October 2022 Newsletter
Fall is in the air and we are so grateful for each and every day we have at school. Your children are flourishing in making new friends and learning new skills. There are many lessons to be learned this year and it is pure joy to watch your child grow and develop every step of the way.
We welcome the arrival of the Pumpkin Patch as a way to celebrate a community tradition. The children love a walk through the orange sea and experiencing the sights of fall. As we celebrate traditions at school, take some time to enjoy traditions at home. They can be big or small and just require a little thought and intentionality that can lift the spirits. Establishing family traditions are an important part of early childhood as they provide a sense of identity, strengthen the family bond, offer comfort and security, teach values, and add to the rhythms and seasons of life. They can also connect generations, pass on cultural and religious heritage, and create lasting memories.
With the seasons changing, I am reminded about the message in the book of Ecclesiastes. God created seasons and in our lives there is a season for everything. Not only do the leaves and weather change, but you may be in a season of happiness and comfort or that of challenges and despair. Parenting young children in and of itself presents daily joys and challenges along with your own personal growth and change as well. The one thing we can rest in is knowing that God never changes. He is always with us and will never leave us. He is sovereign, stable, and will provide peace and wisdom for those who ask. When you find yourself in a moment of prayer or praise, ask your children to pray with you and thank the Lord that He is good (no matter what we are going through) and never changing.
If there is anything I can do for you, please don’t hesitate to ask! My door is always open and I welcome every chance to get to know you and your family.
Blessings and joy,
Allison Lee
Thank you for keeping your child home when they are sick. With flu season already upon us, it’s important to keep your child home if they exhibit any symptoms.
Thank you for a great turnout at Parent Night! It was so wonderful to see your smiling faces. Your support and attendance are appreciated.
Thank you for making our annual Charleston Gift Wrap Fundraiser a success. We raised close to $2,000 that will be put back into our classrooms. We owe it all to our wonderful families and community. We truly have the best parents in town!
There are a lot of opportunities and fun events to attend at our preschool this month and I look forward to seeing you there! We have our classroom trips to the Pumpkin Patch, Chapel on the 12th, Lunch on the Lawn the 26th, and the Costume Parade on the 31st. The church is hosting Trunk-or-Treat on the 26th along with movies and food trucks in the Pumpkin Patch.
Thank you for helping us “GO PINK”! Your donation will help cancer patients and your generosity will help find a cure for breast cancer. All proceeds are given to the Joanna Francis Living Well Fund, a nonprofit foundation that supports and provides financial assistance for those struggling with terminal breast cancer.
Classroom News
Mrs. Nickels and Ms. Baker Two Year Olds
Happy October! The weather has turned just in time as this wonderful new month rolls around. October brings so many fun things to our class as we get ready to learn about the farm and of course, celebrate Halloween with our costume parade and lots of adorably spooky crafts!
In September, we enjoyed learning about transportation and our five senses. The kids got to roll construction trucks in mud to leave tracks and create sailboats and buses to place on our boards. For our five senses unit the children created a book where each page represented one of our senses and we talked daily about things we could see, smell, hear, taste, and touch all around us at school.
As we move into our next units, be listening to some of our favorite songs that are coming up in October which include Old Macdonald Had a Farm and Five Little Pumpkins, as well as some cute art hanging in the room!
Dates to remember:
October 10th: Pumpkin Patch at 11:30am (parents invited!)
October 17th: No School
October 31st: Costume Parade 9:00am
October 31st & November 1st: Class Halloween Parties
Mrs. Phillips and Mrs. Roberts Two Year Olds
I would first like to say THANK YOU for all the flowers, cards, and treats for my birthday! Everyone made me feel special and appreciated.
We closed out September learning all about the animals on the farm. We talked about the feel and colors of different animals, where they live and what they eat. Everyone also had fun with Mrs. Roberts tasting the different kinds of apples and telling her which was their favorite.
October starts with our Nocturnal Animal unit, combined with Halloween and shapes. We will get to scoop “spooky rice,” play with pumpkin playdoh, and maybe even carve a jack-o-lantern! We will visit the pumpkin patch on October 14th from 11:30-12, and parents are welcome and encouraged to join us on our one and only “field trip.” Please send in $2 so your child can bring home their very own small pumpkin.
Our Parade of Costumes will be on Monday October 31th at 9:00a.m., please make plans to come watch this exciting event!
