Preschool in the City with Mrs. Gabelman

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Enjoy these pictures of our classroom and the children learning through play! Students gained knowledge about number concepts and operations, explored shapes and spatial awareness, compared and measured, demonstrated their knowledge of patterns, began to demonstrate geographic knowledge, showed basic understanding of change that relates to places, people, things.

Our kiddos increased their cognitive development by approaching learning in a positive way, making connections through remembered experiences to current experiences, and used classification skills. The kids really took off in their literacy development with demonstrating their knowledge of print and its uses through our read alouds, comprehending and responding to various versions of the fairy tale Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and began to sequence the story from beginning, middle, and end.

Yes, we’ve been busy learners in room 121 for the past three weeks! After winter break we are moving on to Transportation…with a little bit of snow science too! Choo-choo-, beep-beep, honk-honk, tug-tug, and away we go into 2013!!!

Friday’s tragic event in Connecticut is nothing but devastating. My heart goes out to every single child, parent, teacher, and community member in Newtown. It’s a scary world we live in, and it’s so sad that those children had to witness such violence.

We all try to shield our children from violence, media, and images like the ones we have seen on t.v. this weekend, but sometimes children still see things that might scare them or give them ideas that things are happening all over the place. Here are a few articles and websites to help you explain what has happened this past weekend. It’s important to talk about it with your child if they ask the questions. Hope this offers some help during this difficult time for our nation.

It’s hard to believe that tomorrow is December 1st! This week we began to talk about measurement, sizing, and the Three Bears! We are preparing for our big visit on the Kohl’s Story-bus on Thursday, December 13th! They bus will come to Peirce and park out front. It will be here all day, and the Preschool and Kindergarten students will have an opportunity to visit for  35 minutes to enter into the land of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”. We are also hoping that we can get a storyteller here too! (Fingers crossed)

In our classroom we are slowly changing over the room to make different objects small, medium, and large. At home, have your preschooler go around the house and find socks, shirts, or even underwear that is small, medium and large!!! Have these conversations with them. Compare and contrast. What makes something small? What makes something medium sized? These are questions we are beginning to analyze and discuss in class. 

Our Winter Clothing Club Charts are hanging on the door ready to get new members up for the 2012-2013 group! Please start having your child begin to learn independent skills on learning to get their own coat, hat, gloves, and boots on. (It might be agonizing now, but the pay off later is wonderful! TRUST ME!) 

Have a wonderful weekend. Please try to spend some time outside this weekend. Get some fresh air, and enjoy the amazing winter activities that our city has to offer. Zoo Lights, ice skating  at Millennium Park, or even decorating the house outside for the holidays. Make it family time this weekend! 

Reading the same story more than once to a child is one of the best things you can do for your emerging reader. Why? Why not? When you read the same story to your child three of four times in the same week or over a period of time, you are building upon prior knowledge, sequencing skills, tracking for reading, patterns, recall, character development, and the list goes on! 

Two weeks ago our class did just this! We read the story, “The Little Old Lady Who Wasn’t Afraid of Anything”. The children LOVED it!!! We read this story probably sevem times over the course of two weeks. At the end of the two weeks, I had the children begin a simple story picture sequencing activity. We began to lay the foundation for retelling stories through pictures and sequencing them in order as they appear in the story. The children know that sometimes when you see a picture from the story, it can help “trigger” the thought or the idea that the author was telling us. This way when we are telling the same story to a friend without the book, we can look at pictures to help us remember those ideas that the author had wanted us to share!

Here are some pictures from one of our small groups in our AM class enjoying this activity! 

It’s been awhile since I have had time to update our classroom blog with all of the changes going on in Room 121. However, through everything I am most grateful this Thanksgiving for my adorable students and their supportive parents! I appreciate all your help, flexibility, and patience during this transitional time with not having Mrs. Espino here and having substitute teacher aides in and out of the classroom. Mr. Johnston has been with us for most of the time, and the children have grown a liking to having him around. I am hopeful that a solution will be found soon, and that the children can have consistency and a routine down with having two teachers again. Until then, I will keep on stepping and doing my job as their teacher to ensure they feel safe, loved, and having fun while learning!

Over the past several weeks the children have really enjoyed sharing their Family Heritage Placemats!!! I too have loved seeing where all of your families have come from, and many of the traditions, foods, and holidays you all celebrate with your families. Each child shows so much pride when they present their placemat, and I know that they love that theirs is displayed out into the hallway! If you haven’t turned your family’s heritage placemat in yet, please do so before Thanksgiving break.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM THE PRESCHOOLERS OF ROOM 121!

Thank you Mel Phillips (Libby’s mom) for sending us this picture of the AM Class! 

We had a SPOOKtacular day with both classes! From ghost bowling, to pumpkin bean bag toss, to trying out pumpkin dip with apples and vanilla wafers, the children sure seemed to have a fun day learning through play! Thank you to all of our parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles who came in today to help us celebrate! Be safe tonight!