November 2019 Early Learning Center Where Families Connect to Learn, Grow and Play! Contact us at: www.bellevuecollege.edu/childcare 425-564-2240

Bellevue College does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, language, ethnicity, religion, veteran status, sex, sexual orienta-

tion, including gender identity or expression, disability, or age in its programs and activities. Please see policy 4150 at www.bellevuecollege.edu/

policies/. The following people have been designated to handle inquiries regarding non-discrimination policies: Title IX Coordinator,

425-564-2641, Office C227, and EEOC/504 Compliance Officer, 425-564-2178, Office R130.

November 2019

Dear ELC Families,

I would like to thank all the preschool families that took time off from their busy lives to volunteer with the ELC Annual Hayride. The weather was a little wet but it was a fun event and the BC grounds crew made it more exciting by adding some creative fall decorations. Join us for Fall Family Friendship Spaghetti Night, on Friday, Nov. 1st from 4:15-6:00pm. It is sure to be a fun night of spending time with families sharing a meal and engaging in wonderful conversations. It’s a good opportunity for us to connect with you and your children as well as families connecting with each other! The ELC is committed to making the center a better place for your child and every child. You are invited to share your thoughts on future family events and on curriculum ideas too. Do you have a hobby, a talent, a collection, a family or cultural tradition, song, book or game to share? Please let us know. On Nov. 12-14 a group of teachers from Japan will be visiting the ELC and BC campus. This is an annual visit where the children always enjoy interacting with these experienced early childhood teachers who bring a different perspective and some lovely classroom books to share!

Warmly, Lisa Director, ELC

Dates to Remember:

11/1/19 Early closure at

4:15pm Please be in the

building by 4:00 to pick up your child.

11/1/19 Fall Family

Friendship Spaghetti Night in your child’s

classroom 4:15-6:00pm

11/12-14 Teachers

from Japan

Visit the ELC

11/11 BC ~ ELC

Closed

11/12—12/18 Preschool

Conferences Sign-up in the

front office

11/28-29 Thanksgiving

BC ~ ELC Closed

November 2019

Infant 1 & 2 Teachers: Mahboobeh, Brian, Tiffany & Wendy

What's New in the Infant Room?

Mahboobeh - mnasroll@bellevuecollege.edu *Brian - bcooper@bellevuecollege.edu Tiffany - tiffany.xiong@bellevuecollege.edu

Specialist for Infants and T1 : Linda Boyd

In the infant classroom we have some one year olds transitioning over to the T-1 classroom! Have fun in your new classroom Matthew, Saanvi, Ava and Sloan. We welcome Hunter, Yaseen and Aylgu to our infant classroom. The children are all exploring their environment, busy connecting their actions to reactions. In the photos below their work of making connections is caught in a snapshot.

Mahboobeh uses a pre-tend phone as Matthew and Sloan use their phones to talk to each other.

Aylgu points to a baby in the photo as teacher talks about the baby in the photo.

Frances places the shaker end up… She plays with balance and makes connections on how to move the beads.

Charlie gazes at his reflection in the mirror and smiles as the teacher de-scribes his reflections.

Hunter opens the book and studies the page as the teacher describes the water and sun in the picture.

As the teachers label their world around them with words and “play by play” phases, the infants make connections to their world, and gain confidence to continue to explore discover and learn.

November 2019

What's New in the T-1 Classroom?

T-1 Teachers: Liliana, Marina & Wendy

Marina - marina.tadachi@bellevuecollege.edu *Liliana - lmartell@bellevuecollege.edu

Specialist for Infant and T1 : Linda Boyd

During October the children in T1 were very interested in animals and animal sounds . We read ”Polar Bear, Polar Bear”, “Brown Bear, Brown Bear” and “Panda Bear, Panda Bear“ which are their favorite books and the children enjoy making the sounds of animals. We listened to some real animal sounds, the children played with little animals and animal puppets as they continued to explore animals and their sound.

We are practicing a very important social skill, taking turns. We played games practicing taking turns as the children jumped in our climbing area and they also took turns playing with our flannel board stories. In November we will explore tempera-tures as the weather changes we need warmer clothing for outside explora-tion. Also when discussing the changes we are observing in nature as the leaves are changing colors and falling from the trees.

Please check your child's extra clothes and send warm jackets, hats and mittens.

I see a chicken

looking at me.

November 2019

What have the T2 Toddlers been learning?

Teachers: Lisa-Ann, Joshua & Ghousia

Lisa-Ann - lowens@bellevuecollege.edu & Dee - dee.sales@bellevuecollege.edu

Specialist for Toddler Rooms: Vanessa Von Papp

Time has seemed to fly by this past month. We were thrilled to have teacher Dee join our class-room. The children are enjoying getting to know Dee as she spends time learning and building rela-tionships with the children. She is also teaching them new creative songs and a variety of art pro-jects! The children continue to explore art and cutting – strengthening their small motor skills. They enjoy painting and learning to mix colors as they create a painting and sensory exploration. The children have also been observing the natural world and the changes due to the cooling fall weather. Leaves have been of particular fascination. They love pointing out the different colors and the marks on the leaves and that each one looks different. We have been playing games and singing songs that focus up following simple directions. We are becoming masters at the Hokey Pokey. This song requires a variety skills all used at the same time, listening, being aware of your own body space, aware of their friends space, following directions and moving the correct body part as directed in the song. This month we will be learning more about: social skills, self-help skills and some exciting cooking projects. We are hoping to seeing all of you at the Spaghetti night.

