Greetings from the Director

January Dayspring Preschool Newsletter 2017 Greetings from the Director Happy New Year! Thank you to our families who supported Dayspring’s Holiday Food Drive last month. Dayspring collected 142 pounds of canned goods for the local Food Bank, which helped to provide 118 meals for families in need. Each classroom also performed for their families during the 7th Annual Dayspring Preschool Holiday Programs. The Mini-Music, Kinderdance, Science, and Soccer Shots Enrichment Classes will begin again this month. Please see details below for class times and contact information to register. Thank you again to all the Dayspring families for your wonderful Holiday gifts given to the teachers and myself. The teachers are especially grateful for the coffee maker and hot beverage pods that were so generously given by the Dayspring parents! We are very grateful to you all! January, and the winter months, continue to be flu season. Below are a few tips for staying healthy. (source: Dr. Anita Chandra, MD)  Continue to keep active and exercise  Get plenty of rest and a good night’s sleep  Wash hands often with soap and water  Sneeze into elbows, and wash hands after blowing noses  If someone in the household is ill, wipe down common surfaces (door knobs, counters) with disinfectant A Healthy and Happy January 2017 to all! ~ Janice Letters of the Week for January 2017: 1/9-1/13: Ii 1/16-1/20: Jj 1/23-1/27: Kk 1/30-2/3: Ll

Calendar Upcoming Events: Monday, Dayspring Preschool Classes resumed on Monday, January 9, 2017. January 9: WELCOME Back Dayspring families! HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Friday, Dayspring January Tuition Due Date extended to January 13th January 13: Monday, MARTIN LUTHER KING HOLIDAY: Dayspring Preschool CLOSED January 16:

January 18 & 19: SRVUSD Kindergarten Readiness Information Nights: The SRVUSD is hosting two separate information nights for parents to learn about the district’s Kindergarten program. Children must be 5 years old on or before September 1, 2017 to enter Kindergarten. The Kindergarten Readiness Information Meetings will be held on 1/18 at San Ramon Valley High School (PAC room) for residents of Alamo and Danville. A meeting for San Ramon residents will be held on 1/19 at California High School (Theatre). Both SRVUSD information meetings will be held from 6:30pm- 7:30pm. (Please note: Transitional Kindergarten is for children turning 5 years between September 2-Decemember 2, 2017. T-K Information Meetings were previously held during December.) For more information, visit the school district’s website at: www.srvusd.net Thursday, “Raising Resilient Boys” lecture by guest speaker, Dr. Meg Meeker, will be held at January 26: Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church, 49 Knox Drive, Lafayette. Registration fee for the event is $10. For information call (925) 283-8722 or email [email protected]. Register online at: LOPC.org.

Enrichment Classes Resume at Dayspring: Various enrichment classes are offered at Dayspring Preschool. For information regarding specific classes, please refer to the Dayspring Enrichment Program Notebook located at the parent sign-in counter. Limited spaces are available in the Enrichment classes. This month, the following Enrichment classes will resume their normal classes at Dayspring:  Tuesday, 1/10: “Kinderdance” is a developmental dance/movement and fitness class, teaching the basics of Tap, Gymnastics, Ballet, and Motor Skills. The enrichment class is held on Tuesday afternoon from 2:00pm-3:00pm. Register online at www.kinderdancetrivalley.com  Wednesday, 1/11: “ STEAM Science” Enrichment classes are offered during the morning and afternoon at Dayspring Preschool. Information, contact Nancy at: [email protected]  Friday, 1/13: “Isabella’s Mini-music” Music and Movement enrichment class will resume. The 30- minute class is for children ages 3yrs-5 yrs. The instructor, Isabella Reyburn, has studied early childhood music and rhythm. She is trained in the Orff music theory and is an experienced teacher. Her approach to music education begins with rhythm, movement, and singing. For information or to register: [email protected]  Monday, 1/23: “Soccer Shots” enrichment class. Soccer classes will be held from 2:00-3:00pm (rain or shine). Children will learn how to play the game of soccer, while the “Soccer Shot” instructor set ups and leads them through developmentally appropriate gross motor activities that develop the skills needed for the game of soccer. Register by January 20 th , and receive a $10 discount. Use COUPON Code “FUN2017”. For information or to register: www. eastbay.ssreg.org

New SRVUSD 2017-18 Instructional Calendar: The SRVUSD recently revised the district’s school year Instructional Calendar for 2017. For your information, please note the following changes:  First day of the 2017-18 School term: August 14, 2017  Last day of the 2017-18 School term: June 1, 2018

