December 2013 newsletter

Trinity Preschool  December 2013 Newsletter                                                                                                                                                                         IMPORTANT DATES:

BOOK ORDERS DUE TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2013 ! 

Stocking Stuffers:

Still time to bring in items. Thank you to everyone who has brought in items for the Salvation Army toy drive.  There is still time to drop off small toys stocking stuffers, socks (for children or adults), hats , mittens, etc.  The drop box is in the office.

Classroom Holiday Parties:

Thursday, December 19- Willow Room Party- Terrific 2’s and 3’s class

Parents come: 11:00 a.m. (children come normal time)

Your party will be in the classroom, the children will song some songs and we will enjoy some refreshments together.  Please be here on time as we start right away with the children singing. Children may dress up as we do no messy activities on party day.

Friday, December 20- morning classes

Willow Room - MWF class

Maple Room-MWF class

Oak Room- 5 day class

Parents come: 10:45- (children come normal time)

The MWF and 5 day classes will all sing together in the sanctuary.  Then we will move down to our “gym” for refreshments.  Feel free to invite whomever you feel will enjoy attending.

Planning ahead: Winter vacation: Dec. 23- Jan.3

Special Note: School resumes: Monday, January 6, 2014

Trinity Preschool Silent Auction fundraiser: Mark your calendar!

Sunday, February 23, 2014.

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Staffing change at Trinity Preschool

Mrs. Kauke, who started with us in September as an assistant teacher in the Maple Room will be leaving us. While we are sad to see her leave after such a short time with us, we are excited to announce that she is expecting a baby this spring, so will be home preparing for her new bundle of joy.

We have hired a new assistant teacher to begin when we return in January.  Her name is Jenny Occipinti and we will have the children call her Miss O.  She is the parent of two of the children in our Oak Room this year so she is very familiar with our school and our program. 

Stay & Play:

Remember- No Stay & Play on Friday, Dec. 20.

Our stay & play program is a fun way to extend your child’s day with more activities, and a healthy snack.  If you would like to add stay & play, see Mary.

Early Drop Off:

We offer early drop off as early as 8:30 for a fee of $3.00 per day.  Please give advance notice.

Outer Door:

Please make sure the outside door is closed and not propped open on these cold winter days.

Winter weather emergency school closing:

How to find out if we are having school or if school is cancelled.

v  The best way is to: Call the school phone to check the message, if the weather is bad, there will be a message (by 8:00 a.m.) stating whether we are open or not.

v  Check our website (trinitypreschoolmp.org) for a link to District 59- if they are closed, we are for sure closed (however, there have been occasions where they stay open and we have closed due to terrible road conditions)

v  Watch the television - again for District 59- if they are closed, we will be.

v  Always, if you feel the road conditions are unsafe for you to drive; you may keep your child home.

Snowy Weather:

Please have your child wear boots if it is snowy and bring a change of shoes so we can keep our classroom floors clean.

• FLOORS AND STAIRS ARE SLIPPERY WHEN SHOES/BOOTS ARE WET-USE CAUTION!
• Sometimes the parking lot is icy and it is hard to tell due to the black asphalt-walk slowly and hold your child’s hands.
•  IF YOU SEE ME OUTSIDE BY THE DOOR IN THE WINTER WITH MY COAT ON ….. YOU MAY DRIVE UP AND DROP OFF YOUR CHILD AT THE DOOR! If you don’t see me outside and have younger children with you and want to drop off your child at the door - call the school phone to make arrangements!

Trinity Preschool Silent Auction:

Many preschools require families to buy/sell items to raise money for their schools.  We do not, but we have a once a year, silent auction to raise money for important  items like playground equipment, playground  ground cover, classroom educational toys, furniture for the classrooms and other items needed to continue to provide the high quality of education we are known for providing.  This year we have a different goal, we are being required by the state to put in two fire doors in our hallways at a very high expense.  We will be using the money from our silent auction to help pay for these doors, as well as trying to get some new classroom equipment.

Our fund raising event is going to be Sunday, February 23, 2014 and we hold it in the church lobby.  Church members and preschool families join together to support the preschool. 

