Tag Archives: Preschool

CUBS WIN! CUBS WIN! CUBS WIN!

WOW!!! What a week we had last week! For all of you who don’t know, I am originally from Cleveland; yes THAT city Cleveland, Ohio! What a series, and what a game 7! Although I am from Cleveland, Ohio, my heart was here in Chicago. I’ve spent more of my adult life here in Chicago than back at home, so it only felt natural to vote for my team here. (I did wear my Indians socks though).

In honor of this once in a lifetime moment, I created signs for the children to color in that said, “I was in Preschool when we won the world series in 2016!” Although many of them might not remember how amazing this past week was, I hope that you will save their poster and picture I will put in their journal to look back on it to tell them the story!

Here is the AM class and PM class videos of our CUBS celebration in room 121! Who went to the parade?

AM Class Cubs Video

PM Class Cubs Video

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Week Five: September 30- October 3

SHAPES! There are shapes everywhere we look! Over the past seven days the students have been learning all about shapes. It is always amazing to watch and listen to the children’s critical thinking skills, the knowledge and awareness that they have about where shapes are throughout our world.

Once a new shape was introduced, the children began to see that shape everywhere we went! We asked the children to be inquirers and look for squares, rectangles, triangles, circles, ovals, stars, and diamonds in different parts of our room and in the park. Many of the students were amazing in their discoveries, questioning and comparing shapes to one another.

During learning centers students have played with shapes at the water table, the sand table, our art area, the block area, our light table using various colored slides, puzzles, and they even discovered that there were shapes in our housekeeping area! The children made four puppets of the basic shapes: square, rectangle, triangle, and circle! These were great for the children because it helped remind them how many sides each shape had, and a fun little fact about each of the shapes!

On Monday, October 6th, we were honored to have Grady’s mom Bridgett Thomas and her colleague Neil Katz from Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP firm visit our class! “Mr. Neil” put together an awesome presentation to share with the children how shapes are in everything we see and do in our world. We can find shapes in nature, food, buildings, people, and animals! Bridgett helped in explaining how shapes make our world an interesting and beautiful place and how to look for different shapes and be aware of our surroundings. Since their visit, the children have been really observant about the shapes and patterns in our classroom and outside on the playground! What an awesome extension to our Shape Study! THANK YOU BRIDGETT and NEIL!!!

Below are just a few photos from our seven days of shapes!

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More summer sizzling fun!

Calvin’s beanstalk from this past school year’s seed unit had a HUGE growth spurt once he planted it in his garden at home! Here is a picture of Calvin holding some of the beans he harvested the other day! Way to go Calvin!

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If you have a fun picture to share of your sizzling summer fun with our preschool family, please email me at klhopkins@cps.edu !

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Week 3

First of all, I wanted to thank the many families from our classroom that donated to our grade level’s Donorschoose.org grant! We were fully funded today, and I am so humbled by everyone’s generous donations! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!!! The materials have been ordered, so we hope to have the listening centers by the end of the month! Way to go Preschool Community!!!

Our first two weeks of school has been all about learning routines, following directions, getting to know each other, and learning how to take care of our classroom environment. One of the biggest goals that we have for all of our children in preschool is to gain the social-emotional skills that help them establish and sustain positive relationships, participate cooperatively and constructively in group settings, along with being able to regulate their own emotions and behaviors. These are goals that we really emphasis and work on for our students throughout the year, but especially during the beginning of the year. If your child has not yet started having play dates with other children his/her age, this is the perfect time to do so. With the winter months approaching, we will be inside a lot of the time. Begin to have your child meet a friend with a parent or babysitter at your local park or playground. Bring a snack for the kids, and watch how your child plays with the other children around him/her. Once the winter months are here, ask for these same friends to join your child over at your house for a few hours of playtime! The rewards of doing this now are very beneficial for long term effectiveness.

Last week, students graphed what the first letter of their name is on our alphabet chart. We also took a look at how old we are graphed our results. On Friday we managed to get in our first measurement of the year on our growth chart! (We keep track of how much we grow throughout the school year!)

Moving forward into our third week of preschool, we are beginning to examine and look at “All About Me” topics. Students are visiting our self-portrait studio this week to take a closer examination at details in their face. What shape is your face? What shape is your eyes, nose, lips, etc… Do you have long hair or short hair? We also are having the students to begin reflecting and taking a closer look at what makes them special. What do they like about themselves? Do they like their hair? Or maybe their ability to run fast! Begin to start conversations with your child about these topics this week and next. See what you are noticing about your child and if he/she is beginning to notice more details about themselves and the people around them.

