Dear Families,
The snow is piling up on our playground, circle times are getting longer, the classroom hums with purposeful activity- the children are completely comfortable- the classroom is their space. It is mid-winter and I am realizing how much all of the children have grown!
announcement...
It is with great (enormous) pleasure that I am announcing our assistant search is over. Crystal Salo (my former assistant who has been subbing for the past few weeks) is returning full time to work with us at the Early Ed. Center! She will be joining us full time after the February break. The entire team is delighted to have someone so skilled with children who can slip right into her new (old) role with no training or “getting to know you” bumps. The children will not have to get used to another new adult. Even the paperwork piling up on my desk has breathed a sigh of relief that it is finally going to get the attention it deserves! Crystal is pretty excited to be back, too. (For those of you who don’t already know
Crystal, she has been working in early childhood for nine years and worked here at the Early Education Center for the last three years. She has two children, both boys: a 3 year old and a 7 month old.)
curriculum...
We had a lot of fun with the rhyming focus- it worked for all of the children at their various developmental levels just as I had hoped. Children are finding rhymes everywhere- Humpty Dumptys are on the wall, spiders are scaring Miss Muffet, the “Down by the Bay Mural” is complete. We will, of course, continue to have fun with language and rhyme, but we are moving on to a new focus.
We are beginning a study of Transportation (or “Things That Go”). Looking at vehicles at work we will be sorting and classifying (math), discussing the work people are doing (social studies), looking at how all the parts move together to get the job done (science) and much, much more!
An art project with this focus will be building some transportation- we are collecting clean, empty, whole boxes, as many shapes and sizes as possible (smaller than a large cereal box…). We’d also love empty paper towel tubes and clean milk jug or juice bottle caps…
odds & ends...
February Vacation is coming up. School is closed February 16th -20th.
We will be closed March 2nd and 3rd for a teacher in-service and town meeting day.
We will be closed May 4th and 5th (an extra day) for preschool screenings.
Due to a scheduling change at Central Elementary School, Monday’s Library has been changed to Wednesday at 9:30. Wednesday’s circle time will be at 8:30 to accommodate this change. Please keep in mind that this gives late-comers less wiggle room if children want to settle in and play a bit before circle.
Thanks for all you do,
Jennifer
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