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March 2025

Whole School News

March zipped by so quickly . . . we had so much fun, thoroughly, exploring the topic of dinosaurs!!! We began the month learning facts about the prehistoric “super lizards”. The first two weeks, the focus was on the four-legged walkers, “plant eaters” (herbivores). The last two weeks were all about the two legged walkers, pointy-toothed, “meat eaters” (carnivores). The children used the dinosaurs as “art” tools. All month long, each class made daily contributions to their dinosaur habitats; and we ended the month long lesson with the great “extinction” complete with erupting volcanoes! The dinosaurs are dead, never to return, thank God.  By the way, I am hopeful your budding paleontologist sung you our rendition of “We Will, We Will Stomp You”; (our dinosaur song, sung to the tune of, Queen’s we will, we will rock you!) (we even taught the children some funny dinosaur jokes. . . .hope they practiced “joke-telling” with you. . . . . comprehending humor is a bit of a milestone. . . it indicates a mature grasp of language)

Each month we choose a “social skill” to work on. This month we have spent much time discussing “kind words” and “reciprocal language”. We are brining much awareness of how kind words make both the “talker” and “listener” feel. It always feels good to “listen” to kind words, especially compliments. If you notice your child giving you a compliment, please share your story with us, it will help us tremendously!!! They are doing a wonderful job, and lately we have heard the children compliment each other, without teacher direction!!!! Again, a child who is noticing things unrelated to their own needs/wants, and compliments another about it, is reaching another milestone. . . they are transitioning from being naturally egocentric to being a positive contributor to their community. Please praise, praise, triple praise your children when they notice and articulate a compliment!!! They are adding positive energy to the world! I should mention that we continue to support, practice and build upon the social lessons we’ve practiced from the beginning: instinctively using manners (without prompt), being respectful of each other, making eye contact while speaking, respecting limits, reciprocal language, and choosing to be an optimist.

Science was so much fun this month! Our budding scientists made GREEN by mixing yellow and blue playdough together, we experimented with different scents (lavender, peppermint and cinnamon essential oils that I like to add to the water table), I certainly can’t forget the chemical reaction we created with the eruption of the VOLCANO!!

The best shoe choice for school are waterproof boots/shoes; our nature walks are mucky. Thank you very much for your help! Our kids get to do so much because you send them to school prepared.

Our year is nearly over!!! We have only 8 short weeks left in this school year!!!! It is passing too quickly! We will be preparing observation reports soon and be handing them out at the end of May.

Preschool News:

Meat Eaters, Plant Eaters, Habitats and Volcanoes OH MY! The Preschoolers had much fun learning about and creating their very own Dinosaurs and Dinosaur Eggs. They all worked together on creating a habitat for their Dinosaurs that included Water, Trees, Grass and a Volcano. It took all month to put the finishing touches on our habitat and in the last two days of our Dino lesson, we began to notice some lava seeping from the volcano! Our Harmony Dinosaurs are now extinct. Hopefully your children got a kick out of the dino egg they created and then brought home to hatch!!

We also talked about our New Color (Green), New Shape (Oval), New #(7 ) and New Month (March). We have been talking a lot about greetings and goodbyes, expecting eye contact and reciprocating verbal exchanges when someone says hello, goodmorning or goodbye to them. They have been hitting home runs and being complimented for their great manners and bucket filling! PRAISE THE POSITIVE!!!!

We have been on many nature walks looking for signs of Spring. We will no doubt continue taking notice of how the change in season creates new beauty and new life all around us. Please send your little ones in with rubber boots as we will spend even more time outside next month. The children are making great strides with taking off, putting on, practicing zipping and managing their own belongings. Practice makes progress and independence grows self pride!

Your Children are working hard and enjoying themselves and their friends! Be proud and don't blink, they are growing up FAST!!!

Miss Lori

Pre-K News:

March has been an extremely busy month for the Pre-Kindergarteners! We have learned so much and have had a lot of fun!

We have completed work on the letters U, V, and W.

For each letter that we work on, the children practice using the HWT blocks to form each letter. We are nearing completion of the Alphabet Book and will be sending it home with the children to share with their family. Along with the photo of each letter we will include a list of the children's favorite word that starts with the letter. They are all really looking forward to having a turn with the book!

The preKers have started to “sound out” words. . . . we are calling it “sound out practice time”. . . they are “sounding out” those lunch box notes. . . . sight words, and words associated with our letter of the week. . . . I am beyond thrilled with how well they are connecting letters, their sounds. . . and reading. . . . some are independently reading.

The children have been working on “differences”. . . they guess how many items are in our estimating jar. . . then, after we count out the contents. . I go back and ask each child what the difference was between their guess and the actual number of what was in the jar. . . then ask them if they were “over” or “under”. . . . again, I am amazed at how this little bit of practice every week has literally fired up their math minds!!! GO PREK!

The Pre-K kids have been working hard at learning "The Alphabet Workout". They have become quite good at it! They sing/dance the song while "writing" each letter in the air. The song teaches them the proper formation and language we use in writing the letters of the alphabet. We will be making rainbow wands soon for them to use while performing the song.

