The holiday season is in full swing, and in preschool this week, we worked just as hard as Santa's elves, if not harder! We used shapes to make Holiday Trees, numbers and counting to help glue pom poms on our gingerbread men and even patterning skills to make garland! Our room is exploding with Holiday cheer! We did work on a little something extra special to take home, but I'm not telling what it is!

In our centers, we enjoyed coloring pictures of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. We decorated a holiday tree, in the drama center and used our pattern blocks to make gifts, reindeer and wreathes. It's been a lot of fun!

Next Friday, will be a half day. All of our pm students will be joining us for a morning pajama party! I will be holding a holiday breakfast for all of our preschool friends, at 10 a.m. Parents are welcomed to join us for breakfast and a movie! Be sure to bring in a favorite blanket or stuffed animal to get cozy with during the movie.

Enjoy your weekend!

Mrs. Gilberti

Dinosaurs in the month of December?!

Well, hello Monday! I hope that everyone enjoyed their weekend. Last week was very busy for us in preschool. We started the week off by learning the letter D and the sound it makes. We used our wood stick and magical C to help us. Our friend, Carl the bunny, came out to help us form our magical C. Do you want to know why the C is magical? The magical C can help us make many more letters when added to our big lines and little lines. It's amazing what it can do! Dinasaurs were the theme in our centers. The kids loved playing with the toy dinosaurs while they stomped around. We added a few more wooden puzzels to the puzzel area and a couple of dinosaurs in the block area.


By the end of the week, we had a new visitor to help us with the letter G. I'm sure you have all heard by now that Gil is back! Gil is our misciovous gingerbread man. He is magical and loves to run and hide when we are not looking. At our computer center, we enjoyed dressing up our gingerbread man and watching him run! Speaking of dressing up, we also "dressed up" up our gingerbread cookies with icing! Yummmm! They were yummy with cold milk!

Our holiday shop was also last week. I hope that nobody is being naughty by trying to peek at the gifts! Overall, it was a busy but fun week! This week, we all will be working just as hard as Santas little elves on making this holiday season special!

Mrs. Gilberti

December?!

Well, I hope that everyone enjoyed the extra sleep this morning. I wanted to share with you a few dates that are important this week. Tomorrow is SPIRIT DAY!!!!! Please have your child bring in his/her favorite stuffed animal. Also, this week will be the PTA sponsored Holiday Shop. We are scheduled to visit on Thursday. This is a little shop, set up in the library, where the children can buy their family members holiday gifts, at minimal prices. If you would like your child to "shop", please send in money, in a labeled envelope and how much you would like them to spend.

Thank you!

Mrs. Gilberti

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

It was a short week but we really enjoyed the three days that we had together. This week we learned about the Pilgrims and Indians. We talked about how they formed friendships with each other. We also discussed how the Indians helped the Pilgrims learn how to hunt, fish and and grow corn. It was so nice to hear the children speak of kindness and what they are thankful for.

Today, we all enjoyed the movie, Charlie Brown's Thankgiving, while snacking on Snoopy's favorite Thanksgiving Day treats; popcorn, jelly beans and pretzels. The children did a fantastic job recognizing how the Pilgrims lived, how the Indians helped and how hard the journey was on the Mayflower, while watching the Mayflower Voyage. I was really impressed with their answers and questions during the movie.

We also finished our paper plate turkeys today. The children loved making the Indian hats and look so precious wearing them. We ended our three day week with a game of pin the tail feather on the turkey! Giggles where heard as each friend was blindfolded and spun around three times before being let go to find the turkey!

Please enjoy your four day weekend and have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Mrs. Gilberti
Mrs. Ruskan
Mrs. Sturm

HAPPY HARVEST!

We finally did it! We finally filled our harvest basket with delightful vegetables. We practiced, snipping, cutting, cluing, rolling, painting and fine motor skills while making this incredible basket of healthy snacks! The best part of it all was all the fun and giggles we had while working on it.

This week, we introduced two letter that we have already worked on, as buddies, the "T and H." We learned how these two pals, when put together make a really neat sound. Of course, that lead us into our discussion of being thankful and what is important to us. We read some funny thanksgiving stories and even used our arms and hands to help make a "Thankful Tree." It was the sweetest thing to hear what these amazing preschoolers are thankful for!

