Utopia Preschool

What a great way to end the week—we were up to our neck this morning with assorted candies, marshmallows, pretzels and royal icing decorating our gingerbread houses. It was really interesting to see the children create the roof, windows, and even the landscape of their edible homes. Come visit our classroom to see the colorful gingerbread houses. Thanks, Denise for supplying all the materials! We have a week to go and we are off for the next two weeks for the Christmas holiday. But before then, here are some important dates and events to remember: Dec 15 th , Wednesday at 7pm—Christmas program at the gym Dec 16 th , Thursday—Utopia closes at 5pm Dec 17 th , Friday—Christmas potluck, everyone is invited (even those who don’t come on Fridays!) School closes at 12:15. There have been several students who have been out sick. Let’s spread love and not germs; so don’t forget to always wash hands. Stay healthy!

It’s beginning to look and smell a lot like Christmas in Utopia. Cinnamon is in the air and sparkles and glitters are everywhere. We have been working like little elves doing holiday decorations decking the tree in and out of the classroom. The bulletin board is filled with eye-popping trees all hand-made by the children. We are truly grateful for the parent participation. Thank you to everyone who signed up to make crafts. On Dec 15th at 7pm, our very own Utopia children will be with the rest of the STM students singing Christmas carols in the gym. Hopefully, this website will help your children learn the song faster and sing with more gusto! http://www.links2love.com/christmas-songs-chipmunk-song.htm See you all on Sunday for the STM Winter Faire. Skip breakfast at home and fill-up with free pancakes before or after the 10AM Family Mass. Join us for this special STM Christmas tradition.

The Thanksgiving preparation in Utopia is in full swing. The crockpots are waiting and the children are excited. We have most of the ingredients we need for our stone soup. Thank you to everyone who brought them in. We are planning to make three different kinds of soup—chicken, tomato, and butternut squash. Please plan to come on Wednesday at 10:30. Remember Utopia closes at 12:15 that day. Last weekend, the teachers attended a conference that focused, among other things, on the advantages of Self Talk. This strategy is found to be effective for children who need help developing expressive language. Self-Talk is when the adult describes what he or she is doing without expecting the child to answer. This is especially helpful in building vocabulary. For example: Let’s make hot chocolate for breakfast. I am getting milk from the fridge. I am pouring it in your favorite cup. Here is our powdered cocoa from the pantry. I’ll get 2 scoops of powdered coc...

Do you want to know what your children are thankful for? Check the Utopia bulletin board to the left of our classroom door in the first floor hallway. Our students jotted down the specific things that they are thankful for. Their written thoughts will be very timely for our long-awaited family get-togethers during Thanksgiving week. Earlier in the week, our young marine biologists played with crab and mussel shells along with fresh seaweed in our water table. They also explored miniature sea anemone and hermit crab toys with their curious little fingers. This is to prepare them for next week’s activity of constructing our very own tide pools. For Language Arts, we have already begun activities that deal with phonemic awareness, which is “the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate the individual sounds (or phonemes) in spoken words.” For example, the kids have to identify the beginning sound of the words “chair” (ch) and “table” (t). The emphasis is on the...

Our young Utopians remain fascinated by our lessons on tide pools. Our ongoing discussion this week focused on using different senses to identify different types of water. We separated one gallon of ocean water from another gallon of tap water and asked the kids to perform a simple experiment. They looked, smelled, and tasted both types of water and identified each of their sensory characteristics. We certainly had fun taking that mini plunge with them in the classroom. Another highlight this week was the dental screening. A dental hygienist / nurse visited our classroom and talked to the children about the proper way to brush their teeth, emphasizing brushing frequency (3 times a day), toothbrush texture (soft bristles), and brush size (children’s size). The representative also discussed the importance of eating healthy and exercising frequently. At the end of the day, our kids had a healthy goodie bag that they took home – complete with a kids’ toothbrush and a...

