It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

We have had a jolly good time at PreK this week as we prepare for the holidays! We had great fun learning all about Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzza. We made several crafts including a lace up stocking, reindeer hats and bags, and Christmas ornaments. We ended our week on a sugar high, with our Holiday Party where we made gingerbread houses! Our kids really had a blast. Check out the pictures below of some of our Christmas fun!

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On another note, our fellow Special Education teacher, Mrs. Taylor was nominated as our school's Teacher of the Year. On Tuesday, she competed in the county wide competetion. We are so excited to announce that Mrs. Taylor won! We are so proud of Mrs. Taylor and very fortunate to have her as part of our PreK team. Way to go Mrs. Taylor!

Mrs. Lowe and I wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! See you all in January!

1 Little, 2 Little, 3 Little Snowmen...

We have had "snow" much fun learning all about snowmen this week! We also began talking about family traditions and the December holidays. We also learned all about the letter K using words like king, kangaroo, and kite. We read the books Christmas Counting by Karen Katz and The Elf on the Self by Carol Aebersold. We also added a new member to our class, our elf Guss! Click here to learn more about getting your very own Elf on the Shelf for your preschooler!

Next week we will continue talking about the December holidays...Christmas, Hanukuh, and Kwanza. We will read the story The Gingerbread Family by Grace Maccarone and learn all about the letter L. On Friday we will be having our holiday party. We are going to make gingerbread houses, reindeer hats, and Christmas ornaments. If you would like to donate any items for our party please see Mrs. Oakley or Mrs. Taylor. Some items that we are in need of include graham crackers, frosting, small candys (M&Ms, Skittles, Gummy Bears, etc.), and marshmallows. Thanks so much for your support!

Our WONDERFUL volunteer Mr. Art reads to our friends Jordan and Brittany!

Down by the Pre-K...

We learned all about community helpers this week! We read story Down By the Station by Jennifer Riggs Vetter and learned all about the letter J. We also, got our classroom ready for the Holiday Season. We decorated a Christmas tree, made candy canes, and decorated Christmas Ornaments. Next week, we will begin talking about the December Holidays including Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanza. We will also be talking about Family Traditions. We will be sending home a Family Traditions activity home with your child on Monday. Please complete and return by Wednesday, December 7th.

Brittany made a great candy cane!

J is for Jordan!

Shaving cream fun!

REMEMBER: Winterfest is tomorrow, Saturday December 3rd, from 11:00AM-3:00PM. Please come and support our PreK program!

Children's Book Week!

We had a BLAST this week celebrating National Children's Book Week. We had great fun dressing up for our theme days; as well as reading lots of new books! We read several books including The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, Over the River: A Turkey's Tale by Derek Anderson , and Click, Clack, Moo by Doreen Cronin. Our class also participated in the PreK Children's Book Door Competetion, in which we won Most Realistic. We also made pumpkins to look like cows and chickens from Click, Clack, Moo. The highlight of the week was definately our Book Character Parade. Our class, along with Mrs. Taylor's and Mrs. Burrill's class, dressed up like characters from the story The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss. Check out our pictures below of this week's activities.

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There will be no school next week, in observance of the Thanksgiving Holidays. When we return, we will be getting ready for the Winter season. Please remember that we are still collecting items for our baskets for our Winterfest Basket Auction. Our class is doing an arts and crafts basket and a sweet and salty basket. Please send any items that you would like to donate for our baskets with your child as soon as possible. Please see below for a list of items that we are in need of for our baskets.

•  Arts and Crafts Basket:
•  Glue
• Construction Paper
• Glitter
• Paint Brushes
• Yarn
• Googlie Eyes
• Pom Poms
• Paint, Crayons, Markers, Pencils, etc
• Sweet and Salty:
• Cookies
• Popcorn
• Candy
• Chips
• Cook Books

As always, thank you so much for your support.  Ms. Lowe and I hope that you and your families have a safe and happy holiday!



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Our Very Hungry Caterpillars!

We have had a great week learning all about healthy habits! We read the story Autumn is for Apples by Michelle Knudsen and learned about the letter D. We also spent the week preparing for National Children's Book Week, which is next week. Our students read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and made butterflies and caterpillars for our classroom door competetion. Next week we will be having lots of fun reading all sorts of children's books including The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss, Click Clack Moo...Cows that Type  by Doreen Cronin and  Betsy Lewin, and Over the River: A Turkey's Tale by Derek Anderson. Don't forget to dress up for each day's theme.

Monday: Silly Sock Day

Tuesday: Tacky Day

Wednesday: P.J. Day

Thursday: Hat Day

Friday: Book Character Day:  Please send your child to school wearing jeans and a red t-shirt so that we can dress up as Thing 1, Thing 2, Thing 3, etc. for our parade.



