Pre-Primary 7

February News

The themes we will be concentrating on in February are friendship and cultural awareness. We will study geography by focusing on Asia, so we will be continuing to learn about our continents. We will read Little Blue & Little Yellow by Lio Lionni as part of our literary study. This story is about best friends who one day are unable to locate one another. When they eventually do, they embrace so tightly that they get green! Using only a few words and colorful bits of ripped paper, the story ends with how they rediscover their actual selves. We are excited to show the kids all the new work for February, which will feature many Valentine’s activities!

January Recap

Once again, Happy New Year! Wow, it's crazy to think that a new year has arrived already; last year went by so quickly! I wish everyone a very happy and joyous 2025! We have already kicked off the new year strong in Room 7; in January we focused on the theme of Winter, Snow, and Ice. It was exciting to instruct and demonstrate several experiments to the children during the month, even if weather like that doesn't occur in San Diego! The kids loved our experiments with creating our own snow, and with freezing penguins and watching the ice melt throughout the day which would release the penguins! Every child touched the frozen penguins to learn about how cold ice is. This helped the children understand how extreme cold weather causes water to freeze and extreme hot weather increases water evaporation. 

The continent we focused on is Antarctica which worked out because we have been practicing our 7-continent song by Jack Hartmann for the past couple months, and most of the kids already memorized the whole song. The book of this month was The Mitten by Jan Brett which correlated with this month and the theme of snow. The Mitten by Jan Brett is a heartwarming story about a boy named Nicki who loses his mitten in the snow. A simple lost mitten transforms into a cozy haven for a parade of forest animals, each looking for warmth during the icy winter. The kids loved all the new work that was put out and enjoyed learning how to use it by themselves and also with other friends! 

December Recap

The theme for December was Celebrations around the world. We talked about how all different people around the world celebrate Christmas. We looked at how those celebrations can look around the world. We continued working on the alphabet letters I to N. We worked with sandpaper letters so the children could learn the pattern of the letters. We read the book The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. For Spanish, we continued working on the alphabet and the days of the week and counting to ten. We did letter dot art for the letters of the alphabet and decorated it with the children’s fall and Christmas artwork. They made Christmas tree art and made some lovely Christmas cards as well. 

November Recap

Last month, we discussed virtues and values. We read many books about how to best deal with conflict and treat one another with kindness and respect. We have read How Full is Your Bucket, and the children have been practicing filling each other’s “buckets” with acts of kindness.

Our Enrichment Programs for November have been a hit! In art class, the children have been learning about Andy Warhol and creating art that reflects what they have learned. In music, they have been learning all about jazz. The cooking class has been full of beautiful snacks that the children have been able to create and enjoy. The children also enjoy computer and Spanish classes where they learn about the seasons and North American animals and farms.

October Recap

October was filled with lots of fun activities and artwork. Ms. Deshea and I really enjoyed this month, and we know all our friends did too. We focused on the letters E-H and had our friends do crafts for each letter. The children practiced using their motor skills by ripping up paper and gluing it on a pumpkin worksheet. The book of the month was “Going on a leaf hunt by Steve Metzger”. We really enjoyed reading this book. We also had the chance to go outside and go on a leaf hunt of our own; the children expressed themselves with a big “Wow the leaves are so crunchy”. Let’s not forget we talked about the Solar System. Our friends learned a new song about all 8 planets. They would sing it all the time while doing a work cycle. Ms. Deshea and I can’t wait for November and all the new things we get to learn with our friends. 

Thank you all for joining us for the Halloween Parade. Our friends were super excited and happy to see you all there and show off all their awesome costumes. 

September Recap

I can’t believe how fast September flew by! As most of you know, this is Ms. Jen and Ms. Deshea’s first couple of months in Room 7, after Ms. Jen became the lead teacher coming from working in the toddler room and Ms. Deshea moved over from Pre-Primary room 6! We are excited to help assist with the children’s growth and watch them develop throughout the school year. September was filled with fun activities as we kicked off the school year by going over daily etiquette and outlining our expectations in our classroom. We have been spending time getting to know one another, as we have continued to work with our current friends and have welcomed in new friends who joined our classroom for the new school year. We have been teaching the children how important it is to sit properly at the table, to push in their chairs when they are finished, and to respond with "yes please" or "no thank you" when offered snack. We practice these fundamental classroom skills every day, along with sitting during circle time and contributing when asked to.

Our book for the month of September was The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn. The children enjoyed the sweet story of the way that Chester and his mom stay connected while he is at school, which is important for our children to understand since they can have a hard time being away from mom and dad while at school. Through this book, they can understand that when they miss mom or dad, they are able to feel their parents' love by touching the palm of their hand to their cheek! We have also been learning about our 12 months, the days of the week, and the seven continents through different catchy songs. This past month's focus was on the letters a, b, c, and d and we worked on different words each week that start with the corresponding letter of the week. My classroom favorite is working with dot markers on the different worksheets that we have!



A big thank you to everyone who attended Back to School night. This was a valuable chance for me to connect with all of you as well as let you see the fun artwork your children have been working on and the different activities they work with every day. Ms. Deshea and I are grateful for the opportunity to help your children grow and learn this year and are looking forward to a fun school year ahead. 

Summer 2024 Recap

We had a lot of activities for the kids to enjoy during our summer months; we had water play days, waterslide days, and bubble days - all perfect for the hot summer days! The children enjoyed our reptile visitors, touching and observing all sorts of reptiles. We still enjoyed cooking enrichment by trying to make constellations out of marshmallows and bears out of graham crackers. We also continued to learn our letters and numbers. As summer ends, we enjoy the last days of Summer and Summer fun with Spirit Week. We learned about Volcanoes, how they erupt and how fun they can be to look at. We also learned about Down on the Farm and all the different farm animals and caught the tune of the song BINGO. There was so much fun to be had during our End of the Summer Party. Thank you to all our families for joining us!