INFANTS
Here we are coming into our fall season. School is in session and our babies are growing.
[ticklist]
- Breanna will be six months old this month. WOW!! She is moving quite well. She is rolling over and is trying to sit up.
- Sebastian is rolling all over the place. He is trying to crawl. I’m sure he will master it soon. He always has a smile on his face. He is such a happy baby.
- Canyon is also on the move. He is crawling and doesn’t miss a trick. He is such a happy baby and always has a smile for you.
- Marco is crawling and pulling up to everything. He is such a happy baby who loves to play with his friends.
- Jack is getting to be our big boy. He never stops going. He pulls up to everything, and loves playing with his friends.
- Brice walks all around inside and on the playground. He is very discreet. He loves to watch the construction on the other playground.
[/ticklist]
During our day, we read to the children, talk to them and expose them to many different toys and sensory experiences. Everything new that we expose them to builds another brain cell. Building their large motor skills is one of the greatest accomplishments for an infant. Rolling over, sitting up, pulling up or walking are achievements to celebrate.
We are so anxious for Ms. Carmela return. She continues to get better and is still under the Doctors care. We miss her. Keep her in your prayers.
Ms. Carmela Ms. Nancy Ms. Tina Ms. Teresa Ms. Phyllis
ONES
Welcome to a new school year. I am so happy and privileged to be working here with your beautiful children.
We welcome Carson, Colton and Kelsey to our room. Colin, Carlton, Sara, Annabelle H., Annabelle R., Nicholas and Ryan are making them feel right at home.
We said goodbye to Charles, Fabian, Chloe, Triton and Elijah because they have moved up to Ms. Linda’s Class. We miss you guys but do enjoy waving hi through the windows and getting hugs on the playground.
This month we will talk about People and Places in our Community as well as our home and school. We will be sending home the blue cards for our “New Comers” to complete their “All About Me” posters that will be displayed on our class as long as your child is with us.
Thank you for your continuous donations of wipes, powder and snacks. Occasionally we will post a “wish list” for any additional donations. Thank you in advance for your generosity.
Ms. Rita Ms Courtney Ms. Olivia Ms. Sandy
TWOS
Welcome back to school! We have had some new friends join us over the summer and would like to take the time to give them a special welcome to our classroom and to SHECC.
We will start our year off learning all about our classroom. We will learn what toys we have, where they are in our classroom and how to play with them. We will work on using our words when we want or need something. The children will practice proper hand washing. This is always fun, because they like to be in the water.
We will be exploring with our senses this month. We will taste things to see if we like them, touch different types of items to feel the various textures, listen to different music and instruments inside and the birds sing, crumbling leaves and the construction trucks outside, smell our lunches and snacks and talk about everything we see. We will also explore our senses through our creative expression.
Our special snack will be fruits and vegetables. Please look for a sign-up sheet and sign if you are able to donate anything. We will talk about healthy eating habits, as we taste all of our yummy snacks.
Potty training is a team effort. We are happy to assist the parents and children in this endeavor. We like to go straight to underwear when we begin so that the children are not confused about things. If you think that you and your child are ready, talk to me and we can get started.
Thank you for your generous donation of snacks. Have a wonderful month. Please feel free to stop in or call at any time.
Ms. Linda Ms. Cindy Ms. Katie
PRESCHOOL 1
Welcome to our class! The kids hit the floor running and have settled in nicely.
As you know, I am big on self-help skills to build self-esteem. We have four rules posted in our classroom and we go over them every day. Rule #1 is keep your friends safe. I help the children use their words to avoid hitting and biting. We will begin with, “Walk away” or “I don’t like that.” Keeping it simple and straightforward helps them build confidence. This leads into Rule #2, use kind words. We help the kids with the delivery of their message so it is not taken the wrong way. We always acknowledge everyone’s feelings and help each individual express themselves. Rule #3 is I will use toys correctly. We do not want the kids to throw or destroy toys; but this rule teaches them to play with all toys (at school and at home) as they were intended. Our last rule, #4 is walk inside. This one is simple. Who can learn when everyone is running around?
