News

Volume 29

June 28, 2021

Message from your teachers!  

It’s summertime!!!! We are so grateful to all of you and your families for working with us and collaborating so we can make the best of a crazy circumstance with online learning. With summer officially upon us, we hope you will enjoy the warm weather and continue to practice safety measures- not just for COVID, but also for things like sunburn! Don’t forget sunscreen! J

Quick announcement: Last day of school for kids going to Kindergarten is July 30th! We hope you will enjoy your time with us this summer!

As always, look in this newsletter for some fun activities to try with your preschooler. Feel free to reach out to your teacher if you have any questions or concerns.

Our four program-wide expectations are Be CourageousBe CuriousBe CompassionateBe A Community. This week we will focus on how children can Be Compassionate

We are Compassionate when we…

–          Offer to help someone

–          Cheer someone up

–          Support others

–          Listen to how others are feeling

–          Listen to different ideas

In this week’s Learning Resource, you’ll find an activity to help your child learn about Being Compassionate! Let us know how it went!

Helpful Links:

http://www.seattle.gov/humanservices/services-and-programs/preparing-youth-for-success/summer-food-service-program This link shows you where you can get free meals during the summer!

https://www.greaterseattleonthecheap.com/free-seattle-parks-wading-pools-sprayparks-beaches/ Here’s a list of places to have fun and keep cool!

Teacher Bea Email: meksavanhs@nhwa.org Work Cell: (206)313-2646Teacher Lisa Email: lisap@nhwa.org Work Cell: (206) 480-7230Teacher Margie Email: margiec@nhwa.org Work Cell: (206)779-3881Teacher Suzanne Email: suzannep@nhwa.org Work Cell: (206)398-9699

Social Emotional

Activities from Teacher Lisa

Be Compassionate – Rain Boy Book

With your child, watch this video of Teacher Anna reading the book. The story is about differences, acceptance, and loving yourself for who you are. Wherever he goes, Rain Boy brings wet—which means he’s not very popular. Sun Kidd brings sunshine everywhere she goes, so everyone loves her. Only Sun Kidd sees what’s special about Rain Boy. After watching the video with your child ask them, “How do you think Rain Boy felt when all the children were teasing him?” and “If you were in the story what would you do to help Rain Boy feel supported?”

Here is the link: https://vimeo.com/440803604

Math / Science

Activities from Teacher Bea

Friendship Fruit Salad

Why it’s important
Grocery shopping, counting fruit, and mixing ingredients can teach your child a lot about math and reasoning skills. This activity will support their growing ability to use numbers as they count individual items for the salad.

Materials
Small cups, plastic knives and spoons, 3-5 apples, oranges, bananas, and any other fruit that your child likes, plastic bags

What you do
1. Go to the grocery store and ask you child to help yo pick out the fruit.

2. When you get home, invite your child to look at the fruit with you. Talk to them about what types of fruit you have. Ask questions about what they see. Which of these fruits do you like best?

3. Have your child pick out three apples, three bananas, three oranges, and three pears (or other seasonal fruit) from the collection. Listen as your child counts and offer help if needed. Have them place each set of fruit into a separate bag.

4. Prepare for making the fruit salad by asking your child to wash their hands and then gather the bags of fruit. Encourage them to count the items in each bag again. Do the bags all have the same amount of fruit in them?

5. Ask your child to wash the fruit. As she washes the fruit, encourage them to count each piece aloud. How many are washed? How many are left to be washed?

6. Remind your child how important it is to be careful when using an knife. Give them appropriately sized soft fruit chunks to cut with the plastic knife.

7. Challenge your child to count out five pieces of each fruit after it is cut and place the pieces in separate bowls or cups. Do the cups have the same amounts of fruit?

8. Invite her to pour all the fruit cups into the bowl to make fruit salad. As you share the salad, talk about hte amounts of fruit you used.

Movement / Play

Activities from Teacher Suzanne

Beach Day!

Set up a home dramatic play area with beach towels, empty plastic containers for pretend sunscreen, sunglasses, play picnic food, sand buckets, scoops, pretend sand, or real sand in a bucket.  Below are some pictures and a couple of fun summer songs to sing.

Summer’s Here 

Sung to: “Frere Jacques”

Days are longer, sunshine’s stronger.
Summer’s here! Summer’s here!
Let’s jump through the sprinkler,
Let’s make lemonade,
Summer’s here! Summer’s here!

Language / Literacy

Activities from Teacher Margie

Puddle Jump

  1. Use construction paper and cut out shapes of puddles. Let your child write letters and you can let older children write words if they like (those getting ready for Kindergarten can try out small sight words like cat, go, we).
  2. Once you have your words or letters on the puddles, spread them out and tape them to the floor so they will not be slippery.
  3. Let your child jump on a letter or word, say the letter or word, and then jump on another. Another way to play: call out a letter or word, your child jumps on it, says it, and collects them one at a time as they jump! Then they can count how many puddles they got!