Ms. Aimee's Early Childhood World

Question of the week- What can I learn about day and night?

• Focus:
• Night time activities such as taking a bath, brushing teeth, putting on pajamas
• Day activities such as waking up in the morning, getting ready for school, getting on the bus
• Changes in the sky- sunset vs. sunrise
• Book- Matthew and the Color of the Sky
• Nocturnal animals (bats, owls, etc.)
• Diurnal animals, otherwise knows as daytime animals   (birds, squirrels, etc.)
• Letters- Z and W

We are currently completing Unit 6, week 4 from our DLM Early Childhood Curriculum. Highlights of the week:

• Life Cycle of a Frog
• Identification of a- tadpole, frog, tail and back legs
• Life Cycle of a Flower
• Identification of a – stem, leaf, flower, bud

Book ” My Garden” by J.M. Parramon and Irene Bordoy

• Songs ” What Will I be?”
• “Five Little Monkeys”

• Social and Emotional Themes:
• Being Helpful
• Solving Problems

I have had a number of requests on sensory activities for the home. Below are several easy, fun, activities.  I will be adding new activities each week. Please remember; when we send home a specific sensory item don’t use more than 20 minutes at a time.

• sensory play in shaving cream!  put a large t-shirt on your child and help your child build, trace letters and rub their hands in a table full of shaving cream
• sand play- let your child pour the sand on their arm, dig in the sand, etc.
• jumping on a trampoline
• bubble blowing, take turns blowing bubble and chasing bubbles
• climb through a fabric tunnel
• roll down a hill
• give big bear hugs (deep pressure)
• put your child tummy down on a large exercise ball and gently pull their hands toward you then let the ball roll back

We are completing our unit “Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?” this week.

The children have been singing the words of the book, identifying the color of the animals, identifying the places the animals live (from a field of choices on a poster board), and practicing concepts such as big/little, dark/light.

Each student will be bringing home his or her book next week.  Please read both with and to your child as they share their book with you.  The students had a lot of fun painting, gluing, cutting and exploring textures as they decorated their animals.  Many of the children are able to read the books from memory so have fun with them as they share their experience.

Current Theme: Let’s Investigate!

How can I learn more about my world?

• Week 1: How can I learn by observing?
• use of a magnifying glass during circle time
• reading Let’s Investigate with follow up discussion on senses we use to investigate
• comparison- big and little

• Week 2: How can I use tools to investigate?
• snowflakes- what senses do we use to investigate a snowflake?
• descriptive words- what words describe a snowflake?
• letter identification using the word snow

We are also reading Owl Babies by Martin Waddell and The Little Fir Tree by Margaret Wise Brown

Be on the look out for baby owl and little fir tree art work coming home this week before we celebrate our winter        holidays and winter break!

MY FAMILY

MY COMMUNITY

(MONTH OF NOVEMBER- COMMUNITY & LEAVES)

• This week we will complete the family unit activities and move on to our community unit
• Highlights of our unit include:
• Unit Book- In My Community from our DLM curriculum
• Exploration of the ways we can be helpful to one another
• Identify community buildings
• Discuss roles of helping figures in our lives such as firemen, policemen, etc.
• Read about neighborhoods
• Build a neighborhood during our center time using our blocks, cars, buses and people
• Label familiar and unfamiliar items in pictures
• Concepts: familiar and different
• Label numbers 1-9
• 1:1 correspondence
• Choosing correct clothing for weather

Theme of the week:

                                     MY FAMILY

• Please send in family pictures for students to share during circle this week
• We will use the pictures to identify friends and family
• Label familiar and unfamiliar items in pictures
• Count number of family members
• Concepts: familiar and different
• Label numbers 1-9
• 1:1 correspondence
• Choosing correct clothing for weather

 Weeks of October 10^th & October 17^th, 2011

Weeks 6 & 7

• Focus- Shapes and colors everywhere!
• Oral Language and Vocabulary- emotions, shapes and colors
• Songs of the week: All About Me, I Feel Happy & 5 Little Pumpkins
• Books of the week:  Pumpkin Jack by Will Hubbell, Emotions: How I Feel, and Shapes and Colors
• Letters of the week: P and B
• Art/Fine Motor: shape bat, shape spider, pumpkin plate and pumpkin sequencing
• Math time: shape identification and matching
• Social Emotional: Making good choices (helping one another)

Week 5 (October 3, 2011)

The DLM Early Childhood Express curriculum (4-6 year olds) is used by all ECSE full day classes to shape our lessons with modifications put in place by the teacher.

Theme- How can we play and learn together?

• Focus- turn taking, making good choices, sharing; inside activities and outside activities
• Oral Language and Vocabulary- musical instruments, turn taking
• Song of the week: Circle Time
• Books of the week: Amelia’s Show-and-Tell Fiesta by Mimi Chapra  and Martha Aviles; ABC Big Book
• Letters of the week: D and M (follow up with A and S)
• Math time: shape identification and matching
• Social Emotional: Making good choices (helping one another)

Notes from the PTA:

October Spirit Nights- Save the Date!

Mark your calendars for our upcoming Spirit Nights this month:

Thursday, October 20^th-  California Pizza Kitchen will be hosting Gayton Elementary families all day and donating 20% of the profits back to our school! More information to follow!

Friday, October 28^th-  Children’s Museum of Richmond- Central will be holding a spooky Spirit Night for Gayton Gators.  Gayton families will be there from  5:30-7pm.

Entry fee is $5.00 per person, with $3.00 being returned to the school!  What a great way to show school spirit and get some extra use out of those costumes.

9/26/11

Dear Parents,

Thank you for remembering to send the blankets back to school!  You will see your child’s blanket come home every other week to be washed.

We are already beginning our 4^th week!  We are focusing on friendship this week.  Our circle book is “Max and Mo’s First Day of School”.  This book is about 2 little hamsters who are new to school.  They make their very own nametags to keep in their cage to introduce themselves to the children.  Our song of the week is “Make A Friend” and our letters are A and S.

I hope you all are having a great week!

Ms. Aimee & Ms. Neva

HALF DAY- SEPTEMBER 28th