BIG NEWS in room 121!!! Our new water table arrived and was in full use today! The children did an excellent job playing at the new learning center, and practiced taking turns. We are still waiting on the delivery of our new sand table. I have been told it will be shipped out September 23rd. (Fingers crossed it is before that date!)

Enjoy some pictures from last week and today! Hope to see you all on Thursday evening for our Open House/Curriculum Night from 6-7:30 p.m.

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Preschool Team has a Donorschoose Grant Up for Funding!!!

Attention Preschool Families and Supporters!!!

Our preschool team is excited to announce that we have a new Donorschoose grant up for all three classroom! We wrote a grant for each classroom to receive a brand new listening center with wireless headsets! Our children will be able to listen to stories on tape or cd, along with incorporating story recordings, and literacy activities throughout the year! We are so excited about this grant, and hope you are too!

From now until September 6, 2013 there is a donor that will match your donation! (So, if you give $25, then the donor will donate $25 as well!) Use the match code INSPIRE during checkout. What a deal!!!! Please click on the link below to check out our grant, and also pass along the link to your friends and family!!!! THANK YOU FOR SUPPORT!!!!

http://www.donorschoose.org/project/listen-to-the-stories-we-all-have-to-tel/1056336

 

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June is here already? What?

It’s hard to believe it is June! Time sure does fly when you’re having fun! These next two weeks with the kiddos are going to go by fast!

On Monday this week we had such a fun time at the Susan Salidor concert/sing-a-long! The children were absolutely precious! All of their eyes were wide open, and were so enthralled that “THE” SUSAN SALIDOR was at our school singing for them! What a treat! If you would like to visit her website, you can purchase her cds online. http://susansalidor.com/

This week we are doing many “last” activities. We are going to be drawing our last self-portrait of the year, writing and drawing a few more reflections in our journals, and we had our last book check out last week! The kids are starting to see a change in the room as we begin to take down all of their work to prepare their portfolios. It’s an exciting time with anticipation for summer vacation, but also a sad one too. We’ve had so much fun this year!!!

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Walk-a-thon Success!!!

Seems like it was weeks ago that we had our big Walk-a-thon for our school, but it was only last Monday!!! We had such a wonderful time outside running, jumping, bouncing, throwing, hopping, crawling, and rolling!!! What a day! Our classroom did an excellent job with doing our share for raising awareness and money for our school! We raised $284 with 15 students who each donated money. That ended up be 37.5% of our class! Go Preschool Panthers in Room 121!!! Out of all three preschool classrooms, we had the most students overall that raised the money. I think that is great! We did it as a team! Enjoy a couple pictures of the kids being active!!!

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Balls and Ramps Oh My!!!

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What great fun we have been having in room 121 over the past two weeks!!! With one more week to go in our Balls and Ramps Unit, we are gearing up to create our own clay balls and designing our own paper and tin foil balls!!! (Don’t forget to add the ramp!)

It has been so much fun learning a new topic of study with the kids! I think I’ve had as much fun as the kids have. Their problem-solving skills, and creativity to create amazing structures and ramps has blown me away!!! Go preschoolers!!!

Make sure to check out our March bulletin board outside the classroom! It shows the amazing work the children have been learning and creating in class throughout our Balls & Ramps Unit! There are also some great pictures displayed on there as well. (I will try to post some pictures on this blog over this upcoming weekend as well!)

Some exciting news to share with all of you this month is the new Donorschoose.org project I have been approved to get!!! It is titled “Exploration Through the Senses”! It is for our classroom to recieve a new sand table and water table, along with safe mats to place under the sensory tables! Our sand table is currently wrapped with duct tape on the base of the sand bin, and our water table is close to being 17 years old (not to mention extremely small and is plugged with a wine cork because the original plug broke!) Sooooo, please spread the word to your friends and family to support our new project on Donorschoose.org!!! Here is the link to check it out! http://www.donorschoose.org/project/exploration-through-the-senses/975242/

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There were three bears, and a little girl with curly golden hair!

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Making three bears porridge! Yum!

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Three bears porridge taste yummy!

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Goldilocks tries out baby bear’s chair! Will it fall apart?

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Mama Bear’s bed was too soft!!!

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Mr. Tony from the Storybus gave the children who wanted a bear nose, the bear nose of their choice! Baby bear was ready to play on the bus!

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