August 10-14

I am so impressed with how fast the kiddos are catching onto the schedule and getting into the routine of things! Last week we met Ms. Newingham and made a class book about "What Ms. Newingham Does All Day". The kids had some pretty interesting ideas about what she does up in that office all day! :)

We will begin this week by meeting Nurse Melissa, Ms. Jill, and Ms. Tina. We will also start focusing on the structure of our small groups this week. Small groups will be a chance for students to focus on more academic based skills! Ms. Paige and I will each lead a small group that allows for challenges, as well as accommodations. Throughout each quarter I will change the students' groups so that I am able to observe skills of all children over time! We will also concentrate on washing on our hands as we enter the classroom at the beginning of the class. This is very important all year long, but especially important now with the summer cold and flu going around! We will also have a "Star Student" each day. The start student will be rotated and students will take turns. When a child is the "Star Student" they will be Mrs. Datzman's helper for that day. They will be line leader, choose songs, ring the clean up bell, etc. It's a fun way to help children learn about responsibility. :)

Data collection has begun on our letter recognition skills and we will work on these for 2 weeks! The Preschool goal is for your child to identify their name given three options and to expressively identify 13 upper case letters. This means that the child will verbally name a letter when shown. For Pre-K, the goal is to be able to expressively identify 26 upper case letters and to receptively identify 13 letter sounds. This means that the child will point to the letter when given the letter sound by the teacher (ex. "show me the letter that "Zzz").
Letter recognition is a very important part of preschool and kindergarten readiness. This can be a fun skill that is worked on at home! If you like Pinterest (I know I do!), there are MANY ideas to help your child learn letters. There are also some really great Apps and websites that provide letter recognition activities that the kids enjoy. My favorite website is Starfall :)

A Note from the Valyne Anderson, SLP
** This week in speech and language therapy we are talking about our super power- talking-and how we can all be superheroes by using our words.  We will be talking about how superheroes move and where they live.  We are also reviewing the rules so we can be safe, respectful, and responsible.  I encourage you to take at least 10 minutes a day to play and work on language skills with your child.  This week, pin on towels for a capes and pretend to be superheroes.  Talk about how superheroes might move.  Do they hop, fly, swim, run, etc.?  Make up your own superheroes and practice moving like they would.  For example, “I am Superbird and I fly.”  You could also play Superhero Mother May I.  Adapt this traditional game by having the participants as questions such as, “Mother, may I fly like a superhero.”  The mother then says, “Stop” when she wants the participant to stop.