Ms Nicole's Class - Preschool 1

Hello, friends and family from Preschool 1!

I hope that everyone is enjoying their summer and staying cool. We have been exploring bread all month and also talking about our new feelings that we have been experiencing lately with school about to start. One thing I would like to mention is that all children feel different about this big change. Your child may be excited and happy to tackle the change, or he or she may feel nervous and scared. They have asked me every day if I will miss them when they leave here. I assure them that I will not only miss them but think about them every day.

We have been discussing some books to help us with some emotional troubles that they might be facing. One is called What do you do with a problem? This book explains to us that problems challenge, shape, push, and help us to discover how strong, brave, and capable we really are. Even though we don’t always want them, problems can change us in unexpected ways. This story I feel offers them the fearlessness to leave here and try something different. Another book that has been very constructive is called Sticks. This book is a story that all of us can relate to. It is about finding yourself in a situation that didn’t turn out like you believed that it would and having support from friends and family to help you find the courage to get up and endure. Be sure to give your child positive words of encouragement to help ease the process. They are counting on your leadership.

Starting in the first week of August I have decided to focus on measuring. The children will explore the concepts of nonstandard and standard measurement. We will explore ideas like measuring ourselves, how far we can jump, and what different things we can use to measure that aren’t normally used for measuring to convey new ideas. Young children apply early concepts of measurement in several of their everyday activities. They compare everything to each other from sizes of portions of food to who is taller than who. So, it will be exciting to see where this takes us in our learning process.

I would like to encourage you to talk about measuring at home as well. Remember to ask questions to get them to thinking. Use words like smaller, longer, taller, shorter, wider, heavier, and lighter when exploring. Measurement is very meaningful to children, so I encourage you to make it meaningful at home like I will do in our everyday routines.

As always, I would like to invite you to stop by and have lunch or play and explore with us when you have a chance. The children would love to show you everything we are discussing and researching.

Ms. Nikki