The preschool students have been working to gain an understanding of Colorado history, the state symbols, and many of our state attractions.

Mary and Michelle’s class has been learning about the history of the fur trappers, their role in Colorado history, and how the roles of Coloradoan’s differ in today’s society. They have also been exploring the book C is for Centennial.

Christin and Lois’ class has been learning about the early Anasazi Native Americans, the Silver rush, some of the early settlers in Colorado, and many of the state symbols. The children have also been able to view a short video on the history of Ft Collins and seen many images of many of our amazing state attractions. They were very impressed with both the cliff dwellings with their many rooms and ladders as well as the gold dome on the Capitol building in Denver.

The Colorado flag has been one of our cutting projects for this unit. The students have been using their many cutting skills to navigate their way through this project. They have used the strip method, cutting circles, and incorporated many skills to cut the “C.” Along with using their cutting skills, the children have learned that the colors used in the Colorado State Flag represent environmental features of the state. The gold represents the abundant sunshine enjoyed by the state. The blue symbolizes the clear blue skies of Colorado. White represents the snow capped mountains of the state and red represents the color of much of the state’s soil.

It is hard to believe that there are only 15 & 1/2 school days left before we say goodbye for the summer. With this in mind there are several very important dates to mark on your calendars.

Tuesday May 5th  –  Preschool Field Trip to Library Park

This field trip is only open to Preschoolers who are enrolled on Tuesdays. Mary and Michelle’s class will be leaving at 9:20 am and returning around 12:30 pm. Christin and Lois’ class will be leaving at 10:20 am and will be returning around 1:30 pm. Please have your child pack a paper sack lunch that is labeled with his/her name. Please send lunch items that can be recycled or thrown away. We ask that there are no reusable water bottles or ice packs. Thank you

Thursday May 7th – Spring Program at Rocky Mountain High School

The Spring program will take place at Rocky Mountain High School, 1300 West Swallow Road, Fort Collins, CO 80526. We ask that the children be in the lobby outside of the auditorium no later than 5:45 pm. This will provide us with adequate time to line up the students for their placement on the stage. If you could please encourage your child(ren) to go to the restroom prior to lining up. This helps to insure that they don’t miss any of the program due to a potty emergency.

Friday May 8th – Fun Run at Rivendell School

Preschoolers at Rivendell School will be participating in  the annual Fun Run on Friday, May 8th from 9:00 am – 9:30 am. Please remember that all sponsor forms need to be returned to the school regardless of sponsorship or no sponsorship status. If you would like to come cheer on your Preschooler we welcome you with open arms. And, if your preschooler is not normally in attendance that day, you are welcome to come join us for our running time.

Thank you for all of your time and efforts that are put into attending our school events. We know that it is a lot to keep track of and manage along with other family on goings. We look forward to seeing you all and love that you are a part of our Rivendell community.

Christin, Lois, Mary, and Michelle

Hello Preschool Parents!

“A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men.” Willy Wonka

As we approach the final stretch of the school year, the preschoolers have been working hard writing their journal pages, learning their workjobs, and having a little fun. They have grown so much since the start of the year. The once shy and timid preschoolers are now brimming with confidence and ready for their next challenges!

We have just finished our unit on mammals. Most of our preschoolers can tell you that mammals give birth to live young, nurse their babies, breathe air, and have hair/fur and backbones. They have written some very informative journal pages and drawn some beautiful animal pictures. Come check out the preschool bulletin boards.  It is amazing to witness just how much our preschoolers can comprehend of our science and humanity units.

The next unit of study will be Colorado history.  Our essential question is, ”How does our Colorado history effect the present day?” The preschoolers will be exploring the lives of the early Fort Collins’ settlers and trappers, the effects of the railroads coming to Colorado, and the silver rush. We will be going on a class tour of the cabins and school house at Library Park on May 5. (This trip is only open to Tuesday preschoolers.)

Next week, we have a couple of special events happening. Tuesday, April  21 is ‘Promotion Day’. This is open to all preschoolers moving up to Younger Kids next year.  This is an opportunity for preschoolers to visit a Younger Kids class for the morning. The preschoolers will be able to participate in a morning meeting, work session, and recess. Students should be at school by 8:20 and it ends at 10:30. Also, please pack a small snack for them to have during their morning recess. The second event is our Earth Day Celebration on Wednesday, April 22. This is only open to our Wednesday preschoolers. At 1:30, preschoolers will be joining the rest of the school and rotating through stations and learning about different ways we can take care of our planet.

