Little Busy Bodies Preschool

Newsletter

February 20^th & 22^nd

Dear Preschool Parents,

Continuing on with our unit on cumulative stories this week, our first book we read was “The Napping House,” by Audrey Wood. This book is a fun, rhythmical read. A sleepy household congregates on Granny's bed, slowly building a very relaxed pile of bodies: a snoring granny, a dreaming child, a dozing dog, a snoozing cat, a slumbering mouse... and a wakeful flea. The children enjoy tracking the critters (kind of an I Spy book) as they make their way, one by one, to the bed--and then guessing what will happen when the wakeful flea joins the heap. The napping house won’t be napping for long! After reading this book, the children used props to reenact the story. As always, a simple activity that the children wanted to repeat 3, 4 & 5 times!

The second book we read this week was “Goodnight-Owl,” by Pat Hutchins. Owl couldn't sleep -- not while the bees were buzzing, the crows croaking, the starlings chittering, and the jays screaming. Every time there seemed to be some peace and quiet, someone else landed in the hollow tree and woke Owl up again. Would Owl ever get any rest? Owl pays his colleagues back in kind and enjoys having the last screech. After reading this book, we went on a listening walk outside and paid attention to all the many noises that we could hear. We decided that we probably wouldn’t sleep very well outside during the day either. Then we went inside and played a Guessing Game with sounds. I had 12 containers with different items in them. The children had to identify by sound what was in each container. We also played a listening bingo.

*KING/ QUEEN OF THE WEEK FEB: 27^th & 29^th: Reese

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

*MAKE-UP DAYS: Friday, March 2^nd & 9^th

*NO SCHOOL: March 12^th -21^st (My son has no school the first week and MUSD has no school the second week)

See you next week! Have a nice rodeo weekend!

Sincerely, 

Amber

Little Busy Bodies Preschool

Newsletter

February 13^th & 15^th

Dear Preschool Parents,

Another week bites the dust! I can hardly believe that we are approaching the last three months of school! I have, however, been very conscious lately of just how far the kids have come in regard to their letter knowledge, handwriting abilities, and basic preschool behavior. They are maturing before my very eyes!

Valentine’s Day was fun! We read the book, “The Day it Rained Hearts,” by Felicia Bond. It’s a sweet story about a little girl who gets caught in a rain storm…but not just any ordinary rain storm. It rained hearts! She decides to catch the hearts and take them home to make valentines. There, she notices just how different and unique each heart really is. With different friends in mind, she creates some very special and personalized valentines for her friends Rabbit, Turtle, Mouse, and Dog. After reading this story, the children made some very special valentines art just for you by painting a design on a large sheet of paper. I then photographed each child’s profile and created a silhouette to add to their painting. I hope you enjoyed their gift to you.

We are beginning a small unit on cumulative stories. These are stories which are formed by an accumulation of successive elements. In other words, each time a new event occurs, all previous events in the story are repeated. Cumulative stories can be fun for the reader because there's built-in anticipation. It's interesting to see what the next addition will be and how that will affect the main character.

Our first book we read in this unit was, “Move Over Rover,” by Karen Beaumont. This is the cumulative story of many animals all attempting to shelter from the rain in a doghouse. The children loved the hilarious ending when all of the animals hastily vacate after a stinky intruder tries to squeeze in, too. After I read this book aloud, the children acted out the story wearing animal masks as I the narrated. We did this several times, allowing the children to assume different animal roles in the story. They LOVED it!

Also, just an FYI that we are moving our focus from rhyme (which I think most of the children have a good handle on) to word awareness, the knowledge that letters form words and that these words can be manipulated. We will look more in depth at how letters combine to form words (i.e. word families, phonetically spelled words, etc.).

*KING/ QUEEN OF THE WEEK FEB: 20^th & 22^nd: Olivia

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

*MAKE-UP DAYS: Friday, March 2^nd & 9^th

*NO SCHOOL: March 12^th -21^st (My son has no school the first week and MUSD has no school the second week)

See you next week! Have a nice weekend!

Sincerely, 

Amber

Little Busy Bodies Preschool

Newsletter

February 6^th & 8^th

Dear Preschool Parents,

Sorry for the lack of a newsletter last week. Maybe you missed it, maybe you didn’t, but laziness got the best of me!

With Valentine’s Day upon us, we have been reading a few festive books focused on friendship, love, and showing those who are special to us that we love and appreciate them.

