March 14, 2024 • 20 mins
Welcome to another episode of Affton Unplugged, our enlightening podcast by the Afton School District. In this episode, we shine a spotlight on the lives and experiences shaping our district's atmosphere.
Join us as Superintendent Travis Bracht gives a comprehensive tour of the Affton Early Childhood Center, offering a deep dive into the pivotal education hub for our three and four-year-olds and pre-kindergarten students. The Center provides full-day and half-day programs as well as before-care and after-care and summer programs.
We have the pleasure of hosting Dr. Amber Sinamon, the Early Learning Director, Erica Grissom, the Lead Teacher, and Stephanie Kanzler, a Classroom Leader. These individuals, who play significant roles in the Early Childhood Center, provide invaluable insights into the center's daily operations, the program structure, and the remarkable impact it has on the children's life and growth.
Our discussion uncovers how the center engages children in Project Lead the Way, Motor Lab, and an innovative curriculum that involves coding and much more. From instilling scientific virtues to nurturing life skills through play, the Early Childhood Center's approach transcends traditional educational paradigms.
Get to know more about the enrollment procedures and get a glimpse of the collaborative initiatives, summer programs, and before and after school care offerings. Dive into the captivating world of early childhood education and meet the extraordinary people shaping the future of young minds.
In this episode, our guests delve into their journey of building rich and meaningful relationships with the students, tapping into their individual interests and encouraging parent participation in their child's learning process. Learn about how lessons like "All About Me" enable teachers to better understand their students and how focusing on children's interests can foster growth and development.
Discover how the educators at the Affton School District create a vibrant learning community by integrating parents into their child's educational journey through unique communication methods. Enjoy heartwarming anecdotes from our guests' interactions with children and parents.
Get ready for more educational discussions and inspiring stories from our community of educators in future episodes of Affton Unplugged. The educators at the Affton School District firmly believe in the transformative power of education and aim to provide the best experiences for each child. Stay tuned, and join the conversation.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Music.
(00:20):
Welcome to Afton Unplugged, a podcast by the Afton School District that highlights
the people and stories that make the district great.
I'm your host, Superintendent Travis Brock, and in the Afton School District,
education is the most important thing we do.
Music.
(00:44):
Thanks for joining me for this episode of the Afton Unplugged podcast,
and today we're going to highlight the Afton Early Childhood Center.
The Early Childhood Center serves three and four-year-olds as well as pre-kindergarten students.
They have full-day programs, they have half-day programs, they have before-care,
they have have aftercare.
And so they're currently enrolling for next school year if you're interested.
(01:07):
They also do a summer program during the months of June and July.
They have two-week sessions, and they're currently enrolling for the summer
program as well. So if you're interested, make sure to check that information out.
And today I have three staff members from the Afton Early Childhood Center that
are going to join me, tell us a little bit more about the early childhood program here in Afton.
(01:29):
We have Dr. Amber Cinnamon, who's the early learning director.
We have Erica Grissom, who's the lead teacher, and we have Stephanie Kanzler,
who's a classroom leader.
So Amber, Erica, and Stephanie, thanks for joining me today.
Hi, I'm Amber Cinnamon. I'm the director of early learning, so I oversee the
Early Childhood Center and Parents as Teachers.
(01:49):
This is my second year. Prior to this, I was a special education teacher at
both Rogers and Mainier Primary.
I have a husband, a three-year-old who attends after an early childhood,
and another baby on the way.
We love doing things outside, trying new restaurants, and just kind of exploring
St. Louis and the surrounding areas.
All right. Well, thanks for that. And then, Erica, you want to go next?
(02:12):
Hi, my name is Erica Grissom.
My current role is lead teacher at Afternoon Early Childhood.
I've currently been in this role for three years.
Before that, I taught first grade
for one year at Mainier and was a pre-K teacher here for eight years.
I am married to my husband for 19 years and have a son who's a freshman and
(02:33):
a daughter who's in fourth grade.
And we love to travel and listen to music. All right. Good enough.
How about you? Great. And I'm Stephanie Kanzler. I teach in the three- and four-year-old classroom.
I've been here two years, but I've been a teacher for almost 20 years,
actually. I had to think of that this morning. I was like, it's been almost 20 years.
I have an almost three-year-old at home who keeps me and my husband very busy.
(02:57):
And she and I love blues hockey. So we go to lots of blues games and try to
do different things around town.
All right. Well, great. Great. So not only are you working at the Early Childhood
Center, some of you are experiencing it firsthand at home and at work.