Because of the excellent turnout and cooperative weather, this year’s Halloween parade was a huge success. There were so many superstars that graced the Utopia contingent – Princess Tiana, Iron Man, Bumblebee, Yoshi, Snow White, Spider-man, Thomas the Train, Jango Fett, Batgirl, Daphne, and so many more! We had fun walking around the playground, out to the sidewalk, and into Alma Via, where we visited our dear friends. Thanks to all the residents for filling our homemade goodie bags. The parade ended with thirty happy Utopians returning to the playground and back into the classroom. Piggybacking on last week’s science lessons, we continued our exploration of tide pools. Our scientific inquiry focused on the students’ ability to notice details and wonder about future outcomes. Once again, if you happen to visit any Bay Area beaches (although this might be tricky due to the unpredictable weather), please take home any shells and bring them to school. Also, if you have any books th...

Come one, come all. Everyone is invited, in costume or not (preferably in), to join the school wide Halloween parade on Friday, Oct. 29. All Broncos, from Pre-K to 8 th grade, will be garbed in spooky and funny outfits, and our parade should be a hilarious spookfest! Remember, this will be a regular school day for Utopia. The parade will begin at 1:05. Last week’s lessons on birds have provided us with memorable teachable moments. We have now left the skies and turned out attention to the seas. Our focus this coming week will be on tide pools and the creatures that inhabit them. The children will learn about these bodies of water that are quite common in the numerous beaches of the Bay Area. If you have the opportunity, please visit our beautiful beaches and observe the tide pools with your children. Collect seashells and seaweeds, and have your kids bring them to class. The trip to the pumpkin patch was a success. We went on a hayride and took the...

We began the week by learning a new skill – syllable counting. The students had fun clapping and chanting the syllables of their respective names: “Ti – mo – thy” “Scar –lett” “Ni – cho – las” By playing this syllable counting game with them, the children recognized that a word is composed of different sounds that are put together. These sounds are called phonemes. You can certainly play the same game with your kids at home. Just chant and clap to the different syllables of your favorite words. As an art project, we asked each children to decorate the first letter of their names. Taking it a step further, we asked them to think of other words that began with the same letter. Though we talked about these related words, we focused on the sound each letter makes. Expect cute little works of Ms or Ys in your child’s compilation of work. What would our week be like without food? This Friday morning, Charlie Maranon, Gabriella’s dad, graciously sha...

During the week, teachers Tina and Michelle took their Pre-K students and worked in their respective small groups. The children are becoming accustomed to their little families in school. Birds! With help from the California Academy of Sciences, we were introduced to a brand new curriculum focusing on our avian friends. The activity in which the kids were engrossed was focused on nest building. They collected dried grass, twigs, and dried leaves from the yard. Then they combined these natural materials and constructed bird homes as part of our arts and crafts session. We also discussed different characteristics of birds while doing this hands-on activity. Mud! Also part of our science curriculum, we experimented with mud. Our curious apprentices gathered soil and mixed it with water. They hoped to use that mud to make sure that their natural materials – grass, twigs, and leaves – would stick together and solidify their aforementioned nests. The smiling...

Junior Scientists Utopia and California Academy of Sciences A consultant from the California Academy of Sciences is working closely with Utopia in building the basic skill of scientific inquiry among the students. For the next few weeks, we have on loan from the Academy of Sciences materials that would inspire the children to make observations, ask questions, make and test predictions, and share the learning with other people. Out first unit is Busy Birds. Here is an excerpt of a big group discussion conducted by Lee, the consultant from the Academy of Sciences: Teacher: How do birds move? Children flapping wings, “I’m a carnivore” T: Where do birds live? Children: nest (as they are still flapping wings) T: What do birds do in their nests? Children: sit on the eggs T: Why? Children: to keep warm to hatch T: What do you know about nests? Children: made of sticks, wood Children: birds eat worms Children: little nest Children: Where are the eggs? T: What do they do in the nest? Children: ...

We talked about the different kinds of emotions. Students shared what makes them happy, sad, mad, and excited. Being happy, sad, excited, and mad are emotions that are normal. It was interesting to note that the children thought that being mad was not okay. We talked about it in class, and we concluded that being mad is normal and is okay. Hurting someone because you are mad, however, is not acceptable. As we continue to explore our feelings, we will continue to talk about different emotions and behavior. Play Dough We made our very own play dough in school this week. The children measured, poured, and mixed the ingredients, and the teachers cooked the dough until it was soft and pliable. We enjoyed kneading and shaping the dough into different shapes. Garden Harvest We harvested several ears of corn from our vegetable garden. They were cooked and served for lunch last week. The children are eagerly anticipating the harvest of the other garden vegetables. Pa...

