Teacher Newsletter
November 2017
The Case of Brain Science and Guided Play: A Developing Story
By Brenna Hassinger-Das, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, and Roberta Michnick Golinkoff
Young Children | Vol. 72 No. 2 | May 2017
Ms. Elena’s Head Start classroom is filled with eager 3- and 4-year-olds. It’s center time, and the children have split into small groups. At one center, Ms. Elena has carefully selected play materials—including a barn, a chicken coop, and animal figurines—that reflect the story lines and specific vocabulary words from books she read aloud related to farm life as part of the class’s storybook theme of the week. While Ms. Elena looks on, Sara, Javon, and Ashish arrive at the center and immediately pick up the toys. They each choose a figurine and begin playing. Sara says to Javon, “I’ll be the cow!” Javon says, “Okay, then I’ll be the chicken. I’m going to go sleep in the coop. The cow should go sleep in the barn.” Ashish says, “Then I’ll be the horse, and I’ll go sleep in the barn too.”
Together, the three children move their figurines to the coop and the barn while making mooing, clucking, and neighing sounds. Since coop was one of the week’s focus words, Ms. Elena joins in the children’s play, making sure that Sara and Ashish understand the word as well as Javon: “Sleeping in the coop sounds like a great idea, Javon! A coop is a house for chickens. Remember when we saw a coop on our field trip to Maple Farm? Javon, Sara, and Ashish, where do you think the chickens would live if we didn’t have a coop on the farm?” Ashish says, “I think they live in the barn!” Then Sara says, “Yes, they live in the barn, because it’s nice and warm inside there.” Ms. Elena says, “That sounds like a really good place for the chickens to live if we didn’t have a coop!” ......
http://www.naeyc.org/yc/article/case-brain-science-guided-play
TEACHER SPOTLIGHT
Crescent Springs
FALL FUN!
Anderson Twp
Down on the Farm
Fort Wayne 1
Pumpkin Fun
Greensboro 2
Exploring Pumpkins
NOVEMBER CURRICULUM
Toddler, Young Preschool, Preschool, Pre-K Academy, Private Kindergarten:
Oct 23-Nov 3 My Community
Nov 6-17 Construction
Montessori: November 1-30 Where We Live
Varsity Club: November 1-30 Influencing My Community
Kids of Character: Generosity
Pre-K Academy Project: "3D City"
Varsity Club Community Service Project: Canned Food Drive
Baby Sign: Big
Ready, Set, Grow!: Look at Me Move
Language Immersion Spanish: Community Helpers
Zoo-Phonics: Lowercase i, j, k and l; review e, f, g, and h
FAMILY CALENDAR OF EVENTS: NOVEMBER DATES TO REMEMBER
**Classroom Thankful Parties
23rd--CLOSED for Thanksgiving
24th--CLOSED for Thanksgiving Friday
PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCES
Conferences allow our families to be a part of their child’s learning process and eliminates communication barriers between the home / school connection. Conferences allow teachers to showcase the children’s achievements as well as discuss educational goals for the children.
During conferences, our goal is to meet with 100% of our families! To help your team achieve this goal, please review the best practices listed below when planning your conferences.
Please place a copy of the Parent / Teacher Conversation Form in each child’s portfolio and child file. You must also supply a copy for the family even if the family does not have a face-to-face conference.
Types of Conferences :
- Face-to-face Conferences
- Conference Call
- Email Correspondence
- Written Correspondence
RASMUSSEN COLLEGE
Early Childhood Education Webinar Series
Fall 2017
Rasmussen College School of Education is proud to host a series of live webinars on topics early childhood educators need the most!
Join from your house or workplace!
Webinars are free and a Certificate of Completion will be provided after each session.
Registration is required to attend. Please follow the individual links below for registration.
(You may need to copy and paste the link into your internet browser.)
Attend one or all of the following:
Thurs., Oct. 5 7:30-8:30 pm CST Building Family Relationships & Holding Challenging Conversations
Presented by Andrea Lewis, MA Ed/Adjunct Faculty
Have you ever been concerned about having a less than happy conversation with a family? Are you uncomfortable with being direct or confronting a possible issue? You are not alone and it can be less stressful than expected. In this webinar, we will discuss the
importance of building strong family relationships in the classroom. We will talk about
how those strong relationships can support challenging conversations, as well as how to build strong relationships with challenging conversations. We will share our experiences and techniques that help prepare us for those talks that can be stressful or uncomfortable because families are one of our most valuable resources and our
partners.
https://rasmussen.webex.com/rasmussen/k2/j.php?MTID=tb7d14fdb690a21bab7699168a67e09cf
Thurs., Nov. 9 7:30-8:30 pm CST The Director's Survival Kit
Presented by Teresa McKay, MA Ed/Adjunct
Faculty
This webinar takes participants on a journey of the items they will need in their kit to move from just surviving to thriving. We discuss what it means to be a leader, how to work on perceptions, developing a vision, goals, time- management, and we end on a little self-care note - how to avoid burnout and keep the faith, so to speak
https://rasmussen.webex.com/rasmussen/k2/j.php?MTID=t07d283e4759e978e618c74843f885695
Thurs., Dec. 14 7:30-8:30 pm CST Addressing Challenging Behavior in the
Early Childhood Setting
Presented by Laura Landkamer, M.Ed.
Special Education/Adjunct Faculty
This webinar will address what challenging behavior looks like in the preschool setting, possible causes, and interventions/teaching strategies to improve behavior
https://rasmussen.webex.com/rasmussen/k2/j.php?MTID=tda6e24d8094237f045176df15cbe2f57.
Where: To join the Webinars, follow the individual links to register in advance! Your webinar access details will be emailed to you! Space may be limited! Sign up soon!
Questions? Please contact Mary Muhs, Early Childhood Education Department Chair at mary.muhs@rasmussen.eduT.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood Program
T.E.A.C.H Early Childhood® Scholarship Program
Currently active in 24 states, T.E.A.C.H Early Childhood® is designed to help the Early Childhood industry as a whole address education, compensation and turnover issues that affect the field by helping ease the cost of furthering employee’s education. It also leads to higher quality care for our families, because teachers will be more familiar with best practices. T.E.A.C.H Early Childhood® and Rainbow partner together to help cover some of the cost of tuition, books, and related education expenses as well as compensating employees for the time spent doing schoolwork in the form of release time and providing employees with bonuses as they finish classes and programs.
To be eligible to participate in T.E.A.C.H Early Childhood®, an employee has to have been employed with Rainbow for at least 6 months year. They must work at least 30 hours a week and agree to work for Rainbow for one year after finishing their T.E.A.C.H Early Childhood® contract. The employee must be going for either their CDA or Associates degree in the Early Childhood field. Currently there is a maximum of three employees per location in the T.E.A.C.H Early Childhood® program. Employees in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Alabama, and Ohio are eligible, because T.E.A.C.H Early Childhood® is currently is operating in these states.
After speaking with your Program Director to check that you meet the criteria to be eligible, call T.E.A.C.H. at 866-648-3224 for an application or visit your states T.E.A.C.H Early Childhood® website. You can find all contact information for your states T.E.A.C.H Early Childhood® Program at http://teachecnationalcenter.org/state-contacts/
For further information about the program, contact Brittany in the Education Department at 248-519-1969 or bkay@rainbowccc.com.