Parent Aware~

During the month of December, I'll be focusing my free time on Parent Aware again. I received a 3 star rating in September, but I feel I'm a 4 star program. Instead of waiting until September 09 to go through the rating process again, I'm jumping full fledged into it again so I can hopefully get that elusive 4 star rating. :)

During the 2008 year - I have attended 70 hours of training. Pretty good I think, considering that during the year - licensing requires me to get 3 hours.

Over the next couple years my training will get more in-dept as I work toward college credits. In order to re-new my CDA in 3 years, I will need to have college credits.

I enjoy my job and I enjoy it even more when I can do training to better my program and is beneficial to your children that you have entrusted into my care.

I will start adding a section to future newsletters to let you know of any training I have taken in the past month.

December

December is a busy month and my favorite month with Christmas. All this month, the preschool theme we will be following is Christmas - All Month Long. I will be gone for part of December on vacation but when I get back, we will fall back into this theme.

On Dec. 5, we have Mrs. Jean coming to do music with the children. I also have a mock observation to get me ready for another "real" observation for Parent Aware. I am striving to receive a 4 star rating. I decided not to wait until August 09 to re-qualify. I have my new observation scheduled on December 26th.

Our bulletin board inside the playroom area has been decorated with a Christmas tree and the words "The Gift of Reading". Each day when we read a book before naptime, I will write the title of the book and author on a "gift" and have one of the children color the gift and we'll add it under the Christmas tree. So far we have 3 "gifts" under the tree.

~Manners~

This week's theme was manners. We work on manners all year long, but I felt this was a great theme to work on the week before Thanksgiving. We read the Book How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food by Jane Yolen and we discussed - is this how we act when we eat our lunch? No..... was the answer. We dont throw our food around or tip on chairs and goof around.

Speaking of lunch, I wanted to mention that for those that have forgotten or new families didn't know, we do lunch and snack family style. The food is placed into bowls or plates and the children help themselves to what they want and then pass the bowl to the next child. The older ones even pour their own milk. The older ones are also a big help in helping the little ones if they want more. This is such a great time for the children to use their manners. When asking one of the other children to pass something please...

Next week out theme is Thanksgiving. Remember that child care is closed on Thursday and Friday. Also I took some pictures of the children from our Teddy Bear Party and the children serving themselves during lunch time. I thought a great way to share these pictures would be to set up a separate account on Photobucket. I will be e-mailing you the sign in information. This will give you access to all pictures for child care and you will be able to print or order copies. When I add new pictures, I'll send an e-mail to everyone letting them know new pictures have been added.
Enjoy a couple pictures today of Micah serving himself at lunch and Anthony's sheet "Cover your sneeze Please... :)

Friday - November 14

Today was our Teddy Bear party. We made some bears, did songs with our teddy bear friends, made some chocolate chip cookies, (Very easy this time - we just picked them out of the package and dropped them on the cookie sheet), and we read books to our bear friends. Cookies we're going to have at afternoon snack.

Tomorrow (Saturday) I'm having my child care on a home tour and it will be toured by 3 groups of providers and some of the projects we did this week and last week I'm keeping so that they can see some of the activities we do at Treasures.

Reminder that child care is closed next Friday so I can attend an all day training. Please reflect this in your tuition next week. This day off is non-paid.

Last week and this week. :)

Last week we had a great time getting back into the routine after getting back from a week of vacation. We had a great time at our Halloween party. I sent pictures to you from our Halloween party Tuesday - late evening. If you didn't receive them, please let me know. All kids went home with a bucket, treats and a book. Unfortunately one book accidently got sent home with someone. A book for my grandson Dominic. Could you please check the back of the book. I put labels on the books and see if you have one for Dominic from Grandma Jean. :)

This week and next week our theme is Bears Everywhere. We're learning about bears and we'll be voting for our favorite bear. Being Election Tuesday - we had an election at child care. The kids got to vote for their favorite candidate. The fun thing is when I showed the ballots to the kids they knew who they were. Our winner was Obama.
It will be another busy week.
Jean

Christmas in October?????

Today was part of my Christmas in October. I received 1/2 my order from Parent Aware. Toys and items for my child care and I have to say it was like Christmas opening all the boxes out in the garage and seeing all the new items for my child care and the kids.
One of my favorite items is a Art Center. It's fantastic. The kids are going to have such easier access to paper, paint, stickers, play doh and more.

I am waiting on my last part of my order from Lakeshore. I have been very fortunate to participate in these different pilot programs here in St. Paul. PEK and Parent Aware. It has done wonders for my child care, myself and the kids that attend.