You guys have a lot of firsthand knowledge with your own kids, too. That's great.
(03:19):
All right. Let's talk just a little bit about some of the things that people
might be interested to know about the Early Childhood Center.
Maybe kind of types of programs you offer, age groups you serve.
So, Dr. Sineman, I'll have you kind of talk a little bit just about that.
So maybe tell us some of those things like ages, different type of programming
options, whatever you think people might like to know. Yeah.
(03:39):
So we serve children when they are three up until when they go to kindergarten.
So typically three, four and five year olds.
We offer full days, half days, mornings, afternoons, pretty much any day combination
you can think of Monday through Friday.
In addition to that, we also have a special school district programming here.
So we have students who come in just for speech services, just for OT, PT, things like that.
(04:03):
Lots of lots of different opportunities to come into the building and see different things. Okay.
And I know each day is a little bit different. You talked about the number of options you have.
What are the overall, about how many families do you serve on an annual basis?
Yeah. So this year we serve about 215 families.
And then what do you enjoy most about working at the Early Childhood Center?
(04:27):
Again, I know you've been here two years. Now you've got your son here too.
What have been some of those things that maybe have been most enjoyable just
getting into this new role and kind of learning about it?
So the little ones take in information and make progress so quickly.
So when they start, sometimes they're almost like babies when they're three years old coming in.
They don't know how to do all the school things. They're not sure about lining
(04:50):
up in line, interacting with friends, things like that.
And even when we get to winter break and now almost spring break,
just the amount of progress that we see these kids make in such a short amount of time.
And being here for two years, I finally got to, I'm getting to experience the
three-year-olds who got to start with us last year and then sending them on to kindergarten.
Garden and just the family relationships that we can build and just the individual
(05:14):
progress that each kid can make and can make as a group is just amazing.
That's my favorite part of working here. Gotcha.
All right. I know we kind of covered a lot of things just about programming.
You mentioned a special school district works with us out of this building.
Anything else that just comes to mind in general about programming that.
You want to mention? One thing that we've done the last couple of years since
(05:36):
I've started is we've really partnered with parents as teachers.
So we try and get a lot of our parents as teacher families in here and partner
with them on events that might happen during the school day or even outside of the school day.
So that's another great, and that's a free opportunity to get involved within
the school district if you have kids that are below kindergarten age level.
So not only do we have some of those tuition-based options, but we have some
(05:59):
of those free options as well. Okay.
And then I think right now you're currently enrolling for next year.
How's that going? Any spots left or a little plug? What do we have going for next year?
There are a handful of spots left. Things filled up pretty quickly.
We had a lot of community interest, a lot of interest, people driving by,
(06:19):
seeing some of the signs that we have within the district from parents as teachers,
from district website, and even social media.
So the spots are pretty slim. I think we have less than an entire classroom
left of spots for next year, and enrollment's only been open for a couple of weeks.
So our community really wants to get their kids here and get them involved.
(06:40):
It's a good place to be. Yeah, for sure. All right. Well, thanks for that.
We'll go ahead and talk with some of our other guests here.
Erica, you want to tell us just a little bit about what are some things you
contribute to the Early Childhood Center?
I currently work with all the classrooms on Project Lead the Way,
which is a really fun science program. We go in the rooms every week and do
science with the kids, and they do science experience and explore science,
(07:04):
which is really fun for them.
We just started Motor Lab, and the students are really enjoying that.
It's helping them learn to learn to stretch and self-regulate themselves for the classroom.
I also do small group intervention and collaborate with all the classroom leaders.
Okay, awesome. I got to see the Motor Lab. We did an episode on the Motor Lab at Main Year.
(07:25):
Yes. So familiar with what that is. yeah definitely it looks like a good a good opportunity for kids.
I know a lot of people like Project Lead the Way. I'm familiar with that.
Anything that sticks out as something you really enjoy either with that curriculum
or anything else that sticks out that maybe is a favorite lesson or favorite
unit of yours? We just finished our unit on floating and sinking.
(07:49):
And last week we did exploration in our messy room and all the kids got to explore
and create a boat out of all different materials.
And then we did an experiment to see if it could float or sink.
And they seemed to really enjoy that. They got all kinds of messy and wet.
So it was super fun. And I know this morning you were talking to me about being
(08:11):
really excited for coding.
So even our littlest preschool learners have the opportunity to kind of learn
and dabble with coding if you want to. Yes, we're starting our coding unit.
And at the end of the unit, we have these little toy mice that they are going to program.
