Preschool is wrapping up!

Using books as a resource to represent our Solar System.

 Preschool is wrapping up!

Our children have had a busy year of exploring, learning, and creating memories. The children have all grown in such confidence from the beginning of the year. We see our class has formed a strong and accepting classroom community where our children feel comfortable expressing their personality, even in front of a crowd. We are truly proud of our future kindergarteners! 
Since the school year is coming to an end, let's celebrate the children's accomplishments! We have documentation and children's work around the room to share our learning story, come stay awhile and check it out! 

Exploring the smells of our wonderful garden. 

We also want to celebrate the end of the year with Spirit Week! Each child expressed something they want to do and the results are in;
Monday 13th: Pajama Day/ Show & Tell (Wear PJs to school and bring something for show and tell)
Tuesday 14th: Camp/Outdoor Day (We will be outdoors for hiking, building shelter and pretend campfires while enjoying cereal raisin mix)
Wednesday 15th: Costume Day (Dress up how you want but please no masks or weapons!)
Thursday 16th: Hat Day (Wear a hat of your choice!)
Friday 17th: Music Day (Dress up as a musician or wear a band shirt.)
Monday 20th: Sports Day (Dress up in your sports Jersey or active wear. Teachers Vs. kids soccer game)
Tuesday 21st: Water Day (Last day of school! Bring a beach towel and a change of clothes as we will be playing outside with water activities)  

*Butterfly Update*

We let our 11 Butterflies go last Wednesday after our 3 Momma butterflies laid eggs. The eggs started to hatch and we have a few hundred caterpillars. Our caterpillars are doing well and slowly growing in size. We are excited to assist our classroom pets through the life cycles again! 

After putting together the large Butterfly net we held and fed our Butterflies. During the Butterfly release the Butterflies didn't fly far away from the children, letting the preschoolers hold the Butterflies again! 

Spring Semester

Your children have been working hard to get ready for the next school year. We have been discussing responsibility and taking care of others. To encourage the children's hard work this year we have 3 pets to look after!

Have your child introduce you to our new class fish! We know it is a male Betta Fish who has yet to be named! Voting and name results will come soon! 

In our Science Area you will find our Caterpillars, which are changing soon!

We are also busy parents to our 20 DUCK EGGS! With the Kindergartners and other classrooms in the school, we are researching how to be good caregivers to our ducklings. (Dad Ducks are called Drakes and Mom Ducks are called Hens.) The children put on gloves and carefully held the eggs by making a safe nest with their hands. The ducks right now are safe in their eggs and in the Incubator, taking a few weeks to start the hatching process. 

We are excited about spring and enjoying the weather outside. it is important to send your child in appropriate clothing for the weather and a change of clothes in their back packs. We never know when we will be busy learning through water, paint, gardening, or an unexpected accident. 

The Colors of Us

The Colors of Us
The study of self has been part of an investigation the children have been a part of since the beginning of school.  Representing ourselves through different artistic mediums has been an ongoing interest.This semester, our goal is to extend this project in many ways. With the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's birthday on Monday, we celebrated by reading the book The Color of Us by Karen Katz. 

The story depicts a young girl named Lena, the young daughter of an artist who wants to paint a portrait of herself. Her mother teacher her how mix paints to make "the right brown" for her skin tone. Her mom shows her that if she mixes the right combination between red, yellow, black, and white, she can have the right brown for the color of her skin. The children were encouraged to make their skin tone by combining the colors Lena's mom showed her to use in the book. 

The process of mixing the paints was long. The children were persistent with mixing colors to find the right color of their skin. Pouring less and more of one color or another and defining if they needed to make it darker or lighter, were among the trial and error comments made during the process. The results of the colors mixed by the children were simply beautiful.

Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day this year is on a Sunday and many have been asking about bringing in Valentine's, if you choose to participate please have the child sign their name on their Valentine's. Do not worry about writing names of classmates as that can be a struggle when passing Valentines out. Children will decorate their Valentines bags at school Monday the 8th and Tuesday the 9th. Children can start bringing in Valentines Wednesday the 10th through Friday the 12th. We will not be celebrating Valentines Day with a party but passing out Valentines and reading them during small group reading.

