Welcome to Clyde's Corner

Welcome February!

❤️This month is all about L - O - V - E❤️

Monthly Updates:

• Parent's Night Out for February will be held on Saturday, the 8th from 4-8 pm. If you would like to sign up to work please fill out this survey.
• Our classroom Valentine's Day Parties will be held from 3:30-4:30 pm on Friday, February 14th. Parent's are always welcome! Parent's will make sure to send their kiddos with valentines for their friends, but have been told to not write any names on them other than who they are from to help make the process of handing them out go smoother and faster. Please make sure to plan to make valentines boxes or bag for this party!
• We have finalized our New Classroom Schedules and they have been send to parents! Below are the snack time cut off for each classroom. Please make sure to follow these so we can keep our classrooms on track for the rest of the day.
  • Porcupettes
    • Students must be dropped off no later than 8:35 am to participate in AM snack whether food is brought from home or supplied by The Barn.
  • Little Llamas
    • Students must be dropped off no later than 8:40 am to participate in AM snack whether food is brought from home or supplied by The Barn.
  • Rowdy Roosters
    • Students must be dropped off no later than 9:00 am to participate in AM snack whether food is brought from home or supplied by The Barn.
• New outside temperature protocol! After much consideration and research we have decided to change our cold weather minimum from 30 degrees to 20 degrees. There are many facilities nearby who use this same protocol, and our kiddos need it! The Big Red Barn is all about prioritizing outdoor play and this new protocol helps support that! If the FEELS LIKE temperature is between 20-30 degrees the kiddos will be limited to a max of 15 minuets of outdoor play, anything over 30 degrees will be our normal allotted times. However, please continue to monitor the children closely during these times and if you see that the children are getting too cold or uncomfortable bring them in early! Please make sure all kids have the proper attire (ie. labeled gloves, hats, snow pants, big jackets, snow boots, etc.) at The Big Red Barn at all times so we can be fully prepared for outdoor play.
• IMPORTANT TAX INFORMATION: For those of you who do not know, Colorado gives a tax credit to all qualifying early childhood educators. Here are some important links and information regarding how to receive this FREE money just for being you!
  • To qualify you have to have applied for a 3.0 Credential level at some point in 2024. Below is the amount your will recieve based on your credential level.
    • Level 1 - $852
    • Level 2 (lead teacher qualification) - $1,136
    • Level 3 or above (director qualification) - $1,705
  • You also had to have worked at an Early Learning Center/Preschool for at least 6 months in 2024 to qualify
  • You have to apply by filling out this form and submitting it with your tax return!
• Ashley has been working on updating our Conscious Discipline Ongoing Professional Development. We have some exciting things in the works, but for now, I am asking that all staff members listen to at least on CD Podcast each pay period. After listening, please share your thought in Group Me so that we can spread the knowledge and track your professional development hours. See this link for Podcast Episodes available to you. This will begin with the February 10th pay period and is a requirement for all staff members! As an ECE educator in Colorado you have to complete 15 hours of ongoing professional development each year to stay qualified, so this will go towards that.
  • Please also check out the Conscious Discipline Website for more FREE resources. Use the search bar to look up anything you are struggling with in your classroom or visit Sophie's Classroom for ECE specific supports!
• As many of you know we have a team of therapists and behavioral analysts that we have partnered with, and we are excited to announce that we have officially brought on Brice as our in house behavioralist. Brice has supported The Barn since October 2024 on an individual level with students, but has begun her work helping in all of our classrooms by supporting with staff training, questions, and observations. As a certified ABA therapist, Brice adds a new layer to our Big Red Barn difference and we are so grateful for her support! Please do not hesitate to reach out to her or admin if you are struggling and could use extra supports/observations in your classroom!

Meet Brice!

Hello! My name is Brice and I am a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) with Positive Behavior Supports Co. (PBS). I provide behavior analytic services (ABA) to children, teens, and adults with varying intellectual disabilities. I prioritize compassionate and trauma-informed care. I have a passion for education and supporting in related environments and I am so excited to work with The Big Red Barn Early Learning Center. You can learn more about my company and what I do at. You find out more about my certification and what I do here. I can be reached at [email protected] or 720 772 9745. If you see me, don't be afraid to say hi! 😊

Extracurricular Revamp

We are moving right along when it comes to finalizing our more structured extracurricular schedule. Along with offering these more frequently, we also have brought on a few professionals to bring these to the next level! Please see the chart for our new extracurricular rotation schedule and check out our program introductions below!

We will begin implementing our Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday Extracurriculars this month!

What to look forward to in March: We will be partner with Tippi Toes and Altitunes for our dance and music programs beginning in March! Be on the look out for their introductions in the next newsletter.

Creative Critters

Hello Red Barn Community, I’m Laura! I received my Masters in Education in 2016 as well as an International Montessori Diploma for ages 6-12. I have been a Lead Teacher for over 7 years in a Montessori setting but have recently transitioned away from the classroom full time to focus more on my passion of teaching Art! I wrote my thesis on creative expression and its' benefits on social behavior and metacognitive awareness in children. I believe the process of creating art can help develop young children’s communication skills, build confidence, promote mindfulness, and enhance their overall creativity and joy. I am so excited to take the next step of my teaching career at Red Barn, especially since I have a four year old in the pre-k classroom, what a gift!

