Upcoming Events and Reminders

Class and individual pictures will be Tuesday February 22nd. They will take a group picture of our classes, as well as individual pictures of each student. Order forms will come home soon, and all orders are online.

Tuesday, February 22nd is School Bus Drivers Appreciation Day. We cannot appreciate our bus drivers enough-- they are fantastic! If your child rides the bus, please take a moment to thank them in any way you can.

Read Across America Week is Feb 28- Mar 4. Each day will have a (simple!) dress up theme. Please see the main school newsletter for details about this event.

Please remember to check your child's backpack and replenish pull ups or diapers if needed. Thank you!

Parent Corner

Welcome to a new feature in our newsletter! We will be adding ideas for how to incorporate school skills into your home.

Our first idea-- encouraging independent play. Did you know a 3 year olds attention span is up to 8 minutes, and 4 year olds up to 10 minutes? This is a good guideline for how long your child may be able to engage in independent play. The role we play as adults is to support children's growing ability to extend their attention. So how do you do that?

1. Gather some engaging items for your child to explore. Try to pick things that can have multiple uses.

2. Introduce the toy and demonstrate a way to play with it. Continue with some back and forth play.

3. As your child becomes engaged, phase yourself out. Take a less active role and sit back and watch.

4. If your child checks in, comment on their play like, "I saw you race the blue car. Maybe the yellow car is fast too!"

5. Move on to your own activity close by, in case your child wants to check in, seek attention, or runs out of things to do.

6. Offer additional objects if they need ideas to add to their play.