Week of January 9th-13th

Hi Families,

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! On Thursday and Friday I sent home a letter explaining that next week I will be leaving the classroom and taking on a new position here at the Early Childhood Center. I have loved being in the classroom and working and learning with all of you child, for it was a tough decision for me to make. Luckily we have Kristen Hart who will be in the classroom as your child's teacher for the remainder of the school year. Miss Lauren and Mrs. Deb will still be in the classroom. Ms. Hart will be sending home a welcome letter introducing herself as well as explaining her primary modes of communication for families.

This week Ms. Hart and I are team teaching, which is very exciting for the both of us. We will be switching off teaching large and small group this week! The children have been getting to know Ms Hart and I know that she will do a fantastic job.

At large group this week I will be having the children do the alphabet freeze dance around the classroom as well as tell familiar felt board stories. At small group the children created their Art to Remember works and forms to order those will be sent home soon!

Spring Fling donation letters were sent home last week and the theme for our classroom is CATS! Please send in any non-perishable cat items to donate to the class basket. Those are due by January 24th.

School Reminders and Schedule:

• January 16th NO SCHOOL- MLK Day
• January 13th- Mr. Daniel in school field trip
• 9:30am
• 1:30pm

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Miss Rodriguez 

Message From Speech Therapists

Speech and Language Therapy

Happy New Year from the SLP Team at Brownsburg Early Childhood Center.  Our team has added another SLP.  Please welcome Cindy Cartwright who will be working part-time on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. For future reference, the SLPs are Jenni Shellhorn (full time SLP), Cindy Cartwright (part-time SLP), and Lorraine Jeter (full time SLPA).

An SLP stands for speech language pathologist.  In the educational field, we focus on all forms of communication, such as:

Speech: improving a student’s speech intelligibility.  Articulation is the way a sound is produced.  Phonology is the pattern of sound errors that typically developing children use to simplify speech as they are learning to talk.

Language: includes receptive language (what is understood) and expressive language (what is said).  Language therapy includes skills such as following directions, grammar, and vocabulary.

Fluency:  improving students’ speech who have difficulty maintaining fluent speech (stutter).

Social:  increasing verbal and nonverbal social language in order to improve communication between individuals.

As SLPs, our main goal is to provide speech and language services throughout the school day as outlined by your student’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP).  Our second goal is to increase parent communication by providing weekly updates reviewing speech and language activities reviewed during Large and Small Group sessions.  Look for these updates posted on teacher blogs and biweekly homework sheets.  Additionally, the SLP team welcomes emails and phone calls with specific questions regarding your child’s needs.  Reach out to us with your concerns and we will return a response within 48 hours.

We look forward to the second half of the 2016-2017 school year!  It is our pleasure to continue working with your child.

Jenni Shellhorn, MHS, CCC-SLP – 317-852-1046, ext 2012, jshellhorn@brownsburg.k12.in.us

Cindy Cartwright, M.Ed, CCC-SLP – 317-852-1046, ext 2016, ccartwright@brownsburg.k12.in.us

Lorraine Jeter, BS, SLPA – 317-852-1046, ext 2012, ljeter@brownsburg.k12.in.us

Week of January 3rd-6th

Hi Families,

Welcome back and Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful time celebrating the holidays! We are excited to be back at school and going into the school groove once again.

This week at large group the children will be playing Red Light, Green Light as a way to practice their whole body listen and help them review different ways to show that you can listen. They will also be reading and moving to the book "Good Morning Yoga". On Thursday we will be going on a number hunt and lastly letter limbo.

At small group the children will be building patterns using building blocks as well as go on a color hunt by finding objects around the classroom that match different colors. The children will also be learning about rhyming words and word families.

We also have a new teacher in our classroom, Ms. Deb she is the second assistant in our classroom, we are very excited to have her with us!

Important Dates:

• January 6th, report cards and progress reports will be sent home, please let me know if you need multiple copies
• January 16th NO SCHOOL- MLK Day
• January 13th- Mr. Daniel in school field trip
• 9:30am
• 1:30pm

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Miss Rodriguez 

Week of December 12-16

Hi Families,

Happy spirit week! One more week until the holiday break! This week we are doing some fun activities in the classroom as well as in the gym. Mrs. Lenore our school PT set up a reindeer express activity in the gross motor room. The children have to help deliver presents to different parts of the gym. Each present has a shape on it and the children have to sort the presents by shape by placing each present at a specific paper door. The children had a great time loading and delivering the presents.

At large group this week the children played the dice movement game, where they rolled 2 dice (one with numbers, one with a motion) and the did that movement based on the number of times that was rolled on the dice. We will also be retelling a felt board story, creating shapes on the floor using blocks, and lastly the children will be able to choose their favorite large group from the quarter.