Next week, school will be closed on Thursday and Friday and we will have a half day on Wednesday. Please remember that on half days, a.m. and p.m. classes are combined. They both attend the morning session hours. Also, we are still collecting canned food for the K-Kids Food Drive! I hope that you all enjoy your weekend!

Mrs. Gilberti

It was a short week but one of favorites, by far! From what I observed, everyone had fun meeting new friends! As you all know, our afternoon class joined our morning class, for our half days. It was great to see old friends united and new friends made.

This week, we started talking about vegetables and havesting. We enjoyed classifying vegetables and fruits, using our picture cards. We had fun with tissue paper and made corn. We praticed our snipping skills and made carrots. We also used our little sponges to paint broccoli. We will continue to work on our harvest basket, which is hanging on our bulletin board, next week.

The letter of the week, was V. We used our wood sticks, clay, fingers and feet and found silly ways to make the V with our bodies. Everyone is doing a great job practicing writing thier names. Many of the children are asking to write thier name on their own and doing a great job with it! Outside this week, many were writing each others name with chalk on the black top!

I hope that everyone is enjoying this long weekend and the beautiful weather!

Mrs. Gilberti

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Yes, I know! Halloween was last week but Mother Nature had other plans for us. We didn't let a little bad weather stand in the way of our Halloween festivities! Thank you to all who volunteered to send in snacks to make our parties a success. The kids had fun decorating pumpkins and enjoying all the yummy treats!

This week, we introduced shapes! We had fun hunting for shapes all around our room. We played the shape Hokey Pokey game and even made our own Mr. Shape Head! In our math center, we used foam shapes to create many different items and other shapes. We also enjoyed making shapes with play-dough and various shaped cookies cutters!

Please remember that next week, Mon-Wed, will be half days. Our afternoon class will be joining us during our morning session. Morning sessions end at 11:30. There is no school on Thursday and Friday.

I hope that everyone enjoys the weekend. I hope to see many of you out Trick or Treating between 5-7, tomorrow!

Mrs. Gilberti

Well, we all had an interesting weekend. Mother Nature is just confusing things for everyone. I hope everyone was able to keep safe and warm. I'm sure many of the children where happy to hear that the school was open today and that trick or treating has been rescheduled for Saturday, November 5th. We have also rescheduled our Halloween Party. The festivities will be held on Friday, at the same scheduled times. The children are welcomed to wear their costumes.

Mrs. Gilberti

Colors, Colors, Everywhere!!!

What a beautiful sight it is to see our green leaves turning colors. Fall is here! All week, we explored our Fall colors, leaves and Fall weather. We got to go on a leaf hunt in such beautiful weather this week. It was a great way to compare colors, shapes and different sizes. Our letter of the week was the letter L. We got creative and used leaves to trace our chalk L. We all started with a big line and finished our letter off with a small line. We practiced rolling the L with play-dough and used chalk too. If we couldn't remember how to form the letter L, we always had our two fingers to remind us.

In the middle of the week, we had a great surprise. We were visited by real fire fighters and a fire truck! We were all so excited to explore the truck and get to know more about what a fire fighter's job is like, as well as, fire prevention and fire safety. Thank you to the Oxford Fire Department for taking the time to visit with us!

By the end of the week, we enjoyed being illustrators of our leaf rubbing books. We also enjoyed stamping with leaves and paint. There are so many ways to enjoy the gifts nature gives us. With so many colors, shapes and sizes of leaves and beautiful weather, it makes for great learning opportunities, in a natural environment.

Next week is Red Ribbon Week!! The activities for the week are posted on our school website. Also, the K-Kids fundraiser, Hat Day is approaching. If you send in a $1 before October 28th, your child may wear his/her favorite hat all day, on Friday the 28th! I hope everyone gets a chance to get out this weekend and enjoy the beauty around us. Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Gilberti

Fire Prevention Week

We sure did use our IMAGINATIONS a lot in preschool this week! Since it was Fire Prevention Week, we discussed what to do in case of a fire. We imagined that our clothes were on fire and practiced stop/drop and roll. We imagined being in a smokey room and practiced crawling and staying low where the air is clean. Before we made our way out of the smokey room we made sure to touch the door knob to feel if it is hot or not. We wouldn't want to open the door if the knob was hot! We talked about fire fighters and their job in our community. We even practiced calling 911 on our telephone, in case of emergencies. We had a lot of fun with the puppets we made! Some of us even put on a puppet show. In preschool, we love puppet shows and they allow us to use our imaginations and get our creative juices running!

