October News

Monday, October 11, 2021

Hello PreK Families, 

Brittany Adams has joined our classroom as the PreK Assistant Teacher. She has worked in

early childhood for many years and is a great addition to our team. Welcome, Brittany! We

are so happy

that she has joined our team at WRS. 

We have covered several topics of study since last month, including apples and weather.

During each unit we read many books, do projects, have discussions, sing songs, and

participate in other learning activities to build connections on a topic. When we learned

about apples, we read Ten Red Apples by Pat Hutchins, Ten Apples Up on Top by Dr. Seuss, and My Apple by Kaye Davies and Wendy Oldfield. We made a graph

comparing our favorite color apples, we played counting and sorting games about apples,

and we made applesauce and wrote a class book about it. 

When we studied the weather, we read Clouds and Rain both by Marion Dane Bauer. We used a weather chart and drew a picture about the daily weather. We

also did a cloud in a jar experiment and we made a small cloud in the classroom. As a class, we made

a chart about what type of clothing we wear in different seasons. We a recurrently working on fall. Next

we will learn about pumpkins and Halloween. If your child has a small pumpkin or gourd at home, he or

she may bring it into class next week. 

We have started reviewing/learning the uppercase letters using the Fundations Literacy Program. We

will review 3 letters per week and should finish the introduction of the uppercase letter by the holiday

break. Then we will learn how to write the uppercase letters. We do not go in alphabetical order, we

learn them in the order of how they are written. Some letters have straight lines, some have curves,

and some have a start and a jump to them.  

Parent Teacher Conferences are coming up in early November, on 11/1 and 11/2. There will be an early release day on Monday and no school on Tuesday. You will receive a sign-up to schedule a meeting time soon. PTC will be done on-line again this year. All of the early childhood PreK Programs in our district use a program called Teaching Strategies Gold to rate individual student development and progress.  In the meeting we will review initial TS Gold social-emotional progress reports (for 3 and 4 year olds) for your child as well as, initial math and letter assessments (for students who are 4 or older). 

In our class, we use direct instruction to teach students to make good choices about their behavior. Social development is an integral part of PreK and school and affects all areas of learning. One of my main goals for students are to be happy, confident learners who can solve problems and work collaboratively with others. Being able to make good choices when they are alone and interacting with others is a BIG part of that.  In our classroom we have started learning about green and red choices to support their social-emotional behavior. It teaches students the expected behaviors in all settings (school, home, community) and across the day. Clear, consistent expectations are paired with visual supports. And expectations are almost always stated positively. We also teach lessons from Second Step. This is a social emotional learning program that teaches concepts with puppets, story cards, songs, and role playing activities. Each week, we cover a new idea. 

IMPORTANT DATES

10/15 No PreK - ECP In-Service

11/1 Early Release - PTC

11/2 No School - PTC

11/11 No School - Veteran’s Day

11/19 No PreK - ECP In-Service

11/24-11/26 - No School - Thanksgiving Holiday

Thank you, 

Amy Zayas