It has been a wonderful month in Pre-K! The children are doing a fantastic job at being "great Pre-K students" and have come together as quite a wonderful little community. I am very proud of them!

Miss Holly

Coming Up:

April will begin by introducing us to the process of growing a plant and finish with the celebration of our, year long, alphabet work. We will learn about the 6 ingredients necessary to grow a plant:

1. A vase, 2. soil, 3. seeds, 4. water, 5. sun, 6. time.

We will be spending more time outside; planting, catching worms and going on nature walks!

***Spring Break: April 18th-27th, reopening Monday April 28th.

*****END OF THE YEAR SHOW! Please pencil Thursday, May 29th 6:00 into your calendar; for our end of the year show. There will be a charge associated with the evening event; I’m waiting for confirmation from the school on equipment availability.

****Prek, Dust off those bikes and start practicing for BIKE DAY!!! The prekers will get to bring their bikes to school in May! Please, no scooters. . . . in the past, kids have zipped around bikers on those and caused accidents.

Alphabet Party!!!

The children have worked hard all year, learning their alphabet and alphabet sounds. . . . . . . and we want to paaaarrrty! We’ll be partying hard on April 16th and 17th, just before April vacation. A very cute idea. . . . . . if you are interested. . . . would be to either dress your child in a t-shirt with their favorite letter on it. . . . or, better yet, make one with fabric paint or sharpie markers on an old t-shirt. We will be going on a letter Z scavenger hunt. . . . The letter Z will be missing. . . of course Lucky the Leprechaun took it. . . I will sneak the letter Z to you early that week and ask they you hide it in a place that your student will not find it right away, but when they discover it. . . be absolutely thrilled. . . tapped to the inside of the toilet seat, tapped to the inside of the closet. . . inside a suitcase. . . .

Thank Yous

Thank you for the paper towel rolls!!!! They are very helpful!!! And we are going through them so quickly! And thank you for the DRESS UP/COSTUMES!!!!! We wear the dress-ups out FAST!

House Keeping

I am hearing beautiful manners from my students. You should be very proud of your little ones. I am complimented on your children’s manners and behavior by every professional and non-professional that visit our school!!

Reminder: When your child has their annual doctors well visit please let me know, so I can email you the link to update in Brightwheel. It is necessary that I have your childs most recent physical information in their student file. Thank you!!

Child Development Ditty 101:

Harmony Family Preschool

Behavior Management Plan

Philosophy: As parents and teachers our goal is to positively guide our children from infancy to adulthood; helping them develop into positive, independent, problem-solving, adults. Don’t let a young “teachable moment” pass you by. . . . wonderful life lessons are so much easier to learn early on. . . . . if you wait until your youngster is older, those lessons are exponentially more difficult to impart.

1. The first step: understanding the child: socially, emotionally, cognitively, and physically. Behavior is a choice; and often misunderstood.

a. The behavior a child chooses in any environment, with any given stimuli is most often

1. Satisfying a need, or

2. Attention getting

b. As a child ages, caregivers must respect and balance the child’s needs with age appropriate expectations of behavior.

For example: a young child who has a very high need to move cannot be expected to keep their body still for any length of time; that would be setting the stage for this child to satisfy their need negatively. As parents, we can adjust our expectations and plan for this child’s needs accordingly. However, as this child ages, we also need to increase our expectations and teach the child how to positively, safely, and respectfully, satisfy their need to move; because by the time that child is age 6 he/she will be expected to sit for almost 4 hours a day, in the first grade. Therefore, the first step to creating a behavior management plan is to balance your child’s needs with age appropriate expectations. (Food for thought: do you expect enough from your child? Do you expect too much? It is helpful to have a book that outlines what you should expect from your child, a good one is The American Academy of Pediatrics: Caring for your Baby and Young Child, birth to age 5, by Dr. Steven P. Shelov)

Discipline: to teach. As teachers and parents we strive to guide our children towards desired behavior. There are three main types of behavior management styles
1. Authoritarian (dictator, order with no freedom)
2. Permissive (freedom without order, unlimited choices, always needing to make the child happy, and rescuing)
3. Democratic or positive guidance (freedom within order, limited choices)

Positive Guidance at Harmony: At school, we practice positive guidance. Any “undesirable” behavior is a “teachable” moment. Here are some contributing factors that create a “positive guidance” environment:

A Predictable Schedule: knowing what is “usually” going to happen next is very comforting to children and eliminates many potential behavior issues. The children know that they will have the opportunity to run during outside time or indoor movement; and that it would be an unsafe choice to run during any other time of the school day.

B Model Desired Behavior: We follow the same rules that we expect the children to follow; we don’t run in the classroom. . . . unless it’s outside time or indoor movement time.

C Praise, Encourage, and Empathize with desired behavior. “Thank you for safely walking in the classroom, I know it can be a hard rule to follow.”

D Crystal Clear Rules/Positively Enforced: At school the rules are simple: we are safe, kind, and respectful. . . . no exceptions. If a child makes an unsafe choice, we offer a positive correction. For example: “be safe, walk please,” instead of “how many times have I asked you not to run in the classroom.” The first example uses much less words, communicates clearly, and we (teachers) don’t feel used up at the end of the day.

