Welcome Explorers and Families!

 

Dear Families, 

I am so excited to have you and your children as part of our school family this year! Our days will be filled with many wonderful experiences and opportunities to learn and grow.

My goal is to provide a warm, accepting, and stimulating learning environment which fosters creativity, encourages active exploration, and promotes feelings of self-worth. I promise to both support and challenge each child while recognizing and respecting each child's unique potential.

I believe that a good parent-teacher relationship is necessary for maximum school success. I encourage you to contact me any and every time you have any questions or concerns. Our class SeeSaw app is a great way to stay in communication with me! You may also leave a message with the office, send a note in the daily folder, or email me at: amanda.puccino@lawtonps.org.

I am looking forward to a wonderful year with you and your child!

Sincerely, 

Amanda Puccino

Early Childhood Educator

About the Teacher

ABOUT ME

I am a soccer/dance mom, animal lover, and life-long Okie. This is my 7th year teaching pre-k, and I absolutely love it! Before becoming a classroom teacher, I worked as a speech language pathology assistant in Lawton Public Schools for 7 years. Some of my favorite things include coffee, chocolate, butterflies, rainbows, thunderstorms, Thai food, the color blue, and cabin camping with my family.

MY TEACHING PHILOSOPHY 

My teaching philosophy is one of joyful discovery and learning through active exploration.

I believe in active learning. Young children learn best through hands-on experiences that they can personally understand. Therefore, I provide a wide range of activities and learning centers that allow children to explore in meaningful ways. These activities promote children's social, emotional, intellectual, and physical development.

I recognize each child as a unique and capable individual. The activities in our classroom are designed to suit each child's abilities and interests. By giving children choices over centers and assigning them weekly classroom jobs, we help them develop independence and positive self-esteem.

I value play. Play is a child's work. It is the child's way of exploring what they do not understand. Through play children learn language, vocabulary, and problem-solving skills. They develop imagination, cooperation, and impulse control. Therefore, play is an important part of our curriculum. 

I believe that educating your child is a team effort. As a parent, you are the first and foremost educator of your child. I will work with you and your child as a team to provide an enjoyable, quality education.

MY EDUCATION

I graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 2004 for with bachelor's degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders and a minor in psychology. I later attended Cameron University and obtained 31 graduate hours in Early Childhood Education. I currently hold Oklahoma teaching certificates in both Early Childhood Education and Mild to Moderate Disabilities.

Curriculum

Our district currently uses Scholastic's Big Day in Pre-K curriculum for foundational math & literacy skills.  Our curriculum is enhanced through a variety of carefully planned activities which incorporate multiple modalities and employ all the senses. Instruction is provided through hands on experiences as often as possible and is differentiated according to each child's unique needs and abilities.

LEARNING CENTERS

Learning centers are an essential part of our classroom. Centers allow children to investigate relationships among people, objects, and the environment. During center time, children play together in the center of their choice. Through play, children learn language, vocabulary, and problem solving skills. They develop imagination and practice cooperation and impulse control. By giving children choices over centers and making them responsible for clean up, we help them develop independence, responsibility, and self-esteem.

MUSIC & MOVEMENT

Music and movement activities are important to a child's social, physical, social, and cognitive development. Creative music activities allow your child to:

    - recognize rhythms and count beats

    - develop coordination and gross motor skills

    - improve listening & receptive language skills

    - think and move creatively

    - express feelings, moods, and thoughts

    - expend energy

    - use auditory and kinesthetic modalities of learning

Additionally, we use our music & movement time to work on core concepts such as counting, number formation, phonemic awareness, patterning, auditory memory, and calendar skills.

OUTDOOR PLAY

It is essential to your child's health and development to spend time outdoors each day. Weather permitting, we will go outside for approximately 20 to 30 minutes, 2 times a day. Outdoor play allows for:

    - vigorous large muscle activity, which is important for physical fitness & development of the 

         body's major organ systems

    - development of fine & gross motor skills, body awareness, balance, and coordination

    - active exploration of the natural environment

    - stress relief and emotional health

INDIVIDUALIZED TASK BINS 

Each student has his/her own bin or "task box" in our class. These boxes contain individualized quiet activities designed to develop fine motor skills while reinforcing curriculum goals, such as name writing. The items in these boxes include things such as play doh, math manipulatives, or clothes pin games and are changed out throughout the year in alliance with each student's current needs. These bins are incorporated into our table top center and are also available for early finishers during projects or early risers during rest time.

FIELD TRIPS & SPECIAL VISITORS

It is important for children to have hands-on, real-life experiences and to be able to explore the world outside of our classroom. Consequently, throughout the year we will go on serval field trips (usually including the Pumpkin Patch & Great Plains Museum) and have many special visitors visit our classroom. 

Learning Centers

 As mentioned in the "Curriculum" post, learning centers are an essential part of our classroom. Centers allow children to investigate relationships among people, objects, and the environment. During center time, children play together in the center of their choice. Through play, children learn language, vocabulary, and problem solving skills. They develop imagination and practice cooperation and impulse control. By giving children choices over centers and making them responsible for clean up, we help them develop independence, responsibility, and self-esteem. 

In our classroom, centers are reflective of curriculum and monthly focus areas and are responsive to children's developing needs and interests. Therefore, our centers evolve and change throughout the year. Most frequently our center choices include dramatic play, engineering, art, light table, carpet toys, sand/sensory table, and the book nook. 

DRAMATIC PLAY CENTER

The dramatic play center is most popular and most versatile center in our room. Usually starting the year as a kitchen or "home living" center, this center undergoes many vast changes throughout the year  becoming things such as an ice cream shop, an airport, an animal hospital, an ice-skating arena, the Amazon rainforest, the African savannah, and even outer space.

Benefits of the dramatic play center include:

- playing cooperatively

- practicing vocabulary and communication skills

-trying on different roles

-exploring real life situation

-practicing important social skills such as empathy, turn taking, and impulse control

ENGINEERING CENTER

While playing in the engineering center, students are:

-developing spatial skills

- engaging in cooperative play

-experimenting with balance

- discovering laws of physics

-developing planning skills

- being creative

-working on problem solving skills

ART CENTER

Through art, children:

-practice creativity

-express themselves

-develop fine motor skills

-improve hand eye coordination

-experiment with colors, shapes, & ideas

LIGHT TABLE

At the light table children are:

-experimenting with properties of light & shadows

-exploring basic physics & geometry

-improving hand eye coordination

-building fine motor skills

-building mathematical thinking and problem-solving skills

CARPET TOYS

The carpet toys center consists of puzzles, writing toys, and other small manipulatives which children can manipulate and explore comfortably on the carpet. In this center, children:

-coordinate small muscles & build fine motor skills

-build dexterity and hand-eye coordination

-develop spatial concepts

-improve problem solving skills

-build self esteem

SAND TABLE

By playing in the sand table children are:

-experimenting

-building tactile awareness

-observing & measuring

-gaining sensory input

BOOK NOOK

By spending time in the book nook, children:

-develop print awareness

-gain interest in books

-practice storytelling

-build communication & sequencing skills