The play structure was finally ready to use this week. The Pre-k students had the opportunity to use it and they loved it! It was challenging for most to swing on the monkey bars, but that didn’t stop them from trying. For safety, I check if the child knows how to fall on both feet with knees bent, before I let them try the bars. Chef of the Week was a success. Yvonne (Elisa’s mom) helped the children prepare Elmo pizzas using English muffin, tomato sauce, and mozzarella cheese. Olives, cherry tomatoes, and cheddar cheese were used to make Elmo’s eyes, nose, and mouth. If you are wondering why your child’s lunch seems untouched today, the pizza was prepared right before lunch and some children ate their very own creation. With the cooking success today, we are looking forward to our regular parent cooking activities. YUM! For the first few weeks of school, we will talk about how to be a good friend and how to be safe in school. This week we talked about th...

We apologize for the delayed posting. We tried posting this last week and we thought we were successful. We only found out later that it didn't make it to our pre-k blog. Hopefully, the second try is a charm. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Happy first week of school! Going back to school can be both exciting and overwhelming for young children. It will take some time for them to adjust to their teachers, their classmates, and the new environment. Please help them with the transition by dropping them in school on time and picking them up on time. Making Good Choices Independence is one of our goals in Utopia. Please consider this when helping your child choose the clothes to wear and food to bring for lunch. The teachers will always be there to assist but we want to empower your child by allowing him to choose what food to eat and how much food to eat. Small portions of a variety of food from the different food groups work best. Curriculum We use emergent...

End of the Year Potluck Luau Our end of the year potluck is only days away! Our party will start early so feel free to join us as early as you would like! We will eat around 11:30. We would love more people to join our decorating committee so sign up if you can help out! See you June 30th! *Summer session begins July 6th* Spirit week was so much fun! We were all so comfy on pajama day! On backwards day we had a special surprise! Alex’s dad Ted is a police officer and he and his partner came in a police car and motorcycle! We sat in the police car and on the motorcycle! We had so much fun! Alex and Austin on the motorcycle Our new friend Logan Our special snack on pajama day Watch the road Talia! Our Group Police Shot

June 4th, 2010 - This week we started putting together a classroom cookbook. Each student told a teacher about a recipe that they love to eat and know how to make. The titles of each student’s dish is posted on the parent board. Every family should have received a recipe form. We are asking all families to return the form with either the recipe for the dish your student told us OR a family-favorite recipe. PLEASE RETURN YOUR RECIPE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE – NO LATER THAN TUESDAY 6/8 . We only have a few weeks left and we need to put the book together and ensure that all families receive one. - We made a classroom quilt this week! Each student decorated a piece of felt with fabric markers and puffy paint. All students were asked to draw something that made them happy – many chose to draw their families. We are planning on putting the quilt together and hanging it by the end of the year potluck. - Starting Wednesday June 9th drop off and pick up will be through our side gates . One of the te...

We hope everyone enjoys their 3 day weekend! Memorial day is Monday May 31st!Only one month left of school for Utopia Preschool! Thursday June 3rd we will have a special breakfast for those kids who will not be here for our end of the school year potluck! Our end of the school year potluck will be on Wednesday June 30th at 11:30 am! Everyone is invited to join us this day even if it is not your child's regular school day. We hope that everyone will be able to bring in something to share with the class! This day will be a minimal day. School will dismiss at 12:30! Summer session begins Tuesday July 6th! Please make sure to fill out the summer registration form if you plan on having your child attend any of the sessions. Please remember to return your book swap bag!If you lose a book please notify us right away. Have a fun-filled weekend!

May 21, 2010 * This week we started our Utopia book swap. The book bags were sent out on Thursday and need to be returned by TUESDAY. Each bag has three books in it – please ensure that the bags are returned on time with all three books inside. Also, when returning the bags, please write the bag # on your students checkout card. *Our Dance Festival was a success! Thank you for joining us! All the children were so excited to perform in front of their parents and the “Big Kids” of St. Thomas More. Everyone couldn’t wait to wear their special shirts that we made ourselves and worked so hard on all week! * This week we began drawing family pictures. We took down the family pictures that were hanging on the branches and put them on the table so the children could look at the pictures while drawing! We are going to continue working on this art project next week. We have posted the completed ones in our dramatic play area. * Thursday June 17th we are going to have an end of the school year a...

