From the Director’s Desk

Dickinson College Children’s Center

June 2020

Dates to

Remember:

June 15—First Day of Summer School-Age

Program

August 14—DCCC Closed for Staff

Training

We are looking forward to a fun summer here at DCCC. It has been great to be back together, and we are excited to see the children’s smiling faces again. We will miss those families who will be moving on to Kindergarten, first grade and those leaving the Carlisle area. Early education is so important and we hope that we have provided a solid foundation for all your children. Best of luck on your many adventures to come. Kindergarten Graduation was very different this year, but we hope that we helped make the week special for both Ms. Brittney and the children. Teachers sent graduation cards, participated in the last Kindergarten Zoom call and celebrated with Ms. Brittney in doing a drive by parade for the children. A special thank you to Ms. Brittney who pulled to-gether a Continuity of Education Plan and was able to finish strong for the year. We are looking forward to holding our Kindergarten Program in the fall. At a time when other schools are not sure how to handle returning in the fall, we are so very happy to already have a small class size so that our Kindergarten families can plan to start on time on August 17

th and know that their child’s experience will be face to face. And if we unfor-

tunately do a round two of COVID-19, we already have a virtual plan in place! We wanted to share that DCCC is re-opening this month at about 25% enrollment per class, some even a little less for the month of June. July looks to be at 50% enrollment, but we hope to see that number increase with some of our families who were waiting to enroll in the fall. Small class sizes were the key for our summer months in order to im-plement the new guidelines for COVID19 and I feel that we were successful in achiev-ing this. We will welcome the School Age Summer Campers, Dragons I and Dragons ll (located at 1250 Ritner Hwy) on the 15th. Dragons l will be occupying the big room here at DCCC which will be converted to the Summer Camp room. We are very excited to see our returning children as well as meeting some new smiling faces. The teachers for the Dragons l Camp Program will be Ms. Bri and Ms. Kendra. Dragons ll will be Ms. Brittney and Ms. Carly. Due to the small numbers of children attending for June, we were very creative with our staffing.

Over the next few weeks, I will share information on how the implementation of the new COVID-19 procedures is going. We have decided to make sure that we continue our daily emails with all our enrolled families (including those who have chosen not to return until July and those who have decided to return on August 17

th). Teachers in the older

rooms will also be reaching out to see if your child is interested in participating in a weekly zoom call with their friends attending here at DCCC.

I appreciate all your support and cooperation in working with us to help meet the needs of all our families. A special thank you to all our teachers who continue to show resili-ence and a positive attitude during the ever-changing schedules over the next few months. We are putting a new spin on TEAM WORK!

Gina VanKirk, Director

With so many changes this year we unfortunately had to cancel so many of our fundraisers that everyone enjoys participating in as usual. For example, our sandwich sale, Chipotle Night, and Original Works. So we didn’t quite make our goal.

BUT.. we want to thank you for participating in the BIG fund-raisers we were able to have because we sure came close even with having to cancel some!

You can continue to participate in the Giant A+ awards, Box Tops, and Shoparoo with the apps.

We hope to start off at the end of August, or September with Sandwich Sales, and perhaps some nights out at Panera, Chipotle,

or Sweet Frogs.

As soon as they allow us to schedule those we will!

Fundraising Total: $12,698.05

Ducklings

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June brings summer days and lots of time to enjoy the outdoors. June is month when we tradition-ally paint with water and continue to explore simple art materials: brush painting, finger painting, paper,

and crayons…we explore our creativity and work on developing our fine motor skills. We normally prac-ticing sitting in real toddler-size chairs, feeding ourselves table foods with utensils and cups, and working toward giving up bottles and morning naps. Working on these things at home will help with the transition when we return to DCCC. Our Big Idea in June is “Learning About Me and My Friends”, we talk about

dressing ourselves, begin to practice washing our own hands, putting on our sunhats, and putting away our toys. Learning about ourselves also includes learning about our feelings and about the feelings of others. We label feelings and work on coping with some of our big emotions as well as how to live happily with our friends with kindness, gentle touches, and taking turns. Below are a few ideas for activities that you can do at home to support your child’s emotional development. We also like to move many different ac-tivities outside because it makes them new and exciting! Eating snack, dancing to music, building with

blocks, and reading books are just a few ideas.

Imaginative play with puppets, toys or old clothes – for example, your child could pretend to care for a baby doll or bravely rescue toys from a tree. Singing and dancing – for example, ‘If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands’

Messy play with sand, mud or paints – your toddler can happily slap sand or

stomp in mud, or make big angry paint strokes if she wants to.

Reading stories that feature characters who are experiencing feelings that your toddler is also going through

~Laci, Steph, and Mimi

This Photo

This

This Photo by Unknown Author is li-

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Yellow Puppies

May was a busy month and we hope you all learned

about different kinds of animals. Did you see some

chickens or horses? Maybe you imitated some animal

sounds, like a dog barking or a cow mooing. Did some-

one sing “Old MacDonald”, or “Baa Baa Black Sheep

with you? Keep reading those fun animal books. Hope-

fully we will be reading books to you soon and we will

be back in the classroom together.

