PreK    with Mrs. Devens updated: 3-26-2012 Dear Pre-K families,   Thank you for your continued generous donations to our classroom of supplies. If you want to begin to send in empty egg cartons and paper rolls, it would be appreciated. Pre-K Classroom “Wish List” Disinfecting Table Wipes (i.e. Lysol, Clorox, generic) Tissue for Our Noses (i.e. Kleenex, generic) Paper white (with and with out 3 holes) Glue Sticks Play-Dough Scotch Tape Package clear  tape Velcro (the self-stick kind) Various Items or “Beautiful Junk” for Open Art Experiences (i.e. Buttons, sequins, ribbon, cotton balls, beads, etc.)Disposable Plastic Spoons and Forks Disposable Drinking Cups (i.e. Dixie Cups) Plastic Food Baggies of Various Sizes (i.e. Ziploc) Remember: if you want to order Scholastic books I send our book orders the last week of every month. I will create a book wish list soon if you want to donate books to our classroom. I recently sent home the access code in your child's backpack. If you missed it and want a copy, let me know. I will resend it to you.   Upcoming events and important dates: * check IDCS home web page for more dates and events     CONTENT AREA CURRICULUM FOCUSES: April 2012: Our Amazing Body Transportation Measurement: Sand Babies  Please send in your child's survey before 3/30/12 May 2012: Insects Eric Carle author's study Gardening / Flowers June 2012: Getting Ready for Kindergarten Sea Life / Ocean / Summer September - June 2011/12: Thames River: (Production Company - Global Responsibility) Our first sighting of an immature eagle was spotted 10/15 @ 10:00 AM this morning flying over our playground. We watch it soar most mornings during recess. We continue to see red tail hawks and shore birds at recess every day. In Responsive Classroom:   We are practicing our classroom rules of being caring, sharing, respectful, and listening friends to all. We learned about some important people in our country's history who model our classroom rules & hopes and dreams. We learned about our some of our Presidents We talked about our classroom rules, service learning project (Audubon Society's Feb. Bird Watch), and Production Company (Thames River/Caring for our Earth) and how these goals help care for our Earth. In Math: we are counting numbers 0 - 20, naming colors, and naming shapes (2-D & 3-D). We are sorting objects; and, graphing: yes/no, is/is not. We are predicting amounts and then checking that amount. We are learning about non-standard and standard measurements, time, and money. In Language Arts: we are daily continuing to work on recognizing and writing our first and last names. We are singing songs, playing cooperative games, and sorting letters in the alphabet. We are learning about the letters in the alphabet: Aa-Zz. We are writing letters and words by practicing how to correctly hold a pencil; and, drawing the shapes inside letters (curves, circles, and lines) using whiteboards and drawing the classroom plants. We are writing crisply our first names and tracing our names with white board markers and markers. We have been practicing and learning about letters. We will learn about Nn-Qq in March, Rr-Vv in April, and Ww-Zz in May, and in June we revisit the entire alphabet. We are writing/drawing in our Daily Journals. The children read-draw-and think for about 5 minutes each day after recess in their journals or whiteboards, or paperwork. Some days they draw in their journals, other days they color or illustrate poems and songs. We trace letters and numbers using stencils. Some days they build and write their names or topic/content vocabulary. We will build a 'word wall' and use pots of 'word pots' of nouns and words we find interesting. We will read in our Morning Messages sight words: I, am, can, what, today, is, who, see, be, special, color, how, sometimes, everywhere, and, & many more words. We will read these sight words and add new sight words into our daily reading. We are predicting and sharing what we notice in the stories that are read to us on a daily basis. The children draw and retell us about they stories they listen to as they respond in their journals. In Social Studies: We are continuing to learn about how the season is changing and impacting how we live in our world. We learning about Animals in Our World, and building and inventing. In March we will learn about how people and animals build their homes and buildings. We will learn how to create inventions and machines that help us in our everyday lives. In April we will learn about transportation and how things move. We will investigate how we grow and change. In Science:  We are observing our changing world through magnifying glasses and binoculars, and experiments. We are learning what a magnet is and how to use it. We will learn how simple machines work and will