Dear Families:
It has been great meeting with all of you in conferences this week!
We wanted to write a little update about celebrating birthdays and holidays here at school. Quite a few children are having birthdays this month and the months thereafter.
Our family handbook has a section on celebrations at school. This section highlights a few things:
http://www.miracosta.edu/instruction/childdevelopmentcenter/parenthandbook.html#holidays
1) HOLIDAYS: “As examples of this policy, here at the Center we do not dress in costumes for Halloween (though we may do face-painting), and we do not bring valentines to school (though we do share feelings in letters to our family and friends).”
In our room this year, instead of dressing up for Halloween (which can be frightening for some of the children), we would like to have “pumpkin days.” The children have been interested in growing pumpkins in our garden, and some have started to sprout, so we think this will be a nice connection. We want to make some sort of special pumpkin treats (we are still thinking about what those might be) and just enjoy the pumpkin theme and fall, in general. We were hoping to have these days on October 30 (Wednesday) and October 31 (Thursday). Please keep an eye out for more information about these room celebrations as it gets closer. If you have ideas for the parties, please let us know, too. The whole family will be invited!
2) BIRTHDAYS: “Birthdays are very special events, which give children a sense of themselves as growing individuals. While birthday parties, with all of their accessories, are not appropriate at the Child Development Center, acknowledging and celebrating a child’s birthday are essential to promoting self-esteem. Supervising Teachers should be sensitive to the individual child’s comfort in being publicly recognized.”
Because each child and family may have a different comfort level and desire about celebrating birthdays at school, we ask that you talk with Ms. Laura if you want to do something for your child’s birthday. If you would like to do something special or have the birthday recognized, bringing special birthday plates or napkins for snack could be a way to make the day special. Some families have donated a favorite book to the classroom for their children’s birthdays and the book is read that day at group time. Other families just prefer that we sing happy birthday at group time. We want to make the celebration work for you and your child. Bringing food is difficult due to food allergies and we can’t have home-made food. It can still be a special day!
Yesterday a new planning sheet was posted on our blog. The children started doing some of the special activities today like making corn bread muffins.
http://wordpress.miracosta.edu/laurap/2013/10/01/planning-documents-begin-10-1/
Thank you for reading our update!
-The Teachers of Room 4-