The picnic, which is an annual tradition, brought together Joyce Preschool staff, students, families, and volunteers to celebrate year-end student successes and our unique bilingual and multicultural community. At the picnic, which was a potluck, we enjoyed dishes from around the world. One long table boasted diverse cuisine – from gourmet macaroni and cheese to arroz con pollo – and everything in between!

The picnic gave families a chance to connect with one another and make play dates for upcoming summer vacation. Most of the children ate their dinners with lightning speed, then ran off together to play at the park’s playground. Rounds a-plenty of pato, pato, ganso were relished under the warm afternoon sun, and Joyce Preschool staff enjoyed learning about families’ summer plans (some of which included a Spanish Immersion Summer Camps at Joyce!). “Where are you going to kindergarten in the fall?” was the question of the evening. Joyce’s families come from all over the metro area and surrounding suburbs, and this diversity was also reflected in graduating students’ kindergarten plans. Some families have chosen to enroll in a dual immersion kindergartens like Windom Dual Immersion Elementary, and were excited to learn that Joyce will be opening an additional classroom at Windom in the fall!

Este paseo viene después del mes de abril, cuando, estudiamos cómo cuidar nuestra tierra, enfocándonos en reciclaje. En el área dramática de nuestro salón de clases, los niños clasificaron diferentes materiales: aluminio, plástico, papel, y cartón. Vieron cuánta “basura” realmente puede ser reciclada y transformada en nuevas cosas útiles. Ahora en mayo, nuestros temas del mes son la jardinería y los insectos. Los niños cuidan sus plantas (imaginarias y reales también!), y aprenden qué es lo que necesitan – agua, tierra, sol, aire. Así las plantas y los niños crecen a la vez.

Durante su paseo, los niños, maestros, y los padres voluntarios investigaron cómo los animales se esconden y usan camuflaje en la naturaleza. Hicimos una caminata para buscar animales reales (pero no siempre vivos). También tuvimos la oportunidad de ver y tocar varias pieles de animales. Los expertos del Centro de Naturaleza Wood Lake nos enseñaron qué come cada animal, cómo y por qué se esconde en su hábitat, qué hace durante el invierno, y otra información muy interesante. ¡Terminamos la clase con una visita de una serpiente!

Eun Joo, volunteering at Joyce Preschool

Guest writer Eun Joo, PhD Candidate at the University of Minnesota, shares her experience at Joyce Preschool as a service learning site.

I first came to learn about Joyce Preschool while preparing to teach a service-learning course at the University of Minnesota last fall. I was impressed with what I was learning through the Community Service-Learning Center on campus and with the staff at Joyce, and I decided to include this program as one of several possible community sites for my students. Joyce was a popular choice among my students. Over the entire semester, my students who had committed to working with Joyce were enthusiastic about their engagement with early literacy and bilingual education. In sharing their experiences, my students helped enrichen our class discussions and broadened our collective understanding of literacy, as the majority of our class had been working with youth and adult literacy programs.

While the course lasted just a single semester, I was eager to continue my own education of literacy concerns and I decided to volunteer this spring and summer. As I had grown up bilingual myself (and having encountered my own obstacles with language), I also had personal investments in supporting Joyce Preschool. In the past several months, I have been challenged to rethink my conceptions of classroom education, encouraged to learn about ways to introduce literacy practices at a young age, and have thoroughly enjoyed singing, playing, and learning with the students.

As I am currently finishing up my doctoral studies at the University of Minnesota, I am so glad to have had a chance to work with the students, teachers, and staff at Joyce. My time at Joyce offers a welcome break from my other research and teaching commitments. As I begin making plans for my next steps, I am actively looking for further opportunities to include service engagement in the college-level courses I will teach at other schools and campuses. In many ways, Joyce has been an important part of my teaching, learning, and community engagement. In the meantime, I look forward to continuing to help prepare the 4- and 5-year-old students before they move on to kindergarten!

