Tentatively Casey will work VERY full time for the first month or more because she has indicated that she feels strongly that she wants to see parents as much as possible at drop off and pick up. She plans to arrive at 7:30 and most days will stay until 5:00pm or so. Please take the time to meet and welcome her. It's hard starting a new job mid way through the school year and we are very lucky she was available.

To clarify a couple questions that have come up about the transition:

We were able to make a smooth transition and determine our plans in a timely manner because we knew early on (last May) that Tracey was pregnant and that her husband's position with UVA Football was up in the air. We hired two directors to work at Mill Creek under Kathe Petchel to allow their training to occur jointly and to encourage strong teaming among the two new directors. Amy Hourigan takes over the Mill Creek location on Monday and has 6 years of director experience. She lives in the Mill Creek neighborhood and one of her children goes to Cale Elementary, so the Mill Creek placement made sense for her. Both directors are supported by P.J. Gilbert, our Senior Director at the Forest Lakes school. P.J. has been a director at Bright Beginnings for 10 years. She lives in Greene County, making the Forest Lakes placement perfect for her. One of her jobs as Senior Director is to mentor and supervise the other directors. She has held this position for 7 years. Laura Tomaine, CFO and Executive Director, continues to be a strong support at Crozet planning to be available at least two full days. She will also spend two full days at Mill Creek now to provide both new directors a lot of support. Kathe Petchel will support Casey and the staff at Crozet until we all agree the transition is complete. As always we have our wonderful Miss Sue, who pretty much keeps everything running smoothly. We so much appreciate everything she does for all of us both professionally and personally and know you do too. Our wonderful staff have met with us throughout the week and have been very enthusiastic about the plans. There appear to be no issues or concerns from them and of course we will continue to touch base often to make sure questions and concerns are addressed immediately with them.

Hiring a Permanent Director

As I mentioned in the letter this week, Casey Shupe will be leaving to go to law school sometime in July, 2010. We will immediately begin a search for a permanent director and will hire the very best candidate available for the position. Although we have an experienced candidate on our wish list (Brittany Veith, who will continue to work part time with us until she graduates from JMU next spring with a degree in Early Childhood Education- Brit has been with us since she was a pre schooler and worked at BB since she was 14), we obviously will widen our search to be sure the most suitable candidate is hired. Also, in the preschool world, especially in an area as transient as Charlottesville, much can happen between now and next summer so we know it’s wise to always be open to new team members. We consistently are on the lookout for wonderful staff: directors, specialty teachers and classroom teachers! Parents who have input are welcome to speak with me, Casey, Sue or Laura at any time. Parent feedback and referrals are an important part of the partnership we strive to maintain with families. Please do not hesitate to give us your thoughts!

Director Qualifications

Please note that since we are a licensed child care facility and emphasize the educational aspect of our program, we (and the Commonwealth) require our Program Director to have a college degree, and strongly prefer it to be in education or an education related discipline. As I said, we are always on the lookout for wonderful additions to our staff, but we also are always encouraging our staff to grow and develop professionally. If you refer to the recent rate letter we sent, the chart gives great details about staff credentials and current education endeavors. All Crozet staff have been aware of the upcoming changes and are encouraged to apply for positions that interest them.

We have a strong history of developing talent from within our program and newer parents may not be aware of the programs already in place. For instance, presently we have three staff members schoolwide, training intensively with Laura Tomaine as new assistant directors. We believe in cross training and are on the lookout within our program for new administrators. At the moment no one from the Crozet school has expressed an interest, although we have pulled a couple aside this week! We encourage all staff to consider their professional goals and try to provide them the support needed to achieve them.

The Crozet community is growing and we intend to continue to grow and work with families with young children for many years.  Your feedback and suggestions are vital to our growth and we appreciate your help. A special thank you to our wonderful Parent Advisory Board for their initial feedback and questions which allowed us to clarify some of your questions.

Additional News and Notes

The Charlottesville/Albemarle Health Department is offering H1N1 vaccine for children who need their first or second dose by appointment only on Tuesday, December 8th, 3:00 – 7:00 p.m. at the health department on 1138 Rose Hill Drive (entrance #3).   

Individuals may call 972-6299 weekdays to make an appointment.
  
The following vaccines, both preservative-free, are available at this clinic:
 
* Injectable vaccine (flu shot): for children 6 to 35 months of age  
* Nasal spray (or Flu Mist): for healthy, non-pregnant individuals 2 to 24 years of age 

We are working on a new cookbook from Bright Beginnings and would love a recipe from each family.  Please send one in so you can be part!  Please submit your recipe as soon as possible if you have not already.

We hope you all had a chance to catch the awesome article and photos from our three and four year old classes in last week’s Daily Progress.  There is a copy posted on the front bulletin board if you missed it.  Our students really impressed the community with their “How to Cook a Turkey” recipes. 

The results are in! Our Scholastic Book Fair was a great success thanks to you!  We made almost $1,000, and it was our best fair in school history. 

