Author Archives: Miss Sarah


About Miss Sarah

TThF Pre-K Teacher; School Director

Art Show

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Dear Families,

We look forward to seeing you tonight at our school wide ART SHOW!  Our VPP Art Gallery will open at 6:00pm and will close at 7:30pm.  It is Open House style so please feel free to come at the time that works for you and stay as little or as long as you like.  The whole family is invited!

If you are painting a tile, please plan to start painting before 7:15 (earlier is even better!) as you will need to be finished by 7:30.  Tiles are $10 and cash or checks will be accepted.

The children made lemonade and cookies which will be served on the front patio, and tile painting will be in the activity area.  The back yard, as well as all toys, will be closed for the evening.

The children’s art will be displayed by class in the following locations:

MW & TTh Preschool – Block Room

MWF  Pre-K – Library

TThF Pre-K – Math & Science Area

Kinderprep – Kitchen

The children have worked hard preparing for the show and are excited to show you their creations!  We look forward to seeing you tonight!

 

Leslie, Tess, Ashley, Viki, Vinnie and Sarah

painting pallet

Christmas Costume Party

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Dear Families,

We had SO much fun this morning at the Christmas Costume Party!  The children decorated and made posters during free choice time and their team work led to a lovely school.

Inara’s dad, JP, rocked on the guitar and had everyone jamming to the preschool holiday favorites; Jingle Bells, We Wish you a Merry Christmas and Rudolph.  Of course no Christmas Costume party is complete without celebrating everyone’s birthday and Thanksgiving, so by request, we also sang Happy Birthday and I’m Glad I’m not a Turkey!

You can see the first batch of pictures on the website, and I know there were lots of cameras so I’m sure more will be posted soon!

I truly can’t imagine a more fun place to go to work each day!

Sarah

This week in TThF Pre-K

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Dear Families,

It was great seeing so many of you at the Pancake Breakfast this weekend.  A big thank you to Inara’s mom Terri, and her social committee, for all their hard work!

This week we will continue with our Gingerbread Man activities.  Last Friday the class had fun writing their own Gingerbread Stories. They are hanging above the math table if you would like to read them. This week they will use their imagination and acting skills as we act out the story of the Gingerbread Man and use their cutting, gluing and puzzle skills to create a paper gingerbread house.

Tess’s class will be making gingerbread cookies this week, and thanks to her generously offering to make an extra batch of dough…so will we!  We will roll, cut and bake them on Tuesday and then decorate them on Thursday.

On Friday we will make our famous Valley Parent Gingerbread Houses out of graham crackers, frosting and yummy decorations!

I’m looking forward to another fun filled week!

Sarah

TThF Pre-K

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Dear Families,

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving break.  My family and I enjoyed the week visiting my parents and grandparents in Indian Wells, which is near Palm Desert.  It was nice to get away, but I’m ready to get back to school!

This week we will be using the beautiful fall colors around us as inspiration for our activities.  Tomorrow we will read the book Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert, make leaf people, and use leaves to sort and sequence by color and size.  On Thursday we will use our hands and fingers to make falling leaf pictures and on Friday we will do a fun experiment with leaves, heat and melting crayon wax.  It’s always a big hit!

We will also finish sewing the blankets we made for Project Night Night.  It has been so special to talk to the children about their special blankets at home and that we are making these cozy blankets for children who don’t have any.  I can tell how much they enjoy sewing so it is something we will continue to do throughout the year.

As we head in the holiday season I’d love to know what holidays the children in our class celebrate.  Please reply back to me directly (not reply all) letting me know if and what holiday(s) your family celebrates this time of year.

I’ve missed you and I’m looking forward to seeing all of you tomorrow!

Sarah

“Sew” Good to Give Back

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The children at VPP are excited to participate in an event that will benefit kids just like them who are going through difficult times.

In addition to collecting new books and teddy bears for Project Night Night, we are also sewing blankets to be given to the children.  Many have talked about their special blankets at home and are excited to help make a cozy blanket for a child that does not have one to keep them warm.  It is sew good to give back!

 

 

 

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Good morning, Families!

I hope you all enjoyed the beautiful weather this weekend!

This week we will continue to practice our song to present to you at our Thanksgiving Feast on November 15th, talk about what it means to be thankful, water color our own thankful leaves, and begin transforming the library in to “Our Wonderful World” by creating a handprint world with Miss Tess’s class, designing paper people that look just like us, using stars, silk and bleeding tissue paper to create a dark sacred night, and creating a sun for our bright blessed day. It will be a busy week! 

I invite you to add to our Thankful Tree that is hanging in the activity area.  There is a basket of leaves on the sign in table that you can write what you are thankful for on and give to the teacher to hang on the tree!

On Friday I will be attending a field trip to the Fremont Mission with my daughter and Miss Viki will be teaching our class.  The children will bake something for our feast and do a dictation and drawing called “I’m thankful for my family because…”

Please remember our feast is scheduled for November 15th at 10:30 am.  Your family (immediate and extended!) is invited to celebrate with us as we sing songs and enjoy good food together, celebrating all that we have to be thankful for!  A sign-up list is hanging above the front table.