Investing in Our Future | Invirtiendo en Nuestro Futuro, a networking breakfast for business leaders, took place on Wednesday, April 18th, 2012. Joyce Preschol brought together professionals from across the Twin Cities to support children at a critical point in their development.

At the 2012 breakfast, attendees had a chance to mingle and hear from this year’s noted speaker, Rob Grunewald. Grunewald is an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, and co-authored a ground-breaking study on the economic impact of Early Childhood Education.

Grunewald spoke about his own experience researching the importance of investing in children early, and what a huge difference this early-age intervention makes, noting that many of the neural connections in a child’s brain are firmly established by a very young age. He stated that quality programs, like those at Joyce Preschool, not only affect the child’s own education in an immediate way, but impact parent awareness and involvement, improve future education and success, and – most important when framed economically – benefit the community as a whole.

Guests at Investing in Our Future enjoyed a performance from the children in Maestra Carol’s class. The children sang “¿Cómo están?” and “ABC Disco.”

Target Team Volunteers Video

1) Recycle your crayons

Recycled Crayons. Photo courtesy of Etsy.com

Maestra Riana is Joyce Preschool’s crayon recycling expert! She developed an activity which turns unusable crayon bits into fun-shaped, color-swirl creations. Children help to gather up old and broken crayon bits. Peel off the labels, and collect the crayon pieces into an oven-safe mold of your choosing (shaped baking molds work great!). Bake the crayons at a medium heat until completely melted. To speed up the process, place molds directly in the freezer, and allow to cool. Children will begin to understand how different recycling processes help us to reduce our waste and reuse materials that we thought were garbage!

Water Cycle. Photo courtesy of Tutor2U.net

2) Explore the water cycle

Create an atmosphere of discovery in your home or classroom with the following materials: sensory table or large plastic tub, ice, snow (if available), water, measuring cups, scale, popsicle sticks, mittens or gloves, spray bottles, etc. As children enjoy this sensory exploration, discuss the three states of water: liquid, solid, and gas. Introduce vocabulary for transforming from one state to the other (freezing, melting, evaporation, sublimation). Guide children’s learning by asking questions such as, ““How do you make ice?” “What happens when you squish the snow?” Spray a paper towel with water and leave it in the sun for an hour. Take pictures to record the evaporation. Discuss the water cycle in nature and the connection between rainwater, rivers, lakes.

3) Switch to compact fluorescent bulbs

Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb. Courtesy of ClimateLab.org

Children can help to count all the lights in the classroom or in your home. You can make this abstract idea easier to understand by explaining that an incandescent bulb lasts about 2,000 hours, but a compact fluorescent bulb lasts 10,000 hours. You can estimate how much money your family would save over the life of a single bulb, or a whole room or house of bulbs. With your child, plan what to do with your savings!

Kitchen compost bin. Photo courtesy of ReallyNatural.com

4) Start a kitchen compost

Spring is the perfect time to start this project, as weather becomes more favorable for gardening and outdoor fun. Find a plastic, metal, or ceramic container with a lid. The size depends on the space available in your kitchen and the frequency with which you prefer to empty the bin. You can start by cleaning out your refrigerator! Over-ripened fruits and shriveled vegetables make great compost. Help your child to distinguish fruit and vegetable scraps from meat and dairy. Avoid adding vegetables that have been cooked in oils and fats. You may choose to line your bin with a compostable bag.

Outdoors, find a place where you collect a big pile of kitchen compost. This should be turned and exposed to fresh oxygen regularly. Over time, compost will turn to soil, and makes great “food” for your yard and garden. Local farms may also be interested in your donation of compost. Children will begin to understand how soil gets its nutrients, and how this type of kitchen waste can be repurposed.

Pintando juntos en el Preescolar Joyce

En el Preescolar Joyce, trabajamos con los estudiantes y sus familias para asegurar que estén listos para el kínder. A través de actividades de lectura y escritura, les ayudamos a reconocer las letras, sus nombres, y algunas palabras en español y también en inglés.

