What can you do to contribute?

One of the easiest ways to contribute is to:

Volunteer, volunteer, volunteer

-this could be as easy as attending field trips, helping in the classroom, making playdough etc.

The more you are in the classroom, the better able you will be to support your child's education.

Why we blog as a communication tool and it's future in education

Please visit this site as it has some interesting info as to when blogging came about, its uses and potential uses in education:

http://llt.msu.edu/vol7num2/pdf/emerging.pdf

Lesson Planning

Teachers are given a curriculum to follow each year. In our case, that curriculum is broken up by months in which skills to be learned are outlined in the following areas:

-social skills
-math
-english language arts
-social studies
-science

Lesson plans are then developed to meet these skill and concept maps. Newsletters are a good place to know what your child is doing at that particular time so that you are able to supplement their learning. Homework is also a good indicator. Feel free to ask the teacher ways you could help at home, as well as at school, to better grasp what skills your child is in the process of mastering.

Typical Daily Schedule

8:40-9:00am children arrive
8:45-9:00am morning activity-this is a short activity in which
children are asked to demonstrate one of the monthly
skills
9:00-9:30am circle time-whole group discussion and activities
related to that day's lesson ex: calendar, leader of the
day, weather, planned lesson for today's skill(s)

9:30-10:00am breakfast-during this time social skills such as
manners are worked on

10:00-11:00am special(library, art etc) and center time
center time gives the children an opportunity to
put the skills that they have learned to practice

11:00-11:10am ready for buses-this is a time to work on fasteners
student independence

By having an idea of what your children are doing in a typical day, you are better able to understand the workings of the classroom and how their day is structured. In addition, many teachers have weekly newsletters. This is a good way to know exactly which skills are being taught and how you can supplement them at home