At small group the children made their December journal and created some math art. They rolled a dice and wrote the number they rolled on a piece of paper, then the children were able to choose an art material to glue on the piece of paper to represent the number they rolled. The children will also be doing some fun science experiments. We will be reading the book Kitten's First Moon and doing a food coloring and milk experiment. They will also be doing the dancing raisin experiment. For this experiment the children will observe raisins in a glass of water and one in a glass of sprite. Then they will draw what they see in each and talk about what they discovered.


Report cards and progress reports will be send home AFTER winter break. I will send an email reminder to check backpacks!

Classroom Reminders:

• Holiday Spirit Week
• Monday 12th-Candy Cane Day
• Tuesday 13th-Long Winter's Nap
  Wednesday 14th-Holiday Sweater
  Thursday 15th-Holiday Socks
  Friday 16th-Holiday Character
   
• Winter Break 
• December 12th-30th 

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Miss Rodriguez 

Week of December 5th-9th

Hi Families,

Just two more week and one half of the school year will be in the books! It's amazing how much these kinds have grown so far, I am so excited to see all of their progress thus far. Thank you to all the families who came to Snacks with Students, we loved having you!

This week we are doing a how gambit of activities. At large group the children throw "snowballs" at letters, they will be making patterns with rhythm sticks, reading the book "Should I Share My Ice Cream (and do a team building exercise), and do a retelling of the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear".

At small group the children will be practicing writing their names, but instead of pencils they will be using qtips and paint. They will also be practicing creating their own written patterns, trace letters with buttons, and create patterns with foam shapes.

Next week will be spirit week, here is the dress up schedule!

Monday 12th-Candy Cane Day
Tuesday 13th-Long Winter's Nap
Wednesday 14th-Holiday Sweater
Thursday 15th-Holiday Socks
Friday 16th-Holiday Character

Report cards and progress reports will be send home AFTER winter break. I will send an email reminder to check backpacks!

Classroom Reminders:

• Holiday Spirit Week
• December 12th-16th
• Winter Break 
• December 12th-30th 

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Miss Rodriguez 

Week of November 28th-December 2nd

Hi Families,

Welcome back from Thanksgiving Break! I hope you all had a wonderful few days to relax and be with your families. These next few weeks of school are going to fly by! Our spider study has officially ended. The children really enjoyed learning all about spiders and have made some amazing drawings depicting what they learned. To show off their hard work I have put together a small documentation panel outside the classroom. If you are ever in the building make sure to come check it out!

This week we will be discussing shapes and numbers. I noticed that the students really enjoyed making the letters with their bodies, so this week we will be doing that, but instead we will be making shapes and numbers! We will also be pretending to jump in puddles after reading the book, "It's Raining, It's Pouring" and the children will have to identify the numbers on the puddles they jump on. At small group the children will be creating and copying pictures using pattern blocks. They will also be reading a book at Mat Man and they different shapes he uses to make his body. Lastly they will end their week with a fun shaving cream activity!

Make sure that you stop by the book fair this week. It is in the gross motor room and you can come check it out during arrival and pick up.

School Reminders:

• Book Fair
• November 28th- December 2nd 
• Catalogues have been sent home, a preview of what will be sold at the book fair 
• Volunteer sign up
• http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0c44abac2fa6fc1-book2
• Snacks with Students
• December 2nd
• 11:00am and 3:00pm
• Forms have been sent home, please fill out and attach payment before returning to school!
• You MUST have an approved background check in order to participate!  
• Holiday Spirit Week
• December 12th-16th
• More information to come!

 Please let me know if you have any questions! Have a wonderful Monday!

 -Miss Rodriguez

Week of November 21-23

Hi Families,

Happy Thanksgiving week! We're going to have a fast 3 days. At large group the children will be playing a letter freeze dance game, yoga, and look at classroom pictures from the year so far!

At small group we will be finishing up our salt spider webs and creating a November journal page for our portfolios. The children have really enjoyed learning about spiders and have been asking some great questions. It has been wonderful to seem them reading and exploring during work time!

Please make sure to send your child in appropriate winter attire. We go outside everyday unless there is rain. It was very cold this morning. Gloves, hats, and closed toes shoes would be good options to bring to school! 

School Reminders:

• Book Fair
• November 28th-30th 
• Catalogues have been sent home, a preview of what will be sold at the book fair 
• Volunteer sign up
• http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0c44abac2fa6fc1-book2
   
•  Thanksgiving Break
• November 24th & 25th 
• Snacks with Students
• December 2nd
• 11:00am and 3:00pm
• Forms have been sent home, please fill out and attach payment before returning to school!
• You MUST have an approved background check in order to participate!  

 Please let me know if you have any questions! Have a wonderful Monday!

 -Miss Rodriguez