Friday Newsletter
Friday, December 17, 2010
Santa’s little elves were busy learning about the letter E and practicing fine motor skills, all while making holiday gifts for friends and families. Their little fingers and hands were busy creating reindeer, stockings, ornaments and other crafts that will go unmentioned until Christmas day! We also enjoyed some time in the gym this week, to brush up on our basketball skills. Our little gingerbread man Gil has been very naughty this week. Every morning the children use the clue he leaves behind, to help find his hiding spot. So far, he hasn’t been able to stay in hiding very long. They always find him. The children even suggested we staple him to the board so he couldn’t get away but somehow naughty Gil managed to get loose. The children say he is magical!
We learned how to reuse, reduce and recycle! We all did our best tracing numbers 1-12, for the 12 days of Christmas. Some of the numbers are quite tricky but we never gave up! To let off some steam, we enjoyed freeze dance. We had to use our very best listening skills to hear that music turn off and freeze! They have gotten so good at this game and every one cheered for each other. After all, it’s all about having fun not winning! This week, we also enjoyed an environmental assembly, Super Survivor. We learned to reuse, reduce and recycle! It’s been a fun week. I hope you all enjoy the weekend and hope to see you on pajama day! Pajama day is Thursday, December 23rd. Bagels and juice will be served for the children and then we will all snuggle up with our favorite stuffed animal or blanket, to watch a holiday movie. Parents are welcomed to come snuggle at 10:15. For those of you that have older children at OCS, please remember that this is a half day.


Mrs. Gilberti

FRIDAY NEWSLETTER
Friday, December 10, 2010

A chill is in the air and the shopping malls are busy. The holidays are near! This week in preschool, we discussed all the different holidays celebrated in the month of December. We traced our hands in colors representing the different holidays, and together, created a holiday wreathe for our bulletin board. It looks beautiful!

Our letter of the week was G and what a coincident! G is the first letter in our new friend Gil’s name. Gil is our very naughty gingerbread man who likes to hide from us every morning! Together, we worked on our class Gingerbread Man book. We weren’t the authors but did a great job as illustrators. We loved the story so much and had fun retelling the story with our sequencing cards, which each one of us got to make and take home. We also worked on fine motor skills by decorating a foam cut out gingerbread man with holiday stickers and using yarn (icing) to lace him. Some of us had never tasted a gingerbread man so we had a taste test and then decided to draw a picture of our first bite! They were yummy! In math center, we used gingerbread men to make math sentences and in art center, we water painted holiday scenes! Our reindeer look precious. We traced our hands and a foot to make it and it looks too cute for words. We also continued to work on counting, letter recognition, sequencing, fine motor skills, and classifying! I think I can speak for everyone by saying that one of the most fun moments of the week was getting to go to the gym to play basketball. Thank you Mr. C!

As you see, we have been busy as usual learning while having fun! I hope that everyone enjoys there weekend and stays warm!

Mrs. Gilberti

Friday Newsletter
December 3, 2010

Big and small, short and tall, thin and fat, are all the ways we described our dinosaurs this week. We have been working so hard on letter recognition, and this week we added the letter D to our list of letters that we have learned. What a great letter to discuss, being that mid-week, we entered the month of December! As a class, we are counting down the days to the holiday and can’t wait to celebrate a few birthdays this month too!
We continued to work on fine motor skills. Tearing the tin foil for our tricerotop was a tough job, but it made our dinosaurs look so real. Our stegosaurus was fun to make too. Everyone got to paint their own hand and stamp it on their own dinosaur to make the back plates. We also made our own silly looking dinosaurs out of shapes. We had a lot of creativity oozing out of us, during this activity!
This week, some of us worked on sequencing, while others continued to work on patterns and letter formation. We are always on the go in preschool! A few of our peers brought in books to share. I would like to thank those who did and invite others to bring in their favorite book to share for next week. Please limit it to one book per child.
I hope that everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving Day! I thank you again for all the wipes and hand sanitizer donations for our room. Please congratulate your children for doing such an amazing job, and reaching their goal of 100 blue tickets (10 popcorns)! We will be celebrating with a popcorn party on Tuesday! Enjoy your weekend!

Mrs. Gilberti

Newsletter
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Looking back on this year, I realized that I have a lot to be thankful for. Our preschoolers talked about what it means to be thankful, and by the look of our handprint turkeys, they all have a lot to be thankful for. This week, we practiced our fine motor skills while making all of our turkeys. The potato turkeys look adorable! In the past two weeks, we talked about table manners, Pilgrims, Indians, traditions and Thanksgiving Day foods, and so, I thought that sitting down to a Thanksgiving Day feast, as a class, would be a nice way to close up this unit.

I hope that everyone enjoys the holiday with friends, family and food! Thank you to all who sent in tissues, hand sanitizers, and wipes. Also, I want to thank everyone for their wonderful support thus far. We are having a fun time in preschool and every day is a new adventure. Once again, thank you!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!

