ECE Connection

Inside this edition you will find:

• Director's Message
• HPEF Mom's Night Out *February 26th*
• What's Happening In Early Childhood?
• PIRS Corner
• Nurses Nook
• Communication Flow Chart
• Director Mara's Book of the Week
• Change is Hard
• HMS Middle School Show: Alice in Wonderland *February 6th, 7th, and 8th*

Dear Early Childhood Families,

Nothing beats a fresh snow fall and looking at how pretty the snow looks in the trees. I hope everyone was able to enjoy the view this past weekend and get out and enjoy some play time in the snow with your family. The cold weather this week called for a lot of indoor gross motor time. Students are happiest when they are able to get those wiggles out! Indoor or outdoor gross motor time allows them to do just that. A friendly reminder that Thursday, February 13th, 2025 there will be a 1:00 PM dismissal. There will be no Wrap services on this day. Friday, February 14th, 2025 and Monday, February 17th, 2025 the Hoboken Public School District will be closed for President's Day. School will resume on Tuesday, February 18th, 2025.

I wanted to share a few more important upcoming dates with you to put on your radar:

Friday, April 11th, 2025 there will be a 1:00 PM dismissal. There will be no Wrap services on this day.

Monday, April 14th to Friday, April 18th the Hoboken Public School District will be closed for Spring Break. School will resume on Monday, April 21st, 2025.

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Our travel policy has gone through some updates. Please be aware that after 9 consecutive absences, your child's seat will not be held for them. When you return from traveling, you will have to provide an updated lease and secondary residency documentation. Once this is received your child will be placed in an open seat. This does not mean that they will be able to be placed in the same classroom as they were in before they left. We can not hold seats for students.

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Remember, our HOPES and MSELC school day starts at 8:30 and dismissal is at 2:30. These drop off and pickup times do not apply for students in morning or afternoon WRAP programs. If you are going to be late dropping off in the morning or picking up in the afternoon, please make sure to call or email your family advocate.

As a friendly reminder, please remember to call your family advocate and let them know the reason for your child being absent no later than 9:15 am. If you can not call your family advocate, please email dbrookes@hoboken.k12.nj.us. In your email, please state:

• your child's name
• provider
• site
• teacher
• reason for absence
• when we can expect them back in school

There are so many wonderful things happening in our Pre-K classrooms! Please continue reading below to see updates from each site and more.

Kind regards,

Kimberly Mara

Director of Early Childhood Education

Tickets are on sale for HPEF's 10th annual Moms' Night Out! Get yours at https://cbo.io/mno2025/tix and join the fun on Wednesday 2/26 at the Hoboken Biergarten. Your ticket will include drinks, bites, a photo booth, and the opportunity to meet and mingle with other amazing Hoboken moms and community members. Ticket proceeds support HPEF initiatives, so it's a fun night out for a great cause. Tickets sell out quickly so don't delay!

Students in Ms. Lanza's class enjoy working on a sensory approach to practicing their letters. Using play-doh, the students are able to recreate the letter shapes on the letter mats. Pictures above the upper and lower case letters remind the students of the letters they are creating.

The students absolutely loved this week’s theme of Hibernation! They did some fun activities and learned so many new things on how and why animals need to hibernate for the winter. The class discussed the different places they hibernate, such as in a log, in the mud, in burrows, in trees, in caves, etc. They created a fun and pretty picture of a landscape in which the animals hibernate and students practiced cutting out the animals and then gluing them into their respective spaces. Each child got to choose a hibernating animal from a pile of different ones, color them, cut them out, and then glue them to make a hibernating animal’s collage. Students loved when they created actual caves and logs/burrows! They used toilet paper rolls and colored them colors to camouflage, like brown and green. Students then glued “snow” (cotton balls) on top of them and placed their sleeping animals inside. Students even used paper bags to create bear caves. They decorated them with colorful feathers to camouflage them and then colored sleeping bears. Students cut them out and glued them inside the caves and now, they are all hibernating in the classroom for the winter! The class is trying to be as quiet as they can!

During Science Eyes, the students became scientists. The class read the book, "Solid or Liquid". They talked about the characteristics of a solid (solids have a form) and the characteristics of a liquid (liquids are runny and do not take on a form). Students gave examples of objects that were a solid and objects that were a liquid. The class used several household products and made a guess as to whether the liquid would stay a liquid or change into a solid if it were placed it in the freezer. They recorded the guesses and placed the tray with the liquids into the freezer. The class will wait 24 hours and then check to see if the guesses were right or wrong.

As the holiday season comes to a close, students made good use of the pine leaves. They used the remaining leaves for science eyes. The studfents loved the smell of the fresh leaves. Some even noted that they were green, pointy, small, and reminded them of the holiday season. The class also spoke about reusing items. These beautiful pine leaves doubled as decorations, a nice pine scent for the room, and a fun science eyes activity.

In honor of winter and the snow outside, room 300 made their own snow. Making snow isthe perfect way to play indoors during these cold January days. Through this sensory based experiment the children spoke about the texture. Does it feel like real snow? They also thought about the smell. Does this snow have a scent? The class spoke about the color. Is it similar to real snow? Before they created the snow the children made their predictions then they dove right into the experiment.

In Connors 001 students read the book, “Martin Luther King Jr. Day” by AJ Bailey. The book discusses how Martin Luther King Jr. was a leader in the civil rights movement in the United States. His work and speeches inspired many people to fight for social justice. After reading the book, students were asked what are some ways they can help people around them. The children said they could help people get up when they fall down, plant a tree, share toys, and give hugs. The children's responses were written on a poster and hung up to reflect how to be kind and to help those around them daily.

