Dear TECEC families,
Thank you to everyone who was able to join us on Wednesday evening for our annual back to school night. It was my pleasure meeting many of you for the first time in addition to reconnecting with returning families.
On Tuesday, we held our annual PBIS (Positive Behavior and Intervention Support) bucket filling kickoff assembly, enjoying the beautiful weather that allowed us to host the event outdoors. The children were introduced to Barky, Bucket Filling Bob, and Princess Pom Pom, and they enthusiastically learned our school BARK chant and joined in a dance party. Look out for pictures from this event next week.
For those curious about BARK, it represents the core values of our PBIS program, which all Trumbull schools participate in. This program fosters a positive culture supporting social, emotional, and academic success. BARK stands for Be safe, Act responsibly, show Respect, and demonstrate Kindness—the TECEC BARK. For more information, please reach out to your child’s classroom teacher or visit our TECEC website at https://tecec.trumbullps.org/
You might be wondering, "What is bucket filling?" At TECEC, we celebrate positive behaviors such as safety, responsibility, respect, and kindness. Individuals earn pom poms that contribute to their personal, class, and ultimately school-wide buckets. When a bucket is filled, we host a school-wide fun event to celebrate all the positivity.
In a few weeks, we will host a parent workshop where you can learn more about this initiative. Feedback on our past workshops has been overwhelmingly positive. Connecting positive practices at home with those at school benefits our children and strengthens our community.
Kind regards,
Principal
No food items with peanut or nut products
In an effort to maintain a safe environment for our students with life threatening allergies, snacks may not contain peanuts, other nut products, or be processed in factories that may use nuts. Please read all food labels prior to sending in food with your children. We are unable to provide a list of peanut free foods as the list changes daily.
Thank you for your support!
Welcome to TECEC! We're so happy to have your little ones join us for their first preschool experience. It's been a wonderful beginning to the 2024-2025 school year filled with smiles and laughter as we've started exploring school routines and getting to know each other. We have also introduced our listening rules song which is used school-wide to help our kids be safe and ready to learn. Here is the link if you would like to listen at home. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AWnV_3OLk0 We also successfully practiced our first emergency drills.
Our first thematic unit is “All About Me", which includes body parts, I am Special, the 5 senses and family.
Just a quick note to mention that comfortable play clothes and sneakers are the best choice for our active school day. We kindly ask that you avoid sending your child in Crocs as they may not offer the same level of safety during playtime. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation in keeping our little ones comfy and safe.
A huge thank you to the PTO and the Town of Trumbull for completing phase one of our new playground for the arrival of our little ones! We all love it!
I hope it has been a wonderful start to the school year for everyone! For those of you that I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting, my name is Gabrielle Ballatore, aka “Miss Gabby,” and I am the music teacher here at TECEC. I am very excited to share my special love of music with your children for what is starting my 20th year.
My music program includes singing, sign language, creative movement and physical activities, playing and learning about different musical instruments, and playing musical games. Most of my lessons correspond to the classroom themes. My goal is to help your children in their development of listening skills, oral language skills, auditory discrimination, problem solving, social skills, and self-esteem. In a nurturing environment, I motivate children to enjoy music and grow more confident in themselves, and their ability to express themselves creatively through music.
The start to the school year has included songs like Hickelty Picklelty Bumblebee and Bounce One Bounce Two, to help students learn and retain their new friends’ names, and many new musical activities based on learning instruments, rhythm and movement. I have been incorporating colors (Touch the Colors), and have done some variations on freeze dance that have had the kids laughing and having fun. We have been moving our bodies to songs like Popcorn, We All Fall Down, and Run, Baby Run, all of which help make this new transition to school easier for some of our children. Songs this first month are based on our beginning themes, All About Me, I Am Special, Body Parts, and Five Senses. In addition, we have started learning about some instruments such as tambourines and claves (which are short sticks to tap together), and we have also played spoons…..yes, spoons Ha! So, if your children have come home and asked to borrow two spoons at home to make music, that is why. We have also been starting to learn our TECEC School Song, which will take time with all of the lyrics and because I do not see the classes every day, but my hope is that by Winter break they have at least half of the lyrics learned, and by the end of year the entire song. We will sing a number of songs related to some social and emotional areas of our curriculum as well, like I’ve Got Love, Love Grows, Be Kind, Be Patient and many more. My repertoire includes songs for all different levels, which include songs about counting and I use a lot of visuals to reinforce lyrics.