Everything I received from Kaplans is sitting in the child care entrance area so you can view what has been purchased before I start putting the items away.
We got music instruments, blocks and more for outside..... I am so excited. :)

Fall and Pumpkins

This is my favorite time of year. I love all the leaves changing color and floating to the ground. The crispness in the air and the crunch of leaves under foot. Now Loren would have a different idea of fall. All those leaves to rake. :)
The tree house in the playroom has also over night changed from green to orange - red and gold. The kids noticed right away the changes.
The last 2 weeks our theme was fall and we'll be going right into Pumpkins this week. I always love this theme. The children enjoy this right before halloween. We'll learn the growing cycle of pumpkins and make a pumpkin book.
Reminder that I'm off next week.

Busy shopping. :)

Yesterday afternoon my Parent Aware Coach stopped by. (While children were sleeping). We discussed my 3 star rating and how of course I want to work to get the rating to a 4 star. The good news she brought with her was that I get improvement dollars to help me purchase items that the Parent Aware Program felt I "needed" to get the 4 star rating.

I spent last night with 3 catalogs supplied from Parent Aware and went through their suggestions and started purchasing. Alot of the items will deal with fine motor, math/number, art, music and movement, blocks, dramatic play, diapers and safety practices.

In the area of diapering, I just purchased the changing table recently and their concern was that there wasn't a 6 inch ledge on one side that could prevent falling. Instead of spending over $600.00 with that ledge, I'm purchasing a changing pad with a 6 in ledge. They would also like me to have a hands free diaper pail. That is on my order form. :)

Alot of the items I'm requesting will be for the outside play area. I have a music, reading, several dramatic centers in the 2 different playrooms and an art center, but I have none of these items outside for the children to play with if they desire. I am requesting a 3 person outdoor easel and paint supplies. (Paint, containers, aprons), a weather center. I was making one like my bug center, but I saw the new one they have available in the Lakeshore catalog that I just had to have for the children.

New items both inside and outside will consist of a science center, new art center storage, blocks, Lookout Tree House for the toddlers, observation mirrors, music instruments, workshop with tools. Too much to list, but I know I am very excited to add these items to my preschool and the children will be equally as excited. (OK, I think I'm more excited...)

I want to get the order placed right away so that I can receive the items and get re-rated. It will be a busy month getting the items placed where they need to go.... But it will be fun!

Jean

Apple Tree

This week our theme is Apple Tree, Apple Tree. Out book we are reading during circle time is Autumn is for Apples. Today we cut an apple in half and we got to see the star on either side of the apple. It look like the blossom from the apple tree. We also took guesses to see how many seeds were in an apple.

The children guessed - Mason -10, Henry -3, Abby -1, Julian -2, Micah -4 and I not wanting to say, but I guessed 20.... :) The total nuber of seeds in the apple were 6. The kids wanted to plant the seeds, so tonight I will run to get a pot for them, and we will plan a couple of the seeds tomorrow, water it during the winter and see if it grows.

Monday Sept. 15

We had a busy morning. I decided since this week will be a short week, (Only 3 days for most of you), that I would spend these 3 days testing the children. Find out where they are at. The last time I tested the children was in May. This will give me a better understanding of what we need to work on in small group.

I also received my rating in the mail on Friday through Parent Aware. I received a 3 out of 4 stars. One of the items I scored low on was not using a pre-approved curriculum. I personally like the curriculum we are using. (1 - 2 - 3 Learn Curriculum), and I was told going into this program if I desired, the Parent Aware Program would help me to get my curriculum approved. I'm waiting to start going through the process of getting it approved so that I can gain points in that area.

I received

Family Partnership 4 out of 4 stars
Teaching Materials and Strategies 3 out of 4 stars
Tracking Learning 3 out of 4 stars
Teacher Training and Education 3 out of 4 stars

I got some great ideas from the Parent Aware Program that I will be incorporating into my outside play area. There will be some new changes. I'm striving for the 4 star rating. :)

Thanks
Jean

First week back to preschool. :)

We had a wonderful 1st week back doing our preschool program. For circle time our letter of the week was T. We came up with t words like tango, (that was a fun picture to draw on my dry eraser board), train, truck, turtle, and twins. Our book for the week was David Goes to School by David Shannon. Before naptime we always pick out a book to read from the reading center, and I was happy that the children picked out new books added for our school theme.
We read a book at small group "Getting Ready for School". It was fun watching the children read the book with me. We started at the cover, read the title and who it was by. We then turned the page, and using our fingers touched on each word as we read them. Everyone down to Abby was pointing and reading the book. What fun.
Find a time with them this week end to sit and read this book with them. Next week in the children's Friday Folders I will send home a list of ideas to help create a more enriched literacy enviroment for them at home. It is so important for the children to develop a love reading.