Mrs. Larkin and Mrs. Stewart Three Year olds
October is here and we are enjoying the cooler mornings of Fall! This month brings a flurry of activities around our units of nature, apples, pumpkins and Halloween.
Our fun experiences will include a nature walk, apple graphing and tasting, pumpkin seed planting, pumpkin carving, cooking and a visit to the pumpkin patch. The children always enjoy the pumpkin patch fun and we will be visiting the patch on October 10th at 9:30 ($2.00 per child for a small pumpkin). Also, we will be focusing on the colors orange (anaranjado), black(negro), number 3(tres) and the shape triangle. Which should be easy to spot all around us this month.
Many thanks to our volunteers who made September extra special with Lawson’s mom, Kalin for reading and Calvin’s mom, Kirsten for cooking in our classroom. We would especially, like to thank all our families for joining us on Parent Night to share your child’s school experiences and the joy of having your children in our class. Your support is invaluable!
Be on the lookout for details on our annual Costume Parade and Halloween Party on October 31st to celebrate a little fall fun.
We are looking forward to a fabulous month!
Happy Fall
Mrs. Newman and Ms. Newman Three Year Olds
We are finishing up our units on Three Little Pigs and The Three Billy Goats Gruff. We have been discussing the different versions of both books, and the class has definite opinions about why they like a certain version over others. We also have meaningful discussions about the moral tales of these books. For the Three Little Pigs, we had lots of discussions and shares about the importance of hard work. We talked about scribbles vs. drawings. Scribbles are fast and drawings take time, but drawings make us proud. We shared about things that are hard for us, such as monkey bars (we had spent a lot of time at the monkey bars that day) and building with blocks—taking the time to use a “flat” helps make the building more sturdy and stable. For the Three Billy Goats, we discussed that to get what the goats wanted they had to do something scary, but they stayed calm and thought things through and they all got across safely. We have not had specific shares about times when the kids confronted things that made them scared yet, we will do that this week, and I can’t wait to hear what they have to say.
One of the reasons I love exploring FairyTales with young children is the moral value to them. It can be difficult to discuss the moral/Biblical concepts with young children, the Bible is full of real characters, who often do real bad things, while there is redemption and saving in the end, it can be difficult to explain to young children the morality of these stories. With FairyTales, the touch of the fantastical makes the same moral stories less intimidating. It is a great jumping off point for young children to begin to explore the moral world making the lines between good and bad less complicated. In addition, it begins to develop the abstract mind as we discuss “unreal” characters' (talking animals) moral conflicts in comparison with meaningful scenarios to three-year-olds. These stories are also filled with great social emotional connections. We get hangry like the wolf and grumpy like the troll when people invade our space. These books make a perfect preschool reading curriculum. The redundancy of the tales offer the repetition kids need and the different versions of the same tale offer a fun way to pay attention to differing details and begin contrast and comparison discussions.
In coordination with these themes we have set up learning challenges throughout the classroom. The kids have been learning to build bridges in the blocks, draw bridges with crayons, build houses in the blocks, practice matching the words, kid, nanny goat, and billy goat, with three-part-cards, explore sorting objects by size, exploring adult and baby farm vocabulary, and explored the letters G & P. We will conclude with these two units this week, and start our next two stories, Little Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel next week. The theme of these two stories is the importance of obedience and not always giving in to your impulses.
This will bring us into the second week of October, and into the full swing of the fall season. We will be celebrating with a visit to the pumpkin patch in mid-October, Halloween Parade, and all the usual festivities that follow. To bring this fun time into the classroom we have ordered additional blocks for the block shelf and will introduce more seasonal loose parts to the block area to construct seasonal block play. We will be working with ONLY fall colors at the easel, painting fall trees and fall leaves. We will continue to transform our kitchen into a sensory dramatic play experience. We started this week, by introducing the sensory bin into the kitchen. This allows the children to stir, mix, transfer, pour, and sort in a meaningful way. We will begin to incorporate more seasonal and literature curriculum into this area.
Mrs. Bearss and Mrs. Jacobs Four Year olds
That thrilling chill in the morning air means that true Fall is near! In October, our class will explore pumpkins from top to bottom, inside and out, from seed to gourd and back again! There is so much to see and touch and learn - from scientific observations, measurements, fantastical stories, and a pumpkin taste testing day. We’ll even get to go on our first mini field trip to the Faith Presbyterian pumpkin patch! Make plans to join us there on October 14th for a sweet time in the patch with your kids. After pumpkins, we’ll begin a unit on Nocturnal Animals as we gear up for Halloween! We may even do a little camping in pretend while we study the moon and different animal habitats. 😊 Thank you for all the kindness and support you continue to show us! Mrs. Jacobs and I are grateful every day for you and your children.
