2016-2017 Session: Fall Newsletter

Hello Parents,
I need to be better at keeping you all updated about what we are learning in preschool!  Now that Baby #7 is a bit more settled and a bit happier when I am not holding her, here is what we've been up to in preschool the last few months.  Fall usually goes so fast with all the fun holidays to celebrate.  We are now in our 18th week of school.  We have met approximately 36 times!  Annedria and I have tried to take a few photos every now and again in class and post them on this blog. Please feel free to save photos of your child.

Writing/Language Lessons
We have had a couple of readers in our class for a bit now - Ava Irving and Faith Smith!  They are reading simple c-v-c words.  Great work, girls!  Please see me if you would like to know what letters have been presented to your child and what they need to practice.  Lessons are individualized depending on their level and mastery of previous letters.  I recommend using Montessorium's Intro to Letters app for the iPhone and iPad for practice at home.

We have been practicing to write our capital letters.  We are about half way through the letters of the alphabet.  Please continue to practice writing their first name.  We will start writing our last names this winter.

Math Lessons
Individualized as well, but we have all been practicing counting every time we meet.  This month, we are starting to count by memory to 100.  The older children graduating this year are going to be working on the teens, tens and hundred board soon.

Art Activities
Every Thursday is Art Day.  We have done the following art projects that coincide with the theme or unit we are reading/learning/singing about in circle time.  We ALWAYS have crayons, coloring pages, colored pencils, shapes and insets. scissors, special rubbing plates and other art supplies available on our shelves too!

Week 1 - Kissing Hand Art
Week 2 - Name Art Mosaic
Week 3 - Beans on Name
Week 4 - My Self Portrait
Week 5 - Tree - Leaf Art
Week 6 - Paper Tearing *pumpkin mosaic
Week 7 - Apple Printing
Week 8 - Spider Art
Week 9 -  Dot Art *witch face
Week 10 - Scrub Brush and sponge painting Fall Tree
Week 11 -Feathered hats
Week 12 - Handprint Mayflower ship painting
Week 13 - Thanksgiving Week (no art project)
Week 14 - Ball Ornament
Week 15 - Salt Dough hand print ornament
Week 16 - Christmas Party Week (no art project)
Week 17 - Snowman (snow painting)
Week 18 (this week) - Making Snow Dough

Music
In addition to selections from our Laurie Berkner collection and Montessori Mozarts library, we are also learning the following songs to help us remember some of the basics:
7 Continents, Oceans of the World, Money, Time, The National Anthem, Counting by 2's, The Planets, and phonics songs to reinforce letter sounds and names.

Phonograms
We are now reciting the first 31 Spalding phonograms at circle.

Here is the specific list of activities presented to the class. Items in red have not been completed. Your child was presented the lessons below, but as you can see it is a long list - depending on their level and interest, they choose from among the lessons already presented and work on those activities during work time.

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER
PL	Puzzles
PL	Dry Pouring 1-1
PL	Dry Spooning (beans)
PL	Tweezing Pompoms 1-1
PL	Mirror Polishing
PL	Silverware Sorting
PL	Hammering
PL-Art	Playdough work
PL-Art	Playdough cutting
PL	Folding
PL	Carrying/Rolling a Rug
PL	Rolling an apron
PL	Stand up/push chair in/put away
PL	Circle/Line Rules/Space
PL	Bathroom Rules
PL	Watching a presentation
S	Natural Cubes (Sensorial, Grading - Largest to Smallest)
L	Insets for Design (#1 Trace Outline)
PL	Tweezing and Sorting flower beads (1-3)
PL	Large Dropper Transfer work (1-1)
PL	Puzzle outline (mystery bag)
M	Number Rods 1-5 (setup)
M	Number Rods 1-5 (Variation 1-1 with cars)
PL-Art	Stamping Work
L	Matching 2 Objects
L	What goes together? (grouping like objects)
S	Brown Prisms (Grading - Thickest - Thinnest)
PL	Funnel Work
PL	Care of Self (Manners, How to cough, sneeze, blow your nose, yawn)
PL	Walking on the Line (heel to toe)
L	Beginning Sound Bins - a
L	Beginning Sound Bins - m
L	Beginning Sound Bins - s
L	Beginning Sound Bins - t
L	Insets for Design (#2 Lines l-r, striping)
L	Sandpaper Letters p -i-n-k
L	Writing Lines - vertical and horizontal
M	Associate numerals with Number Rods 1-5
M	Number Rods 6-10 (setup) grading
M	Numbers - continue to 9
M	Write numbers - 1 (Trace, write in air)
M	Write numbers - 2 (Trace, write in air)
P	Screws, Nuts and Bolts - fine pincer grasp
PL	Dressing Frames - Jumper buckle
PL	Dressing Frames - Snaps
PL	Dressing Frames - Zipper 1
PL	Dressing Frames - Zipper 2
PL	Hammering #2 - Fine pincer (small nails)
PL - Art	Crayon Rubbing
PL - W	Lacing (big beads)
S	Knobbed Cylinders (red) - Grading, thin to thick, wide to narrow
S, Mu	Silence Game
Sci, Geo	Land Air Water Sorting
Sci, Geo	The 7 Continents and Map of the World
Sci, Geo	Planting a Seed activity
OCTOBER
L	Insets for Design (#3 Shading)
L	Beginning sound bin p
L	Beginning sound bin i
L	Beginning sound bin n
L	beginning sound bin k
L	Writing Lines - vertical and horizontal
L	Writing lines - dot to dot
L	Writing lines - slanting
M	Spindle Boxes
M	Sandpaper numbers 0-9
PL	Clothespins
PL	Dressing Frames - Large Buttons
PL	Dressing Frames - Small Buttons
S	Color Boxes 1 and 2
S	Color Box 3 - grading light-dark
S	Long Rods
S	Knobbed Cylinders - yellow series
S	Knobless Cylinders - yellow series
S	Sound Boxes
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER/JANUARY
L	Beginning sound c
L	Beginning sound e
L	Beginning sound r
L	Beginning sound j
L	Beginning sound b
L	Beginning sound f
L	Beginning sound u
L	Beginning sound g
L	Beginning sound d
L	Beginning sound o
L	Beginning sound h
L	Beginning sound l
L	Sandpaper letters c-e-r-j
L	Sandpaper letters b-f-u-g
L	Sandpaper letters d-o-h-l
L	Tracing first and last name
L	Insets - overlapping shapes
L	Insets - parallel lines
L	Insets - combining frames
L	Drawing station: simple animals
L	Phonograms - 1-26
L	Phonograms - er, ir, ur, wor, ear
L	Phonograms - sh, ee, ay, ai, aw, au, ow, ou, oy, oi
L-A	Thanksgiving and Christmas art activities
P	Thanksgiving transfer activity
M	Teens board - associate quantities with numerals
M	Tens board
M	Numbers and Counters
M	Ordinal Numbers - 1st - 5th
M	Writing numbers 0-9
M	Writing numbers 11-19
L	Movable alphabet
L	Beginning sound games - What starts with ___?
L	Sound games - double phonograms
M	Counting to 100
M	Counting by 10s
S (some already presented)	Geometric Solids - pyramid, cube, cylinder, sphere, ovoid
S	Geometric Solids - match to environment
Geo	Antarctica
Geo	Asia
Geo	South America