And they're going to get some play with that in the messy room and see where
they go. So today I introduced the word coding.
(08:32):
And they know what coding is because of video gaming.
So that was pretty cool to see where our conversations led with that. Awesome.
All right. Everything starts younger and younger, right? Yes.
So pretty soon we'll be coding at the hospital, right?
Before you take your kid home or whatever. It gets younger and younger.
So yeah, Stephanie, you want to tell us a little bit about what are,
(08:55):
you kind of mentioned the age group of your classroom.
What else would you like for people to know about just the types of things you
work on with kids? Sure, sure.
Every week we focus on a number, a letter, and then we also focus a lot on their names.
And then even beyond that, we focus a lot on social skills.
Even if you see children playing, you might just think, oh, they're just playing,
(09:16):
but they're negotiating.
They're helping each other. They're taking turns. They're working it out.
They're building their skills for life.
You know, we want to build lifelong learners, build skills for life.
I love seeing when the kids recognize their names for the first time.
They're like, wait a minute, that's my name.
Like, yeah. And then when they write their name, that's even better.
(09:37):
That's amazing just to see it. And then like the light bulb in their face.
And yeah, they're so excited.
So I just love seeing the kids and how they grow and progress.
And like Amber said, I'll see the kids I had last year.
And now they're almost ready to go to kindergarten. And they're like,
I tell them, like, you're so big.
And I'm like, yep, I'm big. I'm ready to go. I'm big. Yeah. So it's just great to see.
(09:58):
Yeah. Awesome. And I think even with a lot of the play that you do in your classroom,
it's all very intentional for that relationship building and negotiating and
really life skill set kids are going to need beyond their early childhood years. Right. For sure.
Do you have a favorite unit lesson or what comes to mind when you think about
what you personally maybe really enjoy when you get to do with the kids?
(10:21):
I really enjoy at the beginning of the year, we do all about me because it lets
me know this is what the kids are interested in.
And then throughout the year, I can kind of build on that. We have like our
thematic units that I can also build on. Well, this class really likes dinosaurs.
And our class is actually called the dinosaurs this year. Yeah.
So I was able to find out what they like and find out about their families.
(10:43):
And that really helps for me to get to know the kids and their families at the same time. Okay.
Anything else that you want to share about your classroom that you find enjoyable
or anything people might find interesting about things you do with the kids on a regular basis?
Uh, just that the kids are so perceptive and they, the things that they recognize,
well, things they remember, it's like you're only three or four years old and
(11:06):
like they, I don't know, it's just, they get so much more than you might think they do.
You know, they're so aware of everything. Gotcha.
I feel like you guys might get the opportunity to see more of those aha moments
on a very regular basis, whereas, you know, obviously when kids get older,
you can tell they're learning.
You know, you have evidence, but maybe it's sometimes hard for high school teachers,
(11:30):
which is what I used to do, to see it, you know, in that moment and see them,
you know, finally catch on. Yes, exactly.
And it's amazing how each individual class has kind of their own interests.
Stephanie was saying her class is really into dinosaurs. They have another class
that's really into superheroes and another class that's interested in Marvel superheroes.
I was in a classroom this morning and the teacher was telling me that they're
(11:54):
really interested in like letters and building letters.
And during snack time, they were taking pretzels and they were making different shapes and letters.
And they're asking each other like, what letter is this? What number is this?
So it's just really cool how the separated groups, not even intentionally,
really find some kind of shared interest as they develop their relationships
together during the year.
(12:14):
Can you think of any other of the shared interests or like big things that maybe
a different classroom might be interested in?
They do a lot of different things through center time. There's a lot of exploration through center.
So depending on what the theme is, you know, they'll do a lot of playing and
interacting and you're going to hear a lot of language building and conversations,
which is so interesting at our level to hear different conversations.
(12:37):
We never know what's going to spark a conversation.
So we, as a teacher, I really enjoy listening to that piece.
I like talking to them and getting
down at their level and having those conversations with them as well.
I know something that I that we talked a lot about things we do here with the
students, maybe talk a little bit about what is some of the interaction you
(13:00):
get to have with parents or what are some of those things you do to get parents involved?
So they kind of maybe get some insight into what you guys are seeing every day with the learning.
So I'll just open that up for whoever wants to talk a little bit about that
parent involvement piece. Sure.
Yeah. I just wanted to share that at the end of last year. Well,
at the end of every year here, last year was my first complete year,
(13:21):
we send home a portfolio.
