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

October 2007

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." - William Butler Yeats

Georgia's Pre-K Program Teacher Newsletter
www.decal.state.ga.us

October brings many exciting days to discuss with the children in your classes.
Diversity Awareness Month International Dinosaur
Month Fire Prevention Month

1-6 -- Get Organized Week 4-10 -- World Space Week 7-13 -- Fire Prevention Week 8 -- Columbus Day 12 -- Farmers Day 14-20 -- School Lunch and
Bus Safety Week 16 -- World Food Day 20 -- National Fruit Day 21 -- Reptile Awareness Day 21 -- Day the light bulb was
invented (1879) 31 -- Halloween

Have fun with these by planning your own celebration or finding activities in your community!!!

CLASSROOM TIPS OF THE MONTH

TIP #1
The PQA states under C1, Partially Meets: Quiet activities are provided in a non-punitive manner for children who are non-sleepers.
We recommend that after about twenty minutes, a child who is not asleep be given something quiet to do. Activities could include books, play dough, puzzles, books on tape, writing materials, etc.
Children are not required to stay on their cot/mat for the

entire 60 minutes. You could allow a child to go to a quiet corner, library area, etc. However, this would be a wonderful opportunity for you to spend some one on one time with a child at a table.
Behavior problems may occur, and escalate, if you try to force a child to sleep or stay on a cot/mat.
TIP # 2 The PQA states under B2, Exceeds: The classroom display includes charts and/

or stories of current activities.
The purpose of these charts is to support literacy development. They can include original stories the children create as a class, or they might recall a field trip or special event. This item does not include class graphs or lists.

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

PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS

Did your students have fun with a variety listening and rhyming activities during August and September? Great!
Now continue planning activities to meet your students needs. If children are struggling with listening and rhyming skills, plan small group instructional activities to address these skills through fun activities. Keep exposing them to simple rhymes through books, songs and finger plays.
If some students have solid listening skills and are developing good rhyming abilities, then add alliteration activities.
LD 2 c Alliteration Alliteration precedes a child's ability to make sound/symbol relationships. For Pre-K it is more important that chil-

dren are able to tell you the sound they hear and less important that they can identify the letter that makes the sound.
Sample Activities: Recite poems,
chants, nursery rhymes, and songs with repeated initial sounds Group objects by beginning sounds Play beginning sounds name games Call attention to words with similar beginning sounds Experiment with words, giving them new beginning sounds. Read alliterative text, such as

Friends for Lion by Alex Lee Fun Dog, Sun Dog by Deborah Heilig-
man Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae In the Tall, Tall Grass by Denise Flem-
ing Is Your Mama a Llama? by Deborah
Guarino Ten in the Den by John Butler The Icky Sticky Anteater by Dawn
Bentley Each Peach Pear Plum by Allan Ahlberg Amelia's Fantastic Flight by Rose Bursik
Don't forget to include this concept on your lesson plans!

PARENT INVOLVEMENT

Doodling with Dad Invite dads to school for a special art project. Make collage materials, paint and markers available for the dads to help children create a masterpiece. Let the dads and children frame their art work with strips of papers and then hang it in a special location in the classroom. Take a lot of pictures that you can use to make a

class book and title it "Doodling with Dad".
Take this opportunity to let the dads know about the activities you have planned for the school year, and remind them they are welcome in the class at any time. This is also a great time to talk to them about being mystery readers.

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

SIMPLE SCIENCE FOR CHILDREN

Digging for Dinosaurs
You'll need: 4 cups of Plaster of Paris 10 cups of sand 4 cups water 20 cupcake liners 20 small dinosaurs
Mix the plaster, sand, and water. The mixture should be fairly thick. Pour mixture into the cupcake liners. Hide a plastic dinosaur inside each cupcake liner. Let dry several days.

Children can become Paleontologists by using a popsicle stick to carefully, slowly scrape away the "rock" until they discover a dinosaur. These "rocks" can be placed in the classroom for exploration during center time.
Extension: Provide a shallow tray with edges, sand, rocks, small plastic trees, etc. As children unearth dinosaurs from the "rocks" they can create dinosaur habitats.

children to begin creating a rock collection for the classroom. Take the children on a walk around the campus, and pick up rocks. (You may have to plant several interesting rocks for the class to discover.)
Once you have peaked an interest in rocks, encourage students to bring in rocks from home. Teach children how to use magnifying glasses when exploring the rocks.