Important Dates

• January 27th Pizza Kit Orders Due 
• February 29th - March 4th School is closed for Spring Break 

Meet Our Intern

As many of you have noticed, we have many new faces in our classroom. University students are part of our culture here at the ECEC and as a new semester starts, new student teachers become part of our classroom community. The children seem to accept new faces and are comfortable with building new relationships.  This winter semester we have one intern we would like to introduce to you. We are extremely excited to work with Ms. Juliann Ruelle. She was part of our classroom last semester and is familiar with many of the children and our classroom routine.

Dear Families,

       I wanted to take the time to introduce myself. My name is Juliann Ruelle and I will be interning this semester with Ms. Smith and Ms. Sanchez. I will be in your child’s classroom Mondays (8:00am-4:00pm) and Wednesdays (8:00am-3:30pm). In April I will be receiving my Bachelor’s degree in General Studies: Children and Families, so this is my last semester here at the University of Michigan- Dearborn. I am currently a Director at a Before and After Care program where I have been working with children for the past 5 years. I have always been around children and had a love for educating and working with them. I also have experience caring for children with cerebral palsy which takes place every summer during my workplaces’ Summer Camp.  I have two dogs named Caesar and Jack. With that being said, I am a HUGE dog lover. If I could have hundreds of dogs, I would! I often run in various 5ks and 10ks for fun and in the future I plan to be able to run a whole marathon. My goal for this semester is to investigate with the children and learn as much as we can together. I am very excited to see where their minds take us and eager to meet you all and get to know the children and their personalities!

Sincerely,

Juliann Ruelle 

Thank You

Thank you parents who responded to my email in regards to the co-teaching model we practice at the ECEC. We will share them at our professional development meeting on Monday. This is another way you are volunteering your time to our school and classroom community. We are grateful for your time.

Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day this year is on a Sunday and many have been asking about bringing in Valentine's, if you choose to participate please have the child sign their name on their Valentine's. Please do not worry about writing names of classmates as that can be struggle when passing Valentines out. Children will decorate their Valentines bags at school Monday the 8th and Tuesday the 9th. Children can start bringing in Valentines Wednesday the 10th through Friday the 12th. We will not be celebrating Valentines Day with a party but passing out Valentines and reading them during small group reading.
 
Reminders
Please remember to bring all snow gear for cold, winter days. We go outside everyday unless there is precipitation or the temperature is below 20 degrees (or feels like less than 20 degrees). All children need to bring gloves, hats, snow pants,coats, and snow boots to school when we have snow. We would like to inform you we cannot keep children inside if you request. Due to ratio policies, we do not have staff to accommodate your child to stay inside. If you child cannot go outside than he/she should stay home.

Important Dates

• NO SCHOOL next Monday in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
•  January 20th Presentation on “Gluten Free Diets Help Children with Autism” 
• January 21st Parent Association Meeting @ 8:30am 
• January 27th Pizza Kit Orders Due 
• February 29th - March 4th School is closed for Spring Break 

New Year!

It feels great to be back! We truly missed all the children and are excited about the new year plans we have for the rest of the year.  The children have grown in many ways since their fist day of school. I saw them come into the classroom with a sense of comfort, a comfort that displayed their classroom and school environment as their second home... a place they missed. The children have built positive relationships with each other and it was noticed how much they missed each other during the break.

As the new year begins, we reflect on each child's accomplishments thus far and think about what goals we have for each child. There have been some changes to our environment as well as our schedule to reflect the needs of the children. Our morning meeting will start at 9:00 am (2:10 in the pm) and it is crucial for your child to arrive before this time. During morning meeting and afternoon meeting, the children will participate in literacy and math activities that will aid towards growth in these areas through out the year. Starting our day early will also allow us to have 20-25 minutes of small groups that will incorporate writing or reading mini books. Mini books will be sent home at the end of the week. We encourage you to read the books with your child at home.

Lost and found.
We have placed a  lost and found basket in our parents sign-in shelf. Please check the basket for lost items. There are two or three sweaters and more items in there now that we know belong to children in the classroom. Please check at your convenience.

Thank you to Mr.& Mrs. Karagatsoulis!
We didn't get a chance to thank Khristos' parents for coming into the classroom and making Koulourakia cookies with the children. The experience was memorable and enjoyable to the children. Thank you again for your time. We strongly appreciate your involvement with our classroom community.

