I hope everyone has had a wonderful Spring Break! I just cannot believe April is almost here! The students have really been enjoying our STEM Unit of Study on Pets. Ms. Sydney brought in a real fish, snail, and frog for us to have as our class pets. In the dramatic play area, they have had an opportunity to work in and visit a pet store, be pet groomers, and explore being veterinarians. In our afternoon class, a family member of one of our students came in and talked about her experiences as a veterinarian. Next week, a pet groomer is going to come in andspeak with both classes and give the students an opportunity to explore some of the tools she uses for her job. We will end the unit with a Design Challenge where students will work together to design a pet carrier to get an animal home from the shelter. Our last Unit of Study will be Robotics. For this unit, students will have opportunities to work with Cubelets, program Bee Bots and Code-A- Pillars, and explore Dot and Dash. STEM Profile of the Month: Creative“I use my imagination while making, building, and doing things.”Books to encourage being creative:Beautiful Oops! by Barney Saltzbergthe Dot by Peter Reynolds PALS AssessmentIn April, all students going on to Kindergarten will be assessed on PALS (Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening). This is a tool that will be used in Kindergarten to determine your child’s literacy needs. Implementing the screening at the end of preschool helps us to review our practices to make sure we are targeting literacy skills that students will need to be successful in kindergarten. It also assists us in tracking regression over the summer since the test will be administered again right at the beginning of kindergarten. Once theassessments have been completed, we will send the results home for you to see. School CarnivalOur School Carnival is Friday, April 20 from 5 pm-7 pm (soft start from 4 pm-5 pm for students with Special Needs). Students love this event! There will be fun games, prizes, and yummy food! Hope to see you there! Working With Your Child At HomeThank you so much for your continued support working with your child on their homework! A large number of students have mastered identifying all of their letters and letter sounds, and several more students are very close to reaching that achievement. Your help in reinforcing the work we are doing at school is really paying off! Please continue to work with your child on numeral recognition. Those numerals between 10-20 are still really tricky for many students! One thing that students like to do in class to work on this is to identify the numeral on a flashcard and then they have to do that many of something. For example, show them a numeral 12, have them identify the numeral, and then have them do 12 jumping jacks while counting the numbers out loud. Another area where students are having some difficulty is following multi-step directions. To work on this at home, practice giving your child a list of 2-4 things to do at once. For example, “Hang up your jacket, get your folder out of your backpack, and then hang up your backpack.” This is a really, really important skill for students to have when going on to kindergarten. Important DatesApril 2: Return from Spring BreakApril 12: PTO-Sponsored Pajama Day-Bring $1 and wear your PJ’s to schoolApril 19: PBIS Reward-Student ChoiceApril 19: Evacuation Drill (PM class only)April 20: School Carnival: 5 pm-7 pm (4 pm-5 pm: Soft opening for Special Needsstudents)