Classroom News

CLASSROOM NEWS:

CLASSROOM 1

We would like to take this opportunity to welcome you and your child to Classroom One!  This will be an exciting year of social, emotional, and cognitive growth in your child’s life.  We are really looking forward to enjoying this fun,educational and memorable experience together with you and your child here at the MCPK.

Ms. Caccavale & Ms. Carter

Classroom 3

We are excited to welcome the children into a highly academic learning environment that encourages discovery and exploration each day. We have developed strong learning centers and will plan hands-on activities so that the children will continue to develop their linguistic intelligence, social and emotional intrapersonal intelligence, visual-spatial intelligence, mathematical logical intelligence, cooperative interpersonal intelligence, naturalistic intelligence, bodily-kinesthetic intelligence and musical intelligence.

We will spend the year engaging the children in activities that will include walking field trips and visits from the members of the community. We will welcome "Book Buddies" from our neighboring school to join us for a weekly paired reading activity. The year will be filled with academic and emotional achievements. We look forward to the journey.

Ms. Caputo & Ms. Constantino

CLASSROOM 8

Welcome to Classroom 8, where learning never ends!

It's so good to have all of you as part of our class. The children are having a good time exploring the areas in our new classroom. We have been painting on the easel, building in our block area, cooking delicious meals in our housekeeping area and exploring our science center. They are learning the routines and schedules that we use on a daily basis.

One of our main goals this year is for the children to work on their self-help skills. When they arrive in the morning;

• They hang their coat in their cubbies.

• Take their snack out of the lunch box and place it into the snack basket.

• Wash their hands.

• Then pick a center to work in.

They are doing a great job! They are all capable of putting their own belongings away, using the bathroom, cleaning up after eating and waiting to take their turn. We know as parents ourselves, you want to do it for your child but you do more for them by letting them achieve their goals and meet their pre-school milestones with verbal guidance and modeling. You can also boost these skills by giving them small jobs they can do at home like setting the table, getting dressed by themselves or helping to clear the dishes after eating.
Throughout the year we will go on a variety of adventures, learn new skills, and explore new worlds! We can't wait!

Mrs. Brown & Mrs. Vilardo

CLASSROOM 10

Room 10 will create a community of learners by exploring materials and ideas. Curriculum will be focused on building community and character while we are learning about the world around us through the children's eyes. We will explore animals, seasons, living things, ourselves and our Earth. Children are encouraged to inquire, discover and explore. We follow the interests of the children to enhance and develop the curriculum. Get ready to journey around the world, dig in the dirt and find balance in tree pose!

Ms. Clarissa & Ms. Hassiba

CLASSROOM 11

The children in classroom 11 have been very busy! We've been getting to know all of our new friends and teachers, as well as learning our daily routine. We've been doing so much all by ourselves already! We can unpack all of our things and even put out our own rest mats. We've been exploring our new classroom and all the exciting new things we have to work with. We're also very excited to start bringing home our Me Bags and sharing special things about ourselves with our new friends. We look forward to the journey we will take together over the upcoming months.

Mrs. Baldissard & Ms. Adefioye

CLASSROOM 12

We are so happy to welcome the children to classroom 12. We all have been learning how to work together to create a productive, exciting and safe classroom. We are exploring the learning centers and the outside playground. The children have been enjoying discovering using there five senses - sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste. We created 9 different bottles filled with all kinds of interesting materials. We used a fun tool called a funnel to pour our materials into the bottles. We poured things like, shampoo, water, soap, oil, salt, sand, small rocks, and glitter. We also added things like beads, feathers, and food coloring and watched to see what happens. One of their favorite bottles is the bottle with oil and water. They love how the oil and the water stay separated; they try and try (and try!) to shake it up enough to make it mix. We even went on a Five Senses Safari! We walked around our school building and looked, listened, touched, and smelled different things. We all had fun and when we came back we tasted different fruits that were sweet, sour, crunchy and soft.

We have also introduced water into our sensory table. Right now we have "Alphabet Soup" inside! We can scoop up letters with a ladle or we can just enjoy the soapy bubbles and scent they give off. The Pom Poms that were in the table have now become part of the Pom Pom Drop. Here the kids continue to strengthen their fine motor skills by using tweezers and clothespins to pinch the pom pom and drop it down the correct color tube! A definite favorite!

We can't wait to see where our adventures will take us this year. We know that wherever we go, we will be learning, having fun, and exploring different horizons.

