Covid-19 Vaccine: First Two Days
Hurray! It’s Vaccine Day!
What to Expect — Vaccine Reactions
That’s what we (Ms. Liz and Ms. LJ) have been cheering all day!
When we saw that Preschool Teachers would be eligible for the vaccine starting this week, we decided we wanted to be leading the pack and documenting our journey all the way. We talk a lot about this in our live video right after our first vaccination, but here is a quick overview.
We hope that by getting the vaccine as soon as we could, being open and honest about our experiences, providing peer reviewed research, and encouraging everyone to talk to their PERSONAL physician, we can help alleviate any fears and dispel any misinformation relating to the Covid-19 vaccine.
When we arrived at INOVA Fairfax at 8:38 AM there was a long, appropriately spaced line! It wound all the way to the parking-lot. But the weather was good and spirits were high!
One of the things LJ was anxious about was not the vaccine at all, but the fact that we had to go to a hospital. We were concerned about being contacts of all of those people, masks or no. But the line moved at an even clip and, in no time at all, we were waiting with our little registration clip boards for a nurse.
Some quick thoughts before THE BIG MOMENT:
Everyone on the staff was excited we were there. They were encouraging and helpful. We had our IDs, proof that we worked at a school and weren’t “jumping the line,” and our appointment confirmation sheets, but they took us at our word. We honestly think that they are just trying to make sure everyone gets it as easily and painlessly as possible, which was encouraging. This is something that should be available to as many people as possible as quickly as possible, and Fairfax County is a medical powerhouse.
There were at least fifty stations with health professionals standing by. Our nurses were friendly, warm, ready to answer any questions.
WE BOTH GOT THE PFIZER VACCINE. Fact Sheet for Pfizer Vaccine
The stick was surprisingly not painful! Giving blood, the TDAP, Flu shots, PNEUMAVAX, there have been far worse shots in our experience. They gave us a card so that we could schedule our second vaccination in within 21 days. We were moved into an area stationed with health professionals where we could sit between 15-30 minutes to see if we had any immediate reactions, either from the vaccine or, more likely, a Vasovagle Syncope reaction from being stuck with a needle.
(What is Vasovagle Syncope? READ MORE HERE)
In the afternoon, Ms. Victoria, our fantastic OWLS teacher, also got her vaccine! Hurray! We felt empowered, like we could finally, FINALLY do something about this pandemic. This was a concrete step in the right direction, a small action to say “we are here to support our health, our families, and our community!” We finished up the day with a Kindergarten Interest Meeting all about our beliefs in play-based curriculums and what our Common Ground Kindergarten would look like this coming September!
Whether it was the excitement, the long day, or the vaccine, all of us went to bed early, feeling quite tired and a little warm.
Ms. LJ felt a bit itchy around the site, and an immediate tightness in the shoulder that lasted until Saturday. It was never any worse than what you would experience with the TDAP shot. She also went to bed early both Thursday and Friday night.
Ms. Liz was dizzy at first, a regular reaction for her to most vaccines, and her shoulder also felt tight as the day went on.
Ms. Victoria had pain in her shoulder, and for the first three days she had fatigue, flu-like symptoms, and occasional hot flashes.
Mr. Josh had the shoulder pain and flu like symptoms the next day, but two days out already feels better.
We are excited to announce that Ms. Adella, Ms. Mimi, Ms. Simi, Ms. Pinky, Ms. Vanessa, Ms. Petty, Ms. Janette, and Ms. Kisha will all be getting their first doses over the next two weeks as well!
Summer Camp: Registration is Live!
Winter may have us in its grip… but in our hearts? IT IS SUMMER, AND WE ARE INVITING YOU TO JOIN US!
Need AMAZING Labels for your kiddos’ school and camp gear? Check out our Mabel’s Label’s Page!
Mabel's Labels: Valentine's Day is Coming!
Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, and Spring not long after that!
Pick up something that can transform their every day all year!
Customizable Household Labels — These will help you with Spring Cleaning, beautifying your kitchen, or just adding your own lovely aesthetic to your home. We promise they are MUCH more thoughtful than a box of chocolates.
Heart Labels — The perfect gift for any Valentine. Your kiddo can label their gear, your love can label their hobby boxes and desk drawers, they get to be reminded how much you love them all year long.
Multi-use Labels — Show your love and appreciation for your friends, coworkers, and family by helping them organize and their home office with brightly colored, water-proof labels that are uniquely theirs!
GIVE TIME: Teacher Volunteers Needed!
We are calling on our fantastic parent community for a very unique volunteer opportunity!
We are looking for five parent volunteers a month to be on-call substitute teachers. These volunteers would be willing to go through a background check process and be willing to watch over a classroom should the need arise.
Please Note — This rarely happens. In the past we have only had the need for parent volunteers to help with watching classrooms while we allow our teachers to vote on election days. However, if the need did arise to have someone watch a classroom, we want to put our children in the hands of someone in our community we trust with a verified background check.
If you are interested, please contact either Ms. Liz or Ms. LJ for more details!
