Descanso Gardens

The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground – trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. Genesis 2:9

For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations. Isaiah 61:11

The children enjoyed seeing all of God’s wonder in full bloom during a field trip to Descanso Garden. They enjoyed the rose garden and the children’s maze.

There were many water features for the children to explore. Fountains, ponds, a lake and a waterfall. They enjoyed watching the animals that live in the ponds: frogs, turtles, ducks and fish.

Thank you to all the parent who volunteered to be drivers and chaperones. We couldn’t have done it without you!

Our Very Own Little Scientists!

It’s a wonder what you can do with some recyclable water bottles, oil, food coloring, water and Alka-Seltzer. The children from Room 3 had an opportunity to satisfy their curiosity by finding out what happens when you add alka-seltzer to a bottle filled with liquids and coloring. Expectations ranged from, “It’s going to explode!” to “Nothing is going to happen.” Despite the differences in their hypotheses, one thing was certain, they all loved the result!

P.S. If you want to create the bubbly/lava lamp effect, all you have to do is add another tablet of alka-seltzer!

Happy Cinco de Mayo from Room 4!

Today we celebrated Cinco de Mayo and a friend’s birthday! We celebrated with a full blown fiesta complete with a nacho bar, Latin tunes and learning some Spanish! We closed out our party with some muy delicious cupcakes for our friend’s birthday. Ole!

May 2016 News and Calendar of Events

And the countdown begins! With only a month left of school, we are making the most of our time by celebrating Cinco de Mayo, spring, Mother’s Day, and more. We are very excited to show you all we’ve been working on this year at OPEN HOUSE (Friday, May 6^th). Also, we can’t wait to play in the water at the End-of-Year picnic (May 21) and are looking forward to our Pre-K Graduation Ceremony (June 3). This month will definitely be fast and furious…so hang on for the ride!

In the News:

Moonlight Magic and Auction – Thank you to all of you who joined in the fun at Moonlight Magic and the dinner auction. Both events were amazing and we thank you for your participation.

Site Work Day – We had an amazing turn out at our Spring Site Work Day. Parents helped us deep clean the classrooms, fluff up the sand, and so much more! We love you parents!!!

May 6 – Open House @ 6:00 (6:30 for PCS) – 8:00 – MINIMUM DAY – This is a great event to see your child’s classroom and browse through other classrooms to see what is in store for your child down the road. You may also want to check out the baby chicks in kindergarten, the art fair in the auditorium, and the other fun going on across campus.

PRESCHOOL ART SHOW – Please visit the art fair in the auditorium during Open House to view our fabulous display of preschool art.

Preschool Promotion Ceremony – June 2^nd , 7:00 – Children and families in Rooms 1 & 2 are invited to our Preschool Promotion Ceremony in celebration of their upcoming move to Pre-K, TK or Kindergarten! This event will be held in the auditorium and is a time to honor their time at preschool with a presentation of songs, receiving certificates, and a light dessert social. Invitations to follow.

Family Picnic – May 21, 11:00 – 1:00 – We hope you will join us at our annual year end picnic! This event is held on the PCS FIELD and features water play, bouncy houses, crafts, and more. Bring a lunch or purchase one using the order form. See you there!

Birthday Celebrations at School: We love to celebrate your child’s special day. Please help us make this day special by following these simple guidelines:

Schedule your child’s special day with your child’s teacher prior to the event
Birthdays at school are “recognitions”, not parties; please keep them simple with one small treat per child
Treats must be store bought
We appreciate treats to be on the healthier side as we have numerous children to recognize throughout the year. This helps us support our Healthy Kids/Sugar Reduced policy. The idea of special recognition and attention is more important to most children than the treat itself.

Calendar:

May 21 – Preschool Family Picnic

May 30- Memorial Day – School Closed

June 2 – 7:00 – Preschool Promotion Ceremony (rising TK/K students) – invitations to follow

June 3 – Last day of school

June 6 – 10 – School Closed

June 13 – First day of summer camp! FUN IN THE SUN!

Super Scientists!

Room 5 is getting all mixed up this week in our new science station!

During our morning curriculum we’ve taken over our main table with science experiments. Multi-colored test tubes offer an exciting new vehicle for combining reactionary ingredients like baking soda and vinegar to make bubbly explosions right before our eyes. The children are learning about cause and effect as they carefully measure out varying amounts of each substance into their tubes. While they work on their fine motor skills using our 2-year-old friendly eye-droppers and measuring spoons, they are also observing and reporting the outcome of each “trial” in their work stations!

