BOOK CLUB - Wherever You Go

With the school year coming to an end and new summer routines starting, Wherever You Go is a great story to prepare your child for the adventures that lay ahead of them. Follow a rabbit as he journeys along roads seeking, exploring, and discovering new things. 

LITERACY & NUMERACY - Scientific Exploration

For preschoolers, hands-on science activities and investigations help promote the development of problem solving skills, recognition of cause and effect, and organizing and classifying. Luckily, since preschool age children are naturally full of questions, the scientific process comes easily to them, and it just needs to be nurtured. One easy way to nurture scientific thinking in your child is to ask them open-ended questions that encourage them to guess and make predictions. 

Another way to nurture scientific thinking is to set up experiments that help children observe cause and effect, predict outcomes, and test predictions. One easy experiment that is perfect for this time of year involves planting seeds. As you plant flowers or vegetables, get your child involved and let them experiment with variables like sunlight, water, or soil. 

ARTS & CRAFTS - Stained Glass

Materials Needed:

construction paper •  scissors • tissue paper squares • self-adhesive laminating sheets

Instructions:

Using scissors, cut the outline of any shape out of construction paper. You can cut out a circle, square, or even a shape related to the season like a flower.

Lay a piece of laminating paper down with the sticky side up, and then place the shape on top. Trim the excess laminating paper from the edge of the shape.

Place tissue paper sheets all over the sticky side of the laminating paper inside the shape.

Place a second sheet of laminating paper on top of the tissue paper so everything is sealed inside the shape. Trim the excess laminating paper from the edges again.

Hang your shape in a sunny window. Does it look like real stained glass? What happens to the colors when they overlap? 

DEVELOPMENTAL MILESTONE - Pitching in to Clean Up 

Are you in the mood to do some spring cleaning but can't even keep up with the daily mess your children create? Try asking them to pitch in with household chores by cleaning up their toys. Lauren Cilley, the Associate Director of Fay's Early Learning Center, suggests making cleanup time fun by challenging children to pick up as many toys as they can in a minute, or by racing a sibling to see who can finish first. You could also play special music during cleanup time or sing a song together to motivate your child to clean up. However, one important thing to keep in mind is that it is helpful to explain to your child that cleanup time is a group effort to maintain your family's living space. If they start to view cleanup time as their way to pitch in at home, there will be far fewer arguments and less of a mess.

FIELD TRIP - Hopkinton State Park

Memorial Day marks the unofficial start of summer, and one of the best local places for summer fun is Hopkinton State Park. The park offers hiking, swimming, boating, and plenty of picnic areas. If you visit in early June, keep an eye out for lady's slipper flowers under the pine trees. 

PARENTING ADVICE - Four Simple Ways to Prepare for Kindergarten

Most parents want to ensure that their child is equipped with the skills that they will need to be successful in kindergarten. If your child is entering kindergarten in the fall, try working on these four skills this summer. 

1. Make sure that your child knows how to put on his or her shoes (lace-free shoes are helpful at this age) as well as their jacket.

2. Teach your child how to advocate for themselves. Can they ask a teacher for a drink of water when thirsty?

3. When reading with your child, discuss what you read with them. Pause when you are reading and ask them what they thought about what just happened in the story or what they think will happen next. 

4. You can build numeracy skills by finding opportunities to introduce different counting patterns to your child. When playing hide and seek, ask your child to count by tens to 100 instead of from 1 to 10.

Kindergarten at Fay School

Kindergarten lays the foundation for a child's entire learning experience. At Fay, our small class sizes and differentiated approach help each kindergartener establish the skills they will need for a successful educational journey. Our teachers focus on each child’s literacy, numeracy, science understanding, and social-emotional development, supported by a team of expert specialists who coordinate instruction in art, music, French, and Spanish, and P.E. Our teacher also focus on fostering a love of learning, and they know that when students believe that their learning matters, they give their all.