Category Archives: Families and Community

Family-Teacher Conferences, Self-Help Skills, and Open House

Posted on September 15, 2014 by Laura Paciorek| Comments Off on Family-Teacher Conferences, Self-Help Skills, and Open House

Dear Families of Room 1:

 

FAMILY-TEACHER CONFERENCES:  Room 1 will be having conferences next week!  Keep an eye out for a calendar near the sign-in book.  We are excited to meet with you so that we can talk about how things are going with you and learn more from you about your child.  Conference slots will be 20 minutes in length and we can provide childcare for children enrolled at the CDC.

 

SELF-HELP SKILLS:  At our teacher planning meeting on Friday, we spent quite a bit of time talking about some of the things we have observed the children doing that indicate they are ready to take some new steps in our routine each day.  Self-help skills are something that young children are learning from infancy onward.  If you are interested in learning more about self-help skills and routines, this article may of interest to you:

 

http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/documents/teaching_routines.pdf

 

I found it to be interesting because it talks about what can be expected at different ages, how to support a child in learning self-help skills, and why a child might resist learning self-help skills.

 

In Room 1, we are going to focus on the following:

 

  • Drinking from an open cup at snack time: We put a little water in the cups so that children can practice drinking from them at snack time.
  • Cleaning their own snack spots: We noticed that children have been wanting to help bring their dishes to the sink, so we will have a bin where they can clear their dishes after snack.
  • Visiting the toilets: We are planning to start bringing some of the children to Room 2 to see the toilets and try them out, if the children are interested.

 

OPEN HOUSE:  You should have received an email about open house on Tuesday, September 30, at 5-6 p.m.  We are looking forward to having you stop by, if you can!  Bring family and friends and see what’s happening in your child’s classroom, chat with your child’s teachers, meet other program families, make new friends, and help us create relationships and develop a sense of community among all involved with our Center. See you there!

 

Have a great week, everyone.

 

  • The Teachers of Room 1 –

 

BCC: Families of Room 1, Teachers of Room 1, Supervising Staff at the CDC

 

Reference:

 

The Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning,

Vanderbilt University (n.d.).

Teaching your child to: Become independent with daily routines.

Retrieved from

http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/documents/teaching_routines.pdf

 

Posted in Classroom Posts, Families and Community, Social Studies

Tagged , ,

Room 1 – Songs We Sing

Posted on August 27, 2014 by Laura Paciorek| Comments Off on Room 1 – Songs We Sing
Dear Families of Room 1:

Thank you so much for sharing your children with us.  We have been having a lot of fun this week.  To create even more of a connection between home and school, we wanted to send you a list of some of the songs that we have been singing with the children, in case you want to sing them at home, too.

The biggest hit in our room has been “Slippery Fish.”  Here’s a link to a video of that song:
Since a lot of buses drive past our school, we sing “The Wheels on the Bus” quite a bit while we are outdoors.
We have a boat outdoors where the children sit and rock back and forth, so we have also been singing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.”
“If You’re Happy and You Know It” is another song we sing quite a bit all throughout the day.
“Old MacDonald” is a song we sing a lot because the sounds of the animals are fun to sing.  Playing with sounds ties strongly to language development.
Children learn language through the words in music and mathematics through the patterns and rhythms of music.  Children also move their bodies when they sing and dance, which enhances physical development.  Lastly, but probably most important, singing together enhances relationships and social development.  It’s something we do together.  It can help with transitions and can lead to emotions of joy, too!
We are excited to continue to build more relationships with you and your children.  Building connections between home and school can be so wonderful for everyone!
-The Teachers of Room 1-

Posted in Families and Community, Language Arts, Music

Tagged , ,

Book about Room 1

Posted on August 20, 2014 by Laura Paciorek| Comments Off on Book about Room 1

Dear Families:

