“Over April vacation the playground at the elementary school wasn’t used, so we walked the kids over to play for a little while. A few of the kids were hanging upside down on the parallel bars so I took a picture. When the other kids saw I was taking pictures they all wanted to be in it!” – Ashley Clough, PSA teacher
Children pass a nest around to study how spring birds live.
A PSA student concentrates on drawing a bird.
Click photos to view larger.
[Photos by PSA teacher Megan McPherson.]
By Susan B. Leavitt
We are bombarded daily with information about the importance of achievement by our children on tests once they enter school. Consequently, we are experiencing that “trickle-down” influence of the testing craze in education. As far as preschool education, I believe that we can get lost in trying to do the best for our children that we forget some of the basic things that children should experience in their early years.
Sometimes we want to make sure that Johnny is learning his alphabet or that because neighbor Jasmine can count to 100 and Johnny only can count to 10, he is “failing”. We feel we must need to do more drilling to make sure that Johnny keeps up with his peers. WRONG!
Children play princesses in a playhouse turned castle. Shiny paper crowns add to their eagerness.
We should be giving children many varied opportunities to experience things in the real world on the level that they can understand. Dramatic play is a perfect vehicle for many kinds of learning.
If we would like them to learn about fire safety, one way is to create a fire station where they can act out situations that might occur and learn about the help that may come from the fire department.
Math skills incorporate many different concepts such as patterning, sorting, counting, and understanding shapes and sizes. During dramatic play, children may have a restaurant where they sort foods by vegetables, meats, or breads. They may have to count how many people they will have to serve, so they become aware of matching items served with the number of people they are serving. (Did you know that it is important for children to have the concept of one to one correspondence? That is when they are able to see items and count each one accurately.) That skill is much more important than a child being able to count to 100 by rote.
Children engaged in dramatic play are using their imaginations, expressing inner feelings, experiencing walking in someone else’s shoes, recreating situations they experienced which may have troubled them, learning about cooperation, sharing, and developing language skills.
Dramatic play often starts in very young children by merely imitating something they have observed. This may be using the hairbrush as a telephone or a broom as a guitar. My grandson, at age 2, had seen a wonderful video of Peter and the Wolf many times. His dramatic play was a reenactment of the story of the ballet while he paraded around the house singing the hunter’s theme using the long wand of the vacuum cleaner as the hunter’s rifle. He was not just pretending, he was also developing gross motor skills and musical skills. My granddaughter, at three, made a video (with Dad’s help, of course!) while she sang Darth Vader’s theme from Star Wars. She used a pencil as her baton and conducted while she sang. She was definitely working on memory, hand-eye coordination as well as her musical skills.
What are your stories of your child’s dramatic play? Please know that you are giving them a wonderful gift when you help them engage in dramatic play. It is one of the most age-appropriate kinds of education that a child can have. The child can be anything he wants, and can be in control of the situation which may seemingly be impossible in the real world.
Please know that at PSA we encourage this very much—the kids are not just playing, they are learning a great deal.
Children play 'house keeping' - a simple yet valuable form of dramatic play.
PSA children enjoy the beauty of springtime!
Click on photos to enlarge.
[Photos by PSA teacher Megan McPherson.]
The Keep Jeff’s Dream Alive Benefit Dinner and Auction, sponsored by Golden Gavel Auctions, Family Academy of Music, Preschool of the Arts and Stafford Conservatories will be held at Golden Gavel Auctions, Route 140, East Windsor, CT on Saturday, April 10 at 6 p.m.
The evening promises to be an exciting event with a catered dinner, a silent auction, and a live auction. Patrick Soucy, auctioneer, will auction many exciting items that include a 2005 Toyota Corolla with 57K miles, a plane ride to Martha’s Vineyard (and back!), many gift certificates for restaurants, retail establishments, and museums. There are even tickets to Disney World as well as many tangible items such as jewelry, furniture, sports items and much, much more.
During the evening, there will be a presentation by Mark and Amy Coats from Team Honduras. They are the family which will be administering the Children’s Home in El Progreso. This is an opportunity for people to meet the ones directly involved with this ongoing project that Jeff dreamed of many years ago. His dream is coming true and you will have a chance to speak with the people who will be in charge of this magnificent project. The multi-purpose building is nearing completion and construction on the first cottage to house orphan children will begin this spring.
For information about the auction or dinner, please contact Sue or John at 860 487-3765; Karen at 860 684-5295; or by visiting our website JeffsDream.com.
Family Academy of Music is presenting an evening of choral music featuring Treble Troubadours, a children’s chorus, and LadySong, a women’s chorus.
The concert, An Evening of Traditional Spirituals, will be held at the First United Methodist Church in Stafford Springs on Friday, April 9, 2010 at 7:30 p.m.
A Free Will offering will be taken to support the Jeff Braun Children’s Home Foundation.