Our letter of the week was F. Being that all the leaves around us are changing colors and falling off the trees, we thought that talking about Fall weather and seasons would be neat. Making leaf rubs with crayons, in Fall colors, was magical! Fall weather and Fall colors?! I think I hear that F again! We enjoyed rolling dough into the letter F and using short and long sticks to create the letter F. We had so much fun dancing and pretending that we were trees with leaves, branches, trunks and roots to keep us in the ground!

In your child's folder you will find a form that will let me know if you are interested in becoming a classroom Mom. Our classroom Mom will be responsible for organizing, with other parents, our holiday parties, according to our school food guidelines, which can be found on our website. We will be holding a small Halloween party on October 31st. I will send out more information as the time gets near. Also, in lieu of Breast Cancer Awareness, the K-Kids are sponsoring a fundraiser on October 28th. If you donate a dollar, you can wear your favorite hat all day, for Hat Day!

I hope that everyone enjoys their weekend!

Mrs. Gilberti

FRIDAY NEWSLETTER

Bears were the topic of most conversation in preschool this week. We talked about bear safety, colors of bears in NJ, hibernation and even used our bears to help with position words. The letter B and words that begin with B were all around us. Reaching into the BIG BLACK BAG to find a toy bear was exciting and even more fun when we got silly and used our position words to tell where our toy bears were to be placed next! We also explored textures and decided that black pom poms, which are soft and fluffy, was the best choice to help decorate our black bears.

"Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see?" I'm sure you all have heard this at some point this week! We had so much fun reading and recalling this story. It was such a fun way to work on color recognition, as well. Our story necklaces were a hit! I hope you all get a chance to sit with your preschooler and help them recite the story using the cards that they laced. We had just as much fun playing the Brown Bear Tin Can game. As we recalled the story, the children would individually place a token with the corresponding picture into the can and told us what sound each animal made. It was a lot of fun acting out the story with our large picture cards too.

We celebrated two birthdays this week! Thank you to Sam and Calvin for sharing such yummy treats with us! Birthdays are always fun. I hope that everyone enjoys their three day weekend and let"s keep our fingers crossed for a lot of sunshine!

Mrs. Gilberti

FRIDAY NEWSLETTER

We had such a busy week in preschool! We finished up our unit on apples by learning about Johnny Appleseed. We continued to discuss the different colors of apples and used our imaginations to do as Johnny Appleseed did, and planted our seeds in soil, water them and shine down on them as the sun would. We even created our own apple orchard by using an apple shaped sponge and paint. We practiced counting as we stamped our apples and sang our song (to the tune of 10 Little Indians), about our "10 Little Apples." Speaking of stamping, it was neat to match colors while stamping apple prints with real apples! We even had an apple taste test. Everyone enjoyed this activity! After tasting red, green and yellow apples, we each chose our favorite apple, colored a paper apple the same color of our favorite apple and graphed it. The winner in preschool was the yellow apple and our least favorite was the green. We continued to explore big and small, and more or less.

In your child's folder you will find a fun activity that will help you to reinforce what we were learning in class with your child. This sheet does not need to be sent back but if you would like to send it in with your child, I will be sure to place a star sticker on his/her sheet, to show that I am aware of his/her efforts! Also, because the weather is changing, please send in a change of clothing that is better suited for Fall weather. I will send home what I have in class as the change of clothing comes in. Last week, a few of the PTA Entertainment books were sent home with your child. If you do not plan to purchase the book, and have not already done so, please return it with your child.

I can't believe it is that time again, but yes, it is time to purchase your "Pumpkin for your Pumpkin." For those of you that are not familiar with this, if you send in a dollar to your child's homeroom by October 14th, then on October 31st, the K-Kids will deliver a pumpkin to your little pumpkin, in class. You can send one to a friend or purchase more than one. Be sure to place payments in a labeled envelope.

Thank you again to all who have sent in wipes and sanitizers. I promise you that we make good use of it all! I hope that everyone enjoys their weekend!

Mrs. Gilberti

An Apple A Day Keeps The Dr. Away!!

I hope that everyone enjoyed their week. The children have really done a great job getting familiar with our routines. On deck, this week, was the letter "A". We practiced our "A" sounds and used our pre-writing skills that we were working on last week, to write the letter "A". The kids used Dot-A-Dot Art stampers and practiced top to bottom strokes, as well as, side to side strokes.

