Family Program Newsletter
September 2024
A Note From Our Administrators...
Happy September! I hope you and your family had a great Labor Day Weekend!
Although the weather is still warm, we’re heading into the cold and flu season! Please continue to help us keep everyone healthy by encouraging your child to wash hands, and continue to monitor symptoms at home. Together, we can keep everyone healthy!
Attendance Matters! Attending school regularly is essential to students gaining the academic, social, and emotional skills they need to thrive. Chronic absence, no matter its cause, has real-life consequences for students. Research shows starting as early as preschool and kindergarten, chronic absence—missing 10% of the academic year—can leave third graders unable to read proficiently, sixth graders struggling with coursework, and high school students off track for graduation.
Regular attendance allows children to benefit from participating in quality early education. Research shows that students who miss too many days of preschool have weaker literacy and numeracy skills entering kindergarten. A habit of attendance IS a school readiness skill. Along with social-emotional and readiness skills, consistent on-time attendance is a habit that lasts.
Your child's safety is important! Please bring some identification with you when picking up your child. Just like our students, sometimes staff also become ill. When a teacher becomes ill, we have substitute teachers that fill in. Unfortunately, they don’t know who you are so you may be asked to provide identification.
Sincerely,
Lamb Caro
Director of Early Childhood
Education
Happy September!
We have had a great first few weeks of school! Your students are settling in and learning the routine, making friends and working hard!
We will be starting our first curriculum study which focuses on the Beginning of the Year and how we do this thing called school! In addition, your teacher will be inviting you to a wonderful program called Ready Rosie which is an app you can load onto your phone or device. This provides you with short videos of ideas on how to work with your child and support their learning at home! You can even send messages to the teacher after you have tried the game/activity about how your child did! SO COOL! You should check it out!
Best,
Amy Gerhard
Assistant Administrator
Thompson Education Equity Council
Are you an adult family, staff, or student member of the TSD Community who is interested in learning about how TSD addresses equity, diversity, and inclusion? If so, sign-up to join the TSD Educational Equity Council (TEEC)! We will host quarterly meetings this school year to increase knowledge of the equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) work throughout TSD.
We are seeking broad and diverse community participation to help us move our work forward in alignment with the TSD Strategic Plan and TSD Board Policies related to Educational Equity (Policy ADB), Equal Educational Opportunities (Policy JB), and Non-Discrimination/Equal Opportunity (Policy AC).
The first meeting of the Thompson Educational Equity Council (TEEC) will be held on October 24, 4:30-5:30 p.m. If you or your TSD student are interested in attending, please complete the sign-up form. We will have pizza!
Social Emotional Learning
10 Reasons We Want To Start The School Year Helping Our Children Build A Strong Emotional Vocabulary
In early childhood we learn so much about our emotions and how to express those emotions. Identifying and naming emotions is the first step in learning this life-long skill. Please click on picture to the right to read an article about building emotional intelligence in our youngest learners.
Health and Safety
WHY is vision screening important?
The first few years of a child's life are critical in the development of good vision. Children should have their vision checked for issues such as misaligned eyes, and problems that need correction with eyeglasses. These problems are not always evident by simply looking at a child. Young children often compensate for vision problems so well that parents, teachers, and pediatricians are unaware of a problem. Many common vision robbing conditions such as “lazy eye” can be effectively treated if detected in a child’s formative years.
KidSight, a Lions Club community service program provides a simple, non-invasive and cost-free vision screening test performed on young children. It requires no medication or preparation and is PAINLESS. If you have signed the permission form, we will be screening your child in class on Mondays and Tuesdays throughout September and October. If your child received a referral, it will be mailed to your current listed home address.
The KidSight screening can detect the following:
Anisometropia – This condition can adversely affect the development of binocular vision in infants and children. The brain will often suppress the vision of the blurrier eye in a condition called Amblyopia or “lazy eye”.
Astigmatism A condition in which the cornea has an abnormal curve causing out of focus vision.
Hyperopia – “Farsightedness” is the difficulty seeing objects that are near. Untreated this can contribute to “crossing of the eyes” but can be corrected with glasses.
Myopia – “Nearsightedness” is when the eyes focus incorrectly, making distant objects appear blurred. It can be treated with glasses.
Strabismus (Gaze asymmetry) – measurements screen for potential muscle imbalance or misalignment of the eyes.
Anisocoria - indicates unequal pupil sizes. It is relatively common, and causes vary from benign physiologic anisocoria to potentially life-threatening emergencies. Thus, thorough clinical evaluation is important for appropriate diagnosis and management of the underlying cause.
Christiana Shorten – Early Childhood Health Coordinator
Family Engagement
Preschool Attendance
It is exciting to see families and children getting used to the routines of preschool! Did you know that missing several days of school each month can make it harder for children to develop reading skills and be prepared for kindergarten and first grade? Research shows that regular attendance in preschool helps children build confidence, make friends, and learn the routine of the classroom. If you are struggling with getting your child to school, please contact your child’s teacher. For more information on preschool attendance, visit:
https://www.attendanceworks.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Pre-K_Handout_043024.pdf
Free Membership to Ft. Collins Museum of Discovery and Gardens at Spring Creek
All families in our program are eligible for a free, annual membership to the Ft. Collins Museum of Discovery and the Gardens at Spring Creek. Simply complete the online application using the link below, then visit the museum or gardens to activate your membership. It is one of the best "perks" of our program, and we appreciate our partnership with the museum and gardens.
English membership application:
https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/7938767/Memberships-for-Early-Childhood-Education-Families-2024-2025
Spanish membership application
https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/7938768/Membres-a-para-familias-de-ECE-2024-2025
Arabic membership application
https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/7938778/2025-2024
Vroom
Check out this great resource for parents with cool brain building tips for your preschooler or younger siblings. Explore videos, E-news, tip sheets and more in 19 languages.
Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month
Join Ms. Claudeth at the Loveland Public Library for bilingual storytime on Thursday, Sept. 5 from 11 - 11:30 AM or family fun playing Loteria Mexicana on Thursday, Sept. 19 from 5:30 - 6:30 PM.
Heart and Sol is hosting a Latine Heritage event at the Foote Lagoon on Saturday, Sept. 14 from 1 - 5 pm. There will be food trucks, live music, artisans and a lowrider car show. The Dia de los Muertos event is scheduled for Saturday, November 2nd from 11 AM - 2 PM at the Loveland Museum. See the attached flier for more information.
Julie Lindsay
Family & Community Partnership Coordinator - julie.lindsay@tsd.org
Community Spotlight
Loveland Youth Campus
By uniting organizations and resources in one central location, Loveland Youth Campus makes services accessible to all families in Loveland. Teaching Tree and the Boys and Girls Club are now located at the new Loveland Youth Campus, 2366 E. 1st Street. Programs include:
- Childcare ages birth - 3
- Preschool ages 4-5
- Out of school care ages 5-12
- Teen development services ages 13-18 (academic support, workforce readiness and more)
- Specialty care for children and youth with physical or developmental disabilities
To be added soon:
- Mental health support for children and families
- Food and basic needs distribution (including KidsPak)
- Recreation
- Adult education
- Family support services (immigrant resources, housing and legal counseling, job training and placement)
- Transportation routes for specific areas in Loveland
For more information, check out their website: https://www.lovelandyouthcampus.org/