Oshkosh Early Learning Newsletter

Oshkosh Early Learning News - December 2025

New Year’s celebrations traditionally bring with them the setting of resolutions - things you promise to do and/or not to do for the rest of or by the end of the new year. We encourage people to set commitments that say what you will do using the starter “I’m going to ____.” One of the most powerful commitments you can make is in how you choose to see your kids, and how you choose to let them know you see them.

• Less than 2% of the time!

Do you know how often research indicates children comply with adult requests?

• 80% of the time!

Why does it matter?

• Research indicates that you can improve behavior by 80% just by pointing out what someone is doing correctly.

We hope you will join us in committing to noticing when your children are doing what they are supposed to and sharing with them that you notice when they are doing the right thing. The more specific you can get the better!

See examples below:

We look forward to welcoming your children back in the classroom on Friday, January 2nd. They always come back with many fun stories about all of those special moments of connection they have with you while they have been away.

Sincerely,

Beth Schendel

Principal of Early Learning

• December 19 - No School for 4K and Early Childhood (Professional Development for Staff)
• December 22-31 - No School - Winter Break!
• January 1 - No School
• January 2 - Students Report to School
• January 13 - 4k Family Night 5:00-7:00PM @ Shapiro 🍕
• January 19 - No School - Martin Luther King Jr. Day
• January 20 - No School - Professional Development for Staff

Here are 3 ways!

• Call the Office of Early Learning at 920-424-1004, if we are unavailable leave a detailed message with your child's name, teacher and reason for absence.

• Submit an Absence Request through your parent portal.
  In IC go under More > Absence Request (Direction found here)

• Send an email to both Teresa and Amanda at teresa.doemel@oshkosh.k12.wi.us, amanda.brayton@oshkosh.k12.wi.us

Have you seen our social media series on the power of connection? Check us out and follow us on Facebook @ Oshkosh Early Learning. Learn more about our social media series below:

As we head into the holiday season, your PRESENCE is the best present you can give your child. We focus on four key components when connecting with young children, and you can too! Here they are:

• Eye contact
• Touch
• Presence
• Playfulness

How can you incorporate as many of these four components with your children today for a brief moment of connection? Cooperation follows connection. If you are hoping for a little more cooperation this holiday season, try weaving in more connection! During December, we are featuring different connection rituals we do in our classroom called "I Love You Rituals." They are short and incorporate all four components listed above. Many of our children get excited to do these at home with their adults. Ask your child to teach you one!

Join us for a night built for the whole family!

When: Tuesday, January 13th from 5:00 - 7:00 PM

Where: Shapiro Elementary (1050 W. 18th St.)

**Childcare and meal provided**

Bring the whole family for a night of food, fun, and learning! Let us do the meal planning for you, as we provide dinner for the whole family prior to separate learning experiences for both children and adult caregivers. Siblings are welcome to attend! After a quick meal, children will head off to learn and play about using their assertive voice, which we call a “Big Voice” (including any older or younger siblings) in classrooms, while the adult caregivers can take some time to settle in and learn more about how to cut the chaos that often comes from interacting with preschool-age children.

We will practice providing clear assertive communication that focuses on what you want them to do, learn how visuals can support your preschooler in independently and successfully doing what’s expected of them, and how to reduce power struggles/increase cooperation along the way. Families will have time to create a visual routine that you can bring home and start using with your preschooler that same day!

We held our first of two Family events focused on supporting social and emotional regulation on Thursday, November 20th. It was so fun to see so many families and children attend the event.

Families learned about:

• Powerful regulation skills and strategies for adults and children

• Conscious Discipline’s Brain State Model and how your state can impact behavior

• How we’re working on these skills in school and how practice could be extended at home

All families went home with:

• A new breathing tool

• A book

• Ideas :)

We hope you’ll consider coming to our follow-up event focused on staying out of power struggles when setting clear limits and expectations with preschoolers.

Check out some of the fun we had at our last Family Night!

There are fun ways to play that will exercise the fine motor skills kids need to hold their pencils! Basic toys are powerful tools to improve finger dexterity and develop the “tripod” grasp (first three fingers hold a pencil while the ring and pinky are tucked in)

• Lite Brite

• Building toys like Legos and K’nex

• Tweezer games like Operation, Sneaky Snacky Squirrel, Bed Bugs

• Play doh

• Wind up toys

• Rubber stamps

• Etch-A-Sketch

• Squishy (squeeze toys)

• Lacing and beading

This month’s focus is on colors and coloring. Coloring is a fun way to start practicing using the appropriate grip that children need to make letters. Coloring inside of the lines is not the goal, practice with a correct grip, along with aiming and making scribbles or intentional marks, is! These are all precursor skills for writing letters.

Check out what your child has been learning in math this month -- it’s more than just playing with plastic shapes! Your child has been building strong foundational math skills they will come back to learning more about as mathematicians as they grow. This month we focused on the math concept of more/less and comparing sets of objects, as well as naming and understanding attributes of different shapes, and beginning to explore and understand basic patterns.

January introduces the math concept of story problems. Common winter vocabulary such as mittens, scarves, and snow people provide a great relatable way to count and compare, sort, graph, and solve story problems.

Give the gift of your presence this holiday season!

I hope your holiday season is filled with opportunities to enjoy your little one with some one-on-one time, enjoying a few special moments talking and playing together. Please remember that the best present you can give your child is your presence. The holiday season can be filled with big changes in routines for children and extra stress for parents. A few tips for setting your child up for success include:

• Prepare your child ahead of time for changes in routines and schedules. Too much time and children may forget or become anxious, but not enough warning and children are caught off-guard which can often increase behavior. You know your child best regarding how much lead time they will need. A little advanced notice on your part could prevent meltdowns, hurt/scared feelings, and lead to an overall more peaceful and enjoyable holiday experience for everyone.

• Review expectations before you go somewhere new. Make sure you talk with your child about how you expect them to behave when they go visit a friend or relative’s house, go out for dinner, etc. Telling children what you want them to do vs. not do helps children. Children think in pictures and if you say don’t run, all they tend to picture in their head is running. Help them focus on what they should do such as: “At Grandma’s it will be important that we ask before touching things that do not belong to us and use inside voices.” Providing praise for meeting those expectations can go a long way as well! This could sound like “You asked Grandma to look at the sparkly bells on her table before you grabbed them to go play. That was respectful!”

• Think from a child’s perspective and plan accordingly. Many holiday gatherings are not designed with your child in mind. When and what will your child eat? Is the eating and sleeping schedule significantly different than what your child is used to? What is available for your child to do that will be fun for them and be appropriate for the environment you are going to? Who will be there and does your child know them?

We have several staff who are in and out of our 4K classrooms on a regular basis to provide support for teachers and students. We wanted to introduce our support staff to you so that you can put a face with a name. We’re always excited to see our Oshkosh Early Learning friends, whether it’s at school or out in the community. Here’s who may be a familiar face to your child: