An Introduction to ECFE

Early Childhood Family Education

Welcome to ECFE!  We are excited that you have enrolled your child in our program!  We would like to take a moment to introduce you to Family Ed.  Each class will follow the same schedule:

45 minutes of Parent-Child interaction time

During this time you are encouraged to spend time playing with your child.  There will be some activities out that your child may choose to do.  These activities may include painting, cutting, markers, crayons, construction paper, play-dough, tape and spray bottles.  You are encouraged to sit with your child at these activities and help them with their project.  These activities all promote the use of fine motor skills (small muscles).  This is important muscle development of the hands.  These are the same muscles that are used in writing.  None of our activities were designed for children to do entirely independently.  As the parent, you need to work with your child and help them in learning how to use these materials appropriately. The teachers are there to assist you in teaching your child these skills. 

Every activity has a purpose that is important for the development of your child in one of the 8 domains of learning:

1.    Language (pre-writing, pre-reading, vocabulary)

2.    Math (patterning, rote counting, graphing, colors and shape recognition, number identification, one-to-one correspondence

3.    Science and Nature (exploring living things i.e. leaves, branches, rocks, grass, snow etc.)

4.    Creative Arts (expressing oneself using the art, music and movement)

5.    Social-Emotional Development (sharing, working with others, listening)

6.  Reasoning and Problem Solving

7.    Gross Motor Skills (using large muscles i.e. running, jumping, walking, skipping, dancing, stretching)

8.   Fine Motor Skills (using small muscles i.e. coloring, cutting, playing with play-dough, squeezing, writing etc.)

Circle Time (10-20 minutes)

       During this time, parents and children are at the carpet and participating in songs, stories and games.  Please be fully engaged with your child during this time.  We are teaching your child several of the 8 domains of learning.  Without your help, we can’t do this. 

Snack Time (10-15 minutes)

       Parents are expected to take turns providing a healthy snack to share with the entire class.  We will share any allergies that we are aware of.  During this time, we are teaching your child to say please and thank you, sit nicely, wait patiently, make choices etc.  Parents are more than welcome to stay until their child is set up at the table.  Separation issues are very common at this time.  We will help you to work through them as they arise. 

Parent Talk Time (30 Minutes)

       Once your child is set up with a snack, you go back to the parent ed. room with our parent educator.  Your child(ren) will stay back with the child educator and para.  During parent ed. time you will discuss various topics that are pertinent to raising children.  If you have concerns that you would like addressed, please feel free to share those concerns. 

Thank you for a great year!

Wow!  I can't believe that the ECFE year is over!  (well except for the end-of-year picnic on MAY 1!)
We have reviewed all of the evaluations that we recieved and will do our best to accomodate any concerns that were expressed.  The blog will continue to go as per everyone's request.  I understand that there have been some difficulties with navigating the blog and that will be taken care of with an "introduction to the Blog" class right away in the fall.  I have also put a brief intro into using the blog into everyone's hanging files.  I hope that you all find it helpful!  If there is something specific that you want to know about or how to find on the blog, let me know!  I will summarize the findings of the evaluations ( I apologize in advance if I miss something, that doesn't mean we didn't talk about it or read it, it just means that I have a horrible memory!)


Blog - calendars are wanted on the blog - I will post a picture of the calendar each month with the entire year being available in one post.  I really can't update it any more than I already do but, if there is something that you want to see on the blog...let me know and I can certainly try and add it! Any other concerns will be addressed in our intro to the blog class.


Parent-Talk time - some wanted topics to be shorter, other's wanted the topics to be longer, some wanted workbooks/sheets, others didn't want the hand-outs.  We will do our best to accommodate the diverse needs!  If you have a specific topic that you want addressed please let us know!  Ramona will make a monthly calendar of topics.  I will post the topics on the blog when I get them. 
Some felt they were shorted on parent talk time, some wanted less - what has happened in the past is when families come late, we try to accommodate them and give them extra time to play/do activities thus throwing off our entire schedule.  The way we are going to work it is:  Class starts at either 5:30 pm or 9:00am.  regardless of when families arrive, we will begin clean-up/circle time after 45 minutes of parent/child time.  That will be followed by a 10-15 minute circle time (I will address this in a moment) followed by snack/parent time.  As soon as you feel your child is set, you are free to go back to talk time.  There may be a few exceptions to that rule but, we will do our best to stay on schedule. 