Mrs. Oakley and Matthew love school!




Check out Kyle's very hungry caterpillar!



Circles, Triangles, Rectangles, Squares!

We have had lots of fun this week reviewing our shapes and our ABC's. Check out the video below of one of our favorite songs from this week's activities.

Next week we will be talking about healthy habits. We will learn about healthy and unhealthy foods; as well as exercise and sleep. We will read the story Autumn is for Apples by Michelle Knudsen. Thursday we will be painting with apple prints and making applesauce for a healthy snack.

FYI-

• There will be no school Friday, November 11th in observance of Veteran's Day.
• Children's book week is November 14th - 18th. See below for each day's theme.
• Monday: Sock it to me with Reading! Students can wear mismatched socks.
• Tuesday: We're crazy about Books! Come dressed in mismatched clothing.
• Wednesday: Curl up with a good book! Students can wear pajamas.
• Thursday: Hats off to Reading! Wear your favorite hat.
• Friday: Book Character Day! Our class will be representing Dr. Seuss' The Cat In The Hat. Our student's will be dressed as Thing 1 and Thing 2 , so dress your child in jeans and a red t-shirt. Thanks!
• Thanksgiving break is November 21st-25th. Have a wonderful time giving thanks with your families!

Once again, thanks so much for all you do to make this PreK program a success! Ms. Lowe and I look forward to spending another week with your children!

Mrs. Oakley and Ms. Lowe

Pumpkin Party!

Happy Halloween! Here are some pictures from our Pumpkin Party last Friday. A big THANK YOU to all you parents to sent in candy and other supplies for our party.

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Pumpkin Fun!

We have had an awesome week learning all about our shapes and all about pumpkins! We practiced identifying and saying the names of all our shapes. We used our shapes to make several fun art projects, including a Jack-o-Lantern and a shape collage. Our letter focus this week was on the letter F. Check out our pictures below to see our little ones learning all about pumpkins!

Create a scrapbook design

Next week we will continue talking about shapes. We will practice identifying, matching, and sorting shapes. We will also be reviewing letters B, C, G, F, M, N, P, R, S, and T. We will work on identifying and matching the letters in our name. Click here to play a game about shapes.

FYI

• I will be sending home November information on Monday, including our class newsletter, calendar, and Scholastic Book Order.
• Please label your child's jackets, hats, mittens, extra clothes, etc. We will not be able to ensure that your child returns home with all items if they are not labeled. Thank you for your cooperation.
• Important Dates:
• 11/11: No School - Happy Veteran's Day
• 11/14-11/18: Children's Book Week - Be on the look out for more information regarding this week's activities.
• 11/15: PreK Game Night 6:00-7:00 PM
• 11/21-11/25 : No School - Happy Thanksgiving
• 11/28: Scholastic Book Orders Due
• 12/3: Winterfest 12:00-3:00 PM
• If you would like to order from Scholastic Books, please order online using our Class Activation Code - HG98L. Visit http://www.scholastic.com/bookclubs today!

Mrs Lowe and I look forward to another fantastic week working with your children. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me. Have a great weekend and GO DAWGS!

Mrs. Oakley and Mrs. Lowe

Colors of Fall...

We have had another fun week learning all about our colors! We finger painted, made handprint spiders, used scissors to make pumpkins, and we decorated cupcakes with different colored frosting! Check out our pictures below to see some of our fun activities from this week!

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Next week we will be learning all about our shapes! We will make a collage of shape pictures, make shape hats, and practice identifying and sorting our shapes. Click here to play a shape game! We will also be talking about pumpkins! We will carve a pumpkin and paint with pumpkin stamps. We will finish our week out with our Pumpkin Party! We will make a jack-o-lantern, do face painting, decorate pumpkin cookies, and go on a treat hunt! We are asking that all our parents donate a bag of individually wrapped candy for our treat hunt. Please do not send any hard candy or gum. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.

FYI:

• Please do not send to your child to school in Halloween costumes.
• Scholastic Book orders are due on October 25th. You can order online using our class activation code HG98L. If you choose to order via order forms, please do not send cash. Remember, each time you order books for your child, our class earns bonus points towards free books for our classroom library.
• Please label your child's jackets, hats, mittens, change of clothes, etc. If your child's clothing is not labeled, we can not guarentee that they will return home with them. Thanks in advance for your cooperation.
• We will be sending home permission slips on Monday for our face painting activity. Please sign and return on Tuesday.
• We are in the process of completing Annual Reviews on each child. If you recieve a meeting notice, please sign and return as soon as possible. This is important to ensure that your child's IEP meeting will be completed on time.
• Please send your child to school with his/her apple and book bag EVERY day. If your child has lost or torn up their apple, please let us know and we will be glad to make a new one.

We are looking forward to another great week of Pre-K! Thanks so much for all that you do to make our classroom a success!

