News From Ms. Terri's Class: 01/29/10

Hi Moms, Dads and Special Grown-ups,

We've had a busy two weeks! We began talking about letter G just after the Martin Luther King Holiday. We read Ed Emberly's Go Away Big Green Monster. We had lots of fun reading the story front to back and back to front, making the monster disappear and reappear. We discovered that no one in our class had squiggly ears or purple hair! After the story, we made our very own monster masks.

The children learned lots of letter G words and, as usual, we changed the first letter of our names to letter G to see what they sounded like. We got super silly and changed the words of the Wiloughby-Wallaby-Woo song to letter G and sang "giloughby-gollaby-goo!" We read Denise Flemmings's In the Tall, Tall Grass. After our story time we made "Green-Grassy-Garden G's,"
and started talking about growing things for Tu B'Shevat. We learned that two of our Puppy Class friends have names that start with letter G. So...we hid pictures of Gemma and Giacomo in the grass on our G's!

We've been talking allot about the weather lately. We are patiently waiting for some more snow!
We read Alice Shertle's All you need for a Snowman. We made snow friends out of our snow storm mural from a few weeks ago. We were remembering the Lois Ehlert book, Snowballs, and can't wait for a big storm so we can make snow dogs and cats!



This week we have been getting ready for Tu B'Shevat, the Birthday of the Trees!!! We read Sammy Spider's First Tu B'Shevat by Sylvia Rouss. The children love Sammy! They know a special Holiday is coming every time we read a story about him. This story talked about the seasons. We observed how different the trees looked as the seasons changed and what animals lived there and the different kinds of food the trees provided. We talked allot about all of the things that trees give to us. Our chairs, paper, snack foods, even toilet paper come from trees. We discussed how you should only use "just enough" of things like toilet paper and other disposable products. We don't want to waste our trees! We made letter T trees for Tu B'Shevat and made a beautiful forest on our wall.


This coming week we are looking forward to beginning our "Grover Garden" on our windowsill.
Even though we are excited about the possibility of a really big snow, we are getting ready for Spring time and starting to plant seeds.


SOME REMINDERS:
* Please bring in a new supply of diapers if you have not already.
* The Playschool will be closed on Monday, February 15 for President's Day.
* Our annual Purim Carnival will be held on Sunday, February 21 from 11 AM -1 PM. Games, prizes, face-painting, food, music, and more!
* On Thursday, February 25 and Friday, February 26 we will have our classroom Purim Parade from 11:oo - 12:00. Parents should plan to attend. Please pack a costume for your child to wear and let us know what you will be bringing for the luncheon. Sign-up sheets are above our classroom coat hooks. There will be NO Afterschool Arts following our Thursday Purim Parade and Luncheon.
*When the Philadelphia Schools are closed because of inclement weather, the Playschool will also be closed. This information can be found on the TV, radio, or on the School District of Philadelphia's website.

Shabbat Shalom and have a restful weekend!

Ms. Terri and Ms. Julia

News from Miss Gloria's Class: 01/29/10

Friday, January 29, 2010 Letter of the Week: B




On Monday, we talked about the holiday of Tu B'Shevat, the birthday of the trees. We read The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. This book tells about a young boy, who ages to become an old man, and an apple tree. The tree gives him its branches on which to swing, shade, apples to eat, branches with which to build a home, its trunk to be used to build a boat, and its stump to sit and rest upon. For our art project, the children painted a baobob tree using Q-tips and cotton balls. The baobob tree is called the Tree of Life because it provides shelter, food, and water for animals and humans in Africa. This tree has been featured in "Lion King" productions. It looks like it has its roots sticking up in the air. For most of the year, the baobob tree is leafless.


On Tuesday, we read Jody's Beans by Malachy Doyle. In this book, Jody learns how to plant and care for runner bean seeds. We learn that the seeds need water, sunlight, and rich soil to grow. After much care, the plants grew bright red flowers and green beans. For our letter B art project, the children decorated the letter B with a boa constrictor. The children learned these letter B words: bubbles, book, ball, bunny, bicycle, ballerina, banana, balloon, bear, butterfly, bird, bumble bee, baseball, bat, boy, blue, black, and brown.