This month our themes are Apples, All About Me, and 5 Senses. The first week we are going to discuss the many colors and sizes of apples. The following two weeks will be spent learning about how God made us. We will chart the color of our eyes and hair. The second week of All About Me we will talk about our feelings. The last week we will learn about our five senses and have fun with science experiments.
Thank you for your generous donations of snacks and wipes. Please check all labels for peanuts and made in a factory that produces peanut products.
Ms. Vicki Ms. Elizabeth Ms. Katie Ms. Ashlee
PRESCHOOL 2
I would like to once again welcome you to the preschool II class. The children have done a great job adjusting to their new environment and teachers. Last month we had a unit entitled All About Me. The children learned about body parts and what they do and about ways we keep our body healthy. We also talked about the different feelings we have and what situations make us feel a certain way.
This month we will continue the All About Me unit by exploring My Name, My Family and My Home. The children will graph their name according to how many letters are in it, share family photos, name different rooms of the house and what their use is, among other things.
There are some skills that we will be working on throughout the year that you may try at home if you aren’t already doing so. One of these skills is self-help. We encourage the children to try things such as pouring their own water, putting on their shoes, cleaning up after lunch, and wiping after using the bathroom. After the children have tried to do one of these things and need help, we will of course help them. If they accomplish one of these things on their own, you can just imagine how proud they will be. We also work on being able to sit at circle time without disturbing the children around them and on using our manners. These are just a few of the skills we will be working on. I will continue to update you on new skills in future newsletters. Working together, I hope to instill a love of learning that will last a lifetime.
I would like to end by thanking everyone that brought in some or all of the items on the supply list. It is truly appreciated. I would also like to thank Ainsley, Alex, Trent and Haylee for ordering from Scholastic.
We were able to get some free books and earned over 3500 in bonus points that can be used in the future to order items and books for our class.
Thanks again!
Ms. Liliana Ms. Alex Ms. Katie
VPK 1
Welcome September! Everyone is adjusting well to our VPK schedule. The children are coming in ready to start the day. The transition in the early morning and late afternoon is flowing smooth. I would like to thank everyone who was able to help provide school supplies for our classroom.
We will begin our month by finishing our Unit on ME. We will be looking at our NAME and our friends’ names. Each of us has different letters that make up our special name and we will focus on these. When your child is ready, they need to be practicing both upper and lower case letters.
MY FAMILY will finish this Unit. We will be looking at our “All about Me” posters and sharing these with our friends. We will look at each one and discuss our families. We will also talk about the importance of our address and phone number.
Our FALL Unit will begin with APPLES/OUR FIVE SENSES. We will be learning a couple of new songs, listen to and make some special books, and enjoy tasting some apple products. The last week of the month, we will talk about FALL and review our colors. We will learn what our primary colors are and begin learning our color words.
We are using the Creative Curriculum in our classroom. This curriculum supports the FL Early Learning and Developmental Standards for VPK. Age appropriate activities in all areas of social, cognitive, emotional and physical will be presented in ways to interest the children and encourage them to explore the world around them.
Our Seeds program will offer us lessons from Mark 9: 30-48. Our gospel themes will be: We learn about Jesus and We gather in Jesus’ name.
Our curriculum includes indoor/outdoor art and sand/water play daily. Children should wear closed toe shoes with rubber soles for running and climbing.
Snack time is an important part of our day. Wrap-around children eat 2 snacks daily. Please remember when sending in your monthly snack that we are a Peanut Free center. Please check all labels. Each week we will have a cooking experience. A sign-up sheet will be posted on our clipboard.
Please remember to check your child’s folder daily. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.
Ms. Kathy Ms. Katie Ms. Becky
VPK II
Welcome to the 2012-2013 VPK school year. The children are all doing very well with the new school routine. Each morning they come in and do their “Jobs”. We are so proud at how
quickly they have made friends with each other and are so helpful to one another. They all really enjoy outside time and our favorite indoor activities are Painting wonderful masterpieces and Building fabulous structures in our block area. There is a lot of creativity going on!