Mrs. Cherry and Mrs Poucher Four Year Olds
September was such a great month of transition in our class. Friends have been made, routines have fallen into place and lots of learning and fun has been had. It was wonderful to have so many parents join us for Parent Night. You all are so supportive and we really appreciate your partnership. We just wrapped up our units on our 5 Senses, Nutrition, Apples & The Story of Creation. We have been focusing on a new letter per week as we work through our units. We ended the month making applesauce together- yummy! Thank you to Emily’s Family for donating the cooking supplies.
Now we are ready for lots of Fall Fun as October is here and so is this incredible weather! We will be learning about God’s beauty that can be found in the Fall, Pumpkins, Bats, and the letters D, E, F, G. The cooler weather will lend itself nicely to learning in nature outside of our classroom walls and visiting The Pumpkin Patch on Thursday October 13th @ 9:30am. This is going to be a fun filled month in VPK.
Mrs. Roberts and Mrs. Marsh Four Year Olds
Happy Fall! We are so excited to have our new season upon us and look forward to all the excitement that fall brings to school. We enjoyed a spontaneous nature walk last week because the weather was just too beautiful to stay inside!
This month brings our themes Dads, Community Helpers, and Fall Blessings. We are so excited to invite our Dads to join us for "Donuts for Dad" as we conclude our week learning about letter "D". Our letter study will also include E, F, and G as well.
Our class will be telling the story at Chapel this month! We hope you can join us at Chapel on Wednesday, October 12th at 9:15 when we will be telling The Pumpkin Prayer.
With October comes the return of the Faith Pumpkin Patch! Everyone will be very excited to see the arrival of many pumpkins down at the patch. Our day to visit will be Friday, October 21st from 9:30-10:00. You are welcome to meet us down at the pumpkin patch as we explore and listen to a story. We will be doing some fun science activities involving pumpkins this month and also our cooking activity will be a recipe using pumpkin!!
Happy Fall and I hope you can get outside and enjoy the beautiful weather!!
Mrs. Hamrick and Mrs. McConnaughhay Kindergarten
We have had so much fun learning all about the Rainforest and making many of the Rainforest animals to hang in our classroom! We made jaguars, toucans, sloths, blue-morpho butterflies, and even red-eyed tree frogs! We learned some new sight words and reviewed the numbers 1-20. In October, we will be learning about the season of Fall and pumpkins. We will pick a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch, bring it back to the classroom, carve it, investigate, and learn all about the parts of a pumpkin. With the start of the cooler weather, we will go on nature walks to find items we can use to learn about patterns found in nature. We will also learn ways to make patterns in Math.
The children continue to do well with our Kindergarten rules and routines. We are very proud of how hard they are working and look forward to watching them continue to grow throughout this school year. Thank you for sharing them with us!
Important October dates for Kindergarten:
October 5th-Go Pink! Lemonade stand
October 11th- visit the Pumpkin patch
October 17th-Teacher planning day/No School
October 31st-Costume parade and Halloween party
Music with Mrs. Lloyd
Faith families,
We have warmly welcomed the fall season at Faith preschool. In music we look forward to singing about the changing weather, leaves falling, and pumpkins! October brings exciting energy into the music classroom, as students are eager to celebrate Halloween and talk about visiting the pumpkin patch. Throughout this month we will utilize some of these themes as we continue to play and explore new instruments and musical concepts.
We rounded out September learning about TEMPO -- fast and slow. The students marched and danced around the classroom to different music demonstrating fast versus slow. We listened to lots of Classical music with drastic changes to help us listen for tempo. The last instrument of the week for September was the Drum. We played many different types of drum, and even had a "drum obstacle course" for one of our Fun Fridays. The younger classes had fun with puppets and singing about animals on the farm.
The new musical term for October is RHYTHM. We have already started differentiating between "long" and "short" by clapping our hands to show whole notes versus quarter notes. As we continue learning about rhythm, each student will learn the rhythm of their name! The students are already learning our songs for this month's Chapel, which will be on October 12th at 9:15am. Please join us in the Sanctuary next Wednesday to sing and worship
