Holiday Party Update

FYI
In order to attend the Holiday Party tomorrow, you must already have a background check on file with GPISD.  If you have not done this, you will not be allowed to come to the party.  Please go to the GPISD website and fill this out so you will be able to come to the next party. Everyone must sign in at the office and get a visitor badge after the office has checked to see if your background check was approved. 

Sorry for the late notice, but I just received this information at a faculty meeting this afternoon.

Thanks for your cooperation!

Week 15

This week, we learned how people around the world celebrate Christmas and other celebrations.  We read many books to help learn about each country's celebration and made a craft to help us remember each one.  We made poinsettias, wreaths, ornaments, and more.  We will send some crafts home this week and the rest will go home on Tuesday. 

The letter for this week was Kk.  We learned how to write it, the sound it made, and things that began with Kk.  Ask your child to tell you something that begins with Kk. Since we have a short week next week, we will review our letters and start with a new one after the holidays.

In Math, we are still working on patterning.  We have learned AB, ABB, AAB, AABB, and ABC patterns.  The students are recognizing patterns on their clothes and in the hallways.  They can create a variety of  patterns.  Ask your child to show you a pattern they know.  We have clapped, snapped, stomped, and patted many sound patterns too. Today we worked on physical movement patterns.  We did arm circles, touched our toes, and did jumping jack to make patterns.  See if your child can extend a pattern that you make.

Reminder:  I will not be at school on Friday since my son is graduating from A&M. 

I asked Mrs. Carroll to take some pictures of them in their PJ's tomorrow and at the K Polar Express parade and assembly.  I'll post them next week!

Updates you need to know about! Please Read!

On Thursday,  your child may wear a holiday shirt to school with or without words. Reminder: On regular school days, your child may not wear letters or words on their clothing. (GFAA dress code needs to be followed) Except on spirit days, they may wear their GFAA shirts with words.

On Friday, it is both College Spirit Day and Polar Express Pajama Day  Wear your favorite college t-shirt with you pajama bottoms. It will be a busy day! 

9:30- The Reagan band will perform holiday songs for us.
2:00- Kindergarten is having a Polar Express parade down the halls.
2:30- Assembly in the cafe.

Note: We will also have a substitute on Friday.  I will be at my son's graduation from A&M University. 

On Monday, Mr. William's, the Texas Commissioneer of Education will be visiting our school.  Mrs. Vogel has asked all of the students to wear a bow tie to school.  If you don't have one, you may tie a ribbon instead.  (See the note sent home today in the red folder)

On Tuesday, we are having our holiday party.  Bring your $5 wrapped, new book and any food items for the party before this day.

9am- SGP Choir will sing holiday songs for us.
2:00- Pep Rally/ Sing- a-long in the cafe.
2:35- Holiday Party in the classroom- Parents are welcome to come!

We need your help!

Dear Parents,

We are in need of disinfecting wipes to clean the tables after breakfast, snack, and art activities.  If you are at the store, please pick some up for us.

Also, many students red folders are falling apart.  Please replace the red folder as needed.  The plastic red folders seem to last longer than the paper ones. 

If you haven't put your child's name on their jackets, sweaters, hats, and mittens, please do so today.  We are missing a GFAA gray sweatshirt, zipper jacket.  If your child accidentally took it home, can you please return it ASAP. Thanks!  We have many students who have jackets that look very similar and need your help.

I sent home a Holiday Show and Tell page.  Please fill it out and have your child bring it in their folder by 12-17.  We will  begin sharing them next week. If you want to include a picture,  I will return the picture after we share them. 

Don't forget your child will need a $5 book for the Book Exchange before the Holiday Party next week.  Also, if you were asked to donate food items for the Holiday Party, please bring them the day before so that we know that we have everything ready. 

Thanks for all of your help,
Pre-K teachers

Polar Express Day next Friday

Friday, December 14th  will be our school Polar Express Day. Your child will be able to wear their pajamas and tennis shoes to school.  Bring a small pillow and small blanket to lie on during story time. Please come dressed in pant pajamas, no night gowns. Remember it may be cold out, so please dress appropriately. We will still go to P.E. and recess.

         Thank you,

          Pre-K teachers

Week 14

December has just begun, but Pre-K has been busy learning about Christmas customs, symbols and traditions.  We learned the letter Ee this week.  Ask your child to tell you something that starts with the  Ee sound.  See if they know both sounds for the letter Ee.

 We reviewed AB patterns and made candy canes with fingerpaint!

                                      Red, white, red,white....
                                           We did a great job!

 We learned about the tradition of the Christmas tree and painted & decorated our own Christmas trees!

                           
 We listened to the story of the Night Before Christmas and made Santa faces with circle and triangle shapes!

                       
 We made candy cane ornaments to hang on our trees at home.  We learned
more difficult patterns like: AAB, ABB, AABB, and ABC!  Look at your child's candy cane pattern and ask them to tell you what pattern they made.

If you haven't seen the Gingerbread girls and boys we made last week, come by and take a look.  They are hanging outside the classroom door. 

Don't forget to turn in your November Book It sheet so your child can get their Pizza Hut certificate for a free personal pizza.  Keep reading all six months and your child will get an award at the end of the year at the Awards ceremony.  December book it sheets are in the folders today!  Sorry for the delay!  Read at least 10 books a month to earn a pizza.