Ms. Wilson & Ms. Austin

CLASSROOM 13 /SALON 13

Welcome! Bienvenidos! a la salon 13. Our classroom is a complete English/Spanish
immersion class where the children develop their expressive and receptive skills in both languages throughout the school day. It is amazing to see how quickly both native and non-native speakers learn and strengthen their Spanish language skills. Salon 13 is building a sense of community (communidad) by learning the rules (reglas), and working together
(juntos) to build lasting friendships (amistades). It is a delight to hear us greet each other at circle time ( el tiempo del grupo) with the "Good Morning" (Buenos Dias) song in both languages (idiomas). We have learned many words (palabras) that help us navigate our room with ease such as bathroom (bano), help(ayuda), lunch(almuerzo), door(puerto), walk(camina), please(por favor), and clean (limpia). In the art center (el centro de arte) we have drawn beautiful self portraits after learning the parts of our body such as as head (cabeza), eyes (ojos), nose (nariz), ears (orejas),and mouth (boca) that show not only our uniqueness but our individuality. In the weeks (las semanas) to come we will be learning more about each other, our families (nuestras familias) and the season of fall (otono). We look forward to a very exciting year ahead.

Ms. Muller & Ms. Luz

CLASSROOM 14

Classroom 14 family consists of nineteen wonderful children – seven girls and twelve boys and their teachers Ms. Waugh and Mrs. Smalls. We also have with us Ms. Alexandra Monge who comes in at rest time and Mrs. Nicole Costa from Kean University who is doing her Preprofessional Field Experience. We are off to a great start! The children have settled in nicely and are building a community of friends. They are learning the importance of sharing, taking turns, cleaning up their work before moving on to a new activity and using their words to express how they feel.

On arrival in the mornings the children wash their hands, write their names and then are off to a busy day of activities. We start our days with playground. After playground, we have large group time. During large group time, we do the weather, calendar, and talk about our activities for the day which includes center time, teacher directed activities, story time and on special days Related Arts. Classroom 14 is having Music and Movement with Ms. Maya and Gardening with Ms. Laura.

The children are working on their first unit, "All About Me." In this unit they are interviewing each other. We will discuss, compare and graph information about each other. We talked about ways in which we are different and ways in which we are alike. We discussed the terms author and illustrator. At the end of the unit, the children will publish their first book, "All About Me."

We are looking forward to a great year!

Ms. Waugh & Ms. Smalls

CLASSROOM 15

The first few weeks of school have been so busy! We have to learn EVERYTHING when we begin school in September. We learned how to wash our hands the "cool" way to keep ourselves and our new friends healthy. We toured the school, playground and gardens and learned the school "rules" for these areas. We discussed what rules are, why we need them and then developed our own rules for classroom 15. We followed a recipe to make green play dough, discovered a gourd and chestnuts on the playground and learned how to do the "Tooty-Ta" and "The Goofball." We have learned how to work in all of our classroom centers and now all centers are "open." Our teamwork and cooperation skills are getting much practice as we complete our first "project" -- partner marble painting. As we welcome the coming fall season, we find ourselves wearing more clothing. We learned the "coat flip" to help us get our coats on easily and will be using the dressing frames in the classroom to help us manage buttons, zippers and snaps. Self -help skills are a large part of the curriculum at the Pre-K. We look forward to exploring and enjoying all of the changes the rapidly approaching fall season will bring. We will create some delicious apple dishes, explore the inside of a pumpkin, make leaf rubbings and continue growing and learning about each other and our school environment.

Ms. Showell & Ms. Davis

CLASSROOM 16

Classroom 16 has had such an amazing start to the school year! Our first unit of study this year is called "All About Us." This unit helped us to learn all about our friends as well as our new classroom. The children have learned how to make new friends, interact well with one another and the appropriate way to express their feelings. They have adjusted well to the routines of the classroom and have learned many songs to help in transitioning throughout the day. 

We recently added a classroom pet (a Beta fish) to our room and voted on a name for it; the children voted on the name “Rose.”
Each day we are learning more and more about one another through the time we spend working together, singing songs and creating "friendship paintings." The children chose a friend with whom to work and together they are creating beautiful paintings at the easel.

We have learned about how important it is to recycle and now have our very own recycle bin and compost bin so that we can save our environment.

The children are really enjoying our first Related Arts class, Music and Movement with Ms. Maya. Each week we close our eyes and journey to different countries around the world. We listen to the music and talk about the different animals that are found in those countries. Ms. Maya has taught us how to play the Gong and the African Drums to explore the concept of rhythm and movement.

We are off to a great start and we anticipate an exciting and rewarding school year!

Ms. Ashe & Ms. Alonso