News from Miss Gloria's Class: October 6, 2011

Friday, October 6, 2011
LETTER OF THE WEEK: F

Last Monday, September 26, we read Sound the Shofar! by Leslie Kimmelman. This book tells about celebrating Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in the synagogue and in the home. A shofar is made from a ram’s horn and it is blown in the synagogue to remind us of ancient times and to announce the new year. For our art project, the boys and girls made Rosh Hashanah greeting cards for their families. The children enjoyed singing songs for the Rosh Hashanah holiday and songs for the fall season.

On Monday, October 3, the boys and girls used their creative talents to paint on canvases for our upcoming Art Exhibit on Friday evening, October 21 during our Fall Shabbat Dinner. Each of the children’s art work will showcase their unique talents. As you will soon see, their art is really quite expressive. All of the paintings will be hung in the Spruce Street lobby. On that evening, all guests will have the opportunity to view the art as it will be presented as a fundraiser for the Playschool. We read Old Bear’s Surprise Painting by Jane Hissey. In this book, Old Bear and his friends paint patterns of wiggly lines, dots, and stripes to create one exciting painting.

On Tuesday, we learned the letter F for fall. We learned these other letter F words: fun, fingers, face, feet, frog, family, friends, feathers, four, five, and father. We read Feathers for Lunch by Lois Ehlert. When a cat walks outside through an open door, it decides to find lunch. The cat tries to catch some of the birds that it sees up above, but the cat fails to reach any of them. Instead, as bird feathers fall to the ground, the cat makes the feathers his lunchtime meal. The boys and girls decorated the letter F for fall by painting leaves and acorns and placing them onto the letter F.

On Wednesday, the story group read Clifford’s First Autumn by Norman Bridwell. In this book, Clifford enjoys the fall as he jumps into a pile of leaves, picks pumpkins, and plays football. The children in the journal group made an entry for Rosh Hashanah. They filled their pages with apples, honey, and stickers of apples. In yoga, Miss Jackie began the class with yoga breathing. She asked the children to name their favorite foods as they took yoga breaths. She read What Do You Do with a Tail Like This? written by Steve Jenkins. As we learned some fun facts about animals, the boys and girls learned how to yoga pose like elephants, lizards, and crickets.

On Thursday, we read The Grandpa Book and The Grandma Book both written by Todd Parr. Both of these books tell how wonderful it is to have grandparents. Grandpas make children laugh and they teach them new things. Grandmas make sure that their grandchildren are warm and safe and that they always have a full tummy. For our art project, the boys and girls made gifts that they will present to their grandparents and special friends when they visit our school.

*Thank you to Vasilios, Kaya, Charlotte, and Phoebe for being our super “kids of the day” last week and this week.

* Please enroll your child in Afterschool Arts. The boys and girls have so much fun cooking, experimenting in science, creating art projects, using their body in movement, and learning and singing new and familiar songs. If you know of any children who are not enrolled in the Playschool, but would like to participate in our Afterschool Arts programming, please let me know.

* The Playschool will be closed on Friday, October 7, Monday, October 10, Thursday, October 13, Friday, Octo-
ber 14, and Thursday, October 20. There will be no Pre-K PM or Afterschool Arts on Wednesday, October 19.

* In looking forward, on Friday, October 21, we will be celebrating Grandparent’s /Special Friend’s Day, the Playschool Art Exhibit, and our Fall Shabbat Dinner. Please let us know the names and addresses of the grandparents and special friends who you are inviting. We will be mailing invitations to them. The Fall Shabbat Dinner sign-up will be hanging on our classroom door soon. Please indicate the main entrée that you will be bringing and the number of people from your family who will be in attendance. All children are invited to attend on Grandparent’s /Special Friend’s Day, even if Friday is not a regular day for your child to attend Playschool.

* Tuesday, October 25 is our first trip to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. A flyer and permission slip will be sent home next week. Also, eight parents can accompany us on each of the four trips to the museum. Please sign-up if you would like to attend the first trip.

Have a great holiday weekend!
Miss Gloria, Miss Michelle, Miss Mindy, Miss Polly, and Miss Rebecca