Pre-K A

Newsletter One

Agreements (and Kindness)

Our first week of school was a week of acclimation. We played with new and old toys, and learned to exit the classroom in a considerate line. We reunited with familiar faces and connected with new children. We began our talk about class rules, particularly, what it means to be kind to one another and how to stay safe. We settled on kindness is thinking about your friends’ feelings and treating your friends fairly.

Next week, the class will continue our talk of rules and respect and kindness. We will talk about skin, hair, eyes, etc. (physical characteristics attributed to race) and create our own self-portraits. We will spend some time talking in depth about skin and hair to build a solid foundation of truth and affirmation.

If we have the time, we will attempt to cook up a batch of playdough, our first cooking project.

Our Morning Routine

Our pre-K morning begins with a warm “Good morning!” as the students arrive and get ready for the day. After washing their hands, the childrenthe children enjoy exploring different classroom activities, including building with blocks, completing puzzles, reading books, and playing with the dollhouse and the dramatic play area. As they play, teachers supervise students and encourage them to play together. Once the activity time is finished, one student, acting as a messenger, announces “five more minutes until cleanup time,” to remind their classmates to prepare for cleanup. After cleaning up, the students collect themselves on the rug to begin the day with a morning meeting.

Acclimation

Our first week was all about building a strong foundation for the year ahead. We spent lots of time learning and practicing our classroom routines, from transitioning between activities to cleaning up, gathering together, and caring for our shared space. We also began building our stamina and focus through play, group meetings, stories, songs, hands-on activities, practicing how to stay engaged, listening to one another, and working together as a group. We are already seeing our PreK A community begin to take shape as students learn to share ideas, solve problems, support their classmates, and navigate our classroom together.

Newsletter Two

Self portraits

Our self-portrait project focused on our varied physical characteristics and learning about how things can be the same and different. We talked about skin and its function and the inherent differences. We made a point to talk about skin color refencing race and how some people are not treated well because of their skin color. We also taught how we get our skin color (melanin): ancestry and their relationship to the sun, our parents. We also watched the famous Elmo and Lupita N’yongo skin video. Throughout the year, we will go further into this conversation about our identities: skin, hair, and ancestry. 

Play dough

What is better than just buying play dough at the store? Making it, of course! As a class, students came over in small groups and worked on measuring ingredients and mixing them together. The best part though was picking the color! We decided that a blue-green mixture would be best to start off the year. Students thoroughly enjoyed being a part of this process and working together to make our class play dough! Our first cooking project of the year!

Park

In our pre-K classroom, students are learning important skills for safely walking in the community, including following directions, staying with the group, and learning how to cross the street or walk around the block safely. As part of our learning, teachers practiced another walking routine with the students, giving them opportunities to develop their cognitive skills such as listening, awareness, and decision-making skills while learning about street safety.

Before leaving the classroom, students are called one by one to form a straight line and prepared to walk together as a group. Once outside, students were partnered with a classmate to help them stay together and follow directions. By partnering with classmates, students were able to walk together, and cross the street, as a class to the park. Once we arrived, the teachers set boundaries as they explored and played together.

The students had a blast with their classmates in the open space. These routines help prepare our students for future walks and trips while building experience, physical health, confidence, and creativity, but also learning safety strategies.

Everybody Has A Bubble Lesson

This week, our Pre-K students explored personal space and body boundaries through the engaging book My Body Has a Bubble by Nell Harris. Children learned that everyone has an invisible “bubble” of personal space and that each person may have different preferences for how much space they need. Through read-aloud discussions, role-play, and a fun Hula Hoop activity, students practiced identifying when they need more space, using the phrase “Please don’t pop my bubble,” and responding respectfully when a friend asks for space. We also practiced asking, “Can I come closer?” and listening to a friend’s answer. This playful lesson supported children’s social-emotional development, communication skills, body awareness, and ability to respect their own boundaries and the boundaries of others.

Literacy

Literacy instruction this month started very well. Aside from daily read-alouds that vary from humorous to non-fiction books, we started “reading” quietly at a desk for three minutes. The instruction, called Sustained Silent Reading, reinforces good reading habits like proper book handling, develops quiet focus, introduces how to sit properly at a desk, lengthens stamina and attention, reinforces that print is “read” left to right, and fosters the joy of reading.

Buddy Time 

Our Pre-K A students were so excited for their very first Buddy Time with the students in 2B! They talked about their buddies and asked about the special visit throughout the day. When the time finally arrived, each Pre-K student was paired with their very own second-grade buddy. The students spent time getting to know one another before the second graders read books aloud to their Pre-K buddies. It was a wonderful first experience that gave our students the opportunity to connect with an older role model while sharing their love of books. We are already looking forward to our next Buddy Time!

