Peake Academy Weekly Newsletter

October 21: Week 3 "Community Helpers"

Dear Peake Academy Families,

Thank you to all of the families that attended our Annual Great Pumpkin Hunt! The weather cooperated, the animals were entertaining, the cider sweet and the company the best! It was so fun to see almost 70 people out trekking around looking for the perfect pumpkin. Many have asked about payment. Just a reminder that $5.50/person will be charged to your account. Thanks again for providing a wonderful experience for your children!

Things you need to know:

1. If you would like to place an order from the Small Hands catalog, please turn it in no later than Monday, the 24th to receive free shipping.

2. Many families are anxiously awaiting our Parent Directory. To complete this, we are still waiting for families to initial the document located on your child's classroom door for permission to include your information. Please do so asap.

3. HALLOWEEN!!!! Class parties are being organized by some wonderful Parent Volunteers and will happen on Monday, the 31st. While we would love to see all of the cute and scary costumes, we want to make sure that you have the opportunity to have them intact for the big night. So....in lieu of costumes on Monday, the 31st, it will be our annual pajama day at PEAKE Academy!!!!

4. We had technical difficulties with the pictures that were taken at our Annual Great Pumpkin Hunt and this week's classroom activities. :-( So you will see some more great pictures from our Fire Safety presentation. If you have any pictures that you would like to share from the fieldtrip please do so!

5. Free Family Concert for our PEAKE Academy families!

Tomorrow, Sat 22nd

11a @ PLAY Boutique

Great ready to boogie!!!!!

SIGN UPS POSTED...

LEARN & GROW NEW CLASSES

Piano Lessons Duplo Engineering Class

ALSO AVAILABLE

Ballet

Reading Enrichment

Advanced Art

with local artist Jennifer Pahl

pre-registration required

for all classes. Email us to answer any questions.

OCTOBER EVENTS

OCT HAPPY HOURS 5:30-8:30p.

Fridays 7, 14, 21, 28 Saturdays 22, 29

This fun parent date night includes dinner.

Pre-Registration Required

PRE-CONFERENCE QUESTIONNAIRE.

Please complete and return the Monday before your scheduled conference. This will assist the teachers in making sure conference time is efficient and productive for everyone.

HARRY POTTER SCHOOL AGE CAMP. Oct 12-14 | 9-1p.

School is out, but this is a fun and educational way to keep the kids busy.

SCHOLASTIC BOOK ORDERS. Due Friday, Oct 14.

PUMPKIN PATCH FIELD TRIP. Wed, Oct 19 at 1:30p

Annual PEAKE Academy Family Field Trip! Grab your raincoats, rainboots and harvest time spirit and join us as we set out on the 2011 Great Pumpkin Hunt! Lee Farms will tour us around the farm as we taste sweet apple cider, pet soft animals, hunt for the perfect orange pumpkin and much more.

FAMILY CONCERT. Sat, Oct 22 at 11a.

Join fabulous and award winning musician, Aaron Nigel Smith for a fun family concert. Aaron tours nationally, is a cast member on the PBS kids show Between the Lions, and can be seen on other kids programs and venues. We are excited to have him here.

HALLOWEEN PARTY. Mon, Oct 31 from 12-1p.

Come dressed in your costume or save it for the fun later that night and wear your favorite pajamas instead! Halloween fun for everyone! Parent volunteers welcome during classroom parties.

KINDERGARTEN ENRICHMENT FOR THOSE IN AM KG.

Public school KG is 2.5 hours, has only 30 min of PE a week, and up to 30 kids in a class! Our PM KG class is a stand alone, licensed KG AND a great way to compliment public school.

classroom notes

This week in Kindergarten the class had so much fun. The pumpkin patch was very exciting and it was so special to be able to spend time with each child in a different environment.

In Art the class made a spooky owl out of paper, a really neat spider web and wrote a really cute poem on their own. They made paper bag pumpkins and scary ghosts. The class really enjoys all the Halloween art.

In Math the class counted pumpkins and created our addition problem. They also practiced counting by two's with the pumpkins. They also made their own clocks to be able to practice telling time.

