Sept.

7-9, 2010
Dear Families,
We hope everyone had a good Labor Day weekend! We are continuing to work
on our assessment for each child and hope to be finishing up by the end of next week.
This week we will be talking about shapes all around us. Some of the activities will
include a shape hunt, tracing/drawing shapes, painting with shapes, and matching/sorting
shapes. We will also be starting our handwriting program (Handwriting without tears)
this week. We’ll be discussing lines and curves and making “Mat Man”. Look on our
website towards the end of the week for the video on making “Mat Man”. We are sending
home a new electronic user agreement. Please refill it out and turn in as soon as possible
(some filled out at open house). Also, we are working on offering the newsletter through
email. Please fill out the form and let us know if you would like a hard copy each week or
receive it through email. It will be a few weeks before we start (we’ll let you know a
week in advance) .
Activities for Home:
1. While eating a meal, talk about the different shapes you see on your plate.
2. Look for objects that are different shapes at home, outside, or while in the car.
3. You can also cut out different shapes and hide them in the room and then have
a shape hunt.
4. Also for a fun fine motor activity use salt, flour, sugar, or shaving cream on a
baking sheet to practice making shapes.

Starting this week, we will be using a program called Second Step: A Violence
Prevention Curriculum to help us learn and practice these social and emotional skills. We
will teach the lesson at the beginning of the week and use the rest of the week to role play
and model the skills taught.
At Home:
1. Show an emotion on your face and have your child guess what feeling you are
showing.
2. Tell your child an emotion (happy, sad, mad, tired, scared…). While looking in
the mirror have them make that face.
3. Name an event, food or object (i.e. snakes, going swimming, dogs, bugs, eating
ice cream…) and ask them how it makes them feel.

We do have classroom celebrations and parties throughout the year. Please let me know if
there’s any holiday or other event that your family doesn’t participate in so we can make
other arrangements. We’d also like to teach the children how other cultures/countries
celebrate holidays. If you would like to share any traditions during the holidays, please let
us know.

Don’t forget to check out the classroom blog: http://preschool-families.blogspot.com

IMPORTANT DATES:
Sept. 9th- Grandparents Day (breakfast at 8:30/lunch 12:35)
Sept. 14th- Book orders due
Sept. 29th- NO PRESCHOOL (Early Release Day)
Oct. 4-8- NO SCHOOL (Fall Break)
Oct. 27th-NO PRESCHOOL (Early Release Day)

Have a great week!

Ms. Sara, Ms. Mary, and Ms. Teresa
 Sept. 7-9, 2010
Students of the Week: AM- Keira; PM- Isaiah
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday
Arts and NO Free choice Foam shape Cutting shapes
Humanities SCHOOL collage
Language Tracing Lacing Scooping ping
Arts/Fine Motor shapes/drawing shapes/stencils pong balls
shapes
Math Nuts and bolts Shape seriation Shape match
(shape match) (biggest-
smallest)/shape
sort

Science/Social Water with ping Coins in rice Silly putty with

Studies pong balls shapes
Health Education Social Social Social
cooperation cooperation cooperation
Small Group Polish wood draw mat man Work on
pieces assessment
(sorting/stacking
wood pcs)
Circle Time 2nd Step lesson Make “Mat Man” List shapes we see
(intro.) “Shapes” around us
“Bean Bag Boogie” (Square hunt) “Shapes”
(Triangle hunt) (rectangle Hunt)
Dramatic Play: Housekeeping, Blocks: General, Sensory Table: sand, Easel: water colors

Kentucky Early Childhood Standards (goals we will focus on through activities above)
Arts and Humanities:
Develop skills in appreciation of dance
Language Arts:
Use non-verbal communication for a variety of purposes
Engages in active listening in a variety of situations
Draws meaning from pictures, print and text
Physical Education (fine/gross motor skills):
Moves through environment with body control and balance
Health Education:
Shows social cooperation
Mathematics:
Use the attributes of objects for comparison
Science:
Explores features of the environment through manipulation
Social Studies:
Knows the need for rules within the home and school