Here comes summer! We will be talking about how

we can stay safe in the sun with sunscreen, sun hats

and sunglasses. We will sing fun summer songs like

“Mr. Sun”, “You Are My Sunshine and “If All the Sun-

beams”. It will be so much fun going on walks search-

ing for bugs, and enjoying the warm, summer breeze.

Another fun adventure will be pretending to camp with

a tent, with flashlights and camp songs like “Going on

A Bear Hunt”, and “A Camping We Will Go”. Some more

fun activities are painting with water, sand play, and

bubble fun! We sure miss you and can’t wait to see

you!

Diana & Alisha

Happy Birthday

to Gareth who is

turning two on

June 16th

!

YAY GARETH!! Best birthday song ever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaR31V5xBQ8

We will need sun hats for

outdoor play time!

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Blue Puppies

Here comes the sun! The Puppies are going to be talking about how to stay safe in the sun with sunscreen, hats, and sunglasses. We will wear sunglasses, paint sunscreen (white paint) on a paper person, and color a paper plate sun. We will sing “Mr. Sun” and “If all the Sun Beams”.

Some fun in the sun will have the puppies outside catching bubbles, painting with water, and jumping on chalk drawings. We will read Welcome Summer, and sing “Catch those Bubbles”.

Our next adventure will take us camping, glue cotton balls on pa-per towel tubes to roast marshmallows, and make a hand print campfire! Some songs we will sing will be “Going on a Bear Hunt” and “A Camping we will Go”.

The Puppies will wrap up the month of June with a week at the beach. We will explore real seashells and feel their different tex-tures and match the pictures and we will make a sand-castle. The puppies will have fun singing “5 Little Seashells” and “The Waves at the Beach”

We will check and send home sunscreen if it expires. If we do send it home, please make sure to bring in a new bottle.

Please continue to practice drinking from an open cup at home!

REMINDERS:

~If your child will wear them, please bring in a hat and /or sunglasses for outside time.

~Check/ask if your child has an extra set of summer clothes.

- Cathryn & Donna

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Yellow Honey Bees

Hello Dearest Yellow Bee Families,

First of all, please know how much you are missed! We have loved hearing from each and every one of you. We are so happy to learn that you are all well. Thank you to Olivia’s mom for organizing our “Zoom Meeting.” It was wonderful for all of us to see one another again. We understand that this time at home may be challenging. Our hope, though, is that it has been a great op-portunity to reconnect with one another, to slow down, and to focus on what is most meaningful to all of us.

The theme for our month of May is animals: farm animals, zoo animals, rain-forest animals, and animals that are our pets. There are so many cute animal activities on line to do. Maybe you can talk about their habitats, and foods they like to eat. Some craft ideas may be: Glue cottonballs on to a piece of black construction paper to make a sheep. Combine wa-ter and a little dirt. Draw /print out a pig shape. Paint your pig with mud…this is always a favorite for the little ones. Do you have any feathers? Maybe you can glue feathers onto paper to make a bird. We all have paper plates. You can cut a spiral y shape out of your paper plate to make a snake. This craft is a little creepy, but is loved by all.

Although crafts can be fun, they are not for everyone. Spending time outdoors, digging in the dirt, planting flowers, playing with buckets and water, writing with chalk, going on walks, and a good game of hide and seek with your children can create memories that last a lifetime. Oh, and don’t forget to work on potty training.

Remember, the most important thing we can do is to relax, to be present, and to enjoy one another. Once we return to school, this is what we look forward to the most. We understand that we have all been out of our school routine for awhile now. We look forward to reacquainting with one another through play, reading books, and to eventually move back into being comfortable with our Yellow Bee routine.

May is a BIG birthday month for the Yellow Bees! Balsam celebrates her birthday on May 1st. Oliver celebrates his birthday on May 12th. Noelle’s birthday is on May 21st, and Olivia celebrates her birthday on May 23rd! Happy Birthday friends!

Don’t forget our DCCC Big 3-Be Safe, Be Kind, and Be Responsible! (at home, community, and school)

Big Hugs from, Miss Michele and Miss Barb xo

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The month of May brought the Blue Bees together on the web with stories, songs, fun activities and two zoom meetings. It

was so much fun seeing the kids and hearing their voices as well as seeing them interact with each oth-er sharing their favorite toys. The second meeting we enjoyed a story read by Ms. Cassie, a song with Ms. Jody and another chance to just see each other and share our favorite toys.

