ECE Connection
June 3, 2023
What's Inside?
Inside this edition you will find:
- Director's Message
- Spring Parent Survey
- Directories for HOPES, Mile Square, and Wallace Preschool Wildcats
- Weekly Site Updates
- PIRT Corner
- Nurse's Nook
- Ms. Mara's Book of the Week
- Sprongebob the Musical Movie Night, June 7th
Dear Early Childhood Families,
June is here and the end of the year is winding down. The warm summer weather has come back and the students are enjoying being outside to enjoy all of it. I love hearing the laughter and singing of the students practicing for their moving up ceremony songs. You are all in for a treat! Please reach out to your family advocate about end of the year activities and moving up ceremonies. Just a reminder, Friday, June 16th we will be having a 1:00 PM dismissal. There are no Wrap services on this day. Monday, June 19th, 2023 there will be No School. The Hoboken Public School District will be closed for Juneteenth.
Our HOPES and MSELC school day starts at 8:30 and dismissal is at 2:30. This drop off and pickup times do not apply for students in WRAP programs. If you are going to be late dropping off in the morning or picking up in the afternoon, please make sure to call or email your family advocate. Their information can be found in the directories below.
As a friendly reminder, please remember to call your family advocate and let them know the reason for your child being absent no later than 9:15 am. If you can not call your family advocate, please email dbrookes@hoboken.k12.nj.us. In your email, please state:
- your child's name
- provider
- site
- teacher
- reason for absence
- when we can expect them back in school
Important Upcoming Dates to add to your calendars:
Friday, June 16th we will be having a 1:00 PM dismissal. There are no Wrap services on this day.
Monday, June 19th, 2023 there will be No School. The Hoboken Public School District will be closed for Juneteenth.
We will have 1:00 PM dismissal days on June 20th, June 21st, and June 22nd. There are no WRAP services on these days.
The Last Day of School will be on June 22nd, 2023. We have a 1:00 PM dismissal that day.
Please continue reading below to see information for our Spring Parent Survey, Directories for HOPES, Mile Square, and our Wallace Preschool Wildcats, Weekly Updates from each site, PIRT Corner, Nurse's Nook, My Book's of the Week, and a chance to see the recording in June. Have a wonderful weekend.
Kind regards,
Kimberly Mara
Director of Early Childhood Education
Spring Parent Survey
HOPES Directory
Mile Square Directory
Wallace Preschool Wildcats Directory
What's Happening in Early Childhood?
Wallace Preschool Wildcats
770
Students in Ms. Tania’s class have been observing environmental changes, such as the seasons and how the trees outside of school have changed over the course of time.
In the beginning stages of Spring, students observed buds beginning to form on the ends of the branches of the trees, followed by white petals, pink petals, and now finally, big and beautiful green leaves.
The students made predictions about how the colors would continue to change and what the final result they thought might be. They excitedly reviewed their predictions and were thrilled to take their magnifying glasses outdoors to explore and observe!
Brandt
HOPES CAP Inc. 5th Art Auction took place last week. This year's theme was Travel Around the World. Each class was assigned a country. During the whole month the class was working on their class painting for the auction. It was definitely a work in progress!
Room 105 was assigned a country whose flag is dark blue, yellow and red. The country is located in Europe and if you guessed Romania, you would be correct! The students used the colors of the Romanian flag as an inspiration for the painting. Students learned that the national flower of Romania is Rosa Canina - the wild species of rose. First, the class painted a blue background and did the second layer the week after. The class took the painting outside to splash some yellow paint on it. Then, the students worked on painting the rose in the middle. The students signed their names on the back of the painting.
Congratulations to Camila’s family who placed the highest bid for the painting and will display it in their new home!
Calabro
We love math at Calabro School! The Numerals Game is a Tools of the Mind math activity that requires students to alternate roles of being the “doer” and the “checker”. The “doer” receives a small card and counts out that number of manipulatives. The “checker” then checks to see if their partner has the correct amount of manipulatives. This game helps students develop proficiency in one to one correspondence.
Connors
Jubilee
Rue HOPES
Rue Mile Square
St. Francis
Wallace
For the month of May, students observed and learned about caterpillars and butterflies. Science Eyese and Learning Facts were a few of the activities the students were able to work on while they observed and studied the insects. The class created a KWL chart and read MANY non fiction books to answer questions they had. Students learned and applied new words such as metamorphosis, molting, migration, chrysalis, larva, pupa, proboscis, thorax, and abdomen.
