Early Education Newsletter
May 2019
The CASY office will be closed
Monday, May 27th Memorial Day
PTQ Advancements
Level 3
Gosport Head Start
Owen County
SCCAP Head Start Fairview
Monroe County
PTQ Enrollments
Round Barn Daycare
Putnam County
Little Harvesters Daycare
Sullivan County
Little Braves Early Learning Center
Vigo County
May 9th, 2019 ~ Thank a Youth Worker Day
Newly Added Safe Sleep Training
Monday, May 13th
6:00-8:30pm
Booker T Washington Community Center
Terre Haute, IN
Log in to your I-LEAD account and visit Indiana Learning Paths, prior to the session, to register
Products that Cause Infant Deaths Should Be Recalled
The Fisher-Price Rock ‘n Play Sleeper has been tied to 32 sleep-related infant deaths, according to a statement issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) urging Fisher-Price to recall the product. Fisher-Price issued a warning about Rock ‘n Play Sleepers on April 5, but they still line store aisles, are available for order on websites, and are holding sleeping infants in homes across the country.
While overall infant mortality rates in the U.S. have declined in recent years, sleep-related infant deaths, including accidental suffocation and strangulation, have risen. Removing products, like the Rock ‘n Play Sleeper, that are tied to sleep-related infant deaths can help remove one risk factor for infants and make things easier for families.
Screen Free Week: Supporting School Success and Whole Body Play
A healthy childhood depends on play. Play is not a break from other daily learning activities; play is active learning at its peak. It is through play that kids construct knowledge of their physical, social, and emotional world.
But, increasingly, children’s invaluable “play time” is spent mindlessly swiping or passively staring at a screen. Time spent in this morphed concept of “play” is displacing time spent in active play.
Screen-Free Week, this year celebrated from April 29 – May 5, challenges participants to unplug and “rediscover the joys of life away from screens”. An hour once dedicated to TV can become an hour of creative play, reading, or enjoying nature. Screen-Free Week gives families an opportunity to explore other options, try out new activities, and reconsider their future media use. Participate this week or create your own screen free week anytime. Learn more here.
Talking to Children about their Food Allergy
A food allergy diagnosis can be overwhelming enough for an adult. This experience is even more daunting for a child. Young children may struggle to comprehend what is going on with their bodies and not have the words to fully describe how they feel physically or emotionally.
Through clear communication, you can help your child understand what it means to have a food allergy and how to stay safe. This is a skill that will serve him or her well in the future. Read the full article here.
Food Allergy Awareness Week is May 12-18
Click here to learn how to help others become more aware of this serious public health crisis. Through increased awareness, we can promote respect, safety and inclusion and ensure that communities have the tools they need to spread the word about food allergies.
How to Effectively Track Health Info at Preschool
Sometimes, it can be difficult to identify whether a child is sniffling because they have a common cold, or if it is an allergic reaction to something in their environment. It is difficult for teachers to come to a proper conclusion on a child's health (and they really shouldn't!) without the input of parents and their pediatricians.
Up-to date health records are an important part of a child's personal records at your program. Click here for information on establishing a health policy, keeping parents in the know, and best practices for record-keeping and health-related documentation.
Allergy Free Fun!
1 1/4 cups rice flour
1/2 cup salt
2 tsp cream of tarter
1 cup water
1 Tbsp oil
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
food coloring or sparkles (optional)
Mix flour, salt and cream of tarter in a large pot. Add water and oil.
Cook over medium heat until the mixture pulls away from the sides of the pan (about 5 minutes), stirring constantly.
Add vanilla extract (for smell, not taste). Mix thoroughly. Put play dough on a clean surface. When cool enough to handle, knead lightly.
Store in airtight container.
(Add food coloring to the water to make colored play dough. Add sparkles during the handmixing time for sparkly play dough.)
Safe Eats® Allergy-Friendly Recipes: The Largest Collection of “Free Of” Recipes
Parents of children with food allergies have shared thousands of their favorite recipes, that are indicated as "free of" many different allergens, on kidswithfoodallergies.org. You can search to meet your special dietary needs, or you can browse by category. The "free of" boxes mean the recipe can be made without those allergens (it may require substitution to make the recipe safe for your particular needs). Find recipes for oatmeal pancakes, chicken nuggets, mini pizzas and much more!
Looking for Fun Food-Related Activities?
How to Document Challenging Behavior at Preschool
A classroom full of preschoolers can be quite challenging in the best of times, and so challenging behavior can make a teacher’s job extremely difficult.
Before a solution can be found, it is important to first understand the full scope of what is happening. This can only be done through detailed documentation, which will help educators and parents understand exactly what is happening, how long it has been happening for, and identify patterns of what other circumstances have triggered this behavior.
Although most educators agree on the importance of observation in early childhood education, this can be easier said than done. Your observations will only be as good as the way they are documented. If you can’t find your records or they are not recorded in a consistent way, then they will not be of use when you need them.
In this article, we’ll go over best practices for creating detailed and helpful documentation in an early learning setting. Try these techniques to effectively record challenging behavior from your students so you can be on your way to helping work through these less-ideal behaviors and restore order to your classroom! Read full article.
Emergency Preparedness
Find the latest tools and resources to support children, families, and communities before, during, and after an emergency. An emergency may be a catastrophic natural event, like a hurricane, flood, or wildfire, or a man-made disaster, such as a shooting. No matter the crisis, early childhood programs need to be ready with impact, relief, and recovery plans. Download it here.
Preparing for Tornado Season
Tornadoes can happen at any time. However, they are most likely to occur in the spring and summer months. Tornadoes may cause extensive damage to structures and disrupt transportation, power, water, gas, and communications in its direct path and in neighboring areas. With spring fast approaching, now is a good time to be sure that your program is prepared. Read here.
Be Ready
Launched in February 2003, Ready is a National public service campaign designed to educate and empower the American people to prepare for, respond to and mitigate emergencies, including natural and man-made disasters. The goal of the campaign is to promote preparedness through public involvement. Learn more about preparing for tornadoes, etc.
Using Play to Build the Brain
Why is play vital to a child's development?
What does play have to do with brain development?
How can we fuel brain development using play?
Early Childhood Education Capacity Building Grant Program
OECOSL RFF 19-003 seeks applications from 1) Indiana county/community coalitions containing early childhood education providers or 2) individual Indiana early childhood education providers to build their capacity to serve more eligible pre-K children that are 4 years old and/or improve the quality of services provided by increasing PTQ Level rating to a Level 3 or Level 4.
During this round, those in the following counties within SDA 6 are eligible to apply: Greene, Morgan, Owen, Parke, Putnam, Sullivan and Vermillion.
Grant applications are due by Friday, June 7, 2019 at 5:00pm EST. Please note that applications must be completed on the Early Learning Indiana online application platform (https://earlylearningin.submittable.com/submit).
An optional informational webinar will be held at 1:00pm EST on Wednesday, May 8, 2019. The webinar will be accessible at: https://Indiana.AdobeConnect.com/oecosl. A recording will be posted to the RFF webpage for those unable to attend.