Science: Magnets can be FUN!!!

The children have had two amazing activities with magnets.  The children learned that only certain things can be attracted to a magnet as they experimented around the room and with different items.  Take a look at these enchanting pictures.  They are worth a thousand words for sure.

Ringing in the New Year with a New Teacher

Dear Parents and Melody Lane Kids,

It has been such a joy working with you this year!  I am sad to say that I won’t be returning as a full-time teacher after Christmas.  I am currently a student at USU and will be doing my practicum in an elementary school at the start of the new semester.  I will miss seeing such happy, sweet faces every day and helping to foster creativity in our students!  I could never have imagined how attached I would become to these classes this year.  It is a special group of kids and they have made this the best job in the world!  Starting in January we will have a new member of our teaching team.  Her name is Teacher Jessica, and she comes with my stamp of approval!  She is excited to meet you all.  Keep up the good work!

Best Wishes

Teacher Olivia

We will all miss Olivia's happy countenance, creativity and special relationship with the children.  She has truly been a gift this year, and she will be missed by one and all.  We wish her the well in her quest to become the best teacher ever!  

Here is our new teacher, Jessica.  She taught with us on Friday morning, and will be with us Wednesday afternoon for our party.  

Play Dough Fun!

On Friday we had fun playing with play dough. We made play dough cookies with real sprinkles! It was a fun time to practice sharing as we made cookies for our classmates!

Reindeer!

We are enjoying celebrating this fun month with arts, crafts, music and dress-ups!

Giving Thanks!

This year at preschool we invited the kids to bring canned food to donate to the Food Pantry. We were humbled at the generosity of our students! We collected over 100 cans of food!

Leaf Pressing

We are excited to be doing some "leaf art" at preschool next week!  Hopefully you have all begun your leaf pressing process!  If not, here are a few quick tips.

1. Choose leaves that are mostly flat and not spotted
2. Place leaves in between pages of newspaper or paper towels
3. Place newspaper/paper towels inside the pages of a heavy book
4. Top with more heavy books and allow to sit for a few days

We will be making pictures with leaves so the more colors/shapes you can find the better!  Hopefully this activity will give you and your child a chance to get out in nature and have a little adventure together :)

5 Little Pumpkins!

Here are the words to a new poem we learned last week!

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate
The first one said "Oh my it's getting late!"
The second one said "There are witches in the air!"
The third one said "But we don't care"
The fourth one said "Let's run and run and run!"
The fifth one said "I'm ready for some fun!"
Oooo went the wind and out went the lights
And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight

October Newsletter

Dear Parents,

We are all looking forward to another fun month at Melody Lane!  There are a lot of fun and exciting things coming up for your students to look forward to at preschool.  This month we will be creating our own scene for the Pumpkin Walk and will be collecting pumpkins to use in our scene.

This week we are learning about OCEANS AND SEA LIFE.  We will be learning to identify the letter ‘O’ and the sound it makes, as well as its ASL sign.  We will be doing some fun ocean-related art projects and exploring different creatures that live in water.  This week’s color is blue so remember to wear your favorite blue outfits!

The week of October 10^th – 14^th we will be learning all about FAIRIES, ELVES AND FAIRY TALES!  We will be learning the letter ‘E’ and will practice our writing skills.  We will also be doing some fun fairy and elf crafts as we practice our small motor skills.  We will also be reading some classic fairy tales and will even have a chance to act them out!  We will also be working on large motor skills while we play with a parachute!

On October 17^th-19^th we will be learning all about PUMPKINS.  We will be exploring different types of pumpkins, how they grow and what we use them for.  We will also get a chance to practice our cooking skills when we make our own pumpkin treat!  Students will also get a chance to help put together a class Pumpkin Walk scene!  This week we will be doing a few activities that might get a little messy so please remember to send your child dressed appropriately.  This week there will be NO SCHOOL on Thursday the 20^th and Friday the 21^st due to UEA.

October 24^th-31^st will be our HALLOWEEN week!  This week will start off with our field trip to the Pumpkin Walk on Monday and Tuesday!  This is a fun time for your students to walk through the Pumpkin Walk and see their scene!  Each child needs to have a parent escort drive them to the walk.  The AM class will meet 10 am and the PM class at 1 pm at the walk on these days.  During the rest of the week we will be learning about different shapes and identifying them.  We will also get a chance to learn about Halloween traditions and how to stay safe while Trick-or-Treating.  Thursday the 27^th and Monday the 31^st will be our class Halloween party.  Though we don’t wear costumes to preschool this day, your students can bring a treat to share.  Students will get a chance to practice safe Trick-or-Treating as they pass out their treats.

During the last month we have been practicing learning names and phone numbers so please practice those with your children at home.

Thanks for all your support!