Childcare Staff Vaccination Plans
This weekend the state, and more importantly Fairfax County, has opened up vaccination for group 1b! This is exciting news because childcare center workers (and teachers) are included in this priority group. The state has outlined the following priority queue within group 1b:
Police, Fire, and Hazmat
Corrections and homeless shelter workers
Childcare/K-12 Teachers/Staff
Food and Agriculture (including Veterinarians)
Manufacturing
Grocery store workers
Public transit workers
Mail carriers (USPS and private)
Officials needed to maintain continuity of government
Currently, vaccination for groups 1 and 2 are beginning this week, with the coordination for 1b group 3 beginning on January 16th.
Common Ground is still in the tentative planning phase, however our priorities are:
equitable access for all staff members to vaccination
the ability to get staff vaccinated as quickly as possible
the time for staff to work through any vaccine hesitancy with their personal physician prior to our vaccination day(s)
With this in mind, we are hoping to get the entire staff vaccinated on the same day (two - both doses 21-28 days apart depending on the vaccine) which will necessitate closing the center for two “vaccination teacher work days” due to the fact that classroom pods cannot operate if they are missing a staff member.
We do not have dates for this yet, but will communicate as quickly as we can so that you can make arrangements for possible closure days. We thank you for your continued support of Common Ground and our efforts to protect our community.
GIVE TIME: Fill out this Department of Education survey!
Dear Families,
The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE), the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation (VECF), and the University of Virginia are conducting the 2020 Virginia Survey of Families with Young Children. The purpose of this survey is to better understand children’s care and/or education experiences during COVID-19.
Please take few moments to complete this survey by January 25th: vafamilysurvey.info
The purpose of this survey is to better understand children’s care and/or education experiences during COVID-19.
All Virginia families of young children, birth through kindergarten, can take the survey.
The survey will take about 10-15 minutes and is voluntary.
The survey is available online in English or Spanish.
Families can take it on their phone, tablet, or computer using the link above.
All information from this survey is anonymous. The survey does not ask families for their names or their programs’ names.
The survey is about their children’s care and/or education experiences during COVID-19.
The survey is not about evaluating any program.
Please make sure to share this this post with every Virginia resident that you know that had a young child, birth through kindergarten so that we can help the VDOE, VECF, and UVA gather this information.
Thank you so much for your help and participation on this!
Teacher Tips: Emergent Writers Need Peer Input
After my previous post about kindergarten readiness and those three and four year olds who experienced the Covid-19 quarantine, I started doing more research. I wanted to see if there were any concerns from experts on how key aspects of a preschool curriculum could be implemented at home effectively.
Serendipitously, Office for Children was offering a class for teachers on how to provide ideal environment and instruction for emergent writers! I signed up immediately. As a teacher and a parent, it seemed like an essential course for me to provide my students (and kids!) as much support as I could.
Here are some key aspects of the class that can be implemented both at home and in the classroom!
The educators discussed the writing environment extensively.
Have many items labeled as possible to help children begin to associate symbolic words with tangible objects. It is even better if you can provide a picture. A child begins to recognize the connection between pictures and real items first, which helps them practice that symbolic association. A trash can label would look something like this.
Have several different types of writing implements, paying attention to how easy they are to grasp and the pressure that needs to be used. For instance, a marker is a much easier implement to use than a crayon because it is larger and requires less force to create with.
Book making is fun, creative, and gives a child purpose. Have book making supplies readily on hand, and keep them so that your child knows what they have created is valuable! Here are instructions for making a fun book with a stick for a spine and other found materials!
READ TO THEM. Have books all around. Change them up so that the books don’t just blend into the environment. Show the kiddos all different kinds of authors so they can begin to recognize different styles! This helps them understand that people can communicate and use words differently, and they can begin to develop their own taste. Try to always read the words as they are written so that children understand you’re not just making up what you’re saying, that the words themselves have a consistent meaning.
Put pictures of animals, plants, stars, favorite characters, around on the walls. Kids will look at these and be inspired to write on subjects they may not have thought of before! If they copy stories they’ve seen or read before, good!
DRAWING IS EXCELLENT FOR EMERGENT WRITING! Drawing means they are working to produce their own pictures and symbols to convey meaning. Writing the words they are saying and spelling them out carefully will help them see how the letters and words relate to their thoughts! KEEP IN MIND that you should also encourage the children to add more detail to their pictures before relying too heavily on the words you add. This will help them work to convey meaning instead of letting you do it.
ENTHUSIASM. IS. KEY. Their enthusiasm will carry them through the practice, will encourage them to continue their process even when it’s frustrating. YOUR enthusiasm will encourage them and help them fly forward without fear of failure! Ask them leading questions like “Oh Wow! What happens next? How does it end?” This not only helps them with story sequencing, but it lets them know that wherever they are in the process, you are happy to be there sharing their story.
TREAT THEIR WORK WITH DIGNITY. I’m not saying you have to keep every drawing or scrap of paper with art on it. I am saying to be consistent with # 7, keep ongoing projects in the same place so that they can return, encourage them to move forward in their studies rather than critiquing WHERE they are in the process.
