Catchin Up

Welcome back from a little break! Hope everyone enjoyed their day of no classes on Monday.

We got right back into the swing of things today beginning with our sight word, WAS for the week. The kids listened to our song which really emphasizes the letter W (double U) and we think it threw them a bit (sounded like the word was spelled with a U). We think we cleared things up.

We visited the Music Lady and enjoyed ourselves as per usual. She had a little song for the kids that helped them with their rhyming words. They had to place a card on the picture of the item the Music Lady called out. Only their card didn't have the picture of the thing she sang about, they had a card with an item that RHYMED with it. They did very well.

When we returned from music class we discussed some infamous folks from our great state. We began with the Wright Brothers. They were from Dayton and they had the dream to fly while flying a kite one day. Their experience in a bike shop they owned together helped them realize this dream. The kids were quite impressed that such fantastic inventors lived right here where we do at one time! We talked about how they were persistent in chasing their dream (the first several attempts crashed and the plane was destroyed ... so they began again). We also discussed how planes have changed our lives. We asked the kids to brainstorm about why planes might be a good idea. We were (again) blown away by the deep thinking done by these young children. We had answers like: "so we can go far away"; "so we can travel over water"; "so we can visit our grandparents"; and "so we could see things down below"; and my personal favorite, "so we can get a snack". They even went so far as to tell us the plane has wheels so we can drive real fast then go high.

We thought it would be fun to make our very own kites and see if they would fly. And you know what, the weather was such that some of them did actually fly a bit. We just had fun trying ... and running around outside!

We will be talking about John Glenn on Friday and in his honor we did a little project about our "dream" of where we would travel if on a space craft. These went home today. Not many want to leave earth as answers included disney, florida, california, arizona and north carolina!

At the end of the day we did a little math project. We asked the kids to put some puzzle pieces in two sets of equal parts. There were six puzzle pieces. One gal took a stab at it and made three piles of two each. Very good effort! When we reminded them the instructions were to put them in TWO piles another gal moved two pieces from the third pile, divided them up and put them in two piles of three! Very nicely done. We added two more puzzle pieces and asked for another volunteer to sort these in two groups. She confessed that the first girl helped her out and she just added one to each pile. Oh my goodness are they ever intelligent. It brings us great joy to observe such thoughtful thinking and learning based on what they are seeing their peers do in group activities. We couldn't be more proud. Course, then we remember they have wonderful parents that are working with them at home!

One last note. You may have read an email from the office that went out today regarding illnesses. First, the office would like you to let us know the reason your child is staying home if they are ill. In other words, if you call in sick please tell us what your child is ailing from. We are trying to stay on top of the spread of infection and it's helpful to know who has what. Second and most importantly we have had a serious case of pink eye going through our classroom. In fact, it's the largest spread of infection we have seen in the preschool in at least 8 years. The moral of the story is this: if your child is displaying ANY signs of illness please keep them home. Many parents tell us they are just suffering from allergies. That is understandable. However, remember that allergies often spread to other infections like sinus and even pink eye. We would much prefer that your child stay home. It can be difficult to rid our room and school of these infections and it's just not considerate to other families. We know you will agree no one likes to be ill but keeping them home and getting their needed rest is important to a speedy recovery.

Thanks for your assistance with the health of our classroom. See you on Friday ... picture day.