Rock Collections This is a great time of year for

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CHANGING YOUR ENVIRONMENT for Dinosaurs and Fall

DRAMATIC PLAY Add a piece of fabric with dinosaurs on it as a table cloth. Add two baskets to the area, one with fruits and vegetables and one with meats. Have them labeled plant eaters and meat eaters. Set up a Dinosaur museum where they have toy dinosaurs for sale. Set up a cash register and have baggies available. As children find dinosaurs they want to purchase, they can be bagged and sold. Add dinosaur stuffed animals as language and literacy props. Add dinosaur costumes and masks to the area. This should be easy to find with Halloween this month. Add different sized pumpkins and create a pumpkin patch. You can also add hay, a cash register, and a wagon to enhance the pumpkin patch.
SCIENCE Add dinosaur bones to the sensory table. Add pumpkins to the sensory table for children to scoop out the insides. After the seeds are out, children can cook the seeds and add them to the sensory table. You can also add gourds to the table along with the seeds. Add flour to the table and add fall spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, all spice, and pumpkin.
ART Paint like a dinosaur, have children put socks on their hands so they don't have fingers and paint as a dinosaur would. Use leaves to do dry rubbing. Add dinosaur and leaf sponges to the area. Change cookie cutters out to match your theme each month so children interests are maintained. Use Plaster of Paris and make dinosaur footprints.
MATH/MANIPULATIVES Trace dinosaur footprints on paper and have children match up dinosaurs with footprints.

Create a matching or sorting game using different sized pumpkins.
Use a die cut machine to cut out different sized dinosaurs. Have children match them by shape/color.

BLOCK AREA
Add dinosaurs to the block area for play.
Add a blanket/tent to create a dinosaur cave for block play.
Add fabric leaves, rakes, buckets, pumpkins, etc. to the areas for pretend play--raking the leaves and the pumpkin patch.

WRITING CENTER

Add words to your writing center like;

Dinosaur Tree

Leaf

Leaves

Orange

Brown

Pumpkin Teeth

Cave

Gourd

Green

Seed

Hay ride Tracks

Bones

Vegetable Fruits

You will also need to add a picture, clip art or drawing next to the word on word strips. This will address the needs of the readers and non-readers in your classroom.

BOOK LIST
Joe and Betsy The Dinosaur by Lillian Hoban Dancing Dinos by Sally Lucas Danny and the Dinosaur by Syd Hoff Dinosaur Train by John Steven Gurney The Dinosaur by Anna Milbourne When Dinosaurs go to School by Linda Martin Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs by Byron Barton Fall Leaves Fall!! by Judy Hindley How do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? by Jane
Yolan Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin by Mary Serfozo A is for Apple by Megan E. Bryant How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon? by Jane
Yolen The Falling Leaves and the Scarecrow by
Steve Metzger The Falling Leaves by Steve Metzger
(Continued on page 5)

B E
C R E A T I V E
"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow
up." -Pablo Picasso

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SETTING UP YOUR ENVIORNMENT FOR SUCCESS

Conscious Discipline Conscious Discipline is a comprehen-
sive social and emotional intelligence classroom management program that empowers the teachers and students. It is based on current brain research, child development information and developmentally appropriate practices. The goal of the program is to provide systemic changes in classrooms by fostering the emotional intelligence of teachers first and children second.
We would like to share some basic conscious discipline information and techniques with you to enhance your understanding of children's behaviors.
The brain has three different areas in which children and adults respond from: the Brain Stem, the Limbic System, and the Prefrontal Lobes (Cortex).
The Brain Stem--this is the area of the brain that reacts physically to a situation. This is the survival part of the brain. You will see children respond with hitting, spitting, kicking, punching,

throwing, withdrawing, etc. We would expect to see this from children ages birth through 15 months old.
The Limbic System--this is the area of the brain that reacts emotionally to a situation. You will see people react to a situation with crying, yelling, screaming, swearing, whining, etc. We would expect to see this type of response from children ages four to eight years old.
The Prefrontal Lobes or Cortex-- this is the decision making part of the brain, the boss. This part of our brain can react calmly and rationally to a situation. People are able to talk about what the problem is, make choices and move on. We would expect to see these types of responses from children eight years old and up.
Research shows that people tend to slide back and forth when reacting to a situation, and it only takes a matter of seconds to do this. We see this all of the time in children. They may be