On Wednesday, the children, in the journal group, colored mittens and a winter poem. The children, in the story group, read The Snowman Storybook by Raymond Briggs. This book is about a young boy who dreams that a snowman has come to life. In yoga, Miss Kim began the class with yoga breathing and asked the children to name a place that they would like to visit. The boys and girls played "Red Light, Yoga Light". During the game, one of the children said,"This is actually fun!" The children took an imaginary yoga trip to the ocean.


On Thursday, we read Look Closer, by Brian and Rebecca Wildsmith, to identify some common bugs. We also read A Tree is Nice by Janice May Udry. This book tells many of the reasons why a tree is nice. Trees are nice because they fill up the sky, they make the woods, they have leaves, a trunk, and limbs, and trees are nice to hang a swing in. For our letter B art project, the boys and girls made bugs.

On Friday, we read Sammy Spider's First Tu B'Shevat by Sylvia A. Rouss. Sammy Spider watches Mr. Shapiro and Josh plant a new tree in the spring. As the seasons pass, the tree grows and changes. For our project, the boys and girls planted parsley seeds for Passover, and hopefully, they will see their plant's growth very soon. The children learned that plants need to be watered and kept on a sunny windowsill so they will have a successful growth.


*Thank you to Jonah L., Julian, Lane, Lila, and Lily for being our super "kids of the day" this week.
*The Playschool will be closed on Monday, February 15 for President's Day.
*Our annual Purim Carnival will be held on Sunday, February 21 from 11 AM -1 PM. Games, prizes, face-painting, food, music, and more!
*On Thursday, February 25, we will have our classroom Purim Parade from 11:30 - 12:30. Parents should plan to attend. All children are invited to participate even if Thursday is not their day to attend the Playschool. Please pack a costume for your child to wear and let us know what you will be bringing for the luncheon. Sign-up sheets are on our classroom door. There will be NO Afterschool Arts following our Purim Parade and Luncheon.
*When the Philadelphia Schools are closed because of inclement weather, the Playschool will also be closed. This information can be found on the TV, radio, or on the School District of Philadelphia's website.
*Next week, we will learn about letter V and Purim.

*Have a great weekend!



Miss Gloria, Miss Allison, Miss Sophie, Miss Mindy and Mr. Noah

News from Miss Gloria's Class: 01/22/10

Friday, January 22, 2010 Letter of the Week: J

On Tuesday, we learned some letter J words: January, jacket, jar, jump, jog, jellyfish, jungle, jelly, jewelry, juggle, jog, journal, jet, jeans, and jeep. We also named our friends who have letter J names like Jonah L., Jack, Jake M., Jordana, Julian, Jonah A., Jake S., and even, Mr. Joe. We read Jeanette and Josie by Claude Lager. When Jeanette got out of bed in the morning, everything seemed to be going wrong for her. She slipped on the carpet and broke the lamp. She stepped on the toothpaste tube and made a mess. She spilled her hot chocolate on a clean tablecloth. But Jeanette's day changed when it began to snow. For our art project, the boys and girls decorated the letter J with a winter jacket covered with snow.

On Wednesday, the journal group colored a pair of mittens, along with this poem, to put in their journals.
Hats and mittens keep us warm,
We are ready for the storm.
Zip your coats up to your chin,
Do not let the cold winter in.
The other group of children read Jack's House by Karen Magnuson Beil. Max does all of the work to build a house for Jack. After the house is complete, Max decides that since he built the house without Jack's help, he should be the one to live in the house. In yoga, Miss Kim asked the boys and girls to name their favorite color as they practiced yoga breathing. Miss Kim lead the children in a variety of yoga poses so that they could get their wiggles out. For their imaginary yoga trip, the boys and girls went to outer space.