At Group Sing this week, we kicked off  Fun Run, a Rivendell fundraiser.  You should have gotten a packet in your mailbox. On the morning of May 8, students will be running laps to raise money to buy new kid-friendly furniture for our commons area. Donations from a dime to ten dollars or higher a lap are welcome! The preschoolers have been practicing running laps all year. I’m betting that most of our preschoolers are able to go around the track at least eight times- or one mile !!! Parents, you can also join for the run too or just come out to cheer!

We, the preschool team, would like to thank all of you for taking the time to talk with us during conferences.

Enjoys those puddles!!

Your Preschool Team

Lois, Christin, Michele, and Mary

Our classes really enjoyed Colonial Day last week. Children had opportunities to do a carriage ride, make colonial toys, see a blacksmith at work, do the Virginia Reel, and even make butter. It was such a great event!

We are enjoying exploring some of our new math objectives with students. Our preschoolers are working on sorting objects by different attributes, 3 element patterns and many other concepts. Also, we had an opportunity this week to create pictures of mammals with pattern blocks. We talked about shapes like a trapezoid, polygon, triangle, diamonds, and squares. They really got the concept quickly and were very enthusiastic about the activity.

We are wrapping up our mammals unit and our students really have learned a lot! While working on their journal pages this week they shared about their favorite mammals and characteristics of mammals. Keep an eye out for their journal pages in the hallway!

Friday, April 10th and Monday, April 13th are our conferences. We are out of school both of these days. We are looking forward to meeting with all of you!

Reminder: All library books are due back by April 24th.

Enjoy your weekend and we are looking forward to seeing you at conferences!

The Preschool Team

Michelle, Mary, Christin, & Lois

What a glorious week we have had here at Rivendell. The students have been soaking up the sun on the playground, watching the flowers and trees bloom in the Spring weather, and enjoying going outside without packing on the snow gear.

On Thursday (April 2nd), the school will be participating in Colonial Day. The students will be rotating through stations around the school and outside on the playground. Several members of our local community will be hear to share their time and services to ensure that our students have a hands-on experience. The children will be going on wagon rides , watching a blacksmith in action, dancing with their book partners in a Colonial style wheel dance, making butter, learning what it means to spin wool as a local artisan works on a spinning wheel, and much more. We look forward to this experience and appreciate all of the time and energy it took to put this event together for our students. Please have your child wear his or her favorite Colonial outfit (skirt, tri-cornered hat, vest, or button down). We are looking forward to see our Colonial children on Thursday.

Help us celebrate Colonial Day by donating a pie for our Pie Social!  We need 13 regular pies and 2 gluten-free.  The pies MUST be store-bought because of health code regulations.  If you can donate a pie for April 2, please let the Front Office staff know.

The preschoolers are continuing to learn and explore the world of mammals. We have learned that mammals have live births, fur or hair, and mammary glands to feed their young. The students have been comparing and contrasting different types of mammals, voting for their favorite mammals, and acting out some of the sounds and motions of mammals. We will continue to dig deeper into our topic in the weeks to come.

Spring Conferences are just around the corner. Sign up sheets & reminder stickers are posted by each of the preschool classrooms. We look forward to meeting with you about your child’s progress and their goals for the next school year. If you are unable to meet with us during these times or have a schedule conflict please speak with your child’s teacher to make other arrangements.

Last but not least, Fun Run is coming in May. For those of you that have not experienced Fun Run, it is an annual Spring fundraiser for our school. The students will be bringing home sponsor sheets as we get closer to the event. The children can be sponsored per lap that they have run or as a flat donation. The children will be running around the track to help earn funds for our school. It is a blast to be out there with the children as they run through bubbles, streamers, and more. We encourage the parents to come cheer on their child(ren). The students will be running for about 30 minutes. It is amazing to see how many laps the students can run.

As a class we take several trips around the track each time we go outside in preparation for Fun Run. We ask that the closer we get to Fun Run and as the weather warms up that your child be wearing tennis shoes or running shoes to school. We have seen several children fall when wearing sandals, flip flops, and Crocs. Several families opt to leave a pair of tennis shoes here at school or in their child’s backpack and the children can change into them for outside play and P.E..  As comfortable as summer shoes are, we want our students to be safe and enjoy their time outside playing rather than spending their time getting boo-boos fixed up. Thank you for your help in this matter.