In Writing the class practiced how to write a certain time I asked them to write. They also practiced more sight words they learned and wrote a cute Halloween poem that is with their spider web.

In Reading each student got to pick a story to read to the class. Olive read Toy Story and Jack read Lad and the Fat Cat. Each student did so well and it was exciting to hear how they sound each word out that are unfamiliar.

Have a great weekend and cannot wait until next week.

Lindsi

classroom notes

Gorgeous gorillas getting into GMCs and going into a garage!! PreK's letter of the week was "Gg" and it was great! Thank you for helping your little ones brainstorm at night, we can tell and they are so proud. We made glitter glue letter "G"s that are proudly displayed on our board and talked about everything that begins with "G" while gluing. They are gorgeous!!

Writing has come so far and we love watching the kids light up while accomplishing new letters and numbers. Just imagine how their writing will look at the end of the year! Gratifying! We have now begun to write our names on every project and worksheet so be sure to keep up the great work at home...remember, Capitol then Lower case. (ie: Stacy, not STACY)

Math was fun as we accomplished our first dot to dot from 1-10. They marvelled at the fish they completed and the coloring has really grown as well! Curran's was exceptional and he beamed with pride. Check out their books over the weekend...please do not go ahead, just review and practice only if they are excited about doing so, learning is supposed to be fun. We also practiced shapes and made grand shape houses. We reviewed each shape as we constructed our homes from the ground up! Rory was quick to answer the shape names and Ellie shouted out the colors.

We love creating our art gallery every week! Please come in and gaze at all of the glittering pieces hanging up. We created owls, spider webs, and jack-o-lanterns all using our tool of the week, glue! The owls were also a wonderful way to revisit shapes as the entire body was created using triangles, ovals, tear drops, circles and rectangles. Olivia made sure we hung hers up right away to "perch" on the board. Our giant pumpkin patch on the back wall is everyones favorite!

Every week your children learn two songs. This week was "5 Little Pumpkins" and "Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Everywhere"! Be sure to prompt them at home. It was great fun to learn that several of the kids had the book "5 Little Pumpkins" and really loved putting the hand movements with the story that they love.

Our theme of the week was "Community Helpers" and we talked about what a community is and who lives and works in ours. We shared that not only are firefighters and police helpers, but also postal workers, construction workers, grocery store clerks and farmers. Parker was surprised to hear that even kids can be community helpers by volunteering time for trash pick up or visiting nursing homes. She seemed intrigued at the idea that parents and teachers can help our community. We explained that as parents and teachers, it is our job to make sure that they are a responsible member of their community and the world. It was an "ah ha" moment.

Science completed the week with ice cube writing. We dyed the cubes then used them to write our letter of the week and our names. Genius!! We blended colors and picked our favorites for writing. Lauren's favorite was making a rainbow!!

Spanish will begin next week with colors. Stay tuned and look for work to come home weekly for review. Maestra Stacy will be practicing with our class twice a week, and will also begin speaking Spanish during class on a regular basis.

We hope you had as much fun as we did at the pumpkin patch! It was great to hear how much fun the children had picking their pumpkins!

A big thank you to Venus (Monica's mom) for organizing the Halloween Party and her continuous cutting of materials, also for the markers...you are a gift!!!! Thank you to all of the parents that took time out of their day for conferences. It is so nice to meet all of you outside of the "pickup" and "drop off" time. Your input is invaluable!! Thank you to Jennifer (Charlie's mom) and Venus (Monica's mom) for volunteering to be our room parents. We will definitely be in-touch!

As teachers, we are here not only for your child, but for you as well. Please feel free to drop us a note at school to call or email you with any questions or concerns. We want to keep the lines of communication open so that your child has the best experience possible while in our care. The best time for us to talk with you is after 1pm, however, if there is a pressing or important issue, please feel free to address this upon entering class before 9:15am. After that time we begin our daily curriculum and turn our attention to each child's individual needs.

