Ocean Animals

In Pre-K this week and next week, we are learning about life in the ocean.  We will talk about ocean animals and scuba divers and will compare oceans to our lakes and rivers.  We have many fun projects including: making scuba divers with our pictures on them, scuba diving in our classroom to complete "My Ocean Book" and making a crab with a lot of pinchers!  We have learned all of the letters in the alphabet, but continue to practice identifying them each day at school.  We also began letter and letter sound testing for our 4th quarter report card.  Please continue to practice at home!  It is amazing to see the progress these kiddos make throughout the year!!

Next week, we will also talk about Mother's Day and make our wonderful moms some special gifts.  I wonder what it might BEE??  :)

UPDATES AND REMINDERS:

**Spring is FINALLY here!!!  Snow pants and boots are no longer needed for recess.  However, spring in Wiscnosin is unpredictable, so please dress your child appropriately for the weather.  Some children have been coming to school with rubber, rain boots.  These are great if the ground is wet!  If the ground is dry, the child is given the option of wearing them or leaving them in his/her locker.

**The third and final fluoride varnish for the students who signed up, will be on Tuesday, April 30th and Wednesday, May 1st. 

**Thursday, May 16th, is an Early Release Day.  The students will be dismissed at 1:52 P.M.

**The May Families Being Involved workshop is scheduled for Friday, May 17th.  More information can be found in your child's folder on Wednesday and Thursday of this week.  Please note that this is our last FBI for the school year.

**CANS FOR KIDS:
Each year we try to keep our planet clean by encouraging families to recycle.  Here at MAES we have started our Cans for Kids drive.  Please take all of your aluminum cans to Reliable Recycling by May 15th and tell them who your child's teacher is.  They will weigh the cans you drop off and add it to each classroom's total.  The class with the HIGHEST amount of total weight in aluminum cans will win a party!!

UPCOMING FIELD TRIPS:

~Farm Field Trip: Wednesday, May 15th and Thursday, May 16th
Please make sure your child wears old clothing and appropriate footwear that day.  We will also be outside for the majority of the time.  Please dress them for the weather.

~School Forest Field Trip: Wednesday, May 19th and Thursday, May 30th
Please have your child dressed for "the woods."  Feel free to spray them with bug spray before they come to school.

~Park Field Trip: Tuesday, June 4th and Wednesday, June 5th
We will be walking to the city park for some end of the year fun!  Our cooks will be providing the children with a picnic lunch to enjoy in the park!  We will be doing a lot of walking and playing, so please be sure your child wears tennis shoes.

**If you are interested in joining us on any of the field trips, please contact me as soon as possible to ensure that all of the paperwork is taken care of.**

LAST DAY OF SCHOOL FOR PRE-K:
The last day of school for Pre-K is Tuesday, June 4th and Wednesday, June 5th.  We will enjoy our field trip to the park, however your child will still need to bring a back pack so we can send home all of their goodies!

Planes, Trains and Automobiles: A Week of Transportation

Greetings Pre-K Families,

This week in Pre-K we are talking about Transportation and the definition of that big word.  We are learning that there are many forms of transportation and that they can be categorized!  We will play a Transportation Bingo game and talk about how different modes of transportation can be use in the air, in the water and on the land.  Our letter this week is "Uu."  This is our last letter of the year, however we will continue to practice letter names and letter sounds.  Please keep working on letters/sounds at home, as we will begin testing them next week!  

On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, we will go on a field trip to the Taylor County Highway Department.  There, we will learn about all of the big machines that help take care of and repair our roads.  Be sure to ask your child about the L-O-U-D horn.  :)  Here are our group pictures from the field trip!

Here is our Monday/Wednesday group!

Here is our Tuesday/Thursday group!

UPDATES AND REMINDERS:

**Our theme for next week will be "Oceans." 

**On Wednesday, May 15th and Thursday, May 16th, we will be going on our next field trip to the Klussendorf Family Farm.  We will be leaving around 8:35 A.M. and coming back around 10:45-10:50.

**Thursday, May 16th is an Early Release Day.  The students will be dismissed at 1:52 P.M.

**Our last Families Being Involved event will be on Friday, May 17th.  More information will be sent home in your child's folder next week.

**Please continue to send snow pants for your child.  The playground is still wet and messy.  We will let you know when the children no longer need to wear them.  Hopefully it is sometime in the very near future!  

Perfect Partner Work

During "zoo week" the students were able to create a crocodile number line.  The task was trickier than usual because they had to work with a partner!  The children were encouraged to help each other and to go one number at a time.  It is always a great thing when you see children learning from each other!  

