End of October News

Greetings families! October at Congdon Creek Preschool was a busy one. I captured some fun moments from the month, so check 'em out:

Miss Patti brought out all her fun Halloween props this month, and the children have been in Halloween heaven playing with all of her stuff. Here's Liam, cute as can be:

And here's Quinn in the castle giving us his best "scary face":

And here's Lilly and Sophia dressed up in some costumes:

During the beginning of October, Miss MaryJo did a fun science experiment with corn. Everyone got to watch corn kernels turn into popcorn in an old-fashioned air popper (and by old fashioned I mean from the 1990s....but seriously the kids thought they were looking at an ancient artifact here):

And of course everyone has been enjoying our beautiful fall weather that we had in October: 

Seriously. How cute is Kingston?

A couple of weeks ago, some of the children got to experience making apple sauce. Miss Jakki brought in a simple recipe that everyone put together in her ricer.

After everyone made the applesauce, we put it to the test to see if it was better than store-bought applesauce. Everyone did a taste test to see which one was best.

I'm not sure if this is just Leighton's "camera face", or if he just really didn't like the applesauce:

Kyler said he liked the homemade applesauce the best:

And to wrap this post up I will leave you with the applesauce recipe so you can make some at home with your preschooler!

8 medium apples

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/4 cup water

a drizzle of lemon juice

Peel and slice all of the apples. Combine ingredients in a rice-maker, press start, and let cook 20 minutes. (If you don't have a rice-maker, you can easiy use a crockpot on a low setting for about an hour).

November Calendar

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Weekly Theme: Wacky Week Letter of the Week: Ss				1	2	3
4 Weekly Theme: Dinosaurs Letter of the Week: Ss	5 Una Shoaps VIP	6	7 Will Watson VIP	8 Otto Lindaman VIP	9	10
11 Weekly Theme: Dinosaurs Letter of the Week: Rr	12 Davey Pence VIP	13 Roland Struckman VIP	14	15	16	17
18 Weekly Theme: Giving Thanks/Harvest Letter of the Week: Rr	19	20	21	22 Closed	23 Closed	24
25 Weekly Theme: 5 Senses Letter of the Week: Pp/Qq	26	27	28	29 Grace & Josie Ryan VIP Fire Drill AM	30 Aizley Mathias VIP	31

Greetings Congdon Creek Families,

Our school has been busy as usual, and it’s been an extra fun time to be a preschooler. We are having an excellent school year so far filled with exciting themes, field trips, visitors, and events. During the September and October months, the preschoolers learned all about creepy crawlers (some learned a new word: arachnid), community helpers (we got to explore many parent jobs!), fire safety, and autumn. We’ve enjoyed many wonderful volunteers and parent helpers who’ve come in to read, help out at lunch, share with our class, and assist us on our field trips.

We will kick off November with a unit on dinosaurs in which we will learn about the different types of dinosaurs, explore the time period in which dinosaurs lived, and we will even go exploring for some dinosaur fossils. Also this month we will be doing a unit on giving thanks and fall harvesting. The families here are CCPS have a lot to be thankful for, so we will be focusing on ways to show thanks to others and what it means to be thankful. We will end November with a unit on the 5 senses. The preschoolers will learn about all of their senses and explore the many ways we use them. If you have anything to contribute to any of these themes and topics, please feel free to talk to one of the teachers.

This month we will focus on the letters: Tt, Ss, and Rr. We will focus on the letter sounds and letter recognition so feel free to encourage your child to bring in letter specific show-and-shares.

As we all know, November in Duluth means cooler temperatures; so please remember to send appropriate outdoor clothes for your preschooler including hats, gloves, outside shoes, and of course a warm jacket.

If you’re ever wondering what we’ve been up to or want to scope out some fun pictures of your preschooler, feel free to check out the preschool website: congdoncreekpreschool.blogspot.com. This is a great place to leave any comments you may have or to ask any questions. Also, Congdon Creek now has an email address: congdoncreekpreschool@gmail.com.

And finally, just a reminder that Congdon Creek will be closed for Thanksgiving Holiday Thursday, November 22^nd, and Friday, November 23^rd so that all of our families can indulge in a little tryptophan heaven with our loved ones.

Warmest Wishes,

Miss Jakki

October 1st

Greetings Congdon Creek Families! Our Creepy Crawly week has come to an end, and to finish it off, we received a visit from Michael's dad who is a beekeeper! Michael was excited to show off his cool dad, and the kids were excited to learn all about bees. Check it out:

Here is Michael's dad showing the kids what a bee hive looks like. (He left all the bees at home, and just brought a hive and his cool suit.)

Here is Michael's dad showing the children the beehive up close. (Macy's face here is priceless.)

No matter how many times we reassured her, Margot was still scared that there was going to be an actual bee involved. She was terrified...adorable...but terrified.

And Miss Renee told all the children before entering the gym to put their hands behind their backs. Carly took that very seriously. The whole time. Until someone specifically told her she could use her hands.

And then Michael got to get dressed up in his dad's suit. We learned that beekeepers wear white suits not only to keep them cool while working out in the hot sun, but also to keep the bees from thinking that a bear is intruding. We also learned that Michael's dad learned how to be a beekeeper from his dad, so the sight of the two of them in beekeeper gear is just too precious for words:

 A big thanks to Michael's dad for visiting us!

This week began the theme of "Community Helpers". Today Emily's dad, who is a police officer, came in to visit the kids. He was in full uniform so everyone thought it was super awesome to see a real cop up close and personal. It was especially cool seeing Officer Morris's badge, radio, and bullet-proof vest. Then Emily told everyone that her dad is good at playing barbies with her (so sweet!!). After having a little Q & A time with the officer, the children got to explore his police car. Officer Morris showed everyone his flashing lights, the loud siren, and he even let the children take turns sitting in the back of the car. (It was adorable until my own daughter, Sophia, sat back there. Then it gave me horrible visions.)

We'll continue out the week talking about community helpers, so if you, or someone you know, works for our community, feel free to stop on by!

Our letters of the week are 'U' and 'V', so send those letter inspired items with your children for show-and-share, or simply just talk about them at home.

October Calendar

Theme of the Week	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Community Awareness	1	2	3 Farmer’s Market Field Trip	4	5	6
Fire Safety	8	9 Fire Hall Field Trip	10	11	12	13
Fall	15	16 Picture Day	17 Picture Day	18	19	20
Fall	22	23 Fire Drill	24	25	26	27
Wacky Week	29	30	31 Halloween Party 4:30-6:00pm