Child Care March 2017 Newsletter

TOWN OF BEAUMONT EARLY LEARNING CHILD CARE SCHOOL AGE SITE NEWS INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Supervisors Update

1

Sunshine & Green

2

Rainbow & Gold Room

3

Kinder Room

4

Pictures

5

ELCC Snack Menu

6

SAS Update

7

SAS Snack Menu

8

Stress and Children

9

Fee Schedule

10

Supervisor, ELCC Jodie Vesso 780-929-1263 jodie.vesso@ beaumont.ab.ca Sunshine, Green & Rainbow Rooms phone: 780-929-5913 Gold & Kinder room phone: 780-929-5914 Supervisor, School Age Site Christopher Kruk 780-929-2173 chris.kruk@ beaumont.ab.ca SAS Room Phone: 780-929-2190

2017 Closure Dates: April 14 and 17 May 22 July 3 August 7 September 4 October 9 November 13 December 25,26,27

ELCC Supervisor Update Our team has been working on completing our annual Re-Accreditation report. This is done yearly, in between the large three year process we go through.

For more information on Accreditation please check out: http://www.aelcs.ca/ Pages/default.aspx Reminders:  Please bring in an 8GB USB/flash drive so we can complete your child’s digital portfolio  Fees are due between the 1st and 5th of each month. Any fees not paid in full by the 5th will result in finance charges.  Scholastic orders are due in by the 15th of each month. Please make cheques payable to Scholastic Canada.  If your child will be absent from the program for any reason, call or text the room to let us know.  We are required to follow licensing and Alberta Health guidelines when dealing with sick children. Children must be symptom free for 2 4 hours prior to coming back to the center if they have been sent home. Children with a fever of 38 C/100 F, vomiting or diarrhea are not able to attend the program until symptoms are resolved. This is to protect all children and staff attending the center.

Have a great Month!!

SAS Supervisor Update Since 2012 the program has been accredited and every 3 years, the program needs to undergo the process of re-accreditation. This year we will be seeking to receive reaccreditation status for 2018. This big undertaking ensures that the program continues the benefits of receiving provincial grant funding and providing quality child care that exceeds provincial regulations. This table highlights the differences between being licensed and being accredited.

LICENSING

ACCREDITATION

Mandatory under regulation

Voluntary (by application)

Sets the regulated minimum standards

Sets standards of high quality

Purpose is to meet health, safety and developmental needs of children

Purpose is to achieve standards of excellence

Compliance required

Commitment required

Government regulated and monitored

Sector developed and supported

Recognizes compliance

Recognizes achievement

Our program cell phone number is (780) 862-7803.

Our program room phone number is (780) 929-2190.

Thank, have a great month! Chris Kruk

Sunshine Room

Tendai—Early Childhood Program Coordinator Michelle—Early Childhood Program Assistant

The month of February has been short but busy! The sunshine room children have really enjoyed taking care of each other. We have watched them find shoes in the bin and bring them to the person they belong to, and in some cases sit and help them try and put them on. The weather was cold at the beginning of the month and we did not get outside as often as we would have liked but on the days we did you could see the children were working very hard trying to get all that outdoor gear on!

They have really enjoyed taking care of the babies in the room. Carrying them around, taking them for rides in the stroller or grocery cart, letting the baby have a turn on the ramp and rides on the giraffe, and trying to dress and undress them.

The grocery store was a lot of fun for them, and they have also really enjoyed the Doctor supplies. They will put the Doctor coats on, surgical masks and shoe covers and they will check everyone in the room’s ears and heart beat!

We sing a lot of songs in the sunshine room! The children will now cue us either by saying a few words from a song or doing a specific action as to what song they want to sing. They also recently have started to show a huge interest in stories. They will many times a day bring us books and put them in our laps and sit with us to read.

We encourage you to step inside the room when you have a few minutes and walk around and look at artwork and pictures of the children during play. Recently the bulletin boards have been changed and you can see the children took some “selfies” and have been busy painting with a variety of different materials and tried a gluing activity. Sand, water and playdough are also favourites in our room.

We have come to that point in the season where it is cold in the morning but warmer in the afternoon. If you could please bring some lighter outdoor wear (splash pants and lighter jackets) for the children to wear on the warmer days and store it in their cubies it would be helpful.

Green Room

Laura—Early Childhood Program Coordinator Kristi—Early Childhood Program Assistant

It’s hard to believe that February has come and gone already. We still are exploring collections, but have added a little side project to our planning. The children are all about hockey lately and we want to foster this interest. So we’ve been setting up lots of different hockey experiences both in our room, the Teen Centre and outside, but we’ve decided to go one step farther. We are currently working on creating a hockey arena in our room to see where the children go with it. We are planning on hanging banners and flags from the ceiling to create a lower roof like an arena and adding hockey nets, sticks, pucks, jerseys, and helmets to the house corner area. We are so excited to see how the children will engage and explore this new set up.

We are very excited for the return of spring and all the fun and exciting experiences we get to explore when the warmer weather arrives. We are planning on growing a garden in our park again this year; some of you might be wondering what the blue pool full of dirt by our fence is and that would be our garden. We had a very successful garden season last year and we can’t wait to dive into this project with the children again. This project is so amazing and allows for so much learning and exploration.