Mrs. Gilberti

Friday Newsletter
Friday, November 19, 2010

This week in preschool we talked about Thanksgiving and why we celebrate it! We discussed Pilgrims and Indians and how life was for them. Who knew that they didn’t have a Walmart! We worked hard on our Pilgrims, Indian, and Mayflower stick puppets and enjoyed putting on a puppet show. We worked on the letters T and H and had fun learning how to correctly write the letters. Our turkeys look fantastic! We practiced our cutting skills, coloring and pasting and even got to use real feathers on them. We even talked about proper table manners. Mrs. Ruskan and I performed a little skit, with me being the piggy and she using her manners. Everyone did a great job correcting me and reminding me to use my manners. In our Math center, we enjoyed a Thanksgiving matching game and in the Art center we enjoyed making and counting turkeys out of play-do. Our drama center was a great place for someone to visit if they were sick. There were many Dr’s in the house! Mrs. Nemeth brought Art class to us and we all loved the Indian headdresses we made.

We were all so excited for Thursday’s assembly. We got to meet Jane Lavascio. She is the author of the Casey and Bella books that we have been reading in class. Next week, our focus will be on turkeys and the food we eat for the Thanksgiving celebration. We will also be enjoying some traditional Thanksgiving Day foods on Wednesday. Please remember that next week we will not have school Thursday and Friday! Also, our room is in need of hand sanitizers and antibacterial wipes to help keep down the spread of germs. It’s that season for runny noses! Enjoy your weekend!

Mrs. Gilberti

FRIDAY NEWSLETTER
Friday, November 12, 2010


A chill is in the air and the smell of cinnamon all around us! This is my favorite season. We continued to talk about vegetables and healthy eating this week. We have been practicing our cutting, coloring, pasting and writing skills. We are getting close to the Thanksgiving holiday, so good food and fresh vegetables are on our minds. We all helped to make our large harvest basket and vegetables for our classroom bulletin board. We snipped paper for our carrots, used broccoli to paint our broccoli cut out, finger painted our kernels on our corn, glued pom poms for peas, colored radishes with markers and glued cotton balls on our cauliflower cut out. Our basket of vegetables looks great! We continued to work on tracing our names and reviewed letter sounds. We also worked on expressions of feeling! It was fun and silly to watch each other make, happy, sad and angry faces! We even had a bus evacuation drill this week and enjoyed an assembly on Tuesday!

This week, we enjoyed Fall BINGO in the math center and stamping in the art center. The listening center has been reopened and the children love hearing their favorite stories on CD and following along independently, in a book. They also enjoyed the doll house in the dramatic play center and pretending to pop the corn in the sand and water table.

Next week, we will be discussing Pilgrims and the Thanksgiving Day holiday! Picture retakes are on Monday. I hope you all enjoy your weekend!

Mrs. Gilberti

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

I hope that everyone had a great Halloween and showed some control with all that extra candy around the house! What a great way to introduce healthy foods and vegetables to our kids! This week we talked about farmers, harvesting fruits and vegetables, junk food and staying healthy. We worked on classifying foods into three groups: vegetables, fruits and junk food. We even had a taste test of vegetables. Everyone seemed to enjoy the sugar snap peas and carrots the best!

We learned about the letter V and that the word vegetable begins with a V. We used our best coloring skills and snipping skills to make our own basket of vegetables too! We all enjoyed our poem about Little Boy Blue, and then used our shapes to create our own Little Boy Blue in a hay stack! This week we did get a chance to go outside but everything had a beautiful frost over it. We took this opportunity to talk about how water changes when the temperature changes! There were lots of oooooohhhs and aaaaaaahhhs, especially when they realized how cold it was to the touch of a finger!

We had a short week but as you can see we kept very busy! It was a pleasure to meet with all of you during conferences! Please enjoy your four day weekend!

Mrs. Gilberti

Friday News
Friday, October 29, 2010

Giggles are heard all around. Pumpkins are found on the ground. It’s that time of year again, where little faces are glowing with smiles at the thought of candy in great big piles! Happy Halloween! To get us into the Halloween spirit we have been enjoying creating our room into our Halloween haven! We made handprint bats and creepy monsters! To help us practice our snipping skills, we snipped triangles in green, black, orange and yellow and pasted them into our monsters mouth! In our Math center we practiced making patterns with ghosts, bats and pumpkins. We also created our own Halloween themed cards in our Art center. The most fun of all was our Halloween BINGO with marshmallows! Thank you Mrs. Sandorff for making this game for us and donating it to our classroom!
This week was Red Ribbon Week. Everyone looked wonderful dressed their best on Wednesday! Thank you to all who sent in canned goods on Thursday! We had some big news this week! We earned another popcorn! Speaking of celebrating, our Halloween party was a lot of fun! We started it all off with a school wide pumpkin hunt! It’s been a week of preparation for the BIG DAY! Enjoy trick-or-treating on Sunday and be safe! Please remember that next week M/T/W are half days. Our preschool day will remain the same. We do not have school Thursday and Friday of next week! Enjoy your weekend! I hope to see many of you out trick-or-treating!

