Meet the Interns!

MEET THE INTERNS!

This semester we have the pleasure of working with two, wonderful individuals who are eager to work with your child as we are to work with them. 

Hello, Bonjour Families,

My name is Hadidja Hamadi and I am eager to be one of your child's teacher this fall. I would like to tell you a few things about myself. I was born in Marseille (south of France), was raised in Paris, and I have a degree in Marketing & Communications.

     I came to Michigan 12 years ago, started volunteering with kids, and I fell in love with the wonderful world of education. I have work with the ECEC during my practicum. I am getting my degree in Early Childhood Development at UofM Dearborn. I’ve been married for 12 years, and we have 3 wonderful children: a 10-year-old boy, a 6-year-old girl, and a 20-month-old boy. I enjoy reading, cooking and playing with my kids

    I will be an intern at ECEC, and I cannot wait to meet each one of you and start exploring with your child. I am looking forward to a great and productive fall.

   During my time at ECEC (Monday - Thursday, 8am to 12pm), I will collaborate with your children and make sure they continue to develop their love of everything, discovering, learning, and reading.

     Having bilingual children at home, I would love to read books in French with the children. I can bring some to the classroom and share the knowledge of my mother language with them. I am happy to be part of Mrs. Smith’s and Ms. Sanchez’s class and cannot wait to start learning from their experience while working at ECEC.

Educational yours,

Hadidja Hamadi

 Hello, my name is Ju Paek. I am originally from Seoul, South Korea.  It was there that I studied Korean Confucianism and music performance until I came to the United States in 2005. I grew up with a devoted mom who has been an early childhood educator for more than 30 years; she has run early learning centers in Seoul. Now I am studying to get my early childhood education degree at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.

I will be an intern student in your child's classroom every Wednesday from 8:00 am to 3:30 pm and Friday from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm throughout the fall semester. This is my third semester at the ECEC and my final year at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. I will be graduating in December. During my last two semesters at the ECEC, I worked with children between the age of three years old and five years old. I am very excited to be working with your child at the ECEC and I am hoping to bring my global knowledge into the classroom and to learn from your child as well. As a cellist, I will also introduce a cello to your child though free exploration and play activities.

During my time outside of school, I love to be occupied with various activities. First and foremost, I enjoy spending time with my family members; we love to exercise at the gym and watch movies together. When I am alone at home, I enjoy playing my cello and making floral arrangements. I am also a yogi, tea lover, and novice golfer. I believe that your child will enjoy the privileges and responsibilities of being a preschooler at the ECEC.  I am also looking forward to a great semester filled with lots of fun learning activities, projects and experiments.

 THIS WEEK

After reading over the parent surveys, many of you had similar goals for your child: build relationships with peers, develop positive social skills, writing own name, letter and number identification, and phonemic awareness. During our exploration time, we provide the children with investigations that incorporate literacy, math, social studies, art, and science.

To further support the goals you have for your child, we decided to start small groups. Our small groups are 15-10 min. of our day where we split the children into three groups: literacy, math, and practicing a skill. Each child works in one of these groups at least twice a week. Every week, we will decide what skill the children need to work on for each domain. This week we worked on counting for math, breaking apart the lines in letters to become familiar with the similarities and difference in letter characteristics (long line, short line, big curve, little curve, and diagonals), and the skill of putting on own socks and shoes. We will work at the children's pace and observe skills that need to be mastered before moving on to the next. 

VOLUNTEERING

Many of you expressed your desire to come into the classroom and volunteer your time by cooking, reading, and sharing a talent. We are extremely happy about having you in the classroom! Please email us about your availability.

PARENT/TEACHER COMMUNICATION

Parent and teacher communication is such a valuable piece of our job. Sometimes, it is hard to catch a time to speak with all the families at drop off and pick up. If at anytime we are not available to talk to you for any reason and would like to share something with us, we have placed sticky notes in a basket next to the parent sign-in clip board where you can write a little note to us and stick it to our computer on our desk. Our time with your children is priceless, we want to be respectful of the time we spend with all the children. If at anytime you would like to make a time to meet with us to discuss your child's progress, please email us. We would love to talk to you!

UPCOMING EVENTS

• Fire Drill next week 9/30/15 10:30am. We practiced STOP, DROP, & ROLL this week!
• Family Gathering- Plymouth Orchards & Cider Mill 10/10/15 1:00-4:00pm
• Families in the Art Studio Event 10/16/15 4:00-5:00pm. Come and share the schools art studio with your child!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Ms. Smith & Ms. Sanchez

Airplanes & Rainbows

We are overly joyed with the fact that the children are taking ownership of their classroom by becoming more comfortable with the routine.  We have noticed drop-off has been a little hard for some of the children but we assure you the rest of the day becomes more comfortable and fun for the children.

This week was filled with investigations! The children’s interests and questions are emerging through their play. One interest the children show everyday is role-playing airplane pilots, conductors, and passengers. “We are going to Florida to have a beach party!” shout the children. They engage in this play by lining chairs in a row, assigning roles to each person, and even serve hot food and cold drinks to the passengers.  Perhaps the airplane curiosity has developed due to many of the children traveling by airplane this summer.  The interns in our classroom are already thinking of ways to support the children in their inventive and creative play.

