Georgia's Pre-K Program teacher newsletter, Nov. 2007

November 2007

"A child miseducated is a child lost." -John. F. Kennedy

Bright From The Start: Georgia's Pre-K Program
Teacher Newsletter

November brings many exciting days to discuss with the children in your class.
American Indian Heritage Month
Child Safety and Prevention Month
International Drum Month

Diabetes Month Aviation History Month
1 -- Family Literacy Day 3 -- National Sandwich
Day 5 -- Young Readers Day 9 -- Parade Day 11 -- Veteran's Day 12-18 -- National Chil-
dren's Book Week

the Apple (1307)
Have fun with these by planning your own celebration or finding activities in your community!!!

An Inside Look....
2 Phonological Awareness
2 Parent Involvement
2 Simple Science
3 Changing Your Environment
4 Setting Up Your Environment for Success
4 Georgia's Pre-K Assessment

13 -- International Day of Kindness
14 -- American Teddy Bear Day
17 -- Homemade Bread Day
18 -- William Tell Shot
CLASSROOM TIPS

Contact Information:
Pre-K Consultant of the Day 404-656-5957 888-4GA-PREK Suspension/Disenrollment Please contact your Pre-K Consultant directly. RC Program/Attendance Lori Smith 478-471-5311
Lori.Smith@decal.state.ga.us

TIP #1 On the PQA, B4, B5 and B7 under the meets column state that real and found materials must be accessible in the centers. There should be a minimum of two types of materials in each area. TIP # 2 Under section B8, the PQA states that each classroom should have collections of natural items. There should be more than one collection

and they should vary throughout the year. TIP # 3 On the PQA, in section B2, under the meets column, it states that the majority of the display in the classroom reflects children's unique and individual expression. The majority means more than 50 percent. The children should have selected the subject, materials and completed the work in their own

creative way without teacher direction. Dittos, worksheets and patterned artwork cannot be counted for this indicator and are not to be used in the Pre-K classroom for instruction. Seeing concrete reminders of their own work prompts children to recall and reflect on what they and their peers have accomplished.

If you have any ideas/ activities you would like to share, please contact one of the newsletter staff.
Newsletter Staff Nicole Cook
nicole.cook@decal.state.ga.us
Meghan McNail
meghan.mcnail@decal.state.ga. us
Pam Bojo
Pam.bojo@decal.state.ga.us Peggy Kosater Peggy.kosater@decal.state.ga.
us

PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS

Phonological awareness skills for preschool students correlated to the Georgia Pre K Content Standards.

Alliteration LD 2 c Recognizes the same beginning sounds in different words

Manipulation LD 2 e Creates and invents words by substituting one sound for another This is a skill that not all preschool children will be able to achieve before the end of the school year.

Rhyming LD 2 b Repeats rhymes, poems and finger plays
Listening LD 2 a Differentiates Sounds that are the same and different

Segmenting LD 2 d Shows growing ability to hear and discriminate separate syllables in words LD 5 l Recognizes that sentences are composed of separate words

Keep planning activities for increasing children's listening, rhyming and alliteration abilities. Children are not going to develop these abilities at the same rate, so expose all children to listening games, rhyming books, rhymes, finger plays.

PARENT INVOLVEMENT

For students that are ready, add segmenting activities. It is fine to expose all children to segmenting activities, keeping in mind that they may still need to do activities related to listening, rhyming and alliteration in small groups.
Segmenting involves a child's ability to count words in sentences and syllables in words.
Having children imitate silly sentences is a fun way to introduce words in a sentence.
Have students imitate silly sentences:
Mice eat rice. Tap your toes. A slug drank out of my mug. Then have children add a word to an open ended sentence:
(Continued on page 5)

Baby Pictures Ask mom, dad or grandparents to come to school and bring a picture of their child when he or she was a baby. Have adults pin the pictures to a bulletin board, and have the children try to guess which baby is which classmate. The children will have a great time trying to guess. Let the children draw a self-portrait to hang on the bulletin board next to their baby picture.

You can also take pictures of them as a four year old, hang them next to the pictures from when they were babies, and have the children talk about differences and similarities. The children will enjoy looking at these pictures on the wall.

