Welcome to Mrs. Blocker’s Page
I am excited to teach your children, watch them grow and learn this school year! Preschool is an exciting time! We will be busy learning lots of things but also have fun while doing it! Our website will be updated monthly with information about what is going on in the classroom as well as important dates; our website will serve as our monthly newsletter for the class. Make sure to check the website each month to see what is going on in our classroom!
Preschool Class Times
Morning Class– 7:25am- 10:15am
Afternoon Class 11:25- 2:10pm ( we dismiss 5 minutes before the older grades)
Academic Information
We will begin learning a letter a week starting this month. The letters we will learn this month are as follows: A, M,S, and P. I will be sending home a letter book, sound sheet, and how to write the letter sheet for you to keep at home and use with your child to help reinforce the learning we are doing in class.
I hope work on Seesaw has been going well. Starting this month on Fridays there will be two activities to do with your child. One will focus on the letter we are learning and the other one will be a Math skill.
We will begin our new unit in the curriculum, called Making Friends. Many of our activities for Social Studies and stories will revolve around the theme.
For Math we have been focusing on counting and shapes and will continue to do work with that.
We have begun doing our Math and Literacy assessments for the fall.
Upcoming Events/Important Dates
Oct 7- Picture retakes
Oct 16- Book Orders Due
Oct 30- Black/Orange Dress day
Reminders/Important information
Please make sure your child has his/her folder everyday so that mail can get home with them.
Sending an extra mask in your child’s backpack is a good idea!
If you have not labeled your child’s backpack with his/her name please make sure you do so we can know whose it is. Also please make sure on the tag of your child’s coat has his/her name is on it, this helps us if a coat is lost or if it falls out of your child’s cubbie to know who it belongs to.
Make sure to check Seesaw on Friday afternoon’s for homework each week.
Some of the Books we will read this month/Nursery rhymes
The Adventure’s of Abby Alligator
Monkey’s Miserable Monday
Seal’s Silly Sandwich
The Pig’s Picnic
Friend’s All Around
10 Apples on Top
The Bremen Town Musicians
Daily Routine
Arrival/beginning of day routine
Circle Time
Learning Centers
Literacy or Math ( Large Group)
Letter Knowledge (Large Group) and Music/Movement
Snack
Heggerty (Phonics)
Work at desks (Book time when children finish)
Science, Social Studies, Second Step , or Literacy( Large Group)
Learning Centers
Outside
Go home
Circle time- This is how we start off our day every day. During circle time we are on the rug and do a variety of activities such as: question of the day, attendance, calendar, day of the week, Pledge of Allegiance, and Heggerty Phonics to name a few things.
Center time- This is the time during the day when the children get to play in the different centers of the classroom. We have center time on a daily basis. The centers we have in our classroom are: blocks, pretend play, toys & games (manipulatives), art, listening/library, writing, sensory table and technology. The children have the chance to go to three centers each day. The first center the children get to pick where they would like to go, then for the second and third center they are rotated to a different center by the teacher. Center time provides the children for time to interact socially with each other and learn through their play and exploration of the materials in the classroom.
Large Group Lesson– This is the time when we are on the rug learning from our World of Wonders curriculum, Everyday Math, and Heggerty Phonics, which includes instruction on identification of each alphabet letter and letter sounds. World of Wonders is based around themes. Each theme teaches a variety of things, such as: friends, transportation, farm animals, zoo animals and many more! Everyday Mathematics is the curriculum used to teach preschool math concepts such as sizes, patterns, counting, numeral recognition, number concepts and more. Second Step is a Social Emotional component where we learn topics such as managing our feelings, how to be a good friend, and following rules.
Snack- A favorite time of day! Snack is provided by the school. The children are provided a snack each day.
Outdoor Play– We try and get out to play on our playground (it is the one with the white picket fence around it) on a daily basis as long as weather permits. When the weather does not allow us to go outside we do different gross motor activities such as Gonoodle, dancing or games in our classroom.
Technology- We use technology on a daily basis in our classroom. We have a smartboard that the children will use for attendance each day. We also do a variety of activities and lessons on the smartboard that allows the children to interact and makes the learning hands on. We also have I-pads in the classroom that the children get to use. We call Friday our “technology day”, as that is when I-pads become a center choice for the children. We have a bunch of educational apps downloaded on them that they can choose from to play.
Birthday Treats
If you wish to send something to school for your child’s birthday please make sure it is a
non-edible item due to allergies. Some ideas to pass our for birthdays are: mini play-doh, stickers, pencils etc.. Two great places to check for ideas of a non-edible item are the Dollar Store and Target’s Dollar isle, both have some neat things! Thanks for your understanding about providing a non-edible birthday treat!
If you would like to invite people in your child’s class to a birthday party and want us to hand out the invitations, it must be for everyone in the class or all the boys if your child is a boy or all the girl’s if your child is a girl. We can not pass out invitations to just certain people. Thanks!
Scholastic Book Orders
Our four year old class will be doing scholastic book orders this year. If you wish to purchase from them you can go online and use the following information to place an order. We will not be sending home paper copies. We will let you know when the orders will be due.
Ordering online is fast and easy:
- VISIT scholastic.com/readingclub
- ENTER the one-time Class Activation Code GQWYB
- SHOP from a carefully curated selection of the best books, value packs, and Storia eBooks
- SUBMIT your order and earn FREE Books for our classroom
All book orders will be shipped to our classroom so we can celebrate the joy of reading together!
Mrs. Blocker is the lead teacher for the M-F morning four year old class. This will be her eighth year at JFK and the start of her eleventh year teaching preschool. She received a B.S. in Early Childhood Education from Western Illinois University in Macomb. She completed her Masters of Arts in Early Childhood Education from the university of Northern Iowa (UNI) Mrs. Blocker enjoys photography, swimming, watching movies, and shopping. Her birthday is in March and her favorite color is blue. Her family consists of her husband, Luke, their two year old daughter named Finnley, their two cats, Garfield and Holly, and their dog, Winston.
Mrs. Blocker has a preschool aid for the morning and afternoon class that helps her out. Mrs. Baker is the aid in the morning class and Mrs. VanDam is the aid in the afternoon class. We also have Ms. Miranda in that helps among both preschool classes.