Mrs. Gilberti

FRIDAY NEWSLETTER
Friday, October 22, 2010

This week our preschool pumpkins discovered that if they mix yellow and red paint, they can create their own shade of orange! There were lots of ooohhs and ahhhhs heard coming from our room, while we worked on mixing paints with our hands, to make our pumpkins orange! That’s not the only way we made pumpkins. Since we have been talking about shapes, we used different cut out shapes to create a pumpkin. Our crescent shape made the most perfect smile, and the triangle worked best as a nose! With all this talk about pumpkins, I almost forgot to mention that Mrs. Gifford helped us all with putting our lips together to make the P sound in pumpkin! We even made our own pumpkin patch, using small and big pumpkin cut outs and a hulla hoop! We circled the hulla hoop and sang our pumpkin song, and when our name was called, we each got to pick our favorite sized pumpkin from the pumpkin patch! It was a fun way to learn about big and small and how our pumpkins were the same, yet different!

Speaking of circles, this week our question of the week was about circles. We discovered that circles are all around us. We all agreed that some of our favorite foods and snacks are shaped like circle, such as M&M’s, and pizza! Since the weather was nice, we did get to go outside and one day we went to play outside with our parachute and rainbow bean bags, and to our delight, we were joined by Mrs. Sakos’ kindergarten class! They helped us with our colors and shaking the rainbow out of the parachute! After working so hard on shapes, colors, counting, snipping, gluing, letters, writing and fine motor skills, we decided that yoga was a good way to regroup and unwind!

This week we celebrated Michael’s 5th birthday! Thanks Michael for the yummy treats! Next week, we will be celebrating again with a Halloween party! We hope you can join us at 10 am for some yummy treats! Thank you to all who continue to donate wipes, hand sanitizers and tissues to our room! We do appreciate it! Enjoy your weekend!

Mrs. Gilberti

FRIDAY NEWSLETTER
Friday, October 15, 2010

I hope that everyone enjoyed their three day weekend! We all came back on Tuesday, ready to share how we spent our extra day off. Our friend Daniel brought in his pet hermit crab, Harry! Thank you Daniel for bringing him in and telling us a little about what Harry likes to eat and do all day! We also had another visitor this week, Julie. She is in 3rd grade. Julie helped us with a great Halloween pattern activity that she brought in to share! She was even so nice to read us a few of her own story books. We really enjoyed this.

This week, we introduced the letter S. We made a scarecrow and worked on identifying the letter S with a color by letter worksheet. We created an S with our bodies and even slithered back in from the playground, as we pretended to be a huge snake moving in the form of an S.

We introduced shapes this week and focused on squares. At our art center, we pasted different paper cut outs of shapes and let our creative juices run! Take a look at our shape creation board on our blog! To help us recognize a square better, we danced the Hockey Pokey using a red square, blue circle and green triangle instead of our body parts! This was a lot of fun and silly! We also created our black crows using circles and triangles! We did wonderful with the question of the week board! Next week, the question will be, “ Where did you see a circle?” Mrs. Nemeth did a fantastic job with the children making ghost wind socks at Art class. We always love all the amazing crafts she sets up for us! As usual, we were very busy learning, so it was nice to get some stretching in with yoga! Keep up the great work preschoolers!

Mrs. Gilberti

FRIDAY NEWSLETTER
Friday October 8, 2010


What a fantastic week! This week we worked on cutting skills, fine motor skills, listening skills, identifying numbers, writing, and letters. Phewy! We were working hard in preschool!

All of our centers were changed this week. The children always enjoy the change. We continued to practice our letter F sound. This is a tough one but we are doing our best! We even read Rainbow Fish and made our own little fish! Check out our photo on our blog! Mrs. Gifford helped us with the letter L this week too. We used leaf confetti and chalked lined L’s to help us create the letter L. They look so pretty! This week we also used puffy paints to help us make our squirrels. Speaking of squirrels, the sun finally came out and we went on a nature walk! We were scientists looking for leaves, tress, rocks, birds and squirrels! We then came in and made our own observation book! That’s right! We were authors and illustrators!! We even took all the beautiful fall colored leaves we collected and made a collage in the shape of an acorn. We all voted on this shape! Funny thing is, next week we will be introducing shapes!

Well, we will keep working hard on raising our hand and not calling out! Sometimes we just get too excited and can’t wait to answer the question! Have your children sing you our song about the months (to the tune of Frere Jacques)! They have been working so hard on this! The question of the week for next week is, “Where did you see the color black?”

Enjoy your weekend and don’t forget that Monday, October 11, is Columbus Day! We do not have school on this day!