also learn how magnets work. We are observing how the Thames River is changing every day through our observation stations in our classroom and playground. Observations and experimentation are the focuses of prekindergarten scientific exploration throughout our year. We will observe and learn about water and weather. We will predict what will live in and then observe creatures in our classroom terrarium. Our service learning project was to participate in the Audubon Society's Great Bird Watch and we learned about how to care for our environment through studying about he Thames River and its Watershed. We will learn about what happens when something is poured down a storm drain through materials borrowed from The Last Green Valley (tlgv.org). We again are enjoying having the Earth scape come to our classroom in March/April to help us learn about caring about our environment and global responsibility. MARCH: During the month of March, we again will be privileged to have on loan "The Last Green Valley" earthscape. This watershed model which will help us concretely visualize and manipulate our Thames River watershed. We  will pretend to be rain clouds, snow storms, and hurricanes on the meadows, farms, and town streets. We will rain on the storm drains, housing development, and factories. We will rain on a farm field and cause erosion using hot chocolate powder which will represent soil. Then, we will rain and flood causing pollution on our river to learn how to better care for our Thames River. We will listen to our storm drain next to our playground and make connections to our Earthscape in our classroom. Someday, we are hopefully, going to label with both in spanish and english our storm drain to help prevent pollution and people pouring pollutants down our storm using the CT DEP's environmental awareness stormdrain program. All of these lessons will be connected to our school-wide year long theme of Global Responsibility. Last year (2011), we connected our watershed knowledge to our South America's studies about its landforms with a special focus on the Amazon River, rainforests, and mountains. We made clay bugs, painted huge paper leaves, made rainsticks, and more art activities that will help us learn about weather and water, along with land forms in South America and our own state of CT. We shared what we learned during our All School Multi-Cultural Festival on May 5th. We continue our daily watch of the Thames River from our back door landing. Often, we see eagles, swans, and ducks. Other days we watch the cormorants rest on the channel green can to dry their wet feathers and catch a rest before continuing their diving for small fish in the river.  During our Great Bird Watch this year (Feb. 17-20th, 2012) we saw 6 American Bald eagles, cormorrants, ducks, seagulls, swans, mergansers, and various song birds. During the winter of 2011, we saw up to 9 eagles snatching huge striper bass from the icy water and soar directly above our heads.Many migrating birds arrived daily including merganser ducks and bufflehead ducks. In January, we watched seal and eagles fishing for striper bass. In Research:  Research #2 Project: Dinosaurs. In February (2012), the students celebrated their whole class. Throughout January and February, the students chose their topic and discussed what they knew (K) and what they wanted to learn (L). They developed their research questions and explored their answers through playing with toy dinosaurs, browsed through books, and examined/compared fossils and plants from the age of the dinosaurs and today. They discovered what is living and what is not living. They made clay fossils of dinosaur footprints and bones. They wrote words and drew pictures to reflect on what they learned. Research #3: Student Choice We chose a topic for our March Research Presentations. The topic choice and questions were sent home with your child's Narrative Report Cards in February to help guide you at home through the research process. Most of the students have already presented their research topics. Next they are reflecting on what they learned (L) from their own and others' projects. Research #4: Student Choice In June, the children will choose a topic for their Summer Research Project. They will develop their "What I know (K)" and "What I want to learn (W)" of their topic, which they will investigate during their summer break. They will share "What they learn (L)" from their summer project in Kindergarten in the fall. OCTOBER/NOVEMBER: * The children will present their first research project answering the question: "Who Am I?" DECEMBER/JANUARY: we will begin to ask open-ended questions to help guide us towards their March/April topic choices for the second research presentation. JANUARY: * After your child decides on a topic for his/her next research presentation, a folder will be coming home in January to help guide you through the process of supporting your child's developing and creation of his/her presentation. Please remember that the project will be 'child made' not 'parent made'; so, it will  reflect your child's own handwriting and age appropriate materials.  JANUARY - APRIL: * The MARCH/APRIL research project will be prepared at home. * Scheduling for the presentations will be arranged in early March and presentations will occur during the months of March/April. MAY - JUNE:   We will investigate our new topics for our summer research investigations. We will develop our K-W of our our K-W-L. We will continue our investigations over the summer and share what we find in the fall with our Kindergarten classrooms. --------------------------------------------------------- RESEARCH Throughout the research process the children follow an organizational plan called a KWL. This plan helps us organize our ideas and thoughts into 3 categories: K= what I know W= what I want to learn L= what I learned This KWL will be used in various ways in literacy, social studies, research, science, and even math to both help organize the thought process and increase critical thinking skills. It will be one of many 'graphic organizers' you will begin to see coming home with your child's schoolwork. There are many types to complement the many different ways children organize their work and thoughts. They will be great road maps for your child to use to navigate through his/her academic thinking and learning process.       Mrs. Devens Pre-Kindergarten APRIL- MAY-JUNE 2012 Fridge Facts   In Science, we are learning about: Predictions and asking questions How to observe and notice our world. How is our world reacting and changing? Why does the world change? Why are our days shorter and colder? Let's observe our river outside our classroom door and ask questions about what we see and wonder. Animals in our world; habitats Weather  Seasons : Winter / Spring Water Cycle Magnets Measurement This month we are reading books about: Construction: I can build Caring and community building topics: caring, sharing, respect, taking turns Changing Seasons: Winter / Spring Weather: water cycle Animals in our world: habitats, bird watching Inventions and Building Measurement Growing Plants and Seeds Habitats April 2012: Our Amazing Body Transportation Measurement: Sand Babies Please send in your child's survey before 3/30/12 May 2012: Insects Eric Carle author's study Gardening / Flowers June 2012: Getting Ready for Kindergarten Sea Life / Ocean / Summer In writing, we are working on: Practicing handwriting pre-writing letter/number skills: circles, curves, lines. Print Skills: introduction of the alphabet - celebrating and roaming what we know. Aa - Zz Please send in magazine pictures and words that begin with the letter of the week. If your child's name starts with the letter send in a picture of him/her.  In math, we are learning about: Where do we see/find numbers in our world? Counting & Writing numbers: 0-20 Colors Shapes Measurement: standard and non-standard Money Time Patterns Volunteering Service Learning We will continue to discuss what these words mean and how we can be helpful in our classroom/school community. Peace and caring begins within our classroom and grows from there to our school and beyond. OUR 2011/12 SCHOOL YEAR LONG TOPIC OF CARING: HOMEWORK: Most days your child will bring home a poem/song/work paper we have begun in class. Look for it in your child's daily folder.Your child's homework is to complete the coloring in or writing on the page. Practice the songs/poems/letters/numbers we are practicing and learning about at school. Your child does not need to return the work to school to get it 'checked' or corrected. Please send in pictures and words that begin with the letter we are studying each week. He/She can add it to our word wall we are building about the words in the alphabet. LETTER OF THE WEEK: Please find objects and words at home with the letter of the week to reinforce your child’s learning. Please send examples of the letter from magazines or drawings. Your child will glue their samples of the letter onto a bulletin board each week. If your child's name begins with the letter send in a photo. If you have a favorite food or toy or activity that starts with the letter, send in a picture or drawing. Pre-K homework does not need to be returned once completed since most of the work is practicing the songs and concepts that come home in your child's folder. I will put a note on a paper if it needs to be returned. Your child' monthly journals are a beginning for their writing and drawing. Encourage your child to add more details and descriptions to their pages and drawings.