Ms. Marie’s September 2019 Newsletter

Dear Preschool Families:

REMINDER:  There is no school tomorrow, Monday September 2^nddue to the Labor Day holiday.  

We hope you are enjoying the Labor Day holiday with your family and friends.  We had a busy first full week of school!  The children are already beginning to learn the routines throughout the day.  We will continue to focus on learning about each other and how we act at school.   

We had a Shelter in Place drill.  The kids did great!  These will happen periodically and will be mostly unannounced.  Before each drill of its kind, we prepare the children with a book and discussion.  We know that some children are frightened of loud sounds and take that into account.  If your child mentions a drill, use that time to discuss it and practice your own drills at home. 

Thank you for sending in your childrens’ All About Me Bag!  The children have been so excited to share with each other.  Please send one in if you haven’t already – as well as a family picture.  If you have misplaced your bag, just send in 2-3 items that fit in a small bag and signify things your child likes.  

We met Twiggle the Turtle and some of his friends from the PATHS social emotional curriculum. (Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies). When Twiggle comes to class, it’s Twiggle time.  Ask your child about what he or she learns from Twiggle.  This week Twiggle and his friends helped students learn about their feelings and making friends.  Twiggle specifically talked about feeling Happy and Sad and what friends do together.  Twiggle will continue to help us learn how friends interact in kind and friendly ways as well as learning about more of the emotions we feel. 

Every day, Twiggle picks one child (randomly selected) to be the Superstar of the day.  The Superstar has a special job at circle.  In addition, the Superstar will be receiving compliments from their teacher and classmates.  We will be sending home a flyer in your child’s backpack telling you that your child was the Superstar for the day. The back of this form will include the complements your child received at school with space for you to add a family compliment. Compliments are one of the ways the PATHS Curriculum promotes prosocial behavior. 

In addition to the PATHS curriculum for developing the social emotional skills of self-regulation and impulse control, your children are learning and practicing school-wide behavior expectations.  SPARK!’s framework for defining and promoting behavior expectations is: 

S.T.A.R.which stands for…

S= Stay SAFE

T= Use TEAMWORK

A= ACT responsibly

R= RESPECT self and others

When your child comes home with a red and yellow Starpower sticker, ask them to tell you how they earned it.  This will help your child feel proud of their accomplishments and promote memory and language use skills.  

NOTE:  Both classes are working to earn enough Starpower stickers to gain a school-wide reward!  Please encourage your children to demonstrate star behavior so all the children can enjoy this fun activity. 

Next week we will begin our first STEM unit of Robotics.  A letter describing this unit is at the end of this newsletter.  We will also be starting our Fundations Literacy program this month.  In addition, this year we will be incorporating lessons and activities from the Building Blocks Curriculum.  More information on the literacy and math curricula coming soon! 

Volunteering:

Thank you to those of you who have expressed an interest in volunteering!  There are opportunities to help with small groups, center time, copying and preparation, scholastic book orders, etc. These supports are a great help to staff in providing the high-quality learning environment fostered at Spark!  To volunteer in the classroom, you must complete the volunteer training.  Trainings will be offered once a month August – October and January – March

Information on the next Volunteer Training coming soon! 

Important Dates:

·       Monday, Sept 2:  No preschool and no childcare — Labor Day, National Holiday

·       Volunteer Trainingswill be offered once a month August – October and January – March. More information to come!

·       Love and Logic Parenting classes with Cheryl Hamilton, from “the Family Whisperer”. A school-side flyer will be sent home in early September

·       Mon, Sept 9 – Oct 11:  STEM unit #1 Robotics

·       Thurs, Sept 19 – 6:00 – 7:30 pm – First PTO meeting.  

·       Sat, Sept 21 – 10:00 am – Miner’s Day parade.  Look for a flyer in Thursday folders soon and more on this website too.

Dear Families:  We are beginning our next STEM unit on Robotics. We have noticed that children get excited to play with technology and think robots are cool. Children are curious about how things work, including robots. Please let us know if someone in your family works in a job related to technology, programming, or robotics and would like to share his or her expertise with the class. We would love to arrange a time for them to join us in our investigations.  In this unit we have some main focuses:  What are our five senses and how do we use them to explore our  world? How do senses help a robot know what to do? What can robots be programmed to do?   Where do we see robots in our environment, how do they help us? As we study Robotics, we will learn concepts and skills in social studies, science, literacy, math, the arts, and technology. We will also be developing thinking skills to observe, investigate, ask questions, solve problems, make predictions and test our ideas.   What You Can Do at Home Reading books on MyOn about Robotics Talk about the different things you have to program to make work (ex. Microwave- you tell it how much time to cook) Play “Program-A-Person!” Tell your child how many steps to take forward, backward, to the side, turn around, etc. Some Activities We Have Planned Talking about our five senses and how robots have senses, too!  Programming Bee Bot, Dot and Dash, Code-A-Pillar, and more. Writing about what we would program a robot to do for us. Using emergent reading skills to read predictable books about robots Building robots with materials in our classrooms Thanks for playing an important role in our learning!

 

Apreciadas Familias:  Estamos comenzando nuestra próxima unidad STEM en Robótica. Nos hemos dado cuenta que los niños se emocionan al jugar con la tecnología y piensan que los robots son geniales. Los niños tienen curiosidad sobre cómo funcionan las cosas, incluyendo robots. Por favor déjenos saber si alguien en su familia trabaja en un trabajo relacionado con la tecnología, programación, o robóticas y le gustaría compartir su experiencia con la clase. Nos encantaría organizar un tiempo para que se unan con nosotros en nuestra investigación.           En esta unidad tenemos algunos focos principales: Cuales son nuestros cinco sentidos y cómo los usamos para explorar nuestro mundo Cómo pueden los sentidos ayudar a un robot a saber qué hacer? Que pueden ser programado los robots para hacer? Donde ven robots en nuestro ambiente, cómo nos ayudan?   Mientras estudiamos Robots, aprenderemos sobre conceptos y destrezas relacionadas con la lectoescritura, las matemáticas, las ciencias, los estudios sociales, las artes y la tecnología.  También desarrollaremos destrezas de pensamiento por medio de la observacion, investigacion, formulacion de preguntas, resolución de problemas, predicciones y comprobación de ideas.  Que Puede Hacer Usted en Casa Leer libros en myOn de Robots Hablar de las diferentes cosas que tenemos que programar para hacer el trabajo. (Ex: Microonda usted le dice cuanto tiempo para cocinar) Jugar “Programar-una-persona!” Dígale a su hijo(a) cuantos pasos tomar hacia delante, atrás, al lado, dar una vuelta, etc.   Algunas Actividades Que Hemos Planeado Hablando de nuestros cinco sentidos y como robots tienen sentidos también! Programando Bee-Bot, Dot and Dash, Code-A-Pillar, y mas.  Escribiendo sobre lo que podríamos programar un robot para hacer por nosotros. Usando habilidades emergentes de lectura para leer libros predecibles sobre robots. Construyendo robots con materiales en nuestra clase.   Gracias Por Tomar Una Parte Tan Importante en el Aprendizaje!