Mrs. Gilberti

FRIDAY NEWSLETTER
Friday, October 1, 2010

Well, this week we enjoyed getting our hands messy with paint! We noticed all of the leaves changing colors and thought it would be a great idea to make our own leaves for our Autumn board! Our leaves look beautiful! We talked about seasons and even got to dress Freddy the Cat for Fall. Speaking of Fall, we worked on the letter F this week! I have been trying to trick the kids with letter jumbles and it just isn’t working.

Something wonderful happened this week! September has ended and we are now in October! Everyone knows that October is Michael’s birthday month because our month cupcakes are helping us learn not only the months but all of our friends birthdays! We have also been working on patterns with our Lego blocks! The children are doing great with their journals and some have even been working on entries at home and bringing them in! Great job preschoolers!

Please remember that all Scholastic on-line orders are due October 11, 2010. Also, the Question of the Week for next week is, “Where did you see the color brown?” Please enjoy your weekend and let’s hope for some sunshine!


Mrs. Gilberti

Friday, September 24, 2010

That time of year is here where we all get our kids primped and ready for picture day! Monday, September 27, is picture day! We are scheduled for photos at 8:30 am. Please remember to send in order forms and payment, if you are ordering photos, with your child.

This week, we continued to practice cutting and gluing skills. We reviewed letters A and B and introduced the letter C. All of the centers were changed this week. In our math center, the children all got to play and enjoy Candy Land. This helped them with turn taking, color recognition and counting. They all enjoyed it. In our sand and water center, the children enjoyed playing with measuring cups, spoons and corn kernels. A special thanks to Mrs. Payne for supplying our center with the corn! We also worked on fine motor skills by creating our own tissue paper corn. I tried to trick my little friends by hiding the letters A/B/C in a letter jumble, but as I was told by the class, “there is no way you can trick us!” The little detectives found each and every letter, capitals and lower case. Speaking of little detectives, we welcomed another friend this week to our pre-school class! We gave Evan a huge welcome! Everyone did great with the Question of the Week board, this week! Next week, the question will be, “Where did you see the color green?” Thank you for all your support from home with this. The children really are excited to come in during morning circle time and share what they discovered.

I hope that everyone gets a chance to get outside and enjoy the weather this weekend. This is a great time of year to get outside with your preschooler and go on a color hunt. With the leaves starting to change color, there is plenty for them to discover!

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Gilberti

FRIDAY NEWSLETTER
Friday, September 17, 2010

It was wonderful to see so many of you at Back To School Night. I hope you all enjoyed our room and had some of your questions and concerns answered. I am so grateful for all of the book donations, which were purchased for our classroom, at the PTA Book Fair. The children will enjoy them all! We thank you!

This week we continued to work on the letter A and introduced the letter B. We practiced forming these letters with Bendaroos and stencils, and continued to identify these letters and sounds in print and song. We also continued to practice color recognition. The weather finally cooperated and we got to play our Toss the Bean Bag game, outside with our colored bean bags and parachute. This game is always a hit with the kids! We also created our own paper teddy bears using buttons and pom poms.

All the centers were changed from last week. Thank you to all who have donated items and toys to our room. The children are enjoying playing market with the new cash register and shopping cart!! They also were thrilled to practice tracing apples on the new chalk board, in the art center. Mrs. Nemeth has continued to thrill our class with her creative crafts. They all look forward to visiting and working with her, in the Art room.

We continue to keep busy and enjoy learning through play. As you already know, 4 new friends will have an All About Me chart in their folder. Please return the chart by Monday, so your child can share a little about him/herself with friends. It’s been wonderful to see their faces light up when they realize that there are peers that enjoy the same things. We will continue with The Question of the Week board. Next week, the question will be, “Where did you see the color yellow?”

I have to comment on how well the children have adjusted to preschool. I have noticed such wonderful behaviors and positive support for one another. We even have earned our second popcorn!! We are well on our way to reaching our goal of 10 popcorns, a total of 100 tickets!

We have another important date to remember. Monday, September 27, will be picture day. Please fill out the form, which you will find in your child’s folder and return it before the 27th. Thank you again for all your donations and support at home with your child’s chart. I hope you all enjoy your weekend!

Mrs. Gilberti

FRIDAY NEWSLETTER
Friday, September 10, 2010

We have had a very busy week! This week, we focus on the colors red, yellow and green. We used apples and paint to stamp our colors onto black paper and match our color words to it. We also had an apple taste test! After graphing our favorite tasting apple, we learned that in our preschool room, yellow apples were preferred the most and green the least! Our letter of the week is, “A” and we all know what sound the letter “A” makes, as well as, that the word apple begins with “A”! We also did a great job with our, “Question of the Week” board! This weeks question was, “Where did you see the color red?” Our, “All About Me”, board looks great too! Every Friday, for the next 3 weeks, 4 friends will bring home a chart to fill out over the weekend and bring in on Monday to share. This is a great way for all of us to learn a bit about each other.