Otro enfoque es el desarrollo personal y social de los niños. Aprenden a hacer amistades entre niños de distintas lenguas y culturas. Progresan en sus habilidades personales de ser independientes en la escuela, lavándose las manos, estando encargados de comer y limpiar después de su merienda, y jugar responsablemente y seguramente.

Para evaluar el desarrollo de los niños, los maestros del Preescolar Joyce usan el sistema Work Sampling, (“ejemplos de trabajos”). En los párrafos siguientes, voy a explicar algunos de los objetivos más importantes de este sistema.

1. Desarrollo personal y social. Ejemplos: Un niño que demuestra auto-confianza participa en cantar las canciones durante la hora del círculo. Podemos ver su auto-control cuando el niño espera con paciencia para tomar su turno para jugar con plastilina. El niño que sabe resolver problemas sociales pide ayuda de un adulto cuando otro niño quiere el mismo juguete, y usa palabras para expresar su frustración.

Jugando con amigos

2. Lenguaje, lectura, y escritura. Ejemplos: A los cuatro años, los niños están empezando a reconocer rimas y aliteración. El niño demuestra conocimiento fonológico escuchando a una palabra que dice el maestro y encontrando otra palabra que tiene rima. En hablar, el niño habla claramente, y puede contar a niños y a adultos una experiencia personal, como un viaje a ver a los abuelos. Sabe por qué escribimos y cómo representamos ideas y mensajes en forma escrita, y por ejemplo, mientras juega, hace listas de compras con dibujos, garabato, símbolos, y letras.

3. Salud y desarrollo físico. Ejemplos: Es importante que el niño sepa usar el baño independientemente y lavarse las manos completamente. Vestirse independientemente y saber usar un pañuelo de papel despés de estornudar y tirarlo a la basura también son habilidades importantes para tener éxito en el kinder. Para la seguridad de su niño y sus amigos, es importante que siga las reglas de salud y seguridad. Por ejemplo, siguiendo las instrucciones durante un simulacro de incendio, cubriendo la boca cuando tose, y llevando lápices y tijeras con la punta hacia abajo para evitar accidentes.

Jugando independientemente

Los maestros del Preescolar Joyce organizan conferencias particulares con cada familia para hablar sobre el progreso y desarrollo de cada niño individualmente. Esta es la mejor oportunidad para hacer un plan con el maestro de su hijo para asegurar que esté listo para el kínder.

New Zealand’s South Island, where I spent my time, has more sheep than people! New Zealand is known for its sheep farming, and as you explore the country, you definitely see sheep everywhere. New Zealand is also known for its amazing landscapes and beautiful scenery. Milford Sound and the Queenstown area are some of my favorite places in New Zealand and the pictures speak for themselves! Many visitors travel to Queenstown because of all of its adventure tourism. It is the home of the original bungee jump, along with paragliding, ziplining, and white water rafting. My short time in this area did not allow for any of those activities.

New Zealand is represented by the kiwi, the national symbol, which is a flightless bird. The kiwi is arare bird that has five different known species, all of which are endangered.  The largest danger to the kiwi is mammal predators like cats, dogs, stoats, and ferrets.  There are several kiwi sanctuaries designed to protect the kiwis from predators and allows visitors a chance to see one.  Kiwis are nocturnal birds, so you have to go on a night visit to see one!

Australia is known for its many unusual animals.  My favorite is the koala, which I had the chance to cuddle at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.  I also fed kangaroos, saw a wombat, crocodile, a dingo, platypus, and a kookaburra.   I had so much fun seeing new animals and feeding the kangaroos.  The Sanctuary has lots of different learning sessions where you get a chance to interact with the animals.  It’s a great place for everyone.

Fraser Island was another place that I visited on my travels to Australia.  It is the largest sand island in the world and has beautiful fresh water lakes and a rain forest.  The fresh water is so pure that it has no minerals in it.  This means that it is great for drinking; however it provides no nutrition that is important for us to be healthy.

Video: PACER Center at Joyce Preschool

For more information about the PACER Center, visit www.pacer.org.