And that really shows the parents their growth. Just even now looking at their
fine motor skills, for example, versus at the beginning of the year to now,
we've seen so much growth.
And just sending that home, I had so much positive feedback coming from parents
about, you know, I love the interactions that I document and I love the growth that they see.
(13:42):
And that's just really great to have that tangible growth
for the parents to be able to see for themselves you know so
they know throughout your throughout the year your child you know
grew so much so i think that was that was great and
i loved as a teacher getting that positive feedback from parents oh yeah yeah
that's kind of why i asked i'm sure there's lots of those positive moments and
(14:02):
just wanted to get a little bit of insight on what that looks like from your
perspective that that portfolio i'm sure is is very impactful and i think really
in stephanie's class too, even on a smaller level.
She's really good at sending pictures home and so are a lot of our classroom leaders.
Sending home pictures and just talking about things that their child might be
working on and things that might kind of be that aha moment or things that they
(14:24):
spent a little bit extra time kind of working through for the week.
So Stephanie's really great at that and so are so many of our classroom leaders.
I also see a lot of the teachers doing celebration phone calls,
which the parents really love hearing wonderful things that their kids are doing in the classroom.
You know, hearing them, you know, they were kind to a friend or they shared
(14:45):
or they knew all their numbers.
And so the parents really thrive on that. And I love hearing that pick up,
you know, oh, I got the positive phone call.
It was so great. So they really love that moment.
Also, I also like hearing the parents. They'll ask me questions,
especially about science and
about, oh, I heard last week you made books and what can we do at home?
(15:08):
And so we make that connection from school to home.
And so we'll just have a conversation about things that they could do at home
because their kids enjoyed it so much.
I think one thing that I'm really intentional about is just being very present
and available to parents. because my relationship, like I know all of the kids
and I know all of the families, but I don't have as much of that in-depth relationship
(15:30):
like the classroom leaders do or the staff assistants.
So just being available and outside during drop-off and pick-up,
being present at morning care and after care if parents are there dropping their
kids off or picking them up and just making sure that I am like responding and
being there and setting goals with the classroom leaders and just know that
(15:51):
they're dropping their kid off at a place where like everybody here knows who they are.
I know almost all the staff know every kid's name in the building,
which is amazing considering there's like 215 of them.
And some of the things that I know that I was intentional about have become
really natural for pretty much all of the staff in the building.
(16:12):
Well, as we kind of wrap up, do you have a favorite memory or favorite story?
I I know that's probably rough given everything you've talked about.
There's probably a million of them just in one year.
But anything that sticks out as maybe just something that's been special to
you as a story or a memory?
Last year, my favorite event that we had was the end of the school year bubble party.
(16:35):
So it was an outside of school event on the Saturday before the last day of
school. And we're actually holding it again this year, too.
But at that event, almost every single child in the building was there.
We also invited our parents as teachers program.
And then we invited all of the new incoming kids to just for the bubble bus,
the playground, snow cones, just to kind of let families meet each other,
(16:58):
have the kids play outside of the school environment.
Environment and it not only like wrapped up a good first year for me here but really showed.
Just the difference that we make for families with relationship
building and progress for their kids and everything like that so that was definitely
a highlight for me last year and I'm excited for that again this year okay yeah
(17:18):
bubble party I think I've seen one of those at main year too yeah it looks fun
it does look fun for the kids that's for sure so,
How about Erica Stephanie with Sticks Out? So when I was a pre-K teacher,
one of the important things was building my relationships with the families.
And so throughout the year, you know, I had constant communication with my families
(17:42):
and my students throughout the day.
But at the end of the year, Mr.
Michael and I always threw a celebration at Rocketship Park.
And so we had a barbecue and we played and met with our families.
And it was just kind of a fun way to end our school year and have,
you know, just kind of time to celebrate all the wonderful things that we did
(18:03):
together and we accomplished together, not just with our students, but with our families.
And also, it also helped the parents kind of meet each other for playdates because
I always encourage that families interact with other families so they can meet,
their kids can meet outside of school time.
And so it was kind of a nice transition for kindergarten, too.
(18:25):
All right. Thanks for sharing that. Stephanie, what's your favorite memory, favorite story?
Well, I was actually going to mention what Amber had said. I went to the playground
party and the kids were so excited. They're like, what? You're here?
And I brought my little girl. And they're like, this is. And I've shown them
pictures, of course. But they were like, oh, you do have a little girl.
That's right. So it was really great. And they really enjoyed it.
