Ms. Marie’s Update 09/08/19
Dear Preschool Families and Friends,
It is so rewarding to see your children learning the routines and eagerly contributing their ideas and enthusiasm at school! They are making friends and enjoying playing together.
Homework
A monthly reading log and calendar of activities was included in your Thursday folder. We will be sending weekly homework starting next Thursday. Homework at this age is designed to be a fun activity to reinforce concepts learned at school. Your child can earn prizes for completed homework.
Acknowledgements
Our class was one of the classrooms acknowledged for great attendance in August! Each child will receive a pencil in their Thursday folder this week. Consistent attendance is very important and we thank you for your efforts to get your children to school each day!
This Week
We will be starting our Fundations Curriculum this week. The Fundations Family Letter follows at the end of this email. We will also be focusing on our senses in this 1stweek of our STEM Unit – Robotics. In addition, this week we will be covering the following:
Color: Yellow
Shape: triangle
Number: 3
Letters: Aa, Bb
PATHS Social/Emotional – the feeling of Calm, Getting someone’s attention, Asking someone to share
A parent asked us to share some of the songs we are singing. I thought others might want to know also. We have been singing:
· Cleanup cleanup, everybody everywhere, cleanup cleanup everybody do your share (I don’t know the tune, but you can just say it.)
· The wheels on the bus.
· Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to school we go, we hang our bags and wash our hands, hi ho, hi ho. (tune: hi ho, its off to work we go)
· 5 little ducks went out to play over the hills and far away.
· 5 little monkeys swinging in the tree
· 5 little monkeys jumping on the bed.
· The More we get together
· Choo Choo Choo Choo Choo Choo Choo Choo up the railroad track. Choo Choo Choo Choo choo Choo Choo Choo then we come right back. 1st we go to ___’s house, then we go to ___’s house, then we go to ___’s house, then we go to ____’s house (we go through all the kids 4 at a time). I’m sorry but I’ll have to sing that one for you because I don’t know the name of the tune!
· Do you know our friend ___, our friend ___, our friend ___. Do you know our friend ___. They’re at school today (we go through all the kids 4 at a time) (Tune: Do you know the muffin man)
If you have any questions or concerns please contact Ms. Marie at [email protected]
Dear Family:
A new school year has been launched! This year, SVVSD Preschools will be using a program called Fundations, the Pre-K Activity Set. This program will be used to support students’ emerging understanding of the alphabetic principles of letter-sound associations and alphabetical order, and the written language skill of manuscript letter formation. The Pre-K Activity Set will provide students an introductionto these skills and exposure so that students are prepared for mastery in Kindergarten.
The Principles of Fundations Instruction include:
– Explicit Instruction provided by teacher (daily modeling)
– Systematic delivery of content (sequential and cumulative)
– Interactive, participatory design (multisensory)
– Reinforcement of skills taught (consistent practice)
– Frequent feedback to students
The strongest and most consistent predictors of later literacy development were found to be alphabetic knowledge, phonological awareness and memory, rapid automatic naming of letters and objects, and writing letters (NELP, 2008). Fundations helps teach these foundational skills in a formal and purposeful way. During the first semester, we will focus on teaching letter-sound correspondence. Second semester, we will continue working on letter-sound correspondence and begin learning letter formation. We will work on writing lowercase letters first and then progress to writing capital letters.
However, we are going to need your help. We know that when a child has a “coach” in addition to a classroom teacher, the child makes significant progress. We will work together as a “team” – teacher and coach. We will do our best to provide you with the necessary tools to take on that role. Please see the attached letter chart that shows the letter, key word, and sound that is utilized with Fundations.
We look forward to a successful year as we work together. Thanks for your cooperation.
Sincerely – Ms. Marie