Being that the word apples begins with the letter "A", we chose to use our snipping skills, gluing skills and color recognition of red/yellow/green, to create apples for our apple tree board. We even used these three colors to help us pattern paper cut out apples. All of us enjoyed exploring big and small through stories, pictures and worksheets. Making our bodies tall and short was fun too!

Thank you to all who donated wipes to our classroom. Please remember that on Tuesday, September 27th, it will be picture day. If you have not already done so, please return your picture order forms with payment, with your child. Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Gilberti

HAPPY CONSTITUTION DAY!

Today is Constitution Day, and in our preschool room we wrote up our own Classroom Constitution, to remind us of how we can keep our room a friendly, safe and kind environment. Our preschoolers did a great job letting me know what they thought was important to post on our constitution board, and then we all signed it! This all tied in nicely to our week topic of kindeness and emotions. We also had vistors, Mr. Magnuson and Miss Dachisen, who came in and talked to us about bullying. We really enjoyed the book they shared with us.

This week, we introduced the calendar, months and days of the week. I am so impressed at how quickly they have all picked up each song. We also began practicing our pre-writing skills, remembering to use our pinch fingers when holding our writing utensils. We even worked on AB patterns and everyone did wonderful.

Next week, we will start our unit on apples. We will focus on the colors red, yellow and green, counting, patterning and the letter A. We will also be having an apple taste test to see which colored apple we like best and of course, we will be graphing our results.

Thank you again to all who came to Back to School Night. Our book fair was a success and the children enjoyed the selection of age appropriate books to choose from. Please remember to send in all forms to Mrs. Miller by Monday. Also, a few parents have asked what we could use in the preschool room. As always, wipes, both hand and table, would be a wonderful donation. We do our best to keep germs away so we can all stay healthy. If you haven't already done so, please consider joining the PTA, as a volunteer or any capacity. Extra hands are always welcomed and the PTA is a wonderful way to give back to our children's school, for the sake of all our students. If you would like a membership form, please let me know and I will gladly place one in your child's folder. Enjoy your weekend and stay warm!

Mrs. Gilberti

THANK YOU!

Thank you all for a wonderful Back to School Night! If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me at agilberti@oxfordcentral.org. Also, this is just a gentle reminder to return all forms that were sent home earlier in the week.

Thank you!

Mrs. Gilberti

What a great start to our new year! This week we focused on classroom rules and routines and I must comment on how well everyone adjusted to the new environment. Not one tear was shed, well, maybe by some Moms and Dads! Everyone did there very best to remember to follow all the rules that keep us safe in preschool! We practiced coloring, gluing, and snipping skills this week. Many of us already can recognize our names!

We also talked about our feelings towards the first day of school. It was nice to hear, from some of the children, that once they walked into the classroom, they weren't scared anymore. Others told me that they couldn't wait to get to preschool! That is music to my ears. We read, "The Kissing Hand", and created our own gifts to share with our families, in times when we are missed. I will be sending them home with the children the day after Back to School Night!

Speaking of Back to School Night, we will be holding a classroom visit for those of you who may not have had an opportunity to visit your child's classroom or for those who have seen our room and would simply like to pop in and leave a little note of encouragement for your child, in their cubby. I will be in the room from 6:15 to 7pm. I understand that many of you have more than one child at OCS, so feel free to pop in, even if only on your way to meet a different teacher, for one of your other children.

In your child's folder you will find important forms to be filled out and returned as soon as possible. If you have already done so, I thank you. Also, the PTA sponsored Scholastic Book Fair will be held during Back to School Night hours. Our class will be visiting the book fair on Friday, Sept. 16th. If you would like to have your child purchase a book, please send in money on the specified date, in a labeled envelope.

We were so happy to see the sun finally come out this afternoon. Let's hope that next week we will see some sunshine so we can enjoy the play ground! Have a great weekend and remember, if you have any questions and would like to contact me, please email me at agilberti@oxfordcentral.org.



Mrs. Gilberti

WELCOME BACK PRESCHOOLERS!!!!

