SASD 4K Family Newsletter
Grow. Play. Learn.
October 1, 2023
4K friends have been in their classrooms for a month now enjoying the new friendships and engaging in learning opportunities. We have partnered with five wonderful centers who are deeply committed to providing a high quality 4 year old kindergarten experience. If you ever have any questions about SASD 4 year old kindergarten please connect with us or check the SASD 4K webpage for more information on curriculum and instruction.
Erin Conrad, SASD 4K Principal
Sara Jane Lee, SASD 4K Coordinator
Mindy Holverson, 4K Educational Assistant
Helping Your Child Learn Responsibility
Notice and narrate- Draw attention to strategies that work. “Moving your puzzle to the table is a good idea. It’s easier to keep track of the pieces,” “You and your sister made up great rules.”
Ask instead of tell- Support your child’s independent actions. Ask, “What’s a safe place to put your cup?,” instead of saying, “Put your cup on the counter.” Note, “I see toy cars in front of the stairs. Where should they be moved?,” instead of insisting, “Someone could trip on the cars. Please move them.”
Put your child in charge- Ask questions that inspire your child to solve problems. “We need a good way to get everyone to the table for dinner. What do you think we should do?” and “We need to find a better place for the boots [bikes, socks, mittens, toys] so we can find them easily. Where do you think they can go?”
Celebrate success- When you notice your child being responsible, show your appreciation. “Hurray! All the coats got hung up today,” “Awesome work setting the table! Dinner was very elegant,” “Thanks for putting the snack wrappers in the garbage. I loved working on a clean counter.”
For more information go to: naeyc Message in a Backpack Helping Your Child Learn Responsibility
4K Calendar Updates
4K Friday is October 13th this month!!
Watch for information from your teacher regarding Parent/Teacher conferences this month.
OWL Curriculum
OWL™ is based on thorough knowledge of the research on early language and literacy development and research on social and emotional development. It systematically builds those skills identified as being of critical importance using methods found by research and augmented by “the wisdom of practice” to support development.
Phonological awareness is supported through exposure-based approaches such as singing and reading predictable books, through teacher-led games designed to help children attend to the sounds of language, and by encouraging child-initiated activities such as writing and drawing.
OWL Curriculum Unit 2 in October: My Family
Week 1: Meet My FamilyWeek 2: Caring and Sharing
Week 3: We All Help
Week 4: Family Fun
WE LOVE BOOKS!
Here are some literacy activities for 4K Friends:
- Read to and with your child
- Make a shopping list together
- Fine motor practice
- Listen to stories on tape
- Puppets
- Writing and posting a letter
- Matching letters and sounds
- Play!
OWL Math
Math is an important part of learning for children in the early years because it provides vital life skills. Math helps children problem solve, measure & develop their own spatial awareness, & teaches them how to use & understand shapes.
This month in 4K students will:
Add up to 4 objects
Subtract 1 to 4 objects from a set
5 Ways to Build Math into Your Child's Day
1. Bake something together
2. Measure, count, and record
3. Build something together
4. Plan dinner or a party
5. Mix in math to your bedtime reading
For more information go to 5 Ways to Build math into Your Child's Day (NAEYC)
Heggerty Phonemic Awareness
At school your child is engaging in Heggerty Phonological Awareness lessons. Over the next six weeks, your child will be hearing compound words.
A compound word is a word that is made up of two small words. Your child will learn to blend and segment with compound words. Blending is a skill that our learners can apply when they want to read words, and segmenting is a skill that helps children hear the parts in a word so they can begin to write and spell. These lessons are important because “Phonological awareness is critical for learning to read any alphabetic writing system” (Ehri, 2004).
When having conversations with your child, consider using some of these activities with words
and language that are familiar to them.
★ Ask your child to listen for the sound they hear at the beginning of a word you say aloud.
○ What is the first sound we hear in the word room? Answer: /r/
○ What is the first sound we hear in the names of friends, pets, or family members?
★ Can you blend (put together) these small words to make one big word (a compound
word)?
sun - shine, sunshine rain - bow, rainbow after - noon, afternoon
★ Say to your child, when two words rhyme, they have the same middle and final sounds.
Repeat after me! Say the following word pairs and have your child repeat them back. You
can tell or ask your child the part that rhymes. Ex: Parent: red, bed Child: red, bed Parent:
Yes! Red and bed rhyme, they have the rhyming part -ed.
red, bed hot, not did, kid bike, like
★ Can you segment (separate) this compound word into two smaller words?
classroom, class - room cupcake, cup - cake flashlight, flash - light
★ Books to enjoy together: Look for these books at the library and listen for the rhyming
words!