Hispanic Heritage Month

This week we introduced Hispanic Heritage Month. We first began with a conversation of why we celebrate it. We discussed how people with darker skin and who are from Latin countries tend to be left out or ignored. It is important that we celebrate and understand the various cultures that are around the world. We emphasized once again, that we are all different but are deserving of the same respect and love. Pre-K will be focusing primarily on Puerto Rico. Adorned in our 2nd floor hallway we have pictures of Hispanic and Latino people who have greatly influenced our society. We made sure to take the time to talk about these different people. From playing and creating Latiné music during music time, listening to stories and having discussions, our intention is to bring light and awareness of these countries and get the students excited to learn about them. 

Taíno Petroglyphs

During Hispanic/Latino Heritage month, Pre K-A learned about Puerto Rico. We learned that the Taínos were the original people of Puerto Rico. We will talk more about the Spanish taking their land because of “greediness.” We will also talk about how the Spanish brought over enslaved Africans to work on the island.

Given the history of Puerto Rico, developmentally it was more appropriate to focus on the culture of the island. The children enjoyed hearing myths of Puerto, dancing to salsa music, singing Coqui songs (the national symbol), but really became interested in Taíno Petroglyphs (rock drawings).

These ancient drawings, which they used to communicate, told a story about how the Taíno lived. To celebrate Hispanic/Latino Heritage Month we decided to make our own rock drawings, using clay, crayons, and paint. We chose images that either related to Taíno culture or nature, giving the children an opportunity to create a relic.

Family

This week we started our next big study: Family, with a conversation about the different constructions and what actually constitutes a family. It was a good discussion that introduced the topics of adoption and divorce. It was especially cogent when the students gave their definition of family. At the end of the conversation, we all agreed that the commonality that existed in every family was love.

Next week, to further our learning we will make family collages, construct a “live” family graph, and try to crystalize just what makes our own families so special.

Honduras

As we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Moths, Pre-K is exploring the cultures, traditions, food, music, and languages of Hispanic communities. The students learned about Honduras, a small and poor country in Central America, where Spanish is the main language, along with other languages such as English, Garífun, Miskito, Lena, and so on. They also explored the Honduras flag, learning about its blue and white colors, which represent the oceans, and its five stars, which represents Honduras and four other Central American countries such as Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and El Salvador. 

The children also discovered traditional Honduran foods, including baleadas and carne asada, which reflect the country’s rich cultural heritage. They learned about traditional drinks such as horchata and jugo de caña azúcar (sugarcane juice). The students were really interested in this part.

To expand their learning the students were introduced to Roatán, a beautiful island in the Caribbean Sea, known for its beautiful beaches, activities, crusades, and rich cultural diversity. Through these discussions, Pre-K A explored the unique traditions, languages, and flavors that make Honduras as a whole. 

Math Lesson  

This week in Pre-K A, we explored the exciting world of math through a hands-on sorting activity using buttons! We began with some free exploration, giving the children the opportunity to use 10 buttons to create and build anything they could imagine. This encouraged creativity, problem-solving, and curiosity while becoming familiar with the materials. We then introduced a sorting challenge, where the children practiced identifying the differences between two-holed and four-holed buttons. To extend their learning, they were challenged to sort the buttons into groups of five. Through this playful activity, the children practiced important early math skills such as sorting, classifying, counting, and recognizing similarities and differences—all while having fun and learning through exploration!

Be well,

Olugbala, Aliyah, and Chelsea

Family Study Continues…

We continued exploring families, both in general and through the lens of our own families. Our conversations focused on family dynamics, including younger and older siblings, the arrival of new babies, and fathers as nurturers and caregivers. Alongside these discussions, we have been working on a list poem celebrating what makes each of our families special. We have also begun creating vibrant, vivid family collages using pom-poms, tongue depressors, buttons, foam, and yarn. We are continually amazed by the dexterity, creativity, and imagination of young children!

Today, we spent time exploring graphs and applying what we learned to the sizes of our families. This offered a meaningful way to make numbers more concrete while practicing how to compare and contrast quantities. We will revisit graphing throughout the school year as the children continue to develop their mathematical thinking.

We began by creating a quick tally graph to show the different ways we travel to school. Together, we examined the results to determine which forms of transportation were most and least common, including scooters! This activity helped us understand that a graph is a way to use math to gather and communicate information.

Next, we created a colorful human graph to represent the number of people in our families. The children stood in rows according to family size and using a specific color to bring data to life in a fun and engaging way. Take a look at the photos!

