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Newsletter

PRESCHOOL 3 TITLE HEADER
1/9/26
 
Hello, wonderful families! Happy new year!
 
We hope Winter Break was filled with love and joy for your family. Now that we've returned to school we are right back to it! Of course, 2 weeks for a Preschooler can feel like eternity, so many of our friends came back to school and needed to reset. We spent this week reestablishing routines and reinforcing our schedule.
 
As a teacher, I love coming back from Winter Break and seeing how much our friends have grown. It's amazing how much changes in such a short time! We capitalize on this momentum by encouraging increased independence at school. Letting them work through the struggle of putting on their own mitten helps them see that they can do hard things and letting them see that they are big, capable kids. This week we taught them the move "the flipperdoodle" to help them put on their jackets by themselves. This fun skill requires 4 easy steps:
  1. Put your jacket down upside-down
  2. Feet by the hood
  3. Hands in the armholes
  4. Flipperdoodle! (Flip the jacket over your head and pull it down)
We introduced the Flipperdoodle in small groups and been encouraging them to use it and put on their coats independently all week. Seeing their faces fill with pride as they flipped their coats on was wonderful!
 
We introduced the concept of a picture walk this week. This is a pre-literacy activity where we look at a book, but do not read the text. Instead, we use the pictures and illustrations on each page to understand what is happening in the story. We call this "reading the pictures." Students use context clues and hints hidden within the details of the page to analyze what the book is telling us and use the visuals to infer or predict possible themes and meanings within the story. These are all critically important literacy skills, and your kiddos are already doing them! By reading the pictures, it helps us become better readers of stories and books. We did picture walks for several books throughout the week, including "Quiet" by Tomie DePaola, "Don't Make Me Laugh" by James Stevenson and "The Hat" by Jan Brett, including others.
COMMUNITY CONNECTION
Picture walks are an important foundation in preparing your little one as an emergent reader, and it's also a fun activity to do at home! They are great for books that have too much text or feel like they might be too long for a Preschooler's attention. It could be fun to pick out some books at the library and "read the pictures." We start by observing the cover, then spend time with each page. Every time we turn to the next page we ask "what do you notice?" This is a great question for you to ask too!
Important Dates:
  • Mon Jan 19th: School closed
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Questions to ask:
  • "Can you show me the flipperdoodle?"
  • "In the picture walk today, what did the hedgehog put on it's head?"
  • "What were some of the other animals the hedgehog saw?"
  • "What color was the playdough you made this week?"