Right now, we are beginning to seek donations for our auction from local businesses.  You will be getting much more information about the auction beginning in January and how you can be involved. Please plan to come to the auction to support the preschool. 

Fall 2014 enrollment:

Soon, I will be handing out information to all of our families about classes for fall 2014.  Official Registration will be in January. 

If you have someone you are referring to Trinity Preschool, have them contact me right away so I can get their name on my notes.  I will first open enrollment to Trinity Preschool families (current and past); then I will enroll those referred by one of our families.  After that, if any space is still available, we open enrollment to new families. 

Have a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year.

Merry Christmas           

Trinity Preschool Activities for Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Willow Room:  MWF

We read "Snowmen at Christmas" by Caralyn Buehner

We glued scrunched up red tissue paper pieces and green construction paper pieces onto a wreath shape.

We painted Christmas light shape paper with glitter colors of paint.  We will hang them in our classroom windows.

Maple Room: MWF class

We read "Gingerbread Boy" by Paul Galdone

We made ornaments shaped like a wreath with green sequins .
we had donuts shapes at the easel with puffy paint and paper sprinkles.

We did our letter F activities on dry erase boards.

Oak Room: Pre- K class

We read "The gingerbread man" by Eric Kimmel

We worked on letter "L" words and pictures in our journals.

We made salt clay and the children used it to make cookies for our bakery. 

We used flannel board pieces to retell the gingerbread story. 

Stay and Play:

We read "No more cookies!" by Paeony Lewis

We painted large sheets of paper with green paint using various kinds of roller brushes.
We will later make them into tree shapes and we will add ornaments.
We strung straws pieces onto yarn to add to our tree as garland.

We did a counting cookies rhyme and used clackers to do the Alligator Stomp for music.

Trinity Preschool Activities for Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Willow Room: Terrific 2's and 3's class

We read "If you give a moose a muffin" by Laura Numeroff

We made ornaments with fun foam mitten shapes, glitter glue and fun foam pieces. At the easel we had large tree shape stencils and green glitter paint.

We have our dramatic corner set up as a bakery and the children each have their baker hats to wear.

We played a "missing ornament" game.  We put some ornaments on a tray and then covered them with a blanket.  We took one away and the children had to guess which one was missing.

We did a Christmas tree counting rhyme.

Oak Room:

Oak Room: Pre- K class

We read "Froggy bakes a cake" by Jonathan London
and Grains to Bread
Our dramatic play area is now set up as a bakery.  All of the children have their own baker hats.

We used white finger paint to paint our hands white over and over.  Then we made prints in a circle to look like a snowflake.

We did 5 green and speckled frogs , the December song.

Trinity Preschool Activities for Monday, December 2, 2013

Willow Room- MWF class

We read "If you give a moose a muffin" by Laura Numeroff

We made ornaments use fun foam holiday shapes on mittens.  We used silver glitter glue.
At the easel we painted with roller brushes and stencils with green glitter paint.

We played a game with the children where we put various kinds of ornaments on a tray and showed the children.  Then we covered them with a blanket and removed one ornament.  The children had to guess which ornament was missing.

Our dramatic corner is a bakery now and all the children have their own baker's hats.

Maple Room:MWF class

We read "The gingerbread man" by Karen Schmidt

We made gingerbread men with a mixture of applesauce and cinnamon.  We put him in the oven and when we went back to check later he had escaped (just like in our story).  We went on a hunt around the building following clues the gingerbread man left for us.  We finally found him back in our room!

We had grid stencils and rollers with paint and brushes at the easel.

We played pass the gingerbread man (like hot potato) 

We did letter F activities.

Our dramatic play area is now set up as a bakery.  All of the children have their own baker hats.

Oak Room: Pre- K class

We read "The little red hen" by Paul Galdone and "I want to be a chef"

We painted a small paper plate green and added colored tissue paper to look like ornaments.  We will put them all together in a tree shape on our bulletin board.

We will be doing holiday activities and bakery the next few weeks.  Our dramatic corner is set up to be a bakery and each of the children has their own bakery hat.

Stay and Play:

We read "The great monster hunt" by Norbert Landa

We had rainbow colors of tempra paint and small brushes.  The children painted pictures.

We did "play the band, B I N G O , and Old Mc Donald had a band with instruments for music.