Preschool Special Education Class Newsletter
Morning Edition
March 2016
Dates to Remember:
Feb 29-Mar 2 Wrap up Snow/winter Unit
Mar. 3-4 Introduce the Zoo Study
Mar. 7-11 Zoo Study
Mar. 8 Early Dismissal Day, No Preschool/PREP
Mar. 14-18 Zoo Study
Mar. 21-25 Zoo Study
Mar. 24-29 **Schools closed for Spring Break (watch for changes)
Mar. 30-Apr. 6 Zoo Study
Reminders:
· Be sure your child wears appropriate footwear, sneakers are best. We plan to play outside on the tot lot every day as the weather permits.
· Read all school correspondence (especially information in the front pocket inside the cover) and respond in a timely manner by placing papers in the pocket of the communication book or paper clip them to the book. Students unpack and pack as independently as possible; we do not check bookbags.
· Be sure all clothing and materials from home are marked with your child’s name. This helps us stay organized, insures your personal items get back to you and that there is no confusion with which items belongs to which children.
· Be sure to review your inclement weather policy. If we have a 2 hour delay, the morning class is cancelled.
Absences
Send a note to school every time your child has missed a day of school explaining the reason for the absence (school requirement), or you may choose to call or email the school instead at . Absence notes are included in your red school folder.
Literacy Folder
Red folders are due every Thursday. We have been singing and adding many songs and poems to the folder. Be sure to practice those that fit our theme and revisit your child’s favorites. Keep it interesting by giving your child choices of how to sing/say it. “Do you want to sing it loud or soft, fast or slow, or use a silly voice?” Repetition helps in memorizing but doing the entry the same way gets boring. Spice it up. As your child learns the entry, leave off the last words for him/her to complete the rhymes.
Letter Rings
We use letter rings as a practice tool for home. Both the upper and lowercase letters will be shown with a picture prompt. The picture is to help students listen for and remember the beginning sounds. We are adding some new letters which target the sounds we are working on for articulation and include early sounds all preschoolers should be able to make. New letters this month are Zz and Jj
Sound Play in Literacy
We work on listening for and making the beginning sounds of words. As we sing about the monthly vocabulary, we reinforce the sign language movements, beginning sounds, and the word. “I see monkey. I see monkey. /m/ /m/ /m/, /m/, /m/, /m/.” You can do this at home with the vocabulary books and toys that fit our zoo unit. You can also sing about what you hear and make the animal sounds. Act them out, too!
Vocabulary and Early Reading Skills
Please be sure to read the vocabulary book daily. Turning the pages and pointing to pictures and words will improve your child’s understanding of print. We want the children to be interested in and able to navigate books. We also ask you to read daily 5-10 minutes each day to help increase your child’s attention to books. Stop every page or so and engage your child in pointing to a picture, guessing what will come next, and telling about the pictures. When reading books of a similar topic, you can make connections from that book to the vocabulary words and pictures. Making connections to other books and real activities helps extend our understanding of the word and its meaning. Many of the children are working on answering questions about the story. Start with basic “wh” questions: who, what, where, when, why. You can also have them help “read” stories with repeating lines or phrases.
Our focus as you read with your child is holding the book correctly, turning pages 1 at a time, and attending for 10 minutes. If your child can’t do this, build the attention span by pushing to the limit and saying 1 more page. This will assist in building attention but not making it a battle. Questions? Just call me.
Theme
This month we will learn about the zoo. We’ll make animal sounds as we act like zoo animals to climb, run, and swing. We’ll talk about the parts of the whole (paws and tails) and use masks and tails to promote pretend play. Toys, poems, songs, and stories will all help us use the vocabulary words to answer questions and talk about events. We will continue to do art and messy activities. Students are focusing on 1:1 correspondence to count sets and identify how many and to compare sets. We work on quantity concepts for 1, a few, many, more, and less. We will also work on full and empty as we play in the beans and rice in the touch table. Students are working on sharing toys and taking turns. Promoting pretend play and taking on roles (zoo keeper, animals) will extend play skills. We also practice using words to request, ask for help, and to comment. We will be able to apply concepts of size to our zoo animal friends. Students will be talking about big and little animals, and then elaborating size words to include short, tall, and long. We will use color words and descriptors to talk about animals. Giraffes have spots and zebras have stripes. Matching and sorting skills help students understand how things are the same or different and build discrimination skills.
Extensions
We’ve had some positive feedback about the calendar and matching activities. Check out Pebblego and Tumblebooks at home. The school bookmark shared earlier in the year gives login and password information. Please continue to share feedback on how your child is doing with these activities and share any ideas, activities, or websites you have found. Two websites shared by a parent are: www.kidport.com and www.prekinders.com . I have not yet had a chance to check them out, so please let me know how you like them.
DID YOU KNOW?
A sharing of developmental information and ideas to promote learning at home.
*Books that follow a child’s interests will hold their attention and support developing vocabulary.
*A variety of activities, along with descriptive language by an adult, helps a child build vocabulary.
*Experimentation with the sounds of language enables children to learn the basics of literacy later on.
*Children increase their understanding of language by meaningful conversations with a caring adult.
*Predictable books use children’s intuitive understanding of patterns and sequencing and provide a natural connection between intellectual development and language.