Classroom and Curriculum
The Kindergarten
September 21, 2006
Dear Families,
Happy third week of Kindergarten! We hope that you and your child are settling into the Kindergarten and your new routine, and that you have felt comfortable spending time in the classroom so far. We are writing to encourage you to continue to do so if your schedule permits, and also to let you know of other ways you and your family can get involved with what we do each day in the Kindergarten.
One highly successful program that we started two years ago was the Afternoon Cooking Series. This got its start because Philippa was given a farm share by a friend who was traveling and she thus had a large surplus of fruits and vegetables each week. This allowed us to explore healthy, seasonal, and unusual dishes that most of the children had never tried, such as baba ghanouj, baked pumpkin, and fresh salsa. As the farm share came to a close in the late fall, parents picked the program up by donating a recipe and ingredients each week for us to continue this exploration. If they were able, parents also came in and did the cooking themselves with a small group of students. We started again with this program this week and a small group visited the Davis Square Farmer’s Market and chose to buy apples and make homemade applesauce. Each Wednesday a new group of six children will put together a new recipe, and starting at the end of October we would love to have some families sign up! Our hope is to maintain the healthy aspect of the original groups as much as possible. We also hope to compile a Kindergarten cookbook to make available for sale at the end of the year. Each Wednesday we begin cooking around 3:30 and can usually sample our hard work by around 5:00. We will be placing a sign-up sheet outside the classroom door on the left if you would like to sign up to be in charge of a week. If you sign up for a week, we will place a reminder in your child’s mailbox that week, as well as a recipe sheet for you to fill out.
Another opportunity is to sign up to help keep our tortoise (Kieran) well fed. Each day we give them the cooked vegetables that your children are served at lunch, which provides them with a nice variety. However, the vegetables that we serve are not always those that have the most nutritional value for tortoises. Ideally, each week, the tortoises are given a “stoplight diet” which includes predominantly leafy green vegetables (kale, spinach, green leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce, etc.), red vegetables, such as tomatoes, and yellow vegetables, such as peppers. At this time they can also receive a small treat of fruit from the following list: apples, melons, grapes, bananas, and plums. The tortoises don’t eat a large amount of food – probably less than 1 cup each – and we would truly appreciate it if your family were willing to sign up to keep their diet healthy and diverse. We plan to give them this “special meal” once a week (on Tuesdays) and if your family signs up for a week, we will put a reminder in your child’s mailbox the night before.
Another way your family can get involved is to create a story cassette of yourself and/or your child reading a familiar storybook to give to the class. We will then listen to this on our listening center, which allows several children to hear the story and follow along at once. Hearing a familiar voice reading the story is motivating and comforting to your children, and will surely be a source of pride to him or her as we set it out as an activity during our Literacy Center time. We have cassettes available in the classroom, as well as ideas of books for which we would like to create cassettes. Please let any of your child’s teachers know if you are interested in signing up to create one of these tapes.
And finally, getting involved in the classroom can be as simple as looking at some of the everyday items laying around your house in a new way. For example, did you know that egg cartons make great disposable paint dispensers? Or that plastic coffee can lids cut in half and stapled together make great “card holders” for children learning to play card games? The recycled materials that are of particular use to us in the classroom include: egg cartons, bubble wrap, newspaper, plastic coffee can lids, plastic store bags, and toilet paper and paper towel rolls. We are always open to new ideas in this regard, as well, so if you have a use for another recyclable material, please let us know.
We value you as your child’s primary teacher and hope that you will become a part of our classroom community in whatever ways you feel comfortable and able. These ideas are here to help you discover ways to be a part of our classroom, but please don’t feel limited the items on this list. We always welcome new ideas, as well, so please let us know if you would like to share yours. We look forward to seeing you often!
Sincerely,
The Kindergarten Team (Soondarie, Jaime, Megan, and Philippa)
August 30, 2006
Dear Kindergarten Families,
Welcome! Can you believe that it is time to start thinking about the transition to the Kindergarten Class of 2007? The new school year is rapidly approaching and the Kindergarten teaching team is busy getting ready for a great year. We are excited for school to begin and are looking forward to coming together as a community of children, families and teachers. We can't wait to get to know you and your children. We would like to take this opportunity to introduce ourselves. The Kindergarten teaching team is comprised of four teachers: three full-time teachers and a Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA). Each of us comes to the Kindergarten with different and interesting experiences and together we are planning for a year of enrichment and fun.
