Zada & Lucia's Preschool Class
Welcome to Zada & Lucia's Preschool Class!
When you enter our class the children's bright faces are the sunshine that brighten the whole school.
Teacher:
Zada Lofton Poetry and Seeds
This month has been a very exciting one! Big thanks go out to all of you who participated in our community celebration of poetry month. Our class has been doing an outstanding job with their poems. We have opened the eyes of our students by bringing out their poetry and reading skills. Lucia and I will continue to help the children explore other ways to learn about poetry. We are always looking for ways to promote creative thinking in our early learners!
Arts Festival is Coming Up!
Primary Spring Arts Festival
Friday May 18th 6:30-8pm This is an event for the primary, but you are very welcome to attend! This is a half day of school for everyone with Extended Day available until 3:30.
Emergent and Theme Studies
Emergent themes arise as great opportunities for learning in all classrooms at Giddens. This winter, we have had a series of wind storms that evoked some fear and lots of curiosity in our children. Lucia and I recognized that this was our chance to supply children with the time to explore wind and air. Through explorations and intentional small group times, we were able to expand the children’s thinking and, in the process, learn more about our students and how they learn!
Poetry Month
This month has been a very exciting one! Throughout the month of April, we are participating in our community celebration of poetry month. Our class is doing an outstanding job with learning about poetry and we had a visiting author, Janet Wong, come to us for a day long visit (thank you Audra!). Ms. Wong is an author of children’s books and poems. The children really enjoyed having her at our school.
Special Friends and Science
On “Special Friends Day”, Isley bought her pet dog Ruby to share with us. Isley played the harmonica while Ruby sang to the tune. The children loved being able to pat her and feed her doggie treats. Thanks Sarah and Isley for a beautiful, fun learning experience.
Science!
We will soon be focusing our attention on seeds, plants, and growth. The children are making predictions about other things in their environment; it will be very interesting to learn more about how our children think about plants, seeds and their growth. As I look at the growth of plants and seasons changing, I see such a growth in the children - they are excited about so many of our learning experiences.
Announcements!
Our Next Unit of Exploration!
We will focus on learning about wind and air next. We will learn how we can feel air and wind even though we can’t see it. We will explore a number of ways to use air with balloons and bubbles. We will explore air with musical instruments; with a fan; paper fans; and air with party favorites.
Internal Open House
I would like to thank all of the parents that came to our Internal Open House last week. It was so fun to have special time to chat and watch the children interact with their peers and with their parents. You don’t know how grateful I was to see as many families as I did. Thank you for all that you do to make my work so easy and validating!
Small Group Learning Time
We made pizza with the children on Wednesday, March 8th. We called it our “friendship luncheon”. The children placed their orders. Some of the children just wanted cheesy pizza, some ordered for mushrooms, pineapple, onions, tomatoes, pepperoni, Canadian bacon, salami and extra cheese! We made our own pizza in the classroom and served it for lunch.
Children will use small motor skills cutting, dicing, and slicing meat and vegetables. Learning math in these cooking experiences is fun, but also highly effective in exposing the children to language and examples of geometry, color, sizes, shapes and texture. One major skill that will also be tried and tried again during this activity will be the children’s ability to attend to a project over time.
Family Math Night and other celebrations
Giddens School had students in their classrooms to present to the parents some of the ways math has been taught and the way students learn math. This was a great opportunity for parents to take a look at math from preschool throughout the primary classes.
March for Peace and Justice
A huge thanks to everyone who helped to make our march and rally so successful. It had such an impact on me and on our community; I am so proud to be a part of this wonderful school. We read a story on Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and we used our morning meeting time to read and share information about Dr. King and why we celebrate his birthday. It was good to see so many families supporting the Giddens School community and coming together to participate in the historical rally and march. It was very moving to me to see how the children were able to have the same good energy supporting our march with the community. Thank you for all of your support.
Looking Forward to the New Year
Happy New Year! We hope your holiday season was a wonderful one. As we all look forward to the second half of the year, I just wanted to thank you for a wonderful first semester of school. I am glad to see everyone happy and healthy.
The weather is quite a challenge as we face a few more months of rainy and blustery days. Thank you for sending your child in weather-appropriate clothing and stocking their cubbies with extra clothes. This is a huge help because we want to try keeping our friends warm and dry!