(18:46):
And even just at the end of the year, just reassuring the kids,
like, I'll see you when we come back after the summer.
And now even I'll see them and they, you know, make a point of saying hi and,
you know, and the one little girl and whenever she gets picked up,
she's always like, Miss Daphne, make sure you say bye to me.
So it's so sweet. And she was in my class last year.
And, yeah, just having those relationships and, you know, and the kids want
(19:08):
to see you and that when you miss the kids during the summer and,
yeah, just building those relationships, I think is very important. Yeah.
Well, thanks for sharing that. Matt, as we kind of wrap this episode up,
anything else we missed? Anything else you want to add?
I think so. I think so. All right. Well, Amber, Erica, Stephanie,
(19:29):
thanks for joining me for this episode.
Sure. No problem. Thank you. Thank you for having us.
Music.
Thanks for listening to afton unplugged a podcast by the afton school district
that highlights the people and stories that make the district great in the afton
(19:53):
school district education is the most important thing we do we'll see you out there.
Music.
Music.
(00:20):
Welcome to Afton Unplugged, a podcast by the Afton School District that highlights
the people and stories that make the district great.
I'm your host, Superintendent Travis Brock, and in the Afton School District,
education is the most important thing we do.
Music.
(00:44):
Thanks for joining me for this episode of the Afton Unplugged podcast,
and today we're going to highlight the Afton Early Childhood Center.
The Early Childhood Center serves three and four-year-olds as well as pre-kindergarten students.
They have full-day programs, they have half-day programs, they have before-care,
they have have aftercare.
And so they're currently enrolling for next school year if you're interested.
(01:07):
They also do a summer program during the months of June and July.
They have two-week sessions, and they're currently enrolling for the summer
program as well. So if you're interested, make sure to check that information out.
And today I have three staff members from the Afton Early Childhood Center that
are going to join me, tell us a little bit more about the early childhood program here in Afton.
(01:29):
We have Dr. Amber Cinnamon, who's the early learning director.
We have Erica Grissom, who's the lead teacher, and we have Stephanie Kanzler,
who's a classroom leader.
So Amber, Erica, and Stephanie, thanks for joining me today.
Hi, I'm Amber Cinnamon. I'm the director of early learning, so I oversee the
Early Childhood Center and Parents as Teachers.
(01:49):
This is my second year. Prior to this, I was a special education teacher at
both Rogers and Mainier Primary.
I have a husband, a three-year-old who attends after an early childhood,
and another baby on the way.
We love doing things outside, trying new restaurants, and just kind of exploring
St. Louis and the surrounding areas.
All right. Well, thanks for that. And then, Erica, you want to go next?
(02:12):
Hi, my name is Erica Grissom.
My current role is lead teacher at Afternoon Early Childhood.
I've currently been in this role for three years.
Before that, I taught first grade
for one year at Mainier and was a pre-K teacher here for eight years.
I am married to my husband for 19 years and have a son who's a freshman and
(02:33):
a daughter who's in fourth grade.
And we love to travel and listen to music. All right. Good enough.
How about you? Great. And I'm Stephanie Kanzler. I teach in the three- and four-year-old classroom.
I've been here two years, but I've been a teacher for almost 20 years,
actually. I had to think of that this morning. I was like, it's been almost 20 years.
I have an almost three-year-old at home who keeps me and my husband very busy.
(02:57):
And she and I love blues hockey. So we go to lots of blues games and try to
do different things around town.
All right. Well, great. Great. So not only are you working at the Early Childhood
Center, some of you are experiencing it firsthand at home and at work.
You guys have a lot of firsthand knowledge with your own kids, too. That's great.
(03:19):
All right. Let's talk just a little bit about some of the things that people
might be interested to know about the Early Childhood Center.
Maybe kind of types of programs you offer, age groups you serve.
So, Dr. Sineman, I'll have you kind of talk a little bit just about that.
So maybe tell us some of those things like ages, different type of programming
options, whatever you think people might like to know. Yeah.
(03:39):
So we serve children when they are three up until when they go to kindergarten.
So typically three, four and five year olds.
We offer full days, half days, mornings, afternoons, pretty much any day combination
you can think of Monday through Friday.
In addition to that, we also have a special school district programming here.
So we have students who come in just for speech services, just for OT, PT, things like that.
(04:03):
Lots of lots of different opportunities to come into the building and see different things. Okay.
And I know each day is a little bit different. You talked about the number of options you have.
What are the overall, about how many families do you serve on an annual basis?
