First Presbyterian Weekday School Newsletter

First Presbyterian Weekday School Newsletter

Fall 2016

Dear Parents,

The Weekday School has had a fun fall start to the school year! The children are thriving as they enjoy their art projects, play with friends, and grow in so many ways each day. Our teachers constantly amaze me with their creativity, patience, and dedication to your children and our school. We are very blessed.

Family Pizza Night in September and Muffins with Mom in October were great family fun and a chance to get to know friends in the classroom better! Moms and Dads enjoyed meeting each other and just being together as a Weekday School family. November will bring the Three’s Thanksgiving program and feast. In December, we anticipate LIVE NATIVITY with all of Athens invited, as well as our Pre-K Christmas program and Cookie Swap! Thanks so much for your participation and support of the things we do to bring families together outside the classroom.

As we look forward to our Registration for next year, beginning on January 12th, we are excited about offering our EARLY FIVE’s CLASS again. This is such a fabulous opportunity to give your child an extra year to mature should they need it. Mrs. Norton has a full Houghton Mifflin Kindergarten Curriculum and weaves that in beautifully with our exploring and art based Creative Curriculum. Our youngest class in the Weekday School begins at just 3 months. Spread the news in the community, as I feel there are many this could serve well.

I ENCOURAGE ALL TO BE ON TOP OF REGISTRATION THIS YEAR, as we have VERY few spots available in the school right now. This means we have a BUMPER CROP of students who are with us and will register for next year. Registration begins at 9 a.m. on Thursday, January 12th. You may turn your registration form with $150 registration fee at that time. I am particularly concerned that our three year old children’s parents get their registrations in right away, as there is currently only one Pre-K class for the Three’s to promote to. If we have close to all of our students currently in three’s to register for Pre-K, I will consider whether we could find space to open a second Pre-K class. This is NOT a given at ALL, though, so please have your decision, registration form and check in on or before January 12th. On Thursday, January 19th, COMMUNITY REGISTRATION BEGINS. This means that your priority period as current students is over the day before.

Thank you for your continued support! Please know that I would love for you to come by to visit me

at any time! We welcome input, praise, and ideas that can help our children and school thrive!

Blessings,

Elaine Johnson

Weekday School Director

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News from the Classes

Infants:

Mrs. Fields/Mrs. Nichols/Mrs. Pope:

We are having so much fun in our infant room! Each day is a happy day with our Infants. We share many smiles and giggles during the day and each day is a new adventure! In our room we enjoy tumbling on our infant gym mat, singing, clapping hands, reading and playing with our mirrored activity table. We also enjoy playing in the indoor playroom. This year we have added buggy riding time. It’s a big hit! Snack time is always fun and by naptime everyone is ready for a rest!

Toddlers:

Ms. Grant/Mrs. Fletcher:

It is so hard to believe we are into the month of November. The time has gone by so fast and the toddlers have adjusted so well.

They enjoyed our farm unit and love taking buggy rides to see all the animals on the walls of our school. October was a great time with “Leaves are Falling” and “5 Little Pumpkins Sitting on the Gate”. The elevator has been a very important part of our routine along with carpool, Spanish, and Snack!

Running “up the hill” outside our classroom and pushing baby strollers or toy shopping carts always puts a smile on their faces. It’s also great work for motor skills. We are looking forward to working on Thanksgiving projects and Christmas is right around the corner. The toddlers love to sing “Happy Birthday” to Baby Jesus when we visit the Nativity Scene.

Early 2’s:

Mrs.Lewis/Ms. Story:

We’ve had a great start to the school year! We started off the school year getting to know each other and adjusting to being at school. This is some of the children’s first school experience and they have all adjusted very well! In ART they’ve had fun using paint, glue and crayons in creating bears, pumpkins, apples, leaves and spider webs! Most recently we have done our muddy pigs and barn with farm animals. Some of them were excited to get their hands “muddy” making the muddy pigs, and some of them were not. :) They love talking about the farm animals and the sounds they make. These kids love to DANCE! Some of their favorites have been “Sammy”, “Turnaround”, “Funny Fat Frogs” and the “Beanbag Song”. Circle time has been fun! We get to read stories, sing songs and do fingerplays. We’ve been talking about colors and counting to five. Some of their favorite SONGS and FINGERPLAYS are “5 Little Monkeys” “Five Little Ducks”, “Snapping Turtle”, “Wheels on the Bus”, “Old McDonald” and more! It has been fun watching the children adjusting to school and really starting to play with their new friends. We now have a total of 11 children on Monday,Wednesday, Friday, and 9 childrenon TuesdayandThursday, so they have met quite a few new friends! We are looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas and the fun crafts, songs and fingerplays that go along with those holidays. Thank you for being such awesome parents! We are very thankful for the healthy snacks and for the help with the parties! We are enjoying your sweet children and are so glad you are sharing them with us!!

Mrs. Cummings/Ms. Allen:

What a great start to a fun 2 year old class! We quickly learned each other’s names using our “Friend Book”, while singing our “Hello” song to each new friend. We learned our class blessing quickly, which we sing daily before our snack. We had great fun “DOWN ON THE FARM” painting muddy pigs, art with oatmeal, sheep with cotton balls, black and white cows, and our handprint chicken and duck. Our “BEARS” unit was a great success making Corduroy while working very hard on our “Brown Bear, Brown Bear” books~we hope you liked them! Our Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear poem was a highlight of our day and we loved “Going on a Bear Hunt”, finding him in his cave and running safely home. It was a special treat to bring our favorite stuffed animal to school for our teddy bear picnic as well. Painting with and making apples and leaves, our scarecrows and lots of pumpkin art took up most of October. We enjoyed hunting for special leaves during our Leaf Hunt in the Courtyard too. November finds us surrounded by furry gray squirrels, red foxes and feathery owls, while enjoying singing “Gray Squirrel” and reading “Owl Babies”. We will enjoy “HEALTHY FOODS” week with fruits and veggies and hope to try some too! We are so thankful for our friends at school and our families. December will bring us closer to Jesus’s birthday as we prepare our parent gifts and exciting Holiday art. We look forward to singing our “Days of the Week” song each day and dancing to our favorite songs “Shake our Sillies Out” and “Walter the Waltzing Worm” with our worms made out of yarn. We enjoy our visits from “Little Mouse” on Tuesdays and using our senses to guess what’s in the “Surprise Sack” on Thursdays. Thank you so much for the healthy snacks that have been sent in this year~they are a real treat! Have a safe and happy Holiday!