Has your child shared about the rainbow’s that emerge in the block area walls during the day? Clusters of rainbow’s appear in our classroom at approximately 10:00 am and disappear by about 1:00pm.  The rainbows fascinate the children. They try to catch them and wonder where they come from. The children have many questions about the rainbows and we are being very careful about how much information to share with the children. Part of our school philosophy is not giving children answers, but encourage their thinking by asking them questions and finding ways to research together to construct their own understanding. We purposefully want the children to wonder, and continue to ask questions. In case you are wondering how the rainbows are appearing in the classroom, we have a solar powered, spinning crystal that casts the rainbows just as the rising sun hits our window.

This month, we will focus on creating a social moral classroom.  We will be reading books and discussing our classroom agreements; how to be safe, kind, and responsible to others and the classroom. The children will come up with their own understandings and definitions for our classroom agreements. Our goal is to give the children the opportunity to debate ideas, and work together to solve problems that arise in the classroom. Next week, we will have our first classroom fire drill, talk about fire safety, and practice “stop, drop, and roll.”

We want to thank the families who have filled out the parent survey. As a reminder, if you have yet to fill out the parent survey, we ask that you take the time to do so this weekend and bring it to school. The parent survey helps us meet your child’s educational needs as well work with their interests. We have read over surveys that were turned in thus far and noticed many of the goals for the children are mutual; letter and number recognition, child being able to write own name, and beginning phonemic awareness. Throughout our day the children are exposed to these topics and materials during group time, explorations and even during self-initiated play. As the school weeks progress and the children pick up the routine we will start emphasizing literacy, math, and independent skills during small group work. We work at the pace of the children and begin where each child is developmentally ready. Don't forget to help your child sign in their name in the morning. Nothing has to be perfect, trying is what counts. 

Some things you can do at home to help your child is read to them, have them read to you (reading the pictures is reading!) count together, read numbers at the grocery store while shopping, etc.    

Upcoming Events

Please join our school wide family gathering at Plymouth Orchards & Cider Mill on Saturday, October 10 from 1:00pm- 4:00pm 10685 Warren Rd, Plymouth , MI 48170. Wagon ride tickets will be sold at the ECEC prior to visit. Donuts, cider and apples are available for purchase at the orchard. Ms. Smith and Ms. Sanchez will be there with their families. We hope to see you there!

First week of school

What a great first week of school! We are extremely excited for this school year and are already building strong relationships with your children. Our first days together have been filled with excitement and curiosity. We are delighted by the sense of comfort, cooperation, and community the children are exhibiting thus far. The students have also been busy becoming familiar with the routine and are settling into the classroom. Much of this week was spent exploring, becoming familiar with each other, and learning each other’s names.

Over the course of the year we will investigate many things through open-ended projects based on the children’s interests. During these in-depth studies, the children will build skills in math, science, literacy, social studies, and art. Developing and fine-tuning your child’s social skills will be an integral part of our days at school.

Drop-Off 

We would also like to discuss a few upcoming school events and information about the classroom. The door to our classroom will open at 8:00 am. Upon arrival, please remember to help your child wash their hands, stow their belongings in their cubby, and sign-in their name at the “children’s sign-in” clip board on the writing table. We understand many children may not have the fine motor skills to write their whole name and that is okay. Your child may start by writing the first letter of their name. This is an opportunity for your child to practice writing everyday.

Classroom Museum of Family Artifacts 

We have a diverse group of children and teachers in our classroom. We would like to celebrate and value our diversity by creating a museum of family artifacts in our classroom. Our space above our cubby shelves is empty and uninviting. If you would like to contribute, please bring an artifact that represents your family’s cultural background to share with our classroom. The artifacts you bring to our classroom will be given back at the end of the school year.

 Nap Time

If your child naps at school and does not bring a blanket from home for naptime, we ask that you’d place one in their backpack. Our school is no longer providing blankets for the children. If you have any further questions about this matter, please direct them towards us.

 Parent Survey

We want to thank the families who have filled out the parent survey. As a reminder, if you have yet to fill out the parent survey, we ask that you take the time to do it this weekend and bring it to school. The parent survey helps us know and meet your child’s educational needs.

Snapfish

Snapfish pictures will be updated soon. More information will be shared with you about snapfish in the next couple of days via email.

Upcoming Events:

Family Fun Day- Tomorrow September 12, 2015 1-4pm

Please check here regularly. The blog will be updated weekly with information pertaining to classroom activities and the school's current events. Parent/teacher communication is a valued and on-going process. If, at any time, you have questions or concerns about your child, please speak with us as soon as possible or contact us via email (adrianas@umich.edu, aubreycs@umich.edu).

Preschool is a time of wonder and discovery for both children and parents. We are very excited about the year ahead and we look forward to watching your child grow and blossom this year.

Ms. Smith & Ms. Sanchez