Ms. Nicky’s and Ms. Sydney’s News

Thank you to all of you for taking the time to come to conferences! It was nice to meet with all of you to discuss your child’s accomplishments. We just wrapped up our STEM Unit of Study on Weather. During this unit, we talked a lot about the different characteristics of each season, what weather we might see in each season, how we might dress, and fun activities to do in each season. After our Dr. Seuss week, we will start a STEM Unit of Study on Pets. During this unit, we will discuss what a pet is, where pets live, how you care for pets, and how pets can help us. ​If you have a pet at home, could you please send in a picture? If you don’t want to print one out, you can email it to me and I can do it. ​ We will end the unit with a Design Challenge where students will have to work together to design a pet carrier to get an animal home from the shelter. If you are an expert on pets, or know someone who is, we would love for them to come in and talk to our class! It would be great to have a veterinarian or a pet groomer come for a visit!

STEM Profile of the Month: Open-Minded

“I know that people are different and may do different things. I know that not everyone will think like me. I listen, value, and try to understand others.”

Some books to encourage being open-minded: Friends, ​by Rob Lewis
Different, Just Like Me​, by Lori Mitchell

Thursday Folders

Please make sure you send in your child’s Thursday folder each Monday. Ms. Sydney fills them through the week, so it’s much easier for her to complete this task if we have everyone’s folders. Thank you for your help with this!

Working With Your Child at Home

I have started using a program called Story Champs in our classroom to target l​anguage and literacy skills such as social communication, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension. When using this curriculum, we talk about certain elements of a story including ​Character, Problem, Feeling, Action,​ and ​Ending​.

When reading with your child at home, it would be helpful if you use this terminology to ask them questions about the text. For example, “Who is the character​ in the story?” “What was the ​problem​ in the story?” “How did the character ​feel​?” “What ​action​ did the character take to solve the problem?” “How did the story ​end​?”

Another area that I see where many students could use a little extra practice is dexterity. Probably sounds strange, right? But it is an important skill to have. As we have been working with emergent readers in class, I have noticed that a lot of students have a hard time turning the pages. When reading at home, allow them to practice turning the pages in the book you are reading. Here are some other great ideas for increasing dexterity and fine motor strength:

• ●  Popping bubble wrap: No explanation needed! Pop away!

• ●  Thera- Putty: soft or medium/soft. Find online/Amazon

  • ○  Squeeze in whole hand

  • ○  Roll a snake and then pinch down the length of the snake using only

    thumb, index, and middle fingers (tripod).

  • ○  Roll a snake. Loop into a doughnut with a small hole. Put fingers in the

    hole and then spread finger wide.

  • ○  Make an oval shaped blob. Then, using a fingertip grasp on each side,

    try to stretch the blob.

  • ○  Hide small objects (beads, pennies, buttons, etc) in the putty. Have

    child pull them out.

• ●  Play-Doh: Play AWAY!! Use tools, scissors, cookie cutters, rollers, etc.

• ●  Water Spray Bottles: Shoot at targets or try to write with the water on a

  brick wall.

• ●  Lacing: using small beads to lace onto pipe cleaners or onto craft lace (to

  make necklaces or bracelets).

• ●  Palming: lay out a bunch of pennies (or other small objects). Now pick up one

  at a time and try to pick up as many as possible. You will pick up with your thumb and index finger, transfer the coin to your palm. Hold coins in place with your other fingers. Now pick up another coin. Keep going! Then, try to place coins into a cup one at a time (don’t use your other hand).

• ●  Color with short crayons. Break some crayons in half (the shorter crayons promote a tripod grasp). Make sure you are using a fingertip grasp/tripod grasp.

• ●  Use tongs or tweezers
  ○ http://mamaot.com/ways-to-play-with-tongs/

  Important Dates

  March 1: PTO General Meeting (6-8 pm)
  March 15: Pajama Day-Bring $1 and wear your P.J.’s to school

March 15: PBIS Award-Dance Party in the gym March 23-April 1: NO SCHOOL-Spring Break!

Happy Birthday!

Nolan: March 15 Joanna: March 23