Our Library check our has been a great success. We started this back in May and the children love being able to check out "new" books. Children have access to books from all around the playrooms, and I'm glad they are making this so successful. This is something that we will continue. :)

Coco Bear will be heading out to a new child care to visit, and I wanted to share a picture we took with Coco and the children on Friday. We packed him up and got him ready to go. Coco will visit 5 child care's and will return back to Treasures of the Heart Preschool in December. We'll be able to keep an eye on his visits to the different child care's via the internet. How awesome is that?
To visit Coco Bear's page at home here is the website http://stepbystepcc.com/tbe/coco.html

Teddy Bear Express, or TBE for short, originated as an idea on the Provider's Playground email list in early August of 2004. Teddy bears are sent around the United States and Canada amongst family child care homes, preschools, daycare centers, and elementary schools to visit the children as a fun geography lesson.

Back to Preschool :)

I can't believe that summer is over.... It's now September and it's back to our preschool program. The next 2 week's will be School Daze. Letters S & T, Numbers 1 & 2, Color Yellow and Shape Rectangle.

Monday we started back with Circle Time. The book we're reading for this week is David Goes to School. During small group we read a book I made up for the children. Getting Ready for School. We will be reading that during the week at Small Group andit will go home with the children on Friday in their Friday Folders. It's great to be back into our preschool routine.

Traveling Bear~

We're starting a new project in September called "Teddy Bear Express" This is a project though a child care list. There will be 3 bear keepers and hosts for the bears to visit. Our child care is one of the bear keepers and so I went out last night and bought a new bear.

The middle of September, we will mail our bear out with a photo album and journal, and a few other items to another child care. This child care will keep the bear for the week and mail it off to the next provider's home, and so on until December when the bear will come back to our child care. We will map the bear's trip on a map, and through this blog.

I will do up permission slips for your child to participate, and have their picture send along with our new bear.... What name did we come up for our bear????
Ok.... Here's where our originality comes in. :)

Coco Bear....
He is a boy bear and he had a great time today playing with the kids. I also included a recent picture of Coco Bear.... :)
I'm looking forward to this project and so are the kids.

New Bug Center :)

Everyone knows how I hate bugs, so this center was hard for me to do. :)
The kids have so much fun looking for bugs outside that I had to do a bug center. I had it up and running on Monday and I have to say.... the kids LOVE it.

Cleo caught the 1st insect. A moth on Monday and we put it into a bug house so we could view it up close. She let the moth go in the same spot she caught it so that the moth could go home to mommy.

We have a dry eraser board that in the bug center so that when children see a bug, they can sign their name. So far we have seen butterflies, ants, bees, spiders and flies. We also have in our bug center a couple of nets to catch the bugs, bug houses, magnify glasses, a bug vacuum, and a laminated book hanging on the fence with bug facts. Did you know there are 35,000 types of ants in the world. I know... I was surprised also. :)

The next outside center I will be putting together is a weather one. We sure are having fun playing (learning) outside... Learning is child's play.

Jean

Monday - July 21, 2008

WOW... it has been over a month since my last entry. Honestly I have been so busy with working on with this new Parent Aware Program, that a blog has been the furthest thing from my mind.

I took the test on Sat. for my CDA, and I will find out the results by the end of September.
I know I have told you that I had been working towards my CDA, and if you don't know what a CDA is, I thought an explanation would be in order... :)

This description is from the CDA web site:

Definition of the Child Development Associate (CDA)

A Child Development Associate (CDA) is an individual who has successfully completed the CDA assessment process and has been awarded the CDA Credential. CDAs are able to meet the specific needs of children and work with parents and other adults to nurture children's physical, social, emotional, and intellectual growth in a child development framework.

A CDA performs according to the CDA Competency Goals in center-based, home visitor or family child care programs. To date, there are more than 200,000 CDAs in all 50 United States, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the U.S. territories of Guam and the Virgin Islands.
Earning the CDA Credential has many advantages, including motivating caregivers toward continuing education and providing a platform for professional and career opportunities. Many view the CDA Credential as an instrument for career advancement in the early childhood care and education profession. The Council works to ensure that it is a credible and valid credential, recognized by the profession as a vital part of a coordinated system of professional development.
As a result of an increase in demand from many public and private employers for qualified trained staff, the number of child care providers applying for the CDA Credential has grown to nearly 15,000 annually. Furthermore, 49 states plus the District of Columbia incorporate the CDA Credential into their childcare center licensing regulations.

With this new program I am currently working with - Parent Aware - I will be turnin gin all my paper work on Wednesday, and all my classes will be done as of tomorrow evening. You will notice a few new things with this Parent Aware program. I will be using Creative Curriculum observation tools to start a more formal observation of the children and keeping track of their development. This will help me to plan on what we will be working on with the children.

I will also be taing steps to get my preschool curriculum that I develop accrediated. I will also start the process of accrediation. :)
I leave all that information for a future post...

I just wanted to let you know I haven't forgotten this blog. I can't believe the summer is almost over. I still want to have a summer BBQ, and we'll do that in Audust. I'll check my calendar and pick some dates.

Thanks

Jean