Having the caterpillars in the classroom and watching them change into butterflies made the pictures in our books come to life. Unfortunately, the day came to release our beautiful butterflies into their own habitats. We are going to miss having them in the classroom!
PIRT Corner
Strategies to Teach Your Child to Recognize and Differentiate Emotions
Caregivers can use a variety of strategies to teach their children how to recognize and differentiate emotions in themselves and others. Support your child to talk about feelings and practice new strategies for expressing emotions appropriately every chance you get. This is an essential step in developing emotional intelligence and building healthy relationships with others. The more often your child practices, the faster your child will learn. Here are some effective strategies:
1. Talk about emotions: Encourage your child to talk about how they feel and why. Validate their emotions and help them understand that it's okay to feel a range of emotions.
Praise your child the first time he tries to talk about his feelings instead of just reacting. It is REALLY important to let your child know exactly what she did right and how proud you are of her for talking about feelings. It should always be OK to say what we are feeling. It’s how we choose to show our feelings and respond to them that requires special effort.
2. Use books and media: Use books, TV shows, and movies to help your child identify different emotions in characters. Pause and ask your child how the characters are feeling and why.
For example, ask your child when reading a book, “What is (character in book) feeling right now? How do you know? Have you ever felt that way? What do you do when you feel that way?”
3. Play "Emotions Charades": Play a game where your child acts out different emotions and the family guesses which emotion they are portraying and then switch roles.
4. Create an emotions chart: Create or buy a chart with pictures of different emotions and ask your child to point out how they are feeling. This can help them identify and differentiate between different emotions.
5. Role-play: Practice role-playing different scenarios where your child needs to identify and express their emotions appropriately. This can help them develop the skills needed to manage their emotions in real-life situations. This can be turned into a game or used in situations when big emotions arise for fictional characters.
Teach your child the different ways they can deal with feelings. Brainstorm together; role-play positive and not so positive ways to express feelings.
Teach your child new strategies to use when feeling emotions that may be expressed inappropriately (e.g., anger, frustration, sadness) and practice in role-plays.
6. Practice empathy: Encourage your child to consider how others might be feeling in different situations. This can help them develop empathy and better understand the emotions of others.
It is important to NOTE: Do not try and practice/teach skills when your child is in the middle of a “meltdown”. Use quiet, calm times to teach and practice new strategies and it will be doable!
Nurse's Nook
Physicals and Immunizations
Preschool students need a new physical every year. Physicals will expire one year from the date on the Universal Health Record (Ex. If your child’s Universal Health Record is dated 10/15/2021, it will expire on 10/15/2022). Please be prompt in scheduling yearly physicals and give all updated physical/immunization forms to family advocates.
*If your child’s Universal Health Record expires during summer break, an updated physical is needed and a new Universal Health Record form is required prior to the first day of school in September 2023.
Action Plans
If your child has a medical condition requiring an action plan for school (i.e. asthma, food allergy, seizure disorder), please be advised that their current action plan will expire on July 1, 2023 and they will need a new action plan for the 2023-2024 school year dated July 1, 2023 or later. Below are copies of the Food Allergy Action Plan and the Asthma Action Plan. Please arrange for these forms to be filled out by your child’s doctor during summer break, as they will need to be turned in by the first day of school in September. *Please note that these forms must be filled out in their entirety, including the parent section and the doctor section.
If your child is a PreK 4 student moving on to Kindergarten next year, updated action plans can be turned into the nurse at their respective Kindergarten location by the first day of school in September.
Ms. Mara's Book of the Week
Jabari Jumps by Gaia Cornwall is a new favorite story of mine. Back when I taught Kindergarten, I subscribed to a really cool thing called Kindergarten Crate. They would send me new books, activities, and so much more every month. This book came in one of my boxes and it quickly became a favorite. In this story we meet Jabari who is ready to jump off the diving board, or so he thinks. I can remember my first time I jumped off the diving board at my Grandma's pool. Listening to this story, reminds me of how I felt when I was in Jabari's shoes. Do you think you would feel the same was as Jabari did in this story?