On Thursday, we read Katy No-Pocket by Emmy Payne. Katy is upset because she does not have a pocket like other mother kangaroos. All of the other animals have ways to carry their babies. The wise old owl tells Katy to go to the city to get help, and Katy, happily, finds a way to carry her joey and other baby animals, too. For our letter J art project, the boys and girls made jaguars that roar to put in our classroom jungle.

On Friday, we read The Mitten by Jan Brett. In this book, a lost mitten makes a warm place for animals to hide. For our art project, the children made a jam and jellybeans sandwich.

*Thank you to Sydney, Sam, Simrin, and Jake M. for being our super "kids of the day" this week.
*SHS will be having a Havdalah Pajama Party on Saturday, January 23 from 6 PM - 7:30 PM. Family and friends are invited to join together to mark the end of Shabbat. There will be songs, a story, and hot cider and cookies. We hope to see you there!
*Our annual Purim Carnival will be held on Sunday, February 21 from 11 AM -1 PM. Games, prizes, face-painting, food, music, and more!
*On Thursday, February 25, we will have our classroom Purim Parade from 11:30 - 12:30. Following the parade, parents are invited to stay for lunch with their children. More information will be sent home next week.
*When the Philadelphia Schools are closed because of inclement weather, the Playschool will also be closed. This information can be found on the TV, radio, or on the School District of Philadelphia's website.
*Next week, we will learn about letter B and Tu B'Shevat, the birthday of the trees. All of the children in the Playschool will be planting parsley seeds so that we will have plenty of parsley for Passover.
*Have a great weekend!

Miss Gloria, Miss Allison, Miss Sophie, Miss Mindy and Mr. Noah

Wildlife in the Pre-K

Hello All!

These next two weeks we will continue our unit on Wildlife Animals.

This week we made a slinky snake, tiny turtle, awesome owl mask and magnificent mouse!

We are learning all about different types of animals in preparation for our Fairmount Park Wildlife visit next week!

We have also put a dent into our Handwriting Without Tears workbooks! We are now learning how to spell words and write them. We are also polishing up on our counting skills and we are learning how to write our numbers.

In Language Arts we have been practicing opposites, sequencing, grouping and labeling!

Books We Read This Week:

"Stanley Goes Ape"- Griff

"Creepy Creatures, Eyes on Nature"

"Yertle the Turtle"- Dr. Suess

"By Word of Mouth"- Bloomsbury

A BIG THANKS to our ROYAL READER THIS WEEK, MICHAEL CARRIER!

Some Important Dates to Remember:

Week of February 8th- Mulitcultural Week

Thursday, February 11th- Drama Production (in the sanctuary) 11:30am- luncheon to follow

School will be CLOSED on Monday, Feb 15th for Presidents Day

Sunday, February 21st- Purim Carnival 11am-1pm

Friday, February 26th- Purim Parade 11:30am-12:3opm

*Please continue to encourage your child to "feed" Arden, our classroom pig~ Another donation to a charity will be made in April. Thanks!!

Enjoy the weekend!

Miss. Ali

News from Miss Gloria's Class: 01/15/10

Friday, January 15, 2010 Letter of the Week: W

On Monday, we read Walter Was Worried by Laura Vaccaro Seeger. This book was sent from the Art Museum. In this book, children's faces react to an upcoming storm. For example, Walter is worried, Priscilla is puzzled, and Shirley is shocked as the weather changes. As we read the story, the children made their faces look like the emotions that were illustrated. For our project, the boys and girls made faces using eyes, a nose, a mouth, hair, and ears. Once their art was complete, they told us why the faces that they made look they way that they do. This project is hanging in our classroom, so please take a few minutes to read what the children have said.

Tuesday was our trip to the Art Museum. Thank you to all of the parents who accompanied us on the trip. The theme of this visit was faces. Miss Cynthia, our museum tour guide, told us that we would be looking at portraits. The first piece of art that we saw was Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen by Degas. As we looked at this sculpture, the boys and girls tried to pose just as the Little Dancer is posing. They observed that there were two soft parts to the bronze sculpture, one was her tutu and the other was the silk ribbon in her hair. Next, we looked at Picasso's Self-Portrait with Palette. As we looked at his palette, the children identified the colors that Picasso used to paint a picture of himself. The third piece of art that we saw was a mother and child portrait. The boys and girls made portraits for their project.