In room 102, students dove into their Story Lab and learned about Making Connections. The class read the story "Bear Feels Sick". In this story students learn how the bear was really sick and didn't know how to make himself feel better. His friends came over to his cave with soup and herbs to help him feel better. After reading the story, students made connections about a time they didn’t feel well and who helped them. They drew about their experience and really enjoyed sharing

In Miss Lisa's & Miss Natalie's classroom, the children did Venger Collage for the first time. Each child had the opportunity to create his/her own collage with the various shapes. They were encouraged to brainstorm & make a representation of what they pictured in their imagination. This activity supports the children's development of cutting skills. It also inspires the children to be creative as they paste the different shapes onto a piece of paper.

Students in Room 403 at Mile Square Early Learning Center located at the St. Francis site, learned about Martin Luther King Jr. and his dream about everyone being treated equally. The clas listened to a story called "Martin Luther King Jr Dreaming of Change" by Joel Kupperstein and after reading the students started talking about their dreams. After the discussion, they glued a heart in the middle of construction paper and added two hand prints, one in the color white and the other in the color brown. This was their way to symbolize unity and love, no matter what color they are. Then students added what they have dreams about. Some said being kind to one another, while others said sharing with friends and siblings.

Students in Room 004 were very excited to learn about winter animals. The class chose the Penguin and made their "KWL" chart. They had fun doing the Penguin Dance, waddling like Penguins, and the Penguin Freeze Dance. The children were divided into groups to make box habitants and penguins with different materials. It was a lot of fun and everyone learned so much.

Teaching Children about Friendship

Preschool is a wonderful time to explore and learn how to be a friend. The classroom setting affords teachers many opportunities to teach and help children practice friendship skills with others. Learning the fundamentals of social interaction helps to build a lasting ability for initiating and maintaining relationships within society.

One of the best ways to teach friendship is to model friendship skills when interacting with a child. The wide range of friendship skills include, but are not limited to, communication, cooperation, empathy, kindness, trust, turn taking, awareness of others, awareness of impact of self on others, self-regulation, negotiation, thoughtfulness… the list is long. Teachers frequently model friendship skills in the classroom and help children learn what it feels like to be a good friend and have a good friend as well. Modeling social-emotional skills with your child helps to increase the likelihood that they will use those skills in their own relationships. Other tips to consider:

• Model “asking others for help”. Even if you could do something by yourself, take the opportunity to model how to ask a friend for help. For example, when leaving the house, ask your child to help you carry things. Always be sure to thank them for helping.

• Use meal preparation as a chance to practice and talk about being a helper. Have children get out ingredients, set the table or stir food. Discuss how important it is to help and how much the help is appreciated.

• When you sit down for meals, discuss how family-style eating and passing food is like sharing and taking turns with toys.

• At any point during routines, talk about how families are like a special group of friends. Mention how you use kind words, share, and help each other just like with friends at school.

• Use puppets to act out different situations (e.g., one puppet takes a toy from another puppet). Ask your child what happened that was not a good way for the puppets to play together. Come up with ideas of nicer ways that the puppets could have played, such as sharing and taking turns.

• Talk about your own social behaviors. You can say things like, "I said 'thank you' to Daddy because he passed me the milk", “I think I'll hold the door open for Uncle Joe, because his hands are full", or "I think I'll help Aunt Patty put away the groceries."

• Throughout daily routines outside of the house, talk about the different helpers you both see (police officers, bus drivers, cashiers). Emphasize how important these roles are to the community.

• Teach children how to act when they are meeting new people. Practice shaking hands and manners that go with introductions.

• Whenever children are taking turns, let the child who is finishing their turn call who is next. This helps nurture children's interactions with each other rather than having an overreliance on adult direction.

Fun is an important element when learning friendship skills. These friendship activities for kids can be adapted to suit any size group or situation at home.

Check out these suggested books about making friends, being a good friend, and resolving differences.

How to Handle a Cough

Coughing is a healthy reflex that helps clear the airways. A severe cough

one that lasts more than a week requires a medical checkup. But many

coughs are caused by a virus that just needs to run its course.

How Do I Handle a Cough?

● If your child develops a "barky" or "croupy" cough, sit in a steamy

bathroom together for about 20 minutes.

● Offer plenty of liquids (breast milk or formula for babies; cool water and

juice for older kids). Avoid carbonated or citrus drinks that may irritate a

raw throat.

● Run a cool-mist humidifier in your child's bedroo

● Use saline (saltwater) nose drops to ease congestion.

● Never give cough drops (a choking hazard) to young kids or cough

or cold medicine to kids under 6 years old.

Get Medical Care if Your Child:

● has severe cough spasms or attacks, stridor (a high-pitched sound

when breathing in), or wheezing

● has a cough that lasts more than a week, gets worse, happens the same

time every year, or seems caused by something specific (such as polle

dust, pets, etc.)

● has a fever that lasts more than a couple of days

● is younger than 3 months old

● is breathing fast or working hard to breathe

● has a blue or pale color in the lips, face, or tongue during or after

coughing

https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/cough-sheet.html

In the Early Childhood Program we operate using an upward communication procedure. If you have any questions, concerns, etc. please refer to the chart linked below when sending an email. When in doubt please send your email to your child's Family Advocate and he/she will escalate it to the appropriate person.

Another school week behind us means another favorite book to share with all of you!

I don't know about you, but one thing that everyone loves in my hosue are tacos! Do you love tacos too? Guess who really loves tacos? DRAGONS! In "Dragons Love Tacos" by Adam Rubin we learn all about the types of tacos that dragons love. There is one important rule in giving tacos to dragons. It can NOT be spicy. Enjoy reading all about why dragons love tacos.

Email: kmara@hoboken.k12.nj.us
Location: 1115 Clinton Street, Hoboken, NJ, USA
Phone: 201-356-3695