Yeah. So this year we serve about 215 families.
And then what do you enjoy most about working at the Early Childhood Center?
(04:27):
Again, I know you've been here two years. Now you've got your son here too.
What have been some of those things that maybe have been most enjoyable just
getting into this new role and kind of learning about it?
So the little ones take in information and make progress so quickly.
So when they start, sometimes they're almost like babies when they're three years old coming in.
They don't know how to do all the school things. They're not sure about lining
(04:50):
up in line, interacting with friends, things like that.
And even when we get to winter break and now almost spring break,
just the amount of progress that we see these kids make in such a short amount of time.
And being here for two years, I finally got to, I'm getting to experience the
three-year-olds who got to start with us last year and then sending them on to kindergarten.
Garden and just the family relationships that we can build and just the individual
(05:14):
progress that each kid can make and can make as a group is just amazing.
That's my favorite part of working here. Gotcha.
All right. I know we kind of covered a lot of things just about programming.
You mentioned a special school district works with us out of this building.
Anything else that just comes to mind in general about programming that.
You want to mention? One thing that we've done the last couple of years since
(05:36):
I've started is we've really partnered with parents as teachers.
So we try and get a lot of our parents as teacher families in here and partner
with them on events that might happen during the school day or even outside of the school day.
So that's another great, and that's a free opportunity to get involved within
the school district if you have kids that are below kindergarten age level.
So not only do we have some of those tuition-based options, but we have some
(05:59):
of those free options as well. Okay.
And then I think right now you're currently enrolling for next year.
How's that going? Any spots left or a little plug? What do we have going for next year?
There are a handful of spots left. Things filled up pretty quickly.
We had a lot of community interest, a lot of interest, people driving by,
(06:19):
seeing some of the signs that we have within the district from parents as teachers,
from district website, and even social media.
So the spots are pretty slim. I think we have less than an entire classroom
left of spots for next year, and enrollment's only been open for a couple of weeks.
So our community really wants to get their kids here and get them involved.
(06:40):
It's a good place to be. Yeah, for sure. All right. Well, thanks for that.
We'll go ahead and talk with some of our other guests here.
Erica, you want to tell us just a little bit about what are some things you
contribute to the Early Childhood Center?
I currently work with all the classrooms on Project Lead the Way,
which is a really fun science program. We go in the rooms every week and do
science with the kids, and they do science experience and explore science,
(07:04):
which is really fun for them.
We just started Motor Lab, and the students are really enjoying that.
It's helping them learn to learn to stretch and self-regulate themselves for the classroom.
I also do small group intervention and collaborate with all the classroom leaders.
Okay, awesome. I got to see the Motor Lab. We did an episode on the Motor Lab at Main Year.
(07:25):
Yes. So familiar with what that is. yeah definitely it looks like a good a good opportunity for kids.
I know a lot of people like Project Lead the Way. I'm familiar with that.
Anything that sticks out as something you really enjoy either with that curriculum
or anything else that sticks out that maybe is a favorite lesson or favorite
unit of yours? We just finished our unit on floating and sinking.
(07:49):
And last week we did exploration in our messy room and all the kids got to explore
and create a boat out of all different materials.
And then we did an experiment to see if it could float or sink.
And they seemed to really enjoy that. They got all kinds of messy and wet.
So it was super fun. And I know this morning you were talking to me about being
(08:11):
really excited for coding.
So even our littlest preschool learners have the opportunity to kind of learn
and dabble with coding if you want to. Yes, we're starting our coding unit.
And at the end of the unit, we have these little toy mice that they are going to program.
And they're going to get some play with that in the messy room and see where
they go. So today I introduced the word coding.
(08:32):
And they know what coding is because of video gaming.
So that was pretty cool to see where our conversations led with that. Awesome.
All right. Everything starts younger and younger, right? Yes.
So pretty soon we'll be coding at the hospital, right?
Before you take your kid home or whatever. It gets younger and younger.
So yeah, Stephanie, you want to tell us a little bit about what are,
(08:55):
you kind of mentioned the age group of your classroom.
What else would you like for people to know about just the types of things you
work on with kids? Sure, sure.
Every week we focus on a number, a letter, and then we also focus a lot on their names.
And then even beyond that, we focus a lot on social skills.
Even if you see children playing, you might just think, oh, they're just playing,
(09:16):
but they're negotiating.
They're helping each other. They're taking turns. They're working it out.
They're building their skills for life.
You know, we want to build lifelong learners, build skills for life.
I love seeing when the kids recognize their names for the first time.
