Welcome to Pre-K and Kindergarten Enrichment!

This will be an extraordinary year of growth for your child! I like to think of Smiling Face's Pre-K and kindergarten enrichment program as the bridge from playful preschool to academic kindergarten. It is our role to help guide and prepare your child for the high expectations kindergarten will hold, and we will do so with positive encouragement in a loving, nurturing, fun approach. Each student is unique and with our small class size, every child will receive individual attention to meet them where they are and help them stretch.
We start out the school year slowly as the children make the switch into Pre-K and kindergarten enrichment (aka the green room), but you might find your child is more tired and might even fall asleep in the car on the way home for the first few weeks of school. This is normal, as many are giving up naps and their little minds and bodies are processing a lot of fun learning!

Sign-in and warm-up:
We start our morning at 8:00. When your student arrives, please sign them in at the front while they hang up their coats and backpacks at their cubby. They will also put their snacks and lunches in the large blue tub. Once they have everything put up, they will go wash their hands. After their hands are washed, they will sign in with dry erase markers at the rectangle table. Please feel free to join them. When they finish, they will erase their name and put it in the white basket. They will then join in our warm-up activity. Warm-up will connect with either the letter of the week or the theme of the week. Depending on the activity, warm-up will either be at the circle rug (game, manipulatives, etc) or at the rainbow table (dot-to-dot, maze, etc).

White board time:
After warm-up, we will clean up and go to the circle rug. We start each morning standing and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Then the children will pick a letter and sit. We will read the white board together. Here the children will learn about the letter and theme of the week and well as the day of the week, numbers, and shapes. As the year progresses, this is the time where we will also introduce patterns, spelling, and science based themes.
We like to combine movement and songs with our learning. After the students sit for white board, they will stand up and we have fun exercises that coordinate with the number of the day. For example, if the number is 5 then they will clap their hands 5 times, stomp their feet 5 times, spin 5 times, do 5 jumping jacks, touch their toes for 5 seconds, etc. We end with our rocket ship position and count backwards from the number to "0 – blast off!" and jump up to get our notebooks.

Notebook:
We will model notebook on the white board and it will also be on the white board underneath the clock. At notebook time, each student will begin by writing their name. Some students have never held a pencil before or some do not know the letters in their name. Do not worry. We go slowly and scaffold each child at their ability. They will also write the letter of the week 5 times in upper case and 5 times in lower case. We will dot for students that need the extra help on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, but on Thursday and Friday we will encourage them to write the letter on their own. The same is true for the number of the day and the shape of the day. When your child is finished with notebook, they will raise their hand and will be checked. We will draw a big smiley face and a star at the top of the page and they will choose a sticker to put on the page. Then they will have the choice to look at a book and/or do a puzzle, or work on small whiteboards, while they wait for their classmates to finish. The notebooks will be in a tub. Please feel free to go with your child at the end of the day to look at their work. When they have finished an entire notebook, we will send it home for you to keep and give them a fresh, blank notebook. The students get really excited about having a new notebook!

Circle rug time:
Circle time follows notebook. We look at the yellow bulletin board and have songs and movement to accompany calendar, counting, weather, day of the week, etc. Eventually this is where we will introduce addition, time, and patterns.

Jobs:
Each child will have a job for the day. You will see the job your child has on the white board. Jobs include line leader, flag holder, notebook helper, weather person, day of the week person, calendar person, and so on.

Show and Tell:
For show and tell, each student will have a day assigned to them that will stay consistent throughout the school year. Please only have your student bring something to share on their assigned day. If they forget to bring something on their day, we will help them find something in the classroom to share. We ask that they connect what they bring with either the letter or theme of the week and that it is small enough to fit into their backpack or cubby.

Snack:
Our story time combines with our snack time. The books that are read will usually be core books or books that relate to the theme or letter. We have the children wash their hands before snack and sit and wait to sing our snack song before beginning to eat. We have the students stay at the table in their seat for the duration of the story, even if they have finished their snack. After the story, they will get up to throw away any trash. We have the students eat their healthiest snack in the morning. We ask them to bring fruits, vegetables, yogurt, cheese, etc. If they bring a drink, they can have that at lunchtime, but we have them drink water at snack time. We encourage you to have a flip top water bottle with their name labeled with a sharpie, as they are allowed to have water bottles at all times.

Projects:
After snack, the students will go to the circle rug to hear about the fun projects they will be doing. We typically have 3 projects in the morning and 3 different projects in the afternoon. Depending on the length and complexity of the project, we might only have 2. Two of the projects are usually more craft based and one is more academically based, but all relate to the letter of the week or the theme. Some projects might include tastings, experiments, games, Core artists, magazine collages, Magic School Bus movies, creating books, Scholastic magazines, and worksheets. We try to have at least one project each day that utilizes cutting and pasting. We do not pre-cut for the students and do not cut for them during projects. We help them learn to cut for themselves ☺

Free-Play:
The children do have time to free play during the day, although not as much time as they did during preschool. Anytime they finish their projects they are free to play, and there are days and times where they are given extra time. In the beginning of the school year, they are given more free time than later in the year as we ease them into the schedule. Believe it or not, most students say their favorite part of the day is circle time, notebook, or projects!

Recess:
We go outside for recess every day unless it is below 20 degrees or down pouring. We will help the children put on gloves, hats, coats, boots and snowsuits and zip them up. We tell the children that if mom or dad packed it, then you need to wear it ☺ We will go through backpacks to look for winter weather apparel if they are not wearing it when in line to go outside. We also have emergency coats, gloves, hats, etc.

Dismissal:
If your child is a morning only child, then you will be able to pick them up in our classroom at 11:00. We have them pack up their backpacks and sing heigh-ho before they go home. If your child stays after 11:00 but leaves before 11:30, please plan to pick them up outside at the playground. If your child stays until 3:00, then you will be able to pick them up in our classroom. We will have them pack up their backpacks and sing heigh-ho before they go home. If your child stays past 3:00 for after school care, then you will pick them up and sign them out in Mrs. Montante's room.

Volunteers:
It is usually easiest for the children if parents do not volunteer the first month so that we can establish routines, but at any point after that we would love to have you volunteer! You do not have to sign up for a set day or time, just let me know and I will put you to work! We will be asking for 1-3 parents that can commit to either Tuesday, Thursday, or Friday from roughly 10 to 11am to run reading groups. This would be a year long commitment beginning around the end of October. If you are interested, please let us know.

Thank you for trusting us with your children! I am looking forward to an amazing year getting to know you and your child ☺

Ms. Heather Rawlins
Ms. Connie Tooly