday, October 9th 2009

We had a great, fall week in preschool! We continued our unit on leaves and trees, and worked on the letter “T.” All of the children can identify the beginning letter in their name, recognize their name in print, clap how many syllables are in their name, and recognize most colors. We have finished up letters “A” and “T” and will move onto “L” next week. Take any opportunity to point out these letters as you see them in your environment to help your child remember them. We have practiced writing the numbers “1” and “2” so far, and will move to number “3” next week as well.

We made ABAB patterns with different colors of leaves, and graphed our favorite color leaf. We will be taking a nature walk outside in the next few days to see what color leaves we can find so that we can sort them by color and count them.

On Thursday, we participated in Jumpstart’s “Read for the Record.” We joined Miss Lunghi’s 2nd grade class to help break the record for most people around the world reading Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We did a great sequencing activity and colored the pictures from the story.

Please remember to send in your permission slip for our field trip! We look forward to a great day at the Pumpkin Patch!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Remaly

October 2nd, 2009

Friday News
Friday, October 2nd 2009

Dear Parents,

The children were busy this week starting our unit on “trees and leaves.” We introduced the letter “T” and had the chance to trace it, find pictures that started with T, and trace it in shaving cream. We began our fall leaves book by identifying the colors that fall leaves can be. We made fall tress by counting out a certain number of leaves to glue on. These trees are displayed in our classroom this week and will come home later next week.

I unfortunately had to miss 3 days of school this week because I was out with the flu. Mrs. Ruskan did an awesome job taking over and keeping the kids going on our usual routine!

We have continued clapping the syllables in our names, and enjoying our centers. The children have been really interested in building with Lincoln Logs in the block center. We have some great pictures to share!


Have a wonderful weekend!
Mrs. Remaly

Friday News
September 25th, 2009

This week, we finished our theme of “Apples” and practiced a lot of tracing and writing upper and lowercase “A.” The children really enjoyed tracing the letters with their fingers in shaving cream! We painted apple shapes and made ABAB patterns with colors of apples.

We began clapping out the syllables in our names, and also in some funny words. The children are getting the hang of this quickly! We traced and practiced the number “1” and are counting sets of objects each day for practice.
I hope everyone enjoyed the picture books we sent home about making applesauce. I can’t wait for our next cooking project- hopefully in two weeks.

Next week, we will move onto a theme of “Trees” and “Leaves” and begin work writing letters “T” and “L.” We will also practice writing numbers “2” and “3.”

Thank you for all of the bottles and jars that were sent in for our instruments. We are all set to start making them!

Please remember to send back your form about the field trip- it will help us plan transportation so that we can get final information out to you.

Have a wonderful weekend!Mrs. Remaly

Applesauce!

The Preschoolers made applesauce today! We talked about how the apples looked, smelled, and tasted. We used mashers to mash the apples, and spoons to stir. We took turns and worked together! We all had a chance to taste apples and applesauce, and shared some with friends around the building. What a great day!

September 18th

Friday, September 18th, 2009
Friday News

Dear Parents,

It was so great to see everyone at Back-To-School Night on Tuesday! Thank you for coming to see our classroom.

This week we began talking more about apples and beginning to write the letter “A.” We will revisit letter “A” for more practice next week, while also introducing letter “T” for the fall trees we will soon be observing. We have continued to identify our name in print, and are starting to identify the beginning letter of each of our names. The children have been coloring pictures in the morning when they arrive, and haven’t tired of it yet! They loved digging in the macaroni in the sensory table and using playdough in the art center. We began to do some numeral recognition with a game at the math table called, “Peanuts in a Bag.” We are working only on numbers 1-3 for now, although we count higher each day. We did more yoga this week, and introduced the “Bear Hunt” and “Beanbag Dance” songs at music and movement time.

Next week, on Monday, we will be making homemade applesauce as a class. I am attaching the recipe we use- it’s very simple, but very fun! We will target turn-taking, counting skills, following directions in a sequence, and fine motor skills. We will explore cause and effect, and use our senses to make predictions and answer questions- including the best ones for cooking- smell and taste!

You can begin to send in any containers for instruments on Monday. Thank you for your help with this project.

I have attached a parent article on the “Development of the Preschool Child.” Enjoy.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Remaly

September 11th

Friday News
September 11, 2009

Dear Preschool Families,

What a busy and exciting time in preschool! Everyone is working so hard learning the classroom rules and expectations. We had the chance to pick classroom jobs, make our own placemats for snack, and decorate our kites for our behavior chart. In math we sorted objects by color and recreated pictures with pattern blocks. As a group, we graphed how we get to school each day and what our favorite color apple is. We count objects all day long, too! To encourage literacy, we are learning to recognize our name in print and identify the letter it starts with. The children worked on some silly story puzzles and we read together each day as a group. We loved visiting the playground last week, and hope to get out again soon! Writing practice started this week by making simple strokes and shapes so that we can begin to form letters in the next weeks ahead- I hope you enjoy seeing their work come home. Help your child remember how to hold their crayon and to always start writing a letter at the top! (we have a fun song they might want to sing with you for this!) Next week, we will be doing lots of fun projects with apples!

I hope to see everyone on Back to School Night on September 15th. I have some great information about our curriculum to share.
Have a wonderful weekend!Mrs. Remaly

Week of Sept 2nd

The preschoolers had a terrific week! They all adjusted well to a new classroom and our expectations. We introduced circle time and centers, and the children were able to choose from a variety of things to do. We made placemats for snack time and made a graph about how we got to school. We spent Friday enjoying some time outdoors and learning the playground rules. Next week, we will pick classroom jobs to help enhance our sense of helping and community. Our theme of Apples will begin, and we will introduce the letter "A" for tracing and writing. Look for the Friday newsletter to come home on the 11th. Have a great weekend!

Welcome!

Welcome to Preschool 2009! I hope everyone had a fantastic summer. If you did not receive my information packet that came home over the summer, please let me know as soon as possible. This will provide you with the information you need for your child for the first few days of school until we meet for Back to School Night. If you have any questions or concerns before that, feel free to call me, email me, or send a note in your child's folder.

I am looking forward to another wonderful year at OCS! Welcome back!