Basic Information

I am not sure how much information was shared with you about the preschool program at Raymond High School, so I wanted to share some basic information so that everyone has some of the important info.  

There is a morning and afternoon program.   The morning program is held from 8:45am til 11:15 am.  The afternoon program is held 12:30pm til 3pm.   Because of the  amount of time in each session, when there is a delayed opening because of the weather, there will not be a morning program.  The same is for the afternoon program.  If there is early dismissal because of the weather, we will not have the afternoon program. 

The children call me "Mrs. Vincent."  We will have Ms. Laura and Ms. Nessa (Vanessa) in the morning program and Ms. H (Omayma) and Ms. Nessa will be in the afternoon program.  All of our paraprofessionals have experience working with children in this age group.   

Your child will need a full sized backpack for school.  We often find that, although they are super cute, we can not fit all your child's items in the smaller sized backpacks.  It is also helpful for kiddos to have a lunch box/snack bag to hold their snack.  I will give you a heads up as the weather gets colder and we may be going outside to send your child in with snow gear.  

Parents may fill out the free/reduced forms or pay for milk.  Milk is 5 cents a carton.  The cafeteria has cartons of chocolate or white milk and the students would drink this at snack time.  If you do not want your child drinking the milk or maybe only want them to choose white milk, please let me know so that we can help them choose what you wish.  I choose one person a day to go down to the cafeteria with another teacher from our room to collect the milk order and bring it back.  

There are other jobs that I select the students to complete during their day.  Some of those jobs are line leader, caboose, lights, door holder, number counter, weather, the greeting at circle time, calendar, and snack helper (passes out straws to friends).  I switch the classroom jobs everyday.

For both the morning and afternoon, our classroom schedules stay basically the same, we just do them at different times.  Children arrive, hang up their backpacks, get their folders out of the backpacks, and grab their crayon boxes.  Next, we enter the classroom together and children make their milk selection, put their folder in the folder bin, and take a coloring or learning sheet.  Children color and complete the learning sheet while we check folders, take attendance, and settle in for our day.  We then hold a whole group circle with calendar, weather, and learning activities and songs.  After circle time, everyone uses the bathroom or gets changed.  We all wash hands and then grab our snack bags and milk if they ordered them.  Children eat snack together and look at books in our book area after they are finished eating.  We then read a book altogether based on the learning theme of the week.  Children then participate in center time.  They area allowed to pick which area of the classroom that they play in, with expectations of how many children can play in one area positioned on the wall.  There is at least one learning activity that is teacher led at the small group table that all the children are called over to participate in.  After center time, the children clean up together and if the weather is good, the children go out on the playground.  If the weather is not good (or it is too cold), the children participate in whole group motor activities in the classroom.  That is the end of our day. 

We have a dismissal procedure that we follow to ensure that all children are dismissed to the right family member/adult with a routine to exit the playground and line up with their friends.  Please allow the teachers to dismiss your child instead of calling your child over at the end of the day. 

The binders I asked for you to bring in will be used for the students portfolios, which you will receive back at the end of the school year.  I try to keep one piece of art/learning work a week to place in the portfolios.  This will be a collection of your student's work at the end of the year when it is complete and shows the progression of your child's learning through the year. 

We redirect behaviors as much as we can in preschool.  We spend the first couple of weeks of school to get to know one another and learn routines, procedures, and expectations.  There may be times when we ask your child to take a break.  Taking a break is not completely about bad behavior.  We might see a student who needs to calm their body down, or if they are emotional, they might want a quiet spot away from their peers.  The 'take a break' spot is a safe, calm place for students to use if they need to and is away from the busier areas of the classroom.  Taking a break is part of the responsive classroom technique that we use in the classroom.  

To find out more information about the Preschool Program, you can see our Handbook here.  

******If your child attended school last year, we will need a new note for the 2023-2024  school year**************

If anyone besides the legal guardians or parents are picking up your child, you must write a note with the date, person's name, when they are picking up your child, and your child's name.  The note must also include your signature.  This must be done even if you have written that person on your child's registration forms.  If you know that you need to have some type of schedule, like grandma is picking Sally up on Tuesdays and Thursdays, you can write a note that covers the entire school year by saying something like "Every Tuesday and Thursday I give permission for _______ to pick up Sally Smith from preschool."  If you have forgotten to send a note in, you can email a note to l.mahoney@sau33.com.  This would send the note to one of the administrative assistants and you should also call the school to let them know you emailed a note.  The note must have your signature, so I have seen people write a note and sign it, then snap a picture with their smart phone, and email it to the school email address (listed above).   Please have notes to the school by 10:45am for the morning program and 2:30pm for the afternoon program.  We are usually on the playground after that and it is more difficult for the administrative assistants to relay the information to us.