On Wednesday, the journal group put a picture of a weather bear on their page and the story group read All You Need for a Snowman by Alice Schertle. In this book, a snowman begins with one small snowflake and it is complete with billions more. In yoga class, Miss Kim asked the children to name their favorite animals as they practiced yoga breathing. We tried a relaxing pose where we repeated- sa, ta, na, ma - as we touched our thumbs to each finger. Our imaginary trip was to take an airplane to a rainforest.


On Thursday, we read Rumble in the Jungle by Giles Andreae and David Wohtowycz. This rhyming book tells about the animals that live in the jungle. For our art project, the boys and girls painted jungle murals that they will use next week. We also read Junglewalk by Nancy Tafuri to see illustrations of animals that live in the jungle.

On Friday, we read In With a Splash! by Karen Sapp and Rachel Elliot. This book tells how a penguin overcomes his fear of the water. For our art project, the children made macaroni penguins like the one in Polar Bear Polar Bear What Do You Say? by Bill Martin, Jr.


*Thank you to Avery, Jake S., Tyler, and Jack for being our super "kids of the day" this week.
*We will be closed on Monday, January 18 for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
*SHS will be having a Havdalah Pajama Party on Saturday, January 23 from 6 PM - 7:30 PM. Family and friends are invited to join together to mark the end of Shabbat. There will be songs, a story, and hot cider and cookies. Please RSVP. We hope to see you there!
*Our annual Purim Carnival will be held on Sunday, February 21 from 11 AM -1 PM. Games, prizes, face-painting, food, music, and more! More information will be coming soon.
*Our third trip to the Art Museum will be on Tuesday, March 16.
*When the Philadelphia Schools are closed because of inclement weather, the Playschool will also be closed. This information can be found on the TV, radio, or on the School District of Philadelphia's website.
*Please mark on your May 2010 calendar that the Playschool is open on Monday, May 24. There is an error on the school calendar stating that it is Memorial Day. Memorial Day is on Monday, May 31.

*Have a great holiday weekend! Next week, we will learn about letter J.
Miss Gloria, Miss Allison, Miss Sophie, Miss Mindy and Mr. Noah

News from Miss Terri's Class: 1/15/10

Hi Moms, Dads and Special Grownups,

This week we have been continuing or Wintry explorations.
On Monday and Tuesday we read Grandmother Winter, by Phyllis Root. The beautiful wood block illustrations are by Beth Krommes. Grandmother winter has a snow white flock of geese that are quite magical. Grandmother collects their feathers and sews them into a big fluffy quilt. When it is time for Winter to begin, she shakes it. Magically, it begins to snow! The children really liked seeing where all the different animals went to snuggle in and stay warm when the weather turned cold. For our project the children made portraits of Grandmother Winter's pet geese.

We used some white crayons to draw a swirly snow storm. We found out that if you draw on white paper, with a whit crayon...it's invisible!!!



One of our friends decided they wanted to make a goose prince!





On Wednesday and Thursday we read Snowballs by Lois Ehlert. The friends in this story don't just make snow "men," they made a Mom, Dad, girl, boy, baby, cat and dog... a whole family! During circle time we sang lots of Winter songs and talked about the kinds of creatures we could make out of the next big snow. We thought about different things that we could use to decorate our snow people. We plan to look for things that could be treats for our animal pals. We all got together and made a large mural painting of a blizzard. We used lots of frosty colors with our brushes first, then we used our paint combs to make stormy textures. We will be cutting the mural up and using it for the circles and some snowflakes we need to make our snow friends next week.

On Friday we read In the Snow, by Peggy Collins. After we made magnificent snow people out of Model Magic. They came out sooooo good! We can't wait to play with Model Magic again. Squishing days are always the best!

