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)
Welcome back to school and Happy New Year 2021! Hope you have a wonderful break and Christmas! I thought I would send a paper copy of the newsletter besides posting it on my website since there is a lot of important things coming up pertaining to preschool in the coming months.
We will begin our Winter assessments for preschool in a few weeks and conferences will be taking place the beginning of February on the 4th and 5th, more information about this will be sent out in your child’s folder as it gets closer to it. More information about this will also be sent in your child’s folder so keep an out of for it.
It’s hard to believe, but Kindergarten roundup will be taking place shortly after conferences as well.
Academic Information
The letters we will learn this month are F, H, and D. We will also have a review week built in to review several of the letters we have learned so far this year.
We are still in our unit on Food and will be reading stories and doing activities that related to food.
In Math we will be focusing on a variety of topics, such as sorting, shapes, numbers, and sequencing, such as 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc..
Upcoming Events/Important Dates
Jan 18- NO SCHOOL Martin Luther King Day
Jan 22- Book Orders due
Jan 30th- Catholic Schools week begins
Feb 4th AND Feb 5th- NO PRESCHOOL due to conferences
Feb. 11th- Kindergarten Round Up- NO Morning preschool
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!
Make sure to check Seesaw on Friday afternoon’s for homework each week.
We won’t be able to play outside now that Winter and snow has arrived so we will do some movement activities in the classroom to make sure we get some gross motor play still.
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.
