The Happy Horses

On Tuesday we visited Mr Gillespie’s office. He is the Principal of Elementary School.  Mr. Gillespie invited us to come for a visit.  When we arrived we shared our names and then Mr. Gillespie read us a story called Bob and Otto.  The book was about two friends; a caterpillar and a worm. 

When we got back to the classroom, the children decided to write a letter to Mr Gillespie to say thank you.

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This week the Horses and the Lions (Mr Matts class) have been busy making books.  First, students gathered the paper they wanted for their books.  Then, children used the stapler to assemble their books.  Some students were mainly interested in how the stapler worked!  (They were very busy sticking paper together with a fancy new tool that seemed to have a lot of power!)

Other students decided to illustrate and tell stories with their books.  Pictures, squiggles, lines, letters, and circles are all some of the different ways that we can share our ideas in a story.  Students are developing early literacy skills as they express meaning using different symbols.  Some students shared their stories with classmates using the document camera.

The HORSES!! After a week of talking about mammals during circle time, playing sorting games and  finding out what animals we each liked. We got our list down to our top five favorite mammals. The voting then began. Each child got one vote and they stuck their photo next to the animal they most wanted our class to be called. The ‘Horses’ won with 8 votes with the ‘tigers’ just missing out with 7 votes. So if you hear any clip clapping, galloping, ‘neeiggh’s’  or ‘yee-hah’s!’ You will know that we are coming!

Just incase you were interested, Mr Matt’s class are called ‘The Lions.’ Ms Catharine’s class are ‘The Tigers’ and Ms Anissa’s class are ‘The Wolves.’

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With the Preschool 4 friends (Year 2 friends) having a full day at school and the Preschool 3 friends (year1 friends) staying until 10.30am we began the week with our specialist subjects.

On Monday we were lucky enough to have PE (Physical education) with Coach Pekin. We climbed up six floors of stairs, (which for some of our friends was like climbing Mount Everest!) and finally reached the undercovered court where the wonderful Coach Pekin met us. We had a name game circle time and a chat about safety during PE and then the games began! There was so much to choose from; hula hoops, ropes, soccer goals, balls, swing tennis, flying rockets, stilts and the ever popular scooters.  Smiles were seen and laughter was heard from every child!

On Tuesday we headed to art with Ms Olly. Once again the children had a wonderful (and messy) time. They got to be painters for the day. The project that they started was to paint the first layer of a playhouse that they are making for the Preschool Piazza area. Wow did we have fun!

On Wednesday we had our first music lesson with Ms Marnie. We started off with a name game; clapping the rhythm (syllables) of our names. We then listened and danced to a song, “We are Family.” Lastly we did music centres where the children got a chance to independently play with different instruments; drums, finger symbals, bells, sticks and egg shakers. We really do have an enthusiastic music group this year!

Thursday we were fortunate to have PE once again where the games and safe play continued and then we headed to CMC (Childrens Media Centre) where we met Ms Jo and Ms Pat. We listened to the step by step procedure of how to take books out…I wonder who will remember next week what they have to do? It is a lot of information to remember! We were all super excited about taking our books home to share with our families.

Today, once again we had music which was enjoyed by all! So the fun of specials will continue throughout the year. Woo hoo! I hope you enjoy the photos of everything we did.

The children have had a wonderful transition into their new school year at ISM Preschool.  They seem to be happy at school and as you can see in the video above, they have already immersed themselves in a variety of activities. 

It is amazing to see how quickly they are picking up on the many different routines and systems within the classroom.  They have learned how to walk in a line and participate during circle times.   They also are washing their hands prior to snack, getting their own plate and fork, eating snack, and cleaning up on their own.   

The focus during these first few weeks of school is to establish a safe learning environment as we all begin to get to know one another.  Our first challenging step is learning all of these new names!!!

Hi Everyone!

        Welcome back to our returning families and our new arrivals. We’ve had a long restful vacation and are now anxiously looking forward to starting another exciting year in Preschool. We can’t wait to welcome you all to our class. We hope you’ve all had a fantastic vacation and are looking forward to starting school. On Thursday August 5th we begin this year’s staggered start. Please see the schedule below for pick up and drop off times for the first three weeks.

See you soon!

Nat, Tina and Reshma