Pleasant Valley Preschool Program
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Pleasant Valley Preschool Program
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Pleasant Valley Preschool Handbook 2009-2010
Bridgeview Elementary Pleasant Valley Community School District 316 South 12th Street Le Claire, Iowa 52753 563-332-0215
Philosophy Preschool students learn best in an engaging environment that allows them to explore interesting materials, interact with peers and develop skills through play. The role of the adult is to provide appropriate activities, model appropriate skills and behaviors and to support interactions between students. The Creative Curriculum® provides the framework for the skills and activities presented in the preschool program.
Beliefs We believe that parents are a child’s first teacher and should continue to participate in their child’s preschool education. We believe that support from siblings and extended family members will enhance the child’s preschool education. We believe opportunities for learning and developing skills occur at school, at home and in the community. We believe a strong partnership between home and school offers children increased opportunities to practice developing skills; to generalize skills across environments and to include skills for home and family settings in the educational program.
Preschool Information Welcome to preschool – we are looking forward to an exciting year of learning! Along with typical preschool activities, your child while receive small group and individualized instruction. If your child has an IEP, specialized instruction will be proviced that addresses his or her written goals.
Arrival/Dismissal Procedures Students attend school Monday through Thursday, with Fridays reserved for home visits, team planning, and meetings. The morning session is from 8:30 am-11:00 am, the afternoon session meets from 12:30 pm-3:00 pm. Parents are asked to walk preschool students to their classroom. Morning students can enter their class beginning at 8:25 am. Students arriving after 8:35 need to stop in the office and get a pass before coming to the classroom. Morning students will be dismissed through the north building door, marked gymnasium entrance. Teachers will accompany the children out to meet their parents. Morning students who stay for lunch will be dismissed at 12:15. Afternoon students who have lunch at school should arrive at 11:10 am. Afternoon students may enter the classroom beginning at 12:25 pm. Again, parents are asked to walk their children to the room. Students arriving after 12:35 need to stop in the office and get a pass before coming to the classroom. Class will be dismissed at 3:00. Students will be dismissed to their parent at room 31. Please wait in the school lobby until 3—then come to room 31 to meet your child. If you are late picking your child up, we will have them wait in the office for you.
Daily Routine We follow a regular sequence of activities each day, but don’t adhere to a strict time schedule. If everyone is working hard and really enjoying an activity, we might work longer. If everyone is distracted, or struggling, we may quit early and move on. Here is our daily routine: Arrival: When the children arrive they take any notes or messages out of their backpacks, and put their backpacks in their cubbies. Then they stop at the easel to sign in and order their milk for snack, choosing either white or chocolate milk. Social Interaction: Children have a choice of activities to begin their day – they can play in housekeeping, with blocks and vehicles, read, do puzzles, etc. The teachers and associates may also work individually with children during this time. We work on skills like naming colors and shapes, counting, sorting, playing games, and having fun exploring and learning. Art: At this age, most art projects involve experimenting with tools and different medium. As the year progresses, we might start seeing recognizable objects in their drawings and pictures, but for now, the process of cutting, drawing or painting is more important than “making a picture.” Art activities help youngsters creatively express their thoughts and feelings. They help reinforce fine-motor skills and concept development in areas such as colors, shapes, and size relationships. Circle Time: After art, we put all the toys away and move to circle time. Circle time is a group gathering during which we share our ideas, plans, and observations. Circle activities are designed to stimulate youngsters’ thinking, enrich their social skills, and expand their attention spans. During this language time, we read books, do songs and finger plays, as well as other activities like naming pictures, sorting or counting. Reading activities help youngsters develop an appreciation and enjoyment of literature. These reading activities enhance the children’s vocabulary and comprehension skills, and also expand their knowledge base. Music activities that we do at circle time promote youngsters’ listening skills, creative expression, and social skills. In music, children can explore sound, volume, tempo, and rhythm. Snack: At this time of the day, everyone is ready for a snack break. The learning continues even during snack. Children take turns having jobs at snack time such as passing out milk, napkins, straws or food. We encourage the children to ask each other for what they want. We also encourage conversation during this time. We will talk about school activities and things that have happened at home. As needed during the day we take bathroom breaks. Table Work: Table work is a variety of fine motor activities such as peg boards, puzzles and stringing beads. We also do activities that require the children to color, cut, and glue. Fine-motor activities help improve small-muscle development and eye-hand coordination. Recess: Every day that weather permits we go outside to play on the playground. When the weather is not suitable to go outside we play in the building. Gross-motor activities give children the opportunity to use their muscles as well as their imaginations as they engage in fun, healthy exercises, such as running, jumping, and climbing. Make sure that your children wear comfortable safe footwear, like tennis shoes. Flip flops and fancy shoes are not easy to run and play in and children often have accidents because of them. When the weather is snowy we still go outside unless the temperature or wind chill is not safe. Make sure that your child has coat, hat, mittens, boots, and snow pants for winter outdoor play. Please label all of the clothing. Good-Bye: Before we go home we all gather again on the carpet for a quick re-cap of the day and sing our good-bye song.