This year I will also be sending out school wide announcements on Class Dojo, to help me communicate with parents and easily share music, pictures, and videos with everyone. This is an app you can download onto your cell phones. I am hoping most of the classes are already using this app, but if I find that there are some who are not, I will obtain those family’s email addresses to send things out by email to those families. This will give you all an opportunity to sing with your child at home, which will reinforce what they are learning here in music, and allow you to become familiar with what music is like for your children so you can start conversations and get your children excited and talking about music at home.
I believe music to be a universal language that breaks through every barrier, and I witness it every day. I see the joy that music brings to the hearts of your children, and it touches my heart in return. I look forward to meeting all of you, and hope you are all having a wonderful start to the school year!
Sincerely,
Miss Gabby 😊
Beginning this school year, parents in PK-12 now have the ability to report full day absences, late arrivals and early dismissals via their Infinite Campus Parent Portal using the mobile app or website in place of calling the school attendance line. For specific directions on how to report an absence via the Infinite Campus Portal click here.
Please join us tonight, Wednesday, September 11th for our first PTO meeting of the year. The meeting will be held in person at TECEC beginning at 7:00 PM. For those who would like to join virtually, the link is: PTO Meeting
TECEC Spirit Wear
EVERY THURSDAY IS SPIRIT WEAR DAY!
Every Thursday is spirit wear day! Since many of our children do not attend school on Fridays, we thought it would be fun to have “TECEC Thursday” each week where everyone is encouraged to wear school spirit wear. If you don't have any TECEC spirit wear, feel free to wear our school color which is blue. You can also purchase spirit wear here: https://tecec.ptboard.com/
Arrival and Dismissal Procedures
Our arrival and dismissal procedures were developed to keep the children, you and our team safe. Please review the following guidelines that your adherence is critical to assure everyone arrives and leaves TECEC safely. One particular highlight is that vehicles must only enter the TECEC driveway by taking a right from Middlebrooks Ave. into the parking lot from 8:20-3:30. Attempting to access Middlebrooks Ave. via Church Hill Road and trying to take a left into TECEC creates an unsafe traffic pattern and should be avoided. Our arrival and dismissal procedures can be found here.
If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us.
Inclement Weather Schedule
Volunteers
One of the hallmarks of our program is parent and community involvement. Your child’s teacher will be reaching out to you with the best ways to engage with their education. We also encourage you to take the time to fill out the TPS volunteer form for the 2024-2025 school year. For most individuals, you will only need to complete part one (Tier one). This will permit you to volunteer in the school while in the presence of a staff member. Part two (Tier two) is for those who will be working with children not in the presence of a school employee. Since every volunteer will be in the presence of a TECEC staff member, there will not be a need to complete that section, unless you plan on volunteering in another school. This form has to be completed annually as mandated by the state guidelines for school volunteers. If you are interested in volunteering, the form can be found here and dropped off at TECEC so it can be processed. All submitted forms need to have an original signature, therefore a form with an e-signature will not be accepted.
If your child has any medical procedures that may impact their school attendance or day at school, I will need a form from the physician with clearance to attend school in addition to identifying what limitations there may be.
Please call the absentee line (203) 452-4422, option 1 and state the reason for your child’s absence or use the Infinite Campus portal. If you have a specific health concern or want to report a communicable disease, the health office phone number is: (203) 452-4425. Absences of 3 days or more require a note to return to school.
If you have any questions, please feel free to call (203-452-4425) or email Nurse Dana dangelic@trumbullps.org.
Sincerely,
Dana Angelica, ADN, RN