-MELODY LANE TEACHERS

Laurie, Valerie, Olivia and Christy                      

Jello Playdough

This is a recipe we used to make play dough for the kids to use this week.

1 cup white all-purpose flour
2 T salt
2 T cream of tartar
2 T cooking oil
1 cup warm water
1 3oz. box of Jello

Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl until consistent.  Pour mixture into a large sauce pan.  Cook on low heat stirring constantly.  Once it forms a large ball remove it from the pan and place it on a piece of wax paper.  Allow to cool.  Once cool knead it with a little flour.  Depending on the flavor of jello, you may need to add quite a bit of extra flour.  You can add more food coloring or glitter if you'd like! Store in an airtight container to preserve it for future play!

Crock Pot Applesauce!

Here is the recipe we used to make applesauce in preschool this week.  A Melody Lane favorite!  No measuring required

Apples (any kind, shape or size works)
Water
Cinnamon (optional)
Nutmeg (optional)

Peel and quarter apples, removing the core.  Place in crock pot.  Fill crock pot with water until apples are almost covered.  Add desired spices and sugar.  We usually start out with 1/2 cup of sugar.  You will need to add more depending on how sour your apples are and how much you are making.  Let cook on low 6-9 hours or on high 4-5, stirring every hour or so.  Cook to desired consistency.  We like ours chunky!  Add more sugar if needed.  Enjoy!

Mother's Get Together

Don't forget our Mother's Get Together this week!  It will be Thursday for 3 year olds and Friday for 4 year olds.  Come the last 30 minutes of your child's class to get to know the other mothers better and let your child show you around!  We will be sending home reminders tomorrow and Wednesday but mark your calendars now!

Glueing, mixing colors, snacking and sharing!

Olivia pours her own drink

Olivia practices important small motor skills!  She's so proud of her accomplishment!

Play is a child's work

In the tradition of master child psychologist Jean Piaget, we at Melody Lane believe that 'play is a child's work.' Through exploring their world they learn about relationships, getting along with others, and naturally discover principles of science, math, biology, language and much much more!  We provide a rich environment, carefully planned with the best Early Childhood elements, to encourage your child to learn and grow.  From time to time, we will post photos of your wonderful children at "work".  We are LOVING working with them.   Enjoy!

September Newsletter

September

Dear Parents,

   We had fun getting to know our new students and welcoming back our returning students last week!

 We are so excited to start school and have lots of fun things planned for the upcoming year.  Each month you will receive a newsletter with all the information you’ll need for that month. Be sure to read it each month and if you have any questions or concerns don’t hesitate to ask. 

 September 12-16 we will be learning all about RAINBOWS,  following directions and recognizing our own name.  We will be working on cutting with scissors, starting our Journals and doing lots of painting & gluing. We will be getting messy at preschool, so please send your child dressed appropriately.  Thursday/Friday is Sharing Day at Melody Lane.  Your child will bring home a sack explaining what they need to bring this week.  

 September 19-23 we will learn about APPLES, the letter “A” and name recognition. RED is the color of the week, so remember to wear something RED! We will be making applesauce, painting, singing and exploring different types of apples. On Thursday/Friday this week we invite all our Mothers to join us for picnic the last half an hour of class. Please bring a blanket and a small snack. This is great time to get to know your child’s classmates and their Mothers. 

The week of September 26-29 we will learn about YELLOW and the letter “S” and begin to work on learning our phone numbers.. Remember to wear something yellow this week.  The evening of September 29^th is BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT. The children are invited to bring their parents to school that evening to meet their child’s teachers and to discover what their children do while they are at preschool.  The three-year-olds are invited between 6-7pm and the four-year-olds 7-8pm.  We look forward to seeing you all that evening. Please note that Friday, September 30^th is a Teacher Prep Day.  There will be NO SCHOOL on that day.   

  Just a reminder, Book Orders are due Friday, September 16^th.  We are working to get our scholastic account online. We'll let you know as soon as it is up and running.  Until then, just return your order forms to your child's teacher. 

   Melody Lane now has a blog!  melodylanepreschool.blogspot.com/  We will try and keep it updated so that you can see what we are doing at preschool. 

   If anyone is interested in some fun theater classes for their children we would highly recommend the Utah Festival Conservatory of the Performing Arts.  Contact your child's teacher for flyers and registration information.

MELODY LANE TEACHERS,

Laurie, Valerie, Olivia and Christy

The Very First Day!

The 2011-2012 school year started today!  We were so excited to meet all of our new students and spend a fun day touring the school, playing with toys, creating masterpieces with play dough, blocks and paint.  We already love the new students and are excited to get to know each one of them better throughout the year.  It was fun to see some familiar faces and make some brand-new friends!  We are excited for a fun, eventful year of creativity, learning and friendship!