Room 8 Newsletter
September 3-7, 2018 We are so thrilled to welcome all of our new children and parents to Room 8 for Pre-Kindergarten! We have spent our first week getting to know both the new and the familiar faces we have in our classroom this year. From the moment we started school on Tuesday, the children have been busy getting acclimated to their new classroom and new activities we get to experience in Pre-K. From working on new tabletop puzzles and making rubber band mazes to learning how to play new board games such as Zingo, the children haven’t had a moment to spare. These activities are just a start to helping the children strengthen their ability to understand sequencing and follow directions. It also has helped to increase their attention span. Puzzles and board games, in turn, expose the children to math language and skills that they will use throughout the rest of their lives. Since Rosh Hashanah is here already, we introduced the holiday this week by asking the children if they knew anything about the pictures that are hanging on the wall in our class. Then, we asked, “Does anyone know what ‘Shana Tova’ means?” The children knew that there was a picture of a challah, but did not know where it came from. Christopher shared that the middle picture is a photo of apple slices. Grayson and Julian were the first to mention the picture of the shofar. While the children knew what these items were, they did not know where they came from and were interested to learn more! Their curiosity in the origin of these items led us to our next conversation about the details of a shofar. Ask your child what animal a shofar comes from and how many shofars can be made from that animal. We ended this discussion by reading Sammy Spider’s First Rosh Hashanah. While reading about the traditions and themes of Rosh Hashanah, one idea resonated with the children. In the book, the Shapiro family received many cards in the mail from their family and friends in the time surrounding the holiday. The cards were sent to wish the Shapiro’s a “Happy New Year.” The children in Room 8 thought it would be a great idea to send their own family and friends a card for Rosh Hashanah. Instead of giving it to their moms and dads, they came up with the idea to send it to a family member or friend, specifically one who does not live in their house. This project allows the children to apply the values of Rosh Hashanah to real life. By doing an activity that captures the interest of the children, they will better connect with the concept and values of this holiday and future topics. Room 8 visited Coach Danny for their first session of P.E. First, Coach Danny asked the children a little bit about themselves to get to know the children. This week Coach Danny focused on strengthening hand-eye coordination skills. He split the class into three groups and explained the three rotating activities. These consisted of bouncing a handball, catching a soft ball in a plastic basket, and throwing up a soft ball and catching it. Blake said that his favorite part of P.E. was bouncing the ball and catching it, and Evie loved catching the soft ball in the plastic basket. We can’t wait to see what Coach Danny has in store for us next week. Hand-eye coordination is essential to simple, daily functional tasks and proves to be an important part of the learning process. It is important to enhance hand-eye coordination being that it is the function that allows us send messages to our brain, which signals our reaction. Whether we are throwing and catching a ball or using our hands and eyes to write our name on a sheet of paper, we are constantly using this skill. Working on the development of these skills at a young age helps children succeed in both gross and fine motor areas. Through P.E. and many classroom activities, we will continue to help your children enhance their coordination. We will continue to explore more Rosh Hashanah themes, and we will make and send our New Year cards. We want to wish everyone a sweet and happy New Year! This is going to be an incredible Pre-K year. Have a wonderful and relaxing holiday, and we will see you on Wednesday! Shabbat Shalom and Shana Tova, Mari and Aaliyah Reminders:
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