I hope you are all having a great first week of school.  We have truly enjoyed getting to know you all and your children.  Today I created a book for all of you!  It is a book for children and families about Room 1.  The book is attached in PDF format.  I want to encourage you to:
  • ​Print out this book and bind it together somehow so that you and your child can read it together (we use report covers and sheet protectors to make books for children).
AND/OR
  • ​Download the PDF into your eReader, tablet, or phone and have it available for you and your child to scroll through and read/discuss together.
The book is about the environment and routine in Room 1.  It shows places in our classroom that may now be familiar to your child.  Reading this book at home with your child can:
  1. ​Create a connection between home and school
  2. Help your child learn some early literacy skills
  3. Help with the transition to beginning school in Room 1
  4. Create a bond between you and your child
  5. Provide oral language opportunities for your child
We hope that you enjoy this book!  We will be putting some copies into our classroom, too, so that we can read the book with the children in the school setting.  This will create even more of a connection between home and school.
Learning about the routine of school, becoming familiar with the classroom environment, and creating relationships between the adults and children in the classroom are the most important parts of beginning school.  We will continue to work on forming relationships with you and your children.  The family photos and family pages for the children’s journals have been great.  We have those in our classroom already!
If you have any questions about Room 1, please do not hesitate to ask.  We hope that you enjoy this little book about our classroom.  If you have trouble downloading it, please let us know.
Have a great evening.
– The Teachers of Room 1 –
Attachment: My School

 

Posted in Classroom Posts, Families and Community, Language Arts, Social Studies

Tagged , , , ,

Welcome to Room 1 – 2014-2015!

Posted on August 7, 2014 by Laura Paciorek| Comments Off on Welcome to Room 1 – 2014-2015!

Dear Families of Room 1:

We are very excited to start the new year with you! A big part of the beginning of school is building relationships and getting to know one another. To help us do that, we created a “Getting to Know You” questionnaire. You will be getting an email with the questionnaire link, so please check your in-box to see if it has arrived.  You will also be getting a link to a form where you can sign up for Room 1 eNewsletter updates!  Your email address will not be sold or used in any other way besides providing you (and anyone else you would like to add) with information about Room 1 and the Child Development Center at MiraCosta College.

 

My name is Laura Paciorek and I will be the supervising teacher in your child’s classroom. You will get to meet the other teachers soon! In the meantime, I wanted to introduce myself. I have been working at the Child Development Center (CDC) since 2002 and am very excited to be back in Room 1 this year. I personally enjoy music (playing it on my flute, tinkering on the piano, singing it, dancing to it, and listening to it).  I also teach child development classes here at MiraCosta College.  Both working at the CDC and teaching classes are fun and rewarding.

 

In case you are out and about this week, there are a few things that we need each child to have that will help us get started with curriculum and will help us get to know you more right away.  If you can bring these items to orientation, that would be great.  Please bring them on the first day of school if you cannot attend orientation.  If you cannot attend orientation, please plan to arrive a bit early on the first day so that we can meet you and your child and insure we have everything we need to start the day.

 

1)    A family photo in a frame of your choice with the glass removed (4 inch by 6 inch maximum size so there’s room for all of them in the classroom)

2)   A family page or two (8.5 x 11 paper will fit in the journals, not construction paper or square scrapbook paper): Family pages are simple pages that will help us get to know your child more and learn about home. These pages can include family photos, a photo of pets at home, photos of you and your child doing things you enjoy together, and anything else that you feel is meaningful about your child and family. Think of them as simple scrapbook pages (they don’t have to be fancy, though!). Printing out a couple of pages on your computer with photos inserted would be great!  We will put these in your child’s journal and your child can look at the family pages throughout the day.

3)   A spare set of clothes and shoes for your child’s cubby.

4)   A pack of diaper wipes (these will be used for all children unless your child needs a specific kind of wipe).

5)   Diapers (we will put these in a container and use these only for your child).

 

If you have questions about Room 1’s programming, a great way to reach me is through email at lpaciorek@miracosta.edu. We have a blog for the classroom, too, at http://wordpress.miracosta.edu/laurap. Visiting the blog will give you updates about the classroom! You can also call the main Center phone number at 760-795-6656. The classroom voicemail, which does not ring the classroom, is 760-795-6884 ext. 1. If you have questions about enrollment, registration, or payment, please contact Linda Berg at 760-795-6656 or lberg@miracosta.edu. Linda Haar is the Center Director. She can be reached at lhaar@miracosta.edu or 760-795-6862. Katie Donahue, our Program Specialist, is available at kdonahue@miracosta.edu or 760-795-6689.

 

You can also follow the Child Development Center on Facebook (or just peek at our page if you do not use Facebook). It’s a great way to get all-school updates. https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Child-Development-Center-at-MiraCosta-College/213823248677493

 

We hope you have a great last week of summer. We can’t wait to meet you!

 

Sincerely,

Photo of brown-haired woman wearing teal sweater and black shirt standing in front of foliage.

Laura Paciorek

ECE Instructional Specialist

lpaciorek@miracosta.edu

760-795-6884 ext. 1

http://wordpress.miracosta.edu/laurap

Posted in Classroom Posts, Families and Community