april 2018 newsletter - greenbeltchildrenscenter.com · gcc april 2018 newsletter || page 2 7600...

GCC April 2018 Newsletter ||

7600 Hanover Parkway, Ste 100 Greenbelt MD 20770

Flora L. Gee, M. Ed., Director www.greenbeltchildrenscenter.com

Signs of spring are popping up everywhere! We hope that April showers will bring us lots of May flowers! The children will be able to spend more time outdoors exploring and observing for signs of the season. Remember that boots are recommended for muddy days!

April is National Association for the Education of Young Children Week of the Young Child, April 16-20! Also National Child Abuse Prevention Month, Autism Awareness, Mental Health Awareness and MARYLAND MONTH OF THE YOUNG CHILD! We have a month FULL of Special Plans!

APRIL UNITS

Look for lesson plans filled with activities about Plants, How Does Your Garden Grow? and the season of Spring. The Parent Information Board in your child's classroom will give you all the specific activities for each week’s plans! Please consider volunteering to help the staff and children to plan for gardening activities this season, if this is something that you have the talent or time to support. If so, please talk to your child’s teaching team.

Changes! We said goodbye to Ms. Jill after 23 years of dedicated and loyal service at GCC. She has decided to take a different path and we will miss her greatly. Ms. Wanda Marshall will be assisting Ms. Jasmyne while we conduct a teacher search. Ms. Wanda is a former Social Worker and is very nurturing. The children will be in loving hands! Is the snow finally finished for this school year? Between the flu outbreak and the snow, it really affected our Family Engagement activities! We finally held our two WolfTrap Family Workshops, The Kinderman’s Rhythm, Chants and Space and Dancing STEM with Laura Schandelmaier last month. The Colgate Dental Van screened and educated the children about good dental health and reports were sent home to you in their goody bags. We are working with the Parent Café Committee to secure a room at the Greenbelt Community Center for April 19th from 6- 8 pm. We will need to do RSVP’s and registration again for the new date! We were booked solid for the original date last month and had met our capacity for Parents and free child care for the children, so please register asap. We expect to have a link on the GCC Facebook page for everyone to use that will track

April 2018 Newsletter




the numbers of parents and children for all 3 Greenbelt Early Childhood programs and any other Greenbelt family that would like to join us. Mark your calendar now for April 19th! We end our school year on Thursday, June 14, 2018 and will be closed on Friday June 15 for a Teacher In-service day. Summer Program will start on Monday, June 18th. We have all the details about the Summer Program in the Summer Calendar going home via your child’s Art Folder! Please complete and return the Intention Form for the Summer & Fall programs by April 13, 2018. Summer Reservation schedules and fees are not due until May 18, 2018 but we will take them as early as you want to turn them in because we have a lot of families not yet attending who would like to have their child join us!

Disaster Planning and Supporting Children during Times of Conflict

The staff at GCC has planned for emergencies of many kinds. Plans are in place that are ready for activation, should the need arise. It is recommended that all families have at least 3 emergency contacts in case of disaster. You may want to think of friends or neighbors that you would give permission to pick up your child if you were detained and unable to get to GCC due to a disaster. It has also been recommended to have one contact that lives out of the immediate area, because as you may recall, on 9/11/2001, local calls were useless, but phone calls out of the immediate area were possible. Please update your emergency information form in the GCC office. A good source of information about helping young children after a disaster is available at the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s website, www.naeyc.org. GCC’s disaster plans, Project Security Blanket, are hanging on each classroom and office bulletin board for you to review. Speaking of disaster, please make sure that you do not let your child out of your sight when coming or going to the center. Children may not re-enter the center from the parking lot without a parent, as children must be supervised at all times. Once a child has been signed out the parent is responsible. Tell your child to stay by your side once signed out!

WEEK OF THE YOUNG CHILD!

This national event sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), takes place April 16-20, 2018. GCC has planned some special activities for the week to celebrate!

Events that we would like to involve you in to commemorate this happy, special time of childhood are listed below. There will be homework, but we think you will enjoy participating in these

activities!

Monday: Music Monday! We will be dancing, singing, celebrating and learning through music! Parents write a love note to send in their child’s lunch that says “You are special to me because…” and we promise to read them to your child and post them in the classroom! This will give your child the opportunity to know

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that they are always on your mind! (You can send one any day!)

Tuesday: Tasty Tuesday! Healthy eating and fitness at home and school!

