Ms. Werner's Pre-K Class

The students have been working hard during the first months of school! They’ve gotten used to the daily routine and expectations in our room and have made lots of friends in our classroom. While we’ve worked on a lot of academics, we’ve also focused hard on the important social and emotional aspects of learning as well. They have learned how to talk to new classmates, how to use their words when they are upset or need something, how to ask to play with a classmate, how to work together, and how to talk and interact with their teachers. Lessons and activities have also focused on independence and taking care of themselves. They learned more about germs and how to properly wash their hands with a fun lesson with glitter “germs”.

We also introduced the “Calming Area” where they can go when they are feeling sad, angry, overwhelmed, or just want to use some of the fidget/calming items. They learned some breathing activities that help them calm down as well and all have enjoyed using the items in the area. It also has helped them learn to take turns as only one child is allowed to use the area at a time.

While working on social and emotional aspects of learning might not seem important at school, it actually is what makes students able to focus on academic learning and be able to successfully attend a full day of school. At this age, developing their coping skills, language skills, and social skills is what is needed more than anything else at first. Once those skills are worked on, it is when they are then able to more successfully learn their letters and sounds, math skills, and have the stamina to work on their fine-motor skills.

While looking at the pictures in the photo album you see pictures from work time, outside time, and small group times. Try to look at the pictures with your child – and ask questions about what they see in the pictures. They should be able to tell you about the activities that are shown in the pictures and help you get a clearer idea of what has been happening at school. I know sometimes children will just say “I played” and looking at the pictures will help you get more details out of them as well! Also, asking specifically about small group lessons, large group lessons, read-alouds, and work time will help as well.

Hi everyone! The students have been having a great time here at school over the last few weeks! The beginning of the year is mostly about routines, getting the children comfortable at the school and with their teachers, learning how to talk to other teachers and students, learning how to do things for themselves, and learning the classroom procedures and daily schedule. We’ve spent lots of time throughout our school days working on those important social skills and all of the students have come so far in such a short amount of time. I’m so proud of all of them! Keep encouraging those social skills at home as well. Also be sure to ask what they have done at school – if they only say, “I played” or something similar, ask them questions about the parts of our day to see what they can tell you. You can say to them, “Tell me what did you do during small group.” “Tell me about large group.” “What did you talk about at lunch time? “Who did you work with today and what did you do together?”

During small groups the students worked on all areas of learning – fine motor skills, science, math, and problem solving. When they explored the different rocks and pebbles we have in the toy area with our magnifying glasses they worked on their science, math, and language skills. They loved using the magnifying glasses to see the small differences in the pebbles. They also sorted them by color and counted to see how many they had in their collection. We’ve also explored all of the different things you can do with playdoh and their tools and worked on problem solving skills with puzzles.

Fine-motor skills are very important and we’ve been working on those while doing multiple activities. They learned how to safely use scissors and the glue sticks. They each created different types of collages and now really love practicing their scissors skills. This is something you can do at home as well if you are supervising them.

Finally, we’ve worked on our writing and reading skills every day as well. Every morning they practice writing their names, practice letter and number writing during greeting time and writing time, and also started their individual writing journals that they will use all year. Each day I read at least two books to the students. These repeated readings help the children to be able to “read” or retell the story by themselves! During those times they also learn how to treat books, how to turn the pages, how to read the pictures, and what the words “title”, “author”, and “characters” mean.

**Remember that the photo album link was sent through Remind but is also on the side menu of the blog. If you subscribe to the album, you will get updates whenever I add pictures to it. Going forward, I normally will add pictures at the end of the week.

Our blog is where we will post information and updates of what we have been working on in class each week. On Monday afternoon I will subscribe all of you to the blog updates with the email addresses given to us at our meetings. You can also sign yourself up by entering your email address in the spot on the side bar where it says “Subscribe by email”.

Please let me know if you have any questions or want to give me a different email address. I will also subscribe you to Cotter’s blog so that you can get updates from our Director Mrs. Modica as well.

On the side menu you will see pages you can click to see our daily schedule, the school’s sick policy, GSRP handbook, photo album link, and a great list of family resources you should really check out.

You can also change the language of the page if you scroll to the bottom of the page and click where it says “Select Language.”