Hispanic (Latino) Heritage Month

A big thank-you to Rafa’s parents for sharing a wonderful and captivating presentation about Peru! The experience was informative, colorful, musical, and fun. We are grateful for the opportunity to learn about Peru’s culture and traditions through their engaging presentation.

Spooky Freeze Dance! 

Our Pre-K friends had a spooktacular time participating in a Spooky Freeze Dance! The students danced along to fun Halloween music and, when the music stopped, froze in place as different spooky characters. We saw silly werewolves, creepy vampires, wiggly zombies, and floating ghosts! This fun activity encouraged the children to use their imaginations, practice listening skills, develop self-control, and explore creative movement. Our little monsters had a frightfully fun time dancing, freezing, and showing off their spooky poses!

Be well,

Olugbala, Aliyah, and Chelsea

Feelings

We have been talking in depth about feelings and reading a spate of books like Glad Monster, Sad Monster by Anne Miranda, Today I feel, by Madalena Moniz. The students are learning to identify different emotions, recalling instances when they felt strong feelings, and have begun to recognize characters’ feelings in the books we have been reading lately. 

We even played a fun game of “Name That Emotion,” where the students were given clues and excited guesses were made. We will create “mood masks” and act out different emotions that we will photograph. We plan to share these delightful depictions in our photo section. Please note that any feeling depicted or chosen does not reflect the current mood of the student (we apologize, but it must be said), but just reflects a deep understanding of our study unit. 

This study places a strong emphasis on concretely developing empathy and self-regulation, tools that leads to terrific students and considerate human beings. Already we have overheard of conversations of students describing their feelings to one another.

Feelings in Motion!

This week, our PKA students explored how dance and movement can help us express our feelings and emotions! We began with a group discussion about feelings and how we show them, followed by watching “Sesame Street: Emotions Through Dance with The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.” The students observed how dancers use body movements and facial expressions to communicate emotions without words. Then, through our Dancing Through Feelings activity, the children experimented with expressing emotions such as happiness, sadness, anger, excitement, and calmness by changing their movements, speed, energy, and body shapes. 

Our little dancers discovered that everyone expresses feelings in their own unique way while using their creativity and imagination to bring emotions to life!

Buddies and Pumpkins

Today we had a wonderful time going down to 7th Avenue to buy pumpkins with our buddies! We enjoyed choosing the perfect pumpkin and spending time together outdoors. Of course our students were thrilled just to be hanging out with the older kids.

In the coming days, we’ll continue our pumpkin fun by carving our jack-o’-lantern, voting on a name for it, and planting some of the seeds. We’ll also be using the pumpkin seeds in an upcoming math project, which will give students a fun, hands-on way to explore counting, sorting, and comparing quantities.

My Family is special

We finally finished our family collages and they are quite spectacular. Each piece of art is full of vivid color, balance and tell their unique family story. They are on display in the classroom, and if you happen to drop off, please peruse with your child. For those who can’t make it in, we will hold on to them until parent teacher conference. Below is a family poem constructed by the entire class. 

My Family Is Special

Ava – My family is special because my daddy I go to the park.

Cameron – My family is special because we go to the bookstore.

Henry M. – My family is special because we go to the Dominican Republic.

Henry W. – My family is special because my mama and I go to basketball every Saturday.

Lily – My family is special because we go to the Grand Cayman.

Louise – My family is special because we have bonfires.

Luke – My family is special because we visit my grandpa and my grandma.

Max – My family is special because we go to the beach.

Micah – My family is special because my sister and I play hide and seek.

Mila – My family is special because we watch Scooby Doo.

Millie – My family is special because my mom and I have special playtime.

Nell – My family is special because we play hide and go seek.

Rafa – My family is special because we go to the park everyday.

Royce – My family is special because we play upside down games.

Sam – My family is special because Mommy and Daddy help me with activity books.

Theo – My family is special because we always go on vacation.

Xavier – My family is special because Mommy and I go to a friend’s house.

Zhuri – My family is special because we go to South Carolina.

Guests and Hosts

This morning, both Pre-K classes had some free time, so we decided to use the opportunity to visit one another’s classrooms! We split each class in half, with each group heading off to explore and play in a brand-new space.

Before setting off, we talked with the children about what it means to be a host and what it means to be a guest. It was a wonderful opportunity to practice welcoming others, exploring unfamiliar spaces, and building connections with friends across the two classrooms.

It was time well spent, filled with laughter, curiosity, and exploration!

Be well,

Olugbala, Aliyah, and Chelsea