We closed our week with our Shabbat service. Thanks to Gemma Young, Jonnah Berger and Miss Sophie for saving our Challah from a hungry Mr. Noah!

* Remember there is no school on Monday for the Martin Luther King Holiday.

Have a restful weekend and Shabbat Shalom!
Ms. Terri and Ms. Julia

Friendship Week in Pre-K

This week our unit was Friendship!

We talked about what qualities make a nice friend, and what we can do to be better friends to one another. We each drew our friends and then said something nice about them. Our friends gave one another great compliments like, "They have a nice smile, They are great bike riders, and they are funny!" These are all great qualities in a friend!

We "Grew" our very own friendship tree, and had our faces as the leaves, wrote in our journals, and colored a great coloring book about Martin Luther King. We also discussed why he was so important.

The children have been so hard at work practicing for their upcoming theatre debut!! They can't wait to perform for all of their guests!

Books We Read This Week:

"That's What Friends Do"- Kathryn Cave

"Goldie is Mad"- Palatini

"Peter Spit A Seed At Sue"- Koller

"Little Miss. Bossy"

"Little Miss. Shy"

*Upcoming Dates

School will be CLOSED, this Monday, January 18th for MLK Day.

Wildlife Comes to Pre-K! Tuesday, January 26th!

Monday, February 15th school CLOSED, for President's Day.

Sunday, February 21st- Purim Carnival from 11am to 1pm

Friday, February 26th- Pre-K Purim Parade from 11:30am to 12:30 pm

Thank You to Our Royal Reader this week, Adam Berger!

Have a great weekend,

Miss. Ali

News from Miss Gloria's Class: 01/08/10

Friday, January 8, 2010

Letter of the Week: W

Welcome back to the Playschool and happy new year! On Monday, we began learning the letter W and we talked about the season of winter. The boys and girls told us some of the things that they like to do in the wintertime, like making snowmen and snow angels, walking through deep snow, sledding down hills, and throwing snowballs. They learned some winter words, such as windy and weather, and other W words, such as wave, whisper, whistle, window, walk, wiggle worm, white, work, and waving a magical wand. We read in the snow by Peggy Collins. This colorful book tells about the adventures of a boy and his dad on a very snowy day. For our art project, the boys and girls painted a snowy mural for our classroom bulletin board. They also learned a poem about the winter weather.

On Tuesday, we read City in the Winter by Eleanor Schick. In this book, school is closed because there is a blizzard. A young boy enjoys his opportunity to spend the snowy day with his grandmother. He eats a good breakfast, cleans his room, makes an art project, eats an indoor picnic lunch, walks through the deep snow, helps his grandmother make dinner, and then, he waits for his mother to come home from work. He has quite a busy snow day! For our letter W art project, the boys and girls made a wintry picture, with a snowman and snowflake, on the W. They put salt on their letter to made it look like icicles, too.

On Wednesday, the journal group put a picture of a weather bear on their page. The story group read In the Snow: Who's Been Here? by Lindsay Barrett George. In this book, the children use clues to guess what animals have been following a snow covered trail. In yoga, Miss Kim asked the children to tell her something that they did during the winter break as they practiced yoga breathing. The yoga imaginary trip was to go out walking in the snow at night. They put on their warm clothing and took a yoga adventure out in the winter weather.

On Thursday, we read Snowballs by Lois Ehlert. In this book, a family of snowpeople is created after a snowstorm. Unusual objects, like bottle caps, seeds, and popcorn, are an added dimension to the creative snow family. For our letter W art project, the children made whooping cranes like the one in the book, Panda Bear, Panda Bear What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.

On Friday, we read Snow Bears by Martin Waddell. This book tells the story of three baby bears that become snow bears as they play in the snow. For our art project, the boys and girls made name tags for our upcoming trip to the Art Museum next week.

