Georgia's Pre-K Program teacher newsletter, Vol. 1, Issue 1 (July 2004)

BACK TO SCHOOL

UPDATES

Can you believe another summer has flown by? I guess many of you have heard that with the passing of Senate Bill 456, OSR will undergo a few changes. OSR will now be known as: Bright From The Start: Georgia's Department of Early Care and Learning. All changes will take place and be implemented by October 1, 2004. We will keep you posted as we go through this exciting time of change.
We will continue our mentor teacher program this year and expand our numbers. They did a great job last year and we had such

rave reviews, we want to give some others a chance to show their stuff. Mentor teachers will be named by September and the training dates are being set. Bright From The Start will be undergoing a pilot assessment program. Bright From The Start chose 60 sites to begin our pilot this year. They will be trained in July and use the Work Sampling System this school year. If all goes as planned, many others will join our new assessment program the following year. Remember--you should be working closely with your consultant. He/she is your

link to Bright From The Start. Make it a point to let your consultant know what is going on and what areas you need help in. We also have several new inclusion classrooms to add to our inclusion project. We have training scheduled for July in Perry. We are excited about the potential growth of this program. The PQA has been revised quite a bit. Be sure to look for the changes! Hope you have a great year!

Volume 1, Issue 1 July 2004
Special points of interest: Updates Back to school tips Alliteration fun Phonemic Awareness Recommended Book Lists Planning ideas
Contact information:

BEFORE SCHOOL STARTS

As you are preparing your classroom for your new "crop" of children, here are a few things you might want to consider. Try contacting each family before school starts and extend a warm welcome to the family to open house or the first day of school. Tell the family you will be taking their pic-

ture and want them to be sure to come. Tell them a little bit about you and what they will need to bring the first day of school. Go ahead and check for changes to address and contact numbers. You can also ask how the child will be getting home the first day of school and then for

the rest of the year. Open house will run smoother. Remember Bright From The Start Guidelines don't allow for your to ask for supplies. Ideas for Parent Orientation can be found in Appendix G of the 2004-2005 Pre-K Provider's Operating Guidelines.

Consultant of the Day 404-656-5957 888-4GA-PREK

Symbols--helping with alliteration!

One thing that has long been a part of setting up a pre-k classroom has been assigning symbols to the children in your classroom. It is recommended that the symbol be easy for the pre-k child to draw and relate to. A child will refer to his/her symbol for the majority of the pre-k year. Symbol recognition comes in handy for children who are non-readers to identify belongings and places of importance. It also helps to develop that sense of belonging in the classroom when suddenly everything with their symbol becomes theirs. This year when assigning symbols try to

assign a symbol to each child that begins with the same sound that their name begins with. Be sure you remember to keep it simple to draw, so as children are learning they can eventually begin to draw their symbol (beginning writing) and then moving on to writing letters of their name and eventually their whole name. You can use these symbols all day to help with alliteration skills in your classroom. Some examples:
Monica Moon
Sally Sunshine
David Dog

Susie Star Hannah Heart Darla Daisy Bonnie Butterfly Braxton Ball
Have fun! I will be looking for your creative thoughts as I visit this year! Throughout the day say the child's name and symbol together as you lineup, for transitions, attendance, dismissal, etc.

Materials, Materials, Materials

When setting up your classroom, keep in mind children can quickly become overwhelmed and distracted when too many items are accessible in the room. Refer to your PQA and make sure you start by making the required items accessible.
Be sure to introduce each new material placed in a center throughout the year. Small Group time is an excellent

time to introduce new materials and teach the proper way to use them. You can involve the children in finding a location for the new material and labeling the new material.
It is also important to introduce each area of your room at the beginning of the year, along with each material you have already placed into learning areas. Pretend the children

don't know anything and you have to teach them everything--how to use it, where to put it during clean-up, etc. Take as long as you need to do this (@4-6 weeks).

"Children are like wet cement.
Whatever falls upon them makes an impression."
Haim Ginott

School Tour

Plan to take your children on a tour of the school to familiarize them with new places and new people. Be sure to take along a digital, Polaroid or other type of camera to snap pictures along the way. This tour will help ease anxiety and teach the children important people and places they may need to know. Upon returning from the tour, compile the pictures into a class book, scrapbook, or poster. Children can refer back and

remember the important

See? I see Mrs. Jones looking at

people and places. To incor-

me? Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Jones, What

porate the book, Brown

Do You See? I See Kiddy Place

Bear, Brown Bear, What Do

Looking At Me. (End with the name

You See? Use the text from

of your school.) Brown Bear, Brown

the book to create your

Bear will be the Governor's Choice

class book. Mrs. Monica,

book again for 2004-2005. You will

Mrs. Monica, What Do You See? I see the library looking at me. Library, Library, What Do You

receive new ideas to go along with Be sure to read the unit you received last year your class book with the books. aloud to the class.

