Today we made Walrus art using cereal. The walrus's turned out great but need a lot of time to dry as we used a lot of glue! I can't wait for you to see them. They will be hanging in the classroom next week. If you get a chance come on in to see them.

Snack next week will be provided by the following students:

 AM Class                                                                 PM Class

1/21 Charlie                                                         1/21 Ali

1/22 Blade                                                           1/22 Marianna

1/23 Ty                                                                1/23 Alisson



 



 








 
We have been working on teaching respectful behavior at circle time as a review from the beginning of the year. With these dark, winter days the preschool students have been a tad bit wound up being inside so much. If you could take some time to review these simple steps prior to coming to school I think it will help me reinforce the respectful behavior at circle time.

The following is exactly what we say as the preschool students come to circle after cleaning up:

"At circle where do our feet belong? either in front of us or crisscross apple sauce

At circle where do your hands belong? To ourselves in our laps

At circle what should our ears be doing?  Listening

At circle where should our eyes be? Looking at  the teacher

At circle what should our mouths be doing? They should be zipped closed until we are called on to talk.

At circle do we touch other with our hands, feet or any other part of our bodies? No

At circle do we talk to our friends? No"

This simple review is very helpful for us as we sit down at circle time. I hope by your reviewing the expectations at home that those expectations will be remembered.

Thank you, Robyn


 
My apologies for the delay in posting. Seems like I should be able to keep up just fine with this blog but I must admit that time just  gets away from me.

This week in class we have made penguins out of paper cups. They are hanging in the classroom. If you get a chance to look at them you should. They will certainly add a smile to your day. Tomorrow we will make walrus's!

Today in class was our project time day. The before snack buddies are working on numbers and the after snack buddies are working on shapes. I know the numbers are challenging to most of the children. The shapes curriculum has been more on the easier side. Some of the preschoolers are learning harder words such as Rhombus, octagon, hexagon and trapezoid. I've also seen some lessons with cylinders.

I have a few reading slips without names on them. Can you take a moment to make sure there is a name on your child's reading slips when you return them. Currently I have one with "Your puppy is growing" and "Thomas the Big, Big Bridge". I also have a second one with "Winnie the Pooh" and The Fox and the Hound" as a couple of the books. If these sound like books you have read let me know and I will make sure your child gets their prize.

Please let me know if you have any questions, thoughts or concerns, Robyn
 
I hope your children were as excited to be back at school this week as I was to see them. We had a great time back in the classroom. The preschool students are excited to find out who their buddies will be! Some of them seem to have already chosen their buddies! Friday in class I will be assigning buddies. I will send out an email with that information over the weekend.

We spent a great deal of time just getting to know each other these past two days. Next week we will be back to our normal schedule.

Please remember during these winter months to keep an eye/ear on the local news stations for weather related delays and cancelations. I also will keep you posted here on this webpage and on our facebook page as well. The school district website gives updates as well.

Next week we will be collecting food for the local food bank. Your child can donate cans of food in the classroom. This is a great way to teach your child how to give to others. I will also be collecting toys for our local Share and Care program. After adding up the years I have lived in Scappoose I realized this is the 24th year I have volunteered with Share and Care. This is such a great program that helps families right here in Scappoose. New, unwrapped gifts and canned food are all needed to help make Christmas  a little brighter for our local families.

Don't forget Santa will be here on December 19th at 6:30 pm

I was in Vegas this past week for a Career Technical Educators Conference. I learned a lot of things to help me fill my educators tool box. One thing I learned about is a great app for our Ipads that we will start using after the holidays. I will need to make sure that I have photo permission forms back from all of you in order for the high school students to use this app. If you happen to see a photo release form come home with your child please return it right away so you can start receiving some great photos of your child in action!

I hope all of you are staying warm. Please let me know if you have any questions, Robyn



 
Please watch the local news stations for weather related updates:

AM class 10:15 to 11:50

PM class 1:30 to 3:05





 
Good Evening! I hope this email finds you all well and warm. It appears that Tuesday, December 10th is another no school day for Scappoose students. This means no preschool tomorrow. Please keep an eye/ear on the news, news websites, the Scappoose School District website, our class page and our Facebook page for weather updates as we continue to deal with this early wintery weather.