September 6, 2011

Dear Preschool Families,
Welcome back!! I hope that everyone enjoyed their summer! I am so excited to start the new school year!
Today, in preschool, we spent our day getting to know new friends and reconnecting with old ones. We will spend the next few days learning routines and classroom rules. A folder is being sent home with your child today. Please be sure to look through it every evening to discover finished work, projects and important notes or forms. This will help to keep you informed of what is happening in the school and in our classroom. Also, please remember to return the folder every day with your child, for we use them as a means of communication. The folders are checked every morning, by an adult, for notes from home and forms that were asked to be returned.
We have some exciting news to share! This year, preschoolers will participate in specials, such as gym, and we have a new computer center! The computer center will help us to introduce and reinforce preschool skills that we will be working on throughout the school year.
I want to send a gentle reminder home to send in an extra change of clothing for your child, labeled and in a zip lock bag. The children will also enjoy a snack period to help develop socialization skills amongst their peers. Please send in a healthy snack and drink, in a lunch bag or lunch box. This makes it easier for the children to carry their snack to the table, from their cubby. Please keep in mind that if the weather permits, we will be spending time on the playground. Appropriate shoes, such as sneakers, are recommended in order to avoid injuries. Often, after outdoor play, we walk to the water fountains for a drink. If you do not want your child drinking from the water fountain, please send in a labeled bottle of water and we will keep it in your child’s cubby.
On Friday, in lieu of the 10th anniversary of 9/11, the school is having a Red, White and Blue day. If possible, we are asking that our students dress in these colors. I will be posting a Classroom Newsletter on my blog, every Friday, to communicate any other important events, dates, and to share what is happening in preschool. If for any reason you cannot access my blog and would like a paper copy sent home on Fridays, please let me know. We are off to a great start!

Thank you.

Mrs. Gilberti

FRIDAY NEWSLETTER
Friday June 17, 2011

The last full week of school is finally here and what a great week it has been! Field Day was so much fun! What a great display of team work from our preschoolers! We spent the rest of the week reviewing letters, numbers, counting and tuning our fine motor skills. We ended our week with a movie! Today was movie day at OCS. We enjoyed watching NEMO! Thank you Mrs. Gifford, Mrs. Ruskan and Mrs. Sturm for our snacks! Tuesday, June 21, will be our last day of school. Wow! I still can’t believe the last day of school is around the corner. I will be hosting an ice cream party at 10 am.
This will be my last newsletter for this school year. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for making this school year a successful one. I can speak for Mrs. Ruskan, Mrs. Sturm and myself when I say that it makes a world of a difference when teachers and parents work together and communicate with each other, for the children. Thank you for the continuous donations of wipes and tissues through out the year. We have had an amazing year full of wonderful memories and we are so proud of our soon to be kindergarteners! We know you all will do great and will enjoy your kindergarten experience! We are just as proud of our friends who are moving up in preschool and can’t wait to see you back, come September!
Enjoy your summer!

Mrs. Gilberti
Mrs. Gifford
Mrs. Ruskan
Mrs. Sturm

FRIDAY NEWSLETTER
Someone turn down the heat! Summer is definitely near and with the recent temperatures, I feel it’s safe to say that Mother Nature is surely excited about it! In preschool this week, we have begun discussing summer safety. We have discussed everything from wearing sunscreen to swimming with an adult.
Our unit on MARE has come to an end and Ocean Night was a great success. The children all worked so hard and learned so much! It was great to see many of you there and for those who could not attend I will post pictures of our work on my blog. On Thursday morning, all preschoolers that were present walked the OCS hallways which were lined and decorated with such great work and efforts by the students of OCS. They loved discovering so much about oceans, wetlands and polar animals!
In our classroom, we have been practicing for some of the relay races that we will participate in, at Field Day! This year Field Day will be held at OCS, on June 16th with a rain date of June 17th. Please remember to apply sunscreen onto your child before coming to school because Field Day will be held outdoors. Also, please send in a small snack for your child to enjoy and an extra bottle of water. Parents are welcomed to attend. More information on the time of the event will be sent home with your child next Monday. The last day of school is June 21st. On this day, I will be hosting an ice cream party for all preschoolers, at 10 am! All parents are welcomed to attend. Please remember, as per our school policy, photos may not be taken in the classroom. Enjoy your weekend!

