Rumney Preschool
Ms. Murray's Classes
Hi Families, First and foremost, thank you so much for all of the support this year and for sharing your lovely kiddos with all of us at school. They are thoughtful, funny, and kind. We had a blast this year. I am sad to leave but happy that I got to know all of you throughout the years. We had a great time with the Mon/Tues class this week. We finished our preschool memory books and enjoyed playing in the gym on Tuesday due to the rain. They loved being in such a tiny class and getting to know each other really well. Below is information for summer fun: Here are some fun ideas for over the summer to support math and literacy: If you would like to expand on your child's knowledge over the summer, the best advice I could give is to read! Reading at night, reading during long car rides with older siblings, and talking about reading! Counting is always a great and easy way to incorporate more learning into summer play. For example: "How many grapes are we taking for the picnic? Let's count them!" A great kindergarten skill is counting on. For example: "We have 12 toys here and 4 more over there. Let's start counting to see how many we have all together. (start with 12) 12, 13, 14 , 15, 16.” Here are the phrases/sayings we use in preschool to promote equity, understanding, kindness, and the social-emotional well being of all kids. These can be used at home/play dates/etc:
I hope you have a fantastic summer of camping, eating, swimming, and being outside. I hope to see you out and about! Best, Deanna Hi Preschool Families! Announcements:
We had so much fun this week. Monday was Rumney Reads day. Aly, our school Librarian, set it all up. In the morning time, our class joined the Kindergarten class to listen to Matt tell the story of Anansi the Spider and the magic rock. Matt is the Math interventionist (and former kindergarten teacher). They acted it out. It was awesome! All the preschoolers were the cheetahs of the story. That’s a wrap on the Wed/Thurs class!! Boy howdy, did we have fun this year or what?! I loved teaching your children and watching them grow into a tiny functioning class society. They all deeply care about one another and I know they will have a great time throughout the years at Rumney growing and learning together. Thanks for sharing the very beginning with me, Crystal, and Haley! On Thursday, we read a story called Swim, Jim by Kaz Windness. It’s a story about a crocodile who is afraid to swim. Ask your child about this silly story and they can retell it to you. One more week for the Mon/Tues class. I look forward to their last two days of school together. We are such a small class, they have had such a good time getting to know each other! Ask Your Child: Mon/Tues: Can you tell me about the Anansi the spider story? What happens when the characters said “That’s the strangest moss covered looking rock I’ve ever seen”? What happened at the end of the story? Did Anansi keep the food? Wed/Thurs: You’re all done with school! What was your favorite part about the last day? Did you read a story called Swim, Jim? Have a good weekend, Deanna Hi Preschool Families! Announcements:
We've made it to June -- we are nearing the end! This week we spent a ton of time outside on the playground. They have enjoyed creating potions and pies with the tools and dirt/flowers/leaves. We finished up our Aritist in Residency with Steve this week. They got to play these instruments: Djembe (jem-bay) drum, balafon (bala-phone), and egg shakers. They had a great time! On Wednesday afternoon, they made thank you cards for Steve and wrote the instrument words. A book we read this week was In a Jar by Deborah Marcero. It is about two little bunnies who capture memories in jars. Even though one friend moves away, they still mail each other jars of memories to stay in touch. We painted our own memory jars that they will take home next week. Please check your children for ticks after each school day. They seem to be everywhere this season! Ask Your Child: Tell me about the jars this week. What happened in the book with the bunnies? What was the problem of the story? Have a good weekend, Deanna Hi Preschool Families! Announcements:
Another week in the books. Can you believe we are nearing the end? They have grown so much over the school year, it’s wonderful to see. As the year is starting winding down, I am going to start sending home all your children’s belongings (extra clothes, etc). We are also going to start working on our end of the year memory books. Both classes enjoyed drumming with Steve Ferraris, our Artist in Residency. It was so fun to watch them. They were amazed at how big the drums were and really loved drumming to a story about animals in Africa. Both classes will go again next week. There is a concert next Thursday, and while preschool is not participating, you are more than welcome to go and watch. This week, we did a big lesson on quilts and friendship. We read the book called The All Together Quilt by Lizzy Rockwell. In the story, kids and adults work together at a community center to create a quilt. Later on in the day, we all decorated our own construction paper quilt pieces. They worked hard to make each quilt pieces different and unique. We then worked together to put the quilt pieces together and arrange them in the way they wanted it to look. Both classes quilts came out beautifully! The Mon/Tues quilt is in the classroom and the Wed/Thurs one is on the bulletin board in the hallway. Please check them out next time you are in! Ask Your Child: Did you make a quilt this week? How did you make it? Where did you hang it? Have a good weekend, Deanna Hi Preschool Families! Announcements:
I hope you all had a lovely week. We had a blast in the classroom all week! Since there was no blog post last week, I will update you on something we did. We did a line study where we learned about different kinds of lines and how to make them. This was mainly for their Mother’s Day vase project, but it also helped them have better control over their writing utensil. In both classes, we talked about different kinds of lines and what they look like. We practiced them on the board after morning meeting, and the Wed/Thurs kiddos also practiced them on white boards during rest time. They were so excited to make their vases and show off how many lines they can make! I hope you all enjoyed the vases they made. On Monday, we spent a lot of time playing with a magnetic ball run. They set up the run in different ways and worked together to connect two into one. On both Monday and Tuesday, we loved drawing with chalk! They created lots of pictures on the sidewalk and enjoyed getting traced. In both classes, we read a classic favorite story called Mr. Gumpy’s Outing by John Burningham. It is about a man with a boat and children and many animals join in until the boat tips over. The Wed/Thurs class acted it out on Thursday afternoon and had a blast! On Wednesday, they all worked together to create a wall with various materials from the block area. They started with cardboard blocks and wooden blocks and continued to add things on as the day went on. They were so proud of themselves! It was so nice to see everyone working together. Also on Wednesday, we read a story called Margaret’s Unicorn by Briony May Smith. It is a story about a child who finds a baby unicorn and helps it until it’s ready to go back to its family. After lunch that day, they colored a story about having a unicorn as a pet. Please check their backpack for the book and read it together. They all added so much detail to their coloring, you can really see their skills shine through there. On Thursday, we did a number walk around our school. There were different spring time pictures and they had to count them and write the number on their paper on a clipboard. Using clipboards make them feel so important and big! A few of them I had them tell me the numbers without guessing. That is called subitizing. Ask Your Child: Monday/Tuesday: Did you use chalk? What kind of pictures did you draw? Wednesday/Thursday: What was the weather like on the playground this week? Did it feel like spring or another season? 2 slideshows of pictures this week — one from last week and one from this week. Have a good weekend, Deanna Hi Preschool Families! Announcements:
Happy May! Glad to be back and spend time with your children as they learn and grow together. We have been enjoying playing outside on the playground in the rain. On Monday and Tuesday, everyone was really interested in playing games and doing big floor puzzles. A favorite game this week was a tea party game (pictured below). This game is by eeBoo. There are many games by eeBoo and Peaceable Kingdom that we love in the classroom. They are all easy to understand and most of them are cooperative games where we are all working together toward one common goal. A puzzles they loved were all vehicle puzzles. They loved pointing out all the different vehicles and what they are meant for once we completed the puzzles. It was a rainy worm finding day on Wednesday! The playground was a perfect spot to uncover and find worms. They spent most of their outside time running around and checking in with each other once they found some as they collected them in buckets. The sense of community was lovely as we watched some friends say, “I can’t find any!” and then quickly, other pals were jumping in to let them know to show them where to look. Ask Your Child: Monday/Tuesday: What games and puzzles did you do? Did you play the tea party game? Wednesday/Thursday: Did you find a worm on the playground? Did you want to touch it or not want to touch it? Have a great weekend, Deanna Hi Preschool Families! Announcements:
Can you believe we are almost at the end of April? This year is really flying. Spring is my favorite time of year with preschoolers — their wonder about the new growth in the world is wonderful to watch. I am hoping that after vacation, the weather will be sunnier and we won’t need gear. This week on Tuesday, we spent our outside time at the rock garden. We found lots of big rocks and spent 25 full minutes throwing rocks into the water. The compared splashes if they had a big rock or small rock. They also used sticks to pretend to go fishing. In both classes, we explored the light table with see through pattern blocks. On Monday, they worked on patterns. They did AB, ABC, and AAB patterns. On Wednesday, we read a story and at the end there was a playground. We went around the circle and they chose their favorite part of the playground. Later in the day, they had pictures of things that are found on a playground (slide, picnic table, trees, sandbox) and designed their own playgrounds. They enjoyed telling the grown ups what they would do on the playground and how people use the equipment. On Thursday, we read Salamander Sky by Katy Farber. Fun fact: She used to be a teacher at Rumney and lives in Middlesex. April is the time of year when salamanders cross the roads to get to the vernal pools. If you are interested in doing this with your children, please check on NBNC’s website HERE to learn more info. They enjoyed making salamander watercolor pictures after we read the story. Ask Your Child: Mon/Tues: What did you make on the light table this week? Wed/Thurs: Tell me about the salamander book that you read. See you after school vacation, Deanna Hi Preschool Families! Announcements:
Thank goodness the snow is almost gone. We are all enjoying the transition out of snow gear into rain gear. They are ready for no more snow! Our playground holds quite a bit of water, so please make sure your child has plenty of clothes to change into. They enjoyed running and splashing through the water this week. On Tuesday, they did some exploring with glue bottles. We made pictures with glue and then sprinkled different colored sand on top. Their favorite part was squeezing the glue bottles. Their pictures were still quite wet by the end of the day on Tuesday so they will take them home next week. In both classes this week, we practiced using scissors. I made silly faces with very long strips of construction paper for hair. On Monday, we worked on how to hold scissors. The most effective way I have found is telling them to face their thumb to the sky. I added a challenge to it on Wednesday and had them roll a dice and cut that many strips. On Wednesday we read Jabari Tries by Gaia Cornwall. It’s the second book in the Jabari series, the first one being Jabari Jumps. Jabari Tries is a story about him and his sister trying to build a flying machine. We talked about perseverance and how it can be really hard when something we are trying to do doesn’t go the way we planned. Jabari showed frustration in the story but his dad helped him work through it. Ask Your Child: What was it like outside this week? Was it windy (very windy on Wednesday)? How much snow is left on the playground? Have a great weekend, Deanna Hi Preschool Families! Announcements:
In both classes this week, we read Waiting Is Not Easy by Mo Willems. It is an Elephant and Piggie book. We practiced the sign language sign for wait (HERE is a video to it) and discussed how it is really hard to wait! Elephant and Piggie books always teach a lesson while keeping it light and fun. On Tuesday, we worked hard on building a really tall tower. It is tricky to make it go so high without it falling over. They used chairs to climb on and enlisted in my help to add the blocks. at the top. This class also loves board games. On Tuesday we played Count Your Chickens and Stone Soup. Both are games by a company called Peaceable Kingdom. All of their games are cooperative so you all win or lose together. These games are great for turn taking and understanding rules. On Thursday, we did a really fun science experiment called Sink the Egg. They had different items (rocks, pom poms, gems, paperclips) and had to add them to their eggs to see if they would sink or float. They had a chart on a clipboard to mark Yes or No if the egg sank for each item. They made predictions on what they thought would happen and were happy when their predictions came true! We did this in small groups of three outside. I’m glad we had beautiful weather for this activity! Ask Your Child: Mon/Tues: Did you play any board games this week? Which one was your favorite? Wed/Thurs: Tell me about when you had to sink the egg. What materials did you use? What happened when you used (rocks, pom poms, gems, paperclips)? Have a great sunny weekend! Deanna |
Welcome!Hello and welcome to the Rumney Preschool blog for Ms. Murray's classes! You will find information about what we do every day in preschool along with important announcements. *Photos on the Blog*
If you would like family members to see pictures of your child playing at school, please email me and I will add them to my weekly email list. These photos are not permitted to be posted on social media. Thank you! Archives
June 2023
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