Although spring can bring some really warm days, there’s definitely some chilly days too. If you have splash pants for your child we would greatly appreciate it if you could put them in your child’s outside cubbie. Some days we still need to be wearing snow pants, but by the afternoon splash pants are more than enough to keep them warm and dry. Also an extra set of mitts is always great, sometimes the temptation of puddles gets the best of us and we can’t help ourselves from exploring them.

Rainbow Room

Beth—Early Childhood Program Coordinator Lorena—Early Childhood Program Assistant Tammy—Early Childhood Program Assistant

Welcome to March, the children are enjoying the warm weather and especially not having to wear hats and mittens in the afternoon. Our focus for March will continue to be on building and construction. We had a special visitor, Beth’s Dad – “Big Jim” came to show us his tools and talk to us about his building experiences. Everyone was especially excited about his power tools!

We will be posting pictures soon, please keep an eye out for them. We created a hammering stump which the Rainbow room loved. Everyone enjoyed trying out the hammers and wearing the cool safety glasses. In March we hope to take a trip to Home Hardware to check out all their building supplies. We have a new friend, Gurshann joined our room at the end of February and will be coming on Tuesdays and Thursdays – welcome to his family. Here is some information regarding the benefit of building experiences for your children. Using building blocks requires your child to put them in a position so that they do not topple over. As a result, hand-eye coordination improves the more the child plays. The act of grasping the blocks itself serves as good practice for gripping objects, and strengthens the fingers and hands of the child. Your child learns to think logically when playing with building blocks. After a few tries at building something and watching the blocks topple over, your child will learn that the blocks have to be arranged and placed properly to prevent that from happening. An older child will also realize that a stronger base can be made if you arrange most of the blocks at the bottom. Logical thinking skills are crucial in a child’s intellectual development. Studies have shown that the inclusion of building blocks in playtime helps develop language and mathematical skills among children. Language skills develop when the child learns the names of the colors, shapes and sizes of building blocks. Mathematical skills are sharpened when a child learns to add up or subtract the number of building blocks required to build a structure. As such, it’s easy to see why building blocks are a great preschool learning tool. Children learn how to create different structures using building blocks, and this stimulates their creative mind. Thus building blocks offer a good base to encourage a child’s creative abilities and not just the logical. Building blocks are the type of toys that a child can share with others. By encouraging them to play together they learn how to interact and cooperate. This is among the first forms of teamwork your child can engage in.

Thank you, Beth, Tammy and Lorena

Gold Room

Joanna—Early Childhood Program Coordinator Melissa—Early Childhood Program Assistant Jodi—Early Childhood Program Assistant

Time is flying by as we approach beautiful spring! The weather is still cold sometimes, so make sure your children are prepared for the outdoors every day, weather permitting that we go out. It is a good idea to have two pairs of gloves and a pair of pants, as enjoying snow and mud is fun but wet.

We are still focusing on science and nature, as well as the miniature worlds of Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, dragons, Paw Patrol and all kinds of mini creatures. The children create stories, plots and dialogs based on their experiences with literature and imagination, using provided props such as superhero belts, glasses, capes, etc.

Our recycled-material robot was a fun group project, involving parents in gathering some small household appliances for the take a part center, which resulted in a new classroom friend named ECHO. During the month of February we welcomed a Grant McEwan student, Julia Min, who will come back for her four-week block placement in March. She will be learning, observing and preparing some fun activities for the children. We wish her many happy moments with us in the Gold Room.

Our skating is steadily progressing and we still have one more Skating Day before the end of the season. The date will be: Wednesday, March 8th, from 10:30am to 11:30 am. Parents are always welcome to join us.

Simple ways to get ready for Kindergarten: Cutting with scissors Kindergarten is filled with art projects. Get your child ready by giving them a pair of child-sized scissors. Have them practice cutting paper, cardboard, playdough, fabric and straws.

Happy Birthday to Nixin and Owen!

Kinder Room

Amy—Early Childhood Program Coordinator Stephanie—Early Childhood Program Assistant Lyndsey—Enhanced Ratio Support

This month the children in the kinder room have been very intrigued by the concept of obstacles and pathways. We have been finding ways of moving over, under, around and through places not only in our room, but outside and in teen centre as well! We have created jumping and climbing courses in our room where the children explore ways of controlling their body and testing their agility! We made a laser obstacle in the hallway using streamers, which after a while the children decided wasn't challenging enough, so they brought items from our room to make 'traps' on the floor that they had to avoid also!

While the weather this month has certain had its ups and downs, we have been loving all of the warmth we are getting! It has brought us a wonderfully large puddle in the rainbow room park! The children have been using this opportunity to bring over all kinds of shovels, trucks, and other tools they may need to develop an intricate system of rivers and pathways through the mud. I know it may be difficult picking up your child every day covered in mud, but I can assure you the amount of learning and fun that has gone along with it, makes it all worth while!!! They have been learning to work as a team to connect their paths, and plan out ways to get the water moving exactly where they want it to move, and pool in places they want it to be a bit deeper. They have been developing an amazing sense of community as they invite children from the younger rooms to help, and explain to them what they have already done so far!

