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Westwood Lutheran Church - ELCA
9001 Cedar Lake Road
St. Louis Park, MN 55426
952-545-5623

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WECC News Preschool


Preschool I May 2013 News
 
Upcoming Interest and Curriculum Content
Our theme for May is “Cleaning up our World – New Life”; with this theme, we will be talking about how we can help clean up litter, help with clean up projects, recycle and make our living spaces beautiful as we plant and grow flowers and vegetables. May’s art curriculum will include making a nature collage, making and painting clay beads and decorating t-shirts for the teddy bear picnic .
 
Upcoming Events and Schedule Reminders
The Teddy Bear Picnic is scheduled for Friday, May 24th @ 10:00-12:30 with an early close @ 1:00 pm.
Please bring in a plain white t-shirt for your child to decorate for the Teddy Bear Picnic. It is important to label the t-shirt with your child’s names (a sharpie on the tag works well). Please put your child’s shirt in the basket provided on the sign in counter and check your child’s name off the list.
The playground clean up is scheduled Saturday, May 18th. We appreciate your participation with this project of helping our playground become more effective.  We encourage all parents/relatives to come and join us for this day if possible.
WECC is closed on Monday, May 27th in observance of Memorial Day. 
 
New Discoveries and Learning 
We have been discussing how plants grow and what they need to grow. If you have a garden at home, a wonderful way to bring this learning home would be to let your child help plant or as you look around and go for walks, talk about what is happening with the trees and flowers that you see. Enjoy exploring together!
 
Reminders and Communication Regarding Care of Child
Please check your child’s cubby, replace rain boots for winter boots, remove snow pants, and check your child’s extra clothing. If it is a rainy day, please send your child in rain boots, as we like to go on rain walks, and if your child has an umbrella feel free to send that along as well.  In addition, we would appreciate you sending your child in tennis shoes at all times; this can help prevent falls outside/in the gym.
 
In regards to picking up your child at the end of the day, we would appreciate it if you would let one of the teachers know you are leaving with your child.  This will help us with any confusion if we are on the other side of the playground and do not see you.  Also, make sure that you sign your child in and out each day. Thank you for your help.
 
Health and Safety Communication
Please bring sunscreen for your child to keep at school (If you have not already done so).  Be sure to have your child’s first and last name on the bottle. It is vey helpful to put sunscreen on your child before school each morning, weather permitting.
 
Also, we would like to remind you that WECC is peanut/any nuts free.  If you could check the labels on the packages, that would be very helpful to safeguard allergic children.  There are many snacks that may be processed with nuts and we are unable to serve any of these. In addition, the snacks need to come in their “original packaging”.  Thank you for signing up to share snacks with the class.
 
Thank you to parents for taking the time to meet with your child’s teacher for conferences. This is an important time to discuss your child’s growth and progress.
 
We encourage you to schedule and have your child complete their preschool screening. The screening is a no cost assessment through your school district. The Early Childhood Screening covers basic health and developmental areas including, hearing, speech, cognitive development, and social and emotional skills.
 
Thank you for all your help,
 
Teacher’s Danette, Catherine and Roza
 
 


Preschool II May 2013 News
   
Upcoming Interest and Curriculum Content
The topic of conversation for the month of May will be New Life.
The nature curriculum will focus on observing new growth and mud as we finally approach spring! Children will continue to observe seedling growth in the classroom and the transplantation of those plants to designated areas of the playground.
The art element for the month will be display.  Children will be exploring framing along with woodworking. Group will be exploring collaboratively working in small groups to construct a base, walls, and roof of a bird house.  These bird houses will be displayed in the classroom as well as the outdoor classroom areas.
Phonetic emphasis and handwriting exploration will be continuant consonants M, N, S, W.
The core value discussion will be teamwork. Working with friends towards a common goal.

Students will continue to read the chapter book Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White.  Groups will be exploring the role of the author and illustrator.  Children will also be defining what it means to be a character in a story, and identify the setting of the story.
Weekly sheet explorations will be observing spacing when writing two to three word phrases.  Book knowledge terms such as letter, number, and words will be identified during this time.  Children will be working on an understanding that letters create words and words create sentences.  Staff has been posing the questions “How many letters do you see?” and “How many words do you see?” And finally “How do you know how many words are on the paper?”
Mathematic emphasis will be number recognition and continuing to observe staff’s running record of math skills. 

Upcoming Events and Schedule Reminders
May 18: Playground Clean Up Day.  We encourage our parents to join us on WECC Playground Clean Up Day, please watch for sign -up sheet.  Working together we can make our playground a beautiful green space for the children to explore!
May 24: Teddy Bear Picnic/Breakfast share. The times will be 10-12:30 and we will close at 1:00 p.m. for staff development. Look for food sign-up sheets and volunteering opportunities.
May 27: Memorial Day WECC CLOSED 

New Discoveries and Learning
3D ExplorationChildren explored 3D shapes by manipulating earth clay. Students experimented with pinching and rolling to create spheres, cubes, cylinders, rectangular prisms, pyramids and cones.  These shapes were placed onto a labeled card and displayed in the classroom and in the hallway space.
Woodworking/Bird house exploration. Children have been experimenting with using a wood glue to begin their work in building a bird house.  Students were encouraged to use their knowledge of 3-D (height, width, and thickness) while creating their structures.  Small groups of children can often be heard counting to ten or twenty waiting for the wood glue to semi-dry so that they can apply their next piece of popsicle stick.  Popsicle stick structures were created in preparation for gluing a variety of cut lumber pieces to create a structure that could be placed in the WECC outdoor classroom spaces.  Many enjoyed drawing their blueprint of what their birdhouse will look like and what type of bird they envision living in that house.
 
After reading a chapter of the book Charlotte’s Web, staff posed the question “What is a character?”  Responses included:“Someone that is in the book”  
“Somebody in the book that is acting for the story.” 
 
Staff then asked “Who is a character in this chapter?”  Responses included:         
          “Wilbur is a pig.”
          “A character was Charlotte.”
          “The pig Wilbur.”
          “The animals.”
 
Staff concluded with the question “What is the setting of this chapter?” Responses included:
“In the house downstairs.”
“They were in the kitchen.”
“It’s sitting around the kitchen table.”
 
Quotes on citizenship include the following:“Helping others when they fall down.” -Lyla
 “I help my dad and mommy not step on toys.”-Joseph
 “If Lauren falls down I help her back up.” -Katie
 “Helping them be good.” -Cole
 “When they eat dinner, I help them do dinner.” -Nina
 “I help my sister make her bed.”
 “When my brother sleeps, I let him sleep.”-Jack G.
 “Helps pick up the neighborhood.” -Tori
 “Pick up your own share.” -Morgan
 “Stop when the red light is on.” -Isaac
 “Takin’ care of my own home.” -Leo
 
Health and Safety
As the weather continues to get warmer, a reminder to families that the first application of sunscreen is the parent’s responsibility.  We suggest applying sunscreen before arriving at school or at drop off time.  Teachers will be supervising/helping with the application of sunscreen for the afternoon outside times. Sunscreen that is placed in the classroom basket located next to the sign in sheet needs to be labeled with FIRST and LAST names for licensing purposes!
Water bottles are encouraged for hydration while at the berm and playground. Please label with first and last name and bring home each night for sanitizing. Water bottles can be filled prior to arrival to save us plenty of time to explore outdoors. 

Teachers Amie & Jan