Group 5

March 16, 2020

Dear Pre K Families,

We are embarking on an unfamiliar journey together in your child’s continuity distance learning experience during this school closure. I am just returning from my maternity leave and learning where your children are at this point developmentally, while also working to find age appropriate ways to support your four and five year old children outside of school for an extended period of time.

First, I want to thank you for being your child’s first and most important teacher and for partnering with me in this adventure. This experience will require additional work on your part and I thank you for that. The activities in this packet are meant to be simple and repetitive to provide deep learning. Some activities in your child’s packet are experiences I would provide to all of Group 5 and some are specifically given for your child based on their learning needs.

So you are aware in the four days I was at school with your children I was able to complete literacy assessments for all of the children who were present. This week I had planned to administer math assessments. These assessments would have helped tailor the math activities and games I planned for each student. Therefore, I will include math games that are new within their packets however, the concepts have previously been covered by myself or Liz.

My hope is these activities are positive for you and your child. If you feel your child is resisting doing an activity I encourage you to take a break and move to a different activity in this folder. I want to challenge your children just enough to promote learning but overwhelming them actually negatively impacts their learning. Given this, please feel free to move on if you feel this is happening with your child. Also, communicate with me so I can be sure to work on that particular skill when school resumes. It’s important to meet your child where they are developmentally and overworking them can make them feel negatively toward learning and school. They are Dover School’s youngest learners and we want to foster a life long love of learning. This is why I’m really stressing to do the right amount of schoolwork for your child as they might feel overwhelmed if you also provide additional educational activities, online academic games and work than what is in this packet.

This also means following a schedule that works for you, your child and your family and not feeling pressured to entertain your children every moment they are home. It’s important to me that you know I think play is equally important for this age group as the academic activities I am providing. Given the opportunity, children will naturally entertain themselves while often sparking creative thinking while doing so. Valuable learning experiences are often from open-ended activities, such as building with blocks, Legos, playing with play dough, working with a variety of art materials, outside play, puzzles, etc. (Think back to experiences you see in the daily notes or see the list below for additional ideas). I’m also encouraging families to read to their children each day, play age-appropriate board games and card games as well as small amounts of appropriate, supervised games on the computer/Ipad (I will be sure to include games that myself or other Dover teachers recommend for this age group) as well as quiet or rest time too. In addition, please let me know if you need access to supplies such as paper, pencils, markers, scissors, board games, etc. I am happy to set you up with materials to take home.

Each week I will have a packet prepared for you and your child to take home and work on. The first packet is meant for Wednesday-Friday this week and the following packet is for next week March 23-27. However, as I mentioned before repetitive learning experiences are valuable and so it’s beneficial to do activities and play games several times. I am also working on creating a Pre K webpage where you can find all of the activities in one place. Please communicate with me if you notice your child having difficulty or not being challenged enough with a particular skill or concept. Your communication each week will help me prepare the necessary materials for your child for the following week.

I am readily available by email anytime and am also open to scheduling phone conversations during school hours if you have any questions.

Warmly,

Lindsey Brown-Rosso