Squannacook Early Childhood Center

Welcome to and back to Squannacook Early Childhood Center! It was so nice to see both new and familiar faces at our orientation/open house. Thank you so much for all the wonderful donations to the classrooms. They are greatly appreciated.

The preschool classrooms will be learning about various concepts throughout the school year. During the month of September, our themes will be All About Me and Fall. Later in the month, and into October we begin talking about Fall as the season changes. The children will also be learning academic readiness skills incorporating shapes, colors, letters, numbers, and etc. Incorporating these concepts at home (in their own environment) will help your child make even more of a connection with these concepts and skills. Children often become quite excited and proud when they can show you what they have learned at school as well. We have included a link to a website called Little Bins for Little Hands,Stay at Home Educator and Totschooling. It has some great ideas and activities to do at home to reinforce skills taught through our themes.

As we navigate through the first few days of school, please be aware of our pick up and drop off procedures. If you are walking your child up to the classroom entrance, please make sure you are either directly with them or holding their hand until the SECC staff person accepts them. The mornings and afternoons are very busy with buses and vehicle drop offs. For those of you driving your child to school, please refrain from parking on the left side of the preschool entrance (facing the school). There is not enough space for the vans to leave with cars on both sides of the road. You may also use the parking lot to park and walk your child into the school. Parents/Guardians may not park in the bus loop. Thank you for your assistance.

This fall the preschoolers will be participating in a fundraiser with Square One Art, more details to follow.

We look forward to a fun filled year and working with you and your child. Please know that we are available for you and it is important that you and your child’s teacher communicate often.

Sincerely,

Squannacook Early Childhood Center Teachers

Welcome to SECC!

I am the school nurse and I am so glad to be working with your child this year. A lot of parents have questions about whether to send their children to school if they are not feeling well. Below are instructions for when to keep your child home. Always feel free to call if you are unsure! Students should refrain from attending school and or may be sent home from school for the following reasons:

• Fever of 100 degrees or above, and until the child has had a normal temperature for 24 hours without the use of fever reducing medications, such as, Tylenol or Advil.

• Vomiting or diarrhea within the past 24 hours

• Uncontrollable or infectious cough ( congested, productive)

• Abdominal pains lasting more than 24 hours

• Rash of unknown cause

• Signs of infection in eyes, ears, nose, throat, skin or scalp. For example, but not limited to, infectious conjunctivitis or pink eye, open sores in mouth, untreated strep infection, impetigo or open weeping wounds, live lice or scabies. Students must be cleared by the nurse to return to school.

• Less than 24 hours on antibiotics for infection

• Pain/injury requiring narcotics

Fall Flu Clinic Schedule is Out!

The Nashoba Associated Boards of Health offer a variety of flu clinics for our communities. There is no charge and if you do not have insurance that is not a problem. I am attaching the clinic schedule. If you would like to attend one of the clinics, please sign up in advance by going to www.nashoba.org/calendar or by calling Tamara at 978-772-3335 ext. 340.

Flu Clinic Schedule (2024-25 Season)

https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/10-must-try-fall-science-activities-and-stem-challenges-for-kids

This school year the speech pathologists will be running Speech Groups in each classroom throughout the school year. Each group will include a little articulation, a little language, a little social skills, a little vocabulary and a LOT of music! We will follow the monthly themes of the classroom teachers and do the same letter sounds they are working on. Below is a description of September’s Speech Group. Please share these videos at home so your children can talk to you about what they learned.

First, we will be getting to know each other by asking and providing our names. To start with we will use this video called “What’s Your Name” by Maple Leaf Learning which you can find on youtube here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv1JkBL5728

Then we all sing without the video and each child takes a turn saying or showing their name.

We’ll also be talking about the rules of the classroom. The song we use is called “I Can Follow the Rules” by HeidiSongs that you can find here on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQxK-Ah7has

Finally, we will learn about making different speech sounds. We will start by learning the parts of the mouth - jaw, lips, teeth and tongue - and how to move them to make different sounds. The first sounds are AH, EE and OO. Next we will look at consonants and will do B and P - many English consonants have a loud and quiet counterpart, for example B is loud and P is quiet.

There is no youtube video for this, but ask them to do it for you - it starts like this: “I will sing, you sing too, you sing and I’ll sing with you….”

Enjoy the songs, keep practicing at home and we’ll see you in October!

Miss Judy and Mrs. Rotella

Ways to Improve Upper Body Strength

Working on a vertical surface is a great way to work on strengthening. Use an easel or a piece of paper attached to the wall to color or draw on. This helps to improve your child’s upper body and hand, supporting his/her fine motor development. Lying in a prone position (lying on your tummy propped on your forearms) is another alternative to sitting at the table for coloring, drawing, playing games, and doing puzzles.

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W-sitting

What is W-sitting? W-sitting is when a child sits with their bottom between their legs, knees are bent and both legs are turned away from their body. If you look from above, the legs are in the shape of a W.

Why do children sit this way? For some, it is just the most comfortable position for them. For others it may be to make up for some weakness in the hips and trunk. The added stability of this position allows children to play without the worry of falling over.

Is it bad for children to sit this way? If the child is sitting in this position for an extended time it can have harmful effects on the body.

• This position limits trunk rotation such that the child can not shift weight from side to side. This affects the development of balance reactions as well as the ability to cross midline.

• This position may cause shortening of the muscles causing the legs to rotate inwards and may cause hip or back pain as the child gets older.

• This position also requires little trunk strength where all other sitting positions will help facilitate trunk strengthening.

How can you prevent W-sitting? When you see your child in a W-sit position, encourage another position such as side-sitting, ring sitting, cross legged sitting, long sitting or sitting on a small stool. These positions encourage back and abdominal muscles to strengthen during play, allow for weight to shift from side to side within play, and allow hands to cross midline, working together on either the right or left side of the body.

Important Dates:

October 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Indigenous Peoples Day: No School

October 31………………………………….Early Release (11:45 Dismissal)