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Stick Season Social and DAP!


Next weekend is our biggest family event of the year: the Stick Season Social! We are very excited to be holding it at MVS this year, and once again Chad Hollister will be joining us to play some funky acoustic dancing tunes. Chad is a Vermont musician who has opened for Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Paul Simon, among others. Fresh off a July album release, his performance is sure to be a treat.
This event has been in the works for a long time thanks to the hard work of our Parent Collaboration Committee as well as many teachers and community members, and now it's finally here. Come join us! You won't be disappointed.

We also wanted to share that this past week Sarah attended a "Train the Trainer" session at the headquarters of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) in Washington, D.C. The focus of the session was developmentally appropriate practices for young children. The NAEYC website provides this definition of developmentally appropriate practice: "Developmentally appropriate practice, often shortened to DAP, is an approach to teaching grounded in the research on how young children develop and learn and in what is known about effective early education. Its framework is designed to promote young children’s optimal learning and development." The three core considerations of DAP are knowing about child development and learning, knowing what is individually appropriate, and knowing what is culturally important. DAP is how we know, for example, that environmental text and daily book reading are effective tools for teaching literacy skills to preschoolers, while worksheets are not. The website linked above provides more information, and we also have the book Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth through Age 8 by Carol Copple and Sue Bredekamp (eds.) available at school.

News and Reminders
Our Halloween Parade is on Tuesday from 10-11am, starting at MVS. Come one, come all, come costumed! And if you do walk with your child, when you leave please be sure to check back in with his/her specific classroom teacher to help us keep track of everyone.

The fall weather is finally here. We were caught a bit off guard last week on Thursday afternoon with the cooler temps and rain. We had to come in, change layers, dry off, and then head back out as many children were cold and wet. Please send in extra layers, including warm socks! We will work together in the classroom to talk about which layers we need to wear and how best to get dressed each day. As always, we will have lots of extra layers if needed. If you child does go home in MVS gear please make sure to return it. Rain mittens are incredibly useful and make a BIG difference during the wet fall weather. Check on amazon for "rain mittens"; Polarn O. Pyret makes a great pair for only $20 and they come in 6-12 months. For infant/toddler winter mittens we recommend Stonz. I cannot stress enough the importance of good, clear labeling of your child's clothing. We try very hard to keep track of everyone's items and it makes things so much easier when things have names on them.

Finally, please bring home water bottles, bug spray, and sunscreen for the season. Thank you!

Classroom Updates
Infant I
Our classroom found a rhythm this week as several of our younger children settled into more consistent routines. We enjoyed lots of time outside in the sun, clouds, and rain, and renewed our appreciation for what the outside space offers even our youngest children. One day a few children from PreK stopped by for a visit, and we were so impressed by their gentle curiosity and kindness. Hopefully they'll come again soon!





Infant II
Sand, pine cones and bubbles were the main focus this week. The children enjoyed collecting pine cones on the playground and bringing them inside. We put them in our sensory table with sand and explored their sticky texture, saw how the sand stuck to them and the prints they made. Later in the week the children enjoyed painting them. Bubbles were also a big hit both inside and out. This week we worked hard with our children on using kind tones of voice with each other, giving each other space, and checking in with one another.

Toddlers
This week we enjoyed exploring new sand in the sandbox. We dug, explored, scooped and sifted this great new sand and really enjoyed ourselves making numerous sand creations with many new containers on the playground. We also really enjoyed carving a pumpkin, scooping out the inside and exploring the sticky, gooey texture. We also roasted up the seeds and ate them for snack, yum!






Preschool I
Incorporating movement into our indoor circle routine has continued to grow and change. We begin with "Baby Beluga" and the children decide to dance ballroom style in small groups, shimmy and shake, move like the waves, or just "jump around." Calendar and story time, especially in our smaller groups, seems more focused this week. Shannon E. has taken advantage of the children showing interest in the letters in their names and guiding them in chalkboard writing. When our need for movement overwhelms the classroom very early, however, we've responded by forgoing circle time altogether and working on outdoor explorations. Campfire forest has not gotten old yet and we're not sure it ever will. We've examined across, pine needles, pine cones, and plenty of leaves for creative use in our always-evolving imaginative play. We've also come to appreciate how the open outdoor environment naturally facilitates self-regulation. Note: We will have a special visitor on Monday from the ECHO Center–stay tuned for photos! And if you're planning on coming with us for the Halloween Parade, please let Shannon E. know.


Preschool II
After a visiting teacher helped make name cards for us (thank you!) we have had an increased interest in tracing and writing our own names on our art and on the special paper with lines. This week we played an exciting new game with a very colorful parachute where one friend had to guess which friend was missing from our circle, hiding under the parachute. Some of us guessed with only a small hint like "They have a sibling in another class" or the letter their name starts with. Others guessed with no hints. Great work, PS2, your deductive skills are impressive! We also had a special day at the SES playground, turning a rainy Thursday into a magical day with water slides and puddles "big as a lake." We splashed, we jumped, and we got very wet. But the rain could not wash our smiles away.





PreK
We've had a great week in PreK reading, writing, drawing, building and reorganizing. Children have been helpful organizing books, markers, and their artwork. (Each child has their own folder to keep their work.) Our new writing area is freshly painted and ready for a variety of writing activities. The easel has transformed form a chalkboard into a painting space with fall colored paints. And a dragon has moved in and made a cave in our classroom. We can visit the quiet cave one child at a time. Marble track engineering was a popular activity this week as was using simple tools. We'd love your help setting up an area for using tools. Simple boards with screws to screw in and out would be great. We'd also love to take apart old appliances that no longer work. These activities are great for building cognitive skills and the small muscles in our hands. We also made progress on our Insect House–see photos below!









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