The big news is that preschool was the first class to be awarded a popcorn cut out for the schools C.O.R.R.E.C.T. board, located outside Mr. Magnuson’s office! We worked hard to show courage, optimism, respect, responsibility, empathy, citizenship and trustworthiness and because of that we reached our 1st goal of earning 10 tickets! Once we reach our goal for the year of 100 tickets, we will celebrate with a popcorn party!!! There will be more information on this at Back To School Night, on this school wide approach to reinforcing positive behaviors. Speaking of Back To School Night, it is scheduled, for preschool families to attend, on Tuesday, September 14th, at 6pm. If you cannot attend, please let me know in advance and I will send home a packet of information, about our program, home with your child.

Also, on Tuesday, September 14th, the PTA Scholastic Book Fair will be held in the library. If you would like your son/daughter to purchase books, please send in money, in an envelope and we will bring him/her down to the library. Only those children who bring money will be brought down to the library between 9:25-10:20 a.m. Parents can also purchase books from the Book Fair during Back To School Night. We would like to send a special thank you to all who have sent in wipes, tissues, and hand sanitizers for our classroom. Please continue to check out our blog for photos and special dates. Enjoy your weekend!

Mrs. Gilberti

FRIDAY NEWSLETTER

Friday, September 3, 2010

Welcome back !!! It is great to see everyone again. We are off to a great start! We have a few new faces that have joined our class. We welcome Jennifer, Robert and Lane to our preschool circle of friendship. We spent the past three days getting to know each other, talking about our summer experiences, reviewing rules and routines, getting to know staff and, of course, enjoying the centers. We have made a few changes to the room. The children are enjoying them all. The children were each given a folder to take home art work and notes. Please check them daily and be sure that your child brings it to class every day.

For the next three weeks, on Fridays, four students will be bringing home homework! An, “All about me”, chart will be sent home, for you and your child to work on. When returned, your child will share with his/her peers and then the chart will be displayed outside our room, on our bulletin board, for all to enjoy. While the weather is still nice, we will try to get some play time outside. Please remember the sunscreen and if you do not want your child drinking from the water fountain, please send in an extra water bottle.

I have been asked by a few parents what we could use in our classroom. We are always in need of hand sanitizer and antibacterial wipes. We try to wipe down our tables and chairs every afternoon to help cut down on the spread of germs and illnesses. I thank you all for your donations to our room.

I am extremely excited for this new school year! Please remember that the children do not have school on Monday.

Enjoy your three day weekend!

Mrs. Gilberti

June 17, 2010

June 17, 2010

The last day of school has arrived! Where does time go and why does it fly by so quickly?! All of you have grown in so many ways over the past year. To those of you that are on your way to kindergarten, we wish you all the best. Remember to always try something new, to be kind, and always try your best. Mrs. Remaly, Mrs. Ruskan, Mrs. Gifford, Mr. M and I are all so very proud of you all! We hope you all have a fantastic summer and look forward to seeing your smiling faces again in September!

Thank you for a great year!

Mrs. Gilberti

Mrs. Remaly

Mrs. Ruskan

Mrs. Gifford

Mr. Magnuson JR

FRIDAY NEWS

FRIDAY NEWS

Friday, June 11, 2010

We did it! Our MARE board is finished and looking great. We worked so hard so please come by on Ocean Night and see our work displayed outside our room. Monday, June 14th is Field Day. Please join us at 9am for some fun outside. Our rain date is June 15th. The buses for preschoolers will be on the same schedule as usual and our day will end at the same time, 11 am. This is a great opportunity for all parents and grandparents to meet and hopefully establish some play dates for the children to enjoy over the summer! Please remember to send your child in with a snack for him/her to enjoy outside.

This week, we started talking about bugs. Our centers have been changed and there are a lot of bugs hiding and playing in our room. In our Drama Center, the children have been pretending to be different bugs with bug wings. The sand table is a fine place to look for bugs hiding and using a magnifying glass and tweezers to help place them in a container. We practiced writing our names every morning and continued working on gluing, cutting and counting. We got to finger paint some ants and counted how many we found in the grass. Painting lady bugs was fun too! We created caterpillars and counted how many circles were used to create it. We also enjoyed learning about rainbows! It's been a very busy week and I cannot believe we only have 1 week left of school!!!! The kids have also been practicing taking turns. It sure is hard with such a big class but we are all doing our very best! Enjoy your weekend!

Mrs. Gilberti

Friday News
Friday, June 4, 2010

Where does time go? We are in June and summer days are all we are thinking about! We are all feeling it! This week, we finished up all our projects for MARE. We made our sail boats, and our display looks beautiful! I hope you all get a chance to come out and see all our hard work on Ocean Night! Ocean Night is on June 14, at 6pm. For those of you that have older children at OCS, please remember that June 14th is Field Day and there will be an early dismissal.