Thursday May 20th at 7 pm we will be performing at the Dance Festival! We have decorated special shirts that we will wear the night of the performance! We are hoping that every student will be able to participate in the performance! During our performance we will be lying on the floor and rolling around so keep that in mind when choosing what bottoms your child will wear. If you plan on your child wearing a skirt make sure that you put leggings or short underneath. We are starting a new program: Utopia’s Book Swap! * Here’s the deal: We made 26 bags with three books inside each bag. Every Thursday each student will choose one bag. The student, with the help of the parent, will find his or her checkout card. He/she will then write the number of the bag next to the corresponding date when he/she checks the bag out. * The bags need to be returned on the following Tuesday. When they are returned, the students need to find their checkout cards and write the number of the bag they are return...

* HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY! Have a fabulous Sunday! * On Thursday, May 6th, Olivia Jimenez and Liane Louie-Badua (Ryan and Kai’s mommies) cooked us a fabulous lunch. The Jimenez family is from the island of Guam so they cooked us traditional Chamorro (the indigenous people of Guam) food. It included red rice, BBQ chicken, potato salad, and finedene sauce. Everyone had the opportunity to taste each item and several of our students especially enjoyed the red rice. Our class loves learning about different cultures! THANK YOU OLIVIA and LIANE! * We added two apple trees to our garden this week! One is a Fuji apple tree and the other is a Gala apple tree. They are about 5ft. tall, with lots of buds, and one tiny apple already growing on the Gala. We also transplanted our sunflowers into our biggest flowerbed. These sunflowers were originally planted in tiny containers as seeds. They are about 2-3 in. tall and growing strong. * Today, Friday May 7th, our class went to see a special opera performan...

April 30, 2010 * This week we have had so much fun making the best gifts a mother could ever want! But we can’t tell you what we made….it’s a surprise! We have also been practicing a lot on our dance festival performance! The performance will be on May 20th at 7:00pm. * On Thursday we read a story about Anansi the Spider. In the story Anansi weaves a web to catch a warrior’s good dreams! We began making our own dream catchers by painting the cut out rim of a paper plate. Next week we will continue the project by weaving yarn through holes punched in the plate and adding feathers and leaves to the bottom. They will eventually either hang from our ceiling in the classroom or, if your child does not stay for nap, be sent home to hang in your house. These dream catchers will ward off bad dreams and only send us good dreams. We will be a room full of happy nappers! * Exciting news! Another new addition to our beautiful garden will be a new mural that students from the elementary school will...

Reminders: Please remember to return your re-registration forms if your child is returning to Utopia preschool next school year. Forms are due back April 30th. We have a new parent board in the cubby area to make sure we are keeping parents informed. Take a look at it when dropping off or picking up! May 20th we will be performing at the school Dance Festival! The Festival will be at 7pm. We hope that everyone will be able to join us! We will be the first to perform so we will all walk in together. When our performance is over all children will go back and sit with their parents to enjoy the rest of the show. May 17th we have no school. It is a student holiday. May 31st we are also closed in observance of Memorial Day. Things we did this week: In celebration of Earth day during morning circle on Thursday April 22nd the children answered the question, “What can we do to help on Earth day?” Every response was different and unique! In our “bounce area” we have a display of each child’s ...

Our Summer school brochure went out last week. If you have not received one, they are next to the parent sign in sheet. Please let us know if you are interested (sooner the better). The re-registration form for Fall 2010 will be going out this week. There is a $200.00 fee that will be applied towards your child’s first semester tuition fee. There will be a payment box on top of the sign in area for dropping off registration forms and fees, both of which are due by Friday, April 30th 2010. Rather than giving the forms and fees to Sister Patricia, I would like to collect them myself and turn them in together to her. Earth Day: some of the children (one in particular) are excited about planting an apple tree, so we were hoping that you the parents would be interested in donating any amount to fund the project. On Friday, April 16th, we visited Alma Via. We walked across the street making sure that we looked both ways and used the crosswalks. We entered into a large room where many of the...

