Gwinnett Fire Station Number 9

A big Thank You to Thad Smith at Gwinnett Fire Station Number 9 in Lawrenceville, Ga. Our children had a fantastic time today taking a tour of the fire station complete with a safety video, a in-depth look and touch session of the firefighting gear and even saw a fireman put it all on. We also had a station tour seeing where the fireman cook, eat, relax, sleep, and get ready and a culminating activity of seeing the actual firetruck and the ambulance. The children loved getting in and taking pictures with the engine and ambulance. The Gwinnett County Fire Station Tour was an A+. The finally couldn't have been beat with our station receiving a dispatch call to go to an emergency. I love that the kids were able to wave goodbye to their tour guides. The Gwinnett Fire Station Number 9 was so nice and very accomodating. I appreciated the reminder/confirmation call earlier this morning. Thank you for everyone who came out.

For those of you who weren't able to attend we missed you. We discussed our next few field trips. Dates will be put on the calendar when confirmed. For September, the Stone Mountain Police Station, October, the Pumpkin Patch and Halloween party, for November the Train Museum and for December, Pictures with Santa and possibly a secret santa. I will keep you updated as we confirm our activities. Please let me know if you would like to plan a field trip or have an idea.

Preschool Co op First Week Summary

Thank you to our first week's teachers for our Lilburn Little Stars Preschool Co op. The kids had a fabulous time and I received some positive feedback. Thank you everyone for your efforts in helping our children learn and grow at this stage in their lives. The child tracing was a hit and hopefully you all received the pictures from the first day (thanks for tue/thur class for your understanding)! Also, I wanted to make sure everyone's child received their folder this week. They need to bring this to each class so whoever is teaching can send home completed work from that day of preschool or if you need to send something to class with your child, i.e. pictures, a letter, or whatever a lesson may request from a parent. The Teach Me Mommy Curriculum seems to be working out well. I look forward to our field trip at the end of this month to the local Gwinnett Fire Department. I'm glad we could kick off the first week of our Lilburn Little Stars Preschool Coop with such excitement and enthusiasm from parents and kids alike.

Welcome Routine and Good Bye Routine for Preschool

After some discussion at our parent work day, our first group's class, and with the help of a few the following is a suggested Welcome Routine and Good Bye Routine to help the kids acclimate to getting used to "school". Each should only take about 10 minutes total. I will put a laminated copy of this routine in the bins.

Welcome Routine: 

1.Children Arrive, 

2. Children Select their nameplates from a group of nameplates(this helps them learn to identify their name)

3. Circle Time: Welcome Song: Sung to If you are Happy and You Know it Sing for each of the children in your group.

     

Good morning, (first name, last name)

How are you?

Good morning, (first name, last name)

How are you?

How are you this special day?

We are glad you came to play,

Good morning (first name, last name)

How are you?

4. Trace your name activity with worksheet. 

Goodbye Routine:

1. Trace the "letter of the week"

2. Give out stickers for completed work.

3. Sing the Goodbye song:

This is the way we say goodbye,

Say goodbye, say goodbye,

This is the way we say goodbye,

To all our friends at school.

 

Fine Motor Skill Bin Work

Thank you to everyone who attending the parent workday. We were able to go over all of the bin activities including: the lacing cards, seek and find match game, beading bin, pop and lock characters, the magnetic letters and cookie sheet, and the key sorting. As you will find the kids will love to play with the bins and they are a great welcome activity to get the kids "wiggles" out and ready for the rest of the time.

Lacing Cards: There are enough lacing cards for a group or individual activity.

Seek and find Match Game: Put the items in the bag and as the children select a card with a shape they will feel for the item in the bag until they find the shape that matches that which is on the card.

Beading Bin: The shoelaces in the bin allow for the beads to be manipulated by the children. If the children have a hard time beading with the shoe lace you may use a pipe cleaner instead.

Pop and Lock Characters: These characters have interchangeable parts and foster creativity.