*Thank you to Lucas, Jonah A., Marisol, Simona, Maya, and Leila for being our super "kids of the day" this week.
*Our second trip to the Art Museum will be on Tuesday, January 12. We will be having lunch at the museum. All lunches should be packed in a bag that is disposable.
*We will be closed on Monday, January 18 for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
*SHS will be having a Havdalah Pajama Party on Saturday, January 23 from 6 PM - 7:30 PM. Family and friends are invited to join together to mark the end of Shabbat. There will be songs, a story, and hot cider and cookies. Please RSVP. We hope to see you there!
*When the Philadelphia Schools are closed because of inclement weather, the Playschool will also be closed. This information can be found on the TV, radio, or on the School District of Philadelphia's website.
*Please mark on your May 2010 calendar that the Playschool is open on Monday, May 24. There is an error on the school calendar stating that it is Memorial Day. Memorial Day is on Monday, May 31.

Have a great weekend!

Miss Gloria, Miss Allison, Miss Sophie, Miss Mindy, Mr. Noah

Happy 2010 from Miss Terri and Miss Julia

Hi Moms, Dads and Special Grown-ups,

Welcome back to Pre-school and a blustery 2010! Last year it was a struggle to fit in a unit on Winter time and snow, but this year Mother Nature is more than cooperating! The children all seem excited to be getting back into the school schedule. Miss Julia and I were greeted by smiling faces filled with anticipation.



On Monday and Tuesday we read The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.
We made frosty Wintry W's. We talked about how some colors "looked" cold and frosty and some looked warm or hot. We liked looking at the frosty colors on the first few pages of The Snowy Day. We looked at frosty pale blues, purples and greens swirling in the white back round.
We mixed up all the frosty colors and painted some Popsicle stick snow flakes to look like the ones in the story.



On Wednesday and Thursday, we read Is That You Winter by Stephen Gammel. Old Man Winter showed up with a truck full of snow and dumped it all around for the children to play.
We loved the illustrations in the book. The were blustery and stormy. The children got to do some seriously messy painting! We started with a thick and gooey winter-white paint and splatted some blue sky paint on top. Then the fun part...we blew the blue and white paint with a straw and created a big storm. We glued on snowflakes and cotton ball snow banks and dumped Epsom salts and glitter bits for a blizzard.



On Friday we began with a snowy morning welcome.
We began to read Geraldine's Big Snow by Holly Keller. We plant to revisit it this week.
Geraldine is a little piglet who is very excited about a big snow storm that is on the way. She is losing her patience waiting! We were excited to celebrate Shabbat together again! It has bee almost three weeks since the last time!
As usual, we joined Miss Ali's and Miss Gloria's room for lots of festive singing and dancing.

We are looking forward to the Winter time projects and stories coming up this week.
Soon we will take a peek into Spring time when we begin some planting for Tu Bi' Shevat!

NOTE: Please bring in a fresh supply of diapers for your child, as we are running low.

Happy New Year and Shabbat Shalom!
Ms. Terri and Ms. Julia

Happy New Year from the Pre-K!

Happy New Year Everyone! Our first week back in the new year has been fun! Our unit this week is the new year! We made some beautiful "2010" numbers, illustrated where we see ourselves 10 years from now in 2020, made some new years resolutions, and created a festive New Year's headband!



The kids were happy to be back in drama class with Miss. Vanda. They have started working towards their very own play in preparation for a production of it in the beginning of February!



More information to follow about the play =-)



Books We Read This Week:

Snowballs

Snow Bears- Martin Waddell

Snow Dude- Daniel Kirk

Ice Bear- Nicola Davies

Thank You, Thank You, to our first Royal Reader of the new year; Sandy Marcus!

Upcoming Info:

Tuesday, January 26th Wildlife comes to the Pre-K!

Multicultural Week- Week of February 8th

Purim Carnival is on Sunday, Feb 21st from 11am-1pm. All are welcome to attend for food, fun and games!!

Pre-K Purim Parade in Friday, February 26th from 11:30-12:30 in the sanctuary.

*** We will be off on Monday, January 18th for Martin Luther King Day, and Monday, February 15th for Presidents Day.

Have a happy and healthy weekend!
Miss. Ali