Bloom Buzz May 2023

Executive Director's Corner

Spring in Minnesota has finally arrived! And this means we have Bloom graduation coming up! Each year, we celebrate our graduating Pre-K class who will be moving on to kindergarten in the fall. Many of these children joined Bloom as infants and have been with us all five years. So, although we will miss them immensely, we celebrate this huge milestone with them. This is our purpose: to prepare them for the next step in their journey.

Because of our commitment to provide equitable access to exceptional early learning and care, we reserve 50% of our capacity for children from low-income families. You may wonder how our business model support this commitment. In addition to regular tuition received from families who pay out of pocket, we also rely on third-party reimbursements and donations from individuals and foundations to provide scholarships. When you invest in Bloom through your philanthropic gifts, you become our partners in preparing children for success in school and life. And you are helping to build opportunity and upward trajectory for families of low income.

You may also wonder about the need for a place like Bloom Early Learning in the western suburbs, a place that has great affluence. However, there are more than 500 children within the Wayzata school district that do not have access to quality childcare and early learning because their families cannot afford it. These are the families we need and want to reach to provide them with a safe place for their child to learn, grow and thrive.

The reality is that we cannot do our work without you. Thank you for your generous and continued investment in Bloom Early Learning. I am looking forward to all we can do together to provide more children the opportunity to thrive and grow at Bloom Early Learning.

Rachelle

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Inside the Classrooms: May Learning Focus

In the last issue of Bloom Buzz, we gave you a glimpse of how values are integrated into the curriculum at Bloom. In this issue, we want to take you inside the classrooms and show you how focused activities are used to help our children learn.

Infants

The learning them for the month of May is bugs. During group time we will sing stories about ladybugs, caterpillars, bumble bees, and other bugs. The infants are going to make all kinds of bugs of their own throughout the month using their feet, hands, and fingertips. For some sensory exploration we will add bugs to the sensory table along with edible dirt and possible some grass and sticks to explore. Going outside will also be a big part of this month and we will look for different bugs and talk about the sounds they make. We will find and look at pictures of bugs and listen to the sounds they make during group time. Did you know Group time is a very special time in our room? We try to find a time when most of the kids are awake and we sit together on the floor. We then sing and announce each child that is here on that day. We use storyboards, songs and pictures that relate to the theme of the month. Each child, no matter age, is given a turn during songs that include each child taking an item off the board. This helps them learn how to sit in a group, share with each other, take turns, and prepare for group time as they move up to other classrooms.!

Toddlers

Curiosity and investigation will deepen their connection to their earth and their universe in May. We are going to become star sailors, which is the original meaning of astronauts. We'll practice astronomy, astrogeology astrometry (mapping) and mathematics. We'll explore answers to questions like: how are day and nighttime skies different, what are stars, are they all white and equally bright? Can they shoot across the sky or shimmer like meteor showers? Can you make pictures out of them by connecting the dots? How are alphabet letters used to group them? We'll be integrating astronomy into music and moon phase art. We'll pretend to be astronauts and learn what they do. Galactic exercising will be novel and new. Rotations and revolutions won’t end till we’re through. We're hoping to cross Mars on a rover or two. We'll collect moon rocks and eat some it's true. So many stars shine red, white and blue. So many spacecraft orbit about: observing, navigating and helping us out. Before we splash down and give thanks that we're home, we'll notice people and product on earth as they roam. Traveling on airplanes, buses and trucks, helping each other when any get stuck. Personal safety's not a matter of luck. So, thank you SpaceX for a ride wonder struck. We return home to our moms with assurances strong, that our universe is just right and where we belong.

Preschool

Our focus for May will be Gardens. In this focus we will spend time learning about plants/flowers, fruits and vegetables. As we prepare to get our gardens on our playgrounds going, our learning will connect to what we are able to do hands-on outdoors. The children will pick the items they would like to plant this year and from there we will learn what each specific item will need to grow successfully. We will explore similarities and differences in the seeds we plan to plant, talking about the shapes, sizes, and textures. Some of our small group activities for the month will be planting and tending to grass in our sensory table, experimenting with color changing white daisies, measuring with flower petals and leaves and more.

Pre-K

This month we will be learning about planting and gardening in the raised beds on the playground. We will be planting seeds and watching them grow, learning life cycles of plants… and…Bugs, Birds, and Butterflies! We have some fun adventures planned to find the best bugs, birds, and butterflies in Minnesota! We will be learning about native species, researching exotics pecies (from books), watching and observing REAL caterpillars!

Visit our website

What's New at Bloom: Our First Read-a-Thon

In April, Bloom hosted its first Read-A-Thon! Our goal was to engage our families with the learning that is going on in the classrooms on a daily basis through reading.

Over 40,000 minutes of reading was logged by our students through reading at home with their caregivers and in the classroom!!! Even our youngest students participated. Families helped us decorate our bulletin boards with flowers that referenced a book they enjoyed with their student. And our students raised almost $2,000 for Bloom which will be used to expand the reading libraries at both sites!

We are so proud of our students and their families!

Meet Larissa Kurth:

New Center Director at Bloom @ Plymouth Presbyterian

We are so excited to introduce Larissa Kurth as the new Center Director of our Bloom site at Plymouth Presbyterian Church. Larissa has been our lead preschool teacher there for almost three years and brings a love for children, a passion for early education, and leadership experience. Larissa is married to Austin and they have two preschool children, Ivy and Grayson.

SAVE THE DATE:

September 29, 2023

BLOOM BASH 2023

Click here for Bloom Bash 2023 details

Bloom Early Learning is committed to building and fostering a culture that reflects our core values of access, individualization, quality and community. We are committed to promoting equality, diversity, belonging and inclusion in all that we do.

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