I can put on my own coat. I can put away my toys. I can help my friend. I can take turns. I can wait and let my friend take a turn before me.

November 2019

The children enjoy exploring in the discovery area. They are very excited to have pumpkins and other living things to explore and investigate. They observed, experimented, measured, and solved problems with the materials. We walked and gathered fall leaves of different sizes and colors: big leaves, medium leaves, and small leaves. We laminated the leaves and hung them to the window in our discovery area. One child was very curious about how she could stack some of the items, she tried multiple ways to stack the discovery bottles on top of one another, she was very persistent and continued to try different ways until she accomplished her goal. In the dramatic play area we have a Pizza Pie Shop. The children are very engaged in imaginative play as they serve and eat pizza with their friends. Come in and enjoy a slice of pizza with the children, they may even give you some money out to the cash register to pay for your pizza. In the month of November we will be making little pizzas and welcoming new families to our classroom. We will support the children as they make new friends, together we will explore the classroom and the materials. As we observe and experience the changes occurring outside, the temperature is getting colder and it’s getting darker earlier at the end of the day.

What have the T3 Toddlers been learning?

Teachers: Rita, Yen-Chiu & Ghousia

Specialist for Toddler Rooms: Vanessa Von Papp

Rita - Rruffin@bellevuecollege.edu *Yen-Chiu - yong@bellevuecollege.edu

November 2019

What have the T5 Toddlers Been Learning?

Specialist for Toddler Rooms: Vanessa Von Papp

Teachers: Delaney & Khazal

Delaney - delaney.murphy@bellevuecollege.edu

We have been learning about so many new things. We are starting to discover new and exciting ways to create art. Art expression helps children develop many important skills including:

Creativity Observation Positive self-image Focus Collaboration with others

We have explored a variety of art projects every day in our classroom, and have been practicing new ways to paint, draw, and mold things. Some of our favorite art projects this month have been painting leaves, painting pumpkins, and mixing colors together with small paintbrushes. In the coming month we plan to continue doing various fall activities, and talking about our families. Please bring in family photos for us to hang up in the classroom, if you haven’t done so already. With the weather getting colder, please make sure your child has warmer clothes in their extra clothes container. Also a warm coat, hat and mittens for outside exploration time.

November 2019

What have the T6 Toddlers been learning?

Teachers: Diane & Zaira

Diane - desparza@bellevuecollege.edu *Zaira - zaira.rivera@bellevuecollege.edu

Specialist for Toddler Rooms: Vanessa Von Papp

The children are very engaged and interested in discovering their environment in our classroom and at the Early Learning Center. We have been practicing using the rings and walking to P-5, activity room where the children explore, run, climb, dance to music and expand and develop stronger large motor skills. During our outside time we also work on strengthening and increasing our large motor skills. The children have also been discovering new and different art activities. While creating art the children learn to express their ideas, feelings, emotions and build communication skills. These activities help them to increase their fine motor control and also their critical thinking skills. Throughout our day we ask the children open ended questions, we talk about colors, the art materials, textures which increase their knowledge of their world and bolster their conversation skills. We invite you to look at your children's art work hanging inside the classroom. We will continue to work on self help skills, identifying our emotions and stating our feelings and needs. Please make sure your child has a warm coat, hat, rain boots and extra socks as the weather is getting colder and wetter we will be dressing warmer for our outdoor exploration time.

November 2019

What have the P4 Preschoolers been learning?

Teachers: Annie, Page & Naghmeh

Specialist 3 for Preschool Rooms: BreAna Garcia

Spoken and written directions are everywhere, at school and at home. Here in our classroom we give directions to help children learn and follow directions which help them succeed. We pay close attention at focusing and listening. The children were so excited to go on the hayride. To help them be successful at this planned activity we spent time talking about the event and then we role played. Each day we drew pictures of children with tickets to go on the ride, then we problem solved if the ticket was lost. The children practiced lining up according to colored tickets and we practiced waiting for our turn. We have watched the children learn to follow directions and then demonstrate that by raising their hands in circle time, waiting their turn to talk, and follow multi-step directions when going outside. We have observed that by practicing it gives them confidence and with confidence they increase their skills of following directions.