Gratefully, Ms. Stacy and Ms. Lindsi

(Left) More great pictures from our fire safety presentation. (Center) Annual Great Pumpkin Hunt! (Right) More great pictures from our fire safety presentation.

classroom notes

What do police officers, bakers, farmers, garbage workers and construction workers all have in common? Well they all do things to make our community a better place. We learned a lot about many different kinds of community helpers this week because "Community Helpers" was our theme. We talked about what different helpers do for the community and we also talked about different things we can do to be helpers.

We had several community helper activities that we enjoyed in the different areas of the classroom. We had community helper stick puppets in the theater. There was a community helper matching game where you need to match the object to the store it is sold in with things like tools, toys, hats and baked goods to match up. In art, there were community helper collage pieces and there were plastic community helpers added to the block area.

The kids definitely enjoyed police officers the most. We read Policeman Lou and Policewoman Sue. Mason said that police officers "make the cars have car seats or they get a ticket" and another child (who will remain nameless to protect the innocent) said "when you drive on the highway too fast, the police man will give you a ticket." We have a plastic pilot who spent most of this week being a police officer. Adam and Henry built him and the actual plastic police officer very nice police beds out of blocks.

Gadzooks! The great letter G was the letter of the week. We ate green grapes, made glittery Gs and counted and painted ghosts with puffy white paint. We read a Halloween story called I know an old lady who swallowed a bat. The kids think its so funny and we noticed the ghost and goblin in the story both begin with g! We asked the kids what ghosts taste like and the responses were pretty funny. Natalie said they taste like sugar and Natalia said ghosts taste like girls.

With Halloween coming up so soon the kids love talking about the things they are going to do and the costumes they are going to wear. We have been loving all the enthusiasm. The quickest way to get 20 relatively quiet kids to become 20 not so quiet kids is to ask "Does anybody have a costume?" We have been writing on pumpkin shaped paper, painting paper plate pumpkins, and using pumpkins for counting activities. We also have been reading stories and singing songs about Halloween. I think we are ready!

Ms. Angie & Mr. Thomas

(Left) Learning all about Community Helpers. (Center) Annual Great Pumpkin Hunt! (Right) Officer Briggs (a.k.a. Natalia)

classroom notes

Fall is all around us in the Two's room with an extra excitement around the great big orange object, the pumpkin!

The class had so much fun getting creative with their jack o lanterns. Each child created their very own unique face on their pumpkin and were so proud with their finished product.

On Wednesday we took our weekly fieldtrip to visit Ms. Katie's room. To celebrate our letter of the week, F we had so much ticklish fun painting each child's foot and creating footprints with them.

The letter of the week was F. We found that the very best word that starts with the letter F is FUN!!!! Something two year olds are masters at.

Of course we couldn't end the week without some great play dough fun! The kids are so great at creating amazing objects with their play dough.

We look forward to another great week with your kids.

Ms. Rebecca, Ms. Tracey, and Ms. Nicole

(Left) Everly enjoying the fireman visit. (Center) The Great Pumpkin Hunt 2011. ( Right) Love our Pisaturo sisters!

classroom notes

Fun! Fun! Fun! with the letter F this week! On Tuesday we painted with feathers. It was fantastic to watch Maren and how very graceful she was with her feather paintbrush over her letter F.

On our wacky Wednesday with the other Twos Class, Xhristo and Jake both giggled when I painted their feet, which is always a class favorite. Tillie and Gabi, who have become fast friends, made up an creativec game with the Rody on the playground. It is amazing the gift to watch 2 year olds interact and bond.

Lucy was very considerate this week, she made sure everybody had water in their glasses at snack time. What a great friend!

For Art time Isabella really enjoyed making our fish on Thursday for the letter F. She was very particular about the glitter pieces that went on her fish.

As Halloween nears it has been a hot topic in our classroom this week. We've even practiced saying "trick or treat." The children have really been enjoying our Dracula song during group time.

Ms. Katie

(Left) More great pictures from our fire safety presentation.(Center) Annual Great Pumpkin Hunt! (Right) More great pictures from our fire safety presentation.