JK Newsletter
January 3, 2016
Self-regulation
As we enter the 2nd portion of our school year, the focus becomes more and more about the preparation for what comes next… Kindergarten. Leaders in the field of early childhood education agree that self-control/self-regulation is the essential skill for success in school. We are working each day to build these skills into your child and we know that you are also working on these skills at home.
Research suggests that one of the best ways for children to improve their self-control is through complex dramatic play. Paul Tough, who wrote the book that we read as a faculty in the summer of 2013, How Children Succeed, wrote an interesting article for the New York Times in 2009 about this very kind of play.
Other ways to encourage self-control are:
1) Teach children to come when they are called.
2) Teach children to respond positively to correction.
3) Playing games like “Simon Says” or “Red Light, Green Light.”
4) Give warning before transitions.
5) Give positive feedback when you “catch them doing good.”
Change of clothes
Paper towel and toilet paper rolls
Vanilla extract bottles
Classroom Needs/Wants
Visitors to JK
At the beginning of the year, each of you received a copy of a social story about the first day of school to read with your child to help prepare them for what the day would be like. We had such a smooth first day of school. We believe that social stories give the children a way to prepare for novel activities and to portray those activities in a positive light. We believe this helps decrease anxiety and also helps the days run smoother as the children know what to expect and what is expected of them.
Attached to the class website is a social story that has been written to talk about the visitors that we will have in our classroom in January and February and maybe even later. All candidates for admission for Junior Kindergarten or Kindergarten spend part of all of the morning in the JK class. This is an exciting time for us and we enjoy being part of the admissions process for these families. We had more than 20 children visit our class last year. That’s how we met most of you and your children. We are sharing this social story as this can be disruptive to our students as change is not the best friend of preschoolers, but we will strive to maintain our rhythms and routines as much as possible when we have guests. We will let you know as soon we know when we will be having a visitor or visitors to our class. We appreciate you being positive and supportive of this process with your children. Thank you.
Contact information
Email: kkeating@grymesschool.org
Website: https://sites.google.com/a/grymesschool.org/junior-kindergarten/
Phone: 540-764-0753