FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2011
FRIDAY NEWSLETTER

This week, we continued to discuss the five senses and focused more on the sense of smell and taste. We started our week off with a taste test using jelly beans. With our eyes closed and our hands in our laps, we were still able to figure out what flavor jelly belly we were given using our sense of taste! We water color painted with Kool-aid but before we added water, we closed our eyes and smelled each cup to help us figure out which flavor Kool-aid we were using! Our paintings smelled very yummy!

Zoo animals are always fun to talk about and pretending to be one is more fun! We roared like tigers and galloped like zebras! Our animal crafts were fun to make too. We used a marble, black paint and a box to help us make stripes on our Zebras. A number line helped us to put together a snake and we had to use our very best coloring skills to make our tiger masks. Using our snipping and gluing skills, we turned an empty paper towel roll into a giraffe! Crafts are always fun to make. On Tuesday, we went to the gym and played freeze tag. It was nice to burn off some energy! We can’t wait for Spring so we can get some play time outside again. We continued to practice our writing skills and focused on the letter Z. We graphed animal stripes and spots and worked on classifying.

Thank you to all who helped us raise money for Patients for Pennies! It’s always nice for all of us to get together and do what we can to help others. Enjoy your weekend!

FRIDAY NEWSLETTER
Friday, February 18, 2011

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Valentine’s Day and that you all enjoyed the gifts your children worked so hard to make. I think that the hardest part for them was keeping it a secret! In our classroom we celebrated with cupcakes and valentines. Everyone thought the cupcake hearts were really neat. Thank you so much for the cards and gifts!
This week we explored our 5 senses via jungle animals. We mainly focused on the senses of touch, hearing and sight. Next week, we will continue to use our jungle animals to help us learn about our 5 senses and focus more on taste and smell. We used the lion masks that we made to go on a lion hunt. It’s amazing what sounds you can hear in the jungle. Our elephant paper bag elephant helped us to balance on a tight rope (balance beam). Our toy elephants’ wrinkled skin was a dead giveaway, when I asked each child to close his/her eyes and guess which toy he/she felt was the elephant or a bear. Monkey finger puppets are always fun when counting those five monkeys who insist on jumping on the bed! It was fun to sing along and watch the monkeys fall. This week, we did get to enjoy some yoga too and guess what?! Some of the poses are jungle animals. You should hear the kids roaring during the lion pose!
I thank you all again for supporting Pennies for Patients! We reached our first goal of $10!! We are all excited about that. Also, if you have any donations for our annual Trick Tray classroom basket, please feel free to send it into school with your child and I will be sure to get it to our classroom basket coordinator. I hope to see you all there that evening. It’s always a lot of fun and great prizes too! Please remember that school is closed on Monday, February 21, 2011. Enjoy your three day weekend.

Mrs. Gilberti

Congratulations to our preschool class for being one of the winners of Spirit Day!!! We are so excited!! We talked about what our next Spirit Day should be and have come up with some great ideas. Since Valentine’s Day is around the corner, we took this opportunity to talk about symbols, making new colors by mixing, identifying different and same heart shapes, and talking about fiction and non-fiction books. We made our own non-fiction book and worked hard on making the illustrations look great, by trying really hard to stay in the lines when we colored. We continued to practice our fine motor skills when creating some beautiful Valentine’s Day crafts, one of which I can’t mention, but you will all get to see on Monday! On Tuesday, we went to the gym and enjoyed a great game of Red Rover! It’s nice to get some time to run and what a fun way to practice our listening skills. On Thursday, we enjoyed a little yoga. What a great way to stretch and balance!

We continue to collect coins for Pennies for Patients. We will continue this until the end of February. We have almost reached our first goal of $10. I thank you for sending in money and appreciate the opportunity to help your children gain a sense of pride for doing good for other. Monday is Valentine’s Day! I will be bringing in a small treat for all of us to share. Please feel free to send in Valentine’s with your child, for their friends, if you would like. Also, the second report card will be coming home with your child on Monday. Enjoy your weekend!

Mrs. Gilberti

Looks like Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow! Yeah!!!!!!!! Hopefully he is correct and spring is near. This week, we all discussed Groundhog Day and in honor of Punxsutawney Phil, we made shadow art self portraits, which are hanging on display, in the hallway for all to see. We even made a paper groundhog. This helped us with coloring, pasting and cutting skills. The month of February is Dental Health Month. Throughout this month, we will be discussing teeth, visiting the Dentist and good oral hygiene. We practice brushing our teeth by using a toothbrush and white paint to brush a yellow paper cut out tooth. We used up and down and side to side strokes. We even practiced writing our names on our paper toothbrushes. It’s been a short week, but fun one.
The K-Kids sweet rose sale will continue into next week, due to the snow days. If you would like to send your Valentine a sweet rose, please send in a $1 by Wednesday, February 9. Also, our classroom, as well as the rest of the school, is participating in The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society School & Youth Program, Pennies for Patients. We are collecting money and donating in honor of children who have been diagnosed with Leukemia. We will help to raise funds for cancer research and services for patients. This is a great way to teach our children to do what we can to help one another and those who are sick. Your help will be greatly appreciated. We will be discussing this fundraiser in class and have named our team, Team Preschool. Thank you to all who have continuously donated hand sanitizers and tissues to our classroom. Enjoy your weekend.

Mrs. Gilberti