They're like, wait a minute, that's my name.
Like, yeah. And then when they write their name, that's even better.
(09:37):
That's amazing just to see it. And then like the light bulb in their face.
And yeah, they're so excited.
So I just love seeing the kids and how they grow and progress.
And like Amber said, I'll see the kids I had last year.
And now they're almost ready to go to kindergarten. And they're like,
I tell them, like, you're so big.
And I'm like, yep, I'm big. I'm ready to go. I'm big. Yeah. So it's just great to see.
(09:58):
Yeah. Awesome. And I think even with a lot of the play that you do in your classroom,
it's all very intentional for that relationship building and negotiating and
really life skill set kids are going to need beyond their early childhood years. Right. For sure.
Do you have a favorite unit lesson or what comes to mind when you think about
what you personally maybe really enjoy when you get to do with the kids?
(10:21):
I really enjoy at the beginning of the year, we do all about me because it lets
me know this is what the kids are interested in.
And then throughout the year, I can kind of build on that. We have like our
thematic units that I can also build on. Well, this class really likes dinosaurs.
And our class is actually called the dinosaurs this year. Yeah.
So I was able to find out what they like and find out about their families.
(10:43):
And that really helps for me to get to know the kids and their families at the same time. Okay.
Anything else that you want to share about your classroom that you find enjoyable
or anything people might find interesting about things you do with the kids on a regular basis?
Uh, just that the kids are so perceptive and they, the things that they recognize,
well, things they remember, it's like you're only three or four years old and
(11:06):
like they, I don't know, it's just, they get so much more than you might think they do.
You know, they're so aware of everything. Gotcha.
I feel like you guys might get the opportunity to see more of those aha moments
on a very regular basis, whereas, you know, obviously when kids get older,
you can tell they're learning.
You know, you have evidence, but maybe it's sometimes hard for high school teachers,
(11:30):
which is what I used to do, to see it, you know, in that moment and see them,
you know, finally catch on. Yes, exactly.
And it's amazing how each individual class has kind of their own interests.
Stephanie was saying her class is really into dinosaurs. They have another class
that's really into superheroes and another class that's interested in Marvel superheroes.
I was in a classroom this morning and the teacher was telling me that they're
(11:54):
really interested in like letters and building letters.
And during snack time, they were taking pretzels and they were making different shapes and letters.
And they're asking each other like, what letter is this? What number is this?
So it's just really cool how the separated groups, not even intentionally,
really find some kind of shared interest as they develop their relationships
together during the year.
(12:14):
Can you think of any other of the shared interests or like big things that maybe
a different classroom might be interested in?
They do a lot of different things through center time. There's a lot of exploration through center.
So depending on what the theme is, you know, they'll do a lot of playing and
interacting and you're going to hear a lot of language building and conversations,
which is so interesting at our level to hear different conversations.
(12:37):
We never know what's going to spark a conversation.
So we, as a teacher, I really enjoy listening to that piece.
I like talking to them and getting
down at their level and having those conversations with them as well.
I know something that I that we talked a lot about things we do here with the
students, maybe talk a little bit about what is some of the interaction you
(13:00):
get to have with parents or what are some of those things you do to get parents involved?
So they kind of maybe get some insight into what you guys are seeing every day with the learning.
So I'll just open that up for whoever wants to talk a little bit about that
parent involvement piece. Sure.
Yeah. I just wanted to share that at the end of last year. Well,
at the end of every year here, last year was my first complete year,
(13:21):
we send home a portfolio.
And that really shows the parents their growth. Just even now looking at their
fine motor skills, for example, versus at the beginning of the year to now,
we've seen so much growth.
And just sending that home, I had so much positive feedback coming from parents
about, you know, I love the interactions that I document and I love the growth that they see.
(13:42):
And that's just really great to have that tangible growth
for the parents to be able to see for themselves you know so
they know throughout your throughout the year your child you know
grew so much so i think that was that was great and
i loved as a teacher getting that positive feedback from parents oh yeah yeah
that's kind of why i asked i'm sure there's lots of those positive moments and
(14:02):
just wanted to get a little bit of insight on what that looks like from your
perspective that that portfolio i'm sure is is very impactful and i think really
in stephanie's class too, even on a smaller level.
She's really good at sending pictures home and so are a lot of our classroom leaders.
Sending home pictures and just talking about things that their child might be
working on and things that might kind of be that aha moment or things that they
(14:24):
spent a little bit extra time kind of working through for the week.
