Monthly/Weekly Learning

August

Hello! We have had a great start to the school year so far!  We are focusing this month on learning routines and expectations.  We will start off slow with academics by adding in some name recognition activities, colors and shapes this month.  Mostly we are getting to know each other and forming friendships and community.  We want them to love school!

Week of 8/10-8/14

This week the kids are still learning routines and procedures.  They are getting to know each other and forming friendships.  No formal academics this week other than their leaning through exploration and play!

At Home:

• Play rhyming games.  Nonsense words are okay!  Ex: hat, bat, sat, mat, lat, cat, dat, rat

• Play counting games and sing counting songs/rhymes

• Say names of objects, food, people, places and see if they can guess the first sound.  It isn't about the correct identification of the letter.  It is the sound only.  For example: Giraffe is spelled with a "G", but it makes the "J" sound.  We want them to identify making the "J" sound, not trying to guess what letter makes that sound.  Same thing with "cat" and "kite."  They make the same beginning sound.  It doesn't matter if they know if it is a "c" or "k" right now.  Just focus on the sound!

• Work on name activities.  You can write their name in highlighter and they can trace it.  You can write their name in crayon or marker and they can rainbow write around it with different color markers by either tracing the exact letters over and over with markers, or tracing around each letter with different color markers.  Getting them to recognize their name first is more important that getting them to write it at the moment.  You can even write down a few different words that start with the same letter as their name and see if they can guess which one is their name!

• Young kids are very sensory based.  Make sure they are getting a lot of opportunities to touch things and explore.  You can have rice buckets, playdough, kinetic sand, water play with toys and buckets, and anything they can get their hands in.  Sometimes it's messy but they need it!  Do it outside or put a towel down.  They learn through exploration and touching and they need to feel it first hand!  Also, anything that involves using their hands helps strengthen them to help them become better writers.  Work on those fine motor skills!

• The best way to teach kids about anything is through books and reading!  Read to your child every night and talk about what you see on the page. Count pictures or words on a page.  Get number books and alphabet books and have fun!  Learning is meant to be fun!