9. Peer Interaction during the process of emergent writing is key.
There are a lot of processes you can do at home that are helpful and important. But research has shown that other children thrive in an environment when they can watch how their peers practice drawing and writing. They copy each other. They observe different style interpretations. They listen as their teachers give different instructions to their friends. When I was teaching in the four year old classroom, I was blown away by how one child drawing volcanoes transformed into the entire class drawing volcanoes. They told different stories, they extrapolated off of each other’s ideas, they asked big questions that spun off into entire lessons. They were fascinated, excited to draw in their journals and tell me THEIR version of the volcano story. Someone would add a princess, someone would add a PAW PATROL pup, and then another kid would do the same thing the next day, inspired by their friends. Even in COVID times when the numbers are low, even if they have to sit apart at their own desks with their own implements, children that can be around their peers while they practice show greater strides in all aspects of writing, story telling, and literary comprehension.
Educators are encouraged to call their children “authors” and let them “read” stories to their friends. Letting them sit in an “author’s chair” is even better. Even if they’re just reciting a memorized passage, or making up words for their pictures, they have autonomy over the story they are telling. This inspires other children to want to build their story to share.
One of my favorite things to do with my students is to come up with a premise and allow the students to write the story with me. They can introduce characters to the story, provide what happens “next,” I’ve even had my older students come up with lines for rhyming words that match the story! They riff off of each other and begin to understand the structure and sequencing of a story while having fun together. Afterwards they draw the pictures for each page. We put together the book and each child can stand up and read THEIR page in the book we all created together.
Experiences like the those described above show how essential and enriching peers are to the writing learning process. Wonder, creativity, practice, immersion, these are the building blocks to writing success, but all of those things are SUPER CHARGED with friends at your side.
Questions? Comments? Experiences to Share? Please comment below! We love to share our world with you.
Ms. LJ
Save the Date: Spirit Nights
In 2021 we will be having MONTHLY SPIRIT NIGHTS!
What’s a Spirit Night?
A Spirit Night is when a local restaurant supports Common Ground Childcare by giving a percentage of their sales profits for one evening! All you have to do is order food and let the restaurant know you are there to support Common Ground Childcare, and VOILA! You are helping us fundraise just by eating a good meal with your family!
It used to be we would gather at a restaurant and all eat together. These “Spirit Nights” were some of our absolute favorite evenings, especially in the cold months! The kids loved seeing their teachers and each other in a non-school setting.
These times will come again. And while we are waiting for them to return, we have decided that getting into the habit of scheduling them once a month will assure we all remember to save the dates!
We will post them as we get them, so be on the look out. SEE YOU THERE! And don’t forget to say “we’re here to support Common Ground.”
Our January and February Spirit Nights are on the calendar already!
On Saturday, January 16th you can support Common Ground by picking up Panera for your family! Delicious soups and hot fresh bread are the perfect combination to combat that cold, winter wind! (Click below for more info)
On Wednesday, February 10th our Spirit Night is at the North Point Baskin-Robbins! They are currently refurbishing their store so it will be EXTRA snazzy for those (almost) Valentine treats… Bring the kids, or make it a date!
Saturday, January 16th from 4pm to 8 pm at the Elden Street location
Wednesday, February 10th from 6pm to 9pm at the North Point shopping center location
Save The Date: Summer Camp Teaser
The Summer Camp you remember that your kids will never forget…
Kids need to be outside. They need to run under the trees, chase each other, skin their knees.
They need to play with rules they make up themselves.
That’s why Common Ground is hosting a classic summer camp that is perfect for any kid from kindergarten to rising fourth grader.
1 in 12 kids are as fit as the average child 35 years ago. Their attention spans are suffering under a sedentary education style. Sensory training, emotional regulation, physical stability, these are as key to learning as letters and numbers, and much harder to master after age 5.
We believe in exploration, reasonable danger, and dirt. Our weekly themes are designed to teach kids about the world and their own abilities. There will be projects, games, and field trips! We are also looking to do swimming lessons.
We will be outside as much as possible, allowing kids to foster independence through child-led lessons that encourage enthusiasm for holistic learning.
KEEP AN EYE OUT! We will begin registration in the next few weeks! Think Capture the Flag. Think trail running and skipping stones in the creek. Think sweat and dirt and sunshine. Your kids deserve a camp experience like you had.
LET’S GO OUTSIDE!
Ms. LJ
Every Day is a Holiday: Pet Costumes and Polka Dots
NATIONAL DRESS YOUR PET IN A COSTUME DAY!
Thursday, January 14th we will be dressing our pets and/or stuffed animals in costumes! Send us a picture of your pet/Stuffy dressed to the nines and we will make a big collage of our Common Ground animal crew!
NATIONAL WEAR POLKA DOTS DAY!
Big dots! Little Dots! Multicolored dots! Dots with squiggles! Dots with stripes! Dots like Dalmatian Puppies! On Friday, January 22nd we will be wearing polka dots here at Common Ground and ask you to do the same!! Send us your pics so we can make our Polka Dot-Palooza Picture Gallery!