Clyde’s Corner | January 2026

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