We are very pleased with the progress of the new building. The children are enjoying watching the concrete and supply trucks.
We began our year with the unit “All About Me”. The children have discussed themselves and their families along with their five senses and feelings. The emphasis on this unit is for the children to understand that God loves them and that they are unique. We focused on what makes each of us different and what we share in common. We began our Social Skill Streaming by learning how to listen to a friend and how to ask for what we want. Name recognition is also a focus as we begin to introduce letters. We have been counting our friends along with counting as a group.
Each week our “Seeds” curriculum engages the children in a process that moves from story to Gospel to actions that build Christian Community. Each “Seeds” lesson tells the Sunday Gospel in a way that children can understand and enjoy. We visited the church and learned about church manners and “Who is Jesus?” we also learned about “Mary as Our Mother”. We say the Our Father prayer and the Hail Mary prayer in the morning and we end our day with the Prayer of Saint Francis.
Bless Us O’ Lord is said before meals. Please let your children share these prayers with you every day.
Letters, Numbers, Colors and Shapes will be our next unit. The focus of this unit is to introduce these basic concepts to the children who may not be familiar with them and as a review for the children that are. We will learn some old and new letter and number songs. We will introduce number and color words during this week. We will also discuss the days of the week and months of the year.
We will finish the month with the start of autumn. We will learn about how the Earth changes during this time of the year and the different way autumn is experienced across the country. During this time our Topics will be:
[ticklist]
- September 23 – Apples; we need a variety of apples brought in this week for eating and cooking.
- October 1- Camping: All children love to camp! We will take nature walks and discuss what we see different outside. Our room will transform into a campground so the children can feel like they’re really there.
- October 7- Autumn Forest; we will continue our camping theme by discovering what is happening in the forest during the fall, just what are those squirrels doing?
- October 14- Night creatures: our camping trip goes dark while we learn about who’s awake at night in the Fall Forest.
- October 21- Farms in the autumn, we will begin learning about what food is harvested during the fall months.
- October 28- Autumn Harvest will continue as we learn more about where our food comes from.
- October 31- Where the Wild Things Are, We will have a Halloween Party in our Classroom on this day. We will post a sign- up sheet for goodies to share. Your child may wear their Halloween costume to school. (Please leave ALL wands Swords and Guns at home) Please send a complete change of clothes to change into after the party. We will Trick or Treat from room to room around the center. We ask that each child send in one bag of pre wrapped candy to share. Please check for peanut products. The little bags of Teddy Grahams work well as does the little Gummy Bears. More information will be in next month’s newsletter, please watch for details.
[/ticklist]
We appreciate the snacks and supplies that everyone has so generously brought in. Thank you very much for your support. Have a great month!
Ms. Cindie Sr. Donna
BEFORE AND AFTER SCHOOL
We had a wonderful summer. We were very busy bowling, skating and swimming. Many children mastered the skills of skating and swimming. Way to go!!
We would like to give a special welcome to our new students and a sad goodbye to our summer visitors as well as a big welcome back to those who took the summer off.
Our new building is going up fast. We can’t wait to move in. Working with a limited playground is going to be worth it.
We are off to a great school year. I hope that everyone has settled into their new routine. At this time, we are making sure that everyone is aware of our “Safe Keeper Rules” as well as our playground boundaries. We will continue to work on these over the next few weeks.
