Pre-Kindergarten

Pre-K Newsletter

Units of Study:

Unit 1: Getting to Know You

Unit 2: Ball Study

Unit 3:Tree Study

Unit 4:Clothing Study

Unit 5: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Study

Unit 6: Buildings Study

Unit 7:Wheels Study

Unit 8: Exercise Study

Summary of Unit: 

 

Our pre-k students have adjusted to school nicely!  Our students are working hard to be independent in the classroom. Help your child increase their independence by having them practice opening up juice boxes, snack items and cleaning up.  It’s getting colder out, so please work with your child on zippering their jackets!

 

 We are working on our core values to create a great foundation for their future years at Queens Explorers. Service,Trustworthy, Achieve, Respect,and Responsibility are our core values. Focusing on these core values will create STARS of our school.    

 

Currently we are at the end of the Ball Study.  Students spent time exploring balls and how balls provide us a variety of knowledge. The study shows how to use children’s interest in balls to help them explore social studies and science concepts related to the features and nature of balls and practice skills in literacy, math, technology, and the arts as they investigate.

 

The next unit will be the Tree Study. This unit helps build children's interest in trees. This unit focuses on helping children develop an understanding of the characteristics of trees and their roles in our natural and man-made worlds. They will learn about creatures that inhabit trees and foods that trees produce. As the students investigate Trees they will build their science and social studies knowledge as well as strengthen their literacy, math and arts skills.

 

At home you can:

• Work on independence!!! Let them get dressed by themselves, put on their shoes and take them off and jackets, sweaters, hats and gloves.  Let them help you while cleaning the house, doing laundry, and setting the table.  
• Explore the trees in your neighborhood : You may say: I wonder why leaves fall from the tree. I wonder what makes trees grow so big. 
• Collect parts of a tree and sort the items. Make a collage.
• Do the Optional Homework everyday

Reading: 

Students are becoming familiar with many different types of books and stories. We read many books throughout the week in large groups as well as small groups.  We expose the students to a variety of non-fiction and fiction books. For each book we review new vocabulary words and their meanings. We take picture walks through each book in order to become familiar with the story and make predictions about it before reading. We look at the cover page and talk about what we see.  We are also learning about the author and how he/she writes the words and the illustrator draws the pictures. Questions are asked throughout our read aloud lessons.  Students are learning to think about the question being asked before they answer. 

At home you can:

• Look through a book before reading and ask them to use the pictures to make predictions about what will happen in the story.
• Read books about various topics to your child and ask questions about them.
• Encourage students to speak and answer questions in complete sentences. 
• Point out letters you see in your environment, such as on cereal boxes, signs, in books, etc. Ask your child if they know the sound the letter makes or if the letter is in their name. 

 

Suggested books to enhance our Trees Unit:

• Tell Me Tree: All About Trees for Kids By: Gail Gibbons
• Gus is a Tree By: Claire Babin
• We are Going on a Tree Hunt By: Steve Metzger
• While a Tree was Growing By: Jane Bosveld

Writing:

Pre-k students are practicing tracing  and writing their name every day during morning sign-in. As they write, they are working on holding the pencil properly and identifying the letters in their name. Students also practice writing at the writing center as well as incorporating writing in other areas of the room.

At home you can:

• Have your child practice drawing with a variety of writing instruments using the correct grip. For example, draw with crayons, pencils, markers, chalk, paintbrushes, etc.
• Have your child practice tracing or writing their name on their own.
• Practice drawing anything! Such as shapes, people, etc.
• Strengthen your child’s fine motor hand muscles by playing with clay or play-doh.
• Practice writing the letter of the week and their names in their notebooks.
• Use cheerios to make the letters in their name.
• If your child can write their first name, have them write their last name.

Math: 

In math, students are identifying, sorting, and grouping colors and shapes. They also have become Number Detectives!  We have started counting 1-10 and using our fingers to show how many.  We are singing, counting songs and dancing to the number songs as well.  We will be teaching them 1 to 1 correspondence where they have to match an object to the correct amount.

 At home you can: 

• Continue to identify colors and shapes you see. Practice sorting by color, shape, and size. For example, have your child help with laundry and sort socks by color or even different patterns. 
• Practice counting aloud to 20. 
• Sing songs or read books that practice counting and simple addition/subtraction skills.

Some Fun Songs:

How Many Fingers? | Kids Songs | Super Simple Songs

Five Little Speckled Frogs | CoComelon Nursery Rhymes & Kids Songs Five Little Monkeys Swinging In A Tree 🐊🐒 | 5 Little Monkeys Swinging In A Tree Song | Monkeys Rhyme

 

Gym/Gross Motor Movement

During Gross Motor Time, the children work on both fine & gross motor skills activities connecting to our Creative Curriculum. The students are working on these skills through obstacle courses, running, jumping, hopping, climbing, catching a ball, balancing, etc. Some activities are pretending to move like different animals that live in trees, pretending to be crossing a river using stepping stones, pretending ladders are trees and picking fruit off a tree. We also work on their sense of spatial development. Working on directional words such as over, under, around, through, up, & down are used throughout the day. The best part of gross motor time is working on social skills such as problem solving, following directions, listening, taking turns, etc. We try to go outside everyday so, please dress your child appropriately. Studies prove that active children actually learn better!

 

Our first parent engagement was on Tuesday, November 18th with Ms. Sheflin. 

We conducted stations using different kinds of balls and movements. 

Thanks for attending.

Parent & Student Voice

Selena: I like to see my teachers in the morning. They make me happy.

Scarlett: I like to go outside and play monster.

Arha: I like to read and go to the park.

Zarah: I like to learn about different balls like soccer balls.=

Kerri: Tauren’s mom 

Since my son started attending Queens Explorers he has developed an enthusiasm for learning and loves going to school. He has become more confident, inquisitive, and self-reliant.

Jasmanie:  Jiana’s mom

Mrs. Mollura’s classroom is very neat and organized with a lot of hands-on learning aides. My child can now identify letter sounds and can tell me what letter a word begins with. She is also writing her name and I love her art. Thank you miss for the skills Jiana has been learning.

Isabel:  Stephanie’s mom

She loves to sing and sing the abc songs. She says is her favorite part at school 🙂

Kayi:  Khadijah’s mom

Khadijah has always been interested in reading stories for our family and this has greatly improved since she started preK and brings home these simple short stories books. She loves reading them even on days there’s no school. She also loves going to school every morning. Her morning alarm is “You have school today and you’re going to see Mrs. M.” And with that she is up and ready for school. Her enthusiasm for school and seeing her teacher every day warms me knowing she’s in safe hands.