Welcome to Clyde's Corner

 🍂🍁Welcome September - Here comes Fall 🍁🍂

Our first full month of our new school year is in the books! Thank you all for making this an awesome start! 🎒

• Picture day was AWESOME! Everyone looked wonderful
• Please make sure when closing the playgrounds, we are putting ALL toys away, parking the bikes, covering the outdoor cabinets, and locking all of the locks, including the one up top🔒
• Check in with closing Admin before leaving - we want to ensure the closing / cleaning checklist is being completed. Remember the checklist in every room is posted by the sinks, be sure you are checking things off, cleaning during the day / nap time
• Due to budgeting this month, we unfortunately will not be able to provide staff snacks and drinks, but don't worry we know caffeine is a lifeline for teachers so we will still provide coffee ☕ We really appreciate your understanding ❤️

• KARATE was such a BLAST! 🥋
• Supplies - if you pull something out (supply bin, laminator, tape, paint ect.) it needs to be put away where it belongs by the end of day. There have been so many times where us Admin, other teachers, and even yourself can't find the supplies they need because it gets left in the classrooms. We're a small center and we share our supplies with one another, please be mindful
• Talk to Kathleen about getting your PLANNING TIME scheduled. Let her know how much time you need and please reference your calendars that were printed and handed out at the last meeting to make sure you are prepared for all FS curriculum AND fun weeks. Please please please don't push it off / wait until the last minute to plan.
• Now that we have gone over portfolio/conference items with all classrooms it is THE LEAD TEACHERS RESPONSIBILITY to make sure these items are being completed on a daily/weekly basis. If you need planning time to focus on these items please reach out to Ms. Kathleen before it is too late! Note: We have change Parent Teacher Conferences to November 3rd
• I Love You Rituals are a mandatory ritual that you need to be doing with your kiddos. We have not seen a lot of teachers doing them and will be checking in this month to make sure they are being implemented. Gemini gives every classroom a hard copy of the monthly ritual, use them.
• You guys are teachers, and for many, the first teachers to a family and their child. They look up to you, you are a professional, please refrain from wearing sweatpants to work.

Upcoming Events: 

• A MANDATORY staff meeting/training will be held on September 17th at 6pm at The Barn!
• Grandparents Day Tea Party Celebration will take place on Friday September 6th at 3:30pm!
• There is a FREE Dental Care clinic that takes place on Friday September 27 & Saturday September 28th! There is a flyer on the staff refrigerator if interested.
• Staff End of Summer BBQ at Dom's house Saturday September 21st from 4-9pm 🔥🍔
• Parent Teacher Conferences are coming up at the beginning of November! Now is the time to start observing, and saving samples of work!

WELP Brittany didn't come in August so she should be here ANY DAY NOW for our annual LICENSING VISIT! Here are a few reminders to make sure we are on top of our game:

• • Brittany BIGGEST Pet Peeve - KNOW YOUR NUMBERS. We will be very disappointed if this is something we get written up on and there are no excuses to why you should not know this. This should be an answer that comes easily and no teachers in our building should have to count their students prior to responding.
  • Sanitizer is used on tables and toys and needs to sit for 2 minutes prior to wiping it off. The proper steps to ALL things that need to be sanitized are WASH (soapy water) --> RINSE (water) --> SANITIZE (bleach solution). This applies to tables, toys, nap mats, shelving units, etc.
  • Disinfectant is used on all areas that are exposed to bodily fluids. Think toilets, diaper changing pads and tables, any areas that com into contact with bowel movements, pee, blood, vomit, etc. This needs to sit for 30 seconds! The proper steps to ALL things that need to be disinfected are WASH (soapy water) --> RINSE (water) --> DISINFECTANT (Purell disinfecting solution)
  • Brittany may also ask you to change a diaper in front of her as well. If you are concerned or do not feel confident in these steps please see the administrative team. We would much rather you ask and do it correctly then try to figure it out on your own!

I Love You Rituals

Adapted from Conscious Discipline, I Love You Rituals are playful, one-on-one interactions that build loving bonds while increasing attention span, decreasing power struggles and promoting language and literacy at school or at home. These brain-building interactions facilitate optimal development for young children and create lifelong bonds between children and adults.