Early Release Days – 2009-2010 On district early release days, only the morning class will attend school. All am students will be dismissed at 11:00 and no afternoon students will have class. Lunch will not be served for preschool on early out days. Here is the schedule for early release days: Wednesday, August 26th Wednesday, September 16th Wednesday, October 7th Wednesday, December 9th Wednesday, March 31st Wednesday, April 14th Wednesday, May 12th
E-news Registration The Pleasant Valley School District sends all non-confidential information in an electronic format (E-news) instead of paper. Confidential information and information that is specific to a student or groups of students will not be sent electronically. You can register for e-news through the district’s web site - www.pleasval.k12.ia.us
Communication Communication between home and school is very important for your child’s educational beginning. Weekly notes will be sent home informing you of the plans and activities in the classroom. These notes will tell you what story we will be reading, what type of activities we will work on at table work time and any special dates that you need to mark on your calendar. At the beginning of each month a snack calendar will be sent home with the children’s names and the date that they will provide snack. We would like to have you keep this calendar all month long and hang it up at your child’s eye-level height so that you can easily look to see whose name it is for that school day. You will be amazed how quickly the children start to recognize their classmate’s names. We welcome notes from you, especially those that let us know about special activities or accomplishments – this gives us information to talk about with your child at school. You can reach us by telephone #332-0215 or email: mullenkarin@pleasval.k12.ia.us If you call before 8:30 am or after 3:00pm, we may be able to take your call – otherwise you can leave a message, and we will return your call as soon as possible. Be sure to visit the preschool website where you will learn about the activities happening at school and see pictures of the children having fun and working hard as they learn and play. Start with the Pleasant Valley School Districts webpage at http://www.pleasval.k12.ia.us/ then bring up the Bridgeview Elementary site and click on Teacher Links, then Preschool.
Home Visits Home visits are a wonderful opportunity for us to work together, to help your child. The visits will last about an hour. We will bring some materials from school, to show you some of the activities we’ve been working on at school. Sometimes we can have our visits at school, so that your child can show you our room and toys or materials that are too large to bring to your home. This is also a time you can ask questions or we can talk about any of your concerns about your child.
Conferences/Progress Reports Parent-teacher conferences will be held twice a year. At these conferences a written progress report will be used. In addition, a third progress report will be issued at the end of the year. Parents may request additional conferences at any time during the school year and may contact their child’s teacher via telephone or email at any time with questions.
Classroom Visits Parents are welcomed and urged to visit school. We would appreciate your contacting us ahead of the visit so we know to expect you. Please check in at the school office and sign in upon your arrival. We would appreciate not having visitors during the first two weeks of school, just before holidays or during the last week of school.
Supplies Supplies for preschool such as paint, crayons, scissors, and glue are provided. Each child is asked to bring: a box of Kleenex for use in the classroom. $1.00 for a water bottle A bag or backpack to carry papers back and forth to school. Please help your child go through the bag each day—look for notes, calendars and wonderful creations. Please make sure that your child’s name is written inside their bag. Requests for other materials may be made during the year; all donations are greatly appreciated.
Snack Snack is a part of our daily routine. Milk will be served, at a cost to the parents of $40.00 for the school year or $20.00 a semester. You may write a check payable to Pleasant Valley Community School District (PVCSD) for the entire year or make arrangements with the office staff. Each family will be asked to take turns providing snack for the class. The snack schedule will be sent at the beginning of each month. Please send nutritious snacks, like crackers, pretzels, muffins, fruit or raisins. Save cookies or cupcakes for parties or birthdays. There are 12 children in each class.
