September ELC Newsletter
It's been a great start to the school year! During the first few weeks of the school year, students began building relationships, establishing classroom routines and focusing on how to follow our program-wide expectations: Be Kind, Be Safe, Be Helpful! Some of our classroom routines involve:
- Greetings- Each child is greeted at the classroom door by their teacher. The child is able to choose how they would like to be greeted and complete a feelings check-in.
- Breathing & I Love You Rituals- I Love You Rituals are playful, one-on-one interactions that build bonds while increasing attention span, decreasing power struggles and promoting language & literacy. Breathing techniques shut off the body’s “fight or flight response,” allowing children and adults to calm themselves and choose effective responses to conflict and upset.
- Classroom Jobs- Each child in the classroom is assigned a special job for the week. Classroom jobs include librarian, snack helper, kindness recorder, line leader, wish well and more!
- Kindness Tree- The Kindness Tree honors kind and helpful acts, helps adults and children shift from focusing on what is wrong to what is going well, and helps highlight the many ways we serve one another.
Next, each classroom will begin to explore their own study topic! What are studies? Our curriculum features "Studies," or hands-on, project-based investigations of topics that are relevant to children's everyday experiences. Studies are exciting and engaging. They tap into children's natural curiosity, resulting in a learning environment that is both fun and intentional. Children raise questions about their topic, and through exploration and discovery, they find answers to their questions.
- 9/1/23--No School, District Inservice
- 9/4/23--No School, Labor Day
- 9/14/23--Growing Through Play: Playground Fun Play Group 4:00 PM
- 9/18-9/21/23--Book Fair
- 9/21/23--Family Fun Night 5:00 PM
- 9/22/23--No School, District Inservice
- 9/27/23--Family Advisory Council Meeting 1:00 PM
- 10/2-10/6/23--No School, Fall Break
- 10/9/23--No School, Columbus Day
- 10/19/23--Picture Day (More information to come!)
Our school partners with the River Bend Food bank to offer a backpack program that allows us to provide food to children and families that need it. We typically send these food bags home each Friday to help with access to nutritious food over the weekend. Please fill out this form if you think that your family could benefit from this program and if you would like to be added to our list of recipients. We will do our best to meet the needs of all families based on the quantity of food that we receive and the number of requests to participate.
The Quad Cities Marathon is offering a new pair of running shoes to 20 students in each school across the Quad Cities. These students may also run one of the Saturday races FREE or the Sunday Marathon events at a discounted price. Please use this form to recommend your child for a new pair of shoes and sign up for a race. Shoes are limited to the first 20 children to sign up. We will do our best to meet the needs of all families that request to participate. The form will close on Friday, September 8th or whenever we have received 20 requests.
- 23-24 Family Folder you will find general information about our school and programming. This folder contains information about school supplies, our daily schedule, policies/procedures, communication platforms, the school calendar and more!
- Your family's health, well-being and partnership is important to us! Use this form to easily request information, resources and/or support for your family.
- 23-24 Early Learning Center School Calendar
