And they're off...

We had a parent potluck this Thursday evening. We talked about Early MTSS, which is a grant we are part of for this school year in our PreK classrooms. We introduced families to the basic outline of the program and the goals. It is based on the Pyramid Model which focuses on having healthy and strong teachers and reflective and nurturing relationships to begin with.

The goal is to for our program to have a stronger social-emotional curriculum that supports children's abilities to self-regulate, express their feelings and needs, and recognize how to handle challenging situations.

We also watched a great video with Dr. Daniel Siegel describing a brain model. It's a good way for us to share with children how we are feeling when we get frustrated or lose control. We discussed how the model is for children a bit older than the ones in our classroom but we have ways of adapting so that they can understand.

We also had a parent association meeting after the potluck. In our next blog post we will have a link to the notes from each meeting.

We have a special edition of the newsletter this week. Megan (infant teacher) and Shannon (preschool I teacher) wrote about their experience last week.

Hello from Shannon and Megan! Last week we had the opportunity to attend a five-day residency class on the beautiful campus of Champlain College in Burlington. We are both working towards our M.Ed. in Early Childhood Education and though the degree program is mostly online, the residency gave us the chance to meet our classmates and professors face-to-face. We spent the five days studying how to create classroom environments and wanted to share some of what we learned.

How do different spaces make you feel? How do you feel when you walk into a cathedral, or a theater, or a restaurant? How do you feel when you walk into MVS? When designing classroom environments, we have to think about all the ways the space will speak to children, families, and staff through all five senses. You may have noticed our preferences toward pale and neutral colors, soft and natural lighting, wooden floors and furnishings, and natural materials. We hope that these elements contribute to a sense of calm, security, and wonder in children when they walk into our rooms.

We spent one morning at the residency visiting the ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain. After hearing a lecture about how physical environments support STEM learning, we got to do some observations at their Champ Lane exhibit, which was designed to support learning through play for children ages 0-6. It’s a wonderful space with a fantastic water table, a variety of dramatic play areas, and lots of places for climbing and sliding. We also spent an afternoon visiting four child care centers around Burlington and evaluating them based on environmental criteria discussed in Pedagogy and Space by Linda M. Zane.

Finally, we each worked in a small group to make a “dream” child care center using loose parts. Megan worked with two classmates to create the infant classroom while Shannon worked with another classmate to create the toddler room. Photos of the finished models are below. The infant room includes a small outdoor patio, floor-to-ceiling windows, a couch where families and teachers can sit with the children, and a low loft.



Classroom Updates

Infant I: This week we've been taking lots of time to rest, make our bodies comfortable on pillows, and snuggle with teachers and peers. Sometimes that's what you really need! Other interests have included putting scarves on our heads to play peek-a-boo and exploring our new three-legged toy bar. We have also noticed an increase in pointing, signing, and other gestures. We love seeing these emerging forms of communication and do our best to respond in supportive ways.

Infant II: A smaller class called for a calm week in our classroom. It gave us the ability to slow things down and be mindful of our routines and the tasks we were focused on. Meal time has really slowed down too, as we focused on using our utensils to help us eat and socialized with peers as we kept each other company at the table. We have enjoyed some afternoon dance parties after nap tp wake our muscles up and get our bodies moving again. Outside we have enjoyed playing with our older peers and rolling snowballs around the playground.

Toddler I: This week we have continued our interest in language and literacy. We are still in love with reading books, talking about the stories and text on the pages. We have also been working on pronouncing the letter P. It takes a lot of mouth muscles! We also have been singing, a lot. Our most favorite songs include "Baby Beluga", "Oats and Beans and Barly Grow", "ABCs", and "Twinkle, Twinkle". Toilet training continues to be of interest and taken very seriously by some children.

Preschool I: Even though we had an extended weekend the children remained fairly consistent in their daily routines. We've really committed to brushing our own teeth after lunch and continue to improve our independence with dressing and setting up cots after morning snack. Penguins and ice continue to be a source of interest. do any parents have neat books about penguins or other winter birds to contribute to the conversation? Please bring them in to share if you don't mind. As for our experiments with ice, the January thaw has given us lots of opportunities for melting things, both indoors and outdoors. We'd love to make bigger ice cubes, so if you have orange juice cartons at home we will take them! Finally, our interest in rhythm sticks continues so we will bring more music-related activities into circle time. Stay tuned!

Preschool II: It was a quiet week for us in our classroom. We have some very focused play in block area: designing and rebuilding bridges and train tracks. We also spent time looking at new words that we have placed about our classroom. We have started to work on identifying upper case versus lower case letters. We have also started lists of words by the first letter. Throughout the day we are adding words to the different lists as we sound them out and figure out what the first letter is. We trekked to the Woof Trail this week as well. We had fun finding the trail in the snow and discovering the ice underneath. We stopped to play hide and seek several times along the way.

PreK: The children have been loving the icy playground. They use crates for ice skating and as the zamboni to clear the ice. We've amassed a good collection of hockey sticks and love using real hockey pucks to play. We are wondering what pucks are made of and plan to investigate next week. We are looking forward to creating an ice cream shop as well. This week we have done a lot of letter recognition games as well as counting and grouping objects. On Friday we grouped dinosaurs by many different attributes including size, color, type, number of legs, length, and whether the mouth was open or closed. We've also been working with pattern blocks talking about shapes and unifix cubes to compare length and make simple patterns.

"We are planting a tree in our backyard. I have to dig the hole and then he puts the tree in."