SPEECH WEEKLY- Children who speak two languages

Help Your Child Understand and Learn to Ask Questions

Being able to understand question forms and being able to ask questions is an essential part of language development. It's the way we give and get information about our world. Questions lay the foundation for children to participate in conversations, demonstrate their knowledge and gather information.
First, however it is important for you as a parent to understand basic age guidelines for both asking and answering questions so that you guide your expectations accordingly.
Age Guidelines for Understanding/Answering Questions:
1-2 years understands "What's this?" and simple "Yes/No"
2-3 years understands ("What are you doing?"), understands simple "Who?" ("Who's that?"), understands simple "Where?" ("Where is daddy?"), understands simple "What" (function)? ("What do you do with a toothbrush?")
3-4 years understands simple "How?" ("How did you do that?"), understands simple "Why?" ("Why is he crying?"), understands simple "What…if?", "How many/much?" and "which?"
4-5 years understands "When?"
5-6 years understands most questions, but will still have trouble with complex and abstract questions.
A child's ability to understand and answer questions appropriately develops gradually. By including your child in conversation as much as possible you are providing a good model for your child of rich language including question forms.
Here are some tips for helping your child answer questions:
* Make sure you have your child's attention before asking a question
* Include your child in as many conversations as possible
* Use as many comments as questions during your conversation
* Allow time for your child to think and respond to your question
* Make your child feel successful by asking the types of questions you know he can answer
* Model the answer if you think your child doesn't understand
* Ask simple questions while reading to your child ("What is that?", "Who is crying?", "What is she doing?", "Why did he do that?"…)
* Ask questions by recapping events from your child's day
* Use visual cues if necessary to help your child understand
*
Here are some tips for helping your child ask questions:
 Give your child your full attention when he is trying to ask a question
 Be patient if your child is struggling putting thoughts into word
 If your child's word order is not correct for asking a question, model the correct word order
 Engaging with your child in interesting activities will stimulate your child wanting to learn more
 Play games with your child where you ask him a question and then he has to ask you a similar question
 
Your child’s understanding and formulation of questions lays a foundation for developing skills in all areas of communication and processing information in his environment. Parents and caregivers have endless opportunities to give children practice in questioning and answering techniques. The mastery of answering and asking questions is invaluable to the early learner.

Financial Memo

We are proud to host a series of holiday fun during the month of December with our Elf Club.  Each week has a different theme: Holiday Crafts, Traditions of the Season, and Festive Cooking Projects.  See the front desk for more information and to sign up.

Reminder:  We close promptly at 6:00 p.m. Late pick up is $3.00 for first 15 min and $5.00 after that.
 
A fee of $2.00 per minute will be charged for children picked up between 6:00-6:15 p.m. for full day schedules, after 12:30-1:00 p.m. for half-day schedules or infants and toddler before 7:30 a.m. and after 5:30 p.m.   After 6:15 p.m. the late pick up charge is $3.00 per minute.

What’s Cooking?!?!?

OATMEAL RAISIN COOKIES
 
Reynolds® Parchment Paper
1/2 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups quick oats, uncooked
1/2 cup raisins or dried sweetened cranberries

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line 2 cookie sheets with Reynolds Parchment Paper; set aside.
Combine flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon on a sheet of parchment paper; set aside.
Cream butter and brown sugar together in a large bowl, with an electric mixer 2 to 3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually add flour mixture and beat until well blended. Stir in oats and raisins. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto parchment-lined cookie sheets.
Bake, 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Slide cookies on parchment onto a wire rack to cool.

CLASS NOTES

 Pelican- Ms. Sue and Ms. Meredith

 We hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving with family and friends.  We missed our Pelicans over the long weekend, but had a ton of fun to make up for lost time this week!  We started off our week by making the letter of the week “M”, and talking about things that start with the letter “M” like milk, mom, mouse and music.  Whenever we talk about or hear music, the class gets excited for dance time.  Seeing us shake all over the room must definitely be a sight!  We also did some counting, by stacking up toys, “1, 2, 3”, then they crashed!  Berkeley and Maegan had such a blast that they didn’t want to stop!  Keaton worked on his sense of touch feeling the different textures of our teething toys.  The class at large enjoyed working on sensory play through using scent bottles, full of peppermint, vanilla and lemon.  Ms. Sue and Ms. Meredith loved watching their little noses wiggle as we gave them a little puff of each scent.  We also had a great time in dramatic play with our classroom costumes and hats.  We enjoy seeing how long Sami and Ashlyn would leave the hats on!  Although they looked awfully cute, they were always ready to move on to the next item to wear :)!  We even used our mirror to see what we looked like- we loved seeing and trying to touch ourselves in the glass!  Have a great weekend and see you Monday!
                              