Speaking of Field Day, we will be holding our own Preschool Field Day, here at OCS. There will be lots of fun activities planned, so please feel free to join us at 9am. Dismissal time for Preschool will remain the same. Being that we will be outdoors, please remember to apply sun screen on your child before you send your child to school. Also, please send in a snack for him/her to enjoy on a picnic blanket with friends.

This week all of our centers were changed. We enjoyed pretending to picnic in our Drama Center. We also reopened the Listening Center, and enjoyed listening to books on tape! We had fun singing songs and using our finger puppets, pretending to be swimming in soup and pretending we were fish, during music and movement time. We also graphed our favorite sea creatures at Circle Time. Looks like our friend the whale beat out fish and a sea turtle! In our Art Center, we all had fun using water paints to create picnic or ocean scenes. It’s been a fun week! The kids are enjoying sharing their morning work with friends during circle time and they are all so supportive of each other. Walk by our room during this time and you will hear a lot of “Bravo!!” being cheered. Next week, we will be starting our unit on bugs! You know summer days are near when bees and ants are out to play! I hope you all enjoy your weekend!

Mrs. Gilberti

Friday, May 28, 2010

Friday News
Friday, May 28, 2010

Summer days are just around the corner! This beautiful weather is welcomed by us all! We really enjoy playing on the playground, so please, apply sun-screen on your child before school to keep him/her safe from sun burn. We are almost done with our bulletin board for Ocean night. We finished painting our ocean, and the kids did great understanding that not every friend would paint in one day. They really were wonderful taking turns.

We have started sharing our best morning work at circle time and everyone has been so supportive of their peers! There are lots of cheers and kind words in our room! I would like to thank Mrs. Hoffman and Mrs. Henry for donating new books to our room. We really enjoyed them! We are planning for a preschool Field Day! Keep a look out in your child’s folder for more information on this event! Also, June 1st is Spirit Day! Don't forget to wear your crazy socks!!! Enjoy your three day weekend!

Mrs. Gilberti

Friday, May 21, 2010

What a fun week we all had in preschool! We were busy working on star fish, glittery sea shells, and had a blast making our sea horses!! It’s amazing what you can do with a box, a marble, paper and some paint! Our class had fun shaking the box around and watching as the paint covered marble made beautiful stripes all over our sea horses! We also reviewed opposites, graphing, cutting, gluing and for some of our friends, we started on pre-writing skills. As you can see, we are always keeping busy.

We all had fun imagining we were camping in a tent, in the drama center. Ocean animal stencils and colored pencils helped us to create beautiful cards and prints. In our sand and water center, we explored the different shapes and sizes of the shells hidden in the sand! We finally got to see the sun by the end of the week, and enjoyed some play time outside on the playground. On Thursday, we were so excited to join the first grade classes outside, to watch them release butterflies! It’s been a great week.

Next week, on Monday, our class is scheduled to attend the Scholastic Book Fair “Buy 1 Get 1”, sale, between 10:00-10:30. If you wish to have your child purchase a book, please send in a check made payable to OCS-PTA. This is an optional event and students are not required to make a purchase. Also, just a gentle reminder to please return all unwanted Lifetouch Portrait photos.

Enjoy your weekend!!!

Mrs. Gilberti

Friday, May 14, 2010

Wow, we have had a busy week in preschool! We were so happy to have a few nice days to go out and play. Being that the school wide theme of MARE has begun, we have been busy working on a few ocean animal projects and reading plenty of ocean themed books.

All of our centers have been changed and we continued to work on our cutting, coloring and gluing at morning table time. Our sand and water table was a big hit this week! The children have been enjoying playing in the sand with molds. At the art center, we enjoyed making sea shells out of paper plates, chalk, glue and glitter! The children were so excited to touch, feel and talk about a real sharks tooth that I brought in to share with them!

Miss Michelle was not in this week, but we look forward to having her back next week. We really enjoy the obstacle course that she sets up for us! We also welcomed Mr. Magnuson, a.k.a “Mr. M”, to our room this week!
Be sure to look out for our amazing ocean animals, outside our room on Ocean Night and if you can, take a peek into our room and check out all of our hard work being displayed on our bulletin boards!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Gilberti

Friday April 30th

I can’t believe we are at the end of another month of school! This spring has gone so fast! We got to enjoy more nice weather outside this week. I hope that it continues!

The kids LOVED jumping on the trampoline as part of Ms. Michelle’s gross motor group this week.

Mrs. Gifford will not be in next week, due to NJASK testing.

We will begin a school-wide theme of MARE, which educates students on ocean and marine life. The preschool children will be studying ocean animals. Look for their work to come home and check it out if you are in the classroom.

Next Thursday will be my last day of school. Thank you so much to everyone again for my wonderful surprise party, and your continuous support throughout this year. It has been wonderful working with all of the parents and students in the preschool program. I am so proud of how far we have come, and I know it will continue for the students.