Last week we read, “Guess How Much I Love You,” by Sam McBratney.  This is a darling little book with sweet illustrations. All children want reassurance that their parents' love runs wide and deep. In Guess How Much I Love You, a young rabbit named Little Nutbrown Hare thinks he's found a way to measure the boundaries of love. In a heartwarming twist on the "I-can-do-anything-you-can-do-better" theme, Little Nutbrown Hare goes through a series of declarations regarding the breadth of his love for Big Nutbrown Hare. But even when his feelings stretch as long as his arms, or as high as his hops, Little Nutbrown Hare is fondly one-upped by the elder rabbit's more expansive love. (Amazon.com) After reading this book, we discussed different methods of measurement, even those things that are difficult to measure, like love. Then the children each took 10 unifix cubes and measured items around the room.

This week we started with the book “Queen of Hearts,” by Mary Engelbreit. This book was about a little girl who loves Valentine’s Day. A school project has her make a Valentine’s box for their upcoming party. She goes all out with the lace, glitter, ribbons, feathers, and even wheels, but she forgets one small thing….hmm. After reading this book, we made our own Valentine’s Day boxes.

Finally, we concluded the week with today’s book, “The Valentine Bears,” byEve Bunting and  Jan Brett. Mr. and Mrs. Bear have never celebrated St. Valentine's Day because they hibernate during the winter. However, this year they both secretly prepare to wake up for the special day and surprise the other with a gift. We, too, made something special for somebody we love.?.

This upcoming week on Monday we will have a small Valentine’s Party. We will go ahead and have a normal snack and then I will provide a little something special. We will also exchange valentines so please bring one for each child.

*KING/ QUEEN OF THE WEEK FEB: 13^th & 15^th: Rome

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

*MAKE-UP DAYS: March 2^nd & 9^th

*NO SCHOOL: March 12^th -21^st (My son has no school the first week and MUSD has no school the second week)

See you next week! Have a nice weekend!

Sincerely, 

Amber

Little Busy Bodies Preschool

Newsletter

January 23rd & 25^th 

Dear Preschool Parents,

“And so they lived happily ever after…” This week we concluded our fairy tales unit! On Monday we read the story “The Tortoise and the Hare,” by Janet Stevens...not a true fairy tale, I suppose, but it has talking animals and the kids don’t know the difference (wink, wink). After reading the story, we held several races of our own: Ring on a String, a classic relay race in the back yard, and Pass It Down. Good weather, good exercise, and a fun time were had by all. We didn’t even have any sore losers.

On Wednesday, we read the book, “The Three Billy Goats Gruff,” by Paul Galdone. After reading this book, the children made their own stick puppets to retell the story. Story retelling is when children recount in their own words a story that they have heard or read. It is one of the most effective strategies for developing children’s comprehension and their understanding of story structure. The children were very engaged in this activity and wanted to do it over and over again. Ask your child to tell you the story!

The children thoroughly enjoyed each of the books we read in our fairy tales unit. Despite the somewhat grim storylines that are presented in each book, children are always fascinated and want to hear more (hence Disney coming along and making millions in movies). We sometimes shy away from these stories thinking they are too frightening or disturbing for children. However, Fairy tales benefit children in so many ways. They provide children the opportunity to get a sense of what is real and what is pretend. They also expose the children to rich vocabulary, the opportunity to discern good from evil, as well as discover the moral.  Fairy tales encourage the use of imagination and they teach the elements of a story (beginning, middle and end). So, do not discount fairy tales as a bad influence on your children. Rather, be selective, and choose age-appropriate stories to give to them. But do not be afraid of unleashing their imagination and letting them confront their darkest fears. By giving them heroes to identify with, you are letting those fears surface in a subtle manner, and allowing your child to find his courage and make moral choices vicariously-choices that will build his character and have influence on the rest of his life. (Susanne Lakin)

*KING/ QUEEN OF THE WEEK FEB 1^st : AJ

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

*NO SCHOOL: JAN 30^th

*MAKE-UP DAYS: Friday, March 2 & 9

*NO SCHOOL: March 12, 14, 19 & 21 (My son has the first week off from school and Marana School District has the second week off from school)

See you next week! Have a nice weekend!