Wednesday: Work Together, Build Together, Learn Together! Teachers will have special projects for Spring Cleaning and playground spruce up! Everybody works together!

Thursday: Artsy Thursday! Think, problem solve, create! Children will spend time engaging in creative open-ended art, both individually and on group projects. We will also hold the Parent Café at the Greenbelt Community Center on this day.

Friday: Family Friday: Explore your neighborhood!

o Be open to the wonder of noticing small details and new growth.

o Leave electronic toys at home so that children can focus on the world around them. o Bring paper and crayons so children can draw what they see. o Walk at different times of the day or night to increase your chances of seeing something new. o Ask, “What’s different about what you see today?” each time you and your child walk outside. o Model using all five senses. You might say, “I’m seeing the big clouds,” “I’m touching the wet

grass,” “I’m hearing the jets of an airplane,” or “I’m smelling the fallen pine tree needles.” It’s not safe to taste many things outdoors, but you can “taste” the air.

o Carry along an inexpensive magnifying glass so children can get up close and personal with nature.

o Make dressing for the weather part of the learning experience by singing songs about the weather as you and your child put on sunscreen, hats, or several layers of clothing. Try “You Are My Sunshine,” “It Ain’t Gonna Rain,” or “The Mitten Song”. Let your child work to figure out how to zip a zipper or put on boots just long enough so she can learn these tasks and not so long that she becomes frustrated.

Books:

o Nature’s Playground: Activities, Crafts, and Games to Encourage Children to Get Outdoors by Fiona Danks and Jo Schofield.

o Take a Walk book series by Jane Kirkland includes books for elementary-age children that discuss different environments (beach, city, wetlands) and different things to observe (birds, butterflies clouds).

o Bugs Are Insects by Anne Rockwell. For children kindergarten to second grade. o Seashells, Crabs, and Sea Stars by Christiane Kump Tibbitts. For children kindergarten to fourth

grade. o Winter Trees by Carole Gerber. For children kindergarten to second grade. o Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert. For children ages 4 and up. o Nature Close-Up: Seeds and Seedlings by Elaine Pascoe. For children from kindergarten to

eighth grade.




Websites:

o A pre-K teacher offers ideas to integrate nature learning into the curriculum on her website, Thinking BIG, Learning Big.

o Free Songs for Kids offers songs about the weather. o Eric Gyllenhaal’s family shares their knowledge of suburban rocks

Reminders! Have you checked your child’s extra clothes box to make sure it is

seasonally appropriate? It should be time to remove big bulky sweaters, etc. A pair of extra sneakers is helpful too!

Children MUST have a fitted crib sheet and small blanket to put on their cot for naptime each day! Please make sure you provide them every Monday!

Any new phone numbers to update on your child’s emergency information card? Let’s be prepared for any disaster!

How about any new booster immunizations that your child received? We must include them on your child’s record in the office.

Teach children lessons for good mental health- feelings, patience, honesty, and being kind to others!

For good dental health, sippy cups should be avoided at the pre-school age.

SUMMER AND FALL INTENTION FORMS

Reminder- Summer and Fall Intention Forms are due 4/13/18! Everyone should have received the calendar for Summer Program Events and the Summer Program Reservation Form/Permission for the Pool & Terrace Room (due back on 5/18/18 or earlier!) Pay the $150 Fall Materials Fee now with your Intention Form and keep the 2017-18 published rate for tuition for next year, 2018-19! We have started the fall class roster!

Summer Reservation forms (schedules) and Summer Activity Fees are not due until 5/18/18. You just

need to turn in your Intention Form asap so we know who plans to participate for some or all of the summer program and who we should reserve a space for the Fall School Year to be included on the class lists.

Reminder- “in-house” families do not pay a summer registration fee. You are encouraged to pay the $150.00 Fall Annual Materials Fee by 4/13/18 to keep the preferred rate for tuition fees next school year.

Room 1 families, your grant subsidy for this year will continue through 11 weeks of summer program, paid from the PGCPS Grant on your child’s behalf. (We have

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http://freesongsforkids.com/weather-seasons

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submitted our grant for the 2018-19 school year and anticipate the rate for income eligible families in the PGCPS Pre-k here at GCC will pay only the Before & After Rate of $158 per week next year. Stop in the office to check our income eligibility table if your child will be four years old on 9/1/18 and you reside in Prince Georges County.)