Have a wonderful weekend!
Mrs. Remaly

Friday, April 23rd

We had another beautiful week of spring weather! We had the chance to be outside a few days this week and enjoyed new centers in the classroom. We reviewed patterning with links in the math center and on worksheets. We continued practice with coloring, cutting, and gluing during our morning work. We welcomed a new friend, Daniel, to our class this week.

The class had a chance to see the Mr. and Mrs. Fish Assembly on Tuesday of this week. They learned about ocean animals in anticipation of our upcoming school-wide MARE theme. The children have a lot of fun activities to do related to ocean animals coming up in the month of May. MARE kick-off is May 5th.

Thank you to everyone for your help with the Tricky Tray basket! It was a great success!

Monday is picture day. All students will have their picture taken. They will send you home the pictures to review. You can then decide if you want to keep them and purchase them or send them back. I received some forms back already, and you can still send them Monday if you wish.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Remaly

Friday, April 16th

This week, we all adjusted coming back from a nice long spring break! Hope everyone had a great week off! We welcomed a new student, Marco, to our class.

Ms. Michelle did an obstacle course group on Wednesday of this week. The children really do a great job following directions, taking turns, and completing the gross motor tasks in the activity. With a growing class size, waiting for a turn is getting harder, but we are doing our best!

We did some coloring, cutting, and gluing this week at our morning table time. Some children have become independent in these skills and enjoy doing this work on their own. For others, scissor skills are new, and we are working to have them hold the scissors correctly (thumb up!) and snip paper with help. We spent some time on the playground this week with the nicer weather, too.

Kindergarten Round-Up was this week and I am excited for the students who are moving on to Kindergarten next year. I am so proud of all they have done in Preschool, and know that great things are ahead!

Have a wonderful weekend!
Mrs. Remaly

Thursday, April 1st

Hope everyone has a wonderful and safe Spring Break. Hope that everyone has the chance to get outside and enjoy the sunshine! See you back on Monday, April 12th.

Mrs. Remaly

March 26, 2010

Friday News
Friday, March 26, 2010

We had a chance to visit the playground this week again due to some nice weather in the beginning of the week. The children are doing an excellent job with the playground rules and really enjoying our time there.

We practiced rhyming words and AB patterns again this week as a review, and the children seem to have it down pat! We will introduce ABC patterns next week for practice. We have been working on a book about farm animals, and will continue this into next week.

Our Occupational Therapist did a gross motor group this week. The children loved being “sandwiches” inside two bean bag chairs! They hopped like bunnies (getting ready for that special one that is coming soon!) and hopped in and out of hoops. We did yoga this week as well, and they loved showing off some of the animal moves they know.

Just a reminder, there is no school next Friday, April 2nd. Spring break begins, and we will return to school on Monday, April 12th.

Have a wonderful weekend!
Mrs. Remaly

Friday, March 19, 2010

Friday News
Friday, March 19, 2010

What a beautiful week of weather! We finally had the chance to visit the playground, after many weeks of being inside. The children had a great time! They loved climbing, sliding, and of course running!

We celebrated St. Patrick’s Day by making rainbows, shamrock books, and counting gold coins. I will be sending all of our projects home today that have been on our walls in the classroom. The children enjoyed dressing up in Leprechaun hats and beards on Wednesday and visiting some of our friends around the school, delivering treats.

Mrs. Parks has reported that our Tricky Tray Basket is complete. Thank you to everyone who was able to help.

Next week, we will begin a unit on Spring Animals, which will continue until our spring break.

Have a great weekend- enjoy the sun!

Mrs. Remaly

Friday March 12, 2010

This week, we welcomed two new students- Kaitlynn and Karlee. Mrs. Ruskan is also back to join us!

We started a unit on St. Patrick’s Day and the color green. The children enjoyed making rainbows by sorting cereal by color. They are decorating our walls and will come home next week. Today, we made green milkshakes- what a great way to end a Friday!

We had a gross motor group with the OT on Wednesday this week. The kids enjoyed hopping, crawling, climbing, and rolling on the big therapy ball. They did a nice job following directions and taking turns.
I am truly proud of how independent the children have become in our daily routines. They stepped up to the plate and really helped out our new students this week, showing them what we do in our classroom each day.
Next week, we will finish up our St. Patrick’s Day activities and begin a unit on “Spring!” As the weather gets nicer, I hope to do some of our activities outside.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Remaly

Friday March 5th

We finished up our unit on “weather” that we continued from last week due to another snowy, long weekend! The children brought home their weather books that they made this week- I hope you enjoyed them! Each child also has a picture of themselves in the “weather news station” that Mrs. Gilberti created and they had the chance to report the weather in the microphone while another friend manned the camera! They had such a great time with this.

Next week, we will begin talking about St. Patrick’s Day and the color green. We will make shamrocks and green milkshakes! We will be counting and sorting gold coins and making rainbows.