Sincerely, 

Amber

Little Busy Bodies Preschool

Newsletter

January 18^th & 20^th 

Dear Preschool Parents,

On Wednesday we continued on with fairy tale adventures as we read “Hansel and Gretel,” by James Marshall. I love this author and his humorous retellings of classic fairy tales. Every child needs to be familiar with the classic story of Hansel and Gretel, right? However, it’s not really a warm and fuzzy storyline, especially through a child’s eyes. So we focused on the part that was child friendly…we made our own candy houses. Imagination + frosting + candy= sweet memories and delicious creations!

           

            Today our read aloud was, “Red Riding Hood” by James Marshall. I began by asking the children what they thought a stranger was. They all thought that a stranger was a “bad guy.” I emphasized that most strangers are nice, but we just never know for sure so we must be careful. After reading the story we talked about the trouble Red Riding Hood got herself into by talking with the wolf. We discussed what she should have done instead of going off with the wolf (run away, not give out information, find a safe adult, etc.). Finally, we talked about what they should do if they should happen to ever get lost themselves. Finally, I provided a lovely little red head scarf with which we role-played the parts of Red Riding Hood and the Wolf. I, being the wolf, approached them and tried to get them to talk to me. It was their job as Red Riding Hood to apply the proper stranger danger techniques that we spoke about. It was a hoot…but they need more practice!! Unfortunately, the wolf won every time.

*KING/ QUEEN OF THE WEEK JAN 23^rd & 25^th: Piper

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

*NO SCHOOL: JAN 30^th

See you next week! Have a nice weekend!

Sincerely, 

Amber

Little Busy Bodies Preschool

Newsletter

January 9 & 11, 2012

Dear Preschool Parents,

Continuing with our unit on fairy tales, on Monday we read “The Three Pigs,” by Paul Galdone. Each child then received a building material (sugar cubes, Legos, toothpicks, craft sticks, small pebbles, straws, and Styrofoam packing peanuts, strawberry baskets, etc.) and they were asked to help the three little pigs build a stronger house. We went around and made predictions on which materials would be the strongest and the best for house building and which ones were likely to be the weakest. Then, we tested our predictions by having the Big Bad Wolf (aka the blow-dryer) try to blow our houses down. The results were interesting and in some cases unexpected. Each child then wanted to try to build a second house using a different material. In some cases, materials that blew down the first time didn’t blow down the second time because they were constructed in a different way and, therefore, stronger. We had a fun time.

Today we read “The Little Red Hen,” also by Paul Galdone (I like his retellings).

We talked about the process that the Little Red Hen went through to make her bread. I showed the children some sequential pictures of wheat being grown, harvested, and ground into flour. We discussed how much easier it is for us because we can simply buy a bag of flour at the store. We then proceeded to make our own bread. Of course this was quite a process, but the kids helped me with each step. Our loaves of bread were not the prettiest, we even lost one on the floor, but the bread did taste good and the kids were happy with the fruits of their labor!

*KING/ QUEEN OF THE WEEK JAN 18^th: Reese

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

*NO SCHOOL: JAN 16^th—MLK Day

*MAKE-UP DAY: Friday, JAN 20^th

 *NO SCHOOL: JAN 30^th (My mom will be in town this day)

See you next week! Have a nice weekend!

Sincerely, 

Amber

Little Busy Bodies Preschool

Newsletter

January 4^th

Dear Preschool Parents,

Happy New Year! I hope you’re all adjusting to real life again. Coming back from two weeks off can be hard, but I really did miss your kids over the holidays so I was glad to see them!

We are beginning a three week unit on fairy tales. Today we read “The Three Bears,” by Paul Galdone. After reading this retelling of the classic tale, we worked together to sort several items by size (small, medium, and large). This was challenging for the children and it required them to talk amongst themselves to compare the similar items that each had.

2012-2013 School Year: I wanted to let everyone officially know that I will be teaching a 4-5 year old class this next school year, 2012-2013. It may seem a bit early to be thinking about next school year, but many preschools are taking registration or will be in the next few weeks. I am opening registration to our class first. If you are interested in returning next year, please let me know by March 1st. At that time, I will open registration to anyone and everyone who inquires.

Unfortunately, I will be raising my prices this next year to remain competitive with the other local preschools. Tuition will be $110 per month for twice a week half day attendance with a $65 non-refundable deposit fee. I Hope this doesn’t deter anyone from continuing, however, I need to be more realistic concerning the amount of hours I am putting into preschool in and out of class.

*KING/ QUEEN OF THE WEEK JAN 9^th & 11^th: Olivia

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

*NO SCHOOL: JAN 16^th—MLK Day

See you next week! Have a nice weekend!

Sincerely, 

Amber