ELP Open House 2016 — 2017 Who

ELP Open House 2016 - 2017

Who is in our classroom? • • Kristin Iorio, Classroom Teacher Donna Bruno and Amanda Davis, Paraprofessionals Ruth Lettera, Music Teacher Karla Vazquez, School Psychologist Lauren Tarzia, Speech and Language Pathologist Tania Thompson, Occupational Therapist Karen Albro, Physical Therapist Jacalyn Papstein, Board Certified Behavior Analyst

School Hours • Arrival: 8: 30 Students’ start time is promptly at 8: 30 a. m. Please drive your car through the parent drop off loop and a paraprofessional will walk your child to his/her classroom (unless other arrangements have been made with the teacher individually) • Arrival: 9: 30 Please park your car in the parking lot and enter the building through the front doors. Paraprofessionals will greet students in the Great Hall and walk them down to their classrooms. • Dismissal: 1: 30 Dismissal will occur in the Great Hall. The students will be walked to the Great Hall and dismissed there. Teachers will dismiss one child at a time to ensure that each child connects to the appropriate adult. Since school is still in session during ELP dismissal, the Kindergarten playground is closed to parents and children during the school hours. Please do not park in the front loop or fire lane.

School Closings/Delays • Delayed Openings: • • District 90 minute delay: all ELP students are on a 100 minute delay District 2 hour delay: all ELP students are on a 2 hour, 10 minute delay • Scheduled Early Dismissals: 8: 30/9: 30 – 12: 00 • Emergency Early Dismissals: 10: 00 or 12: 00, depending on district decision • Register for School Messenger for notifications via email/text message. Information can be found on the Darien Public Schools website.

School Lunch • Students may buy school lunch. All the information about setting up a lunch account can be found on my blog or in the ELP Parent Handbook. • Lunch menus are available on the Tokeneke School and Darien Public Schools websites. • We check each day to see if your child has a lunch box. If not, we order him/her a lunch. There is no need to notify me unless you have a specific request about lunch selection.

Snack In an effort to provide nutritiously sound snacks for our students, parents will be providing snacks for a given week. Each classroom’s room mothers have organized a schedule so you will know when you are expected to provide snack and beverage. All snacks should be peanut- and nut- free, healthy, and delivered ready to be eaten (i. e. apples sliced, grapes cut in half, etc). We are requesting that snacks be delivered on Monday (or the first day of the school week) for the entire week. We have plenty of refrigerator space available to store them. The ELP program will provide paper goods.

Health & Safety • Please call the Health Office at Tokeneke by 8: 15 am every day your child is absent. Your message should include: child’s name, date & time, child’s teacher, and reason for absence. • It’s helpful if you can call or e-mail the teacher as well. • See the ELP Handbook for further information about medication, physicals, and returning to school after an illness.

Conferences & Communication • Conferences are held in December, March and end of May. December conferences are scheduled with parents of all students. March conferences are held for special needs students and for typically developing peers by request. May conferences are scheduled with parents of all students. • Due to an effort to “go green, ” communication will be made electronically when possible. o Each day, an email will be sent to describe the day’s activities. o Communication from special education service providers will arrive regularly via e-mail for those to whom it applies.

Room Parents &Volunteering • Our room mothers are Jennifer Lui and Kyra Wein. • Please feel free to sign up (and receive reminders) for reading via the Tokeneke volunteer website. • Should you need to cancel or reschedule a volunteer slot, please contact the room mothers and teacher. • In case of emergency (e. g. early dismissal due to weather), our room mothers will notify you. • Consistent with Darien Public Schools policies (see ELP Handbook), all observations must be scheduled in advance through Laura Straiton, Program Director of Early Childhood, SESS.

