Friday, March 23, 2012

PreSchool Newsletter


Parent Newsletter
Chadron Public Preschool
March 19-22, 2012
Hello!  This week just “buzzed” by us!  On Monday, the children were so excited to see that a    
space ship had landed in our room and Dennis exclaimed,  “I’m Buzz Lightyear now!”  This week found us enjoying the big topic of our solar system or in pre-school terms “outer space!”
             We live on the planet Earth and this spectacular planet of ours has so many things to learn about.  The children were fascinated about “our home” as being just one of the many planets in the solar system.   McKoy Wollesen (a BIG kindergartner) was kind enough to share his thee of his favorite books about the solar system, the planets and of space-(a visual encyclopedia). These books showed the latest imagery from NASA and a wealth of other information.   Come take a look!  We have had a BLAST playing with a game known as Hoppin’-Poppin’ Space Balls.  This game is noisy but helps promote sharing and eye-hand coordination.
            We got all “gooey” while making our own planet Earths using balloons and flour paste.  “This is really slimy on the balloon but it is MY Earth!”  Tristan exclaimed.  We are letting these planets dry and then we will “pop” the balloon and then paint them…hopefully by Thursday!
            We have had a variety of discussions about the moon as it is a satellite of the Earth.
The gravity on the moon is one sixth that of Earth with no water and no oxygen on the moon so therefore it makes it impossible for people to live there!   This led into learning more about astronauts and how they can survive in outer space.   There have been several men who have “walked on the moon” and they put an American flag on the surface of the moon.  It is still there!  “Our flag?,” asked Wylee as he pointed to the American flag in our room. 
             We looked at different pictures of moon rocks and studied the shape and sizes.   “It looks like the same as on Earth,” Davin noticed.  Mrs. Hoffman then had us try different “moon rocks.”  How does one eat a moon rock?  IMAGINATION!  Our snack bag of rocks consisted of all sort of “goodies” from an “alien” bag (brown bag) that tasted good.  We had “tiny” rocks, we had big rocks and we had colorful rocks!  Ask your child about eating moon rocks!   “Let’s do this again!” Laniah said.
            You have heard of the “man in the moon?”  Well, we have a “lady and her moon.”  Mrs. Wollesen!   She brought in a (toy) moon that lights up and shows the different phases of the moon.  Mrs. Hoffman told about each of these phases as she was using the remote control as the moon lit up! Ooooo… FUN!    Speaking of “lighting up”, the children designed a light bright hut using large cardboard boxes.  We have two light bright boxes and lots of different colored pegs to create all sorts of designs and it also has been used as part of our space ship as the control center!
            We would like to thank Jenny and her dad, Kenny for bringing in their pet lizard, “Dirty.”  What an amazing and patient creature he was.   Our class is getting fewer and fewer “show and tell” on Wednesday.  Please remember Show and Tell is EVERY WEDNESDAY.   One toy/item per child and they do have an opportunity to “share” or play with their toy/item for about 20 minutes with their peers.  We have had some tears and upset kids who say, “I didn’t bring a show and tell.”  Just a reminder---THANKS! Preschool graduation has been set for Tuesday, May 8th  from 6:30-7:30 here at THEIR  preschool.   How exciting!   The LAST DAY OF PRESCHOOL is Thursday, May 10th!   Next week’s topic…Under  the Sea (ocean life).  Bring  your scuba gear!  (giggle)
                        5.4.3.2.1….Blast Off  into a GOOD WEEKEND!