Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Earthquake Safety

The recent Napa Valley earthquake is a good reminder to talk about safety. Your child's safety is very important to us! Rest assured, we have a full emergency plan and keep supplies stocked at all times here at school.

Every month we practice a fire drill. The children know how to quickly line up and walk safely with teachers to the front of the school. Periodically we also add a "duck, cover, and hold" earthquake drill. Today was an earthquake drill day.



Earthquake & Fire Drills
We started by showing the children a short video clip about being "Turtle Safe" during an earthquake. (Here is the link if you want to watch it and practice at home too.) Later we did the earthquake drill, then lined up and went outside like a fire drill, just as we would do after a real earthquake while the building gets inspected for possible damage.


These drills happen at various times of the morning each month so that everyone will know what to do if they are inside or playing outside during a real emergency. (We usually do drills in the morning so that our half-day children will be included.) Infants in Green Room are obviously not ready to "duck, cover, and hold" in the traditional way, but their teachers do have an age-appropriate plan in place.

Contact Information
Has your phone number, email address, or home address changed in the past year? Is there anyone you would like to add to or subtract from your child's emergency pick-up list? In the event of a natural disaster, realize that traffic and road obstructions may make it hard for you to get here quickly, so the more people you have listed, the better. Anytime your contact information changes, please let us know right away so we can keep current records. That way we can be sure to get in touch with you in case of an emergency.

School is prepared.
In addition to stocking emergency supplies and practicing our emergency drills, we subscribe to a system called SchoolReach that lets us call and text every parent's home, cell, and work phone numbers simultaneously if needed. We would use this system to keep you updated in case of a school-wide emergency or natural disaster. In any type of emergency, teachers would stay with your children until every child has been safely picked up by an authorized adult.

Are you ready?
We encourage every family to make and practice an emergency plan at home. Do you and your children know how to duck, cover, and hold at home? Do you know two ways to get out of your room and out of your house? Do you have a meeting place outside of your house (such as a neighbor's front lawn) in case you all have to evacuate quickly? Do you have supplies on hand in case you have to shelter in place for a few days? Do you have enough medications or supplies for anyone in your family who has special needs? We encourage you to talk about these plans and practice them periodically so everyone knows how to be safe in an emergency at home. Here is the video link again if you want to practice being "Turtle Safe" together. 


As always, if you have any questions, feel free to talk to Jennifer or your child's teachers. Thank you!

- Teacher Jennifer

Monday, August 18, 2014

P's 5th Birthday, Ice Cream Social, Pajama, and Pancake Day




Happy 5th Birthday P!!








We are going to miss you when you go to kindergarten. I hope you have fun and please come back and visit us! We love you P!


Making our ice cream cone art.


M thinking about what his paper ice cream cone should look like.


M showing what a 6 year old can do!


Our much anticipated Ice cream social. Thank you to everyone who brought toppings to share! It was great to see children try new things and feel excited to have others enjoy what they brought.





Great time talking with other families and hanging out with staff. This was a nice, low key way to wrap up the summer. Of course most of the children came back for seconds! Yum!






Blue Room and Purple Room children working together on collages with many different textures and colores.





Pajama and Pancake Day!


shake shake shake.....









All smiles after a fun day in our comfy jammies and bellies full of pancakes!

Thank you all for a fun summer, Teacher Kristina, Teacher Thoavy, and Teacher Aimee!

Water Play

Hello Blue Room Family and Friends,

Water play week was so much fun, the children so enjoyed running through the sprinkler, splashing in the pool, blowing bubbles, and playing with ice!












E and S using a water noodle to move the sprinkler and trays as shields from the water.


G and A drinking from the sprinkler.


I, A, M, and E using droppers to color giant blocks of ice.


N and M putting salt on the ice blocks.


P blowing a bubble snake.


Wow G, that looks like a bubble rocket!





It took a long time to blow up and fill our pool but, it was worth it.


Ahhh, cold water on hot toes!

Keep cool, Teacher Kristina, Teacher Thoavy, and Teacher Aimee

Friday, August 1, 2014

Summer 4th of July, Camping and Maps

Summer Fun!


I showed the children a short clip of a firework show to our National Anthem. to help get them inspired to make fireworks.











All the children had different creative techniques to making their 4th of July fireworks.


K and E painting trees for our campground.


Planning and making a map of our camp ground


One of those priceless moments. This is one of the reasons I love my job! Thank you G for the snuggles! :)


The boys reading the map and looking at the legend to see what the symbols mean. They of course counted how many bathrooms their were.


Blue Rooms Map


Starting to paint our campground


K adding in the trees


L painting in the creek


M adding in the sand to make a beach for all the beach campers


Making mountains


A decorating stars for our midnight sky


We had many different colored stars


M playing with our camp ground


Our Camping theme was throughly enjoyed by all the children and it was really neat to hear all their camping stories from going camping with their families. We even took down the tent together and said good bye until next summer.


And of course we needed to make s'mores! Yummy!

Hugs,

Teacher Kristina