In addition to teaching art, I also guide field trips in nature for students and am passionate about the importance of reconnecting children to nature. In my free time, I love to dance with my daughter, practice yoga, see live music, go camping, and adventure with my friends somewhere new! I’m honored to be working with this community and look forward to meeting you all through the process of art!

Running Rascals

Although Mr. Colby has been with us for a while, we wanted to reintroduce him to all our new families!

Hi Big Red Barn! I'm Colby and I have been assisting with Running Rascals since March of 2024. I am super passionate about fostering a love for movement and fitness in children and adults alike. I have spent the last year thriving on creating engaging and energetic activities for your young learners. Currently, I teach classes at Orange Theory and am excited to take on a coaching role at Evergreen Highschool this Fall. In my free time, I enjoy walking my dog, spending quality time with friends and family, traveling, and being at The Barn!

Simply Spanish

As an in house extracurricular we have recruited both Ms. Jenny and Ms. Denise to help teach our Big Red Barn kiddos Spanish! Both Jenny and Denise are fluent in both Spanish and English and are so excited to be able to work with kiddos in all of our classes on a more consistent basis so that they can actually start grasping on to new terms!

Fun with Faith

As you all know, Fun with Faith is very close to Ms. Ashley's heart who shares this passion with both her mother, Ms. Cheryl, and her sister Ms. Alicia. As a trio, Ashley, Cheryl and Alicia will work together to run our Faith based program. With the revamp, we are going to focus on the Fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. As a Christian, these are things that we strive to focus on within ourselves and lead us to be more thoughtful and loving humans. We will also continue our conversations regarding gratitude, unconditional love and forgiveness. The goal of Fun with Faith is to help foster loving and caring children through the eye of God and this is a tangible place to begin!

Silly Scientists

We have decided to merge our Tiny Green Thumbs gardening extracurricular into a more broad one that focuses on all areas of science! We are currently on the lookout for a program/professional to help assist, but for now we will run this program in house. Silly Scientists will focus on all things science from matter, to space, to predictions and experiments, to nature and life, this program will talk about it all!

Upcoming Student Birthdays!🎂

Quinn | 2/4         Ronan | 2/27

Upcoming Staff Birthdays!🎂

Ms. Dom | 2/23

Welcome to Clyde's Corner

🎉Happy New Year!🎉

Welcome 2025, We are so excited to see what you have in store for us!

Monthly Updates:

• Our Staff Christmas party was a blast, thank you everyone for coming and have a good time!
• Throughout the next couple of months we will be revamping our Extracurricular programs! These 8 different extracurriculars were always meant to be a staple at The Barn and something that sets us apart. That being said, we are finally in a position to create more structure around these. We will be bringing on more professionals for each of these programs and will begin to offer them daily, instead of sporadically throughout the months. This will be a process as we find the best fit professionals so be on the lookout for more updates. We are also in the midst of creating new classroom schedules to accommodate these daily. Over the course of this month, teachers will be trying out new schedules and we will send finalized ones once we find what works for the center as a whole.
• In order to help keep our furniture in good condition and to last longer, we are asking that all teachers refrain from sitting on tables or shelving units. Please only use chairs to sit on and if you need more to accommodate, please let admin know.
• We will now be deep cleaning our tables and chairs nightly with a bucket of hot soapy water and a rag prior to sanitizing them for the night. This will help get off any leftover gunk from lunch, snack, sensory play, and art. Please make sure to fully wipe down all tables and chairs top, bottom, front, back, and sides. There is a bucket in the cleaning closet and you all know where the rags are, let us know if you have any questions!
• Closing playgrounds: Please make sure that when we are closing playgrounds we are making sure that we are leaving them neat and clean. The below items are what should be completed nightly to properly close these down:
  • Sanitize all toys
  • Cover all shelving units and close sensory bin lids
  • Park all cars
  • Put away ALL toys
  • Lock gates
• Our next MANDATORY staff meeting will be held on Tuesday January 28th from 6 - 8 pm. Please let Ashley know if you have any conflicts.
• It was so much fun to display your student's artwork at the Belmar Library and if you did not get the chance to stop by and see it, you can check it out below!

Expansion Updates

We are set to submit for permits within the next 2 weeks! While this is an exciting first step, we will still not have an opening date until we hear back from the city. Fingers crossed it is a smooth and quick process. In other news, our Little Red Barn website is live! Check it out at www.littlerredbarnnursery.com!

Exciting News!

As many of you know, Ms. Alicia has been working very hard over the course of the past 6 months to gain her credentials and some experience on the administration side of ECE. A few months back she received her Large Center Director Qualification and has been taking classes to gain more knowledge on coaching ECE teachers. She is an incredible educator and I am trilled to announce that she will begin to make her transition into the fulltime director role at The Big Red Barn. This will be a slow transition as we find the best fit replacement within the Porcupette room to partner with Ms. Emily, and do not worry Ms. Alicia will never be far from our classrooms. Please make sure to give her a big congratulations the next time you see her as this has taken a lot of hard work and dedication.

Upcoming Student Birthdays!🎂

Mateo | 1/7         Philip | 1/8         Nora N. | 1/17

James | 1/19         Cohen | 1/24         Eloise W. | 1/25

Upcoming Staff Birthdays!🎂

Ms. Hailey | 1/19