With spring right around the corner, please feel free to pack an extra set of clothes(including socks!) and splash pants in your child's backpack, as we go outside twice a day, and once the outdoor clothes get wet, it makes it a bit more challenging to put it back on in the afternoon!

ELCC SNACK MENU— March 2017 Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

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*All snacks and lunch are served with milk and water

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Eggo waffles with syrup & orange slices

Apple slices with yogurt

Cucumber slices with cheese and crackers

Pea butter & jam sandwiches 8

7

Fruit cocktail & mini caramel rice cakes

Banana bites with pea butter & jam

Tuna melts on ritz crackers

Trail Mix

Yogurt & granola

3 LEFT OVER FRIDAY

9 Mandarin oranges with bagels & jam

10 LEFT OVER FRIDAY

Red peppers with melted cheese & salsa, crackers

13 14 15 Mini rice cakes Yogurt with frozen Peaches with Teddy with apple slices berries grahams & cinnamon Fresh fruit salad & fig newtons

2

Hard boiled eggs & Triscuits with cream toast cheese and sliced tomato

20 21 Raisin bread & Rice Krispies with applesauce orange slices Yogurt in ice cream cones with berries

Pasta with Alfredo sauce & Parmesan cheese

27 Scrambled eggs & tomatoes

Cheerios with banana slices

Cucumber salad with Italian dressing & crackers

English muffin mini pizza with ham & cheese

28

Rice with vegetables & soy sauce 16 Shreddies with strawberries LEFT OVER FRIDAY Pita with hummus & peppers

22 23 Yogurt with bran Pea butter, tortilla buds & banana wraps Nacho chips with hummus & tomatoes

24 LEFT OVER FRIDAY

Cereal bars with sliced pears

29 30 Cinnamon toast with Graham wafer with fresh fruit banana slices Celery stalks, cream cheese & fish crackers

17

Meat, cheese & crackers

31 LEFT OVER FRIDAY *Birthday snack— PM

SCHOOL AGE SITE

Supervisor, Chris Kruk Program Coordinator, Shirley Webster Program Assistant, Karissa George Program Assistant, Jamie Scott Program Assistant, Ingrid Holtz Program Support, Karen Hanchurak & Ariunaa Tsend

First off the staff and children were all excited to hear about the arrival of baby Grayson. Congratulations to Karissa and Galen. Grayson sure is a cutie and we are all looking forward to when they come in for a visit. Both Grayson and Karissa are doing well.

We hope that everyone enjoyed the Family Day weekend spending time with family and loved ones. It was a great weekend to get out and enjoy fun activities.

We had a busy month which included two PD days. The first day we went skating, It is great to see how the children are improving on skates. Friday we spent a relaxing day enjoying playing with our toys and spending time with friends.

The children really enjoy crafting but unfortunately we are starting to run low on materials. If you have any recyclable materials at home please bring the in to us. This includes paper towel rolls, bottle and milk jug lids, small boxes, small containers etc. The children are very creative when making their crafts so almost anything goes.

The Reading Club winner for the month was Joesph. Congratulations and for everyone else keep on reading.

Spring break is coming up the end of March so please keep a look out for emails telling everyone of the activities that we are planning.

The weather is challenging for everyone this time of year. It can be warm, cold, wet and icy all in a matter of hours.

Even if it is warmer temperatures the snow is wet so we ask that the children have ski pants, or splash pants when outside. Also afterschool when we do go outside the temperature starts dropping so it does cool down so we ask that they wear their coats or a heavy hoodie. Also please ensure that your child’s boots are clearly marked with their names or initials. Many of the children have the same style boots and in the rush to go home they put on the wrong pair.

Have a great month! SAS

Karissa’s baby Grayson Taylor George Born February 19, 2017 5lbs 8 ounces 18 inches long

Birthday wishes go out to – Evangeline March 2 Adrian March 12 Katarina March 18 Isabella March 20 Sophie March 24 Kinley March 26 We all hope you have a great day.

School Age Site March Snack Menu Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday Early Dismissal 1 Cereal

Thursday

Friday

2 Toast

3 Left Over Friday

6 Cereal

7 Yogurt

Fruit

Mini Meatloaves

8 Muffins

9 Cereal

10 Left Over Friday

Veggies/Dip

Perogies

Fruit

Pudding

13 Cereal

14 Pancakes

15 Oatmeal

16 Toast

17 Left Over Friday

Nacho Salad

Quesadillass

Veggies/Dip

Yogurt Bark

20 Cereal

21 Cereal

22 Applesauce/Graham Crackers

23 Eggs

Soup & Crackers

Apples & Cheese

27 Cereal

28 Bagels & Cream Cheese

English Muffins with Cheese

Fruit Salad

24 Left Over Friday

English Muffins & Cheese

Mini Subs

29 Raisin Toast

30 Melba Toast & Cheese

31 Left Over Friday

Yogurt & Granola Bars

Ham & Cheese Roll Ups