We enjoyed making Chinese applesauce. No cooking involved, just lots of scraping the apple with a spoon. With each scrape, we put the apple "sauce" into a cup. Once the cup was full we ate the applesauce together as a group. This activity was another form of listening to and following directions. Learning patience while waiting for everyone to finish was probably the most important part of the activity and its fun to tell people we cooked. On October 17 at 10:17 am we participated in the "Shake Out." "This is an earthquake drill," which came over the loudspeaker. Calmly all the children and the teachers climbed under the tables, covered our heads and waited for the all clear that it was over. Your child can teach you how to be safe in an earthquake. Do you have a family disaster plan? Having a family plan will give you and your child peace of mind and confidence knowing what to do in an emergency. Where do you go if your house is on fire? The next time you change the battery in your smoke alarm, ring the alarm and use this opportunity to go to your family meeting place. Practice this over and over, help your child to do multi-step directions at home.

We opened our classroom pumpkin after we had a discussion of what do you think is inside? We made predictions, a few were pumpkin juice, pumpkin cake, and pumpkin soup. We felt the pumpkin, lifted and weighed it. To our surprise the inside was not what any of the children predicted. When we opened it up it was full of pumpkin seeds and stringy pulp. We collected the seeds, we will use them to make our take home activity on family night after the spaghetti dinner.

Annie - ygu@bellevuecollege.edu *Page - pknapp@bellevuecollege.edu

November 2019

What have the P3 Preschoolers been learning?

Teachers: Parisa, Wendy & Naghmeh

Parisa - pmohamad@bellevuecollege.edu *Wendy - wendy.cote@bellevuecollege.edu

Specialist 3 for Preschool Rooms: BreAna Garcia

For the month of October we provided several different science activities. As a class we made pumpkin pancakes. Throughout this activity the children had the opportunity to learn how food is prepared and how it contributes to their health and well-being. By participating in this activity the children were able to utilize their social and emotional skills by working as a team, taking turns, adding different ingredients, and stirring them together. When the pancakes were ready and brought to the table, one of the children said “I thought that pumpkin pancakes would be gross, but it was actually delicious.” She explained “Delicious means you like it really a lot.” One of the children said, “We are good cookers.”

Another science activity that the children participated in was predicting what happens to corn if we spray water on it? Turns out the water helps corn sprout. Together the children were able to compare their weight to pumpkins. We then made a prediction of “who weighs more?” The children also had the opportunity to observe our classroom corn grow. As a class the children have shown a lot of interest in science activities and we will continue the science fun through next month. The children will have the opportunity to explore the inside of pumpkins. The children will then be able to make predictions “What is inside the pumpkin or what it looks like?” We will cut a circle around the tops of each pumpkin and let the children explore what is inside. They will have the opportunity to use their senses; smell and touch. The children will practice counting seeds, planting them in the soil, and watch them grow!!

November 2019

What has Pre-K 2 been learning?

Teachers: Mala, Donna & Margarita

Mala - mkrishna@bellevuecollege.edu * Donna - dflanner@bellevuecollege.edu

Specialist 3 for Pre-k Rooms: BreAna Garcia

The children have been interested in, and learning about, a number of scientific experiences both

inside and outside the classroom. During a walk-on-campus field trip to gather fall colored leaves, they were able to demonstrate knowledge of the characteristics of living things, specifically, in this case, trees and shrubs. The children observed how the leaves on some of the trees and bushes were changing color, and that they were falling to the ground. They learned that this act of trees losing their colorful leaves is why autumn is often called fall. They also learned that the leaves turned color because they no longer needed to be green to make food for the tree.

Our second scientific experience was a sweet one: we made gingerbread cookies. Here, the children were able to demonstrate knowledge of the physical properties of objects and materials. They experienced first-hand while mixing the gingerbread ingredients that the physical properties of objects and materials can change shape, as seen when the separate ingredients came together to make a dough, which in turn hardened into the cookie when heat (the oven) was introduced into the equation. And finally, it didn’t hurt that the end result tasted so good. As Teaching Strategies Gold Objectives for Development & Learning reminds us “The best way to learn science is to do science through integrated, hands-on child-centered inquiry.”

November 2019

What has Pre-K 1 been learning?

Teachers: Karen, Nadir & Margarita

Specialist 3 for Pre-k Rooms: BreAna Garcia

Karen - kcarpent@bellevuecollege.edu * Nadir - nsalaam@bellevuecollege.edu

The children have made great strides in the classroom. They have been demonstrating positive approaches to learning. As children mature, they demonstrate an increasing capacity to concentrate, to persist, and therefore, to become deeply involved in what they are doing, despite distractions and interruptions. We have been harvesting our garden this fall. With tomatoes, corn, and sunflowers. We brought the Sunflowers into our classroom and decided to use them to create still life. Still Life Process art is focusing on the pro-cess instead of the end result and a chance to work on their fine motor skills in the process. It’s encouraging children to explore their own ideas. It encourages children to investigate and explore new ways of painting. Just take a look at their interpretations of a “Sunflower”.

We will be focusing on our next study of Tubes and Tunnels. These investigations offer the children an op-portunity to learn more about how tubes and tunnels are used and the variety of things that are tubes and tunnels in our community. We will be going on fall fieldtrips to explore our BC campus and explore how we can spy tubes and tunnels throughout various departments in our community. So stay tuned for what is to come. If you would like to volunteer to come into our classroom to share a book or activity with the children please feel free to do so.