Welcome to Clyde's Corner

🥳Happy New Year!🥳

Needing some prayers? We got you! If you would like our Big Red Barn Prayer Team to pray for something specific, you can submit prayer requests here! Remember no prayer is too big for our God and with community in prayer, anything is possible

Monthly Updates:

• Thank you for an AMAZING year.....We are so excited to see what 2026 brings to the barn!🥳
• Opening Shifts & Planning Time:
  • We granted teacher 4-10 schedules in order to add a mental health day to your weeks as well as providing more planning time for lead teachers. From 7-8am Lead Teachers should be doing lesson planning to get ahead, printing/coping materials, gathering materials, etc. Please utilize the staff room for your planning time, so you are not interrupted during this precious time!
  • If you are not a lead teacher or if you have completed all lesson planning, please work on our weekly cleaning lists in the morning. These lists are already posted in the classrooms!
• Clocking In & Lunch Breaks:
  • Please do NOT clock in more than 5 minutes before your shift starts
  • Please do not wait for rides or until after you settle down for lunch to clock out. Lunch breaks are schedules specifically to allow every staff member the proper time to rest and for our day to go smoothly while maintaining ratios. If you leave the classroom at 1, clock out RIGHT away so your lunch is from 1-2.
  • Please take your entire hour lunch-do NOT clock in before the hour mark.....you deserve that entire time of rest so please use it!
• Please write down 2 goals you want to accomplish in the new year (1 personal goal and 1 professional goal) and give it to Jenny or Alicia to prove that you read this month's newsletter!⭐
• Time-In's with BIG behaviors/emotions:
  • To align with our BRB values and Conscious Discipline, please put great emphasis on Time-in's with big emotions. There should never be a crying child alone (unless they ask for space from teachers).
  • If students need a breather or if they are overstimulated in the classroom, please use your co/assistant teacher and/or admin to take your kiddo on a walk if needed---sometime kids need a break from the class just like teachers do 🙂
  • When confrontations between students occur please do not use commands to stop the behaviors, you help your kiddos best when you navigate their behaviors and emotions through Conscious Discipline. Using commands put a band-aid over the situation while Time-in's with C.D. is a solution! Take your time in these moments, even if you have to take time our of your schedule to do so.
  • Time-In's: 
    • Never skip an opportunity to teach your kiddos about emotional regulation and kindness.
    • Get on the student's level, talk about and through their emotions and what triggered those emotions, take a few breathes (using the F.S. breathing techniques), and have the student be apart of the problem solving!
      • Student-involved problem solving: "I see that you are feeling really sad and a little frustrated....How can we make your body feel better? Do you want a hug? Time in the cozy corner? Or do you want to take a walk?"
• Teacher Body Breaks:
  • Teaching is extremely taxing emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Asking for a break from the classroom is NOT a weakness in teachers....it is a STRENGTH!
  • You cannot love and teach the way you want when your frustrations are in the way, students can feel your frustrations even if you try to hide it. LEAD BY EXAMPLE....CALL FOR A TEACHER-BODY BREAK! 
  • Encourage your coworkers to call for a break or call for them when you see them getting too frustrated or overwhelmed. Advocate your not just for your kids and yourself, but also your coworkers. 
• Tablets at Closing:
  • Please make sure to pass along your tablet to the teacher that you are transitioning your kids to. At the end of the night, the teacher closing the Duckling classroom will have all 4 tablets so that they have access to edit all classrooms' BW attendance and receive all BW messages.
• C.D. Shoutout!
  • We are really starting to see more C.D. used within the classroom and we are PUMPED about it! Please keep pushing and using C.D.--consistency will bring results!
  • Always remember, how you speak to your students is how they learn what is acceptable or not. Give your students the up-most respect and you'll get respect back 🙂 Our student's young minds cannot comprehend sarcasm, please don't "sass" your students....be kind. What you give children, you will receive back!
• Cleaning Expectations:
  • Deep Cleaning Toys:
    • Every morning, teachers should be transferring the clean toys from the white bags back into the classrooms. Please make sure you are writing the date on white/tan tape on the toy bin to keep track of the deep cleaning rotation. Then, teachers can put dirty toys into the white bag to be sent down for deep cleaning during nap time.
    • Wooden toys are not deep cleaned in the sinks--please sanitize these toys but do not send any wooden toys down in the white bags
    • Please only send down 1 set of toys at a time.
      • For example, if you are cleaning the kitchen toys, please only send down 1 set of toys daily (ex: dishes and food are cleaned separately). We have to fit the bag of toys into our sinks to be fully submerged, if you send too many toys down at once, we cannot properly clean them.
  • Snack Clean-ups:
    • After snack and lunch, please make sure you are using the 3 step Sanitization process to clean the tables and chairs.
    • Make sure all food is swept off of the floor--having food on the floor is a big concern for our allergy kiddos
    • After you sweep the floor, please mop the floor after each snack/meal time using the small mops found in the bathrooms.
  • Sanitizer VS Disinfectant:
    • Sanitizer is used for all classroom cleaning which includes toys, toy shelves, tables, chairs, etc.
    • When you use sanitizer please make sure you are completing our 3 step sanitizing process:
      • 1. Wash (soapy water)
      • 2. Rinse (Water)
      • 3. Sanitizer: Let it sit for 2 minutes before wiping! 
    • Disinfectant: 
      • Disinfectant is used for cleaning up any bodily fluids, trash cans, everything in the bathrooms, and the classrooms sinks at the end of the day!
  • One-time use Cleaning Rags:
    • Please only use a cleaning rags for one cleaning. Once, you use a cleaning rag to clean up a mess, place it in the dirty laundry bin!
      • Single Use Example: when cleaning snack, you can use 1 rag for all 3 steps of the sanitization process. Once the 3 steps are complete-- place the cleaning rag in the dirty laundry bin.
    • Cleaning rags are ONLY for the classroom, please use paper towels to clean the bathrooms.

