Week of September 23-26, 2013

Theme: Getting Along with One Another

Letter of the Week: M

Dear Family,

This week's activities and discussions focus on children's learning to get along with one another while they play and learn together. Children will read about a character named Amelia who goes to a new school, and they will compare part of their day at preschool with hers. They will explore activities they undertake in the classroom, such as reading books and playing musical instruments, and outdoor activities they participate in on the playground. Children will learn about effective ways to help each other play and learn and ways in which their teacher helps each of them.

Learning Together:

• Ask your child to tell you the story of the gingerbread man. Make gingerbread cookies, or cut out figures of gingerbread men, and act out the story together.
• Take turns saying and guessing riddles with your child. Remind your child to listen when it's your turn to speak.
• Help your child undertake something he or she wants to learn to do, such as printing letters, catching or throwing a ball and so on.
• After school each day talk with your child about what he or she did during the day. Begin by sharing what you did during the day and then pose questions designed to elicit more than "yes or no" answers. For example, ask: What songs did you sing today? What new things did you learn? Which activity was the most fun for you today? Why? What stories did your teacher read aloud? What new friends did you make? what have you brought home from school to share?

Other exciting activities include:

• Making a mouse for the letter M
• Reading additional stories: If You Give a Moose a Muffin and Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed.
• We will be sorting shapes, describing shapes, labeling shapes, and going on a shape search at the end of the week.
• This week I will introduce the tag readers for the students to use, they have already been introduced to the listening center and have been listening to books weekly.

I am excited to tell you a little bit about our literacy block in preschool, what it may look and sound like. It won't be long until your child may be talking about the "Daily Five." The Daily Five is a way of structuring the language and literacy time so that every student is engaged in meaningful literacy tasks. these research based tasks are ones that will have the biggest impact on student reading and writing achievement, as well as help foster children who love to read and are beginning tow rite. Students receive explicit whole group instruction and then are given independent practice time to read and work with words while we provide focused instruction to individuals and small groups of students.

When it is up and running smoothly the students will be engaged in the Daily Five which are comprised of:

• Read to Self (Read words or read pictures or retell stories
• Work on Writing
• Read to Someone
• Listen to Reading 
• Word Work

There are very specific behavior expectations that go with each Daily 5 component. We will begin working intensely on building our reading and writing stamina, learning the behaviors of the Daily 5 and fostering our classroom community. We will also spend time learning about your child's strengths and greatest needs as a reader/pre-reader in order to best plan for each student's instructions. The activities may look different for each class as well as each student but they will be receiving research based pre-reading and reading instruction that will help improve their literacy skills. 

The two components we will be working on to begin with are Read to Self and Word Work. As we begin working on these components I will share with you some of the activities that your children are participating in.

Star of the Week: Jack Knestrick
Letter of the Week Snack M: Gabe Carpenter ( A letter will go home on Monday with directions)
Show and Share: Sept. 26-Letter M