Dear Preschool Families,
Last week, your children showed their curiosity as they quietly listened to the firefighters from the Frederick Fire Department give a presentation about fire safety. They also got the opportunity to sit on a (parked) school bus and learn ways to be safe in and around these large vehicles.
We will have another week of our Fall/pumpkin patch unit before we begin our next STEM unit of Nursery Rhymes on October 23rd. The children have enjoyed the seasonal items in our classroom. For parents with children moving onto kindergarten next year, please review the kindergarten packet we sent home in your Thursday folder. We will be going to the library this week. Please return your child’s library book if you haven’t already.
Reminder: No School on Monday October 16th!
Important Dates:
· Oct 16: Non-Student Contact Day
· Oct 19, – 6:30 pm – 7:45 PM — Parenting class — free for all parents –
Cheryl Hamilton, the Family Whisperer
· Oct 27: Trick or Treat Street 4:30 – 6:00pm on Friday night (see description below)
· Oct 31: Halloween
This week we will be covering the following areas:
Letters: J j, D d
Color: Orange
Shape: Oval
Number: 2
Note: We will be covering numbers 1-5 again to emphasize solid learning of these numbers for all students. This is a good review for children that already know their numbers to 5. It also promotes children’s ability to see and recognize the total amount of a small group of numbers (under 5) by sight without having to count. This is called subitizing and is a natural preacademic math skill.
Homework: When students turn in 5 homework assignments, they receive a prize! This is a fun motivator for them and it significantly helps reinforce their learning. They also receive a prize for completing their reading log.
Ideas for extended learning at home: You can promote your child’s learning by simply pointing out the letters of the week or letters in their first name when you see them in your home and community. Encourage your child to show you the movement and sound that goes with the letter (Zoophonics). They may not remember them all, but they are continually internalizing more and more of them.
Please join us for Trick or Treat Street at Spark!
We will host a Trick-or-Treat-Street for Spark! Discovery Preschool families only, including siblings, on Friday, October 27, from 4:30-6pm. Families and children are encouraged to come dressed in costumes and enjoy trick-or-treating around the inside of the school building. Teachers will be dressed up too and hand out candy at their classroom doors. Children in wrap around childcare will participate as a group, should a parent not be able to make it school due to work, and can bring their costume in their backpack. We will make sure they can also attend the event.
We are seeking donations of bags of candy, trinkets (without choking hazards), pencils, etc. by Wednesday, October 25, which can be delivered to the front office. In an effort to honor the many request you may get for various donations from the school, donation documention, for tax-purposes, will be provided to families requesting it by attaching their name to their donated candy or snacks, as well as the cost of the donation.
A few items to note:
a) To ensure safety of our children, this event is not open to the public
b) We scheduled the event for earlier in the afternoon so that families can pick up their child(ren) from preschool or other local schools and bring them back to school without being out too late, and c) there will not be supervision for children between dismissal at 3:05 pm and the start of the event at 4:30 pm.
c) Families are expected to supervise their children.
We look forward to seeing you back at school on Tuesday, October 17th!