* This week was our last full week before our spring break. Next school week is only four days. Thursday, April 1st, is an early dismissal at 12:30. All students and parents are welcome to attend school on Thursday for a special Easter egg hunt that will begin at 11am. We will not have a blog update next week. Therefore, we wish all of our families a wonderful Easter break. Enjoy the time off and, hopefully, the good weather! Heidi will not be at school next week. She will be visiting her sister in Hawaii until April 12th (when school resumes). She wishes everyone the best! * Our garden is looking better and better everyday! We would love for everyone to bring in a plant from their garden to add to ours! We also still have our giving tree up right next to the sign-in area if you would like to donate anything else to our garden! We would really appreciate it if families could donate things for our dramatic play area also! * Kool-Aid Play Dough: This week we experimented making play do...

Easter egg hunt: on April 1st we would like to invite all parents and children to join us and participate in an Easter Egg Hunt! We are inviting everyone to join us at 11:00 am to hide the eggs in our garden. Then all the children will go on an egg hunt with our hand-made baskets (if you haven’t yet please bring in a milk / juice carton or strawberry basket). After the egg hunt we will have an early dismissal at 12:30 and start spring break! School resumes on April 12th. Donations for interest area: in order to enhance our dramatic play area we would like all our parents to donate items! These items do not need to be store bought – we would more than love old clothes as well as items from parents who work in the medical, dental, fire, safety, postal, and science fields! We really appreciate all donations! Student volunteers: over the past few months Utopia has been fortunate enough to benefit from the assistance of two students from the upper grades, Elliott, an eighth grader, and Jona...

March 12th, 2010 Updates about the past week Fish Tank Project: after adding four new fish to our two fish tanks, the kids were very excited, and all seemed to express a strong interest in sea life. So: a good number of the children worked with Teacher Michelle to create the classroom’s very own “fish tank” that is now up in the dramatic play area. We used yellow, green, purple and red paint on blue turquoise butcher paper as the water background. After painting the water, we worked very hard on making a fish stencil. After this, we used scissors to cut them out and presto, our fish were here! After we colored them in – using paint, dobbers, markers, crayons, and / or stickers – we cut tape and taped the fish up on our “fish tank.” Then we thought the fish tank needed more than just fish after reading Ten Friendly Fish, so we made starfish as well as more fish, this time with sponges, and added them with the others. Making their own fish tank was a great way for the kids to discuss the...

MARCH 4TH, 2009 This week we welcomed two brothers to our classroom, Bradley and Zachary. The boys adjusted quickly to our program and have already made friends. Our kids are awesome at welcoming new people into their lives. REMINDERS – * We will be closed on Friday, March 12th for a school holiday. * Thursday, April 1st will be a minimal day for the start of the Easter vacation. UPDATES – * Thursday, March 4th: The children really enjoyed making bread and eating our cauliflower pasta. We also visited the Skylab (a planetarium presentation in our school gym) which was scary for some at first but turned out to be exciting and educational! * Throughout the past month, several of our students expressed concerns for our solitary black and orange fish. So we purchased two more black and orange fish, an algae eater, and a beta fish. To keep harmony in the tanks, we keep our lovely blue beta fish in a separate tank on the other side of our room. The children have become very interested in mar...

Welcome to our blog! UPCOMING EVENTS: - Thursday (March 4th) ALL children are invited to attend school to take part in the Skylab (planetarium) presentation from 9:30 am to 10:30 am. In addition, we will harvest our cauliflower plant and make roasted cauliflower pasta with the children and fresh baked bread. This will be offered at lunchtime but feel free to send a small snack or a regular lunch with your child in case the pasta doesn’t suit his or her taste. All parents are welcome and encouraged to join us for lunch at 11:30 - please let us know if you plan on coming! - Some of the staff attended a training workshop at the Presidio this past weekend at a school that follows the Reggio Emilia approach. As the director, I am very interested in most (if not all) of the approach, and am very excited to learn more and begin to implement it within the classroom. More information to follow. However, in the meantime, if you would like to look into this on your own, you can go to www.reggioal...