MoonDogs Game Photos and Reflection

Thank You for Joining us at the Moon Dogs Game

Woo Hoo!!! We had SO. MUCH. FUN. at the MoonDogs game on July 23rd! Cultivate Mankato families, friends and team members packed the stands, purchasing 128 tickets for the game. We filled nearly TWO sections of the stadium. And we made sure our presence was known! Cultivate Mankato t-shirts were spotted everywhere. Pom poms and clackers in team colors and COWBELLS! MORE COWBELL! In all, we raised $640 for Partners for Housing. That is AWESOME!

Cultivate Community Cookbook Project

Dear Cultivate Mankato Families, Growing up, one of my favorite dishes was my mom ’ s tacos. I remember her cooking the ground beef in cast iron skillets that were handed down to her by her grandmother. She made fresh homemade salsa, chopped avocados (from our avocado tree), hand shredded cheese and lettuce, she would fry the corn tortillas (1 shell at a time) in a tiny cast iron skillet and as they began to harden she would fold one side over the other to form a taco shell and cook a little longer until they were hard and crunchy. While this may sound simple enough it was a process that would take hours of love and included a secret ingredient as well as a memory that would be with me forever. Some of our Cultivate Families have asked for recipes of foods we make here at CM so we thought why not create a Cultivate Mankato Community Cookbook. It will feature recipes of foods made here as well as recipes from local restaurants in and around Mankato and artwork done by the children at CM. Perhaps you have some favorite family recipes you would love to share with us. If you would like to submit your favorite recipe for the cookbook, you can email your recipes to me becky@cultivatemankato.com. Please submit your recipe before August 13. Make sure to include your name and a brief story if there is one to go with your recipe.

Thank you, Becky Fichter

Mental Health Consulting with Crystal Dubbelde

Crystal Dubbelde brings a unique lens to Cultivate Mankato by offering support to the staff as a mental health consultant. Early childhood wellbeing and development are a passion of hers. Crystal graduated from MSUundergraduate degree Mankato with in Social Work. an Upon graduation, she moved to Boston to obtain her graduate degree in Clinical Social Work from Boston University; graduating in 2007. Crystal obtained a certificate in Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health from the University of Minnesota, focusing on child development, social emotion needs of children and understanding service delivery for children ages 0-5. She has been practicing psychotherapy as a clinical social work for the past 14 years.

At Cultivate, we believe that supporting teachers who work with young children is critical to their professional and personal development and helps to promote longevity in the field of early education.

Licensing Visit Community Love Wall Project

Our annual DHS licensor visit has been scheduled for August 3. Our leadership team and teachers have been working hard to ensure that all DHS requirements are in order. But rest assured, we ' re not worried in the least bit about this visit, as we pride ourselves in following all DHS requirements and guidelines every day.

A Glimpse into our Infant Program

Our infant team doesn 't just rock babies all day. It' s a fast paced, busy job that requires patience, professionalism, organization, communication and problem-solving skills. Our staffs ' day consists of multi-tasking, remembering schedules, keeping up with meals, bottles, diaper changes, and naps, facilitating monthly focuses, communicating with parents, teaching social/emotional skills, consoling cries, making decisions, playing, cleaning, and more cleaning, participating in ongoing professional development training, nurturing and loving, and more!

#valueinfantteachers #thankyourinfantteacher #itshardwork

RESCHEDULED for August 26th 5-7pm This event will now conveniently take place at the same time as our family carnival!

We are currently working on opening a new sensory room for CultivateMN. This room will include different items such as large motor items, sensory books, and a few different sensory table top activities that help children with high sensory needs, sensory processing disorders, and sensory diets. This will be available to all children that attend Cultivate Mankato. The items are mobile and can transfer from building to building. We are asking for your help in funding this project. We have a great need at Cultivate for these resources to support children with various sensory needs. The estimated cost of the project is around $5,000. If you are interested and able to donate, CLICK HERE. All donations will also be tax deductible! Any contributions will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you, Cultivate MN

What is a sensory room and who benefits? A sensory room—a therapeutic space with a variety of equipment that helps children with sensory issues calm and focus themselves so they can be better prepared for learning and interacting with others. Sensory issues occur when a child has a difficult time receiving and responding to information from their senses. Children who have sensory issues may have an aversion to anything that triggers their senses, such as light, sound, touch, taste, or smell. Symptoms of sensory processing issues may depend on the way in which a child processes sensations. Children who are easily stimulated may have hypersensitivity. Children who aren ’t as easily stimulated experience fewer sensations and have hyposensitivity. Sensory spaces in schools have been shown to decrease negative behaviors and improve student engagement. The benefits of sensory rooms in schools have led some educators to begin using sensory rooms for groups of students beyond those with a diagnosed sensory processing disorder or developmental disability. Having sensory rooms within a school can also reduce the need to send students out of the school for additional services. For students who need to work with occupational or physical therapists, these professionals can be brought into the school, rather than students being taken out of class and the school to have these appointments. This maintains consistency in a student’ s day and reduces the amount of time they have to be away from school.

Giving Back to Our Community Upcoming Study

Our Giving Back to the Community event for August is going to be a special one. This month Cultivate MN is teaming up with Cultivate Mankato. At the Cultivate Mankato Carnival on Thursday, August 26, we will be doing a DUNK THE STAFF fundraiser for 9 year-old Fritz Urban and his family. $10 per ball for a chance to dunk your favorite Cultivate Mankato team member (example: $50 donation = 5 balls thrown at the staff member of your choosing). The Urban Family ’ s story could be any of our stories. From Fritz and the Uninvited Guest: Fritz was diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma, a rare and aggressive cancer. He has a large tumor in his mandible that his parents originally mistook for a severely abscessed tooth. He is getting medical care from Mayo Clinic in Rochester and is charming the oncology and surgical departments already. His treatment will involve 14-17 rounds of chemotherapy, radiation, and there will also be an extremely intense surgery to remove the tumor (about the size of an egg) along with a good amount of his mandible, which will be rebuilt using bone from his leg. His chemo will be delivered inpatient in Rochester, so we will be getting to know this world renowned medical resource that is just down the road from our home. We are very fortunate. Click Here to Learn More. Updates on Fritz can be found on their FB page Fritz and the Uninvited Guest.

P L E D G E N O W

Within our education curriculum, we use studies to guide our lesson planning. Studies are a broad concept that we focus on for 4-6 weeks. Currently our study has been about art. This month we will begin our diversity study. If you feel your family has something special to share in regards to our upcoming study, we would love family participation. Reach out!

Some pictures from our Art Study the last few weeks.