Dear Park’s Edge Preschool Families:
What a month October has been! Park’s Edge Preschool kicked off October by hosting a licensing workshop for the Wisconsin Child Care Administrator’s Association… our third year in a row! The guest speaker was Anne Carmody, the head of the early childhood licensing department. We had over 75 directors from the southeastern region of Wisconsin in attendance to share health and safety concerns for young children.
October is Fire Safety Month. PEP children had a visit from the Hales Corners Fire Department on Thursday, October 19. Their mission is to teach the children about fire safety and prevention. PEP children not only are taught about fire safety but meet our community helper ‘the fireman’. Many children are afraid of firemen in a real emergency because the firemen ‘look and sound’ scary with all their equipment on. The children are introduced to a fireman wearing his full gear, with the mask on too. The fireman is our helper-friend and not so scary anymore! Keep children safe…discuss home fire safety with your child and practice stop, drop and roll!
Harvest month celebrations at PEP: Children in the Frogs, Stars and Snakes Groups visited a pumpkin farm on Monday, October 23. The Hales Corners Care Center opened their doors to us on Friday, October 27 for trick-or-treat fun for costumed preschoolers age 4 and 5 years old. To further celebrate the festive harvest season PEP’s Family Harvest Fest was Thursday, October 26. The family celebration offered all ages chili and cornbread, a costume parade, scavenger hunt and magical entertainment by Mr. Rick Allen rounded out the evening. Wrapping up the month on Halloween, Tuesday, October 31st the children celebrated with a costume parade at 10am. Thanks to all the families that participated in the harvest festivities!
Food is love…Thanks to all those food donations for the CROP Walk and Harvest Fest. Hunger is year round… The Crop Walk began our food drive campaign this month and gave added incentive for our families to contribute food to the Hunger Task Force. The food collection boxes were filled to the brim! Thank you!
Who isn’t frazzled at this time of year? Yes…it’s that time of year already for the ‘Frazzled Family Dinner’ sponsored by the ‘Good News Group’ of Emanuel Church. In this hectic, fast-paced world, it’s always appreciated to go home to a home-cooked meal with loved ones. Please be sure to pick-up your chicken-pot-pie -dinner-to-go on Wednesday, November 15th between 4 and 6pm. The dinner will include a family prayer and conversation card. The goal of the Frazzled Family Dinner is to support families to time and conversation at a ‘family dinner’…almost forgotten in today’s society. Be sure to RSVP. by Wednesday, November 8th at the PEP office desk. Thank you!
Did you know that PEP staff must meet 25 hours of in-service training annually? This year our staff took turns monthly teaming up to introduce us to a variety of topics. This past month we were treated to a discussion and demonstration about Math, Science and Sensory. It is a great time of year to be outdoors discovering Math, Science and Sensory in nature! Take some time to experience it for yourself!
We have campaigned throughout the year to meet our goal of individual cubbies in our preschool classrooms on our lower level. PEP is closed the Thanksgiving holiday weekend but our staff will be here. We are teaming up during the holiday to make quality improvements to our preschool classrooms on the lower level by adding cubby units. Each unit will hold five individual cubbies for the preschool children’s belongings. Fifteen units will be delivered soon! Thanksgiving is a good time to reflect and be thankful, ‘Thank you God for everything!’
Happy Thanksgiving,
Ellen M. Kvalheim