Soondarie Barker is the mentor teacher and will be working the opening shift (8:00-3:00). She graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. Soondarie received both her Master of Arts in Teaching and her Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study from Tufts University. Soondarie spent her first two years as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Kindergarten and has served as mentor for the past four years. Soondarie brings her love of mathematics, history and social studies, and dance to the classroom. She is eager to meet and greet you all in the coming weeks.
Philippa Gilmore has been teaching in the Kindergarten for over three years and will be working the middle shift (8:30-3:30). She earned dual Bachelor’s degrees from Boston University in Elementary Education and Psychology, and she is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Child Development at Tufts. Before coming to TEDCC, she taught preschool for four years at The Horizons Initiative (now Horizons for Homeless Children), which was an organization dedicated to supporting local Boston families living in area shelters and transitional housing. Philippa is excited to share her passion for children’s literature, nature, and cooking with your children.
Jaime Chizek joined the Kindergarten last year after spending two years as a Green Group teacher. She will be the closing teacher (10:30-5:30). Before coming to Tufts, Jaime studied at Wheelock College where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Math and Science with a concentration in Early Childhood Education. She also taught at the Longwood Medical Area Child Care Center for three years. Jaime is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Child Development at Tufts. This year, Jaime enjoyed the challenge of developing intriguing and developmentally appropriate curriculum for Kindergartners. Jaime’s enthusiasm for math and science permeates all that she does and ignites children’s passion and natural curiosity.
Megan Sander will be the Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Kindergarten and will work from 2:30-5:30. Megan is a second year graduate student in the child development department at Tufts. Last year she worked as an aide at the Eliot-Pearson Children's School and this summer she is working as a head counselor at a pragmatics camp for children with Asperger's Syndrome. Megan loves swimming and hiking and the great outdoors and hopes to bring her zest for nature to bear on classroom practice, activities, and trips. Megan is very excited to join the TEDCC community and is looking forward to a great year.
The Kindergarten consists of 24 children and is comprised of children moving from the Blue and Red groups at TEDCC as well as children entering the center for the first time. We are a diverse group of people from a wide and interesting range of backgrounds and it will be exciting to learn more about one another throughout the year. In order to come together as a group and learn about our similarities and differences, we will spend the first few weeks conducting getting-to-know you activities, learning the daily schedule, labeling our areas of the room together, and deciding on a set of classroom rules. Our beginning unit of study will focus on colors, which will allow your children to demonstrate the expertise they bring to our classroom and which serves as a rich springboard for investigation in many areas of study, including art, science, and social studies. Over the course of the first week of school you will be receiving more information about this curriculum unit. The Kindergarten will be a place where your children can discover and explore the world around them, and build upon his or her unique early childhood learning experiences. Our hope for this year is that it brings new friendships, knowledge, and discoveries to us all as we work together to learn about a wide variety of topics. We will encourage your children to investigate, explore, and learn about the world through hands-on opportunities in a safe and nurturing environment.
As you may know, the initial weeks of school are sometimes filled with new and challenging issues involving separations and transitions. Even for those children who have been at our center for several years, there is an inevitable adjustment period when moving into a new environment. We will be working with you and your children to make the first few days and weeks of school as smooth and comfortable as possible. In anticipation of these days, please allow yourselves a little extra time in the mornings and afternoons so that you will be able to spend time in the classroom with your children. Though we understand how hectic and busy these times of day are for you, it is also an extremely important time for your children and those few extra minutes can really help to make the home/school transition easier. You may find that your child readily transitions in the morning and afternoon or that he or she counts on playing at a choice for a few minutes or reading a story with you before he or she needs to make the change.
One way to help with the morning transition is to establish a "goodbye ritual" which can be used consistently each morning when you leave the classroom, enabling your child to feel prepared for your departure. Helping your child to settle into an activity or waving from the "Goodbye Window" can be helpful ways of saying goodbye each morning. Each family will find their own way to help children to transition between home and school. Children handle transition and change in different ways. We do request that you do not use toys (apart from soft animals or dolls) to transition from home to school, as it can be difficult for children to leave these “home toys” in their cubby and they can be distracting to the other children. We are happy to talk to you about alternative transitional tools and ideas. However your children handle transitions, please be assured that the Kindergarten Teachers are committed to providing a safe, comfortable, and nurturing environment in which your children will be able get used to the new space in his/her own way and time. It is also important that families have children to school by 9:15. The daily schedule has been set up so that from 8:00-9:15 children can engage in free-play while teachers help them get settled into the school day. After 9:15 Kindergartners will be getting into the more structured part of their day, and it can be more difficult for children to get settled into the class if they feel as though they are walking into the middle of an activity.