Treble Troubadours is a group of nine young, auditioned boys and girls who join together weekly for a class to help them develop their vocal and musical skills while learning aspects of music history and theory. The chorus, under the direction of Susan B. Leavitt, was founded in 1997 and has helped nurture the love of fine music for many young singers. The goal of Family Academy of Music is to encourage families and young children to make music an integral part of their lives.
LadySong was founded by Mrs. Leavitt in 2000 as an outgrowth of the Stafford Community Chorus begun in 1970. The chorus, now under the sponsorship of Family Academy of Music is a volunteer chorus of women who love to sing major choral literature in quality performances. This spring the opportunity to sing some of the great spirituals of our musical heritage has been an exciting journey.
The concert on April 9th will also feature a presentation by Mark and Amy Coats. They are the directors of the Children’s Home in El Progreso, Honduras. This will allow many people in the Stafford Area who have been supporting this project for the past six years to hear about the progress and the future of the Children’s Home, which was first started because of the dream of a young man, Jeff Braun, from Stafford who wanted to give back to the land of his birth. For more information on the Jeff Braun Foundation please visit www.jeffsdream.com.
Concert information: Susan Leavitt, 860.487.3765, SusanLeavitt@sbcglobal.net
A statement from the owners about the recently installed lock keypads:
“At Preschool of the Arts we have been concerned for some time about the lack of restricted access to our schools. Early in this school year we began to look for a system which offered the flexible features, ease of use and affordability that we need.
After talking about a variety of systems with several vendors, we settled on American made Alarm Lock keypads. Each family and staff member has their own 6 digit code for access. All other visitors must ring a doorbell and be granted access.
Is this absolute security for our families and staff? No. But it is already causing a major decrease in the number of strangers wanting directions and other unknown visitors who do not have business with us.
This is a major step for the safety of the children in our care.”
– John Leavitt, Owner
Ellington PSA held their annual winter concert on Tuesday March 16, at St. Luke’s Catholic Church in Ellington, Conn.
Concerts builds confidence, strengthens social skills and fosters the love of music and togetherness, said Sue Leavitt.
The concerts are called “informances” instead of performances, informing parents of their children’s growth and abilities.
Samples of the students’ artwork displayed creativity and progress and added to the cheery atmosphere.
Students sit ready for their next song.
Ellington's Art on Display
Arms Up during the "Hokey Pokey!"
Photos by John Leavitt
Discover who is whom!
The Tolland School was recently awarded The Business Growth Award from the Tolland County Chamber of Commerce. This was in recognition of a 70% growth since 2007. The award is directly attributable to Jennifer Serra, director, the hard working staff, not only in Tolland, but also in Ellington as well as the parents of our present students. You all have played a significant part in assuring that PSA will be around to serve more children in the future. John and Sue say THANK YOU
We are actively teaching the children how to wash hands, tops, bottoms and in between with soap and warm water. We are also trying to teach them to use the paper towel to turn off the faucet. This is very difficult for them to understand so we are asking you to help your child practice this at home to reinforce this new skill and help prevent the spread of germs. We do not want to scare them with the flu details, but teach them the importance of washing and how to cough and sneeze into their elbows, NOT their hands. We tell the children to use their “cough pockets”. Quite often in Tolland, we hear Mr. Mark say “use your cough pocket, Chico” and the children are beginning to echo that. We want you to know we are washing toys, cots and surfaces regularly and sanitizing the center often.
To further guard against the spread of germs we are asking that the children bring their sleep stuff in a small cloth bag, not just their pillow case. Each child should have a SMALL blanket, SMALL pillow and crib sheet that will all fit in a cloth or canvas bag. We have found that the recyclable grocery bags work well. We store all the sleep stuff in the back of the school on shelves out of children’s reach. We will put their sleep bags in their cubbies on the last day of their week. Please wash and return them the next week. . If your child has a cherished item they bring back and forth they can have that in their backpacks to take out at nap time. Again we ask that everything be labeled- on tags or seams. Please help us so we can return lost items to their owners.
The H1N1 Flu Virus is of great concern for all of us. We at Preschool of the Arts are monitoring the websites frequently and are participating in conference calls specifically geared toward day care centers and providers of services for young children.
As we mentioned in our letter to all of you, it is imperative that when your child is sick, you keep them home until they have been fever and symptom free for 24 hours. (They must not be on any medication that reduces temperature or inhibits vomiting during that 24 hours.)
The nasal misting vaccine to replace the flu shot vaccine is presently available and the shots will be available in the very near future. Anyone with asthma or other respiratory illnesses is not a candidate for the misting version. They are discovering that the target population of people who are greatly at risk with this H1N1 Flu are children under 5, chronically ill, the elderly and pregnant women.
The best way to receive up-to-date information is to go to:www.ct.gov/ctfluwatch;
www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu; or www.flu.gov.