Circle Time - Some wanted more songs, different songs, more books, less books, more activities - I usually do what the kids seem to be ready for.  There have been times when the kids would have sat there for 30 minutes playing games and reading stories.  Other times, they are just too squirrely (as kids will be) my job is to judge how far to push it.  With your help, we should be able to add more to circle time next year. ( I will post our new hand-out that explains this further).


Activities - See posted hand-out


OH, tooty-ta - no, we will not be doing tooty ta next year (at least not every week).  Please refer to the blog post titled "Sing it again Sam, and again and again" to learn why I do what I do with the songs :)


I'm sure that I have forgotten something...if I have, feel free to email me!  :)  I can't wait for what next year will bring and I look forward to seeing you all again!

Exciting Changes!

As many of you have heard, our Early Childhood program is going through some wonderful changes for next year!  The 4/5 yr old School Readiness program will be 4-1/2 days now and they are adding a 3 year old program.  There will be an informational meeting on April 26 at 5:00 and again at 7:00.  I encourage everyone with a child who will be 3 or 4 by September 1st to attend.  This will also be the time to register!  Staffing assignments for the 3 year old program are not final.  The position has been posted and I have applied.  I look forward to the opportunity to interview in a couple of weeks!

Big Wheels

Big Wheels is MONDAY April 23 from 5-7pm rain or shine! (and it looks like it is supposed to be shine!)  Please remember to bring a t-shirt or bag or something to decorate.  4-H will be selling hotdogs and chips again this year.  We will also be having a presentation on Car Seat Safety at 5:30. 6:00 and 6:30. 
I will have your mail files at the ECFE registration table.  Please take the time to check your file and make sure that you have everything taken out of it!  There is an information sheet on how to use the blog in everyone's file. 


You can register for ECFE on this night.  Please bring your registration form to the registration table!  It is very helpful for us to have numbers prior to fall so we know if we can offer all four sessions.

Evaluation

ECFE Evaluation 2011-2012

I was happy with parent/child time:    Yes      No

Please explain;

I felt that the activities were appropriate:  Yes    No

Please explain;

I was happy with parent education:  Yes      No

Please explain:

I felt the topics were appropriate for our group:   Yes    No

Please explain:

What would you like to see changed and/or added for next year either in parent/child time or in Parent education time?

Did you use the blog this year?    Yes       No

Please explain:

Did you enjoy having the blog?    Yes    No

Please explain:

Would you like to see the blog continued?    Yes     No

Please explain:

Would you like something changed with the blog?   Yes      No

Please explain:

If you answer NO to any of the questions, please take the time to explain what we can do to improve.  Thank You!

Last days of ECFE and May 1st Potluck

On the last day of ECFE we have typically had Ice cream.  We would like to invite you to bring your favorite topping to share!  The following is the list of “last days”.  Please note when yours is.  We will also have an evaluation to fill out.  I will attach it to this email .  If you would like to print it out and fill it out at home and bring it back, that would be great!  We really do appreciate the input from these evaluations! 

Friday – April 13

Monday – April 16

Wednesday – April 18

Tuesday – April 24

Due to make up days for various reasons, the days are kind of spread out.  We will do our best to remind you!

Also, May 1^st we will be having a potluck at city park.  Please bring a dish to share. 

EGGS!

 What to do with all of these plastic eggs?  If your home is like ours, after this beautiful spring holiday, we are inundated with plastic eggs!  What do we do with all of these eggs?  I have some great ideas on what to do with them!  Come to ECFE to learn a few uses...I will post pictures of our week as well as the ideas!  Math Ideas:  write a number on an egg, have children count out that many of something (pompoms, beans, candy) and put them in the egg.  Write a numeral on one half of an egg and the corresponding number of dots on the other half.  take them apart and hide them in rice, sand, water etc. Have kids match up the numeral to the dots.  Alphabet Eggs:  write a capital letter on one half and a lower case letter on the other half, hide in rice, sand, water or just put in a basket and have your child match the uppercase letter to the lowercase letter.   Put a dozen eggs in an egg carton.  In each egg put a piece of paper with a number or letter on it.  Choose an egg, open it up and write the letter or number that is on the paper. 

