Hi Everyone!
Before I start, I'd like to remind you <span style="font-weight: bold">THERE IS NO PRESCHOOL NEXT FRIDAY, OCT. 23</span>. Our whole staff will be in training all day.

Please ask your children about what we did today. In case they need prompting, we went to our <span>first school assembly</span> in the auditorium. There was a special assembly celebrating Hispanic Americans Month, with lot of singing and dancing and beautiful costumes. We also made guacamole in class (avocados, <span>pico de gallo salsa</span> (Hyde Park Produce salsa), and lime juice). We even cooked quesadillas (melted cheese in corn tortillas). Next week we'll be making tortillas on our tortilla press.

We are also working on a bulletin board for the Very  Hungry Caterpillar. I'll let you know when it's done.

<span style="font-weight: bold">LETTERS TO YOUR CHILDREN:  Please see the attached flyer about writing a letter to your child about how to you named them. We have only received 1 letter! Please send them in as soon as possible so we can get going with this project. I am also putting copies in your mail boxes.

FIELD TRIPS: </span>We are planning to see 2 plays this year:  <span>The True Story</span> of the <span>3 Little Pigs</span> and <span>Peter Pan</span>. Both of these will be in February to April of next year. We are  working on field trips to  the <span>Shedd Aquarium</span> and the <span>Museum of Science and Industry</span>. For both of these museum trips, we will need A LOT OF ADULTS!!!!! I'll let you know the dates as soon as we get them.

<span style="font-weight: bold">POTLUCK DINNER:</span> Per the sentiment expressed at the Open House, I am organizing a <span style="font-weight: bold">pot-luck dinner</span> for preschool families. I'm waiting for permission but our tentative date is Oct. 27.

<span style="font-weight: bold">PRESCHOOL FAMILY NIGHT OUT:</span>
Since many of you expressed an interest in meeting other preschool families, we were thinking we might also plan a dinner night. The children enjoyed the guacamole and quesadillas we made today and we'll be making tortillas next week. So perhaps a Mexican restaurant would be nice. La Condesa is an excellent restaurant, has beautiful decor, a fabulous menu (hand made corn tortillas!) and often Mariachi music. It is located at 2230 Ashland (at Ashland and Cermak) and has a parking lot. It's also very inexpensive. If you would be interested in doing this, let me know and we'll pick an evening. It would probably need to be a week night to make sure there's space in the restaurant.

<span style="font-weight: bold">MATH NIGHT: </span>Next Thursday, Oct. 22, is MATH NIGHT at Ray School. Teachers all over the building will have exhibitions, activities, stories, etc. about math at Ray. Bethanie Smith, the Preschool for All teacher and math teacher extradinaire, will be running the preschool math activities. I hope you can all come.

<span style="font-weight: bold">HALLOWEEN/LITERACY DAY: </span> Oct. 30 is our preschool Halloween/Literacy Day celebration. We'll be  having a parade through the school at 10:00, so make sure you're here with your child and their <span>halloween costume</span> by 9:00am. We'll have a little party at the end of the day.
<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;text-decoration: underline">There are some things that we need in the classroom. I hope you can help us.</span>

1)  Your letters to your children about how you came up with their names. I'll put a copy of the instructions in your mailboxes as well as here as an attachment;

2)  We are transforming our loft area into a doctors' office. We need help, especially from those of you who work in a hospital or clinic. We need:  posters about health, books, pictures, medical supplies, xrays, masks, gloves, etc. etc. etc. Anything that would help us in this project would be greatly appreciated.

3)  We will be doing some weaving on a small loom we have. We need scraps of fabric that we can weave through the loom, ribbon, etc. The loom is about 3 feet high by 2 feet wide, so that gives you an idea.

4)  If you are planting bulbs in your garden and find you bought too many, we would be happy to plant them around Ray School and then watch them grow in the spring. If you would like to donate some tulip or daffodil bulbs, that would be great.

5)  We will be working on matching things that are the same. If you would like to donate some socks (kid and grown up sizes), we could practice sorting, matching and folding socks. We're looking for a variety of colors. It doesn't matter if there are holes in them. :)

What we are learning:

<span style="font-weight: bold">Literacy: </span> We are continuing to learn about the alphabet. We have been learning  letter names, <span>sign language letters</span>, we are making letters with our bodies, we are dancing and singing songs about the alphabet (ask your child about "Alligators All Around"), lower and upper case letters, initial letters for our names. and some letter sounds. We are also learning about stories, basics about books (author, illustrator, title page, dedication, how to hold books, turn pages, etc).  Some of our favorite books have been: <span style="font-style: italic"><span>Brown Bear</span>, Brown Bear, What do you see?, Alphabet Adventure and Alphabet to the Rescue, Bad Kitty, The Napping House, <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed #0066cc;cursor: pointer">Where the Wild Things Are</span>, <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed #0066cc;cursor: pointer">Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs</span></span>.

<span style="font-weight: bold">Math:</span> We are doing a lot of counting in different ways. We are learning about tallies (a way to count when you can't pick something up), different combinations to make numbers ("show me different ways to make 3, 4, 5..."), what  different quanities look like (up to 5), counting in Spanish, etc.

<span style="font-weight: bold">Science:</span> Exploring  the season change. We'll be exploring the concept of attributes next week.

<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed #0066cc;cursor: pointer">Social Studies</span>:</span> Rules for the classroom, working together, holidays

I hope you all have a great weekend. Please feel free to be in touch with me if you have any concerns about your child.