Mrs. Gilberti

Friday, June 3, 2011
I hope that everyone enjoyed their three day weekend! We all enjoyed sharing what we did over the weekend. It sounds like there was a lot of swimming going on!!
We continued to work on counting and using numbers this week. We were very fortunate to have a beautiful mix of sea shells, brought in by Tyler, which we used to compare sizes and shapes. The children were amazed to hear the ocean in some of the shells. They also enjoyed exploring with their senses a conch shell and a horseshoe crab.
We continued practicing fine motor skills when making our jelly fish, sharks and whales for our MARE board. Stringing beads for tentacles made our jellyfish look whimsical. We loved getting our hands dirty with the puffy paint that we made for our sharks and snipping paper is always fun.
On Tuesday, everyone did their very best to stay quiet and listen to some very important information during a bus safety drill. Ocean Night will be held on June 9th at 6pm. Field Day will be held June 16th with a rain date of June 17th. This year preschool will be joining the others at the lake to enjoy the festivities. I will be sending out more information as the date approaches. I hope that everyone enjoys their weekend!

Mrs. Gilberti

Our creative juices were flowing this week! We used a few household items to help create some of our sea creatures. For example, we used a large pasta shell for our sea snail and a sock for our octopus! Red tissue paper came in handy when making our crabs.
At our sand and water center, we tried something new. We let our imagination run wild and played with toy sea creatures in a bucket of water! It was a hit!! At circle time, we discussed and passed around barnacles, a whale tooth, a shark tooth, sand dollars and sea stars! It was neat to explore the different textures and sizes!
Our visit to the book fair went well! I hope you are all enjoying the new books with your children. Thank you to everyone who purchased books for our room!
Since the weather is getting warmer we will be playing outside a bit more. Please remember to send your child in with sunscreen on and an extra bottle of water. Our room is air conditioned so you may also want to send in a little zip up jacket! Enjoy your three day weekend and have a happy and safe Memorial Day!

Mrs. Gilberti

FRIDAY NEWSLETTER
Friday, May 20, 2011
Only a few weeks left of school! Can you believe it?! This week we all worked hard as a team, to finger paint our ocean for Ocean Night! There is nothing like the feel of paint squishing between your fingers. We continue to create beautiful sea creature in different textures. Our sea horses are adorned with gold sand and boy did we have fun making them! We did a fantastic job on our sea weed too! This special board is off to a great start. The finished product will be something to be very proud of!
We continued to work on counting this week and practiced cutting. We also enjoyed learning about the Ocean by watching Disneynature’s, Ocean! There were so many ooohs and ahhwwwwss! It was a great way to support and bring to life what we have read about different sea creatures. All of our centers have been stocked up with MARE themed activities such as the Rainbow Fish matching game, in the math center.
Please remember that next week, on Wednesday, our class will be visiting the PTA sponsored book fair. If you would like your child to purchase books, please send money in a labeled envelope. Have a great weekend.

Mrs. Gilberti

Friday Newsletter
FRIDAY, MAY 13, 2011

I hope that everyone enjoyed their Mother’s Day and got some much deserved time to relax. We have started our unit on the ocean and sea creatures and are preparing our board for Ocean Night! I can’t believe I’m saying that already. Where has time gone?! The children will be working hard using cutting, gluing, painting, pinching and many other fine motor skills, to help turn our bulletin board into a beach and shore. This is when we stress team work and we all do our best to come together to create the most beautiful board that we can and feel a huge sense of pride.

We started our week off with discussions of ocean creatures and the ocean floor. We worked so hard on our touch and feel beach and ocean scenes. Please visit my blog to view a picture of our work. We also continued to work on number recognition and counting by using numbered fish to create fish bowls which are hanging on display in our room. We even worked on classifying and to my delight, everyone did a fantastic job! We continued to work on tracing words and worked on opposites, such as wet and dry. Since it’s been so beautiful out, we have even been making good use of the playground!
Saturday is the PTA sponsored Kids Tricky Tray, here at OCS at 3pm! I hope to see some of you there. Also on Wednesday, May 25th, at 9:25, the preschoolers will be visiting the library to purchase books at the PTA Book Fair! If purchasing books, please send in money with your child in a labeled envelope. Enjoy your weekend!