Happy Thanksgiving

Giving Thanks
On these days of giving thanks we want to thank Leo's dad, Mr. Radosevich, for making crepes today for the children. The children enjoyed his company and the delicious crepes. Each child participated by helping mix the batter and pouring the mixture on the griddle. The children anticipated their turn to cook. They couldn't wait to eat the crepes. At the snack table we heard the children's positive critique. "Mmm...this is delicious! This is so good! I want some more! They look like pancakes."

Following recipes and cooking has been an interest the children have had since the beginning of the school year. We want to continue to extend an invitation to all parents to join us for any part of our classroom routine. We value parent involvement and know how beneficial it is for the children to get to know their classmates families.

 Upcoming Blog Posts
There are three weeks left before our holiday break. This will be our last blog post for now until we come back from our holiday break. Conferences and Curriculum night are coming up and we would like to celebrate everything the children have been doing during those events.

 Parent-Teacher conferences

Don't forget to sign-up for parent teacher conferences. If there are conflicting schedules, please let us know. 

Winter Clothes

We had our first snow fall this week. Your child should come to school with appropriate clothing items to stay warm for our outdoor play. This includes hats, gloves, a warm coat, and snow pants and boots if it has snowed or will snow. We have designated an area in our classroom for boots and snow pants. There is a rack and boot tray in our dramatic play area where boots can be placed and snow pants can be hung. 

Important Dates  

11/26-27– No school: Thanksgiving Break! 
12/2-Curriculum Night 5- 6:30pm 
12/11-Last Day Before Break 
12/14-Optional Care Tuition Due 
12/14-18-Break (Optional Care) 

Ms. Hamadi's Blog post

I am enjoying working with the children this semester. We have different investigations going on in our classroom. The children have been exploring open ended material such as City blocks and small bricks to extend their thinking of what can be done and how we can explore them. The City blocks with the small bricks were once a garage, an animal house and even a big house and garage combined. Our next step was for this exploration to build a wealth of skills such as fine motor skills, language and communication, thinking, reasoning and problem solving skills.

They have been developing these skills by communicating their plan to each other, trying to find ways to build up without having the small bricks to fall, thinking of where to place the chimney or the door. Our next steps will be to use wood sticks with Velcro and continue building with a solid foundation.

We have also been doing shadow exploration in various ways. We started with our understanding of what a shadow was, identifying where the shadow was coming from and how important the light is to be able to see the shadow. We then explored shadows using an overhead projector and traced the animal from the overhead reflecting on the wall. The children discovered placement was very important for them to be able to trace properly. They moved their bodies around and then realized that to be able to see the animal, they have to let the light reach. They noticed they were blocking the way by being in front of the light. They grasped the importance of the light for the shadow to appear. The children enjoyed exploring shadows and had various comments such as “My shadow is black but my shirt is pink, I don't see the colors.” We then developed our investigation with shadows and colors. We used colored shapes and light to see if we were able to see colors and understand why we couldn't. The more we explore, the more we will get to understand the children's thinking and provide questions in line with their interests. The exploration of shadows supported all types of learning: literacy, math, arts, social studies and dramatic play. Parents are welcome to explore shadows at home using a flashlight.  

The children know that I was born and raised in France. They know I speak French and have been curious to hear more. I am pleased to incorporate my French culture into our group time. The children have enjoyed singing the alphabet in French, singing songs like “Frere Jacques” in French and some already know the song. They enjoy listening to someone speaking another language. We have been reading Dr. Seuss in French, the version of One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish and Green Eggs and Ham. They have also been learning colors in French. I could see their focus when repeating the word carefully.          

I would like to invite you to participate in our French sessions. I always add some french aspect (singing, counting or reading) in our group time every Tuesday and Thursday at 10:20am. You can come and listen to what we do, or share anything in another language you’ve learned at school or speak at home.  I look forward to seeing you and see how we can participate together.

Educationally yours,

Hadidja Hamadi

Parent-Teacher conferences

We will have the times and dates posted Monday for parent-teacher conferences. Please pick a time and date by writing your child's name on a block. Conferences will be 20 minutes long. It is important to us to respect the time you have chosen to celebrate your child, please plan to arrive on time as there will be conferences before and after the block you choose. Thank you!

Important Dates  

11/26-27– No school: Thanksgiving Break! 
12/2-Curriculum Night 5- 6:30pm 
12/11-Last Day Before Break 
12/14-Optional Care Tuition Due 
12/14-18-Break (Optional Care)