PEEK AT THE WEEK

During last week's monthly GISD/GSRP Advisory meeting, I received the information in the flyer below regarding two trainings for the KRA assessment. Our Davison GSRP lead teachers should register for the Friday, May 3rd training. Due to capacity, lead teachers only can register. The April training will be during our parent teacher conferences. Lead teachers, please register right away using the GISD professional catalog online registration.

On May 1st online registration will begin for the Cardinal's Nest 3 and 4 year old half and full day preschool options. The link will be on the Davison Web Page under the Early Childhood tab on the Cardinal's Nest page. The Cardinal's Nest staff has been working closely with DCER to make registration and payment very convenient for families this year. Please help us get the word out to our Davison families. An open house will be held Thursday, April 24th from 5:30-7:00 at the Cardinal's Nest. Parents will be able to tour the building, visit the classrooms, and learn about programs and registration procedures.

Classroom observations will be taking place again this month. The following are GSRP observation dates. Lori Peppin will be informing Cardinal's Nest preschool staff of their dates.

Wednesday, April 17th- Schwab, Rivette, Swoyer, Clase, Quick

Thursday, April 18th- Tate, Vickerman

Monday, April 29th- Bautista, Alcodray, Waite, Crannie

The following is a reminder from this month's Early Literacy Tip's newsletter from Michelle McQueen, Birth to age 5 GISD Literacy Coordinator:

CLOSE THE WORD GAP and get all kids ready to read.

Studies have shown that the “word gap” in early childhood is stark—some children hear millions more words by their fourth birthdays than other kids do. The message is clear: early language and literacy skills are critical to later school success, and nurturing them should be a top priority for programs that teach young children.

As members of the County Center Director's Association, Lori Peppin and I attend a monthly CCDA meeting to represent the Cardinal's Nest and Davison GSRP. This group is made up of Genesee County program directors that represent area child care and preschool programs. This group is teaming up with the GISD to start and promote a new campaign throughout Genesee County called Read Early, Read Often! This campaign currently exists in Muskegon Michigan and has become popular throughout their community. The goal of the campaign is to promote reading from birth to age 4 to close the word gap for incoming preschool and kindergarten students. I look forward to sharing more information with you as we progress with implementing the Read Early, Read Often campaign in our county and school district.

Just a reminder to latchkey supervisors and staff that there is a letter that parents sign when they register for latchkey that outlines several policies including the late pick up policy. This parent latter is also posted on the Davison website on the Cardinal's Nest page (as an attachment). It states that there is a $10 charge per student for every 15 minutes that students are picked up after 6:00 p.m. . If you are having concerns with late pick ups, send this info to Emily McKanna and copy me on it. We will take care of adjusting student tuition accounts.

As part of the District's school improvement process, the Cardinal's Nest will be receiving a visit from the Advanced Ed team Our School Improvement chair Angie Hards met with me this past week to outline details of the visit. The Cardinal's Nest will be representing the early childhood program for our district. On May 6th, the team will visit the Cardinal's Nest and will be interviewing staff and parents and will also be visiting the Cardinal's Nest classrooms to observe student learning. The school improvement process has been in place for our K-12 programs in the past and this is the first year the early childhood programs will be involved. I want to thank the Cardinal's Nest staff for all the work they did to prepare the required documents that Angie Hards recently submitted to the Advanced Ed team.

Here is a peek at upcoming days for the ABC preschool countdown. Along with the fun activities of each day will be an emphasis on phonological awareness and alphabetic principle.This is a great way to have some fun and involve parents as partners in preparing our students for kindergarten. Thank you for sharing the countdown calendar and reminders in your classroom newsletters.

4/22– A– Art day

4/23– B– Bubble day

4/24– C– Count day

4/29– D– Dance day

4/30– E-Experiment day

5/1– F-Field Day
5/2– G-Green day

5/6– H– Hat day

Monday, April 15th- Katie Clark, GISD shadowing Susan, Quad Meeting w Rachael Suchy 7:00 p.m., remind stakeholders about no school at GSRP on Thursday, April 25th

Tuesday, April 16th- Mtg. w/ Mr. Lobban 2:00 (Susan)

Wednesday, April 17th- Classroom observations #3 Swoyer, Clase, Quick, Shwab, Rivette

Thursday, April 18th- Classroom observations room #5 Tate, Vickerman, Susan V. out in p.m. Lindsey on head teacher duty:)

Friday, April 19th- Good Friday! No school for students or staff. Enjoy your Easter and extended weekend.

Looking Ahead...

April 22nd- ABC Countdown begins

April 24th- GSRP Staff Potluck Theme: Cookout dishes

Thursday, April 25th- Intake appointment training at GSRP 11:00, Parent teacher conferences 12:00 noon- 8:00 p.m.

Friday, April 26th- Susan models intake appointments for room 1 and 3 staff, Parent teacher conferences at GSRP

Monday, April 29th- Classroom observation #3 room 3 and 4- Bautista, Alcodray, Waite, and Crannie

Wednesday, May 1st- KRA presentation to K and pre-k Fenton teaching staff (Susan)

Friday, May 3rd- KRA and MKEO presentation for preschool teachers at GISD (see flyer)

Monday, May 6th- Board of Education Meeting- Preschool Staff and students lead the Pledge of Allegiance, Advanced Ed team visits Cardinal's Nest for staff and parent interviews and classroom observations

Just a reminder that payroll is due next week. The time sheets will be ready on Monday so be sure to come by the Early Learning office to sign before 4:00 on Monday, April 15th.

The following are scheduled IEP dates for the remainder of the school year:

Cardinal's Nest- Wednesday,, May 22nd- Four IEP's with N. Illig

GSRP- Thursday, May 16th- N.D and M.D with Saray Swoyer, Tosca Trowt

GSRP- Tuesday, June 4th- Q.V. with Sara Swoyer and Heather Williamson

GSRO

The Davison Early Learning programs have been asked to lead the Pledge of Allegiance at the Board Meeting on Monday, May 6th at 7:00 p.m. in the AMR room at the High School. All Cardin al's Nest and GSRP preschool teachers are invited to attend and choose two students from your classroom to represent our early learning programs. I wish that we could invite all the students, but due to limitations on space, I am asking that you choose two students that are consistent Cardinal Code followers to attend. Lori and I will be talking to staff more about this, but we ask that you email us both to let us know if you can attend and the two students that you have invited. We will be sending a letter inviting the students and their family along with a map of the location. This is a great way to show off our wonderful staff and students!

Please continue to help get the word out about the preschool summer camp opportunity that will be held at the Cardinal's Nest this summer. The camp will be focusing on providing a high quality experience for 3, 4, and 5 year old incoming kindergarten students. The program offers six weeks of camp with weekly themes that will include on site and off site field trips, hands on activities, and many more fun learning activities for our Lil' Cardinal's. We already have some children registered and hope to continue to fill our rosters for all six weeks of camp. The camp will run from 9:00-3:00 and before and after latchkey care will be offered. Registration opened April 1st and families can access registration, payment and more detailed information in two ways. They can visit the Davison Website and go to the Early Childhood tab and Cardinal's Nest then click on a link to take them to the registration site. They can also see the information on the DCER tab on the Davison Website and click on Summer Camps. There are also summer camps offered on the DCER site for school ages children. Families can also find a link to find latchkey and child care programs in the community by visiting the Davison Website's Cardinal's Nest page. The website is www.greatstartoquality.org Please take a few minutes to visit all of our Early Childhood programs and information online. This will help our staff become knowledgeable about programs and registration procedures in order to educate and answer questions that our families may have.