As we add colored vinegar to the experience we will learn about color blending, and continue to discuss more/less, full/empty and other measurable opposites in this messy and thrilling project!

Mixing up explosions in our color coded test tubes!

Parenting Tips: Peaceful Morning Drop-Offs

Separation anxiety is a child’s way of saying, “I love you and I will miss you.” While it can tug at your hearts to leave your little ones, please know that developing a solid drop-off routine will build independence and confidence.

Here are a few tips to help you and your child manage your drop-off routine quickly and peacefully:

Be reassuring, but be brief! When your child whines or cries that she doesn’t want to go to school, respond with brief statements of understanding, reassurance, and a big hug! But don’t dwell on their reactions. Focusing too much on their whining and crying can actually serve to reinforce their behavior, and make it more frequent!

Keep your good-byes short and sweet. In doing so, you convey the message that you have confidence in your child’s ability to cope. Once you have said goodbye, please don’t linger around or noticeably peek back into the room…your child will sense your anxiety, and this will make it more difficult for her to calm down. It is best not to sneak out. You want your child to know that she can trust you.

Don’t bargain or bribe your child to behave. It is important that your child has an opportunity to work through these feelings.

Develop a loving good-bye routine such as waving goodbye through the window or a special kiss goodbye. Once the routine is over, say goodbye and leave quickly without creating a secondary “just one more…” routine. Coming back again and again increases anxiety and stress and does not impart your confidence in their ability to cope.

If you hand your child off directly to the teacher, please do so with loving words and a kiss goodbye. Once the child has been transferred, it is time to leave them in the care of the teacher. Demonstrate your confidence in the teacher to your child. Children get mixed messages and feel more anxious when they transfer back and forth between parent and teacher.

Allow your child to bring a favorite stuffed animal or family photo to act as a reminder of family and home. They can cuddle it until they are adjusted and then we can assist them in keeping it “safe” in their cubby for the day.

Talk with the teacher and develop a plan together. You need someone on the other end who will greet your child and ease the transition. We are happy to help!
Invite children from the preschool over, so your child can form friendships that will make the transition easier.

Don’t be surprised if you solve the problem and it reoccurs after holidays and sick days. They have adapted to being home, so a short readjustment to school should be expected.
Remember separation anxiety means that a strong and loving bond exists between you and your child. There is nothing more important than your child and we appreciate that you entrust us each and every day with your precious little one.

Big Things Built by Little Hands

Castle demolition has begun! We are moving on to bigger and better things but before we say goodbye, let’s take a look back at all of the hard work our little ones put into transforming their dramatic play area.

Like many successful projects, this one began with group brainstorming. We formulated questions, made connections, and used books and technology to do our research.

Together, we painted our castle walls and drawbridge.

We worked on the details.

We assembled it.

Our kings, queens, princesses, knights, jesters, cooks, servants, and even our royal kitty cats had a magnificent time! Our imaginative play has introduced us to real world concepts, equipped us with rich language, and taught us the art of negotiation!

To all of our families who donated or loaned costumes, fabrics, or props: Thank you for making this such a well-rounded learning experience!

STEM Learning and More!

We have enjoyed many activities that correlated with our focus on medieval times! Let’s highlight a few of our favorites.

Building, painting, and testing catapults!

Using our weaving board!

Creating play dough castles!

Engineering fortified towers!

Building castle walls and discussing number patterns!

Pigs in a Blanket! Oink oink!

For the past several weeks we have been enjoying “The Three Little Pigs” in song, book and puppet form. Based on that, we decided what better treat to have than PIGS IN A BLANKET? We didn’t have to huff and puff while making these treats, but we sure did enjoy eating them.

Explorations in Splatter Paint!

Room 5 took paint outdoors this week. We had a blast trying out different ways to do splatter paint, while reinforcing the unit on Jackson Pollack’s style of painting from Mrs. Monica’s Art Studio last week. Our young friends took full advantage of this messy and challenging method- putting all their strength and focus into their work. We used gross motor skills to throw the sponges and pom-poms, as well as shake the brushes!

We practiced hand-eye coordination to aim and hit the various paint vessels onto each paper, and we had a great time getting messy too! In the end our little artists created one-of-a-kind pieces of artwork that they put their whole heart into.