Mrs. Oakley and Mrs. Lowe

Let it Fall!

This week we learned all about our new season - Fall! We read the book Let it Fall by Maryann Cocca-Leffler and talked about all the changes that we would be seeing outside. We also learned about the color orange. We made tissue paper pumpkins, painted with orange, and made fall hats. Check out our pictures below of some of our fall activities!

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Next week we will be learning all about our colors! We will be reading the story Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See? by Bill Martin Jr and Eric Carle. Each day we will focus on a different color and do activities based on our color. See our class calendar to find out what color we will be learning about each day. Also, our letter next week is C. We will be learning the words cake, cat, computer, and crayon. Click here to play a color game with your little one.



FYI -

• No school October 7th or October 10th in observance of Columbus Day.
• Picture Day is October 13th
• Progress Reports will be sent home on Monday, October 17th. If you have any questions or concerns please don't hesitate to contact me. You can reach me by email (loakley@liberty.k12.ga.us) or phone (912 876-0773).
• Scholastic Book orders are due October 25th. You can order online by clicking here or you can send in your order form along with the money in your child's bookbag (NO CASH). Remember, every time you order books from Scholastic, our class earns bonus points towards free books for our class library.
• Our Pumpkin Party will be on October 28th. Be on the look out for more information as we move through the month.

What's the weather?

This week we learned all about the weather and the 4 seasons - winter, spring, summer, and fall! We made sunshines out of tissue paper and puffy clouds using shaving cream and glue. Check out the pictures below of our students and their beautiful art work!

This week's letter was N. We learned several vocabulary words including nuts, nurse, night, and nine. We also focused on the color brown. Friday we talked about the season of fall. We talked about what types of clothes we wear during fall, as well as what our environment is like during this season. Next week we will be talking about the season of fall in more detail. Click here to read a story about fall. We will be making tissue paper pumpkins, fall hats, and owls out of paperbags. For our Fun Friday activitity we will be making acorns out of Rice Crispy Treats and Hershey Kisses.

Below are more pictures of some of the fun we had this week!



Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!

We have had another fun week at Pre-K learning all about our ABC's. We reviewed the letters M, B, P, S, and R. We also worked on identifying and naming the letters in our name. We made Chicka Trees with our handprints, made a collage of letters, and even made a Chicka Hat! Our Fun Friday activity this week included making and decorating cookies in the shape of different letters in the alphabet.  Check out the pictures below to see our activities from this week.

Next week we will begin talking about weather changes as we transition into the Fall season. We will read The Rain Came Down by David Shannon and talk about what types of clothing we wear according to what the weather is like outside. We will also talk about the letter N and the color brown. We will be doing an art project that requires recycled paper towel rolls and would greatly appreciate any donation to our class. FYI- Next week we will be having our Scholastic Book Fair. This is a great opportunity for you to expand your child's library! LCPK Yard Sale will be Saturday, October 1st from 8:00 to 12:00 AM. Come out and support our school! LCPK Spaghetti Dinner will be Tuesday, October 4th from 5:00-7:00 PM. Adutl tickets are $6 and child tickets are $4.00 each. Tickets are on sale now and must be purchased in advance. Each dinner will include spaghetti, salad, garlic bread, dessert, and tea. You can dine in or carry out. See Judy Flatt in the front office for more information. Our class newsletter, calendar, lunch menu, and scholastic book orders will be sent home next Friday, September 30th. Please keep these documents as reminders of what will be going on in our classroom and around the school for the month of October. As fall is fastly approaching, please make sure that you label your child's jackets/sweaters. This is the best way to ensure that your child will come home with the clothing items that they brought to school. As always, thank you so much for all that you do! We look forward to another awesome week! Mrs. Oakley and Mrs. Whitehead

Pre-K Friends and Fun!

We have had an awesome week learning all about how to be a good friend. We talked about what it means to be nice to our friends, read a story about new friends, and we even learned the nice way to speak to our friends. Click on the link to read our story from this week - New Fish on the Reef.

We also talked about how we play nicely at the playground. Check out our pictures below of our students playing with their friends.

Next week we will be reviewing letters M, S, B, R, and P. We will read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by John Archambault and will practice identifying the letters in our name. Look below to watch Chicka Chicka Boom Boom at home with your child.

FYI -

• Please see last weeks blog if you would like to donate items for our class art projects. Also, a big THANK YOU to all you parents who sent in varous items! We really appreciate your support.
• McTeacher's Night (September 19th) has been cancelled and will be rescheduled for a later date. Please check our blog and your child's bookbag for more information regarding this event.
• Scholastic Book Fair will be the week of September 26th - 30th.
• Please check your child's folder daily for important school and classroom information.

We look forward to another awesome week at Pre-K!