So Stephanie's really great at that and so are so many of our classroom leaders.
I also see a lot of the teachers doing celebration phone calls,
which the parents really love hearing wonderful things that their kids are doing in the classroom.
You know, hearing them, you know, they were kind to a friend or they shared
(14:45):
or they knew all their numbers.
And so the parents really thrive on that. And I love hearing that pick up,
you know, oh, I got the positive phone call.
It was so great. So they really love that moment.
Also, I also like hearing the parents. They'll ask me questions,
especially about science and
about, oh, I heard last week you made books and what can we do at home?
(15:08):
And so we make that connection from school to home.
And so we'll just have a conversation about things that they could do at home
because their kids enjoyed it so much.
I think one thing that I'm really intentional about is just being very present
and available to parents. because my relationship, like I know all of the kids
and I know all of the families, but I don't have as much of that in-depth relationship
(15:30):
like the classroom leaders do or the staff assistants.
So just being available and outside during drop-off and pick-up,
being present at morning care and after care if parents are there dropping their
kids off or picking them up and just making sure that I am like responding and
being there and setting goals with the classroom leaders and just know that
(15:51):
they're dropping their kid off at a place where like everybody here knows who they are.
I know almost all the staff know every kid's name in the building,
which is amazing considering there's like 215 of them.
And some of the things that I know that I was intentional about have become
really natural for pretty much all of the staff in the building.
(16:12):
Well, as we kind of wrap up, do you have a favorite memory or favorite story?
I I know that's probably rough given everything you've talked about.
There's probably a million of them just in one year.
But anything that sticks out as maybe just something that's been special to
you as a story or a memory?
Last year, my favorite event that we had was the end of the school year bubble party.
(16:35):
So it was an outside of school event on the Saturday before the last day of
school. And we're actually holding it again this year, too.
But at that event, almost every single child in the building was there.
We also invited our parents as teachers program.
And then we invited all of the new incoming kids to just for the bubble bus,
the playground, snow cones, just to kind of let families meet each other,
(16:58):
have the kids play outside of the school environment.
Environment and it not only like wrapped up a good first year for me here but really showed.
Just the difference that we make for families with relationship
building and progress for their kids and everything like that so that was definitely
a highlight for me last year and I'm excited for that again this year okay yeah
(17:18):
bubble party I think I've seen one of those at main year too yeah it looks fun
it does look fun for the kids that's for sure so,
How about Erica Stephanie with Sticks Out? So when I was a pre-K teacher,
one of the important things was building my relationships with the families.
And so throughout the year, you know, I had constant communication with my families
(17:42):
and my students throughout the day.
But at the end of the year, Mr.
Michael and I always threw a celebration at Rocketship Park.
And so we had a barbecue and we played and met with our families.
And it was just kind of a fun way to end our school year and have,
you know, just kind of time to celebrate all the wonderful things that we did
(18:03):
together and we accomplished together, not just with our students, but with our families.
And also, it also helped the parents kind of meet each other for playdates because
I always encourage that families interact with other families so they can meet,
their kids can meet outside of school time.
And so it was kind of a nice transition for kindergarten, too.
(18:25):
All right. Thanks for sharing that. Stephanie, what's your favorite memory, favorite story?
Well, I was actually going to mention what Amber had said. I went to the playground
party and the kids were so excited. They're like, what? You're here?
And I brought my little girl. And they're like, this is. And I've shown them
pictures, of course. But they were like, oh, you do have a little girl.
That's right. So it was really great. And they really enjoyed it.
(18:46):
And even just at the end of the year, just reassuring the kids,
like, I'll see you when we come back after the summer.
And now even I'll see them and they, you know, make a point of saying hi and,
you know, and the one little girl and whenever she gets picked up,
she's always like, Miss Daphne, make sure you say bye to me.
So it's so sweet. And she was in my class last year.
And, yeah, just having those relationships and, you know, and the kids want
(19:08):
to see you and that when you miss the kids during the summer and,
yeah, just building those relationships, I think is very important. Yeah.
Well, thanks for sharing that. Matt, as we kind of wrap this episode up,
anything else we missed? Anything else you want to add?
I think so. I think so. All right. Well, Amber, Erica, Stephanie,
(19:29):
thanks for joining me for this episode.
Sure. No problem. Thank you. Thank you for having us.
Music.
Thanks for listening to afton unplugged a podcast by the afton school district
that highlights the people and stories that make the district great in the afton
(19:53):
school district education is the most important thing we do we'll see you out there.
Music.
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