January Update
2011 is here and Twin Oaks and a lot of great things are happening!
Teachers in all three of our classrooms are working hard to implement our three rules: be safe, be friendly, and be a worker. As we continue to use the language consistently, and reinforce those positive behaviors, we are finding that are classrooms are engaging places where teachers can devote most of their time and energy to teaching and learning, instead of managing behavior.
One of our goals, as a staff, for 2011 is to partner with our families more. Classroom teams are developing strategies, like parent communication boards, for helping to keep parents in the loop. We’re also starting to incorporate more deliberate documentation and portfolios. We’re capturing work samples in portfolios as the children move through our program, so we can see their growth over time.
ALL three of our classrooms are participating in Book Share from Cedar Mill Library.
What does this entail? Two Things:
1) Book boxes are delivered for each classroom every month, allowing us to expose our kiddos to more great children’s literature than what we have in our classroom collections.
2) We have volunteers from the library who come in once a month to lead interactive story-times.
Preschoolers and Toddlers Continue to Enjoy the TumbleBus, which visits us on the 1st and 3rd Fridays every month. Isaac Endicott has owned the TumbleBus for 14 years and he works very well with our children and their teachers to ensure the kids are safe, while they have fun aboard the bus.
Preschoolers and Toddlers are enjoying 4 weeks of music classes on Thursday mornings. Sara Meier, owner of Keys to Life music school, brings daughter Leora and her acoustic guitar, to lead our kids through 50-minutes of high-energy, interactive songs and activities.
