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• Preschool - Paula Johnson
• With the beginning of school brings many new and exciting experiences for preschool.  The first couple months of school our themes will include welcome to school, apples, Bears and body parts, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, and dinosaurs.  We do many songs, games, and finger plays to go along with each theme and have lots of fun dancing to many different songs.
• Fall is in the air and we are trying to get outside as much as we can before we are no longer able to do so.   We also enjoy all the fun centers that go along with our themes each week.  Our goal is to make each center as inviting as possible so the children can use their imaginations and learn to communicate and play with each other independently.  Being able to play with peers using the same materials is a very important skill in preschool.  We will continue to learn through play throughout the year.
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• Kindergarten - Ann Gibbs and Renee Swisher
• The Kindergartners are learning that school is a fun and exciting place to be!  We have so many things to learn-how to take turns, how to be a good listener, how to raise our hand and how to find our way around the school.
• Our theme for the beginning of the year has been "Under the Sea".  Our rooms are complete with fish, jellyfish, starfish and underwater divers.  At our writing center we can write ocean words and stamp sea life pictures.  We can listen to a fish story in our listening center and observe seashells around our classrooms.  We also are very excited to have a new iPad in our rooms for the children to play with and enjoy while at the puzzle/tech center.  Our room is filled with fun things to do!
• This month, Loren Bahr and Randy Hjermstad taught us about Bus Safety.  We practiced walking a safe distance away when entering and leaving the bus.  We also talked about the safety of sitting in our seats when the bus is moving.  We had a great time painting large school buses to display in classrooms.  A big "thank you" to Mr. Bahr and Mr. Hjermstad.
• In Reading we are busy learning about the letters and their sounds.  We have started with the letters M and A.  Next week we will learn about the letter S.  We also have been writing these letters.  We have also been learning many sight words-we can read the words-I, can, we, the, and am. Wow, are we smart! 
• Handwriting is very challenging in Kindergarten.  In writing class, we have been writing the numbers 1-5 and will continue on to the number 10.   We are also concentrating on holding our pencils correctly by using a triangular gripper.  It takes the entire year of Kindergarten to become good writers.  Keep practicing at home!  Practice makes perfect!

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