Welcome to Clyde's Corner

Welcome to October!
As the crisp autumn air rolls in and the days get shorter, October brings a perfect opportunity to embrace change and growth with our little ones. This month is full of exciting opportunities to celebrate the season—whether it's cozy family activities, fall crafts, or preparing for Halloween fun. Let’s make October a month of beautiful memories!

Happy Fall! 🍂

Monthly Updates | Reminders:

• Grandparents Day TEA PARTY Celebration was SO FUN! 🍵🫖👴🏼👵🏼 Your students definitely loved showing their grandparents their home away from home!
• Handprints Therapies was a great learning experience! Please let Kathleen know if you like this training, or what type of trainings you want to see in the future!
• Toys should be rotated monthly!
• Alicia ran Fun with Faith this month and the kiddos loved it! Faye took and ran with it and remembered everything! She was so excited about the VOLCANO OF LOVE
• Check out our monthly blogs on our website! Last months blog was about - Instilling Positivity Around School and Guiding Your Child Through Fears Using Conscious Discipline Strategies, you can read it here!
• For the entire month of October, we will be doing a BRB Kids Clothing Drive!
  • We will be accepting gently used children clothing, shoes, hats, ect!
  • We will accept all season clothing but we are currently looking for fall & winter attire! 
  • Clothing will be separated by size and displayed for families to go through during our Parent Teacher Conferences on Sunday Nov. 3rd!
• Thank you Dom for hosting the end of summer BBQ, it was a blast!
• PLEASE MAKE SURE TO LOCK BASEMENT DOORS WHEN USING THEM!!!!!

• Join us for our first ever OKTOBERFEST | CHILI COOK OFF
  • Mark your calendars for Saturday October 12th at 3:30pm, as we kick off the fall season with a fun-filled day of delicious food, BRB community, and a friendly competition! Whether you're a chili connoisseur or just looking to enjoy some Oktoberfest inspired festivities, this event has something for everyone! 
  • Bring your best chili recipe or come to taste and vote for your favorite while enjoying seasonal treats, music, and great company! Sign up using this link!
  • Patrick Young (Duckling Dad) is the Head Brewer at Raices Brewing Company and will be providing us with some tasty brews 🍻🌶️
• Parents Night Out: If you are interested in ever working one of these events, please let Kathleen know and we will add you to a list! All staff will make $80 for the 4 hours, dinner is provided.
• 🎃 Trunk - or - Treat 🍭🍬 Thursday October 31st, 3:30pm
  • Parents will volunteer to decorate their car trunks with fun, kid-friendly designs and will bring tick-or-treating treats and the students will go around and trick-or-treat at each trunk!

Staffing Updates

• Ms. Jayna is on a leave of absence and will hopefully be back come the New Year!
• We sent Ms. Gemini off with lots of love to start her new position as a Kindergarten teacher!
• We have a new addition to the The Big Red Barn Family! Ms. Emily has started with us, helping a lot in Porcupettes, but as always you can expect her to be hands-on in all classrooms! Read more about Ms. Emily here!

Upcoming Student Birthdays!🎂

Jesse | 2nd               Ivy | 2nd

Weston | 17th               Palmer | 21st

Upcoming Staff Birthdays!🎂

Ms. Alicia | 10th

Mr. Brandon | 16th

RESILIENCE

Is a combination of protective factors that enable

people to adapt in the face of serious hardship,

and is essential to ensuring that children who

experience adversity can still become healthy,

productive kiddos/citizens.

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!