Upcoming Student Birthdays!🎂

Mateo | 1/7        Nora N. | 1/17

Welcome to Clyde's Corner

🎄It's Jesus' Birthday Month!🎄

Needing some prayers? We got you! If you would like our Big Red Barn Prayer Team to pray for something specific, you can submit prayer requests here! Remember no prayer is too big for our God and with community in prayer, anything is possible

Monthly Updates:

• Thank you for helping us build our BRB family 🧡We could not create our BRB dream without you! Thank you for going the extra mile to build family connections, for giving grace to your coworkers, and for loving every heart that walks through our doors 🧡
• Extracurricular Captions: 
  • Please make sure you are using the proper captions for extracurricular activities! Our teachers and admin work very hard to create these captions in addition to the activities...please use what you are given 🙂
    • Extracurricular Activities that you create your own captions for:
      • Tiny Tots Dance with Tippie Toes
      • Music For Munchkins with Altitunes
      • Storytime with the Librarian
    • Extracurricular activities that captions are pre-written and posted on your classroom's google docs:
      • Fun with Faith
      • Creative Critters
      • Running Rascals
      • Silly Scientists
      • Simply Spanish
• Preparing for Extracurriculars:
  • Please make sure you are respecting the time of our Extracurricular teachers/guests. Make sure your class is prepared for the extracurriculars to begin BEFORE your start time. We have had a lot of classes late for these start times--please reach out to admin if you need help with time management or transitioning your class to ensure your class is on-time and ready!
• BRB Clothing Lists
  • To help us keep track of the BRB clothes that students borrow, we have placed BRB clothing lists in every classrooms. If your give a kiddo school clothes, please write their name, the date, and the type of clothing provided. When parents return the clothes, you can erase their name from the list 😁
    • Please make sure you are messaging parents to remind them to return BRB clothing until they are returned!
• Conscious Discipline Implementation Plan 
  • Thank you so much for sharing photos of your friends and family with us! It was so special to hear about everyone's "whys"! We will be creating a board for all these photos in the staff room so we can always be reminded, even on the hard days, why we do what we do. We love and appreciate all of you! If you have not yet sent photos, admin will be reaching out so we can have everyone on our board!
• Winter Morning and Nights
  • Now that winter is fast approaching, our mornings at the barn are cold and our nights are very dark!
    • Mornings: 7:30-8:30 am 
      • Morning drop off time can be enjoyed outside if it is warm enough, but mornings can also be spend inside our classrooms on the cold mornings
    • Evenings: 4:45-6:00pm
      • Now that our days are shorter, every child must be inside our building by 4:45 pm to avoid traveling with students in the dark!
• Sacking Chairs
  • This is an important reminder that chairs can not be stacked FOR ANY REASON while children are in the classroom. This applies to every classroom no matter the age. It is only ok to stack chairs when a room is completely shut down when no kids will be present for the rest of the evening.
  • Please also make sure to unstack chairs FIRST THING in the morning. This should be the first thing you do when arriving to make sure the chairs are not stacked when children begin to arrive.
  • THANK YOU!!!
• Combining Classes in the Evening: 