DAYSPRING’s CLASSROOM HIGHLIGHTS: During the month of January, the children will be experiencing a number of fun learning activities in their classrooms. The theme this month is “Weather Watchers”, the character trait is “ I Am Responsible”, and the letter study will focus on the letters “Ii” through “Ll”. Curriculum activities will also focus on the geometric shape of the diamond, the color blue, and the motor skill of balancing. Classroom 1: “The Orange Owl Room” Happy 2017 to all! We hope everyone had a safe and fun winter break with family and friends. The children in the Orange Owl classroom had a wonderful time celebrating the holiday season! December was a busy month. The children enjoyed being “little elves” as they made gifts for their parents! Our curriculum activities were filled with fun holiday projects; making paper stain glass-bell hangings, wreaths, Christmas trees, baking and decorating holiday cookies. Yummy! We discussed Hanukkah, by making a classroom Menorah and reading stories. They children heard a special telling of “The Gingerbread Boy” story, and enjoyed eating gingerbread cookies – it was a fun day of surprise. Our Holiday Program was a festive evening. It was wonderful to see the children singing the songs that they had practiced all month! As the Orange Owl class rings in the New Year, there are a lot of exciting things planned. We will be continuing our share days, with a focus on the letter of the week. We will begin number correspondence activities, continue practicing our cutting skills, and will play some fun learning games that involve color, shape, and number recognition. We will also continue to highlight the letter of the week through stories and various art projects. Our classroom activities will focus on the theme of “Weather Watchers”, and during circle times, we will be discussing the meaning of being responsible. Classroom 2: “The Green Gecko Room” December in the Green Gecko classroom was a month filled with merriment. The learning activities of the month included; working on the skill of tracing diagonal lines, writing numerals, and learning positioning words such as on, off, up, down, in front of, and behind. In addition to the learning activities, the smells of the season filled the classroom as the children spent time in the kitchen baking gingerbread cookies and making hot cocoa. Yum! The children learned about Christmas traditions from around the world, Hanukkah, and other festivals of light. The children’s art activities included making menorahs, evergreen trees, and jingle bells. Other December highlights were making Holiday gifts for our families, and preparing songs to surprise our families during the Holiday program. Thank you to our Green Gecko parents for their support and thoughtful Holiday gifts. During the month of January, our theme activities will revolve around the topic of exploring ice and snow. The language activities will focus on the alphabet letters from “Ii-Ll”. The children will work on the sounds of the letters, as well as practice writing and tracing the letters. We will continue to use Alphabet Bingo, and rhyming puzzle activities. The children will also be writing dictation drawings. During math, the children will work on patterning, counting 0-10, shape recognition, sorting by two attributes, tracing numerals, and lacing beads by two’s. In science, the children will conduct ice/snow experiments that focus on their observation skills of cause and effect. Classroom 3: “The Purple Parrot Room” In December, the Purple Parrot class was busy as the children prepared for the holidays. We talked about many different celebrations that occur during this time of year. We started the month by making presents to honor our families. During Letter Hh week, the children explored the holiday of Hanukkah. The children enjoyed playing a dreidel game. We learned many different holiday songs, and had a special story time visitor who told the story of "The Gingerbread Boy”, followed by a special treat. Now, we are looking forward to January! We will explore many different types of weather and celebrate the New Year. The Book of the month for our classroom is “One Winter Day” by M.Christina Butler. We will also read "Ten in the Sled”. Afterward, the children will create a collaborative classroom board that represents the children and their family members riding different sleds in the snow! Another fun activity will be cutting out snowflakes and painting with pine branches. The children will also work on: grouping objects 7 to10, ABB and ABC patterning, and prepare for the 100th day of school to be held on January 20th! Classroom 4: “The Blue Butterfly Room” During December, the children talked about various holidays and cultural celebrations that are celebrated. The Letter “Hh” activity highlighted Hanukkah. We played with Hanukkah puzzles, played the Dreidel game, and cooked yummy potato latkes. Inspired by the book, Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett, the children decorated a gingerbread house. They also baked and decorated gingerbread cookies, decorated pine cone trees, enjoyed a Christmas tree serration activity,and after hearing the book, “Snow” by Uri Schuleritz, enjoyed building and painting a collaborative snow village. In January, we will celebrate our 100th day of school with different games and activities. We will be “Weather Watchers” and talk about ice and snow, the different seasons, and different types of weather phenomenon. Parent’s Corner: Young Children and Spatial Reasoning Skills "While boosting kids' math and verbal skills may draw more attention from parents and educators, spatial reasoning skills play an important — sometimes overlooked — role in academic and career success. And preschool, it turns out, is a key time to foster children's spatial cognition," observes Deborah Farmer Kris in KQED News. Kris describes four steps for fostering spatial reasoning skills:  Use spatial language — Children who are exposed to more spatial language during their preschool years outperform their peers on spatial tests years later.  Engage in simple mapping activities — Research suggests that children as young as 3 years old can appreciate the relationship between a map and the physical world.  Invest in blocks and puzzles — Children who regularly play with blocks and jigsaw puzzles have more advanced block design scores than children who play with such toys less often. Read spatially challenging books — Look for books that include pictures from various angles or perspectives that contain maps and abundant spatial language. Special Reminders:  Parents, each of our families has a personalized door access code to the preschool. Please allow each Dayspring family to enter the preschool by using their own individual code. If you are opening the lobby door for someone, please do so for only those parents or family members that you know. The front desk will buzz other individuals or visitors to the preschool in. Thank you.  Sometimes the cold weather can affect the front door mechanism. When entering Dayspring’s front door, enter your code, receive a green light, then gently lift the door handle up and pull it to open with a smooth motion. Repeat jerking of the door handle will damage the locking mechanism. We ask that you do not allow children to enter codes and pull on the door handle. Thank you.  Please remember to write your child’s name on ALL ITEMS brought to school. It is much easier to return missing items that have been labeled. If you have mistakenly taken another child’s sweatshirt or lunchbox home, simply bring the item to the front desk, and we will return it to its owner. Thanks for your help.  Thank you parents for supporting the Dayspring Preschool nut-aware policy. Please note that this policy includes all types of nuts including: peanuts, almonds, walnuts, tree nuts, nut products, as well as food products that have been made on factory equipment shared with nuts. We are happy to answer any questions you may have regarding this policy or suggest nut substitute products. Thank you.  Please remember to ALWAYS hold your child’s hand as you are walking to and from your car. Please help keep our children safe! Thank you.  Parents, please remember to sign your child in and out with your full legal signature. This is a licensing requirement, and we appreciate your support. Thank you.