Please ensure that your child gets on the GCC class lists for fall and summer- before all spaces are filled. The new Summer Calendar, will also be posted this week in color on the web at

www.greenbeltchildrenscenter.com and has all the fun activities planned for your child, in addition to pool time, every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday! You won't want your child to miss all the fun that we have planned! The GCC summer calendar is filled with enriching summer experiences for your child including science, art, drama and magic, just to name a few!

Healthy Habits Are Learned Early

We completed the Healthy Adventures research project with Maryland Family network last month. Children and teachers in Rooms 1 & 3 wore pedometers on data collection days before and after the GCC teachers attended webinars on nutrition and physical activity. Our center was awarded $335.00 to purchase equipment for physical activity so we have ordered bikes, basket and soccer balls, a soccer net, and more with funding from the grant and our Double Good Fundraiser that was held online last month. Thanks you to those that supported the fundraiser and those that gave contributions in lieu of the fundraiser!

The University of MD School of Public Health Students will resume coming on Friday afternoons to teach meditation, healthy snacks and physical fitness activities in each classroom.

Peace Education and Grant Our Director Mrs. Gee, worked with colleagues from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and former professor from Anne Arundel County Community College to develop a training for early childhood educators to help to make their classrooms a more peaceful place. In the process, we were asked to apply for a small grant from the Peace Educators Allied for Children Everywhere, a network of parents, teachers, and other concerned individuals dedicated to helping young children and their caregivers develop and thrive in peace and wellbeing.(http://peaceeducators.org/) Additionally, we were asked to be part of a research project for the UMES which required all of the above plus parent release forms, observation of classroom behaviors for peaceful or conflict behaviors before and after the teacher training and the implementation of indoor and outdoor peace places provided for children to use to calm down and self-regulate behaviors when feeling upset, and pre and post surveys of parents and teachers. The training has been sent to the MD State Department of Education for approval and will be presented by Dr. Satterlee at the

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http://peaceeducators.org/




Building for Success Conference that all the GCC Staff will attend on Saturday, April 28th at Eleanor Roosevelt High School. Mrs. Gee and her colleagues have been invited to present the Peace Educators Project to the NAEYC Professional Learning Institute in Austin, Texas the week of June 10, 2018. The grant funds of $375.00 were used to purchase books, pillows, dolls and other materials to help children have peaceful classrooms and activities.

Teacher Appreciation

Child Care Professionals/Teacher Appreciation Day is aimed at recognizing caregivers in all types of settings, including the child's home, family child care homes, centers,

after-school programs, and others. Remember Teacher Appreciation Week, will be in May 7-11, 2018. We hope everyone will help celebrate the special

teachers and assistants who care for your child.

Parents are encouraged to take part in this and to recognize their child's caregiver in other ways, as well. Parents who can afford it can really make a difference by giving their child's care provider a raise or a bonus, or by paying for them to take additional training. Parents at GCC could pool together for a special bonus for the faculty. Treats for breakfast or lunch are always a delight! Letters of appreciation are wonderful, too! If you would like to volunteer to organize a center wide special celebration of our early childhood staff, please see our director, Mrs. Gee.

Did you know that all GCC faculty are credentialed by the Maryland State Department of Education? The staff at GCC maintains credentials above the minimum requirements for training and education as well as continued training. GCC fulltime faculty will each complete a minimum of 24 hours, part time assistants-at least 12 hours, of continued training each year mostly funded by the MSDE, and some, including the director, will have over 50+ hours. Since we are an NAEYC accredited pre-school, our standards at GCC are always higher!

This is for parents of children going into kindergarten or first

grade next year. Look for our sign ups and commit to attending 4 nights of fun for you and your pre-school child! We are scheduling the dates and will do this in partnership with Andrea Hall, PGCPS and the Adelphi Judy Center. Dinner and free child care! Learn the secrets to pre-school math o you can be the best first teacher of your child!

Thank You to: Sabrina Noel-Simon, Cordelle - Rm 1, for the Alphabet Learning game; to Sarah & Rick Tater Bindel, Lucy - Rm 3, for the contribution to the fundraiser in lieu of ordering!




We are looking for dates to reschedule some of our other missed activities due to flu or snow…we will keep you posted.

GCC will be closed for Spring Break Friday, March 30th and Monday, April 2nd!

April 22nd is EARTH DAY!

Plant something to celebrate and care for the earth with your child.

april 2018 newsletter - greenbeltchildrenscenter.com · gcc april 2018 newsletter || page 2 7600...

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