O C T O B E R
2 0 0 9
S.C.O.P.E. ACADEMY
& GREATER SUMMIT
COUNTY EARLY
LEARNING CENTER
MONTHLY
Pathways to Learning
NEWSLETTER
Connecting with Our Families Through Blogs
UPCOMING
EVENTS:
No School
Oct. 16
(SCOPE and
GSCELC)
In an effort to keep our families informed about all of the exciting opportunities available to
children in our programs, each classroom has created a private blog that will be updated
weekly. A blog is an online journal that allows our staff to reflect upon the week‟s activities
and highlight upcoming dates to remember. The blogs are accessible by invitation only to
ensure that only family members and staff can access the website. You can view the blog at
any computer with internet access or in the computers made available in our library!
Parent Coffee
Talk
Oct. 20—9:15
GSCELC
Pizza Lunch
Oct. 23
GSCELC
Report Cards
Oct. 30
Fall Festival
Nov. 5
5:30-7:00
GSCELC
ParentTeacher
Conferences
Nov. 16-17
To Access the Blog for the First Time:
Fill out the Blog Access Form in this newsletter and return it to your child‟s classroom teacher.
You will receive an e-mail with an invitation to the classroom blog you signed up
for.
Click on the link (blue) in the e-mail and it will take you to the Blogger.com website.
If you have not used Blogger before, it will prompt you to create a Google account.
Follow the prompts to create the account. You will use this username and password
in the future to access the classroom blog.
Once your account is created it will take you back to the sign in page to enter your
username and password and select accept invitation
When you see the invitation was accepted, select the View Blog tab.
You should now see the classroom blog!
To Access the Blog After Your First Visit
Type in the web address www.blogger.com
School Phone:
330-945-5600
Ext. 511281
Type in your username and password. This should take you to a listing of blogs you
are a member of.
Select the blog you would like to visit by clicking on the View Blog tab.
Any questions, please contact Sarah Jackson or Jennifer Huffman.
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2
Miss Megan’s Preschool
The fall has already become a busy one at S.C.O.P.E. We
have been settling into our routines
now that the „newness‟ of preschool
has passed. This has allowed us to
explore our environment inside and
outside of the school in greater
depth. A favorite spot right now in
our class is near the living natural
habitat area by the front door. We
have loved noticing all the changes
as our aquarium was put in place
and the pond was constructed. This
has prompted many discussions on
natural habitats, how we can be
helpful our environment, and instilled a natural wonder at the many
colors and textures within these
habitats. We will be continuing to
explore these areas as they grow and
expand.
Our focus for September has
been on understanding the function
of materials, one-to-one correspondence, and classifying and comparing
objects. Any opportunities you can
find at home to talk about how things
are similar or different or to count
various objects will help extend these
concepts outside of our school environment. You will notice on this
week‟s blog posting we have extended recycling to include reusing
materials. We find many toilet paper
rolls, plastic bottles and jars in our
environment to reuse in our creations.
If you and your child find any items
that could be reused, please bring
them in and we will add them to our
collection. Once again, this will help
extend the concepts we are working
on in class to the home environment.
Megan Prior
Kathleen Eline
We have many exciting things
planned for the fall, so be sure to check out
the calendar of upcoming events. One
reminder, please make sure your child is
using the restroom before school so we can
get straight to learning once they arrive!
Miss Megan & Miss Kathleen
Greeting Song (tune
of “Skip to my Lou”)
Hello! How are you?
Hello! How are you?
Hello! How are you?
How are you today?
Our Many Languages: Children explored
many ways of communicating what they understand. Here, we are working together to
reconstruct a part of the pond we remembered
from earlier in the week.
Very
Very
Very
Very
Exploration of Color! Children
used watercolors to represent the
many colors of our pond and aquarium.
well,
well,
well,
well,
thank you.
thank you.
thank you.
my friend.
Hola! Cómo estás?
Hola! Cómo estás?
Hola! Cómo estás?
Cómo estás hoy dia?
Muy bien, gracias. Muy
bien, gracias. Muy bien
gracias. Muy bien, mi
amigo.
PAGE
Miss Michelle’s Class
Dear Families,
During our first month of school, we have been
getting to know each other and our school. We have focused on the function of a map by mapping our school and
classroom, creating a dinosaur map and many road maps.
We have been learning and graphing each other‟s favorites
and have been learning to represent what we see around us
in our world. With the arrival of the
fish aquarium and pond, we have begun
many investigations to learn more about
our indoor habitats. As we explore the
function of the materials in our classroom, we have also talked about the
many ways we communicate with each
other. We have begun to learn sign
language and Spanish words throughout
Michelle Smith our day to talk about colors, to count
and to greet one another. Recycling
and reusing materials have become
routine in our classroom as well as finding triangles on objects around us.
As we welcome Fall, we will be focusing our attention outdoors to the many
changes that will be happening in our
outdoor environment. We will continue
to explore new ways we can reuse materials around us. If you have items that
Carly Kastron
can be re-used or re-cycled, please send
them in with your child. During our
morning meeting each day, we share
items that children create or bring from home. Feel free to
send items from home that your child would like to share
with others. Be sure to visit our class blog that will be up
and running soon. It will be a place where you can view
what we have been learning about in our classroom from
week to week as well as chat with other families.
Learning to identify items that can be recycled.
Outdoor discovery and investigation.
We are looking forward to a great year of learning
together!
Miss Michelle & Miss Carly
Colors (English/Spanish)
Red = Rojo
Blue = Azul
Yellow = Amarillo
Green = Verde
Orange = Anaranjado
Purple = Morado
Black = Negro
Mrs. Nabring’s Kindergarten
class visited our classroom
to share a song they wrote
about the playground and
playing with playdough. We
will be working on our own
song to share with them in the
weeks to come.
3
PAGE
4
Learning with Mrs. Labus
Wow, have we been
here for a month already? September
just flew past! Time
flies when we‟re
learning!! The students in Mrs. Labus‟s
class are off to a fabulous start! After getting to know each
other, we have engaged in many
exciting activities. We studied
plants and made salsa with fresh
tomatoes from the school garden. We investigated the different parts of a plant and explored
apples in many ways. We researched John Chapman (Johnny
Appleseed) and together we
made applesauce. In Social
Studies, we have been talking all
about our families. Each and every
family is unique just like each student in our class. In Language
Arts, we have enjoyed many fiction and nonfiction books. Have
you heard our song? Ask your
child to sing it to you-it is a class
favorite! We have also been working with the letters C, O and G and
the sounds they make. In math, we
have learned about many different
types of patterns. As October ushers in all the beautiful autumn colors, I look forward to exploring
and learning with our class!
Duncan Starhawke creates his family tree.
Mason Imari, Alison Pantea, Sevastian Lucien,
and Alivia Maxwell build ramps during afternoon
exploration.
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5
Mrs. Nabring’s News
Hello families!
We‟ve been very busy our first full month of school! We
have spent a lot of time learning about our classroom
community and its rules, as well as the building and who
works here. We have been exploring the many materials
available to us as we work and learn, using these things to sort, build, create,
pattern, and design. We also got to watch as the live science pond
in the hallway was constructed. We watched as it went from
wooden frame to empty pond to a habitat for our fish and turtle
friends. Imagine our surprise when we found an escaped turtle in
our classroom! The children were inspired by our turtle visitor to
create sculptures, drawings, and stories. We will continue to use
our environment around us to inspire our learning each day!
Above, Dillon Pendergast and Sammy Grant match color
patterns.
At top left, Brody James uses a stethoscope to listen as a
classmate taps on the pumpkin.
At left, Makayla Feiteira and Louise Cicero group picture cards by color.
Below, Layna Miller, Kyla Tawney, Sammi Noussias and
Meriah Crihfield finish a puzzle.
PAGE
6
Live Science Area engages students
We believe in creating a school environment that
motivates children to learn.
We are steadily building our
community rooms to provide
a variety and depth of experiences for children that will be
rich in opportunities that help
build interest, skills, attention, and a permanent love of
learning and investigation.
This month‟s feature
is our “Live Science” area.
Opportunities to explore and
investigate in science can be
found in our hallways, outdoors, and in designated areas
of each classroom. Children will be able to explore the elements of water, rock, soil, bubbles, oxygen, surface, depth,
buoyancy, water tension, animals, and many other areas that
lead to science inquiry and ways of knowing. Don‟t be surprised if your child comes home talking about a new friend
that‟s a turtle or fish! Children are sure to be inspired to investigate, write stories, and fill their science journal with
exciting facts and creative stories by their participation in the
“live” science areas.
Stop in and see our freshwater aquarium that has 35
fish and our freshwater pond that houses turtles, fish, and
plants for children to investigate. We
look forward to the many inquiries
children will make in learning hands
on in our “live” science areas. We
have guide books, magnifying
glasses, sketch paper, story paper, a
flip video, a digital camera, an Intel
Blue Microscope, fiction and nonfiction science and literature-based
books for children to use and enjoy
throughout their learning day as they
get an up close and personal with
science content.
If you are interested in science and would like to share something with us or add to our exhibits,
please let us know. We are also looking for people to help us further develop plant and design our
outdoor science/learning areas.
We’re Going Green!
Please bring your Paper, Cardboard, Magazines, Catalogs, etc. to our Paper Recycling
Bin in the parking lot.
You can also help us Go Green by signing up
to receive our Newsletter by email. Please fill
out this form and return it to your child’s
teacher. Thank you!
Parent Name:
Email Address:
Student Name:
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7
A New School Year Begins!
Our SCOPE and GSCELC families
attended Open House on Aug. 24.
Open House was a time to meet
our staff and become familiar with
the school.
Ellyn and Rob Moser with sons
Wyatt (SCOPE) and Hunter
(GSCELC).
Bo and Jena James with Brody
(GSCELC) and J’Lyn
(SCOPE).
Blog Access Form
Please fill out the following information to access your child‟s classroom blog and return it to your
child‟s classroom teacher
Name:_____________________________
Child‟s Name:_____________________
E-mail Address:__________________________________________________
Would you like to also be invited to the S.C.O.P.E. or G.S.C.E.L.C. program blog?
Yes
No
Would you like further assistance in accessing the classroom and program blogs?
If yes, please list how you would like us to share this information
□ E-mail
□ Phone Call
□ Meet to Walkthrough of Steps to Create an Account
Yes
No