Newsletter: December 30
Dear Parents,
We were all hoping for a better way to celebrate the new year, but 29 students/staff members have been out in either isolation or quarantine due to a covid exposure.
We need to reiterate the following policies:
Report absences every day your child is out: https://www.commongroundchildcare.org/absence
Report positive COVID test results to Liz IMMEDIATELY via email and/or text
Report exposure to a COVID positive person to Liz IMMEDIATELY via email and/or text
If you suspect that your child has COVID, but you do not have results yet, please text Liz
Our Community Pledge: https://www.commongroundchildcare.org/community-pledge
As a reminder, we follow the recommendations of the Fairfax County Health Department for licensed child care centers, which may be more conservative than the newest CDC guidance. We will update our policies as soon as the Fairfax County Health Department makes changes.
Up until this latest case of COVID, we had no spread within our center. However, we have had spread within one of our infant classrooms. This is slightly expected due to the fact that they are too young to wear masks. But in light of this spread, we are going back to the beginning with our mitigation practices beginning January 3rd.
Eating outdoors in March of 2021
Our COVID Mitigation Approach - OPEN AIR and OUTDOORS:
Beginning January 3rd, all classrooms will follow this schedule as much as possible:
8:00am to 9:45am: drop off and breakfast, indoors
9:45am to 11:30am: Outdoor Learning and Play
11:30am: Lunch (outdoors if possible)
Midday: Nap, indoors
3:15pm to Close: Outdoor Learning and Play
This is the approximate schedule each classroom will follow. Each teacher will adjust based on age appropriateness and weather. We did this during the winter of 2020-2021 with great success!
We do need your help! We need your child to come ready to spend the bulk of the day outside. This means making sure that they have clothing that is warm enough, including back up clothing that is warm enough if they become wet. We have a fantastic supplies list for wet and winter weather!
Learning happens where ever kids are!
Just because we are going back to being outdoors for more, doesn’t mean we are abandoning learning! In fact, our preschool classrooms are doing units that can easily be adapted to be taught outdoors:
Rising Stars - Trees
Busy Bees - Recycling
Love Bugs - Exercise
As you can see from the photos, we had a great time exploring the woods with the Owls Class, last year! And check out this great blog post from Miss LJ: https://www.commongroundchildcare.org/blog-1/2021/2/3/i-met-a-pediatrician-in-the-woods
You can read more about how our classes embrace the outside as in integral part of our learning in some of the linked blog posts below.