Perhaps we’ll even get a mural in the foyer.
More on that as it progresses.
Director’s Message:
Happy 2016!! We at Little Lambs
hope your Christmas was filled with love
and joy as you celebrated with friends and
family. There are no words to express our
gratitude to all of you for your
thoughtfulness, generosity of time, gifts
and support to our program.
Just as with the New Year, we have
a few new changes at Little Lambs. Our
former “Telling Tales” newsletter is taking
on a new name. Our newsletter will now be
called “The Grapevine.” I’ve designed the
cover page with color and hope you enjoy
the new design. The cover page will always
have the staff listed and a new ‘Don’t
Forget” section, with bulleted reminders
for the month’s important activities. (these
will also be in the newsletter and on the calendar as
before) (extras will always be in the vestibule)
Another ‘new’ is our three year old
class beginning January 5th, Tuesday. We
are truly blessed to have a certified
teacher, Donna Ascenzo, join our staff to
teach this class. There are still spots
available, so please spread the word. We
would like to place a play kitchen in that
room. If you know of someone, or you
yourself have one that is no longer being
played with, we would graciously receive
that for the children.
More ‘new’ will be a volunteer artist
who will be coming in to brighten our walls
with much-loved literary characters.
Our theme this month is SNOW and
of course our color is WHITE. As we head
into the coldest part of the school year,
please remember to have your child dress
warmly.
Once we get a nice snow fall we are
planning to add in a “Fun in the Snow” day.
The children will go out for playtime and
enjoy building and playing in the snow. We
are supplied with the snow toys and ready
to go. We will give you advance notice of
this so that your children will be prepared
with snow pants, boots, hats, gloves and
scarves. With so much outerwear for snow
fun, please remember to label your child’s
clothing, as it will be very helpful. We
tried this last year and it was a huge
success. The children enjoyed making
snow angels, building, making snowballs and
coloring the snow with food coloring. The
staff had fun too!!
I’m hoping to get our website
updated. Our original web master is no
longer with us, and it is a New Year’s
resolution of mine, to get it current.
Parent Teacher Conferences will be
in January, and a letter from your child’s
teacher will be going home to set up times
and options.
One more thing, registration for
next year will begin in mid-January for our
present families. By February 1, we will
extend it to all. More in a letter to go
home soon. God Bless, Val
Tips for Early Literacy
Learning: From Knowing
Your ABCs to Learning to
Read
By Amy Mascott (revised by Val Wojnicki)
Hooray! Your child can sing the alphabet like
a pro! Now what?
3 year olds – have your child start naming the
lower case letters, no sound yet, just name the
letters. Once your child has mastered letter
name recognition, what can you do to help
him/her get on the path to literacy? Here are
seven important tips to consider.
Focus on the letters of his/her name. Our
names are, and always will be, our identity.
Names are the most important words for
children, so it makes sense to begin literacy
learning with the child’s name. Acknowledge
the “child’s letter”—the first letter of his or
her name—by pointing it out whenever and
wherever you see it. Then do some letter
scrambles using blocks, magnetic letters or
letters on index cards. Mix up the letters of the
child’s first name and work together to put
them back in the proper order. Remember to
say each letter as they place them in order.
Repeat this often with your child’s name.
Remember to have one capital letter.
For older children 4 or 5, place the letters in
order from a-z. Begin with lower case. Say the
letters name. Begin with just a few at a time.
Place them on top of an alphabet strip so they
can visually match them. Move to Upper case.
Introduce uppercase and lowercase letters. Did
you know that the following letters look the
same both upper and lower: Cc, Kk,
Oo,Pp,Ss,Uu,Vv,Ww,Xx,Zz. It’s imperative
that you talk about uppercase and lowercase
letters early on. Play games that involve
matching uppercase and lowercase letters.
Little Lambs’ Literacy Update
3s – Our threes are working on
recognition of the first letter in
their names and writing it on their
papers. They are beginning to
recognize, by name, the major
shapes, and numbers 1-5. Our read
aloud time concentrates on
comprehension skills age appropriate
and beginning to work with story
element vocabulary like characters
and setting.
4s – Our four year olds continue to
work on their letter sound relationships
and reviewing them each time they are
at school. If you are doing this at
home, have your child just say the
letters name the first time you go
through some flash cards, then second
time through, say the sound; a picture
on the back will be helpful, if needed.
5s - Our KE, five-year-olds have finished
working on blending 3 letter words with
short a, i, o. We will be finishing the
vowels in January. A sight word list and
decodable books are reinforcing our
reading skills. Comprehension skills:
sequencing, predicting, questioning,
vocabulary are all incorporated in our
daily read aloud times.
JANUARY HIGHLIGHTS
Shape: Square
Color: White
Show and Tell Theme: Bring in one of
your new toys from Christmas.
PARENT CONFERENCES
We will be conducting parent conferences
soon. Watch for the letter from your
child’s teacher for details.
All Conferences will take place in the
Religious Education wing.
Closings and Delays
We subscribe to an automated calling system
so that you get a phone call to advise you of
any school closings. If your number has
changed, please let us know asap.
I have sent home the procedure for closings
and delays and am sending it home again with
this newsletter. There will always be
additional copies in the foyer.
Birthday: January 18, 2016
Welcome to January. The children
did a great job singing at the
Christmas Show! Miss Evelyn and I
want to thank all the parents for
helping out with the party; the
children really loved it, and we
enjoyed the holiday season with your
children! December was a magical
month; singing Christmas carols and
learning about the birth of Jesus
throughout Advent.
The children have been combining
sight words, as well as sounding out
three letter words with the short
vowels of a, o, i. This has helped
them in reading our first book, Mac
and Tab. In January, we will
continue to learn short e and u and
begin blending with beginning
consonant blends. Watch for more
books. We are looking forward to an
exciting New Year with your
children.
Welcome
A very special and warm welcome to
our new three-year-olds and our new
teacher, Miss Donna, joining us
Janurary 5th.
St. Mary’s Little Lambs Preschool
496-7221
January 20 16
Monday
Themes:
Let it Snow!
Winter Weather
Dr. Martin
Luther King. Jr.
Tuesday
Show and Tell
Theme: Bring in
one of your new
toys from
Christmas
4
Classes Resume
11
Color Day
Wear Something
White
18
Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr.’s
Birthday
5
Penelope’s
birthday 4am/pm
FIRST DAY FOR
NEW 3 YR. OLD
CLASS
Wednesday
Happy New
Year!
No School
6
7
8
Show and Tell
Group A for
KE
14
15
Show and Tell
Group B for
KE
.
Emily Allen
(P4AM)
Show and Tell
Group A
13
Show and Tell
Group B
19
Show and Tell
Group B
Friday
1
12
Show and Tell
Group A
Thursday
Emma Pagan
(B3AM)
20
Show and Tell
Group C
Color Day
Wear Something
White
21
Samantha
McEvoy
(P3PM)
22
Show and Tell
Group C for
KE
No School
25
26
Joseph Matovic
(B3AM)
Show and Tell
Group D
27
Show and Tell
Group D
Show and Tell
Group C
28
29
Show and Tell
Group D for
KE