There you will find the best information available. We also urge you to visit your doctor if you suspect you or your child may have the flu. There has been evidence that Thera-flu is helpful reducing at least the severity of the flu, but it must be administered by prescription and it must be done early in the onset.
Remember that some of the most important things you can do as a parent is to:
Mount of Olives community in El Progreso, Honduras
Preschool of the Arts would like to share recent activities of the Jeff Braun Children’s Home Foundation. The foundation continues to grow in order to build a children’s home in Honduras in the memory of Jeff. Several fundraising events have occurred during the last several months. In May, there was a successful Goods and Services Auction supported by Family Academy, Stafford Conservatories, Preschool of the Arts and Golden Gavel Auctions. We sent well over $10,000 to the Foundation following that event. The reason for the success of the event is the incredible generosity of the Stafford Community and people in surrounding towns.
Among the donations to the auction was a beautiful quilt designed and quilted by Charlie Hietala and pieced by the Stafford Mill Town Quilters in loving memory of Jeff Braun and keeping his dream alive. Sue and John Leavitt purchased the quilt and will donate it to the Home in Honduras when it is completed. Thank you to the Stafford Mill Town Quilters.
The weekend of July 31, Aug 1, Family Academy of Music produced a successful children’s musical, Pirates! The Musical featuring 28 young people from Stafford, Somers, Ashford, Union and even California. During the course of the summer workshop, the students and their parents helped raise an additional $2000 for the Foundation. Thank you to all the businesses that supported and donated items for this event.
The next event is the Annual Hope of Honduras Tag Sale to be held at Stafford Conservatories, 80 East Main St., Stafford Springs, CT Friday, September 11 through Sunday, September 13. The sale funs from 9 am to 3 pm Friday and Saturday and opens at 10 am on Sunday concluding at 1 pm that afternoon. We are accepting donations to the sale. Please do not include televisions or computers. We cannot accept those items. For further information or to arrange for pickup of large items, please call Sue or John Leavitt 487-3765 or Karen or Beckah Johnson 684-5295.
All the people responsible for continuing these events to benefit the Children’s Home in Honduras would like to say a rousing “Thank You” to the entire community for their continuing support of this worthwhile cause. Because of each one of you we have sent over $70,000 to this project which continues to grow and also to be a great need. We look forward to seeing you at the Tag Sale and sharing with you details of the project as it grows. You may visit us at: www.jeffsdream.com
Brandi from Ashford with some children in El Progreso, Honduras
Did you know that music is extremely important to brain development in young children? An extensive amount of research has been and continues to be conducted concerning the impact of music instruction on children and the success they will have in school at a later age.
Research has pointed out the importance of exposure to quality musical experiences in the young child. “Connections between brain cells are called synapses. Recent brain research demonstrates that these connections grow stronger with use and become weaker if they are not used. Brain scans taken during musical performances show that virtually the entire cerebral cortex (central processing area of the brain) is active while musicians are performing. Almost every system of the brain is at work simultaneously during a music performance, and brain cells are rapidly sending messages. The “workout” that the brain experiences during a musical performance strengthens the connections between brain cells, allowing the brain to function more efficiently.” (“The Music in Our Minds”, Norman Weinberger, Educational Leadership, November 1998.) By giving children many musical experiences at preschool age or earlier, we are creating many active synapses which will bring musical enjoyment and strengthen their brains giving them greater potential for academic success later in their school career.
As a public school music educator for 40 years, I conducted my own informal “research” by watching the students who had participated in music while in middle and senior high school. These students were the ones who assumed class leadership positions, were in the honors classes and most often were among the students in the top 10% of each graduating class. My conclusion has been that students who are invovlved in music throughout high school have greater academic success than those who are not involved.
Recent research has validated my informal “research” with some of the following statistics:
“Students with course work or experience in music performance scored 53 points higher on the verbal portion of the SAT and 39 points higher on the math portion than students with no course work or prior experience in music.” The College Board, 1999.
“Music participants received more academic honors and awards than non-music students and the percentage of music participants receiving As, As/Bs and Bs was higher than the percentage of nonparticipants receiving those grades.” – National Education Longitudinal Study, 1990 National Center for Education Statistics, Washington, DC.
I would urge you to ensure your young child has a rich, diverse, quality musical education early in life so he/she may have the benefit of an active brain which gives them the ability to achieve success as literate adults.
Preschool.Of.The.Arts.CT@gmail.com
Preschool of the Arts had a wonderful time with “Funcation” for seven weeks this summer. Children came to the school to learn new things focused around a different theme each week. Below you will find some photos from the field trip to the Roger Williams Zoo. Click to enlarge.
The new year at Preschool of the Arts is off to an exciting beginning with many new students joining some returning ones. The first day went smoothly with introductions to new teachers, new friends and new activities.
Reading with Miss Nicole
