Preschool Open House

Dear Preschool Parents,

We had a wonderful Open House to begin our week, meeting you all and your beautiful children, while putting faces and names together. We loved renewing some old acquaintances and even chased a few new ones around the room in order to get together, but all in all, it went very well.

Because of that chase, we geared up for the possibility of a difficult time ‘breaking in the colts’ but surprisingly enough, our first day of school went even better than expected without any criers or runners and everyone even managed to steer clear of the time-out chair.  Yeah! It was a wonderful first day, barring the terrible heat, which we waited in during pick-up time. Even a few minutes in that August heat was enough to melt us all! It will be nice when the weather eases up a bit. Our comings and goings went so smoothly. We appreciate your compliance and patience with our caravan ‘stay in your cars and move up’ system. It’s working!

This week, we learned about “criss-cross applesauce” and “the great honey tree” was christened properly by being occupied most of the time. Ha!

We sang songs, colored hats and strung necklaces with bright cereal rings. We learned to open and close our glue bottles, using only baby dots, placing our writing tools back when done, cleaning up our spaces, flipping our nametags and pushing our chairs in properly. We learned to take only one toy down at a time and put it all back in before returning it to the shelf. Next week we will learn how to make AB patterns with them. We are learning to say The Pledge of Allegiance and salute with our right hands before singing God Bless America. We will be learning sign language with that soon.

We learned where to place our backpacks and where to get them and how to put them on before leaving. We learned how and where to line up for treats, drinks, and going home, all in different places and times.

In the weeks to come, we will be zeroing in on listening skills, coupled with gluing, coloring and cutting skills, while celebrating how great the children are, how amazing their hands are and what they are actually capable of doing. I can’t wait!

We will be learning a letter a week soon, as we follow a bit of the Lippincott Method by beginning to read and write letter O, because drawing a circle is an easy movement for small hands and large motor skills. Those who have an alphabet book, please have your child get familiar with why each letter says the sound that it does. These are little stories that can help children remember letter sounds. My two-year-old granddaughter knows all of her letters and sounds because of this book. It is not a read-through book. It is a reference book with 26 stories. Chances are; your child will not be able to sit through more than 4 or 5 stories at a time. I encourage you to learn a few and then, play a question and answer game, ie: What do you know about letter H? (He’s tired.) What does he say because he is tired? (Huh-huh) or, What letter is tired? (H) What does he say? We do not need your book at school. Please keep it in a special place at home. It is heavy in their packs.

My hope is to have all of these letters learned, so when we introduce them, all of our children will be able to relate and contribute and more importantly, understand and retain them. You will be able to see which letters we will introduce in calendars to come.

That about completes our report of the first week. We hope to keep our ears to the ground and record all the fun things we might hear and do to keep you informed and entertained. If you have questions along the way, please feel free to email me. I believe communication between teachers and parents is so important.

I recall, as we sang our farewell song and hugged everyone goodbye, I breathed in a huge sigh of contentment, watching all those adorable children file out the door, all decked in their hats and their necklaces with big smiles on their faces and I thought to myself, “It’s gunna be a great year!”

Much, much love to all,

Mrs. McClure

And Ms. Julie, too!