MAY 2021
Greetings!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!
We would like to celebrate all our Mothers and special caregivers here at EFC by providing a lite breakfast to go! Before you head out on Friday, May 7, please grab a muffin and water for the road! Thank you for all you do!
CENTER HAPPENINGS
REV SPORTS SOCCER
This summer we will be offering a parent-paid soccer program for our preschoolers. Soccer classes will start in mid-June. Sign-up information will be available in early May. Watch for more info.
PARENT REMINDERS
EFC CLOSED—STAFF INSERVICE
EFC will be closed on Friday, May 28, for our Staff In-service Day, as well as Monday, May 31, for Memorial Day. By closing the center for a staff in-service day, EFC’s goal is to provide our staff with time to complete a portion of their in-service hours required by Licensing. Have a fun, safe holiday weekend!
SUMMERTIME
As we approach spring and summer, please be mindful of the shoe choices for your children. Please do not bring or wear flip-flops to school.
 
In addition, please bring in a labeled bottle of sunscreen with your child’s first and last name to keep at school. We do not allow aerosol sunscreens. We will be spending as much time outside as possible this summer!
GRADUATION
We are sad to announce that due to Covid we are not doing an in-person graduation this year. We are working hard to come up with a plan to still celebrate/acknowledge the preschool graduates.
PARENT RESOURCES
DISPLAYING CHILDREN’S ARTWORK
Displaying children’s artwork gives your child a sense of importance and recognition for their hard work. Listed below are a variety of ways this artwork can be displayed at home.
 
*Create a three-ring binder as a personal art book for the child. After you take the artwork off the refrigerator, put it in the binder. Be sure to label and date the artwork.
 
*To show your child how much you appreciate his/her artwork, have some of the favorite pieces framed and hang them in the office or at home.

*Place artwork and photos under glass on a chest of drawers in your child’s room.
 
*Mount a piece of flat trim molding on the wall at eye level. Every 8-10 inches, attach one leg of a spring-loaded clothespin to the trim with small nails or screws. Then you can just clip the top edges of the artwork into the clothespin. The display can be changed often.
 
*Create an in-home art gallery by purchasing several inexpensive frames from discount stores. Find a wall or table that can be dedicated as the “gallery.” 
 
*You can make laminated placemats from your child’s artwork for a wipe-able surface. 
 
*Use phones or digital cameras and scanners to find ways to turn your children’s artwork into a practical item. Have your children’s artwork digitized so that posters, calendars, trading cards and note cards can be made out of it.
 
*Don’t forget grandmas and grandpas. They love to display artwork as well.
 
ESPECIALLY FOR PARENTS
HOW TO CULTIVATE A CLASSROOM GARDEN
by Angie Williams
Our family has talked about starting a vegetable garden for a few years, and this is the year we are finally going to make it happen. I found that the Teaching Strategies blog post below included some helpful tips and increased my excitement about all our daughters will learn through the process. Perhaps it will inspire you, too!

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When young children plant a garden, they experience the satisfaction of seeing their care and nourishment result in a growing garden. As they follow their curiosity and implement their own ideas, the children will build confidence in themselves and discover what plants need to grow. Gardening with children is not only fun and engaging, it also supports the development of the whole child. Planning, planting, and tending to a growing garden requires a wide variety of skills from all domains of development and learning that are highlighted below.
 
Social–emotional: Gardening is a team effort. Children and adults work together to plan, plant, and care for a growing garden. The necessary teamwork helps children learn how gardens can build a sense of community and gain an understanding of how people care for one another.
Physical: Preparing the earth, digging holes, planting tiny seeds, weeding, and watering plants provide opportunities for children to develop both fine-and gross-motor skills. Crouching down to observe plants, carefully stepping over growing sprouts, and carrying and using tools promotes their balance and coordination.
Language and Literacy: Children develop language and literacy skills as they have rich conversations with their classmates to create garden plans and discuss how their plants grow over time. They interact with different kinds of text by listening to books about gardening and looking at plant names on seed packets and plant care cards. Children practice writing by creating plant markers and documenting the garden’s growth.
Cognition: Gardening provides an abundance of sensory experiences for children: they can get their hands messy in the soil and gently touch the leaves of the growing plants, smell and taste fragrant herbs, and see the rainbow of colors that the plants and their blossoms create. These sensory experiences promote self-regulation and build children’s interests and curiosities about gardening.
Mathematics: Planning and planting a garden give children opportunities to explore a variety of math concepts––measurement as they space out plants in a row, counting to determine how many plants are in the garden, simple addition and subtraction as they add or take away plants from the garden, and making comparisons as they document how plants grow and change over time.
Choose a garden theme. Having a garden theme can help you and the children get excited about what you are growing and narrow down which plants to include. Talk with the children about what kind of garden they would like to create. Consider ideas such as a pizza garden (tomatoes, basil), rainbow garden (different types of colorful flowers), or salad garden (lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, and cabbage).
Manage your expectations. Gardening is a new skill for children. They will likely plant seeds too closely together, pull up plants before they are ready, accidentally step on the plants, and overwater areas of the garden. These are all opportunities for the children to learn more about gardening and how to care for plants. When these things happen, encourage the children to notice the impact: “Look, all of the water is washing our seeds away. They aren’t where we want them to be anymore.” Help the children fix the problem: “Let’s collect the seeds and put them back in the soil.” Then ask them to think about how they can keep that problem from happening again: “What can we do differently next time so our seeds don’t get washed away?”
Incorporate gardening into your weekly routines. Once your garden is planted, it will need to be regularly weeded and watered. Establish set times during the week when you and the children tend to the garden. This is also a great opportunity for children to notice and document any changes in the garden and problem-solve any issues such as wilting plants or pests in the garden.
Give children ownership of the garden. Create jobs related to caring for the garden. You can include roles such as Waterer, Pest Inspector, Weed Puller, Plant Checker, and Harvester. Having ownership of the garden will build children’s sense of responsibility for caring for the garden and encourage them to take pride in their accomplishments as the garden grows.
Celebrate growth and discovery. At the end of the growing season, celebrate the children’s gardening efforts. Create a display that shows how the garden grew and how the children cared for it over time. Highlight the children’s discoveries and invite them to share what they learned and what they enjoyed about gardening.

Angie Williams
EFC Marketing Director
Center Director
Lisa Ward
8885 Evergreen Blvd.
Coon Rapids, MN 55433
(763) 784-0901
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