Mrs. Oakley and Mrs Whitehead

We Are Family...

We have had a wonderful week learning about families! We made a family tree in our classroom that included several pictures of ours students and their families. If you have not sent in a picture of you and your child, please send one on Monday so we can add it to our family tree. Other skills we worked on this week included the letter R, the color purple, identifying our left and right, and stringing beads. Check out our students enjoying our FUN Friday activity of stringing Froot Loops.

Next week we our theme will be All About My Friends. We will talk about how we can be a good friend to our neighbor and read the story Skippyjon Jones in the Dog House by Judy Schachner. We will also be talking about the letter P and the color white.

FYI -
We do many fun art projects in our classroom that require recycled materials. We would greatly appreciate any materials that you would like to donate to our class. Below is a list of recycled materials that we need most.

• Toilet paper rolls
• Paper towel rolls
• Egg cartons
• Shoe boxes
• Old magazines
• We also would benefit from the donation of Fiori pasta (or any other types of dried pasta), rice, zip-lock bags (any size), and food coloring.

If you would like to donate any of these items, please send them in your child's bookbag. Thank you so much for all that you do!

Mrs. Oakley and Mrs. Whitehead

If You're Happy and You Know It...

We have had another awesome week at Pre-K! This week we explored our feelings - happy, sad, angry, and scared. Monday, we talked about feeling happy and sang the song "If You're Happy and You Know It". Tuesday we talked about feeling sad. Check out the video below to see Elmo teach us about Happy and Sad.

Finally, on Wednesday we talked about feeling angry and Thursday we talked about feeling scared. We read "IF You're Angry and You Know It" and played a Feelings Game from Sesame Street. Check out our kidd-o's showing us their different feelings.

Happy!

Sad

We also talked about the letter B and vocabulary words such as boy, baby, butterfly, banana, and blue. We also made B's out of pasta and we made a collage of B words.

Just a few reminders...

• We will be observing the Labor Day holiday on Friday and Monday!
• Next week we will talk about Our Family. Please remember to send a picture of you and your child for our family tree.
• Open House will be rescheduled for next week. We will be sending home a reminder next week with updated details.
• Make sure you turn in a completed Impact Aid Form on Tuesday, if you have not done so already.
• Parent Volunteer Orientation will be September 7th at 9:00 AM. If you would like to volunteer at Pre-K you must attend this meeting.

Next week we will be learning about Families. We will talking about the Letter R and the color Purple. Mrs. Whitehead and I hope that you have a safe and fun Labor Day weekend! Thanks for all you do!

Mrs. Oakley and Mrs. Whitehead

Teacher, Teacher...What do you SEE?

I see children looking at me!

We have had an awesome week exploring our 5 senses. Monday we learned about our sense of sight. We did an art project where we mixed colors. Our kiddos loved taking two colors like blue and yellow and making a new one! Tuesday we talked about our sense of smell. We played with scented playdough, drew pictures with scented markers, and even got to wear an orange scented sticker! On Wednesday we learned about our sense of hearing. We listened to many sounds including a trumpet, guitar, and drums. On Thursday we explored our sense of touch by making a collage of different textures. Finally, on Friday, we learned about our sense of taste by making Surprise Popcorn! We tasted sweet foods, salty foods, and sour foods. A big THANK YOU to all you parents who brought in items for our tasting activity. Check out our pictures below to see us tasting our popcorn!

Next week we will be talking about our feelings - happy, sad, angry, scared. Click on the link to play a game about feelings with your child - Feelings Game .

We will also learn about the letter B and the color blue. We will be painting with blue and making a collage of B words. We will be using old magazine pictures for our collage, so donations of old magazines would be greatly appreciated.

Also, remember that Open House is Tuesday, August 30th at 6:00PM. Come visit our classroom and see all of the neat things that we have been doing in our class!

Thanks for all that you do!

Mrs. Oakley and Mrs. Whitehead

M is for Me!

We have had a great week learning All About Me and the letter M. We talked about our different body parts and sang the song "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes!" We also learned new M words such as monkey, mailbox, milk, and moon. Check out our pictures below as our students show off what they have learned about their bodies this week!

Head

Shoulders

Knees

Toes

Eyes

Ears

Mouth

Nose

 Next week we will begin talking about our 5 senses - sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste! We will be reading about our 5 senses, focusing on a different sense each day. We will begin on Monday with sight and end Friday with exploring our sense of taste through "Surprise Popcorn".  We ask that each student bring an old magazine and someting to mix in our popcorn (pretzle sticks, chocolate chips, M&Ms, marshmallows, gummy bears, etc.) in order to complete each activity/art project. Also, next week we will talk about the letter S and the color green.

I am looking forward to another awesome week working with your child. Thanks for all you do!

Mrs. Oakley and Mrs. Whitehead