  • Toddlers:
    • Toddlers cannot combine outside until the combined total of students in Porcupettes and Ducklings is 10 or less
    • Toddlers cannot combine inside the Duckling classroom until there are 9 students total.
  • Llamas and Roosters:
    • Max number of kids that combine on the playground/grass is 20 students---please evaluate which kiddos are present to customize this number to ensure the safety of your kiddos. Llamas and Roosters should not combine before 4:45pm to ensure each classrooms has their designated outdoor time with their own class.
    • Combining inside:
      • Now that we are coming inside by 4:45 pm. We may or may not be able to combine together at 4:45 pm depending on numbers. Please get admin or the closing teacher's permission before combining classes inside so we can assess the energy and which kiddos are present to create a safe and calm closing classroom.
        • We generally will wait until there are 7-8 kids total depending on which llamas and roosters are present!
  • NEW LISCENSING RULE!
    • We can now combine all ages in the last hour of operating (5-6pm). For our school, we will allow all classes to combine in the Duckling classroom starting at 5:30pm. Students can only go down to a younger classroom and teachers must follow the youngest (toddler) ratio of 5:1 
• Teacher Coupons
  • Our admin team is looking for opportunities to give teachers special "teacher coupons"! If you have received a coupon, you can cash it in whenever you want 🙂
• Walkie-Talkies:
  • Please make sure you disconnect your tablet's Bluetooth from the speaker BEFORE leaving your classrooms. We have noticed that teachers are not hearing our walkie-talkie calls while outside because they are playing through the speakers in the classrooms.
• Draw a Christmas Tree and give it to Jenny or Alicia to prove that you read this month's newsletter!🎄
• Visitors at the Front Door:
  • To ensure the safety of our teachers and kids, please DO NOT let anyone into our school without admin permission. Anyone who should be inside the school has a door code. If there is a visitor/deliver person without a door code--please DO NOT let them inside. Have the visitor wait by the picnic table and contact admin to meet them outside. 
• Delegating Cleaning
  • If you cannot clean up a mess with the teachers available to you--CALL ADMIN! We need to make sure that our school is clean and sanitary for our BRB family.
    • If you are rushed and cannot clean up snack fully--CALL ADMIN
    • If there is an accident and student behaviors are intervening with cleaning--CALL ADMIN!
    • If you rushed and cannot sweep up the access sand by the sandbox before exiting the grassy field--CALL ADMIN!
    • If you are responsible for mid-day cleaning of the bathrooms but cannot complete it--CALL ADMIN! We cannot skip our cleaning routines throughout the day, especially in the bathroom upstairs. If you cannot complete your cleaning duties ADMIN WILL HELP!
• Snowy Weather Prep❄️: As a reminder, we follow Jeffco public schools for weather related closures. If Jeffco is closed, so are we. If they have a late start we open at 9:00 am and if they have an early release we close at 3:30 pm.

Upcoming Student Birthdays!🎂

Jayden | 12/2        Selah | 12/4       Emma | 12/5       Brooks | 12/21

Welcome to Clyde's Corner

🍂Turkey Day is Coming!🍂

Needing some prayers? We got you! If you would like our Big Red Barn Prayer Team to pray for something specific, you can submit prayer requests here! Remember no prayer is too big for our God and with community in prayer, anything is possible

Monthly Updates:

• We are SO thankful that God has brought everyone of you to the barn! Each of you bring a special blessing into our classrooms and we are PUMPED to have you apart of our team.🥳
• Backpacks:
  • We are now actively using our new drop-off/pick-up strategy. Please let admin know which parents are continuously not checking their kiddos in so we can make sure students are safe.
  • If students do not have backpack, leave the student's items in their cubbies. Parents do not have to participate in using backpacks. However, if they do not, then they are responsible for retrieving their child's belongings from the classroom.
  • For llamas and Roosters, it is the student's job to pack their bags NOT yours. Use this as a teaching opportunity to instill responsibility and ownership! (You will still need to help and double check their bags before leaving the class)
  • Toddlers, please have your students be active participants in packing their bags in preparation or the pre-school program and to introduce the importance of taking care and responsibility over our things.
• Parent Teacher Conferences
  • This is a reminder to make sure all portfolios and checklists are complete! Conferences have begun and will continue throughout November. Let admin know if you need extra time to prepare for conferences!
  • Conferences are held in the staff room. When the sign is on the door, please enter respectfully to not disrupt conferences- Thank you💙
• Google Calendar:
  • Lead teachers, please make sure you are continuously looking at our google calendar to see when supply lists are due! 
• Staff Call Outs
  • We need every staff member scheduled to show up for work to be able to provide the proper support for every student and teacher. We are a team! We understand that life tends to throw curve balls and sickness happens but we need EVERY teacher present to provide the BRB difference for every teacher and kiddo!
  • Tis the season of sniffles and fevers...... please make sure you take care of yourself and prioritize your health this season so we can have healthy teachers 🙂
  • Incentives: 
    • We have decided to make things a little more interesting! We are now making our "late-arrival incentive" a competition! 🏆
    • Teams:
      • Porcupettes (Sage, Emily)
      • Ducklings (Yay, Paige)
      • Llamas (Kitty, Abby)
      • Roosters (Whitney, Bethzy)
      • Floats (Silvia, Tiana) 
    • NEW Incentives: 
      • 2 weeks without a late arrival (based on individual teams) = a sweet treat! 🍩
      • 1 month without a late arrival (based on individual teams) = Breakfast Burritos🌯
      • If ALL teams go 2 months without a late arrival, then all teams will have a BRB staff day paid by the barn!🥳
• BRB Clothing Lists
  • To help us keep track of the BRB clothes that students borrow, we have placed BRB clothing lists in every classrooms. If your give a kiddo school clothes, please write their name, the date, and the type of clothing provided. When parents return the clothes, you can erase their name from the list 😁
• Conscious Discipline Implementation Plan 
  • As a continuation of our 4 year plan, this month we asking all of our staff to send photos of their friends and family in the Group Me with a brief description. This not only will allow us to get to know each other better and make work feel more like home, but we will also be printing these out to create a staff family wall. At the end of the day we all love our jobs, but the real reason most of us work are for the people we love so this will act as a good daily reminder of why we do what we do!
• Please write down 3 things you are grateful for and give it to Alicia or Jenny to let us know you read the entire newsletter!
• 'Tis the Season for Sweaters and Sniffles!
  • It is getting a wee bit chilly!🥶 Please make sure BOTH you and your kiddos are properly prepared and dressed! If students do not have proper clothing, we have extra jackets/coats and pants so that your class can still enjoy the opportunity to explore and play in all types of weather!
    • Please be very aware of what clothing parents bring for their kiddos. If parents bring warm clothing, rain gear, or snow gear they expect their kiddo to be wearing that clothing! We ask parents to bring their kiddos fully prepared for all weather and it is only fair if we put in the effort to ensure they are wearing the clothing that parents bring.
• Outdoor Play in the Cold!
  • Advocate for your kiddos! If you see your kids have runny noses, red hands, etc. please take your students inside. We want our students to explore their environment in all types of weather, but they are still just little babies!
  • Encourage your more "weather-sensitive" kiddos to find the joy in exploration in cold weather 🙂
  • Stay in tune with your students so you can be inside before the big emotions from the cold begin (for your own sanity and the comfort of our students)
  • When is it actively precipitating, please do not stay outside for longer than 15 mins-- unless students are happy and not too cold!
  • Now that it is getting REAL CHILLY, the designated outdoor drop-off times (7:30-8:30am) can also be used as indoor free play. If you are unsure if you should go outside...just ask admin 🙂
  • It is now DARK by 5:00 pm so all students must be inside no later than 5:15pm!!!!
    • Llamas and Roosters please do not combine inside until you have permission from admin! We want to ensure the safety of our students, so it is best if admin can evaluate which kiddos are present and therefore the amount of kiddos that should combine 🙂
• Teacher Coupons
  • Our admin team is looking for opportunities to give teachers special "teacher coupons"! If you have received a coupon, you can cash it in whenever you want 🙂
• Snowy Weather Prep❄️: As a reminder, we follow Jeffco public schools for weather related closures. If Jeffco is closed, so are we. If they have a late start we open at 9:00 am and if they have an early release we close at 3:30 pm.

Upcoming Student Birthdays!🎂

CeCe | 11/4        Faye | 11/12       Savannah | 11/15       Rory | 11/28

Upcoming Staff Birthdays!🎂

Ms. Sage | 11/2       Ms. Yay | 11/3       Ms. Emily | 11/13