46120 Woodshire Drive, Sterling, VA 20165 703.444.6161

1. APRIL NEWS 46120 Woodshire Drive, Sterling, VA 20165 703.444.6161 April showers bring May flowers, right? We will be springing into action by learning about this month’s themes of: Down on the Farm, Week of the Young Child: Celebration of Early Learning, Earth Day and finally, we will learn about Bugs, Bugs, and more Bugs.  April is a very special month at Chesterbrook.  We will be celebrating The Week of the Young Child.  This week highlights the importance of early childhood education and shows our appreciation for our amazing students.  The Week of the Young Child will take place from April 16th-20th.  Each day will have a special activity for the children. We are asking parents to donate items such as old strings, buttons, ribbons, wrapping papers, cereal boxes or anything else provided.  See flyers posted outside classroom doors. **Parent Referral Program: Refer a family and after 90 days of enrollment, receive a free week of tuition just for spreading the word! Thank you to all the families who have already referred families to us! **Please remember to bring sunscreen/bug spray as the warmer weather approaches! Please fill out an authorization form and leave at the front desk as well! ** For the health and safety of all of our children and staff, please keep in mind our sick/illness policy and keep your child at home if they are showing signs of fever, vomiting, diarrhea, and/or rash. They need to be symptom free, without medication for 24 hours before they can return to school. We appreciate the consideration of our families and reiterate the importance of this policy to keep everyone happy and healthy! **The April Lunch and Snack menu are now on our school website! http://woodshire.chesterbrookacademy.com **Please remember to bring in 2 sets of extra clothes for your child! **   "CHECK" IT OUT....No more checks!  Enroll in our Automatic Payment Program and never write another check for tuition.  Tuition can be automatically deducted from your checking or savings account.  APRIL 4/8 Happy Easter / Passover 4/16 Little Caesar’s Delivery 4/16-4/20 Week of the Young Child 4/15 Tax Day 4/19 Open House 9:30-12pm Saint Jude’s Trike-a-thon. 4/20 Ladybug Release & Tree Planting 4/22 Earth Day 4/27 Trike-a-thon rain date Week of the Young Child Monday, April 16th– Friday, April 20th Monday: Promoting Early Learning Tuesday: Promoting Healthy Food Wednesday: Promoting Literacy Thursday: Promoting Physical Activity: St. Jude’s Trike-a-thonFriday: Promoting Nature Conservation In the News… Helping Children Learn to Cope with Anger

2. Helping Children Learn to Cope with Anger • Today I feel angry, you’d better steer clear… My face is all pinched and red ear to ear… • -The Way I Feel • Anger is such a raw emotion. We all experience it and learn in time ways to channel this real feeling. For children, anger is also a very real and natural experience and reaction. While we want to validate our child’s feelings of anger, our job is to help them learn appropriate ways to channel their anger without minimizing or quashing the sentiment. • If we take a moment to think about what anger truly is, it becomes immediately apparent why this is such a prevalent feeling at times for preschool-aged children. Anger is, at a most basic level, an emotional reaction to frustration (Richardson, McGowan, and Robertson, 2011). It is a response to a real or perceived loss or a response to feeling misunderstood, frustrated, ashamed, hurt, or rejected (Davies, 2000). When we think of all of the developmental changes and the increasing desire for independence that define early childhood, this is a period of time in which children are often in situations like those described (e.g. the 2 year old whose speech may be hard to understand, the toddler who is told ‘no’ in response to taking another child’s toy, the preschooler who wants to do things like an older sibling or family member). • The natural reaction for young children when they experience these feelings is to assign blame to someone else. Our goal is to help our children express anger appropriately and in a positive manner. • The most important first step in this, as simple as it sounds, is labeling the emotion when we see it, “I can see that you are feeling angry right now.” Children need to understand that ‘anger’ is the name of the feeling and the bodily reaction he or she is feeling, such as warm face, heart pounding, and heavy breathing. You can then also help your child understand why he or she is feeling angry by explicitly pointing out and naming the triggers. “I understand that you feel angry because I will not let you cut your own chicken but…” or “I understand that you are angry because your brother took your doll but…” This simple step helps your child build emotional awareness and also validates the very real feeling that he or she is experiencing. • It’s never too early to teach your child how to control his or her anger. Here are some great techniques and strategies that even young children can begin to try when they feel angry. • Encourage your child to stop and to say “I’m angry!” Being able to independently label the emotion will help some children feel back in control. • Go to a quiet calm place to be alone. Model for your child how he or she can go to a special spot to calm down. • Read books that talk about a variety of emotions and situations in which characters felt angry. Talk about how the character handled his or her anger. • For older preschoolers, ask them ‘What did you want or need?’, ‘How can I help you?’, and then ‘What can you do to help yourself?’ While usage of this technique will depend upon the anger-producing scenario, this modeling helps your child take ownership of his or her feelings and ownership of problem solving. • Lastly, label your emotion and model techniques for your child when you feel angry (e.g. ‘I am feeling angry right now so I am going to sit here by myself’ or ‘I am feeling angry right now so I am going to go for a walk.’ • When your child sees that you, too, feel angry and that you can talk about your emotion, he will be better able to accept and control his own feelings of anger. Any time your child displays anger, take the time to explain that it's acceptable to be angry, but emphasize as well that he or she needs to find ways to cope with those feelings. • Lauren Starnes, PhD- Manager of Curriculum and Instruction/ East