04

Nov
2023

November 2023

Current School Year, Newsletters

This month's newsletter topics
Halloween- November -Community- Winter Session-Reminders
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Halloween
October has gone by so fast. A big thank you to everyone for helping us celebrate Halloween!

November

Themes this month

  • Families
  • Community

This month we are excited to learn about our students, their families and our community.  We will be talking to the class about being thankful, the importance of good friends, family and community.

Each November and December our school works together with our building partners, on a project that helps our community. This year we will be helping to support Family Promise.

Family Promise Metro East helps children and their families experiencing houselessness achieve sustainable independence through a community-based response.
Our classes will talk about collecting items that people need. It is a great way for our students help our local community, and for them to see that even a small contribution, added to other small contributions, can turn into a great big contribution!

If you would like to contribute  you can send items with your child beginning Monday, November 13th through Friday, December 15th.  Our students will walk the items upstairs and donate them to the church every few weeks.

  • Gift cards to places like Target, Fred Meyer, Winco, Walgreens… places they can buy clothing, shoes, or household items.
  • If families would like to give tangible items,  warm blankets or stuffed animals would be great.

To learn more about Family Promise visit https://www.familypromisemetroeast.org/

We have been busy working on Halloween projects and painting with pumpkins!

We love our daily projects and our weekly special guests!

Circle Time

Our students participate in circle time each day.  We start off as a big group then split in to two groups.  One group stays on the purple carpet and the other goes to the Honey Bee room.  Some children alternate days in each circle area, while others are in a specific groups.  You can ask your child which group they are in each day.

Here is a little bit about what we have been doing in each of  the circles.

Purple Carpet Circle Time by Teacher Sandy

We’ve been having a lot of fun at Circle Time.  October is a great month to explore feelings.  As a group, we’ve been talking about things that can by scary, and what we can do to find comfort, along with how important it is to “feel our feelings.”  We practiced noticing feelings in our own bodies and in the bodies of others.   We read stories about and discussed how you can be scared AND brave at the same time, like when you’re trying something new.

We sang songs about leaves and pumpkins and bats.  We talked about how most Halloween things are pretend, like goblins, and we sang, “Going on a Goblin Hunt.”  We added more literacy and numeracy activities into our Circle Time routines, such as counting the number of days until our Halloween Party and guessing which friends’ names match with different letter sounds.  We talked about storytelling and have been exploring story structure, as we build up to creating our own group story.

 

Honey Bee Room by Teacher Erica

This year is starting off  great!  We have a lot of new faces in the Honey Bee room and it’s been fun getting to know each of the friends.  We started off the year getting settled into the routine, talking about feelings and getting to know each other.  Now that we are settled into the school year, we are working on our daily jobs which include Calendar Pal, Weather Pal, Letter Pal and Days of the Week Pal.  Ask your child what their job was at circle time!
Each week we also focus on a new letter, we talk about what the letter sounds like, looks like and what starts with that letter.  We have little doors that the kids love to open to discover what word starts with the letter of the week.  We even learn the letter of the week in sign language, thanks to Teacher Faith!
Once a week we do a science experiment such as exploding volcano apples, sink or float, etc… The kids love hands-on science experiments!  In addition to jobs and science, we sometimes play cooperative games, or we roll dice and practice counting, we might talk about how to be a good friend or learn about something your child might be really interested in.
Last year we had a friend who loved space and we all got to learn a lot about space.  If your child has something they are really interested in, let us know, we are happy to embrace their interests.
After circle time, the friends wash hands and sit down to lunch.  During lunch we read books or we use the conversation cards that we have in the classroom.  Lunchtime conversations can spark new friendships.
Once they’re done with lunch, the Honey Bees join the larger group for a story until it is time to go back outside or to their enrichment class.  Thank you for sharing your children with us!

Outside Time

We still spend lots of time outside.  As the weather gets cold, and wet, we may be inside longer each day but will try to spend plenty of time outside.  Please make sure your child has warm clothes to make them comfortable.  If it is pouring, drop-off and pick-up may be in the building.

Winter Session

Happy November!  There are some days we will be closed  in November and December.

  • No school Friday, Nov. 3th, Teacher Planning Day
  • No school  Friday, Nov. 10th, Veteran’s Day.
  • No school Nov. 20-24, Thanksgiving Holiday.
  • No school December 18-Jan. 1st. Winter Vacation.

Preschool and winter enrichment classes will begin again Tuesday, January 2nd. More information on the classes that will be offered and how to sign up will be included in the December newsletter.

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Colds, flu and sickness, Oh MY!

October 2016 germs Preschool Portland Oregon

Preschool children want to be at home when they are feeling bad.  Children should stay home if they, or a family member, has covid.
But children should also stay home if they have a bad cough, runny & goopy nose, fever, and diarrhea. Thank you for doing your  part to keep our community healthy.

See you soon!

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