Classroom News

A Peek at Our Week

“At Preschool We…”
Date: 5/6 - 5/10

Day of the Monday Wednesday Friday

Week At Preschool We… Communication/
Working Together

Self-Selected Creative Art: For art, Monday’s activities will Monday’s activities will
Activities there will be ovals be placed out again be placed out again
1:20 – 2:50 drawn on the art with revisions and with revisions and
easel for the children additions to create a additions to create a
to draw self-portraits more emergent more emergent
of each other. curriculum. We hope curriculum. We hope to
to allow the children allow the children an
Science: For an opportunity to opportunity to further
science, children will further explore explore activities in a
work together to activities in a more more meaningful way.
measure each meaningful way.
other's heights with
different tools each
day. They will also
be able to step on a
scale and have their
partner write down
how much they
weigh.

Language/Literacy:
Children will be able
to read books with
the teachers. While
the teachers are
reading to them, they
can find magnetic
letters that go along
with words in the
book. They can also
find the letters in
their name.

Manipulatives:
Children will be able
to use different
materials to make
friendship bracelets.

Math: This week will

be all about shapes!
We will have
tangrams to set up
for the children to
make patterns and
different shaped
objects for them to
trace.

Sensory: The
sensory table will be
filled with water
marbles, sensory
tools, and a PVC
pipe track for the
children to run
marbles through.

Dramatic Play: The

dramatic play area
will be set up as a
house. There will be
many materials for
them to use as they
act out different roles
and scenarios they
have experienced.

Blocks: Children will

use their creative
thinking skills to
make unique bridges
over a pretend body
of water.
Snack Ritz crackers (4) ½ ¼ Cup Goldfish
2:00 – 2:30 cheese stick; water 4 oz Juice
Gathering Since it is our first As a large group, we
Time week of preschool, will begin by doing a
3:00 – 3:10 we will be practicing silly activity to learn
learning each other’s about effective
names and making communication. The
new friends. We will children will verbally
also be talking about instruct their teacher in
some of the different making a peanut
things we do in butter and jelly
preschool and talking sandwich. The teacher
about some of the will quite literally follow
materials we use. their instructions to
see what she ends up
with. We will also
watch a puppet show
about communicating
our thoughts and
desires with our peers.
Small Focus Books: Books:
Activities -Clifford’s Best -You Will Be My
3:10 – 3:25 Friend by Norman Friend! By Peter
Brown
Bridwell P B8
-Friends in the Park by
-My Friend Bear by
Rochelle Bunnett
Jez Alborough P A2 -Wombat & Bandicoot:
-Arnie and the New Best of Friends by
Kid by Nancy Kerry Argent
-If You Give a Mouse
Carlson P C5
a Cookie by Laura
-The Dinosaur Who
Joffe Numeroff
Lived in My
Backyard by B.G. Activity: Children will
Hennessy H13 use a variety of
materials like
magazines, pom-
Activity: The children
poms, hole punchers,
will work together etc. to create a giant
with their groups to collage with their new
classroom peers.
½ Frozen go-gurt
Animal crackers (5)
Water
The children will be
watching a puppet
show about how they
can work together to
accomplish tasks. After
the puppet show is
over, they will play the
game Simon Says to
see what differences
they have with the
other children.
Books:
-The Wonders of
Hands by Edith Baer
(B3)
-Faces by Barbara
Brenner (B27)
-Spiky, Slimy, Smooth:
What is Texture? by
Jane Bracket (B42)
-Hands Can by Cheryl
Hudson (H24)
-I Can Do by Barbara
Taylor (P T9)
-You Will Be My Friend
by Peter Brown (P
B26)
Activity: Children will
use a variety of
materials like yarn,
crayons, cotton balls,
 make puzzles. They mirrors, etc. to create a
will also trace their paper plate portrait of
themselves to see how
hands on a large
unique they are.
poster for us to hang
up in our classroom.

Learning Together at Home

1. After preschool, ask your children about some of the names of friends they made at
preschool and also about some of their favorite activities and centers.
2. After preschool, ask your children about the different conversations they had with the
new people they met at preschool.
3. After preschool, ask your children what makes them unique and if they worked
together to accomplish any of the activities that were done during preschool.

Early Childhood Fundamentals

What is “Developmentally Appropriate Practice”?

You probably have noticed that our classroom has a lot of bustle and noise, that
children are up and doing things, talking, playing, and exploring. Such a classroom
environment differs from the old grad-school images of a teacher doing a lot of talking at
a blackboard while children sit and listen quietly at their desks.
Research and experience tell us that to be effective with young children, teaching
practices need to be “developmentally appropriate.” What this means is simply that
educators need to think first about what young children are like and then create an
environment and experiences that are in tune with children’s characteristics.
Early childhood, after all, is a time of life quite different from adulthood, and even from
the later school years. Children 3-6 learn far better through direct interactive
experiences than through just listening to someone talk. They learn extraordinary
amounts through play and exploration. And the younger children are, the more what
they learn needs to be relevant and interesting on the day they learn it. Not just in
context of some future learning.
A developmentally appropriate program like ours is age-appropriate. But that’s not all.
To make the program a good place for every child, we gear our classroom environment
and activities to this community and the families involved. We’re eager to learn as much
as we can about each child’s family, cultural background, past experience, and current
circumstances. With this knowledge, we work to create a program that fits the children
and families we serve.