Mandeville Weekly News
11/30/09—12/4/09
- A parenting class will be held on Friday, December 11th at 9:30 a.m. called “Toilet Training Tips”. Parents feel free to invite your friends, all are welcome!
- Parents please check your child’s folder. The office has important new in them.
PreK/Kindergarten Chronicles
We welcomed a new friend to our classroom this week! Actually he is a “friend on loan” until the end of the school year. His name is “Crunch” and he is a handsome turtle belonging to Nathan. Nathan will take him home at the beginning of summer. Tommy appears to be quite pleased having someone share his home with him. All the children appear to be quite pleased having a new friend in the Pre-K-K environment. Thanks Nathan, for sharing your turtle with us. We love “Crunch”!
Learning the names of parts of the animals is always a fun activity for the children. Many of our older children have mastered the vocabulary for parts of the bird, the frog, the horse and are now working on learning the parts of the turtle. They have enjoyed watching Tommy and Crunch this week in an attempt to try and identify the CARAPACE and the PLASTROM, among other parts.
We’ve moved from baking “cookies” to baking “turn-over’s” (grape or strawberry filled) that everyone seems to really like! Spreading the jelly appears to be as much fun as putting the sprinkles on the cookies! We’ve also noticed a big improvement in the use of the rolling pin. Some of the children are really quite good at it. Almost all of the children are now working on their own at baking; if they need assistance an older child is helping them. We are quite proud of all the children for their good work
This Friday we are two weeks away from our Christmas Sing-a-long. The “rehearsal” for singing and signing our traditional repertoire of songs has begun. Everyone seems excited about their roll in representing one of the continents. They have been hearing a lot about the lives of children on other continents. This week we talked and read about children in Europe (
With the coming of the Christmas season the children are excited about new events to come, about family activities, about people to see, things to do and about time to be at home and out of school for awhile, on “holiday”. Eager, happy little faces greet us every day with the wonder of it all seen in every smile and in every twinkle of the eye! What a joyous time!
Parents please know that your child has been taught how to put on his own coat or jacket. With few exceptions, most of the children are doing quite well. We help with buttons and zippers, but try to see that the child actually puts on his or her own jacket or coat. Please let him do this at home. The more he practices doing it , the better he will be at it and you will be so happy to say “Put on your jacket, we’re ready to go”. If you want to know the way we teach the child to put on his jacket (if he is not doing it at home), just ask any one of the teachers. We will be most happy to show you how we teach this skill that works so easily for the young child.
Preschool Press
December is here and the preschool class has gotten into the holiday spirit. Come inside our class and you will feel quite cozy. We now have a wonderful warm and inviting fireplace which is located next to our beautiful Christmas tree. We have had so much fun this week decorating our class and exploring the new seasonal work.
Some of our new work that was introduced this week was Christmas tree cookie cutting with play dough, snowman counting work, Christmas card matching work, bell counting work (1-5) and pouring red water work. Our colors that we have been practicing our sign language in are green and red.
Singing is always a big hit in our class and this week it was awesome. We are singing “Jingle Bells”, “Silent Night” and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”. The books that we have read are “Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer”, “Snow Day” and “Winter Day with Friends”.
The children have had lessons on putting their coats on and keeping our germs to ourselves. At Kinder Haus, we teach the children “the coat trick”. It is an easy way for a child to put on their coat and they think it is magical. Ask your child to show you “the coat trick”. If they have difficulty ask any employee and they will be able to show you. This is a wonderful opportunity to promote independence in your children. Hand washing, nose blowing and coughing/sneezing in our arm, are all important lessons that were introduced again this week. Each lesson is given slowly and carefully so that the children understand how to do it the correct way. These lessons are repeated many times throughout their time at Kinder Haus. We feel they are not only necessary but, valuable to learn for life skills.
The preschool class would like to welcome Bryce to our class. He is a new friend who started this week. We look forward to the many years he will be one of our friends. Have a wonderful weekend!
Toddler Talk
Our toddler room has been transformed into a “winter wonderland” this week as we have learned about snowflakes, snowballs, snowmen and “soft”.
Attentive group time bodies have enjoyed the Eric Carle book “Snow Dream”, especially the chime button on the last page where we listen to the sound of gently falling snowflakes.
On Tuesday, we enjoyed creating a cotton ball snow fall. After all of the excitement, we then glued our cotton balls onto a piece of blue construction paper and made a snowman. We have also begun to learn the sign for snow and are currently reading several books about snow.
Bundled up and pink-nosed, we have braved the backyard blizzards and soaked in any complimentary rays of sunshine we can find. Then coming in and warming ourselves by the hearth, we’ve enjoyed sweet naptime dreams…of springtime.
The toddler class would like to say welcome to our new friend, “Finn”. He is adjusting well to our friendly and fun environment.
Next week we will be working on many different art projects for the holiday season and start practicing for our Christmas social which will be on December 18th. Please check your child’s folder for more information.
Have a wonderful weekend and try to stay warm.