"Education is the most powerful weapon which
you can use to change the world."
-Nelson Mandela

SIMPLE SCIENCE FOR CHILDREN

This month's science focus is on Exploring Color. We hope your children enjoy these activities, which are designed to be placed in the classroom for independent practice.
Activity One: Collect paint samples in many colors from a paint store, making sure you have several colors of the same sample. Mix up each sample in separate bowls and encourage children to match by color.
Activity Two: Demonstrate for

children how to shine a flashlight through color paddles to create different colored light. It works best if children shine the colored light on white paper.
Activity Three: Provide three squeeze bottles, one filled with red tempera, one filled with yellow tempera, and one filled with blue tempera. Also, pre-cut 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper in half. Then fold each half creating a crease. These can be premade for children.
Demonstrate how to squeeze a

small amount of paint on one side of the creased paper, choose a different color and squeeze a small amount. Fold on crease, rub with hand, and then unfold demonstrating the creation of secondary colors.
Activity Four: Cut colored art tissue paper (yellow, magenta, bright blue) into various shapes. Demonstrate how to dip a paintbrush into liquid starch and use like glue to paint and stick tissue paper onto white paper. If you overlap the pa-
(Continued on page 5)

Page 2

CHANGING YOUR ENVIRONMENT for American Heritage Indian Month and Kindness

DRAMATIC PLAY
Add Indian type clothing for dress up.
Decorate brown paper bag as pottery and display around the area.
Set up a hugging booth in the area.
Put a compliment jar in the class. When children do something nice for others in class, put a cotton ball in the jar. When the jar is full, have a class party.
Build a teepee or a canoe to have in the area. You can make the floor look like water with blue construction paper. The canoe can be made out of a box, and paddles can be made from construction paper.
PRESCHOOL POW WOW This preschool version of a Native American village is sure to be a hit. Tape a large tagboard cone to the top of a round table; then cover both items with a sheet to resemble a tepee.
Inside the tepee place beads and laces for stringing necklaces. Provide craft feathers, construction paper strips, and tape for making headdresses.
"Light" a fire by arranging rocks (or crumpled pieces of dark colored paper) in a circle; then tuck red and orange tissue paper into the center to resemble flames. Be sure to include a drum and some bean shakers for the children to use as they chant and dance.
SCIENCE
Add Indian corn and colored beads to the area.
Add a collection of arrow heads to the area.
ART
Add corncobs and husks to paint with.
Add beads, modeling clay, corn, and native symbols for painting and art activities.

You can use beads to make jewelry and sell at a shop you have in dramatic play.

MATH/MANIPULATIVES
Match Native American symbols.
Use die cut Indians to create a pattern and also to use for a matching game.
Use a piece of light colored material and give children different sizes and colors of beads. Have them make patterns by gluing the beads on the material.

BLOCK AREA
Add a teepee to the block area. Add dolls that represent different types of Indians for props.

WRITING CENTER

Add vocabulary words around Indians and kindness like:

Share

Hug Hunt

Friend Help Maize

Teepee Fire Garden

Wigwam Bow Arrow

Sling Shot American Indian

BOOK LIST
It's My Turn, Smudge! by Miriam Moss The Selfish Crocodile by Faustin Charles A Book of Friends by Dave Ross I'll Be Your Friend Smudge by Miriam
Moss Angus Thought He was Big by A. Gra-
ham Am I Beautiful? by Else Holmelund
Minarik The Way I Feel by Janan Cain What I like about me by Miki Sakamoto The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush by
Paul Goble Star Boy by Paul Goble The Legend of the Bluebonnet by Tomie
dePoala When Clay Sings by Byrd Baylor Iktomi and the Berries by Paul Goble Iktomi and the Boulder by Paul Goble Iktomi and the Buffalo Skull by Paul
Goble
(Continued on page 5)

B E
C R E A T I V E
"I like a teacher who gives you something to take home besides
homework." Lily Tomlin

Page 3

SETTING UP YOUR ENVIORNMENT FOR SUCCESS
Children with Special Needs and The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