There will now be an I Love You Ritual on every newsletter! For that entire month, we will be doing the same I Love You Ritual center wide! 🥰

This month, we are going to ease into it and go simple. Below is the I Love You Ritual "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star"

   Georgie Porgie 

This poem gives you the opportunity to expand the concept of gifts with children. True gifts are the love we share with each other, not material goods. Children learn that a smile is a gift of joy to be treasured. As you expand on this rhyme, you can ask children for other "gifts" that can be given, such as a wink or a hug and include them in the poem! Other possible gifts are pinky hugs (intertwined pinkys), thumb touches, and blow / catching a kiss! Stand or sit facing each other to begin this I Love You Ritual.

"Georgie Porgie, pudding and pie.

Grab the child's hands with yours

Gave his friend a big high five!

With both hands, execute a loving gentle high five with the child. *You can always change the action you do*

With his friend he loved to play

Holding your hands in front of you with your fingers pointing up and palms facing the child. This is a fast, happy motion as if you were tickling each other's fingertips while making this delightful motion OR you can also use the sign for 'play'

A gift of a smile he gave each day" 

With a big smile, put your hands up to your face and, in essence, use your hands to "blow" a smile to the child.

Here is a video example of this ritual with 2 students, here is one of an infant/toddler teacher during a diaper change. You can also find this ritual in the I Love You Ritual book on page 69-70. Again, you can do this during greeting/closing circle, when you're putting sunscreen on the kids, you can do it one-on-one with a kiddo, or even just saying it right before nap time. Remember, the opportunities are endless!

Birthdays: 

Staff 🎂

Maisey | September 7th

Kathleen | September 10th

Madison | September 14th

Students 🎂

Ava 🐥 | September 18th *1st Birthday 🥳 

Are you looking for the perfect and private space to host your child’s birthday party? What about your weekend nanny share? Do you need a change of scenery? How about a fun moms night out where your children can explore a new age appropriate environment?

The options are literally ENDLESS! Please reach out if interested in our space. It is available any time on weekends and anytime after 6 on weekdays! Packages start as low as $250. We are a preschool by day, event center by night, and have 4 rooms available for rent, all purposed for different age groups from infants all the way to school aged kiddos. We also have 2 fenced outdoor play spaces available for rent! Contact us at [email protected] to get your event or night out scheduled today!

Suggestions for Difficult Discussions

1. Take it slow

2. Understand yourself 

3. Become sensitive to your own discomfort 

4. Learn about other cultures 

5. Find out what the family wants for their child

6. Be a risk taker

7. Communicate, dialogue, negotiate

8. Share POWER

See Kathleen for suggestions on these ideas! 

Welcome to Clyde's Corner

 🔥☀️ HOT HOT HOT August ☀️🔥

Cheers to the beginning of our FIRST School Year!

• We are in the hottest part of summer! Please keep your kiddos well hydrated and don't forget yourself! 💦 You guys have been doing a good job with taking water breaks!
• Please make sure when closing the playgrounds, we are covering the outdoor cabinets, and locking all of the locks, including the one up top 🔒
• BW photos - these should be photos where you can see the kiddos face or clearly see what activity they are doing. We have been seeing a lot of blurry photos or photos of the back of children's heads. We understand that it is hard to get a photo of a bunch of children looking at the same time, all we ask is that there is a good variety of photos for our families to see. Remember, we also want to rotate between small group, large group and individual photos and sometimes its fun to get just a fun cute one for the families as well!

• We will be test running Karate in our PK classroom on the 20th! This is only offered to PK kiddos and may not happen on a regular basis, we will test it out and see where it goes from there! 🥋
• Make sure to look at the calendar on a regular basis there are due dates, observations, & important dates on there! The calendar will be sync'd on all classroom tablets upon our return from break! 📅
• Need Planning time? Talk to Kathleen, let her know how much time you need, she'll get it scheduled! Please don't push it off / wait until the last minute to plan.
• I Love You Rituals are a mandatory ritual that you need to be doing with your kiddos. We have not seen a lot of teachers doing them and will be checking in this month to make sure they are being implemented.
• Ashley will be completing formal observations in all classrooms this month! Please let her know if there is a specific time you are struggling with inside the classroom and she will try to schedule it around that! These observations are nothing that should bring worry to you or your classrooms and are a way to collaborate to best help support our children and teachers!

