Nursery
August 2016
Dear Parents:
We would like to welcome you to the 2016-2017 school year! We are very excited about all the things will be learning and creating this year in the nursery classroom.
Arrival/Dismissal:
The nursery day runs from 8:00-12:00 a.m. We recognize that the traffic in Tegucigalpa
Free Choice:
The students start the school day with free choice. This is a time for students to become acquainted with the different materials in the classroom and to follow their own interests in learning. The block corner and the dramatic play area are often very popular at this time!
Large Group:
Each day the students participate in a large group time that lasts about 20-25 minutes. This is the time of day for students to share with one another and the teacher and to learn the appropriate behavior for being in a group setting. Skills targeted in this time are: calendar, days of the week, months of the year, counting simple quantities, learning phonics, introduction to the theme, comprehension discussion following a book, weather, and the daily schedule. “Show and Tell” will also be occurring each Friday and the schedule for each month will be posted in the weekly newsletter. We encourage students to bring pictures, special objects, or interesting toys from home to share with their peers.
Learning Centers:
A large part of the nursery day is spent in learning centers. Each week, 5-7 centers are made available for the students to explore and complete different types of activities. All the activities are chosen specifically for their learning content and target each academic area: math, language arts and literature, art, science, fine motor skills, cooking, and social studies. The students are encouraged to try each center at least once a week in order to gain the targeted skill in each area. The centers are typically designed to coordinate with the weekly theme and to target specific skills (e.g. learning phonics sounds, counting in 1:1 correspondence, etc.)
Small Group:
The small group time occurs each day for about 20 minutes. The groups change depending on the need but will often be based on language needs and developmental level.
Story Dramatization:
The students who have dictated a story during small group time are able to act out their story during the story dramatization time. Dramatizing and acting out stories is an important part of understanding literature and a great way to practice language skills.
Snack:
We encourage parents to send healthy snacks with their students and to minimize the amount of candy, chocolate, chips, etc. that are sent to school. Please do not send your student with any type of soda- it is messy if spilled and the caffeine can cause the students to be hyper.
Recess:
The students have a 25 minute recess time each day and are allowed to access the playground in front of the Nursery classroom. We review the playground rules often but accidents do happen occasionally because the students are young and active.
MOTRICITY
The students participate in physical education classes (25 minutes) once a week with Ms. Andrea. These classes are typically outside of the classroom. Please be sure to send your child with sunblock and good shoes (e.g. tennis shoes) for the days when we have motricity class.
Music
The students participate in music class (25minutes) once week with Ms. Pamela. The Nursery curriculum and the music class curriculum are very closely related so the students often learn songs and musical activities that relate to what we are learning in class.