Next month in June, as we return to DCCC after a very long time off, we plan to work our best to keep the children, their families and ourselves happy and healthy. Cassie and Jody will take each day one at a time as we work to ease the children back into coming to school and give them the comfort and space that they each need. We plan on taking the first week to ease back into our routines and will be talking a lot about washing hands, keeping things out of their mouths and away from their face. We will also

be going over DCCC’s Big 3 as well as reading social stories to help the children with their return to school. The second week, we will continue to ease back in and learn about Sun Safety and the last week we will learn about Outside Fun and Safety.

Parent Reminders:

*Until further notice, we ask that you only bring a small blanket, sheet and one snug-gle item for nap. Please bring them in a canvas bag as we will be placing them in that bag each day to store on your child’s cot.

*Please keep all toys from home at home as we can not allow them in the center at this time.

*Please check with Cassie or Jody to be sure we have sunscreen for your child.

*Check your child’s cubby for appropriate extra change of clothing (shorts and short-sleeved shirts).

*Shoes for outside play must be close toed or your child will not be allowed on the climbing equipment or bikes.

Thank you,

—Cassie & Jody

Blue Bees

This Photo by Un-

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Yellow Bear Cubs

We made it to June!! What a crazy spring we have had!! We had a lot of enjoya-ble Zoom meetings and keeping in touch with each other. As we move to the month of June and the yellow and then green phase for our county, DCCC is excited to be opening back up June 8th. As we start to look at coming back together please think of a few updated items your child might need. We haven’t been together since March, so our bins of extra clothes are winter weather and probably outgrown.

Our daily routine will look a little different as we add in extra handwashing

and cleaning. However, we will keep our activities as fun and active as we can. We will start off with re-viewing expectations and routines and getting back into a good schedule together. We will be outside and learning about sun safety and enjoying some warm summer weather. As we end June we will be festive with

red white and blue and have a lot of Patriotic fun as we head to the July 4th holiday.

~Ange & Kendra

Blue Bears

We made the best of May with our weekly Zoom Meetings! We read stories, danced, sang, and even planted a “rainbow”! We have been watching the growth of Tomato, Pumpkin, and Lima Bean seeds! We had fun with color and shape guessing games and scav-enger hunts! Seeing all your faces was the most important part!

The Teddy Bears will be hopeful to kicking off the summertime season in the classroom, but either in the classroom or via Zoom our fo-cus will be Fun in the Sun with a touch of tadpoles/toads, sun safety and beach! June will go out with a BANG as we all get in the patriotic spirit!

Reminders:

As we prepare for re-opening, we will be sending some stories for you to read with your child to help them prepare for the transition and changes.

Mandy

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Bunnies

June marks the start of a VERY fun and eventful summer for these soon to be kindergar-teners! It is also a bittersweet time in which we have to say farewell or see you later to some of our friends and classmates. In May we continued our learning at home with some fun themed weeks! We have been taking this time while at home to revisit some of our previously explored themes. Be-fore having to stay at home, we were finishing up a book unit. We revisited this by exploring fairy tales and nursery rhymes. Next, we revisited some much-loved themes, like our rainforest theme, and talked about some amazing animals! Each day we had the opportunity to take a virtual field trip to a zoo and watch the live cameras that were recording some of their animal exhibits! Lastly, we knew June was coming a bug unit would be a perfect time to explore bugs! Did you know lightning bugs or fireflies are also known as June bugs? We will kick off by welcoming back some of our friends to the Bunny Room! Some things will have changed in our room, but a lot will still stay the same. The bunnies will focus on getting back into our rou-tine here at school and practice our handwashing and staying safe. We are sad to report that our pet hermit crab did not make it through the environmental change. Miss Carly and Miss Sarah cleaned out the terrarium where he used to live and have new plans to make it into a fairy garden. We’ll explore gardening by planting chia seeds as the base of our fairy garden. The children will also get their own individual cups to plant some grass in. As they care for their plants, they will learn about the life cycle of a seed and how to be a responsi-ble gardener. Lastly, since most of our days will be spent outdoors, we will explore ways to be safe outside and in the sun.

Great news! Our Zoom meet ups will continue throughout the remainder of the summer. They will be sched-uled for our story times and our music and movement times.

Sweet and simple reminders to help keep us running smoothly for the month of June (if your child is return-ing to DCCC):

*please provide a clean mask DAILY for your child

*please provide school shoes to be worn while inside the classroom

*please pack disposable lunches

*NO HEATUPS at this time

` Sarah & Carly

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Kindergarten Dolphins

I cannot believe my time with you all has ended, but good news is that summer is here! You guys finished a crazy year,

but you did so in such an amazing way and I am so very proud of you. I will cherish our time together and our zoom calls we had.

The graduation ceremony looked a little different this year but we made the most of it. The teachers had a great time making posters and waving and cheering as the families drove the graduates through the parade in the parking lot.

Remember that I will always believe in each and every one of you and I am so very proud! Have a wonderful summer and hopefully I will see some of you soon at Summer Camp!

~Miss Brittney