If Scappoose schools are closed so is Preschool Palace. If Scappoose schools are on a two hour delay then preschool will be delayed as well. I will email out those times to you as soon as I can. I have noticed since my last update on delays that our high school schedule may have slightly changed. I will confirm this and let you know those exact times. I know many of you live outside of the city limits so please make sure you can safely make it to school on those delayed days.

I have not assigned buddies yet this term. I was going to do that today, as this was to be my first day back into the classroom from the great conference I attended. Buddies will not be assigned until our next non preschool day. The preschoolers will instead get to interact with all the high school buddies prior to assigning individual buddies. This happened once before when I was ill at the beginning of a new term. I actually liked that the students got to spend some time interacting and getting to know one another first. Once we are back to school our preschool schedule will run the same however there will be no individual lessons taught this week.

Remember Santa is coming next week. We will also be decorating gingerbread houses so don’t forget your can of white frosting with your child’s name on top and one bag of candies/cookies or decorating items for all the students to share. Hopefully we will do some Christmas caroling at the high school next week as well. We do need a few days to learn those Christmas tunes before we go caroling.

Please let me know either at my home email address, my work email address or our facebook page that you received this message. If you have any questions let me know.

Stay warm and give your child a hug for me. I am missing their smiling faces,

Robyn

 
Today was our Thanksgiving theme. For craft time the children made very cute table decorations. Inside each jar are Reeses Pieces. The handprints are your child's handprints. The high school buddies worked earlier in the week getting the handprints so they would be ready for today. The students glued on all the pieces and filled the jars themselves. They were very proud of the finished product. But I do think they would love to eat all those candies now rather than waiting a week!

We made it outside for  little bit today. The sun finally warmed the playground!

At circle time we read The Very First Thanksgiving, by Rhonda Gowler Greene.

For snack today the children had pretzel sticks and bananas, Juice and water.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving, Robyn
 
In case you are curious about our Zoo Phonics letters this is what we have learned so far. We focus on one letter each week. The week of December 10th we will be reviewing these letters.

A = Allie Alligator
B = Bubba Bear
C = Catina Cat
D = Dee Dee Deer
F = Francy Fish
G = Gordo Gorilla
H = Honey Horse
I = Inny Inchworm

Your children may be able to tell you the sound and signal for these letters if you ask. Some of them may still need the visual cards in order to do them. If you want to learn more about Zoo Phonics let me know and I can show you the cards at drop off time. I did look for some youtue videos and there are some but they are a little odd. There a few signals that they do differently than we do.
 
Today was a great day at preschool. It was so sunny that the kids had to ask me to close the curtains because the sun was in their eyes. We did not make time to go outside this morning just because it was so cold out. Our theme today was Thanksgiving. For craft we played a very fun bingo game. The students had to find the color of feather that was drawn from the pile and glue it to their turkey. I saw many fun turkeys going home today. At circle we reviewed the Zoo Phonics letters "d through i". Our theme today was Thanksgiving. Our story was "One Little, Two Little , Three Little Pilgrims" by B. G. Hennessy. Snack today was mini cupcakes and juice.

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving, Robyn
 
Today was project time day. This was the last project time for this term. The before snack buddies finished up their curriculum area of science. I love this curriculum area because I see so many fun experiments happening. I love seeing 
the preschool students learning about hypothesizing! 

The after snack buddies finished up their curriculum of cutting. Many of the preschool students have been struggling with their cutting skills so I decided to continue the fine motor skill activities to the end of this term. I have seen a great deal of improvement as their hands have gotten stronger. I would encourage all of you to work with your children on cutting at home as well. The more practice they get the stronger those hand muscles will become. Magazines and catalogs are great items to let them cut away on.

For snack today the students had Fish crackers and fresh grapes. They also had their choice of Apple juice, Grape juice, milk or water to drink. You would be surprised how great the kids are about cleaning up their own messes when they are done eating. They all know that is an expectation!

During skill building the students reviewed the Zoo Phonics letter "I". Inny Inchworm is her name. The students all got to identify their own name and decide if they have the letter "I" or not in their name. If they do they get to stand up. Once we have gone through all their names then we count how many students are standing and how many are sitting. This is excellent practice for them to recognize more and less.

Don't forget that tomorrow is the last preschool day with the current buddies. School will resume on December 10th with their new buddies. If a current buddy returns to the classroom in the same class period then they will continue to have that same
buddy.

Let me know if you have any questions,
Robyn