Kangaroos- Ms. Jen and Ms. Kim

 The Kangaroos are having fun making patterns with blocks, puzzles, and colors.  We have been working hard on our colors by talking about hair color, the color of our clothes, and even the color of the toys we use in our room!  For social studies, we have been talking about places in our community, especially the ones we enjoy visiting.  The letter of the week was “M”, so we colored our “M’s” in Christmas colors for “Merry Christmas”!  Additional art projects we did were making footprint reindeer.  All of the Kangaroos had a great time getting their feet painted.  We also made wrapping paper collages and in the spirit of the upcoming weekend weather report, we made snowflakes too!  We are very excited to be in the Christmas parade on Sunday at 3 p.m. and hope to see you there.  Have a great weekend!

 Peacock- Ms. Lee

 Hello Peacock families and friends!  This week in the Peacock Class we had fun learning about winter, holidays, and families.  We have been working on and having fun making all kinds of glittery snowflakes to decorate our classroom for the holidays.  We also drew pictures of Santa Claus and then worked on writing letters to him.  We have been focusing on patterns, using our blocks and other items around the classroom.  We also have been practicing the song “Jingle Bells” using real bells in our room.  The whole class, especially Connor, really enjoyed this activity.  Christmas is right around the corner, so we will begin to work on our very special presents for home.  If you have any questions or would like to have a conference, please sign-up on the door or let me know.  Have a nice weekend- stay warm!

Bunny- Ms. Whitney

 What a wonderful week for the Bunny class!  We welcomed a new student, Elara, from the Kangaroo class- welcome Elara!  All of our bunny friends have done a wonderful job making her feel welcome and comfortable in her new class! 
 In math this week, we started working on opposites.  We learned the difference between tall and short and big and small.  We found toys in our class that helped demonstrate this as well.  Riley and Makayla liked using the legos to build towers, and then see which one was taller!  Next week we will continue with the opposite theme and discover hot vs. cold and night vs. day.  During science, we discussed winter.  We discovered the changes in temperature and the wonderful and exciting things that happens in winter-  like SNOW!  We also talked about Christmas.  Emily and Martin got very excited when we talked about Santa, Christmas trees, and everything else that goes with the holiday season!
 For language arts, we discovered fairy tales.  Ms. Whitney brought in a childhood book of hers that was filled with fun fairy tales- Elara and Addie loved listening to the stories!  For social awareness this week we discussed family and community.  We learned that a family isn’t only at home, but you also have your “school family”.  We discovered ways to help our classmates out, and if we work together as a team we can get a job done faster and it’s a lot more fun!  Now we say, “What’s going to work?  Teamwork!”  Thank you for another wonderful week in the Bunny class!  Have a great weekend!

Walrus- Ms. Erin

 December is here!  November was full of fun, turkeys, and thanks!  The Walrus class has been enjoying the holiday season and learning lots.  In math we worked on counting and patterns.  We counted beads for our beaded necklaces and created patterns using math manipulatives.  This week we’ve been focusing on estimating.  We took turns making a guess as to how many beads were in a jar.  Thomas’ estimate was closest as he guessed there were 19 beads in the jar and there were actually 28.  In science we researched deserts and wetlands.  We learned about the environment of both as well as what kinds of plants and animals can thrive in those particular places.  In language arts we did connect the dots, tracing in order to write the letter “K”.  We also had community meeting where we learned “A Wise Old Owl.”  We are currently learning all about the letter “M” as well as reviewing all of the letters from past weeks!  In art we made turkeys out of our handprints and in celebration of the kickoff of December we made reindeer out of Popsicle sticks!  In social studies we discussed what we are thankful for and learned about Hanukkah.  We read “Where’s My Dreidel” and talked about different holidays of December.  We discussed how people may celebrate different holidays as wells as have their own unique holiday traditions.  We’re all becoming more and more independent each day and are so proud that we are able to do so many things on our own!  We’re very excited about the upcoming holidays and are looking forward to all of the fun things we’ll be doing at school!  Have a great weekend and stay warm!
Reminders and Information:  I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  If you haven’t already, please send in a picture of your student so that I can put it in their portfolio.  Also, we are creating a family board so please send in a family photo (if you haven’t done so already) for us to post.  Thanks you for all of your donations of cooking and craft supplies.  We appreciate all that you do for our class!

Rooster – Ms. Amanda

      Welcome back!  We hope everyone had a fantastic holiday weekend!  We were hard at work this week!  In science this week, we used our “touch” sense at the sensory table with rice.  We also researched deciduous trees using our Encarta Kids computer software.  In math, we worked on graphing our favorite holidays together.  We also worked with patterns, creating our own patterns using differently shaped and colored blocks.
      In language arts, we began working with a new letter of the week, the letter “M”.  We brainstormed words that start with “M”, practiced writing the letter “M”, and learned a song about “M”.  In art, we created bead bracelets and wore them home.  We also created our own wrapping paper using holiday stamps, and used real wrapping paper to make a wrapping paper collages.  In social studies and social awareness, we learned about the types of holidays celebrated in December.  We also shared how our families celebrate in December. 
      The highlight of our week was our cooking project!  We made our very own edible snowflakes using tortillas and powdered sugar.  They were so fun and yummy to make!  Thank you to the parents who helped out!