A child with special needs is one who requires some form of special care due to physical, mental, emotional or health reasons. Children with special needs are commonly referred to as children with disabilities.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) defines a child with a disability more specifically as one who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits the child's ability to care for herself or himself, perform manual tasks, or engage in any other "major life activity" such as walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, or learning, in an age-appropriate manner.
Title III of the ADA prohibits public accommodations, including child care programs, from discriminating against anyone with a special need. You may not automatically refuse to admit a child to your program if your reason is simply that the child has a disability or is perceived to have a disability.
While reasons related to the child's condition may prevent you

from caring for the child, the mere fact that a child has a special need is not a valid reason under the law to deny the child care. Instead, the ADA calls for a new way of thinking: before excluding a child with a special need from your program, you must evaluate the child's needs and condition on an individual basis.
What is reasonable accommodation?
Unless changing your policies, practices, or procedures or providing services that enhance communication would fundamentally alter the nature of your program or service, the accommodation will be considered reasonable as long as it does not place the health and safety of others in the program at risk.
This is a standard that is not difficult to meet. If proposed changes would alter the nature of your program, you must consider whether any reasonable alternatives are available.
Generally, larger child care programs have greater obligations under the law than smaller, family child care programs. Remember that accommodating any disability can involve some degree of added

financial or staff burden, but the burden has to be very significant to excuse you from the responsibility of accommodating a child who has a disability.
There are many benefits of including children with special needs into a child care or Pre-K program. The young children are
exposed to something different, and this gives you an opportunity to educate the children on ability awareness as well as create empathy in our young children.
If you are struggling with a particular child in a program, you can contact your local Child Care Resource and Referral agency and
(Continued on page 5)

GEORGIA'S PRE-K ASSESSMENT
This month's Georgia Pre-K Assessment article focuses on Family Conferences.
1) Family conferences must be held twice a year, toward the end of the Fall and Spring reporting periods (December and May), in relation to the Georgia Pre-K Assessment.
2) Georgia Pre-K Progress Reports should be shared with families during the conference. A. The progress report must be completed for each child twice during the year, approximately one to two weeks prior to the conference. B. The progress report includes seven domains of learning on which each child must be rated and should include written comments that explain each rating.
3) Selected artifacts from each child's portfolio should be shared with families during the conferences.
4) Continuous communication and additional family conferences are recommended throughout the year.
5) The Georgia Pre-K Progress Report must be sent to families who do not attend family conferences and followed up with a telephone conference, if possible.

Page 4

PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS

CHANGING

(Continued from page 2)
I see a cat who has a _____. Have children count words in a sentence next. It is important for children to learn where one word ends and another begins. Use counters on a table to represent words or have them clap the words or jump for each word. Start with 3 to 4 word sentences: I like rice. I am happy. My friend is Tom. Next have children count syllables in words. Begin with one and two syllable words. As their ability increases add three syllable words. Children may enjoy stringing beads to show syllables in a word.

Sample Activities
Head, Shoulders, Syllables: Play by tapping a body part for each syllable. Head represents the 1st syllable, shoulder represents the 2nd syllable, knees represent the 3rd syllable, and toes represent the 4th syllable.
Stepping Up: In this game, the student must take as many steps forward as there are syllables in a word.

SCIENCE

SUCCESS -- ADA

(Continued from page 2)
pers slightly you create new colors. Be sure to wash the brush between painting the various colors. If you paint the tissue paper onto wax paper it can be hung in front of a window to resemble a sun catcher.
Check out this website for more ideas:
www.prekinders.com/colors.htm

(Continued from page 4)
ask to speak with the Inclusion Coordinator. This person can come into your program and work with you and the children to create a more inclusive environment.
You can locate your child care resource & referral agency online at www.gaccrra.org/contact.html.

(Continued from page 3)
Crow Chief by Paul Goble Ten Little Rabbits by Virginia
Grossman and Sylvia Long When Clay Sings by Byrd Baylor Rainplayer by David Wiseniewski Giving Thanks: A Native American
Good Morning Message by Chief Jake Swamp
FINGER PLAY Five Little Indians Five little Indians running through a door (raise 5 fingers) One fell down and then there were four (lower 1 finger) Three little Indians stewing a pot of stew One went to play and then there were two (lower 1 finger) Two little Indians playing in the sun One went inside and then there was one (lower 1 finger) One little Indian left all alone. He went home and then there were none. (lower finger and shake head)
FUN FACT: The influential native American tribes in Georgia are the Woodland Indians, The Moundbuilders, The Creek and the Cherokee Indians.
*See the November 2005 Newsletter on our website for additional ideas.

Page 5