Aspen Elementary School

Our PreK Team is back and hard at work preparing for the new school year!
We hope you have all had an enjoyable summer and were able to spend quality time with family and friends.
We are excited about our program's new location at Aspen as well as our new neighbors. We have moved all the PreK classrooms to the wing near the main office and have been joined by Hawthorn's new Early Childhood Special Education classrooms. Except for the Tech lab, we have this wing dedicated to the 3-5 year olds. This will allow us to use the hallway and beautiful courtyard for Gross Motor skill development such as bike and scooter riding, bowling and many more fun and developmental activities.
In addition to fun for the children, we have also planned several fun activities for families for 2008-2009. Our first field trip will be October 2 to Lincoln Park Zoo. A Zoo unit will be incorporated into our first few weeks of school as well as some follow up activities subsequent to our trip. The children really look forward to this trip so we hope you are able to take some time from your very busy schedules to attend. Remember, we will be going no matter the weather. Last year we had hats and gloves and the year before we wore shorts, so be prepared!

Thanks to all our great families for being a part of our 2007-2008 school year.
We continue to work getting our class lists and classrooms ready for 2008-2009. We are looking forward to continuing to work with our returning families and well as many of the new families accepted into PreK. We will be adding more families after our August screening sessions.
One notable change for our program is a change for some busing impacting AM or PM placements. The subdivisions of Plymouth Farms and Centennial Crossing have traditionally been PM attendees but this year will be AM. Westwood will continue to be a part of PM classes.

Some important dates for the fall!

Teachers will be returning August 21.

Screenings are scheduled for:
8/26
8/27
8/28
Home Visits fro returning students:

Tuesday 9/2

It is so hard to believe that we are nearing the end of this school year. As I sort through the pictures from the year while making a slideshow for Hawaiian night, I noticed the changes in the faces of the children. They have really matured!
Our four year olds are ready for Kindergarten while the threes are ready to move to fours.
We have some really exciting, fun events planned in the short time we have left.
Our Hawaiian night is soon approaching with lots of food and fun. Please be sure to return your RSVP slips or respond by emailing Mrs. Sanks at sanksc@hawthorn73.org. Have your family wear their Hawaiian shirts for the complimentary family photo. The PreK staff will be "camped out" at Castle Park in Vernon Hills if any of you would care to join us. This is great park and place to gather. Feel free to join us for a one hour play time. Watch for the flyer in your child's backpack!

April is here and for PreK that means we are thinking about the end of this year and preparing for next. We are lining up screening appointments for the end of May and early June. If you know a family that may be interested in PreK, please have them call the PreK office @ 990-4377 to prepare the paperwork so we can set a screening date. Not to sound too cliche, but they are going fast!
In the classroom we are in the midst of an author study of Eric Carle. The children love Eric Carle books and we are paying close attention to the artwork and practicing some of his technique. Many of Mr. Carle's books are about animals, a topic the children really enjoy. We have caterpillars in the classroom and have done quite a bit of work with The Very Hungry Caterpillar getting ready for our butterflies.

We are ready for March with the hope that the new month will bring warmer weather!
We are ready for the playground as well as no boots, no scarves, no snowpants......in general a speedier getting ready to go home time!!
The children have really learned to be so independent, we are very proud of how self sufficient they have become!
February ended with great fun as we had pajama day! The children and teachers loved coming to school in their pj"s! They loved the story, "Llama, Llama, Red Pajamas."
Visit our website to see the update photos!

http://www.hawthorn73.org/~bartuskas/PreK/Home.html

March is a busy month with lots of days off! As well as spring break, our PreK staff will be attending the Illinois PreK and Kindergarten conference on March 6 and 7. We are looking forward to learning many new and exciting things to bring back to our classrooms.