Creative Expression

Creative expression comes in many forms; art, music, writing, weaving, and is a very important part of childhood.  Whether your child is creating masterpieces on the front side walk or drawing pictures or coloring in a coloring book, it is important that we support them in there creative expression. Allow your child to express using the colors that they choose.  That could mean a purple sky, green sun, orange tree and yellow grass.  Their end product doesn't need to look like the example.  That is what makes it uniquely theirs. 

 
Creative expression is found in simple toys like Mr. Potato Head.  It's okay to put the ears on top and the mouth where the eyes typically go.  They are expressing themselves in a creative way!
 
When your child sees you being creative, they will learn to express their creativity as well. 

It isn't about the end product...it's about the journey they took to get there!

 And sometimes, we just need to be silly and express ourselves that way!
Reading and telling stories, playing with your child, helping support your child and just giving them time to be themselves and enjoy what they are doing!

The work of a 4 year old!  They can do amazing things if we give them the chance!

Sharing creativity together!

Goofy Schedule!

These next couple of weeks are going to be kind of crazy due to the make-up days that we need to have!  Please check the March-April dates that were posted on the blog earlier.  If you have any questions, please feel free to email me!  We have plans in motion for our BIG WHEELS event!  If you are willing to hang up posters or if you know of some one with some BIG WHEELS, we have fliers for you!  If you have any questions about the event, please feel free to email anyone in the Eearly Childhood Center or call at 338-4079 ext 335.
Country Bumpkins 4-H will be selling hotdogs and chips again this year! 
You will need to bring a t-shirt, bag, pillowcase...something to decorate.  We will have everything else to decorate your item.

Coupon Book Sales

In order for our group to get additional funds from the fundraiser, we need to sell at the store for two hours.  Ramona signed up for Thursday April 5 from 10am - 12. By doing this, last year we were able to get about $500 additional to what we raised.  It is so worth the two hours.  Ramona so far is the only one who will be selling.  If you are willing to volunteer and hour or two to help earn money for ECFE you can either call Ramona or just show up to Herbergers at 10am.  Books and everything will be there.  All you need to do is show up!  We totally understand the busy schedules that everyone has and we are very grateful that Ramona is willing to go and work for those two hours!  The more people we have there, the more books we can sell, the more money we can earn, the more BIG things we can do!  We are looking at having some FUN events next fall...these sales will help with that!
Thanks for all of the support in this!  We have taken in $175 so far in book sales and donations to the program!  THANK YOU!

One more year!

I have made the decision that I will remain on as the ECFE child educator next school year.  There are many factors in this decision and I am happy that I won't have to say goodbye quite yet! :)

April Lesson Plans

Weaving is a fun way to introduce several concepts including OVER and UNDER, UP and DOWN PATTERNS, CREATIVE EXPRESSION, FINE MOTOR skills and many more.  You will have the opportunity to explore the art and math of weaving this week!  If you made a loom at building night, please bring it along as well as anything you have made to share!  I love to see what little hands can make! (Or big hands - I noticed a couple of dads really getting into it! :)  I will have several of my looms to explore. 

Weaving April 2012	Description
Activity 1	1.   Make a dragonfly using sticks and yarn Fine motor skills, math concepts – patterns, cultural - weaving
Activity 2	1.   Weave a paper-plate basket Fine motor skills, patterning, weaving, creative expression
Activity 3	Woven or Knit 1.   Use a magnifying stool to determine if your clothes are woven or knit Science, prediction, noticing patterns, observations
Circle Time	1.   Tooty Ta 2.   Welcome Song – Jambo 3.   Share what you may have made on your loom. 4. We will do some weaving where we are the warp!
Snack	Parent Supplies
Science Time	Over-under games