Our Schedule A B C music C D E music E F music F Individualized Instruction Individualized Instruction Individualized Instruction Play Circle Centers: Project, Play, Math, Handwriting Circle 8: 30 8: 45 9: 00 9: 15 9: 30 9: 45 Play 10: 00 10: 15 Play Circle 10: 30 10: 45 Play Circle Play Writer's Workshop Play Writer's Workshop Snack Snack Snack 11: 10 Music Circle Writer's Workshop 11: 10 Music Circle 11: 00 11: 15 11: 10 Music Writer's Workshop 11: 30 11: 45 Recess Recess Recess Lunch Lunch Lunch Centers: Project, Play, Math, Handwriting Centers: Project, Play, Math, Handwriting Music Circle Centers: Project, Play, Math, Handwriting 12: 00 12: 15 12: 30 12: 45 1: 00 1: 15 1: 10 Parent Reader

Curriculum The Early Learning Program has adapted the CT Preschool Assessment Framework (PAF) as a means of measuring growth in the personal-social, cognitive, creative and physical domains. One of the primary purposes of the CT PAF is to organize and mutually share information between families and program staff, as well as to share information with receiving teachers and to support effective transitions. The CT PAF is administered in the fall and spring of each school year and will be discussed with you during conferences. We also teach according to the CT Early Learning and Development Standards. The ELDS encompasses the skills and knowledge expected of children between birth and five years of age in the areas of cognition, social and emotional development, physical development and health, language and literacy, creative arts, mathematics, science and social studies.

Literacy • ELP classrooms use Toni Linder’s Trans-Disciplinary Play. Based Curriculum called Read, Play, and Learn. o This program is literature-based, with play center activities related to storybook modules. Each module lasts approximately 2 -3 weeks. Parents will be informed at the onset of every new unit of study via a blog post. • We also use the Literate Days program. Through the implementation of balanced literacy in preschool, it is the district’s goal that students will: o Establish literacy habits, including the ability to sustain attention and interest in reading and writing texts and the structure of the workshop model; o Develop oral language skills through conversation and vocabulary development; o Develop language/story comprehension skills through read-alouds; o Develop awareness of print concepts through interactions with texts in printrich environments, shared reading and writing, and interactive reading and writing; o Develop phonetic and phonemic awareness skills such as rhyming, alliteration, blending and segmenting sounds/words, and letter-sound correspondence; o Understand the role of various text media as it exists in real world experiences.

Handwriting and Math • Handwriting Without Tears is a developmentally appropriate, multisensory approach to teaching coloring and writing skills. o Students will be using a variety of strategies and materials (e. g. line and curve blocks, etch-a-sketch, playdough, wet-dry-try chalk boards, use of small flip crayons) to create a letter of the week, and each week will culminate in practice in our writing journals. o Students will learn how to draw people by first building a “Mat Man” using line and curve blocks, then practicing drawing themselves and their families in Writer’s Workshop. o Music will be used to reinforce handwriting skills, such as finding a dominant hand, and making lines or shapes. • Our math programs are derived from Touch Math and Numbers are Primary, with a focus on teaching the following skills: o Rote counting, counting with one-to-one correspondence, subitization, sorting, patterning, identifying shapes, identifying and writing numerals, measuring and graphing.

Social Skills • Our program uses the Second Step curriculum to teach and reinforce social-emotional skills, including empathy, emotion management, friendship, problem-solving and transition to kindergarten (when appropriate). Second Step is a Committee for Children curriculum. • Using themed stories, songs, puppet reenactment, “brain builder” exercises and structured practices, our class will work on social skills on a daily basis. • Weekly themes include such skills as welcoming, listening, following directions, identifying feelings, managing disappointment, fair ways to play, joining in play, thinking of solutions, and making new friends.

Enrichment Opportunities ELP has several opportunities for enrichment throughout the year which include the following: • A visit by Fireman Bob and his firetruck • A visit from the Darien Nature Center • Visits from community helpers (Officer Kate from the Darien Police, a Dentist and Nurse Maureen) • A program called Hi Touch Hi Tech