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WNESU Early Education Center
March News
Family Survey
Please take a moment to complete this BRIEF survey on your experience with the WNESU Early Education Center.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdyf3xQx0rqJXCctn2NZKy5bEnvTSbmYjXh_Uw-EV31quzXPw/viewform
Kindergarten Registration
We are sending home kindergarten registration papers with our students who will be going to kindergarten in the fall, but if you prefer you can register online using the link below:
https://www.wnesu.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=2979367&type=d&pREC_ID=2419512
Important dates
Reminder! No Pre-K on Wednesday, March 20th
The pre-K team will be all together that day, taking advantage of an exciting opportunity to attend the Vermont Kindergarten/Early Education Conference. It will be a full day of training exploring science, technology, engineering, art and math for preschool learners!
ALL preschool classrooms will dismiss at 11:30am on Monday, April 8th, including the Westminster classroom (WCS K-6 students will dismiss at 11:45)
Lunch Menu
Notes from our school nurse
Preventing the Spread of Respiratory Viruses: Updated Recommendations
What to know
● Taking steps to prevent the spread of respiratory viruses when you are sick is a core prevention strategy to lower the risk from respiratory viruses.
● Core prevention strategies are important steps you can take to protect yourself and others from respiratory viruses.
● The 5 day quarantine for COVID-19 has been discontinued. Please follow the updated guidance below.
How you can help
Stay home and away from others (including people you live with who are not sick) if you have respiratory virus symptoms that aren’t explained by another cause. These symptoms include fever, chills, fatigue, cough, runny nose and headache, among others.*
● You can go back to your normal activities when, for at least 24 hours, both are true:
1. Your symptoms are getting better overall, and
2. You have not had a fever (and are not using fever-reducing medications).
● When you go back to your normal activities, take added precaution over the next 5 days, such as taking additional steps for cleaner air, hygiene, masks, physical distancing, and/or testing when you are around other people indoors.
○ Keep in mind that you may still be able to spread the virus that made you sick, even if you are feeling better. You are less likely to be contagious at this time.
○ If you start to develop a fever or you start feeling worse after you have gone back to normal activities, stay home and away from others again until, for at least 24 hours, both are true: your symptoms are getting better overall, and you have not had a fever (and are not using fever-reducing medications). Then take added precautions for the next 5 days.
Important Information
Please keep in mind, school nurses will use clinical judgment and discretion to determine if a student is well enough to remain in school, be tested, or be sent home. If a student or staff member is not well enough to learn or participate, regardless of
whether they are tested for COVID-19, they should be sent home from school. Recommended public health guidance for schools can be seen at: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/k-12-childcare-guidance.html
A student who is being sent home due to illness may be required to wear a mask while awaiting pick-up. The decision to require masking should be made by the school nurse based on clinical decision-making.
A student may return to school if their symptoms have improved, and they meet school criteria for their illness. COVID-19 testing should not be required for students or staff to return to school.
Please reach out to the school nurse if you have any questions about whether or not you or your child should stay home and when they can return to school.
*Symptoms may include but are not limited to chest discomfort, chills, cough, decrease in appetite, diarrhea, fatigue (tiredness), fever or feeling feverish, headache, muscle or body aches, new loss of taste or smell, runny or stuffy nose, sneezing, sore throat, vomiting, weakness, wheezing.
Jennifer's Class
This week we began a study of folk tales and other stories. We began by reading different versions of The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Children noticed the different choices authors and illustrators make with this familiar story. They then made headband costumes and built bridges so the children could play out this favorite story. We will move on to other folk tales- next will be Jack and the Beanstalk. We will examine beans and sprout them in our classroom. Will it get as tall as Jack's beanstalk? We will do some baking for Little Red Hen, make eggs for Humpty Dumpty, and create a mural for our classroom that incorporates all of these familiar folk characters. This folk tale study encompasses not just reading and literacy goals, but math, science, and the arts.
Kathleen's Class
In Miss Kathleen's room, we have been digging deeply into kindness and friendship. We made a class book about being a good friend. We also had fun making High Five Friendship Artwork. One friend painted their hand with one primary color and another friend painted their hand with another primary color. They each made a handprint on their papers. Then they high fived each other and created their unique friendship color and made prints with the color they created together. We also made marble paintings with our friends. Holding the end of a box top with the paper in it, friends tilted the box top back and forth and side to side with marbles dipped in paint. The creations were beautiful.
We added Q for Quilt to our letter gallery and then made a paper friendship quilt. We added Y for Yoga to the gallery and had so much fun working with a partner to do friendship yoga. There were so many fun poses that were done with friends.
We created appreciation posters for each other. The kids and teachers wrote one kind compliment about each child and teacher in the class. The children will be coming home with these posters to look at, read and enjoy at home.
Lisa's Class
The kids at the Westminster Site have been experimenting with a mortar and pestle in their outdoor classroom. They are learning the difference between sand and soil. They are finding rocks outside in the garden and crushing them into sand, hypothesizing which rocks will be harder to crush and which will be easy.. In the indoor classroom we have opened a flower shop in the dramatic play area. They are learning new vocabulary like cashier, customer, cash register and lots of flower names. They are also using play money to count bills for pay. So much fun!
Let's Go Outside!
Kids love to play outside, and teachers love outdoor time, too!
It's a relaxing part of the day and a time when much development and learning takes place.
Physical development is evident outdoors as children learn about their bodies in space, practice important physical skills, and exercise and strengthen muscles. Kids learn about the world around them: they observe changes in plants and the differences in the seasons; they watch living things such as worms and crickets; they learn about the earth by collecting rocks and leaves.
The outdoor environment is an extension of the classroom. We plan for this part of the day just as we do for the other parts of the daily routine. The environment includes equipment that helps encourage learning. For example, climbing equipment helps children develop their motor skills and judgment about what they can safely do; trikes and other riding toys develop balance and coordination. The sand area is used for creative play and for exploring the properties of dry and wet sand.
We often bring classroom equipment outside to enrich the outdoor environment. One day you might see children painting at the easels and another day you might notice children bathing their babies and taking them for a ride in a wagon. The time spent outside is a valuable part of our daily schedule.