Mrs. Reid/ Mrs. Isbell:

We have been having such a great time in the 3 Day Two's class! We have been exploring all kinds of fun seasonal things in our sensory bin like fall leaves and corn cobs. The students have also really loved their art time. They enjoy painting and play dough sculptures especially! Besides being talented and creative artists, they are also wonderful musicians! We sing all kinds of fun songs like Icky Sticky, Happy and You Know It, Bear Hunt, Jo, and our ABCs too! Songs like these are great for body awareness, listening skills, vocal exercise, creative play, gross motor skills, and general knowledge. They're also just super fun to dance to! These future readers also love a good book! Some of their favorites include, Barnyard Dance, Brown Cow, and Whose Nose? We are so looking forward to the upcoming holidays and all the fun we will have learning about Jesus and his birth! Mrs. Isbell and I just love our class and are so blessed to be surrounded with such sweet hearts and clever minds.

3’s:

Mrs. Smith/Mrs. Beall:

We are having so much fun at school this year in the three day three’s class! During the first few weeks of the school year our theme was “All About Me”. We enjoyed sharing many of our favorite things and getting to know all of our new friends! In September, we created art work, sang songs, and read books about apples. We especially enjoyed tasting different types of apples and foods made from apples. In October, we learned about all of the changes that fall brings: cooler weather, colorful leaves, and of course, pumpkins! The children had a blast at our Halloween party, and they loved showing off their costumes in our costume parade! During the month of November we will be learning about the first Thanksgiving, discussing the many reasons we have to be thankful, and preparing songs, artwork, and costumes for our Thanksgiving Feast. Our Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Feast will be a special treat for us as well! December will bring gingerbread fun, carols, hot chocolate, reindeer, Santa Clause and lots more fun as we celebrate Jesus’ birthday! Our students have loved going to chapel and Spanish class each week. They have also enjoyed lots of science, music, dramatic play, and art! Thank you, parents, for sharing your kids with us! We are excited to see what the rest of the school year brings!

Mrs. Berglund/Mrs. Fabris:

Throughout the beginning of our school year, the Four and Five Day Three’s have had such an amazing time laughing and learning alongside one another! Throughout the months of August and September, we became acquainted with our classroom and all of our wonderful friends. Our first unit,All About Me, certainly helped us with this experience, as we discussed all of our different characteristics, emotions, and families. Then, we took a tour of ourcommunity. Within this unit, we learned about the manycommunity helpersthat work in our community and talked about what we would all like to be when we grow up. Our class is filled with future doctors, firefighters, and teachers! With the start ofAutumn, we began to explore all of the changes that occur outside during this fascinating season. The children loved bringing inleavesfrom their own backyards to do leaf rubbings and to share with their classmates. This fall, we also learned about wonderful seasonal fruits—apples andpumpkins. Each child enjoyed tasting red, green, and yellow apples to discover which was their favorite. With pumpkins, we carved our very own classroom pumpkin and learned how to be a good friend by following Spookley the Square Pumpkin’s example. It is now time to prepare for ourThanksgiving Program and Feast. The children are working so very hard creating all of their festive crafts that are featured during the Feast and remembering all of the songs and choreography for the Program while still learning about the history of this day. Each and every child is doing an amazing job getting ready for the Program, and I could not be more proud of our class! Other memorable moments from the past few months include our many birthday and Halloween celebrations andSuperhero Daycomplete with a visit from your friendly neighborhood Spiderman. I am so excited to see what the rest of this school year brings!

Pre-K/Early 5’s:

Mrs.Norton/Mrs. Bowles/Mrs. Nunan:

The Pre-K Class was happy to welcome Mrs. Suzanne Bowles and in October Mrs. Robin Nunan as our class assistants. We have enjoyed helping the children feel comfortable in Pre-K. First, we played games to become acquainted with each other and sang a favorite song, Greet Your Neighbor (Dr. Jean). The boys and girls have especially had fun singing our color songs each week. Sharing something they found at home for each color was a great oral language practice. They loved giving their friends clues for their color item. Through the year we discuss the four seasons. When fall arrived we learned about Johnny Appleseed, tasted apples, and made apple prints with paint. Our fall highlight was our field trip to Washington Farms Pumpkin Patch in Watkinsville. We had fun together and learned all about the life cycle of the pumpkin. When Halloween arrived the children had a great time dressing up as their favorite character. In Pre-K we also enjoy our Scholastic Reader along with a video on the smartboard. The boys and girls are learning so much in each of our special classes: Spanish and Chapel. Our November themes will be the Pilgrims, Indians, the First Thanksgiving and turkeys. We look forward to preparing for Christmas and our Christmas Program during December.

Looking Ahead:

- Pre K- Christmas Program - December 13

- Christmas Break – Dec. 14– Jan. 2 - (Teachers report for in-service day – Jan. 2)

- Children return to School – January 3

- Registration Begins – January 12

- Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (School Closed) – January 16

- Scholastic Book Fair – Feb. 6-11

- Georgia Preschool Conference – March 3