Settling In in September

I cannot believe that we have been in school for nearly a month! The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of getting to know one another, getting to know our school, and getting to know our routines. We have been getting to know the names of our centers and school materials, using our words to get our needs met, practicing sharing toys/materials with those around us, and doing routines over and over and over and over and over again. While we aren't exactly diving into a study about the world around us, we are focusing on the extremely important topics of school/classroom expectations, the people who work at our school, and how to be a good friend. It is these lessons that form the foundation for the rest of our year and set us up for success! It means a lot to Miss Carolina, Miss Tia, and I that we create a classroom community and that we are all on the same page.

I hope that your child has come home excited about what they are doing at school and the friends that they are making. I am sure they are tired, too! I know sometimes when we ask our children what they learned at school, they usually say "I don't know." or when you ask how their day was "it was good.". Here are some helpful tips to have meaningful conversations with your preschooler about their day.

Use the daily sheet! This lists all the activities we did that day so it's a great way to start a conversation. For example, you can ask what their favorite center was or to retell the story that Miss Robin told in Language Group.
Talk about their feelings. We have been talking about howe we feel at school and what we can do with those different feelings. As questions such as, "What made you feel happy at school today?" or "Did you feel nervous about anything at school today?"
You can ask about their friendships. Ask, "who made you laugh today?" or "who did you play with?"
Ask your child to teach you something that they did at school that day. Have them teach you a song they learned, especially on days we have music therapy. Ask them to tell you about the story we read (it's always on the daily sheet). This is a great reading comprehension skill!
Talk about the classroom dynamics and their daily activities. Ask, "What games did you play at recess?" or "What are you looking forward to at school tomorrow?"

Asking these open-ended questions are a great way to get your child to make connections and think more critically about their day-to-day activities. Keep the conversations positive and always make sure your child knows how proud you are of them! 😁

For the next couple of weeks we will still be reviewing school expectations, appropriate behavior at school, and practicing how to be a good friend by sharing, taking turns, and helping each other. You can help your child at home by encouraging them to be independent as possible around the house. Make sure they are using the bathroom on their own, have them take care of their own plate after dinner, or have them do difficult tasks-such as puzzles-on their own before helping them. We have high expectations for our little bananas, but we find that they almost always rise to meet them!

Also this past week we started learning letters! The children loved our Letterland curriculum and were so engaged in our daily lessons. This short video will show you the songs and chants that we used to learn about Annie Apple. Show this to your child and talk about it at home. See how many things you can find that start with "A" on your way to school! Please keep in mind when we learn vowels in preschool, we only talk about the 'short' vowel sound. So the sound you hear at the beginning of 'apple', not what you would hear at the beginning of 'airplane'.

Lastly, we still have quite a few items left on our Amazon Wishlist! We carefully place items on our list that will target multiple skills, such as cognition and fine motor. When we returned to school in August we donated or threw out toys that were damaged, missing pieces, or outdated so our shelves looked a little bare. Feel free to share this link with family and friends or have your child help you pick out an item for our classroom.

Bananas Amazon Wishlist

Thank you so much to those of you who have sent us things already....it is appreciated more than you will ever know!

Thank you for sharing your children with us and trusting us with their education. We cannot wait to share more about what we are learning! Until next time, enjoy these pictures of our first few weeks in school!

🍌Miss Susan . Miss Tia . Miss Carolina 🍌