Hello EC Families!

During our Feelings/Emotions Unit, we learn about a lot of different feelings and the zones that they fall into--green, blue, yellow, or red. Being able to identify emotions is very beneficial for all of us. Simply being able to name what you are feeling actually helps to calm your amygdala! This is one reason why it is so important for children to learn to name their feelings. Here are the feelings and zones that we learn about in class:

Green Zone - happy, calm, okay, focused, ready to learn, can do my best, show expected behaviors

Blue Zone - sad, tired, sick, bored

Yellow Zone - silly, frustrated, excited, worried

Red Zone - mad/angry, mean, terrified, hitting/yelling

We also learn that even though it is okay to experience all of these feelings, there are strategies or tools that we can use to get back to the Green Zone. We will learn more specific strategies throughout the year, but here are a few:
1) Take a break (in our classroom, we use the Cozy Corner)
2) Go for a walk (with a grown-up)
3) Drink water
4) Talk to an adult
5) Use breathing strategies (these will be learned throughout the year)
6) Use a calm down strategy (these will be learned throughout the year)

You can help your child at this at home by:

• Helping your child identify what he is feeling
• Reminding your child of things she can do to feel better and offering to do them with her
• Practicing breathing and calm down strategies when your child is in the Green Zone. This will help your child be more likely to use them when in the Blue, Yellow, or Red Zone. 

Hello TK Families!
We will be working on sight words at school throughout most of the year in TK. We will be doing monthly sight words for the months of September, October, November, January, February, March, April, and May. You can help your child master these words by working on them together at home. Our goal is for children to be able to read the words when they see them. Here are some ideas for how you could practice these words together at home:

• Point them out in books you are reading together. Pick one or two words at a time to see if your child can find them in the book while you are reading.
• Write them in shaving cream! Have your child say the letters while writing them and then say the word.
• Build them with pipe cleaners! Your child can spell and read them while building each word.
• Make them out of playdough
• Write them outside with chalk
• Write them in sand, salt, or sugar
• Stamp them
• Write the sight words on pieces of paper and tape them around the room/house. Call out a word and have your child run & touch that word.
• Write the sight words on pieces of paper and hide them around the room/house. Have your child search for the words and read them when he finds them.
• Go on a scavenger hunt for sight words! See if your child can find each word somewhere in the house or in a book.
• Rainbow writing - write the sight words in different colors. First, write it in red. Then, write on top of that word in orange. See how many colors you can use!
• Paper Plate Toss - Write the words on paper plates. Use them like frisbees to throw after reading the word. You could also add in a target to throw them at.
• Flashlight Words - Tape the words to the wall or ceiling and turn off the lights. Have your child use a flashlight to find the words and read them.
• Go Fish - Make 2 sets of sight word cards and pay Go Fish
• Write them using stencils
• Stepping Stones - Place the words on the floor to form a path. Have your child step on them to cross the stream. Your child should read each one as he steps on it.
• Build them with Wiki Sticks
• Tic-Tac-Toe - Write the words on a tic-tac-toe board. Take turns reading them. If read correctly, place an X or O in the box until someone wins.
• Make them with Scrabble tiles
• Word-O - Played just like BINGO. Fill in the spaces with the sight words. Call out the words and mark the spaces.
• Spell them with magnetic letters
• Search for the words in a newspaper or magazine and highlight them
• Word Jump - Write the sight words in chalk outside. Call out a word. Have your child jump to the word.
• Write them with finger paint
• SNAP - Write sight words on flash cards or popsicle sticks. Put the words into a jar. Also, you write the word SNAP on a few flash cards and put them in to the jar. The kids can play in partners or in a groups of 3 or 4 with siblings. They take turns pulling a card out of the jar. If they can say the word on the card automatically with no struggle, they get to keep the card. If they struggle, they have to put it back. If they pull out one of the cards that says SNAP, they have to put all of the card they’ve drawn back. The first person to 5 cards (or 10) wins! 
• Write them with sticks in the sand or dirt
• Stair Chase -  Place two sight word cards on each stair. Let them pick one sight word on the way up, saying the word an
• Build them with popsicle sticks
• Coin Toss - Put words on the floor. Children take turns tossing a coin onto a word and saying the word. If they read the word correctly, they keep the coin. The first person to collect a designated amount of money is the winner.
• Beat the Clock - See how many times your child can write a word in one minute. Or see how many flash cards your child can read in one minute.
• Memory - Create two sets of word cards. Place the word cards face down. Have your child turn over two cards, trying to make a match. Continue until all of the words are matched. 
• Who Has More? Flash word cards to your child. If they read the word within 10 seconds, they get to keep the card. If not, you keep the card. If the child has more cards than you at the end, they win. (You can modify the time based on your child's ability. Try to shorten it as your child becomes more familiar with the words.)
• Who Am I? - Lay out the word cards. Then give the child clues to what the selected word is. For example, if the word was “red,” you could say – I rhyme with bed. I have three letters. I end with the letter D. Have the child locate the word.
• Word of the Day - Tape one or two words written on an index card next to the front door, as EVERYONE in the family leaves or enters the house…..ask them to touch the word and yell it out.
• Eat the Words - Write this month's sight words in whipped cream or frosting, eat one word treat a day (after reading it of course).
• Spell them with alphabet shaped pasta
• Bath Time - Write words in the bath tub with bath crayons
• Note of the Day - Each day write your child a short note (1-3 sentences).  Include the words they are practicing.  Ask them to circle those words in crayon
• Use alphabet cookie cutters and playdough to spell out words
• Put letters onto a set of legos and build the words
• Catch - Use a sharpie to write each word from your child's current set on different parts of a beach ball.  Toss the ball back and forth, yelling out the words that face up each time.
• Roll the Die - Create a set of die (large size) with a word on each face.  Roll and read.

​Have fun! :)

1. How often do children receive prizes from the prize box?
     On average, children receive prizes about once a week. This can vary a little give or take based on factors such as how often your child is in class and what behaviors your child exhibits while at school.

2. How many hole punches does my child need to receive a prize?
     This depends on which class your child is in! For the Preschool class, children need 9 hole punches to get a prize. For the Pre-K class, children need 12 hole punches. For the TK class, children need 15 hole punches.

3. What can my child get a hole punch for?
     Lots of things! Typically, I start off the day by giving hole punches for coming in nicely, writing names, and getting quiet for the harmonica. But these certainly are not the only ways your child can receive a hole punch! Other ways include (but are not limited to): cleaning up quickly at the end of center time, lining up at the end of recess when the teacher blows the whistle, walking nicely in the hallway, being quiet for emergency drills, helping a friend or teacher without being asked, and more! Last year, I changed the hole punches for the afternoon class part way through the year to promote responsibility. The hole punches at the start of class changed to coming in nicely, bringing backpacks to school, and bringing in folders and water bottles to the classroom. This helped encourage children to remember to grab these items before coming into the classroom each day!