Full Day Pre-K October 6, 2017

It was great seeing so many of you at Parents’ Night this past Wednesday. We hope you found the time to be well spent and informative. The Pre-K class is a very important year of preparation for Kindergarten and beyond. Consequently, expectations are higher and there is considerably more structure and routine associated with this class. We hope we were able to communicate how and why we implement these elements into our daily routine. With the first month of school behind us we are happy to see how well the children have settled in to their new, extended, daily routine. It takes some time for the children to develop the stamina needed for a full day, but we are pleased with their progress so far.

v One thing that the first few weeks of school have revealed to us is that this class, as a whole, is having some difficulty with drawing and writing activities. Many of the children are still learning to recognize and write the letters in their own name. This has prompted us to “come out swinging” with our Line-Printing and Handwriting Without Tears (HWT) materials/activities. These initiatives help children develop their drawing and writing skills by breaking the components of each down to their simplest elements. Children are taught the different kinds of lines (vertical, horizontal, diagonal, curved, etc.) and how these lines can be combined to create different letters, numbers, and shapes. The HWT materials help the children develop a proper pencil grip while using a variety of strategies to teach the children how to construct each letter one part at a time.

Dear Parents:

Popular Children’s Choices….. v Translucent light blocks v Watercolor painting v Smokey’s playground v Block center v Dramatic play v New gym room games v Beading v Feed the animals - tweezers

v Fine motor activities v Sand writing table v Counting activities v HWT (Handwriting Without

Tears) letter constructors v Color mixing v Patterning v Build a boat to float v Learning about germs

Above: Sink or float science experiment Left: Translucent light blocks Below left: Tweezers for fine motor development Below right: Sand writing table Learning Activities…

2

As the kids would say…

Left: HWT letter builders Right: Making patterns Lower left: Building boats Lower right: Testing our boats

v Children will continue to struggle with drawing and writing activities until their fine motor skills develop. To that end, we have also incorporated a number of activities that are designed to strengthen those small muscles and improve coordination. The writing sand table, Playdough, tweezers game, and beading projects are just a few ways that children can have fun while enhancing their fine motor control.

v Last week we invited the children to join us for a science experiment that would determine which items collected from around the room would sink/float in a large bowl of water. Children were encouraged to make predictions about each item and provide reasons to support those predictions, thereby providing insight into their thought process. This week the activity morphed into an engineering exercise. After looking at pictures of different kinds of boats, children were challenged to construct their own boat out of tinfoil. The crafts were tested for “seaworthiness” and their ability to carry a load without sinking. Through trial and error, the children strived to improve the design of their boats by making changes throughout the process. STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) activities expose children to a problem solving approach to learning that aligns with their own natural curiosity and desire to make sense of the world around them.

v Over this past week we have been working with the children on some basic math skills. The opportunity to count items as a group comes up daily in the Pre-K room, but we started working with children individually to establish one-to-one correspondence and see where their counting limit is. Many children this age have trouble counting through the teens because of the counterintuitive number names. We have also been working on patterning skills with the class. Patterning activities help children learn to predict what will come next while sharpening their logical thinking skills. Patterning activities lay the groundwork for more complex mathematical concepts going forward.

Reminders: v The annual school auction is November 4th. Be sure to mark your calendar for this

important event! v School pictures are next Wednesday 10/11.