Mrs. Gilberti

Nothing can warm the heart like a hug from Mom. This week we closed up our unit on butterflies and their life cycle and focused on some pretty wonderful women. The children have all worked so hard on surprise gifts for their own Mommy. In order to keep it a secret until Sunday, I won’t mention any more about it! I will say that we did continue practicing our names remembering to use a capital letter to start, followed by lower case letters. We made great use of our white board when practicing matching capital letters to lower case letters. We focused on letters A/B/C/D. We also practiced writing and tracing numbers 1-10. In our Math center, the children practiced number recognition by using number boards, magnetic colored chips and a magnet to help sweep up the chips once their board was full. Judging by the amount of time each child spent in this center, it’s safe to say this was a pretty popular game. We also got to go to the gym this week and played basketball, squeezed in a yoga session and used our imaginations to go on a bear hunt!
Today, the whole school is kicking off MARE! Yes, it’s that time of year again. For the next couple of weeks, we will be focused on the ocean and its amazing creatures. Getting ready for ocean night is always so exciting for the children!
I hope everyone enjoys their weekend! Happy Mother’s Day to all!

Mrs. Gilberti

FRIDAY NEWSLETTER
FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2011

Welcome back everyone! I hope everyone enjoyed the break! I know I certainly did but was very happy to come back to smiling faces! On our first day back we all enjoyed share and tell, and focused on what we each did over the break. We even entered a drawing into our journal to show what we did over the break.
This week we focused on the butterfly life cycle. We worked on color recognition, fine motor skills, rhyming, counting and one to one correspondence. On Wednesday, we used brown cut outs of butterflies and dotted one side with paint then folded it over to create symmetry. Yes, we learned about symmetry! On Thursday, we used a lentil, pasta and paper cut outs to create our own diagram of the butterfly life cycle! Today, we used coffee filters, washable makers and a spray bottle to create beautiful butterflies but the most fun was on Tuesday! It was so warm and we got to visit the playground!
Overall, it was a great week and the children did a fantastic job transitioning back to school mode! Please do not forget that the PTA sponsored Tricky Tray is this Saturday! I hope to see many of you there! Enjoy your weekend.

Mrs. Gilberti

FRIDAY NEWSLETTER
FRIDAY, April 15, 2011

It’s finally beginning to feel like spring! This week we enjoyed decorating our room with our Easter and springtime crafts. We continued to practice fine motor skills. We used chalk and pulled cotton to make our bunnies. We snipped paper for our chicks. I think everyone enjoyed dying eggs on Wednesday. We tie-dyed them with food coloring. Decorating our foam spring time cut outs with sequence beads was fun too. Some of our friends even used a pattern with foam stickers when decorating their own cut out. Mrs. Ruskan is in a spring time mood and helped us all with our spring time basket. The pompom chicks are adorable. Thank you Mrs. Ruskan! To end our week with a bang, we all had fun seeking hidden eggs!
It’s been a really great week. Congratulations to all our friends who went to the kindergarten round-up! You guys did great and we are all so proud of you! You are growing up fast! I hope everyone enjoys their spring break and that it continues to feel like spring out there! I’m sending home the sunflowers that we each planted and did a great job taking care of. When planting the sunflower, you do not need to remove it from the pot. Simply place the pot and all into the ground. Be sure to have you child help take care of it! We spent some time talking about how a seed grows, the seed coat and seedlings! Let’s all hope that this spring break week brings with it a lot of sunshine! Enjoy your break!


Mrs. Gilberti

FRIDAY NEWSLETTER
Friday, April 8, 2011

Spring has sprung! Well, maybe not really, but with all our spring crafts on display in our room, it sure feels like it! This week we focused on flowers. We started the week off by planting sunflower seeds. We talked about how a seed grows into a seedling and what our seed needs to help it grow. We counted how many scoops of soil we scooped into the pot and used our pinching fingers to pick up the seeds and place one in each hole. Every day, 1 friend is chosen to water the pots down with a spray bottle. It’s a big responsibility to take care of a growing thing!
We also used our pinching fingers to help scrunch up tissue paper to help make our tulips look lovely. We matched Fruit Loops to petals to make our daisies look colorful too. We each got the opportunity to graph Fruit Loops by color to find out which color had more and which color had the least, in each of our pile. We worked on classifying and group during morning table work and because April showers bring May flowers, we learned that umbrella begins with the letter U.
Next week, we will be painting eggs for our baskets. If you could, please send in 2 hard boiled eggs with each child. We have a fun week ahead of us!
This weekend, on April 9th, is the All Together for Autism 5k run/walk, at Meadow Breeze Park. You can register the morning of the event if you would like. More information is available on our school website. I hope to see you there!!!!


Mrs. Gilberti