On Tuesday, we celebrated Red Day. We were dressed in red; we painted and made our art designs all red!
Sharing Cultural Celebrations
On Thursday, December 8th Lars’s mother, (Rose) came to share their family’s holiday with our class. She told the story about the Nutcracker. Rose brought pictures to show the children and she told them that when she was a little girl she played the mouse character in the play The Nutcracker. Rose brought in the C.D. with other Christmas Songs on the C.D. Some of the songs were in English and some were in Spanish. We even had the beautiful music to the Nutcracker and the children danced with one another. Rose gave the children the reindeer antler and they had so much fun dancing and being creative with one another.
Field Trip
Dear Families,
First of all, we would like to wish you all happy holidays and a wonderful winter break! Every time I think about your caring kindness and receive your much needed support, I realize how blessed I am. This time of year, I really focus and reflect on all the blessings in my life: all of you are great blessings to me and to others I would just like to express my gratitude. Thank you for being you.
Spanish News and Holiday Traditions
All of our conferences are now completed. Thanks to all of you for that rewarding and wonderful rich experience. I had the opportunity to have a one-on-one time; and to be able to share your valued feedback. The information you shared was vital in continuing to set individual goals for your child and to focus on new expectations for her\him.
Family Talk and Cooperative Play
We have been talking and sharing a lot about our families recently. We are talking about who the members are in your family and trying to understand and introduce conversations about gender roles and biases. Some students were asked if they had two Moms or two Dads; one student said, “No Zada. I have one Mommy, one Daddy, and two sisters.” Then the question was asked, “Do you know someone who has two Moms or two Dads?” We are exploring the concept that some families have two Moms, two Dads, or grandparents, or one Mom or one Dad as their parent, and how we are all families. The question was asked, “How can you tell the differences of the boy baby and the girl baby dolls?” The questions were asked, “Can girls have short hair?
Gardening, Pajama Day and Math!
Gardening with Bob
Hello families. Here is a look at some of the happenings in our class. On Mondays, Bob takes the children to the garden and allows them to explore and learn what is happening to the plants. This week, we planted seeds in the garden and we’re excited to watch them grow! We have also started having conversations about the weather changing and what is going on in our environment as the season continue s to change.
Cultural Learning and Announcements
Cultural Learning through The Day of the Dead!
On Wednesday Maria (Joylynn’s Mother) came to teach the children about The Day of the Dead. Maria set up the altar and the children decorated it with flowers, wind (tissue paper), and candy. The students loved the special presentation and we kept the beautiful altar on display for our Harvest festival. Thank you to Maria for the beautiful flowers and for making our day unique and special.
Remembering Grandparents and Special Friends Day
Greetings! We had a very wonderful Grandparents/Special Friends day. Thanks to all of you for your help and participation, I wish to extend a special thanks to Chloe (Zella Rae’s mother) and to those who took photographs on that day. We are so glad that we will be able to display the photos in our classroom.
Reminders
Our Special Friends and Grandparents Day will take place October 20th!
Please mark your calendar. We are looking forward to having a large turnout and this wonderful experience will be in your child’s heart perhaps forever. Thank you, I am so happy to be a part of you and your child’s life.
A reminder about attendance: We are unable to accommodate the switching of days, or making-up of days, if your child is one who is not here all 5 days of the week. We apologize for the inconvenience, but we need to be consistent in our policies-so unless it is an emergency situation, we look forward to seeing your beautiful child on his or her assigned days! Thank you so much.
Enrichment Classes and Curriculum News
Enrichment Class Updates
Library time with Audra is a huge hit. They love going to the library and listening to stories and choosing pages for Audra to read. They each get to choose two books to check- out and bring over to the classroom. This way, we always have new books to read every week! They are truly engaged during story- time--actively learning, listening and thinking.
Fall Field Trip
Fall is upon us! Leaves are falling and the sun is setting earlier and earlier. It is a beautiful time of the year for children to start learning more about the season as things are beginning to change; the children are enjoying and exploring these changes. This gives us another opportunity to reflect on how things grow. What happens when another season begins? How life cycles change and how things grow and replenish our environment is of great interest to the children. The outdoor environment presents many areas for discovery—why the leaves change colors and die and drift to the ground, how a bud blossoms into a flower, where sand comes from and how it is formed.