Volume 1, Issue 1

Page 2

Phonemic Awareness

Phonemic awareness (PA) is the ability to hear, identify and manipulate sounds. Here are some basic things to remember about phonemic awareness instruction in your classroom:
1. It should be PURPOSEFUL and MEANINGFUL.
2. It should occur DAILY, SYSTEMATICALLY, and EXPLICITLY!
3. It should happen with SMALL GROUPS - not individually.
4. Instruction should be in 10--15 minutes time intervals.
5. REPETITION is important!
6. It should be kept ORAL!

The song "Tooty Tot" is an excellent example of a song with movements that you can do daily with your children to teach phonemic awareness.
If you assign children symbols that begin with the same sound of the first letter of their name and call them throughout the day, you are also teaching phonemic awareness.
During planning time you can use strategies to help you teach phonemic awareness, "The person whose names

rhymes with jelly is the next one to make a plan.
Clean-up time is another time to teach phonemic awareness. You can
simply say, "I see something that needs to be put away and it rhymes with _______".
By implementing these strategies and others you will be teaching phonemic aware-
ness, having fun, and not even know it! Now in item C4 of the PQA you will need to document at least one PA activity per day in your plans or schedule.

Recommended Book List

You can now go to our website and view our recommended book list. The booklist is divided so you can choose books by author, concept, theme and literacy skill. You can use these books to help plan lessons and most importantly to help you choose books when you are ordering them for your classroom. There are over 400 titles on the booklist and we plan to keep

updating the list in the future. You can access the booklist by going to our website, www.osr.state.ga.us, and looking on the main page at the top. We plan to move it to the pre-k page soon when we update our website. We are planning many changes to our website. We plan to add features for parents, teachers, resource coordinators and project directors. I will keep you updated on the progress.

You can also go to
http://www2.nypl. org/home/branch/ kids/reading/index.
cfm and see a list of 100 recommended picture books. This too is a great resource for parents.

"I did then what I knew to do... But when I knew better, I did better." Maya Angelou

Ways to Plan

When beginning to plan your lessons for this year, remember there are many ways to generate ideas for plans. We need to be sure to remember that plans should not be disjointed and random. Our daily plans should have a purpose and we should be teaching and planning activities for a reason. Keep these key things in mind when planning this year. Planning

should occur around cur-

be a place for your to plan

rent events, community,

for assessment. Try plan-

concepts, season, holidays,

ning at least one assess-

content standards, assess-

ment activity daily and then

ment, poems and pieces of

let the rest of your assess-

literature. If you need

ment randomly occur daily.

sample lesson plans or

You are sure to NEVER

units, please contact your consultant. Lesson plans should really also

Please contact my office if be behind!
you need any of the mentioned plans and units.

Volume 1, Issue 1

Page 3

Bright From The Start: Georgia's Department of Early Care and Learning
July 2004

CHANGES TO 2004-2005 PQA

There are many changes to the PQA this year. Please review all changes and prepare teachers. If you will notice item A15 will give you a time to review new guidelines, changes to PQA and other instructional expectations from staff. Please have documentation of this meeting ready for your consultant (agenda or sign-in sheet). Several of the other changes might require you do a purchase order early in the school year. Some things you need to pay close attention to: B3--established writing center and supplies, alphabetic principle materials, books of various cultures and disabilities, B5--full length mirror for meets and books and writing materials for each center area. Most of you are probably already doing the majority of

the new indicators on the PQA, you have just never been asked to document these items before. Please get with your consultant to find out his/her expectations for documentation ASAP. We recommend you complete a selfevaluation as soon as possible using the new PQA. Please have this available for your consultant to work from. Include comments to help your consultant know how you got to Exceeds. We also suggest you create a notebook, folder, etc. for your consultant to expedite his/her visit. Include self evaluation, training certificates or training information, field trips, order/material information, questions you have for your consultant, anything you want your consultant to see or know about. This is a great way

for you to share the wonderful things that go on in your class they might miss. Also, it will the visit go smoothly without the consultant having to interrupt your valuable instruction time! Look over the PQA, make notes about things you might need to order and things you need to remember to add to your classroom. Use the definitions and clarifications for the PQA to help you understand some of the more confusing items. If you still are not sure, never hesitate to contact your consultant. All consultant contact information is available on our website. The PQA is your best friend... Learn IT....Live IT....Love IT!!!!!