Upcoming Dates and Announcements:
” MLK Jr. Day of Service at Wheeling Country Day School embodies the spirit of community and action, inspiring students to make a difference in the lives of others. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: ‘What are you doing for others?'” This day reminds us that even the youngest among us can contribute meaningfully to building a better world.
Preschool/ Junior Kindergarten/ Senior Kindergarten will be collecting hygiene items for Laughlin Chapel. Please bring items to school before Martin Luther King Jr. Day on January 20th. Here is what they need:
- 2-in-1 shampoo and conditioner (16 oz average size-not travel or mega)
- Dove soap-unscented
- Disposable razors
- Deodorant-preferable neutral (Ok for either gender)
- Chapstick
- Hair brushes
- Toilet paper
The early childhood classes will also be holding our “Loving Littles for Laughlin Button Sale” beginning Wednesday, January 15th – sale will take place before school and during our core time. 1 button for $2 or 2 buttons for $3 with proceeds supporting Laughlin Chapel. Right now the children are in the process of creating the buttons. Thank you in advance for your support! “
- CLICK HERE FOR UPCOMING WCDS EVENTS
- Starting in the new year, our preschool class will begin having community snacks. This will be a fun way for the children to build independence, as they’ll help set the tables, prepare and distribute the snacks, and clean up afterward. We’re asking families to sign up to bring snacks for the class for one week. You will provide snacks for 20 students for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday morning snack times. Monday and Friday snacks, as well as afternoon snacks, will remain individual, as usual. Click to sign up for your family’s week. Thanks!
- As the weather dips cooler, we ask that children come with attire to be outside as we try to get out at least for a few minutes each day.
- Beforecare is available in the gym from 7:30- 8:20 and aftercare from 3:30-5:00.
- Teacher Email: mshah@wcdsedu.com, awolle@wcdsedu.com, aschultz@wcdsedu.com
Hello Preschool Families!
While some chose to rumble and grumble during these frigid and snow covered days, preschool certainly embraced all the wonders and warmth that winter has to offer! During daily discovery the children explored “animal tracks” in winter colored play dough. Using flashlights to navigate the trails they left behind. While it may have been frigid, we brought the snow inside, a snow cone shop was in full force, scooping, dumping and piling made for lots of fun. Some gravitated towards winter art, using transparency paper, glue, glitter, paint sticks, sharpies, and oil pastels to create their own one of a kind snowflakes. Others built warm homes for their baby dolls and stuffed animals, shining flash lights to lead them through their “neighborhood”.
On Tuesday we read the story “The Smiley Snowman”. Bear, Fox and Bunny build a smiley snowman, when they arrive the next morning to greet him, he is not so smiley anymore. Fearing that he is cold they bundle the snowman with a coat, gloves, scarf, hat and blanket an head out for the day to play. As they return later to check on their new friend, trouble is in the air, “he’s melting!!!!” shouted our students. Bear, Fox and Bunny quickly undress him and add more snow. Still, the snowman never smiles. Concerned, the animals begin asking questions and talking to the snowman, when all of a sudden the snowman begins to smile. Learning that the Snowman wasn’t cold on the outside, he was cold on the inside, and with kindness and love his heart was filled with warmth. The children began excitedly talking about how they would build a snowman. Which led us into our next discussion, how to build a snowman! Everyone agreed that the body of the snowman is made up by a circle. We reviewed that a circle has no corner or sharp points like other shapes and that where you start is where you will end. The kiddos were then given dry erase markers and boards to practice drawing their circle. Next, we also agreed that the body is made up of three circle shapes. we talked about different ways to make three using loose parts. 2+1 makes 3 , 1+1+1 makes 3 . They then practiced writing the number three. We talked about how all of our letters and numbers start at the top. Three is a tricky number to write and they were so excited to show off their number three! The children were then invited to draw their January self-portraits, but these weren’t any ordinary self portraits, they drew themselves as, you guessed it, Snowmen!
On Wednesday during phonics we began working on sentence segmentation, whereto children hear a sentence and count the words in the sentence. They are also beginning to identify rhyming pairs they hear in the sentences, we are blown away by their rhyming awareness! We read the story “Snow” by Cynthia Rylant, which gave lyrical and poetic descriptions of falling snow and all that it has to offer! The kiddos then set out to create the back drop for their self portraits, Using shaving cream, glue and glitter the children made, light snow, heavy snow, fat snow and soft snow to create a snowy landscape on black paper.
Thursday gave us a blank canvas of snow again allowing us to continue to relish in the wonders of the winter weather . We read the story Snowman’s Big Job. A Snowman thinks about what his job will be, he gives three clothing clues, there’s our number again, and the children used context clues based off of the 3D images to guess the job, they were little rockstars, and guessed every job correctly! We also dove into a different type of shape, a sphere! We discussed how a sphere is similar to a circle, it is like a ball! It’s round, and it looks the same from every side. Atticus then shouted “So a snowman is a sphere!” Romeo said “so are snowballs!” Turns out, the snow brings more than beauty and a sense of calmness, it can bring shapes also!
We hope your weekend is filled with all the warm hugs from your little snowmen!
Miss Arden, Miss Meredith & Miss Airry
CIRCLES & THREES
SELF-PORTRAITS
SNOWY BACKDROPS
SPHERES
DAILY DISCOVERY