Look for two notes coming home about the Holiday Party on Dec. 18th. 

Week 13

This week, we studied the letter Uu, read & compared many different versions of the Gingerbread man story, and continued working on our patterning skills. Ask your child what their favorite Gingerbread story was

this week-

The Gingerbread Man, The Gingerbread Girl, The Gingerbread Baby, Gingerbread Friends, or the Jalapeno Man. 

 We made our own class Gingerbread Man today and he didn't run away till we went to lunch.  When we returned from lunch, he was gone!  Oh my! 
We searched the school for him and found him reading a book in the library.

 Here we are decorating him and getting ready to eat him!

 Oh he smells yummy!

 He tasted yummy too!

We even made him some clothes! 

Week 12 Activities

Pre-K getting ready for our Thanksgiving Feast in the Cafeteria!

We made Indian vests and headbands to celebrate.

 Look at closely at the headband.  We made AB patterns in Math using our pattern blocks.  Ask your child to tell you their pattern.

                                We also learned about Indian pictographs.

                           We drew some of our favorite on our vests. 

                            Turkey and dressing in the cafeteria.  Yummy!

                Here we are making patterns with different math manipulatives.

 Sunglass, heart, sunglass, heart...

 Airplane, spaceship, airplane, spaceship...

 Airplane, truck, spaceship, airplane,truck, spaceship...

 Butterfly,butterfly, lighthouse, ...

 Big, little, big, little...

 Blue, gold, blue, gold...

 Black, pink, black, pink...

 Red, purple, pink, blue, ...

Lighthouse, ship, anchor, lighthouse, ship, anchor...


We had a busy week !  We learned the letter Rr, we read more fairytales, we learned about Indians and their customs, and we started learning about patterns. 

Have a great Thanksgiving holiday!  See you in a week!

Don't forget to e-mail me a time that you can come to parent conferences on the 28th. Thanks!

Week 12 updates

Apex fun run Payment Reminder:  Please make sure that you have collected your pledges.  We need 100% collected and we only have received 74% so far. We will have a class PJ party when all pledges have been turned in.  Please help!

Coats needed at Recess- please make sure that your child brings a coat to school on cold mornings.  We go out to recess at 10 a.m. and it is still a little chilly and windy at times.  Also please put your child's name in his/her jacket.  We have several jackets that look alike. 

Parent Conference sign up has started.  Please let me know if you can come in the afternoon on Nov. 28th.  I will start at 12 p.m. and stay as late as I can. If you are not able to come on the 28th, let me know so we can choose another date.

College Spirit Day is Friday, November 16th.  Don't forget to wear your college shirt this Friday!

Garner Food Drive will be held Nov. 12th - Nov. 30th.  The class that donates the most items will receive a popcorn party by PTA.

Garner Annual Coat Drive will start after Thanksgiving between Nov. 26th and Dec. 14th. 

Parent Conferences After the Break

Dear Parents,

     I am scheduling parent conferences for Wednesday, Nov. 28^th.  Miss Carroll will take over the class that afternoon and I will be conferencing with parents all afternoon.  Please come by, call me at school or email/send a note in your child’s folder to set up a time on Nov. 28th that we can conference about your child’s progress this year.  The school number is # 972-262-5000.  I can be reached for scheduling after school (approx. 3:30 p.m.) or at my planning period (approx. 1:25-2:20 p.m.).

     I look forward to hearing from you,

     Mrs. Jan Hargrove

Week 11

 We practiced writing our numbers with chalk on a chalkboard.

 We used templates to learn our numbers!

 We wrote our numbers in salt!

 We wrote our numbers as we played number dice toss!

 We made crayon rubbings of our numbers!

 We made playdough numbers!

We made our numbers with geobands and geoboards!

This week, Pre-K studied about the letter Ss and compound words. Ask your child to tell you some words that start with Ss and what a compound words is.  We read many different fairy tales and discussed the characters, setting, problem, and solutions in each tale.  We learned how to write our numbers to 10 using a song.  Ask your child to sing the number songs to you.  We also learned about Thanksgiving and why we celebrate this holiday.  We made pilgrims and drew a picture of what we were thankful for.  These pictures are displayed in our hallway.  We have started making some turkeys to display also.  We are learning how to paint turkeys with watercolors. Today was crazy hair day and hot dog day!  We got to go out on the playground with the big kids for hot dogs and an extra recess. We earned this fun because our school did a great job of fundraising with the Apex Fun Run.  Thanks for all your support and have a great weekend!

Apex Fun Run Photos

 We had a great time at the Apex Fun Run!  Thanks so much for all the donations for our school! We ran lots of laps! Please collect donations this week and return your collection envelope by Thursday.  Prizes for donations will be given out on Friday to the students.

 Apex Super Hero's!  We are the champions!  Yea!

 Boy, were we thirsty afterwards!

 Parents and teachers cheering us on!

 Checking in each time we ran a lap!

 We can run fast!

 High fives for Pre-K!

 Coach Katie to the rescue.  Our feet sometimes got away from us.

 Before the race, we are so excited!