September News 2015

Violet RoomViolet Room NewsNews

The Violet Room teachers would like to congratulate our graduates and their parents. It was a wonderful experience watching them grow both socially and academically. We would also like to congratulate Miss. Kate on her recent engagement and acceptance into the Occupational Therapy Masters program at Utica College. Ms. Andi will be taking Miss Kate’s TA position when she goes to part time this fall. We would like to extend a warm welcome to her.

The staff in the Violet Room would like to welcome our new friends and their families to Spotted Zebra. We can’t wait to start working with your little ones. We will be available with plenty of hugs and reassuring words to help ease any anxiety your child may have about attending a new school or separating from family members.

The themes during the month of September are “That’s My Name,” “My Classmates and My School,” and “My Family.” Please don’t forget to e-mail individual and family pictures as soon as possible to violetroom@spottedzebra.org. The individual pictures are for your child’s circle time mat and cubby. Family photographs will be made into individual collages and displayed for all the preschoolers to view and admire.

Please don’t forget to label all your child’s belongings (e.g., clothes, lunchbox, blankets, crib sheet pillows, diapers, wipes, etc.). This helps to alleviate any confusion about students’ individual possessions throughout the school year. The Violet Room teachers would appreciate if you could apply sun block to your child until the temperatures turn cool.

~Ms. Erica, Ms. Chris, Ms. Andi, and Ms. Kate

Blue RoomBlue Room NewsNews

We are all very excited to be starting a new school year with your children here in the Blue Room, and know that it will be loaded with fun, laughter, learning, and successes! We are welcoming a new teaching assistant, Kathyrn Mannix, to our classroom. She comes with great experience and references, and we are happy to have her join our team. Congratulations to Ms. Ange who will be starting as the new Blue Room classroom teacher, and we wish Mr. Patrick all the best as he starts a new job outside The Spotted Zebra.

September is the time when we are all getting to know each other, learning things about each of our families, sharing stories about our summer, and making the Blue Room our very own “home away from home” in The Spotted Zebra. We will be collecting pictures of our families, doing some fun family projects, talking about what makes each of us special, and talking about how we are all alike. We will learn some new songs, practice writing our names, learn the names of our new friends, and do some neat “All about Me” projects.

We know that it is always a little (if not a great deal) difficult during the first few weeks of school to leave your child in a new classroom, with new teachers, especially if you child is upset about you leaving. But we will be very comforting and understanding with your child as they make their transition to our classroom, and will always be happy to call you once you’ve left to let you know that everything is okay. Most of the time, it is only just a few minutes after mom or dad has left that a child will stop crying, find a friend to play with, and they are fine and happy for the rest of the day. For some children, it might take a little longer for them to start to feel comfortable with you leaving. Please know that we understand, and we will work very hard to make morning drop-offs as easy as possible. The Blue Room extension is 202, and you can call us at any time during the day to check up on your child, and we encourage you to do so!

Finally, we want to say a great big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to some of our Blue Room friends who will be celebrating their birthdays in September. Happy birthday to Evan and Giada, and a late happy birthday to August, who celebrated his birthday on August 11th! Welcome again to The Blue Room!

~Ms. Valerie, Ms. Ange, Ms. Kathryn, and Ms. Karen

IMPORTANT ZEBRA DATES

September 7- School Closed ~ Labor Day September 8- School Closed ~ Staff Day September 9- First day of Classes

Green RoomGreen Room NewsNews

We are so excited to welcome our new friends Ike, Livia, Emma, Vivienne, and Darian from the Violet Room; and Emma, Hope, Amelia, Dominick, Allie, Jaxon, Jacob, William, Finnegan, and Chase from the Blue Room. We also welcome Jazmine and Brody. We look forward to a fun year full of learning, laughter, and friendship! September themes will focus on getting to know each other, the classroom, and rules and routines. Our themes are called: "Me and My Classroom", "Friendship and Getting to Know You", "My Family", and "fall". Please send in labeled family pictures, that you don't mind being cut and pasted down, by Thursday, September 16th. We will be using them for discussions, graphing, and making family trees. Please don't forget to send in a labeled composition notebook. We will be doing journaling in them with letters, numbers, and various topics throughout the year. We will also be using the "Handwriting Without Tears" curriculum to learn letter formation...and it helps with drawing too! Be on the lookout for our various Classroom Books to come home. We will be making and sharing them throughout the year; they are a fun way for the children to share their school experiences with you at home!

Before we close, we would like to wish Vivienne and Darian a very Happy Birthday! We love having classroom birthday celebrations. Please be sure to talk to one of the classroom teachers to plan if you would like to do so!

~Ms. Carol, Ms. Carrie, Ms. Nicole, and Ms. Liz

Orange Room News

Welcome to Kindergarten! We are excited to get to know our new students and families. We would like to welcome all the children that will be attending Kindergarten with us this year! We have so many wonderful things planned to stimulate academic, physical, emotional and social development.

We will start off the year by taking some time to get to know each other and learning our kindergarten classroom routines, responsibilities and expectations. We will use this time to build confidence and independence as well as celebrate each of our unique qualities as we participate in many “All About Me” activities. Throughout the month of September we will introduce our math program (Touch Math) and dive right into working with single digit numerals. We will also introduce our literacy program (Leveled Literacy Intervention by Fountas and Pinnell) and begin exploring with letters and high frequency words. Finally, we will begin to explore autumn themed curriculum, including, apples and the change in weather. The children will participate in reading/listening, math, writing, social studies, puzzles/games, art, dramatic play, literacy and science and discovery weekly. Our specials each week will include: Art, Physical Education, Music and Creative Movement.

Remember the kindergarten school day begins at 9am and we like to get busy right away so we can make the most of our time together! Don’t forget to check the Spotted Zebra website for more important information regarding our program, including a supply list. We are looking forward to an exciting year of learning together!

~Mrs. Terry, Ms. Lamitie, Ms. Leah,

Ms. Nikki, and Ms. Jenna

Speckled Zebra News

We are excited about this school year as we prepare for the start of The Speckled Zebra program. Each week we will explore different themes and introduce the kids to the alphabet and simple numbers. Pre-k is an exciting, noisy, messy place. We learn best with lots of interaction with peers and our environment. The children will have plenty of opportunities to play and interact with peers. Please help us by sending your child in with an extra set of clothes. We are looking forward to seeing you in the first day!

~Ms. Penny & Mr. Jason

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