On to April in the 3's

Good afternoon 3’s families,

Happy April! Time flies when you’re having fun- and we are having FUN at school! It is so rewarding to see how much they have grown this year. Social/Emotional Skills that they have been working on and demonstrating in the classroom are:

· Treating peers with kindness.

· Turn-taking

· Showing empathy

· Recognizing and labeling emotions

· Using words to solve conflict

We are so proud of them and are excited to watch them progress through the rest of the school year!

This week at CIRCLE TIME,

· We read Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin and James Dean. This was a fun counting book. On each page, one of Pete’s buttons POPPED off his shirt. We counted how many buttons Pete had left on each page. The students are very enthusiastic counters!

· We started “signing-in” on the white board. Each child takes a turn to come up and sign the first letter of their name on the board as we say good morning to them. This is a good opportunity for some extra handwriting practice.

· We danced during music and movement.

What’s new in CENTERS this week

Playdough Bins: Lime green playdough, scissors, squeezers, rollers and Pete the Cat mini erasers.

Sensory Bins: Green plastic grass, plastic eggs and fluffy chicks. The kiddos loved hiding the chicks in the eggs and using the muscles in their hands and fingers to “POP” them out of the eggs. The boys and girls are building their strength every day.

Art: The children used paint brushes to paint Pete the Cat. They glued on eyes and a nose when they were done painting. We will hang them up in the classroom when they are dry. They take great pride in seeing their artwork up on the bulletin board! We also had Pete the Cat coloring pages and stickers to make four groovy buttons.

Discovery Bins: Fine motor practice with Potato Heads

Yellow Bins: Shape matching/sorting this week with nesting shape puzzles.

Green Bins: Giant waffle blocks have been added to this center. The children had fun building roads, castles, garages and buildings. We have some very creative architects in our class!

Red Bins: Wooden school buses and wooden people

Pretend Center: This center has been transformed into a FLOWER SHOP. The boys and girls sorted colored flowers into matching-colored vases and LOVED using the cash register. We had lots of practice with turn-taking with the cash register.

We hope you have a wonderful weekend! We are looking forward to warmer weather ahead and lots more fun at school!

Your teachers,

Brenda Daday & Christina Renoni