Upcoming Events: 

• Picture Day 📸 - August 23rd!
• Looking ahead to September:
  • Grandparents Day Celebration will take place on Friday September 6th at 3:30pm! Supply Lists for Grandparent's Day Presents are due by August 6th!
  • See flyer for a FREE Dental Care clinic that takes place on Friday September 27 & Saturday September 28th!

Our annual LICENSING VISIT will be taking place sometime in August! Here are a few reminders to make sure we are on top of our game:

• • Brittany BIGGEST Pet Peeve - KNOW YOUR NUMBERS. We will be very disappointed if this is something we get written up on and there are no excuses to why you should not know this. This should be an answer that comes easily and no teachers in our building should have to count their students prior to responding.
  • Sanitizer is used on tables and toys and needs to sit for 2 minutes prior to wiping it off. The proper steps to ALL things that need to be sanitized are WASH (soapy water) --> RINSE (water) --> SANITIZE (bleach solution). This applies to tables, toys, nap mats, shelving units, etc.
  • Disinfectant is used on all areas that are exposed to bodily fluids. Think toilets, diaper changing pads and tables, any areas that com into contact with bowel movements, pee, blood, vomit, etc. This needs to sit for 30 seconds! The proper steps to ALL things that need to be disinfected are WASH (soapy water) --> RINSE (water) --> DISINFECTANT (Purell disinfecting solution)
  • Brittany may also ask you to change a diaper in front of her as well. If you are concerned or do not feel confident in these steps please see the administrative team. We would much rather you ask and do it correctly then try to figure it out on your own!

I Love You Rituals

Adapted from Conscious Discipline, I Love You Rituals are playful, one-on-one interactions that build loving bonds while increasing attention span, decreasing power struggles and promoting language and literacy at school or at home. These brain-building interactions facilitate optimal development for young children and create lifelong bonds between children and adults.

There will now be an I Love You Ritual on every newsletter! For that entire month, we will be doing the same I Love You Ritual center wide! 🥰

This month, we are going to ease into it and go simple. Below is the I Love You Ritual "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star"

   A Wonderful Woman Who Lived in a Shoe

"A wonderful woman lived in a shoe, 

She had so many children, 

She knew exactly what to do.

She held them, 

She rocked them, 

And tucked them in bed. 

I love you, I love you, is what she said." 

Here is a video example of this ritual. You can also find this ritual in the I Love You Ritual book on page 59. Again, you can do this during greeting/closing circle, when you're putting sunscreen on the kids, you can do it one-on-one with a kiddo, or even just saying it right before nap time. Remember, the opportunities are endless!

Staffing Updates

Ms. Sage has decided to join our team full time! Sage was originally planning on working with us throughout the summer and then part time as she goes back to school, but she just can't say goodbye to your sweet kids! We are so excited that Ms. Sage has dedicated time to take classes to become a lead teacher with us and can not wait to see all that she does at The Barn. Ms. Sage will be co teaching with Ms. Maisey in our Little Llama Classroom🦙🥰

Birthdays: 

Staff 🎂

Gemini | August 8th

Jayna | August 19th

Students 🎂

Colin 🦔 | August 5th 

Are you looking for the perfect and private space to host your child’s birthday party? What about your weekend nanny share? Do you need a change of scenery? How about a fun moms night out where your children can explore a new age appropriate environment?

The options are literally ENDLESS! Please reach out if interested in our space. It is available any time on weekends and anytime after 6 on weekdays! Packages start as low as $250. We are a preschool by day, event center by night, and have 4 rooms available for rent, all purposed for different age groups from infants all the way to school aged kiddos. We also have 2 fenced outdoor play spaces available for rent! Contact us at [email protected] to get your event or night out scheduled today!

Giving kiddos praise in daily words 

"These are very creative ideas you have"

"You had amazing focus when you were working on this project"

"You gave very good advice to your friend"

"I saw how you worked really hard on this. I really appreciate the effort you put in"