Magnetic Cookie Sheet: Kids can place the magnetic alphabet on the cookie sheet or can spell their name when they get that far or they can create shapes with the letters.

Key Bin: The keys are color coded and used to sort by size, shape, or color.

Starting and ending with bin work is recommended to help with the schedule.

Parent Work Day

Thank you to everyone who dropped off your supplies already. I am still waiting on a few of you. Our group is down to 9 so we will be moving forward with five Monday/Wednesday children and 4 Tuesday/Thursday Children. I am so excited for our preschool co op to get started. In preparation I will host a parent work day on Friday from 10:00 am to 11:00 am. The goal is to run over what is in the bins, some classroom management tips and to explain the bin break-out session instructions. This will give us all a chance to visit one more time before we get started and for some of you to meet for the first time. I hope everyone can make it. The calendar is now available on cozi and all of you have been added and should receive a weekly update but I do recommend you login as well. I am excited for a great semester. Thank you everyone for your patience and excitement. I'm sure we will work out the bugs as we get started.

Initial Meeting

Thank you to everyone that was able to make it to the meeting. We had a great turnout and were able to go over a lot of information. I am so excited for our children as we approach our start date for class. Right now we have ten children in total that are signed up which I will call a great success. We are able to split into two classes a Monday/Wednesday class and a Tuesday/Thursday class. We came to a consensus that the 9:30 am to 11:30 am schedule would suit everyone's schedules and needs in both classes. The Meeting Notes are available in case you were not able to make the meeting. I have emailed out the contact information for all of the parents signed up just in case you need to get in touch with another child's parent. I will have all of the major documents available on the google drive and will post the direct links on here. Please remember that the supply list was portioned out and assigned and your supplies need to be delivered to my house by Friday, August 3rd. If you have any questions let me know. The curriculum we will be using is the Teach Me Mommy Curriculum by Jill Dunford.

Teach me Mommy curriculum

Welcome and Supply List

Hello everyone who will be joining us for the Lilburn Little Stars Preschool Co Op meeting. As you know we will be going over the calendar, curriculum, class breakdown, schedule, field trip schedule and the supplies we need to get started as listed in Teach Me Mommy, the book we will be pulling out lessons from this year. Below you will find the list just in case you need it.

Needed Supplies:

Brown Paper Bags (lunch and grocery size bags)

3 Butcher or newsprint paper

Cardboard

Catalogs and magazines

3 reams Cheap white paper

10 Coloring Books (animal/holiday)

3 packs of Construction Paper (large 18x24 pads)

Dried Beans, peas, macaroni , etc

Glitter and Sequins

3 Glue Guns

12 Glue Sticks

3 Glue: Quick drying craft or tacky glue

3 Ink Pad (Crayola has a washable one)

6 Washable Markers

3 packs Pipe Cleaners

10 Blunt child scissors

3 Spray Adhesive

Stickers

Tempera paint

3 packages of Tissue Paper small 5” squares

3 packages Wiggly Eyes

Acrylic Paint

2 packages of loose Buttons

3 boxes Chalk

3 packages Clothespins (Old fashioned without spring)

3 packages Cording

3 bags Cotton Balls

3 packages Dowels

3 packages Drinking Straws

Egg Cartons

Egg Shells

Empty margarine tubs

Fabric scraps

Felt

3 packages Florist wire

3 packages Food coloring

 glycerin

Milk cartons

Orange juice cans with pull-tab lids

3 packages Paper fasteners

3 packages Paper plates

Pellon Interfacing

3 packages Pompoms

1 pack large 1 pack small Popsicle sticks

3 Ribbon

Small and large boxes

3 Stapler

3 balls of String

3 things of Tape

3 packages of Thumbtacks

Tongue depressors

Toothpicks

3 pads of Tracing paper

3 reams of Yarn

3 Single hole punch

6 pair of shoelaces

Sandwich size Ziploc

3 plastic storage bins for supplies

3 pencil boxes for crayons and markers