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Greetings Pre-Kindergarten Staff, Happy Spring! Planning for the 2019-2020 school year is well underway! Take a moment to reflect on your goal of bidirectional relationships with families. How will you build off of this goal as you approach your spring registration/welcome events? As you know, the Pre-Kindergarten program will be going deeper with the WIDA Early Years Framework over the next few years. To support our program growth, please complete the Pre-K WIDA Early Years Survey. Survey results will support the direction of our program professional development. Please complete the survey by Friday, May 3. If you have not already done so, please secure a guest teacher for the May 6 or 7 Updated Assessments professional development. Sessions will be held at E-STEM (formerly Crosswinds), 600 Weir Drive in Woodbury. Registration begins at 8:00, session begins at 8:30. You will have a one-hour lunch on your own. Please bring your fully charged laptop and Assessment Directions and Scripts in the sheet protectors. Thank you for all you do! Lori PS: New position open for ELC VISTA! See the flyer attached to the end of the newsletter. Please share!

April 2019 In this issue:

News from OEL Assistant Director, Dr. Lori Erickson

Area of Study (AOS) Connections Authentic Learning Experience in Art Center, Classroom Anchor Charts

PBiS Tips

Revisit and Reteach

Family Engagement

Kindergarten Connection and Celebrating Growth

Montessori News

Resilience, Spotlight and Practical Life and Art Materials

Work Sampling and Seesaw

Upcoming PD

Department and District PD Opportunities

To Ensure Lasting Achievement for All Early Learners

OEL NEWSLETTER

Year End Assessments

Deadline LITERACY May 13 – 31 May 31 MATH May 13 – June 3 June 3 WSS/Progress Reports June 7

Pre-K Assessment Schedule

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Area of Study Connections Authentic Learning Experience: Art Center: Making Flowers Materials • Cupcake Liner Flowers • Egg Carton Flowers • Tissue Paper Flowers

Students will make flowers using a variety of materials for use in Dramatic Play Flower Shop/Garden Center. Objectives

• Students will explore a variety of art materials. • Students will choose what kinds of flowers they would like to make. • Students will notice the differences in flowers.

Talk • Talk about the different types of flowers.

• Talk about the similarities and differences of flowers. • Talk about the colors and patterns they notice in flowers. • Talk about the shapes in flowers. • Use the vocabulary words from the AOS: leaves, stem, garden

Read • Read pictures and books about flowers (fiction and nonfiction). • Read steps on how to make flowers. • Read the vocabulary words for the AOS posted in the Center.

Write • Write the names of their flowers. • Write/Draw designs on flowers.

Math • Write/Draw/Represent patterns on flowers. • Identify and create flowers with symmetrical elements. • Identify and create shapes within flowers. • Count parts of the flowers (number of petals, leaves, etc.).

Standards/ Assessments

LLC9.13 USES WORDS, PICTURES, LETTERS, OR LETTER-LIKE SYMBOLS, TO COMMUNICATE INFORMATION AND IDEAS OR COMPOSE ORIGINAL STORIES

M12.7 DESCRIBES THE ATTRIBUTE USED FOR SORTING OR COMPARING

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Classroom Anchor Charts

How do Anchor Charts connect to the Cycles Area of Study?

“An Anchor Chart provides a visual that shows what children know and what they are learning throughout the year. It becomes the basis for helping children make connections between what they know and what they are learning.”

Using anchor charts to show all of the learning that happened during the school year is great way to show that a school year is a cycle as well. It is also a fun way to revisit the learning that took place and bring the school year to a close. Some great things to talk about related to anchor charts might include:

• Noticing the cycle of how we learn things (not knowing, asking questions, then figuring things out) • Noticing the repeated themes of our learning (changes, community etc.). • Making connections among the various AOS. • Noticing the changes in student drawing and writing on the Anchor Chart as the year progressed. • Recalling and sharing what we really enjoyed learning about.

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PBiS Tips

Revisit and Reteach

From now until the end of the year, make sure to keep your classroom schedule and routines as predictable as possible. Use your visual schedule to go over daily schedule, and refer back to it as needed throughout the day. After having different schedules and routines outside of school, this will help children get back into the school routine and gives reassurance that school is still the same. This also decreases any stress, anxiety or chaotic transitions that may occur when children are not sure what’s expected or coming next in their classroom.

A predictable routine: • helps children feel more secure, relaxed and cooperative. • helps children understand what’s coming next in their day. • helps children know what they will be expected to do in each part of their day. • can result in higher rates of engagement. • influences children’s emotional, cognitive, and social development. • is less likely to have challenging behaviors.

Spring is a good time to review and/or reteach your classroom rules/expectations again. Consider different ways to do this. Re-read the I Am Kind, I Am Safe, I Am Responsible book from the First Six Weeks in whole or small group time. Also, go over classroom rules and refer back to classroom rules chart to review and/or reteach expectations. You can also do interactive modeling and model rules by either you and other classroom staff or students role playing expected and unexpected behaviors related to your classroom rules. Having students model positive behaviors gives them the opportunity to practice the expected behaviors.

Helping Children Understand Routines and Classroom Schedules, CSEFEL, December 2007 http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/kits/wwbtk3.pdf

Interactive Modeling, Responsive Classroom, https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/what-interactive-modeling/

AL10.9 PARTICIPATES IN DISCUSSIONS ABOUT FAMILIAR TOPICS AND CONTRIBUTES RELEVANT INFORMATION SS2.9 DEMONSTRATES AN UNDERSTANDING OF RULES AND WHY THEY ARE IMPORTANT LLC8.13 PREDICTS WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT IN STORY OR TEXT LLC8.15 RESTATES AND DESCRIBES THE CONCEPTS FROM THE TEXT

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Family Engagement Have you connected with families about Kindergarten yet? Connect with families regarding which school their child will attend. If there are families that are going to be at various schools together, they may want to connect with each other for support. You can also plan with your Kindergarten teachers for a day to bring your students to visit Kindergarten classrooms. How are growth and accomplishments celebrated in different cultures? Communicate to families regarding their child’s growth during the year. Celebrate your student’s growth over the year. Decide how you can have a closure meeting/time/event with families towards the end of the year. Maybe have an interactive celebration of student’s successes over the year. Celebrating Growth Here are some examples of ways to celebrate your students’ growth!

