Weeks of August 28-29 & Sept. 4 & 5

Welcome to School!

Dear Families,

            Welcome to preschool! This year will be an exciting one for you and your child. By staying involved in what your child is doing at school and by working on activities together, you can ensure that this year will be a successful one.

            During the next two weeks, children will be introduced to the school, their classroom, and to the daily routines that will shape their days over the course of the school year. Understanding their environment and how the school day is structured will help to calm any fears the children may have and begin to develop their self-confidence. Additionally, children will be introduced to some fundamental skills and strategies that will lay the foundation for their continuing growth in the following areas of curriculum:

• listening, speaking, and vocabulary
• sounds and letters
• listening comprehension
• language arts, reading and writing
• social and emotional development
• mathematics
• science and social studies
• health and safety
• physical development
• art, music and drama
• technology

Learning Together

• Share special memories you have of school including special teachers, friends and activities.
• After each school 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?

Some stories that we will be reading include: Spot Goes to School, A Teacher for Bear, Pete the Cat Rocking in my School Shoes, Henry T. Wigglebottom Learns to Listen. The focus over the next several weeks will be learning the classroom rules and routine and the school rules. Being at preschool is an important time for children to learn social skills with their peers as well as learning in the curricular areas.

The preschool parent handbook is on line and you can view it at http://www.bbhcsd.org/hilton/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2013/08/PS-Family-Handbook-13-14.pdf.

We had a great first day of school and I have to say 100% no tears from the children today, I know that probably can't be said for the parents but all of them did fantastic.

Parent Orientation

Parent Orientation

August 26th, 2013

6:00 p.m.

Introduction: Teaching 20 years all in preschool, 12 years in Brecksville. Married husband teacher in Mayfield, children 11 & 8. Bachelor and Master’s degrees from Ashland University.

Setting: This is an integrated preschool setting a.m. session for younger children 8:30-11:00 and p.m. session for older children 12:00-2:30 or those that may be going to kindergarten during 2013-14 school year. The teacher’s are at school from 7:30-3:30 daily.

Parent handbook: Can be located online through the Hilton page on the district website. This includes information regarding the program.

Drop off location is at the second side door at the end of the awning beginning at 8:20 and 11:50. Please stay in your car and a teacher will come out to the car and take help your child out of the car and at the end of the day we will bring them out of the building and put them in the car for you. Every parent pickup will have a number to keep in your car, this number is what tells us what child belongs to which parent. We have given you an extra one if someone else may also be picking up your child on different days. If you are late dropping off or picking up you will need to park and come into the office to sign your child in or out.  Please be aware that school starts at 8:30 & 12:00 and we will be closing the doors at that time. Please be prompt picking up your child.

If your child will be absent please call the Hilton office 740-4600 and if riding the bus call transportation. If you do not call the office they will call you to verify why the child is not in school.

Communication: The preschool has a portal page that you can access at any time the web address is www.protopage.com/ssip2012. I have a tab on this page which includes contact information, educational websites, it will have posted show and Share for the week and also provides a link to my classroom blog. The classroom blog will be updated at least weekly and will include special announcements as well as the newsletter for the week. My blog address is http://mrsshieldspk.blogspot.com. I will send out an email when it is ready to access.

If you have a question or concern please feel free to call or email me and I will get back to you as soon as possible. I try to return emails and phone calls the same day but sometimes depending on how the day goes you may not get a response until the next day.

You will receive report cards twice a year at the end of January and at the end of the school year. The preschool is piloting 2 new curriculums in an effort to find one that works best with the new content standards and is able to provide a continuous curriculum preschool to kindergarten. The curriculum has an assessment piece as part of it that we will be utilizing to collect data for report cards. We will continue to use Handwriting Without Tears.

Forms:

InfoSnap new program district is using to gather registration information. Please use the attached code and follow the instructions to update your child’s information. If you do not have this sheet is simply means that you are a newer registration and that as soon as the system is updated more they will send codes over.

These are all of the papers that need to be returned to me:

Parent survey

ASQ-SE

Emergency Contact Card

Index card

Classroom photo and email on roster

Scholastic order if you are interested

Bookbag tag fill out and placed on backpack

Transportation-Transportation was updated this afternoon and updates will not be on the website tomorrow

Parent surveys

Show and Share-weekly usually around the letter of the week. Tote bags will be arriving soon, until then just place your child’s show and share in a Ziploc bag with their name on it. When the bags come in we will send them home, please help your child decorate their tote bag and that is what they will bring their show and share to school in each week. Special Snack sign up to bring in a snack that corresponds to the letter of the week on Wednesday of that week.

Star of the Week- Every child will have the opportunity to be star of the week and a calendar is in the packet. Please check to make sure your child’s name is on it, if you don’t see if please let me know.

Calendar of special preschool events.

Class schedule

Parent Sign ups

Room parent sign up

Sign up for conference in February for Peer Models

Tomorrow visitation A.M. class 10:00-10:20, 10:20-10:40 and P.M. class 11:00-11:20; 11:20-11:

40. A bus will be available if for anyone who wants to take a quick ride.