Natick Preschool
Your Weekly Update from Natick Preschool
Principal's Message
Greetings Preschool Parents and Guardians,
Play in early childhood is an effective way to support building responsive relationships, developing language and literacy, strengthening core skills, and reducing sources of stress—all of which can help children and families thrive.
Read on to learn more and to feel validated on the effectiveness and purposefulness of the precious minutes you spend interacting with your child around their play themes.
Have a wonderful weekend with friends and family.
MaryBeth
Natick Preschool Principal
Important Things to Know!
Natick High School Robotics students demonstrated their robot for Gabby D'Eramo's class.
Play Builds Skills!
Play time is thinking time, language time, memory time
PLAY progresses and expands with repetition. (You may be feeling, “No, not again!”)
It takes 20 - 40 exposures to new vocabulary words before they are truly mastered…...play allows for natural and contextual repetition.
Early play will be action based (cut the pizza, put it on a plate, eat) and grow to incorporate feelings (Do you like your piece of pizza?) This will develop later in kids with ASD or ADHD or language delays (harder to distinguish among emotions)
Talk about feelings (help me open this, why are you making that face, oh ‘cause it is hard to open it. Once open, I feel happy it’s open and proud that I opened it.)
Encourage play themes around novel scenarios or recent experiences (vs. things they’ve seen on tv or in a book)
Later as kids start reading, remember there will be those that have trouble with the words (decoding) but can understand the language (kids who’ve had more experiences playing, are better able to do this)
Play can enhance empathy; develop ability to think through how other people/characters feel
We were inspired and invigorated by the passion Dr. Westby conveyed when she presented to Natick Preschool staff a few years ago. Her topic is The Roots of Literacy: Play and Language. She shared some interesting facts that continue to fuel her work around children’s Play:
Since the 1970 kids have lost 12 hours of “free time” and there is a 50% decrease in children’s unstructured outdoor time
Kids don’t play across as wide an age range as they used to older kids know how to play out the consequences e.g. play dead, be sad, etc. There is actually a school in NJ whose mission it is to “teach” old-fashioned neighborhood play! Within an age-range during play (vs. same aged peers) there is a higher likelihood that a player will rebuke the other for inaccurate play/language (Mommies don’t talk like that; That is not a hose, silly) Experts’ current thinking is that adults need to fill the role of the 10 year old to help a preschooler understand the outcome of their play.
Comprehension of stories read aloud is increased in kids who play because through their play, they practice visualizing and developing mental models which in turn, leads to comprehension of other people’s stories.
Start with realistic props (tent, plastic tools, play kitchen set, etc.) Use symbolic props as kids are ready. E.g. If a child has played with a fire truck for weeks, try hiding it for a play session and see if the child can carry out a play sequence using a block (or any object) to represent the fire truck. This develops their language as they will be challenged to describe what is happening since it won’t be obvious via the prop
Prompt kids with “so” and “because” to encourage them to extend their play and explain their play moves verbally; introduce problems into play so kids can draw on past experiences to create a visual model for how to solve the problems (We have 3 plates and 4 people who want to eat; what should we do?)
Listen for kids to use labels and descriptors e.g. in addition to labeling a clock; describe it as black, square, plastic). As children advance through stages of play, listen for summarizer and judgement statements. Eventually, kids will begin to make predictions. Language impairments will interfere with this progression, but parents can still watch for the stages. Parents can ask questions at all levels.
Natick Preschool School Council
Meets virtually, once per month, typically in the mornings 8am - 8:45am
If you are interested in serving on the school council, please email me at mkinkead@natickps.org.
What is School Council?
The School Council, in serving as representatives of our larger school community, seeks to enrich and enhance opportunities for teaching and learning that result in improved learning outcomes for students. We strive to improve the supports available to teachers, students and their families as we work together to better meet the needs of all our learners.
Reminder for Parents Who Want to Volunteer--CORI Checks
Reminder If you want to volunteer in schools, you must have a CORI check conducted and you must go into the building with identification (drivers license or passport) to do this. Click here for description of what a CORI check is and does. Without a CORI check, you cannot volunteer in the school. Here is the form to fill out for a CORI. Preschool volunteer opportunities include being a Mystery Reader for the class, presenting a family tradition and supporting special projects.
Social Emotional Learning and Independence
Support Social Emotional Learning and Independence at home using the same language and systems we use at school
Handwashing at Home video
Schedules, Visuals, Daily Living and Social Emotional Learning These can help!
- How To Use PBIS at Home complete with printable red birds (don’t have a printer? Have your child make some red birds or choose what household item you can use to represent them.)
Make Clean-Up Fun Gracie's corner clean up song
What is the Preschool Flip?
Fleece! Jackets! Chilly weather calls for additional layers. Use the linked video to practice the Preschool Flip to build your child's independence putting on a jacket. They will be so proud of themselves and you will have your hands free for extra hugs!
Quick Links
Speak Up, Natick!
Send us your questions or ideas via Speak Up, Natick!
Bullying Incident Report
Use this form to report a bullying incident.
PowerSchool Support
Technology Support
COVID-19 Updates
View the latest COVID-19 updates from NPS.
- Title I: Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990Title II
- Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990Title VI
- Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964Title IX
- Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972
- MGL, Ch.76, Section 5: Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 76, Section 5