Early in the year we will be holding a Curriculum Night to explain our educational and developmental philosophy and practice. You will be notified of the date for this event in September and we sincerely hope that all families can attend as it is a wonderful time to address your questions and to share ideas. You will also have a teacher assigned as your “contact teacher,” and she will communicate with you throughout the year on your child’s adjustment and progress. Although this person will be your primary contact and will be responsible for writing up your child’s biannual progress reports, please feel free to use us all as resources. As the new school year begins, please remember that Soondarie, Philippa, Jaime, and Megan will be available to listen and talk with you about your ideas, questions, comments or concerns. Prior to the start of school please feel free to call the school and speak with any of us if you have questions. Also, if you are new to the school and have the time please stop by with your child and meet the teachers, see the classroom and pick a cubby; we would love to see you. Visiting before the first day of school and allowing your child to meet his/her teachers and pick out his/her cubby helps to ease some of the pre-school jitters! Just call the school at (617) 627-3412 and ask to speak with the Kindergarten to set up a time. We are looking forward to working together with you to provide your children with a nurturing, fun, and educational school year. Enjoy the rest of the summer and we look forward to meeting all of you all soon.
Sincerely,
The Kindergarten Team
May 30th, 2006
Dear Families:
In just three more days, we will be saying good-bye to the Kindergarten year and hello to our summer program. Today, your children will take part in the last of what have been simply wonderful Author Circles. Within the next two days, we will be practicing for our Publishing Potluck Ceremony to be held in the Kindergarten from 4:30 PM until 6:00 PM on Thursday, June 1st. Please remember to bring your children to school with their bag of “fancy” clothes for the ceremony.
Over the course of the remainder of the week, we will be recapping the many successes and challenges of the year and making plans for the coming months. We have plenty to do within the next three months. Our focus on curriculum will remain steadfast as we seek to reach our goals of preparing your children for second year kindergarten or for first grade. There will be much discussion about the upcoming transitions for you and for your children. We will chart where the members of our community will be in the coming year. We will host panels to welcome in our new kindergartners and to answer the questions of those who are leaving. We will take a look at our physical environment and decide on those aspects that should stay and the pieces that we may want to change. In addition to all of this work, we will be having fun! The summer is a time for us to assume a more relaxed atmosphere, to play in the water, to visit attractions near and far, and to appreciate the time we have left with each other. This Friday, we will begin to vote on a new summer camp name. Over the next few weeks, we will be taking local field trips to get ourselves ready to travel greater distances. In the coming weeks, we will also be saying good-bye to some of our team mates and we will be welcoming some of our alums back for the summer program. As the time for these events draws nearer, we will give you the details.
In order for us to take full advantage of the warm weather and the other pleasures that summertime affords, we ask that you stock your children’s cubbies appropriately. Water play will begin shortly, and our trips have already started. Please make sure that your children are well sunscreened in the morning. We will reapply sunscreen before our trips and throughout the day as needed. We use No-AD spf 45. If you have not signed a permission slip for sunscreen please do so. Each child should have at least two bathing suits or swim trunks, a child sized towel, two complete changes of clothes, extra underwear, sandals or water shoes, and sneaker or other appropriate walking shoes. These clothes should be labeled and placed in a bag in your child’s cubby. The basket in your child’s cubby will be used to transport wet clothes from changing areas. Teachers will be meeting with your Kindergartners to discuss the new cubby layout, and to get things organized. We ask for your help in the upkeep of the cubby area.
To kick off our summer, we will welcome the first of our summer teachers, Seth Lancaster, this Friday. Seth graduated from Tufts this year. He was also a Special Friend to one of the Blue Groupers this year. Seth is excited to join our summer staff. Please help us to welcome him. On June 12th, we will welcome Kaileigh Callendar. Kaileigh worked as a summer teacher in the Blue Group last year and is thrilled to be able to spend another year with your children. For those of you who do not know Kaileigh, she is an alumna of TEDCC and sister to one of our Blue Group Friends. Kaileigh brings her love of art and her love of children to our camp this summer. Molly Wong, also an alumna of TEDCC and past staff member, will join us for another year of fun in the sun on July 10th. Over the course of the past two years, Molly has worked as a summer teacher in the Blue Group and in the Kindergarten. Molly is a gymnast, a spirited and fun-loving individual. We can’t wait to welcome her in July.