○ Rhyming Dust Bunnies by Jan Thomas
○ Dog on a Frog? By Kes Gray
○ Sheep in a Jeep by Nancy Shaw
Visit the Heggerty website: https://www.heggerty.org
View lesson demonstrations: Heggerty Phonemic Awareness - YouTube
Learning Without Tears
Handwriting remains a critical skill in the classroom. In order for children to be successful readers, writers—and ultimately communicators—they need a strong foundation. Handwriting can be taught through play! Learning Without Tears offers multisensory activities & manipulatives which appeals to all learning styles & provides a hands-on approach to handwriting. Ask your child about Mat Man! Mat Man song
The Pyramid Model
Children need to be specifically taught the problem solving steps, to be able to think of multiple alternative solutions, and to understand that solutions have consequences.
Tucker the Turtle
OWL helps children build skills regulating emotions and relating to others by providing explicit instruction related to these issues. More importantly, discussion of social and emotional issues are woven into discussions of books and conversations about on-going classroom events. Also, children are repeatedly provided group activities designed to hold their interest and motivating child-initiated activities that they can do alone or with others.
Tucker the Turtle Leans to be Friendly at School
Tucker the Turtle Takes Time to Tuck and Think at Home
Tucker the Turtle Going to School
Tucker the Turtle is Unique
We Can Be Problem Solvers at Home
Tucker the Turtle is Helpful
The Nurtured Heart Approach
If you are looking for some strategies to teach your child appropriate behavior while building positive relationships, the message Start Here-NHA is for you! Watch for more information about upcoming Nurtured Heart workshops coming this month!
To Your (and your child’s) GREATNESS, SIGNIFICANCE & HUMANITY...Sara Jane ("Mrs. Lee")
Words for the month of October for 4K instruction:
Independent-"I can show my greatness by doing my school work and reading all by myself."
Friendly-"I show my greatness by playing fair and including everyone."
Building Connections
Easy-to-implement, meaningful, and creative teaching materials to teach important life skills, such as self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.
I Love You All the Time by Deborah Farmer Kris and
Feel Confident by Cheri J. Meiners
CHILDREN LEARN THROUGH THEIR PLAY
When children participate in small and large group activities they learn to follow routines, listen and understand spoken language, new songs and poems, to share ideas with others, to
be a part of a community and to cooperate and consider the needs of others.
When children play with dough or clay they learn the concepts of "more" and "less", shape, size and space. They learn to develop the muscles in fingers and hands and the amount of substance remains the same even when the shape changes.
When children scribble-write and draw they are learning to represent thoughts and ideas in
many ways, exercise their imagination and creativity, to hold a pencil, paint brush or marker as their writing tool.
When children play on climbing equipment they are learning self confidence, concepts of space and position, physical strength, coordination and balance, to use their imagination and how to live a healthy, active lifestyle. They learn to solve problems and cooperate with others.
Tips for helping 3 to 5-year-old children grow and learn!
Parenting is about loving, guiding, and nurturing a child to help them grow into happy adults. This is true whether the child has a disability or not. But parenting can be especially difficult when you don't know how your child's disability will affect them in school, with friends, and in life as an adult.
Your expectations for the child play an important role in preparing the child for the future. The more you encourage and support the child, the more they will achieve. Think big and support them!
The small things you do at home now have a big impact on how well the child does in school and as an adult. Children with disabilities whose parents or caregivers encourage them to participate in school and their community are more likely to succeed in school and have meaningful jobs as adults.
For more information go to: https://beforeage18.org/three-to-five-family-steps/
Get Started
Do Chores at Home
Doing chores at home can help prepare children for school. Choose chores based on the child’s ability. Examples of chores for children between the ages of 3-5 include:
- Brushing their teeth
- Cleaning up after eating
- Making their bed
Practice Sharing
- For example, tossing a ball back and forth helps teach kids how to share.
Offer Choices
Offering choices helps a child learn to make decisions.
- They could choose what game to play or what to have for dinner. Respect and pick their choices and praise them for making a choice! Let young children talk about their choices and listen without judgement.
- Help the child solve problems by talking about the steps you could take.
Connect with your community
Get more ideas and information on how to prepare the child for school:
SASD ANTIRACISM PROJECT
The purpose of the Antiracism Project is to advance our district’s Educating for Equity efforts by providing resources, information, and opportunities to support recognized events, locally, nationally and internationally.
Contact us!
Kate Ahlgren, Director of Curriculum and Instruction kate.ahlgren@stoughton.k12.wi.us
Sara Jane Lee, 4K Coordinator sarajane.lee@stoughton.k12.wi.us
Mindy Holverson, 4K Educational Assistant mindy.holverson@stoughton.k12.wi.us
Website: https://www.stoughton.k12.wi.us/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stoughtonschools/