Here are some pictures to enjoy!

Peyton and Rylee

Bayley and Kayelee

Leila and Maddie

Nathan and Braeden

Cole and Paige

Olivia and Ethan

Wyatt and Keagan

Evan and Blake

Jaeden and Taytene

Keaton and Sadie

Chloe and Zoey

Hanul and Sawyer

Morgan and Keegan

Aaron and Hayden

Zoo Week

We have a very fun-filled week in Pre-K!  Our theme this week is "Zoo" and our letter is "Zz".  We only have one more letter to learn and we've learned the whole alphabet!  Please continue to practice identifying letters and letter sounds.  Alphabet awareness is a 4th quarter skill.  To meet this benchmark, students must be able to identify 14 letters (including upper or lowercase).  This will be assessed later on in the quarter.  

Recently there have been some questions/concerns about the homework that Pre-K sends home with the children.  Please remember that this homework is in no way mandatory.  If you feel that the amount of homework is too much for your child, please complete what you can when you can.  We send homework home for various reasons:

• Keeps the parents connected with what we're doing at school.
• Encourages one-on-one time with another adult and the child.
• Reinforces skills that we are working on at school.
• Offers some repetition/consistency in working on these skills as we are a 2-day program.
• Extra skill practice for the child.

If you have any questions about the optional homework/activities being sent home, please feel free to ask.

UPDATES AND REMINDERS:
**This week is Week of the Young Child.  On Wednesday and Thursday from 9:30-10:15, Hair and Company will be performing in the MAES gym.  Dress up days for the week are as follows:

Monday - PJ Day

Tuesday - Sports Day

Wednesday - Crazy Hair Day

Thursday - Beach Day

Friday - Inside Out Day

**Thank you to Nestle Pizza for donating pizzas for our special snack on Monday and Tuesday! 

**Thursday, April 18th is our Potluck Dinner and Dance.  We look forward to seeing the families that signed up to attend!

**Our theme next week will be "Transportation."

**We will be going on a field trip to the Taylor County Highway Department on Wednesday, April 24th and Thursday, April 25th.  Please have your children wear older clothes as it can be dusty and dirty in the shop!

**In May, we have an art project that requires egg cartons.  If you have any clean, cardboard egg cartons, please send them with your child to school.  (Please send 12 count cartons only.)

**We will be going on a field trip to the Klussendorf Farm on Wednesday, May 15th and Thursday, May 16th.  

**Our final Families Being Involved workshop is scheduled for Friday, May 17th in the afternoon.  More information will come home as the date gets closer.

Pets Week

This week in Pre-K we will be learning about pets.  We will talk about which animals make

good pets and which animals would make bad pets and why.  We will also learn how to care for pets by giving them food, water, a place to live and love.  Our letter this week is "Pp."  We will be focusing on words that start with "Pp" and will talk about how we can make the /p/ sound by making our lips pop.  Please continue to practice at home.  :)

On Wednesday and Thursday we will be going on our second field trip of the year to the Medford Veterinary Clinic.  Our class will be there from 9:45-10:15.  There, we will learn about how the vet staff takes care of our pets and other animals, as well as see the surgery room and some x-rays taken of animals when they were either hurt or pregnant.  

We will share many fun and exciting stories about our pets at home throughout the week!  

UPDATES AND REMINDERS:

**Next week our theme will be Zoo.

**Next week is The Week of the Young Child.  We will have dress up days each day.  Please reference the flyer that was sent home earlier this month for all of the fun events offered throughout the week.  Dress up days are as follows:

Monday - Pajama Day

Tuesday - Sports Day

Wednesday - Crazy Hair Day

Thursday - Beach Day

Friday - Inside Out Day

**April's Families Being Involved event will be the Potluck Dinner and Dance on Thursday, April 18th.  This is during The Week of the Young Child.  The invite was sent home and RSVP's were due back before Easter.  If your family plans to attend, please contact me as soon as possible so that we can plan accordingly. 

**Our 3rd field trip will be on Wednesday, April 24th and Thursday, April 25th.  We will be going to the Taylor County Highway Shop to see all of the different kind of transportation they use!

**In May, we will be doing a project using egg cartons.  If you have any clean cardboard egg cartons (not Styrofoam) please send them to school with your child by Thursday, May 3rd.

**May's Families Being Involved workshop is scheduled for Friday, May 17th in the afternoon.  We will be hosting a petting zoo!!  More information will come home when the date is closer.