Attached to this letter, you will find calendars for the months of June, July, and August, and our summer schedule. Please keep these attachments handy as they detail changes and events that will be taking place. Full year, full time teachers will enjoy four weeks of summer vacation over the next three months. Our vacation schedules are noted on the calendars. Please keep an eye on the white board outside the classroom, and on your children’s mailboxes for addition summer information, changes, and reminders. As always, thank you for sharing your children with us. We look forward to the coming summer months.
The K-Team
September 14, 2005
Dear Families,
Happy Second Week of Kindergarten! We hope that you and your child are settling into the Kindergarten and your new routine, and that you have felt comfortable spending time in the classroom so far. We are writing to encourage you to continue to do so if your schedule permits, and also to let you know of other ways you and your family can get involved with what we do each day in the Kindergarten.
One highly successful program that we started last year was the Afternoon Cooking Series. This got its start because Philippa was given a farm share by a friend who was traveling and she thus had a large surplus of fruits and vegetables each week. This allowed us to explore healthy, seasonal, and unusual dishes that most of the children had never tried, such as baba ghanouj, baked pumpkin, and fresh salsa. As the farm share came to a close in the late fall, parents picked the program up by donating a recipe and ingredients each week for us to continue this exploration. If they were able, parents also came in and did the cooking themselves with a small group of students. We plan to get this program up and running next Thursday and hope to have a cooking group every Thursday afternoon thereafter. Our hope is to maintain the healthy aspect of the original groups as much as possible. We also hope to compile a Kindergarten cookbook to make available for sale at the end of the year. Each Thursday we begin cooking around 3:30 and can usually sample our hard work by around 5:00. We will be placing a sign-up sheet outside the classroom door on the left if you would like to sign up to be in charge of a week. If you sign up for a week, we will place a reminder in your child’s mailbox that week, as well as a recipe sheet for you to fill out.
Another opportunity is to sign up to help keep our tortoises (Kieran and Sasha) well fed. Each day we give them the cooked vegetables that your children are served at lunch, which provides them with a nice variety. However, the vegetables that we serve are not always those that have the most nutritional value for tortoises. Ideally, each week, the tortoises are given a “stoplight diet” which includes predominantly leafy green vegetables (kale, spinach, green leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce, etc.), red vegetables, such as tomatoes, and yellow vegetables, such as peppers. At this time they can also receive a small treat of fruit from the following list: apples, melons, grapes, bananas, and plums. The tortoises don’t eat a large amount of food – probably less than 1 cup each – and we would truly appreciate it if your family were willing to sign up to keep their diet healthy and diverse. We plan to give them this “special meal” once a week (on Tuesdays) and if your family signs up for a week, we will put a reminder in your child’s mailbox the night before.
Another way your family can get involved is to create a story cassette of yourself and/or your child reading a familiar storybook to give to the class. We will then listen to this on our brand new listening center, which allows several children to hear the story and follow along at once. Hearing a familiar voice reading the story is motivating and comforting to your children, and will surely be a source of pride to him or her as we set it out as an activity during our Literacy Center time. We have cassettes available in the classroom, as well as ideas of books for which we would like to create cassettes. Please let any of your child’s teachers know if you are interested in signing up to create one of these tapes.
And finally, getting involved in the classroom can be as simple as looking at some of the everyday items laying around your house in a new way. For example, did you know that egg cartons make great disposable paint dispensers? Or that plastic coffee can lids cut in half and stapled together make great “card holders” for children learning to play card games? The recycled materials that are of particular use to us in the classroom include: egg cartons, bubble wrap, newspaper, plastic coffee can lids, plastic store bags, and toilet paper and paper towel rolls. We are always open to new ideas in this regard, as well, so if you have a use for another recyclable material, please let us know.
We value you as your child’s primary teacher and hope that you will become a part of our classroom community in whatever ways you feel comfortable and able. These ideas are here to help you discover ways to be a part of our classroom, but please don’t feel limited the items on this list. We always welcome new ideas, as well, so please let us know if you would like to share yours. We look forward to seeing you often!
Sincerely,
The Kindergarten Team
