Parent Letter

It was an exciting week here with your little one. I hope the visit from a Saratoga Springs Police Officer and all the accoutrement that went with it: lights, sirens, a brief ride and an honorary badge had them talking a million miles an hour when they got home. It was my first time in a squad car! So many buttons, computers and switches. Lance Funn was a fantastic volunteer for this enrichment activity, I hope your child enjoyed it.

I will email a few photos I took of the children with the police officer to you. This is the first time I’ve taken pictures at preschool and will only do so on rare occasions like this visit. If you have any concerns, please let me know. Please check your email for some sweet smiles.

Your child continues to become familiar with identifying the numbers on the phone keypad. I feel it is not enough for our children to know the number to dial is 9-1-1 if they can’t find the buttons on the phones themselves. We practiced on their paper photo copied phones and on an uncharged real phone for both their home phone number and 9-1-1. I encourage you to find some time to practice at home. It could very well save a life!

While nothing could really top a real live policeman, the latter half of the week found our class learning about taking care of our teeth. We watched a short clip from PBS’s Sid the Science kid (pbskids.org), tried to brush pretend teeth (boiled eggs) that had been stained by soda and for snack time ate different food to see not only which snacks helped clean our teeth, but which snacks stuck in between them. Yuck!

We have added the letters Aa, and Tt to Mm, Nn, Cc, Rr this week if you’d like to practice at home. I’m including our optional homework again.

There are a couple students who are very, very close to earning their Alphabet Crowns. It is very likely that a classmate doing so will get your child even more excited to learn at home. I test on their ability to name a lower case letter as they will encounter far more words in lowercase than upper in early readers (or in any book for that matter!) Once your child can identify the letter, I ask them “what does it say?” A child only need identify single sounds (no soft “g” or “c” at this point) for consonants and the long and short sound of vowels.

Next week we’re moving on to manners, table setting, etc.

Megan Millington

Parent Letter

Dear Parents,

What a fun week! I hope your child has enjoyed learning to be safe. We toured the rooms in my house to identify hot things: light bulbs, outlets, oven, stove top, hot pans, faucets, an iron, etc. We talked about how to adjust water temperature in a faucet by looking for a red and blue band area in sinks and tubs. We learned about fire fighters, visited a fire hydrant (at the end of my driveway) and practiced calling 9-1-1 on a phone.

We continued to work on the letters n, m, c and r and identify beginning sounds of words we use. We end the week celebrating National Playdoh Day. This year it falls on Saturday the 18^th so I encourage you to get out the Playdoh and have fun. We used our doh today to form alphabet letters we’ve been learning.

The doh in your child’s bag is made from a natural home recipe I found online:

• 1 cup flour
• 3/8 cup salt
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Create your own colors with things you have around the house like cocoa, beets, paprika, turmeric. To create use 3/8 cup hot water (more or less as needed) and 4 tbs cocoa powder, or 1 tbs paprika, 1 teaspoon turmeric. This will create great fall colors in yellow, orange, and brown.

You can also add color to your Play Dough using vegetable or fruit juices. To do so, divide dough into different sections, warm 3/8 cup of the juice and then add to the dough mixtures. Try using carrot, spinach, or tomato for vibrant colors. Combine the ingredients in mixing bowl, including the colors. Knead dough for a few minutes on flour covered surface. Store in air tight containers in the refrigerator.

Thank you for your support and for sharing your little angel with me! I have included a work page in this newsletter if your child would like to sit at the table with older siblings to “do homework.” If they return it, I’ll stamp it to “grade” it for them like big kid homework. -This is totally elective.

Megan Millington

Parent Letter

Dear Parents,

This week your child will continue to learn about germs--following up on our experiment conducted last week. We rubbed a peeled potato with our hands after our outside recess/snack time, washed our hands and then rubbed our clean hands on another peeled potato. We will explore the differences in each potato (sealed in a plastic baggie) and later this week we will attempt to wash a piece of clothing with and without soap to show that hurrying up and just getting our hands wet doesn't really get us clean! It is my hope that we can all be motivated to keep as clean as possible and enjoy less illness in our class in the coming months.

This week's primary focus is Safety. I highly recommend a book for your home library titled "Not Everyone Is Nice" --Helping Children Learn Caution with Strangers by Frederick Alimonti and Ann Tedesco, Ph.D. (Available at Amazon.com) This book likens the beauty of a sea anemone to that of a friendly looking stranger handing out candy. The anemone uses its beauty to trick the fish and catch it. We will read this book along with "Don't Talk to Strangers" and "Your Body Belongs to You." I've used these in my home for years with my children. They are easy to understand and offer fantastic illustrations. We've used these books for family night discussions and for general reading because they don't scare the daylights out of the child while tackling a very serious topic.

This week will also find your child beginning to work on common letters of the alphabet that they'll see in many short vowel words: n, m, c, r, f, b, d, g s, t, and j. We will cover these letters over the next few weeks and start some basic testing to see where each child's abilities lie.

My strongest suggestions at this early point in our school year would be to emphasize at home the importance of sitting when we are sitting and playing with us when we are all playing together. In a word: focus. Keeping focused will be an invaluable took for your child and some of the easiest games to play at home would be Mother May I and Red Light, Green Light to help them build concentration skills.

Your children are a delight to be with. Their enthusiasm, smiles and willingness to participiate are absolutely darling.

Thank you for your support!
Megan Millington