VPK Newsletter - Week of January 4, 2011

Classroom News

Happy New Year! Welcome to a new year and a new format for our newsletter. In an effort to reduce paper waste we are going to try posting the newsletter here each week for parents.

This Week:

Our letter of the week is Oo

Our number focus will be on 11 and 12

Our color this month is white

Our shape is the rhombus (diamond)

Our theme is "Under the Big Top" - we'll have fun turning the classroom into a circus!

Literacy Buddies:

Our buddies have started sending us books and letters! As your child receives his/her book we will send them home. Each child will write a thank you note to his buddy in class and I'll mail it off to them. We're excited to be a part of this fun and educational program!

Change of clothing:

Please make sure that your child has a full change of clothing at school every day. Each child in the VPK class has his/her own cubby to store the items (along with napping items and backpacks).

-Ms. Kathy and Ms. Sara

Merry Christmas from So Big So Bright!

The Housekeeping Center

The Housekeeping Center is one of the most popular centers in the school. (Well, it's a close tie with the new Train Center!) While in this center, the children create restaurants, space ships, and stores. They pretend to be mommies and daddies and chefs. Sometimes they are firefighters or princesses or super heroes. And while all of this play is going on they are learning! Socially and emotionally, they are playing out real life situations and learning to interact with a group. They experience different roles and learn to see things from different vantage points. They learn about jobs in the community. They also learn conflict resolution and negotiation skills. Cognitively, they are problem solving and developing language and planning skills. They're also creating cognitive models of how the world works. I'm pretty fond of the Housekeeping Center, too :)

An Update From Toddlers and Twos . . .

The Toddler Room and Ms. Ashley's class are busy getting ready for the holidays! This week both classes made handprint Christmas trees. Next week they'll make some ornaments to decorate the trees in our school (and eventually, your trees at home!).

Chutes and Ladders (or . . . why we play games in preschool)

Today, during centers, the children thought they were just having fun playing a board game but this is what was really going on:

Cognitively they were learning basic math concepts, counting sequentially, and planning.

Physically they were exercising fine motor muscles.

Socially & Emotionally they were cooperating with others, making choices, learning to take turns, and learning to win/lose gracefully.

Come to my house . . .

Come to my house and . . .

play with a toy bear (Marin)

play hide and seek (Jake)

we'll play with Grandma (Mateo)

we will play with cars (Mason)

we'll play with Little Mermaid (Ava S.)

play Barbies (Savanna)

play with my dump truck (Owen)

play Hungry Hippos (Ella)

we'll paint (Matthew)

play with playdough (Ava L.)

play with monster trucks and a monster (Efrain)

play with monster trucks (Christian)

play with a horse (Maegan)

play with a monster truck (Dominic)

play Barbies and dolls (Melissa)

I love to run! (Hunter)

play trucks (Austin)

Music With Ms. Pat

We enjoyed dancing to the Nutcracker in music class this week. We tried marching AND dancing the waltz!