E Give Information!!!: If the positive correction doesn’t stop the running, then we give the child more information. “We need you to walk in order to keep you and everyone else safe; if we run, you could trip, bump your head and get hurt OR bump into one of your friends and then you would both get hurt”.

F Choices & Consequences: If giving information doesn’t stop the running, then we need to let the runner know that he/she has a choice. . . . they can either “stop the running Or sit until they choose to be safe and walk in the classroom”.

G. Consistency/Follow Through: If our budding young runner is persistent in their dangerous choice (and limit testing) we will need to follow through with the consequence and he/she will be asked to sit until they are ready to make a safer choice.

I hope you find this outline helpful. Behavior is cyclical. It helps to remember three things 1. that children are inherently egocentric and scientific, testing the limits of their world; and 2. being mindful of the very short time they have been in the world and finding the balance between encouraging them to do for themselves and 3. that they often need direction and opportunities to behave well. The only part of behavior management that we truly have control over is our reaction, to it.

The following is a list of adult actions and attitudes that are helpful in working with children.

Sit down whenever possible while supervising.
Use a low, quiet voice; enunciate clearly.
Use language that the child can understand, help the child learn the meaning of the words by using examples. . . “push on bell” means little to a child who doesn’t know what “push” means.. . show him.
Do not give too many suggestions at once; a young child does not have control over his memory. Adults should be expected to repeat their directions.
Be relaxed
Be CONSISTENT. Do NOT tell a child one ting one day and another the next day.
Display confidence in yourself when suggesting that children do something that is important to do. Make clear-cut distinction between requests in which the child has a choice of action and commands to which you expect complete compliance.
When children are working or playing well, do not interfere. . . .just observe.
Show No favoritism
Avoid talking about the child in his presence, unless giving compliments!
Be patient. Children need time to develop and improve GRADUALLY.
Look for what is right with the child INSTEAD of looking for problems. Build upon their strengths!
Before giving a direction, gain the child’s attention and eye contact.
Be sure you are reasonable and fair in your requirement; then see that the direction is carried out.
Do not make demands in anger.
Avoid conflicts and forcing an issue as much as possible. A little ingenuity often makes a situation go smoothly. The child needs to establish a pattern of happy rather than one of negative refusal.
Don’t use tricks or BRIBES as a means of gaining compliance.
Do not make misbehaving exciting.
Praise the type of behavior you wish continued. Success is the best reinforcement possible.
Allow the child to learn by experiment. Help him only when it is necessary to avoid failure and discouragement. Encourage him to find out for himself.
Gradually withdraw your physical and verbal help as the child progresses towards independence.
Let each child grow and proceed at his/her own rate. Each child experiences their own unique path of development!!!!
Love and respect each child as he/she is UNIQUE. Observe and notice their “uniqueness” and remember their “sameness”, this will give you a foundation for what you do with and for him.
Know what to expect from your child as he/she ages. . . you must expect more from your child as he/she ages. . . lowering expectations also lowers a child’s potential.

Definitions:

Personality: the complex and collective set of characteristics that distinguish an individual.

Behavior: the manner in which someone reacts to the environment, the manner of conducting oneself, to do things a certain way

Punish: to hurt

Discipline: to teach

Additional Resources:

How to talk so Kids will listen and How to listen so Kids will Talk both written by, Adele Faber & Elaine Mazlish.
Siblings without Rivalry, Faber & Mazlish.
Setting Limits, Robert MacKenzie, Ed.D.
Positive Discipline, Jane Nelson, Ed.D.
1-2-3 Magic, Thomas Phelan, Ph.D.
Yardsticks, Children Ages 4-14: A Resource for Parents & Teachers, by Chip Wood.
The Promise of Proactive Parenting, Lynne Reeves Griffin RN, Med.

Additionally, the following is a list of adult actions that influence youth leaders:

(received from Bayview Associates: Growing Young Leaders Training, Feb. 2009)

Be truthful
Grow optimsits! Demand they tell you three good things that happened to them every day, and give that attention!!!
Squash pessimism by NOT giving it attention!
Encourage differences
Be trusting and trustworthy
Promote challenges and high standards
Expose them to opportunities – no matter what!
No judges!
Believe in them wholeheartedly
Make room for mistakes
Confront perfectionism . . .promote PROGRESS
Model the way
Offer autonomy and allow it to be earned and maintained
Accept their weaknesses and promote their strengths
Celebrate, celebrate, celebrate accomplishments
Listen closely, without distractions
Allow students to be the experts, when appropriate
Provide ample chances to practice leadership
Advocate for their ideas and promote their triumphs
Humility, humor, hopefulness
Relate to their reality
Be creative and innovative
Give respect – earn respect
Patience
Don’t’ do for your children what they can do for themselves (this is one of my personal favorites, and the one I re-assess often as my children and expectations of them age. . . . think car payments and cell phone bills down the road!!!  ) good luck!