RECE News
Spring Edition of Rahway Early Childhood Education News
Week of the Young Child
- Music Monday - Students will celebrate the week's kick-off with music and fun.
- Tasty Tuesday - Students will participate with their classmates in making a special, tasty treat. Students from the 7th & 8th Grade Academy and JFK will travel to Roosevelt to explore transportation used on farms.
- Work Together Wednesday - Students will collaborate with their classmates to create friendship projects. Students from Franklin and Madison will travel to Cleveland to explore transportation used on farms.
- Artsy Thursday - Students will have their artistic creations displayed at a gallery created in Cleveland's cafeteria. Parents will have an opportunity to explore the gallery and learn that the process is greater than the product at the April, district-wide Parent Night Event.
- Family Friday - Families will be invited to participate, in some form or fashion, at the ending celebration for the week.
What's Been Going On In Preschool?
The Current Unit of Study
Today was the launch of our new unit on transportation. Your child will be exploring questions like:
- What is transportation?
- What are different types of transportation?
- What are different attributes of various types of transportation?
- Why is transportation important?
- How has transportation evolved over the years?
Each week, consider supporting your child's learning during the unit by selecting one of the ideas your child's teacher sends home to extend the learning. For example, this week you may want to go on a transportation walk with your child to look for different modes of transportation. Depending on where your journey takes you, it's possible to see and discuss air, land, and water transportation OR dig deeply into one specific mode of transportation - like the vehicles used on land - and discuss the cars, bicycles, trucks, buses, and trains you see along your journey.
Conversation: The Key to Supporting Your Child's Learning at Home
On its Family Site, NAEYC shares many articles to help families support children's behavior and development at home. One such article, "Listen, Talk, Answer - Support Your Child's Learning," highlights the importance of parent-child interactions. Try using some of the suggestions, like "repeat and extend what your child says to you," as the transportation unit progresses. If you have questions on this or other strategies, reach out to your child's teacher or the RECE Office.
How Can You Be Involved?
Choice in the Preschool Classroom
Quality early childhood classrooms:
- Provide opportunities for young children to grow and develop in a way that is reflective of their own experiences,
- Are equipped with many and varied materials that are set up for exploration and guided learning,
- Promote the development of critical thinking skills,
- Support the development of an awareness of diversity and multiculturalism, and
- Are socially and emotionally responsive to a young child's needs.
Children develop self-identity through engaging in shared control. This happens when children and adults partner in meaningful choices throughout the day. In the classroom, child sized choices, or shared control, occurs when children choose where they will work (block area, art area, etc.), what songs they will sing, how they will line up (with a friend or walk alone), etc. When we share control with young children in school, they feel that they are valued as citizens in our community.
Shared control is not just a strategy to use in the classroom but can also be implemented at home. If your child presents some challenges while preparing to leave your house in the morning, provide limited choices for breakfast (cereal or fruit), clothing (two selections chosen by you and displayed for choice), and activities. By implementing choices on a limited basis, parents can also allow their children to experience shared control.
Did You Know?
April is Child Abuse Prevention Month.
Often times when we discuss child abuse prevention, the topic of stress comes up! Just like adults, preschoolers feel stress too. This will often manifest in challenging behaviors. These behaviors can include tantrums, lack of appetite, inconsistent sleeping patterns, and a child who is quiet or withdrawn.
Adults can support children who may be feeling stress by listening to the child, acknowledging the feelings that the child is demonstrating, helping the child think of methods to help deal with the feelings, being patient, and just being there. Maintaining open dialogue with your child’s teacher(s) will allow your child to be effectively supported in the classroom.
If you have observed recent changes in your child's behavior, please feel free to reach out to your child's teacher or our Preschool Intervention and Referral Team (PIRT) Specialist, Mrs. Jennifer Alphonse, for support with developing effective strategies that may help your child through stressful situations.
How to Know If Your Child Is Affected by Stress
For those raised before childhood stress became a topic of consideration, it's often hard to even know how to determine if this may be something your child is experiencing. In "Observation: The Key to Understanding Your Child," Jarrod Green shares three strategies parents can use to comprehend the message a child's behavior communicates. Read more about the skills you can use at home to mitigate childhood stress in this article.
Preschool Expansion (by Pre-K Our Way)
This current school year, Rahway was one of 26 school districts to receive a state-grant for pre-k, but that grant was for only one year. Governor Murphy has proposed continued funding for Rahway’s pre-k – along with funding for the other 25 districts plus more communities! To make that proposed funding a reality, we need your help.
Let your legislators know that it is important to invest in Rahway’s future, and in our future as a state. We need New Jersey to keep the promise made more than a decade ago, and we need to keep Rahway’s pre-k for next year and future years.
Pre-K Our Way can help you let your legislators know that you want pre-k NOW, and that all of Rahway’s children are ready for pre-k! Visit https://prekourway.org/write-your-legislator/ to let your legislators know that Rahway's state-funded pre-k is important to you and to your family!
For more information about pre-k expansion in New Jersey, you can follow Pre-K Our Way on Twitter and Facebook, or visit www.prekourway.org.
Our Mission
Email: RECE@rahway.net
Website: https://www.rahway.net/domain/1120
Location: 1138 Kline Place, Rahway, NJ, USA
Phone: (732)396-2968
Twitter: @Rahway_ECE