See you tomorrow!

Sarah

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Hello VPP Families,

We had another fun month at preschool!  The children are growing and learning each day and they have really settled in to the school routine.  Thank you for all of your support and hard work in the classroom and on your committees.  Your parent power is what makes our school so special!

Please see the school info below and as always, feel free to contact me or a board member if you have any questions.

Talk Over (morning class only)  In past years the teachers & co-oping parents have ended our day with a short meeting called Talk Over.  As teachers we have really missed this time to connect and share at the end of the day, and it came through on the survey that some of our returning parents miss it as well.  Starting this week, we will be having an optional talk over time from 11:45-11:55.  This is a time to discuss any observations, questions or feedback from the day, as well as general parenting or early childhood topics.

Recycled Materials  The children love building and creating with recycled materials!  Our stash is running low and we are in need of the following items… paper towel and toilet paper tubes, tissue boxes, egg cartons, old CD’s, calendars and magazines with animal pictures, small boxes etc.  We would also love any of the plastic rectangle baby food containers with lids.

Thanksgiving Family Feasts  Our Family Feasts are on November 14th and 15th from 10:30-11:30 for the morning classes and on November 15th from 2:30-3:30 for the afternoon class.  We hope you and your family will join us at school for singing and a special meal together.  A sign up list for each class will be posted above the front table and we invite you to bring one of the listed items or a dish that is part or your family and traditions.  We look forward to sharing these special days with you!

Thank you again for all your hard work and for being a part of our community.

With Much Appreciation,

Sarah

Pumpkin Pie Cups

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Here is the recipe for the yummy pumpkin pie cups the TThF kids made today!

Pumpkin Pie Cups

Ingredients

  • 2 small packages of instant vanilla pudding
  • 1 1/3 cups milk
  • 1 16oz can of pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
  • 1 1/2t. pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon
  • 2 cups of unsweetened whip cream
  • Graham crackers

Directions

  • Smash up a large graham cracker and place at the bottom of a cup
  • Mix pudding and milk until just blended
  • Stir in pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice and whip cream
  • Scoop pumpkin mix on top of crust
  • Refrigerate for 10 minutes.

October 22 TThF Pre-k Update

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Dear Families,

It’s raining!  This is my favorite weather so I’m happy to see the forecast calls for a few more rainy days.  Please send your child with rain boots and a rain jacket if possible as we do make parts of the yard available to the children on wet days.  It’s great to explore the yard in different weather and see how the rain changes things.  Worms come out in the dirt, the sand makes great castles, and rain drops lead to all sort of cool experiments! Of course, splashing in puddles is fun too :)

Last week we continued to use the unifix cubes to measure and sort things. The children really enjoy this.  We read a funny ghost story, made ghost prints with our hands and feet, and wrote our own spooky and silly stories.  We also read The Little Old Lady that was not Afraid of Anything and acted it out using props.

At circle we’ve started using the children’s names instead of BINGO to sing our song.  The children enjoy having their turn in the spotlight and it’s a great way to begin introducing the letters in each of their names. It is also a great exercise in patience as we do just 2 or 3 names a day.  They’re doing a wonderful job waiting for their turn!

Another favorite felt story/chant is This is Jack.  If you’ve worked recently, you have probably heard us doing it over and over and over and over…..  They LOVE it!  I’ve decided to build on their enthusiasm and use this story to plan our weeks activities.  Over the next few days each child will cut our and decorate their happy, sad, sleepy and mad Jack as well as their “pieces small” and on Thursday we will make pumpkin pie cups because as our song says “in a pie he’s best of all!”  Here are the words if you’d like to say it with your child at home.

This is Jack-o-Happy

This is Jack-o-Sad

This is Jack-o-Sleepy

This is Jack-o-Mad

This is Jack in pieces small

But in a pie he’s best of all!

On Friday we will bake pumpkin muffins during free choice time and paint and decorate mini pumpkins during our small group time.

Tuesday morning I am driving on a field trip with my son’s second grade class.  We’re headed to Trader Joe’s for a behind the scenes tour.  Tess will be subbing for me for the first part of the day and I will be back for most of small group.

Please remember to take a few minutes to fill out our fall survey.  Your comments and thoughts are valuable and we appreciate you taking the time to share them with us!  http://vpp.wufoo.com/forms/vpp-fall-survey-2012/

I’m looking forward to seeing all of you tomorrow!

Sarah

Science Day Update

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using carbon dioxide to inflate a balloon

Thank you to all the families that joined us for Science Day. We had a wonderful time and hope you did as well.

We’d especially like to thank all the teachers and parents that volunteered, and Pediatric Dentist and VPP Parent, Dr. Goyal, at All Smiles Kids Dentistry for his generous donation towards the event.

Please email us if you’d like any of the recipes or experiments from Science Day and we’d be happy to share!

popping a dry ice bubble

fishing with magnets

 

 

digging for dinosaur fossils

 

drip painting down ramps

dry ice bubbles

color explosions