Advertising Opportunity for Local Businesses–Support healthy kids at Rivendell School!  Have your company logo featured on our Fun Run 2015 water bottles or t-shirts!  To be a sponsor, companies may donate from $100 up to $500.  If you are interested, please contact Jenda in the front office by Wednesday, April 1st.

As always, thank you for the opportunity to be a part of your child’s education and experience here at Rivendell School.

With gratitude,

Christin, Lois, Mary, and Michelle

What are warm blooded, have a backbone, possess either fur or hair, have live births, and nurse their young with milk?  You guessed it!   Mammals.

Our next unit of study is mammals. Students will learn the special traits that distinguish mammals from other classes of animals such as fish, birds, and reptiles. We will also examine mammals native to Colorado and study a few of the more unusual mammals like whales and dolphins. The preschoolers will also learn that people are mammals too.

This week we have concluded our Colonial America unit. The preschoolers have finished sewing their rice babies and dipping their candles. They learned a lot about home-life, children’s roles and responsibilities, and the customs and traditions of early Americans.

Next week is spring break. Recharge your batteries and enjoy your break and we look forward to hearing about all your adventures!

“Everything takes longer.” The preschoolers are learning that cooking was not “instant” during colonial times. We’ve made biscuits from scratch, baked them in a cast iron skillet, and ate them with honey since we had not churned any butter. The preschoolers are also learning that not every hour was spent on chores. There was time, too, for a game of leapfrog, hide the thimble, or hoop and stick. And if your family had extra money, you might also be able to take dance lessons and learn the Virginia Reel. The preschoolers have been enjoying comparing and contrasting daily life in colonial times with the present day.

This month we also celebrated Chinese New Year. The preschoolers practiced their scissor skills cutting through folded cardstock to make Chinese lanterns and used their creativity to make dragon masks. We chased away all the bad luck with loud drumming and danced in our good fortune with our lion/dragon parade. We ended our celebration feasting on oranges for luck, rice noodles for a long life, and fortune cookies for fun.

Leading the Chinese New Year Parade.

Dragon Masks

The cold weather has arrived to Fort Collins and we had to stay inside for recess for two days this week. We took this opportunity to play some board games- The Sneaky, Snacky, Squirrel Game and Hi, Ho! Cherry-O. Playing board games gives preschoolers a chance to practice some of their social skills such as taking turns, sharing, winning, and losing. It also reinforces cognitive skills like color matching, number and letter recognition, and counting while honing their small motor by using the spinner and moving the playing pieces. The preschoolers enjoyed the games and were able to play well with each other.

Stay warm and enjoy your children,
Christin, Lois, Mary, and Michelle

How was daily life different for colonial American children compared to today’s children?

Girls pouring tea in our colonial kitchen.

This is just one of the questions that we are asking the preschoolers to think about as we begin our new unit topic. So far we have learned that children owned two outfits and one pair of shoes (if he/she was wealthy.) A girl might had a doll and a boy might have had a hoop and stick or a knife to carve wood. Children bathed about twice a month and used the bath water after everyone else was done. People smelled a little stinky back then. Only a father had a chair to sit on at the dinner table while the children stood and ate. Children were responsible for gathering firewood and tending animals. The colonist might have had two rooms in their homes, but not a bathroom with a toilet. Where did they go to the bathroom? Ask the preschoolers! We are having fun comparing the past and present.

The preschoolers will also be starting a special project this month: rice babies. Similar to colonial traditions our preschoolers will be making their own rag dolls. The preschoolers will use their birth information for determining the length, weight, eye color, and hair color of their babies. Mary and Michelle’s class will start their rice babies next week and Christin and Lois’ class will begin the following week. More information will be coming home soon.

Our Valentine’s Day party is coming up at the end of next week and we are getting into the holiday spirit. We are decorating large envelopes to collect Valentine cards and will be ready for friends to distribute their cards on Monday. Also, we are making Valentine’s Day cards for our families and it has been fun to hear all the delightful reasons (..a little extra sugar on my waffles, stories at bedtime, a bike ride to the park..) why preschoolers love their families.

Thank you for being part of our Rivendell family.

Christin, Lois, Mary, and Michelle