A few reminders: Please make sure your child walks with you to your car in the afternoon. Our rule is that an adult must accompany every child if they are outside of our fence. Parents, please sign your child/ren in and out each day. (This is a state law.) If anyone other than the parent will be picking a child up, we need a note or a phone call from the parent of that child. If you have someone who will be picking your child up, on a regular bases, you can write a onetime note that states that they can pick them up at any time. Please make sure your child has a good start to each day with a healthy breakfast. Each family is asked to bring in one donation of snack per month. (WE ARE A PEANUT FREE CENTER) The snack needs to be enough to feed 50 kids. If you need any suggestions, let me know. I will send out snack reminders when your snack is due. Thank you in advance for your generous donations. Last but not least, please call or write a note if your child will not be on the afternoon bus. Even if they are not here in the morning, I do expect them in the afternoon. A fee will apply each time your child is not on the bus and we have not been notified. The cost is $3.00 per offense.
September is National Peace Month. We will celebrate this with our themes, which include:
[ticklist]
- September 3-7 Wonderful Me
- September 10-14 Me and My Family
- September 17-21 Me and My Friends
- September 24-28 Me and My World
[/ticklist]
I hope everyone has a wonderful month.
Ms. Susie Ms. Debbie Ms. Laura Ms. Shelby
BOOKKEEPER
Welcome back to our returning families and a warm welcome to the new families joining us this year. Some of you may have already noticed the changes on the invoices and/or name and the classroom that they are located in. This is very important for you to look at. If this information is not correct, please let me know immediately so that it can be corrected. In some instances, it may affect your tuition rate!!! Please remember your tuition rate may not be based on the child’s age, but rather the room that they are in.
INVOICES: Invoices do not reflect your family account balance. Please look in the upper right corner of the document to determine if you are looking at an Invoice or a Statement.
Weekly invoices are now being sent out on Thursday or Friday for payment on Monday. Any weekly payment that is not received on Monday will be subject to a late fee of $3.00 per day, per child. Weekly invoices do not reflect your family account balance. Please look in the upper right corner of the document to determine if you are looking at an Invoice or a Statement.
Parents who are paying monthly will receive their invoice within the first few days of the month. (I will be monitoring this over the next 2 months to determine if I need to make an adjustment in the system to ensure timely delivery to you.) Monthly payments are due by the 7th of the month. If payment is not received by the 7th of the month, the account will revert to weekly billing and late fee charges of $3.00 per day, per child will apply.
Monthly statements will go out the first week of the month. Please keep your account current. Childcare services will be suspended on any account that is 2 weeks delinquent.
If you ever have any questions, please feel free to email me at sheccstjoe@embarqmail.com. Or if you prefer to discuss the matter over the phone, my regular working hours are 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Monday – Friday.
Ms. Debbie
Notes from Toni
Welcome to our 28th school year! You would think that after 28 years it would be ‘old hat.’ Well, it’s not – each year is new and exciting to us. We have new requirements from the diocese, early learning coalition, the state and some of our own. Some of these are embraced and some we say ‘oh no’ to. But… each is meant to be an improvement in the care and education of our children. Our staff spend many hours in training and classes to ensure they are the best teachers possible.
We are very excited that for the second year we have received the “Best of Pasco” in the child care division. Thank you for your confidence in us and for voting. We will always strive to be the best of Pasco!
Last September I announced that we received approval to build. Well, we’re building! This will house our before and after school group and one of our VPK- preschool classes. In addition to being more spacious for the children, it will be more cost effective to operate.
We have a construction meeting this week, so I’ll give you an update as to the move in date. The construction company has asked us not to park in the parking lot along St. Joe Road. Please adhere to these parking requirements to ensure the safety of our children.
How are we paying for this building? The original fund was nurtured by a visionary and benefactor, Mr. Francis Peloquin. We are doing specific fund raisers just for this cause. Our ‘marketing committee’ is working very hard to help raise the additional money needed for this building We have “Buy-A-Brick” for our new front porch. These bricks are engraved at no additional charge — you can have your family name or beloved forever memorialized. We also have sponsorship opportunities – you may dedicate a piece of the new building in your name – windows, doors, or classrooms. Remember, all donations are tax deductible. This building will be a gift to our community. Please keep our efforts in your thoughts and prayers.
My staff and I thank you for entrusting the care and education of your child with Sacred Heart Early Childhood Center.
Mrs. Toni