Tuesday Times
February 19, 2019
Great things!
A big thank you to our Social Committee for the adorable and festive ticket booth for Valentine's day! That was so fun!
We had two gorgeous days of weather and sunshine last week! The kids were so happy to get outside!
Valentine's day brought cookies, fruit, cheese balls, and lots of sweets to our HG students! Thank you for making this a special day for them! I hope many of them spent some time on our snow day looking at all of the valentines they received. =)
Our GHS big buddies visited us twice last week. You should see the smiles on the HS kids' faces when they leave. They are talking about how much fun they are having, they don't want to leave, and have mentioned to the GHS staff how excited they are to come over here. I am loving this!
Challenge: Continuation: let's continue to focus on the power of Free Will. We have choices in life--so let's work on strengthening the skill of choices with our students (or maybe the adults in your life). Try to offer two positive choices: "You have a choice, you may ____ or _____. Which works better for you?" For example-a student is upset about cleaning up the dramatic play area and coming to the rug for circle time. You approach the student, and after acknowledging his/her feelings, you say "You have a choice, you may put the dolls in their cradle, or you can put the doll clothes in the basket. Which is better for you?".
The "padlet" for sharing examples of positive choices is still open--there are very few entries. When you practice this-share it out with all of us! Click on this link and share your example! Let's encourage each other by reading all of the opportunities we can give for choices in our day!
Dates to remember:
Feb 8/15: Websites were due to be updated CHANGE: now due end of day the 19th.
Feb 26: CD mini book study 12:10-12:40 in library
Feb 19: SLOs due to Keri (if you had not turned yours in by the 15th)
Feb 21: Fire Drills-unannounced
Feb 21: Birthday Pictures-February student birthdays (10:15/2:15)
Feb 21: The DIAL-4 Kinder Screening training will be taking place here from 1-2:30
Feb 23: Happy Birthday to Chelsea!
Happy Birthday to Kristin!
Feb 24: Happy Birthday to Kim M!
Feb 27: no PD--Home Visits to be completed
Nuts-n-Bolts:
* The announcements for the week are loaded into the shared file. I have modified and dropped in a couple of new videos for movement and breathing. Kimberly's class will have the week of Feb 25th and March 4th
*I am asking that you each go in and post an example of positive choices on our padlet mentioned above. I know it has been a couple of crazy weeks-but I think we can all post an example-because I have heard them when I pass doorways or staff interacting with kids in the hallways. Please contribute to our example board! Let's encourage each other to provide choices to our students!
*You should have read chapter 3 in our Mindset book, please start on Chapter 4. We will be combining some things due to our crazy winter!
*Board Appreciation: This week we will be celebrating our BOE at their regular board meeting (Thursday night). This year we will be creating a candy bar card for each board member. I will bring the supplies for your class to make a card on Tuesday. Please have your kids help decorate the card (please make it look nice for our board members)-some could sign names if they are able, etc. Thank you!
*Looking ahead: March 5, 6 will be the Community Screenings at HG. For March 5th: we will be shifting our bus pick up and drop off location to the west doors/parking lot near EHS doors. Car riders will drop off in the back as usual-but kids will enter through the north doors near the patio (by safe place room). I will ask that anyone on car rider duty on Monday the 4th mentions this change to car rider parents at arrival and departure. A phone blast will also go out--but face to face is always best.
*If you have a student in your class that you think may benefit from back snacks, please let Chelsea and/or myself know and we can get a permission slip home to them. We have begun receiving Harvesters in addition to our donated items, so can accommodate more students if the need is there.
*Remember to turn in your schedules to me as you get your home visits lined up-I know we have had a lot of reschedules.
*Car rider duty folks: please be vigilant about the blue car rider signs in passenger side windows. If you do not see a blue card- you will need to ask the car to pull around to the front and come through the office. Even though you may recognize/know many of the cars- it is important to be consistent with all cars. Please remind parents to have their card posted when they pull up.
*Harriet Ryman will be joining us as an ECSE teacher for a fourth ECSE classroom- starting with kids on Feb 25th. Please welcome her back as part of our HG Family!
*Student arrival times: We appear to be getting behind again on receiving car riders and bus riders at arrival times. Once again- we tell parents that they can drop off as early as 7:55/8:55 and 12:25/12:55--This means that all staff needs to be at the front ready to receive children by that time-not walking towards the front at that time. Busses also need to begin unloading at those same times. It makes it difficult for those staff members that are ready to receive kids at those times- to start taking in kids from cars/busses when there is no other staff in the front to supervise the students. Please work together and hold each other accountable for this process. I appreciate your prompt attention to this matter.
* Websites are now due to be updated by the end of the day Feb 19th (if you had not already done so by the 8th/15th).
* February library book shelving duty: Lyndsey
Speech/Language Tip of the Week:
Spend some extra time focusing on descriptive concepts. Place objects on the table and see if your kids can describe something about it. Is it fuzzy, tiny, spotted, striped, bumpy, smooth, red, ugly, round? So many ways to describe things! Descriptive words are what make our language rich and full!
Fine Motor Tip of the Week:
Shaving Cream Play:
Many of you have your students play with shaving cream which is not only a great sensory experience but fabulous for fine motor development. Consider adding sprinkles or sugar to the shaving cream for texture. Kids can draw with their finger or a paintbrush, make structures with foam blocks, create pictures with colored straws (cut up into pieces), etc. Have your students wipe the shaving cream dry with both hands so that they are crossing midline and using the large muscles of their shoulders and arms. This will also give them the opportunity to put weight/pressure through an open hand which is so important for the development of fine motor skills.