The deadline is approaching for the Tricky Tray basket. If you are willing to help, please let Mrs. Parks know as soon as possible. The Tricky Tray brings a lot of money to our school that benefits our kids- I hope everyone can help out!

We will welcome two new friends, Kaitlynn and Karlee on Monday. Mrs. Ruskan will also be back to help us on a daily basis. We are excited to have them all in our classroom!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Remaly

February 19th

Friday News
Friday, February 19, 2010

Welcome back to school after our “mini-vacation!” Hope everyone enjoyed their time off and had a chance to play in the snow!

We worked on the letter “B” this week by tracing it and recognizing it in print. The children continue to practice writing their names on all of their work now. We have been copying it from our name tags that we use in our centers, and are slowly fading them away.

We finished all of our “heart” and “Valentine” projects that we did not get to do last week due to the snow and holiday. I will be sending some things home today.

Another reminder came home about the Tricky Tray donations from Mrs. Parks. Please let her know if you can help.

We will begin next week with a unit on “Weather.” March is right around the corner- it’s hard to believe!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Remaly

February 5th

We began our unit on Friendship, Love, and Valentine’s Day. The children worked on a math paper by stamping a number, recognizing the numeral, and then gluing paper hearts. We also completed a heart puzzle using red and pink squares and triangles. We are working on the concepts of “more” and “less” as we continue talking about numbers.

We traced and wrote the letter “V” and continue to practice our names daily.

Next week, on Thursday the 11th, we will have a small in-class Valentine Party. If you wish to send Valentine cards, each child will be making a Valentine Bag. I have attached our class list.

Just a reminder, school is closed on Friday, February 12th and Monday, February 15th.

Hope everyone enjoys the snow!

Mrs. Remaly

January 29, 2010

What a busy and fast week in preschool! I hope everyone enjoyed the snow!

Ms. Michelle, our OT, did a gross motor obstacle course with our group this week on Thursday. We got to bear walk, jump in and out of houla hoops, throw blocks in a basket, and army crawl. The children did an awesome job taking turns and participating in the group. We will have the opportunity to do this once a week with her.

We have been sending home all our of “winter” and “snow” projects in the last few days, and getting ready for our new theme of “love, friendship, and Valentine’s Day.” We finished letter “S” and will be moving on to letter “V” and letter “F.”

If you are willing to donate an item to our class basket, which is a “coffee” theme, please let me or Mrs. Parks know. Thank you for your time and help!

Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Remaly

January 22, 2010

We had a short week this week with the holiday on Monday. We worked on letter “J” for the month of January. The kids are doing an awesome job tracing letters and independently writing their names! We have a few more letters to review before we have been exposed to them all.

This week, they enjoyed tracing their names in the shaving cream “snow” on cookie trays! If you are feeing adventurous at home, this is something they love to do. You can also squirt some on the side of the tub at bath time for easy clean-up!

Preschool Winter Report Cards follow a different schedule because of the online program that we use. Their report cards will come home on Tuesday, February 16th, after the President’s Day Holiday. The third and final Report Card will be sent home in the last week of school.

Mrs. Parks will be contacting you regarding help with our classroom Tricky Tray basket. Please let her know if you are willing to help- we will really appreciate anything you can do- the proceeds benefit our kids and our school!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Remaly

January 15th 2010

Friday News
Friday January 15, 2010

This week in preschool, we began a book about “opposites.” The children have been practicing coloring in the lines and doing a nice job! We are working on copying our names from our name tags, now that we know to make a letter we start at the top! We have practiced tracing and writing a lot of our letters now, and the children can identify some when they see them. Look for their names to be written on the work that they bring home. You can print tracing pages of their names from the website www.kidzone.ws. Search for “tracer pages.” You can type their name, and it will make a dotted tracer page for them to practice. It’s great!We continued talking about snow and cold weather, and sequenced a story about how to build a snowman. We practiced cutting on lines and around simple shapes.

If you have not yet returned a new set of winter spare clothing to keep in the classroom, please do so as soon as possible. You never know when we may need them.

Just a reminder, there is no school on Monday for Martin Luther King Day and Teacher Inservice.

Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Remaly

Friday, January 8th, 2010

Happy New Year! Welcome back to school!

We welcomed a new student, Lainee, to our class this week. The children have been so helpful showing Lainee what we do in school each day and helping her feel comfortable with us.

January kicked off our unit on Winter Weather and Snow. The children had a chance to see a lot of it over break and had stories to share about what they did in the snow. We traced the letter “S” and made a story about “The Five Little Snowmen” and made snow paintings.

We practiced writing our names this week for the first time, and the children did an awesome job! We traced the letters first, and then practiced copying them from our name tags.

Take time with your children to help them zip their own coats, put on hats and mittens or gloves. We take the time to do this every morning at dismissal, and most of the children are now independent with these skills. Keep practicing at home, too!

Thank you so much for all of the donations of wipes and tissues- we are certainly putting them to good use!

Have a great weekend,
Mrs. Remaly