crying about something that happened, then moments later they are hitting their best friend.
They're not the only ones that behave like that. The research also shows that adults respond from their limbic system (emotionally) 78 percent of the time.
It is our job as adults and teachers to help children move from one area of the brain to the next. We need to give them the tools in order to do this. As adults, we need to be in control of our response to a situation in order to model what we expect the children to be doing.
Our expectations of children are that they will respond from their Cortex at all times, when we know this is not developmentally appropriate. We have to allow children to respond to a situation in a manner that is appropriate for their age.
One thing you may do in your
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INFORMATION ABOUT GEORGIA'S PRE-K ASSESSMENT
Georgia's Pre-K Program implemented a new assessment process during the 2006-2007 school year and is currently using it statewide. Each month, this section of our newsletter focuses on topics related to this assessment. This month's focus is on Observational Notes, Work Samples, and Photographs.
Observational Notes and Work Samples 1) Observational notes and Work Samples should include the child's name and date and be
coded with the domains represented. 2) Observational Notes and Work Samples are filed by domain in the child's portfolio.
Many observational notes will represent multiple domains. You, as their teacher, determine the most appropriate domain folder in which documentation is to be filed. 3) Observational notes should record factual information about the child's performance (what you see or hear) in relation to the Work Sampling System performance indicators. 4) Observational Notes and Work Samples should reflect actual student performance in relation to specific skills, knowledge, and behaviors.
Photographs (This year photographs are not optional... but mandatory!) 1) Photographs should include the child's name, date, and be coded with the domains represented. 2) Photographs should focus on the child's performance in relation to the Work Sampling System. 3) For assessment purposes, photographs may be printed in black & white. 4) Photographs can be printed as small as 3" x 5".

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CHANGING YOUR ENVIORNMENT

SUCCESS

(Continued from page 3)
The Biggest Pile of Leaves by Steve Metzger
Pumpkin Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington
Trick or Treat Little Critter by Mercer Mayer
The Halloween Play by Felicia Bond Wee Witches Halloween by Jerry
Smath
FINGER PLAY Leaves are Drifting Leaves are drifting softly down, (flutter fingers downward) They make a carpet on the ground (Make spreading movement with hands) Then, swish! The wind comes whistling by (Swing hands upward) And sends them dancing in the sky! (Dance fingers in the air)

Visit our website and check out the fall ideas under Pre-K/Teachers/Teacher PQA Resources/Planning.
You'll find several resources there including: Fall Changes to the Learning Area Pumpkin Changes to the Learning
Area Fire Safety Changes to the Learn-
ing Area

(Continued from page 4)
classroom is to create a safe place for children to go when they are starting to get upset. This should not be used as a place for punishment or time out but as a place where a child can go to relax or calm down.
Your safe place may be as simple as a carpet square or stop sign. It could also be a large empty box where you have added soft seating, quiet books, music, stuffed animals, etc. It will depend on the needs of your children.

GETTING FAMILIES INVOLVED...Open House!

Try some of these ideas at your next open house.
Scavenger Hunt: Send parents on a brief scavenger hunt to help them become better acquainted with your classroom. Some places you might want to draw attention to are the reading area, the writing center, the class pet, and so on.
Where is my child? Use an overhead projector to draw a silhouette of each child's profile. Then have children cut out from magazines pictures, glue on collage materials (wiggly eyes, yarn for hair, material for clothes, etc.) that represent things about themselves, and paste on their silhouettes. Tape a silhouette to each chair. At the open house, challenge parents to find their child?
Wow! Is that my child learning? Create a PowerPoint presentation showing children participating in a variety of classroom activities. Or videotape children working in the classroom. Or both.
Science Night: Set up science experiments and/or sensory experiences for families to do with their children. Be sure to include instructions for each experiment and connect the experiment with what children learn from science.
Simple Cooking: Invite a nutritionist to come to speak with families about healthy eating and how simple it can be. Conclude the meeting by having simple recipes and all of the ingredients so families can practice. Some ideas might be ants on a log, fruit salad, sandwiches cut with cookie cutters, etc.

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