{"id":3499,"date":"2025-12-05T14:50:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T21:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anniekucharcik.com\/school\/?p=3499"},"modified":"2025-12-05T14:51:28","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T21:51:28","slug":"the-week-of-12-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anniekucharcik.com\/school\/the-week-of-12-8\/","title":{"rendered":"The Week of 12\/8"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Dear Preschool Families,<\/h3>

What a wonderful week of discovery we’ve had! Our transition into the “Clothes” unit was a great success, marked by the exciting unveiling of our new dramatic play area. We officially said goodbye to\u00a0 “Backyard Fun” and introduced our\u00a0 <\/span>“Clothing Boutique”<\/b>!<\/span><\/p>

The children had so much fun exploring the newly stocked shelves, trying on hats and scarves, and using their math skills to “buy” and “sell” accessories. This new area promotes imagination, social collaboration, and helps us build vocabulary related to clothing items, textures, and styles.<\/span><\/p>

Looking Ahead: All Types of Attire<\/h3>

Next week, we will continue our focus on clothing by diving deeper into the <\/span>different types of clothing<\/b> we wear. We\u2019ll discuss the purpose of various garments\u2014why we wear boots in the snow, swimsuits in the summer, and uniforms for certain jobs. We will also introduce concepts like sorting clothes by size, color, and season.<\/span><\/p>

How You Can Support Independence at Home<\/h3>

Learning about clothes is also about learning to manage them! We are focusing heavily on developing self-help skills in the classroom, and we would greatly appreciate your help in reinforcing these efforts at home:<\/span><\/p>

  1. Jacket and Zipper Mastery:<\/b> Help your child learn to put on their own jacket without support and practice zipping it up. This simple skill gives them enormous pride and independence.<\/span><\/li><\/ol>

    You might want to use this step-by-step approach we also use at school:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

      1. Introduce: <\/b>Before attempting the actual zipping, clearly explain the <\/span>“train going in the tunnel” <\/b>analogy. The <\/span>train<\/span><\/i> is the pin side (the piece they push down), and the <\/span>tunnel<\/span><\/i> is the box side (the fixed slot). This simple, child-friendly framing makes the crucial initial step\u2014lining up the pieces\u2014less intimidating.<\/span><\/li>
      2. Guide:<\/b> Break it down exactly where they need to hold the jacket. Show them exactly how the “train” must be inserted fully into the “tunnel” until it clicks or rests firmly at the bottom.<\/span><\/li>
      3. Pull:<\/b> Once the pieces are connected, guide their hand to pull the zipper tab (the engine) up the tracks.<\/span><\/li>
      4. Practice:<\/b> Give your child <\/span>plenty of opportunities<\/b> to practice. Celebrate their effort, especially when they successfully master the tricky initial connection.<\/span><\/li><\/ol><\/li>
      5. Mitten Management:<\/b> We are working on teaching the children to put their mittens or gloves immediately into their jacket pockets or backpacks right after arrival. This small habit is a huge step in preventing lost items!\u00a0<\/span><\/li>
      6. We also follow a sequence in getting dressed: 1<\/span>. Put jacket on; 2. Zip jacket; 3. Put a hat on (if they have one); 4. Put gloves\/mittens on (if they have them). <\/b>This teaches children that their own hands are needed to get dressed, without expecting others to put their jackets on for them, <\/span>building important skills for independence.\u00a0<\/b><\/li><\/ol>

        If you feel your child is losing their gloves often and needs extra support, try this handy trick to attach them and keep them secure. You can watch a quick video demonstration on <\/span>How Not to Lose Your Mittens\/Gloves<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

        A Friendly Reminder: Please Label Everything!<\/h3>

        Finally, a crucial reminder: <\/span>Please ensure all items\u2014especially gloves, mittens, hats, and scarves\u2014are clearly labeled with your child’s name.<\/b> You would be amazed how many gloves (especially newly purchased ones!) children are not recognizing when we hold them up at cleanup time! Labeling is the best way to ensure their belongings make it home.<\/span><\/p>

        Preschool Open House: Focus on Readiness!<\/h3>

        We warmly invite prospective families to attend our <\/span>Preschool Open House<\/b> event. This is a wonderful opportunity to see the classroom, meet our educators, and learn about our program.<\/span><\/p>

        • Date:<\/b> Wednesday, December 10<\/span><\/li>
        • Time:<\/b> 5:30 PM \u2013 6:30 PM<\/span><\/li>
        • Location:<\/b> The Preschool Classroom<\/span><\/li><\/ul>

          Thank you for your ongoing partnership. Have a wonderful weekend!<\/span><\/p>

          Warmly,<\/span><\/p>

          The Preschool Team<\/span><\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          Dear Preschool Families, What a wonderful week of discovery we’ve had! Our transition into the “Clothes” unit was a great…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-announcements"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/anniekucharcik.com\/school\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Announcements-e1661539457840.jpg?fit=1806%2C677&ssl=1","blog_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/anniekucharcik.com\/school\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Announcements-e1661539457840.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/anniekucharcik.com\/school\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Announcements-e1661539457840.jpg?fit=1806%2C677&ssl=1",1806,677,false]},"categories_names":{"10":{"name":"Announcements","link":"https:\/\/anniekucharcik.com\/school\/category\/announcements\/"}},"tags_names":[],"comments_number":"0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfc2HC-Ur","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anniekucharcik.com\/school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anniekucharcik.com\/school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anniekucharcik.com\/school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anniekucharcik.com\/school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anniekucharcik.com\/school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3499"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/anniekucharcik.com\/school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3503,"href":"https:\/\/anniekucharcik.com\/school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3499\/revisions\/3503"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anniekucharcik.com\/school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anniekucharcik.com\/school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anniekucharcik.com\/school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anniekucharcik.com\/school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}