1. Celebrate Each Student

Beginning in May, pick one student per day and have their classmates share something they like, appreciate, or notice about them. Write these “noticings” on large poster paper and affix the child’s picture in the middle. After sharing it with the class, send it home with the student. You can also take a picture of it and send it to parents right away via SeeSaw.

2. Memory Books

3. End of the Year Student Celebration

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Montessori News

More on teacher resilience using this resource: Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Educators by Elena Aguilar. This framework is broken up into each month of the year and focuses on different strategies for building resilience. These strategies are now all included in the Montessori Schoology group under Children’s House resources in its own folder titled Resilience. There is an initial self-assessment and then a folder of activities for the focus of each month. Please let your CH coach know if this is something you would like help exploring further.

For the month of April the focus is on riding the waves of change. As we are getting ready for all day Pre-K it is a good idea to look at how we deal with change. Here is one of over 30 strategies for this month:

The Roots of Our Attitude Toward Change As we have with other mindsets, we’ve acquired our attitude toward change over the course of our life - perhaps from our family of origin, our culture, and the organizations with which we have been affiliated. Reflect on these origins.

• Where do you think your thoughts and feelings about change come from? • Were the adults in your family of origin patient people? • How did patience - or lack thereof - manifest? • What attitudes about change surrounded you as a child? • Was change to be avoided and feared, or was it exciting and to be sought out?

Spotlight: Eileen Zachman Eileen has been teaching Montessori at JJ Hill for over 30 years. She fully embodies the Montessori tenet of being a life-long learner; she enjoys learning new things and challenging herself. Her room is a warm and welcoming space that bustles with lots of creative activities (photos on next page).

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Montessori News continued

Practical Life and Art Materials Practical life materials – Montessori standard: Care of the person and care of the environment through development of gross and fine motor skills

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Montessori News continued

A1.5 INTEGRATES A VARIETY OF ART EXPERIENCES DURING PLAY A3.5 ELECTS TO SPEND TIME IN ARTISTIC EXPRESSION WITH PURPOSE AND

ANALYZES THEIR WORK A4.5 CREATES THEIR OWN ARTISTIC PATTERNS A5.5 INTENTIONALLY USES ART FOR SELF-EXPRESSION

Cultural Subjects Area: Botany, Zoology, Geography, History and Science

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Work Sampling It was a rough winter! Get outside and get into nature. Bring nature into the classroom! Collecting, observing, researching and documenting are a part of the process of exploring living things and their needs. Taking a nature walk is a great way to collect natural items for your classroom that students are interested in. Prepare for a Nature Walk:

• Bring a bag for collected items. • Bring an iPad along to take pictures. • Pack a “nature walk” backpack with items such as magnifying glasses, binoculars, small jars,

tweezers for picking up small items. • Plan a nature scavenger hunt. • Bring small journals or notepads and pencils for documenting.

Turn Any Walk into a Nature Walk

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Upcoming Professional Development

Seesaw PD is available anytime! PD in your PJs

PDExpress Course

May 6 / May 7, 2019 Registrations made by OEL

OEL: Updated Assessments in Pre-Kindergarten 8:30 am – 3:30 pm. Registration: 8:00 - 8:30 am E-STEM (formerly Crosswinds) 600 Weir Drive, Woodbury AM: Math Assessments (3.0 hours) Participants will be trained in the use of the new Math Assessments aligned with the Work Sampling System and Early Childhood Indicators of Progress (ECIPs). PM: IGDIs (3.0 hours) Participants will be trained in the use of the new Individual Growth and Development Indicators (IGDIs) 2.0. Please bring:

• your fully charged laptop • your Assessment Directions and Scripts in the sheet protectors

One hour lunch on your own.

Saint Paul Public Schools Office of Early Learning

Position Title: Early Learning Coalition Connection VISTA

We are seeking a driven individual with community mobilization skills. The Office of Early Learning specifically works to ensure lasting achievement for all early learners. Our Early Learning Coalitions (ELCs) aid in this effort by collaborating with residents and organizations within communities for the benefit of families with young children. We are working collaboratively with Mayor Carter’s City of Saint Paul VISTA Program – which brings together organizations serving children from birth to three and their families to build “a Saint Paul that works for all of us” – including our youngest residents. The ELC Connection VISTA will assist in increasing resident participation and voice in our current ELCs, while also supporting sustainability across all ELCs.

If you are interested in applying for this position, contact Nikole Logan at 651-216-2173 or nikole.logan@spps.org.

Saint Paul Public Schools Office of Early Learning

Position Title: Early Learning Coalition Connection VISTA

We are seeking a driven individual with community mobilization skills. The Office of Early Learning specifically works to ensure lasting achievement for all early learners. Our Early Learning Coalitions (ELCs) aid in this effort by collaborating with residents and organizations within communities for the benefit of families with young children. We are working collaboratively with Mayor Carter’s City of Saint Paul VISTA Program – which brings together organizations serving children from birth to three and their families to build “a Saint Paul that works for all of us” – including our youngest residents. The ELC Connection VISTA will assist in increasing resident participation and voice in our current ELCs, while also supporting sustainability across all ELCs.

If you are interested in applying for this position, contact Nikole Logan at 651-216-2173 or nikole.logan@spps.org.