Change of Clothes For students learning toileting skills or who have frequent accidents we ask that you send an extra change of clothes that may be kept at school. Please supply diapers or pull-ups and wipes for students not yet toilet trained. You can send them on a daily basis, or send a full package and we will store them in your child’s locker.
Book Orders On a monthly basis, you will be able to order books for your child through Scholastic Book Orders sent to school. Usually the books are paperback, and are priced quite reasonably. This is optional – you may choose to place an order or not.
Attendance Please notify office staff (332-0215) each day your child is ill and provide 2 symptoms or actual illness your child is suffering from. The Iowa Department of Public Health mandates this reporting to help track communicable diseases and alert us as a community of outbreaks. (If your child rides the bus, please call transportation # 332-4949 and let them know your child will not be riding.) Also keep in mind those students with a temperature of 100 degrees or greater need to remain home and not return to school until fever free for 24 hours. This pertains to vomiting/diarrhea as well. Keep your child home until symptom free for 24 hours. This helps your child’s immune system as well as the rest of the community. While it is important for students to attend school on a regular basis, they need to stay home when they are sick. We recognize that preschoolers may have numerous absences or illnesses, especially if this is their first experience with other children. To encourage regular attendance, district policy includes sending a letter to parents when a child has ten or more absences. This form letter is automatically sent, whether your child’s absences are excused or not. If you have any questions about your child’s attendance; or district policy, please contact your child’s teacher, or Tony Hiatt, principal.
First Aid/Medication The school nurse will be available on a daily basis. The nurse teaches, promotes, and directs health activities and keeps detailed records on each student. Vision and hearing checks done by the school should never be substituted for a doctor’s examination. Pleasant Valley Community School District will administer prescribed medications and over-the-counter medicine when it is necessary for these medications to be taken during school hours. However, medications will not be administered unless the following requirements are met: Prescribed medicine must be properly labeled. The medicine shall be sent to school in the original prescription container which shall be labeled with: a. Name of student b. Name of medicine c. Directions for use d. Name of physician e. Name & Address of pharmacy f. Date of Prescription
Over-the-counter medicine will be given if the following conditions are met: a. The medicine is in a closed container. b. The container has the child’s name on the outside. c. The outside of the container also states the contents inside. A signed note from the parent must accompany the medication indicating to the school the time the medication is to be given and the amount of the medication to be given. It shall not be the duty or responsibility of the district to determine if the correct medication is supplied by the parent in the marked container. Any children with food or insect allergies that have been identified by a doctor must send documentation that will be kept in their health files.
Birth Certificates and Immunization Records We must have a copy of your child’s birth certificate and an up to date immunization record on file in our school nurse’s office. Any child who does not have these records on file will not be allowed to attend preschool until they are turned in. The Scott County Health Department audits our program and we must comply with state regulations.
Preschool Key Phrases These are some of the phrases we use in preschool to encourage appropriate behavior and compliance with directions. You might find them helpful to use with your child at home! Encourage your child to use words, not actions (like hitting) to express their wants and needs. Use specific statements to let you child know what you want them to do. For example, ‘sit in your seat and keep your hands in your lap’, instead of telling them to “be good” when riding in the car. Whenever possible, give your child a choice, so that they feel some control over the situation. For example, “do you want milk or apple juice?”
No thank you You may do it by yourself or I will help you If you want to ________, first you need to ________ Please be gentle Use your walking feet Keep your body in your own space Use your inside voice Use kind and friendly words That is hurtful You need to calm your body so it’s ready to ... We are all learning We are all friends at preschool Preschool Staff Tony Hiatt, principal Mary Noack, secretary Karen Brown, office staff Kathy Kinzenbaw, teacher Karin Mullen, teacher Sara Niebur, teacher Kraig Hartz, Occupational Therapist Jennifer Kingery, Speech-Language Pathologist Sharon Sanyi, Physical Therapist Jen Hillman, teacher associate Janie Odegard, teacher associate Jane Overbeeke, teacher associate
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