PKA 2 | Mrs. Joanne Chatterton

Welcome to PKA2
Ms. Joanne and Ms. Diana

 Be kind and shine together.

Unit of Study: My Five Senses.
 We will be starting a new topic focused on how we use our five senses to explore, investigate, and understand ourselves and our world. Children naturally explore the world around them through their senses. In this unit of study, we will support cognitive and language development by encouraging children to observe things in their immediate environment and begin to describe them in detail. These foundational inquiry and science skills will spark their curiosity and interest as they start to use those observations to make predictions, ask questions and draw conclusions.

Home/School Connection
Here are some activities that you can do with your child that tie in with our unit and further your child's knowledge and vocabulary:

• Use the brown paper bag that we send home to have a Fall Brown Bag Scavenger Hunt. Find items of various textures at home or natural objects collected from outside, related to fall, that are clean and safe for small children to handle such as pine cones, acorns or leaves. Talk about why certain items might be safe or not safe. Put them in the bag for children to bring to school to share with the class. Please do not send anything of value or that not be replaceable.
• Look out of a window with your child (store, bus, subway, bedroom, etc.) and discuss what you see at various times throughout the day. What do you see that reminds you of fall? What do you see in the morning? In the evening? Right before bed? What is different each time you look? What is the same? Why?
• Take a sensory walk together. Pay attention to what you hear, see, feel and smell. Discuss how you can use your senses to stay safe when walking outside. How do our eyes help keep us safe? For example, looking for cars before crossing the street or identifying unsafe items to touch such as garbage or sharp items. How about our ears? Can our sense of smell help keep us safe? How? This can occur anywhere at any time when you are out are walking together.  
• Invite your child to smell or taste a new food or something they would not usually eat. Provide prompts to encourage discussion, how does it look? What do you see? How does the food feel before you try it? How does it feel in your mouth? How does it taste? How does it smell? Would you try it again? Why or why not?

Welcome to Sacred Heart School. My name is Ms.Joanne and I will be your child’s Pre-K teacher along with Ms. Diana, the educational assistant. We are thrilled to have your child in our class this year. Pre-K is an exciting and fun year for children. Our days and weeks will be filled with so many wonderful experiences and opportunities to grow and learn. We are so excited to welcome you to our school family!

We are committed to making our classroom a safe learning environment for your child and look forward to the growth they will experience. This year your child will be learning many new things in the areas of Language and Literacy, Social-Emotional Development, Physical Development, Math, Science, Social Studies, and the Arts. We believe that children learn best when they are engaged in hands-on experiences.

Please send in the following items for your child:

• A complete extra set of clothes, in case of toileting accidents. Be sure to write child’s name on the bag and label each article of clothing.

• Sacred Heart School Folders will be used throughout the year for notes and announcements. Please bring them back and forth every day.

• We want to get to know each other’s families. A family photo can make your child feel comfortable in the room. We will make a special space for them to hang on display! You can email your picture to: jchatterton@sacredheartschoolsi.org

• We ask that each child brings in one crib size set (thin fitted crib sheet and a thin top sheet or blanket) for nap time. Our storage is very limited.  They will be sent home each Friday so they can be washed over the weekend.