Newsletter: June 7
Good Morning Everyone!
We have some important news for summer activities and supplies as well as transitions! Please read below.
Transitions and CAMP
This week we had a lot of changes, and we apologize for clumsily sharing the plan! In an effort to improve for next week, we have the following changes:
Bubble Buddies: 6 weeks to 14 months - NO CHANGES
Teachers: Miss Nana, Miss Marita, and Miss Susie
Little Penguins: 8 months to 19 months - NO CHANGES
Teachers: Miss Patty, Miss Huihui, and Miss Gitti
Playful Pandas: 15 to 28 months - NO CHANGES
Teachers: Miss Pinky, Miss Simi (on vacation until 7/7/22), and Miss Samra
Dancing Monkeys: 2 to 3.5 years - Staff Transitions
Teachers: Miss Petty, Miss Delia, and Miss Kisha
Miss Petty and Miss Kisha will be joining Miss Delia for the summer! Miss Kristel will be moving up to work with older kids in the final months of her pregnancy as she prepares for maternity leave
Rising Stars: Preschool 3-4.5 year olds - student transitions
the older half of the group who will be 4 by 11/30/2022 have moved into Miss Adella’s Busy Bees Classroom this week!
the younger half will be moving into Miss Yolanda’s Love Bugs! This will be a 3-4 year old preschool classroom, where children will stay in this classroom for the entirety of the next school year!
Love Bugs: Preschool 3-4.5 year olds - student and staff transitions
Teachers: Miss Yolanda, Miss Celestine, and Miss Kristel
The 3 year olds who will turn 4 on or after 12/1/2022 will be joining the Love Bugs classroom for the summer and will continue in this class in the fall
Miss Kristel is joining this class for the summer before she goes out on maternity leave
Busy Bees: Preschool 4-5.5 year olds - student transitions
Teachers: Miss Adella and Mr. Zach
the children from Rising Stars who will turn 4 by 11/30/2022 will join the 4 year olds who do not turn 5 before 9/30/2022 be in the Busy Bees for the summer.
CAMP: School Aged Program, must be 5 by 9/30/2022 - summer begins!
Hello Summer BBQ is Friday, June 10th!
ON FRIDAY, JUNE 10TH, WE WILL BE HAVING A BBQ TO CELEBRATE THE BEGINNING OF SUMMER!
It will be from 4:30PM-6:30PM in the grassy area by the swings.
We are providing Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, Chips, Water, Gatorade, and Lemonade!
PLEASE RSVP - It is not required to attend, but it really helps us!
We want to know how many people are coming so that we can purchase the right amount of food!
Let’s get together, eat a bunch of food under a blue sky, and enjoy each other’s company.
Summer is Here! Supplies, Suggestions, and Safety Tips!
Now that it’s summer time we will be doing even more outdoor activities than before! We have water play for all the classrooms and swimming for kids 3 and up! Kids need to be outside. The pandemic has made daily outside time essential to health and safety, but daily outside time has been shown to increase attention spans, self-regulation, physical fitness, and mood while helping to decrease sensory issues, anxiety, and inner-ear weakness. It’s also just fun! Recess is essential for growth.
We are aware that it gets hot and steamy outside! We have heat index and heat codes hanging up in each classroom, and regulate outside time based on that.
We also have recommendations for summer attire and gear to keep your kids safe, comfortable, and happy:
Our Skin Care Product Form: We have sent out our new updated Skin Care Forms to all of our families via adobesign. If you have not received it, please let us know! We provide sunscreen, bugspray, aveeno, and aquafor and apply as needed. If you choose to opt out and to provide your own items, let us know so that we can send a different non-rx skin care form.
Water comfortable shoes: Crocs, Keens, jellies, and other shoes like this, are amazing for summer! Kids can play in the sprinkler and then quickly dry off without having wet socks all day. No flip flops please! The kids need to be able to safely play on playground equipment as well
Pool Time: For our older kids, we will have scheduled pool time! We will let you know in advance, of course! Please send with your children: Towel, Swimsuit, Wet bag, and goggles and toys are optional but allowed.
A Sun Hat and a Sun Shirt are recommended for kiddos who burn really easily! We apply sunscreen frequently, but extra protection is always advised
A Water Bottle: We require a water bottle all year, but it is especially important during the summer! We supply gatorade and water all day, but the kids need to be able to have water with them at all times to keep them hydrated.
Graduation Recap
Our graduating kids and teachers worked so hard to get to graduation last Friday, and it really showed. We want to personally thank Ms. Yolanda, Ms. Adella, Ms. Janette, Mr. Zach, Ms. Celestine, Mr. Josh, and everyone who has worked with our students this year to get them through the last year! Your kids are resilient, kind, brave, smart, hard-working, and HILARIOUS. Sometimes we go into those classes just for a hug or a pick-me-up. When we need the reminder that, despite all trials and tribulations, we WILL get back up again, we can turn to any bee, bug, or jellyfish in the place and know that they will help us shine brighter.
Learning begins at birth at Common Ground. It begins with cuddles and smiles, it begins with assurances and loving voices.
We got choked up seeing all of our baby teachers watching the ceremony, all the teachers that came before leaning over the fences to see the kids they helped grow up move on to better things. So thank you, to ALL of those teachers, who helped the kiddos from the start. Every single person at Common Ground has loved our children. That is a humbling feeling that we will carry too.
Lastly, THANK YOU to parents for helping us set up and clean up! For signing endless forms and celebrating Trunk or Treat. For laughing and crying with us, for learning about the planets with us, for watching our Common Ground Story Time Show and singing “The Goldfish” one more time. You are just as integral a part of our team, and we couldn’t be more grateful that we had you with us every step of the way.
WE LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! LET’S GET READY FOR SUMMER!!!
Your CG Family
Newsletter: March 15
Dear Parents,
Virginia (early) Spring Weather is doing what it always does: catching us by surprise! One minute it’s sunny and warm, the next it’s rainy and chilly! We have been going on a lot of nature exploration walks with all our classes and enjoying ample time outside, so thank you so much for making sure your kiddo has appropriate weather attire and shoe attire.
Reminder that Saturday hours are THIS WEEK from 9:00AM-2:30PM! If you haven’t signed up but would like to partake, check it out HERE.
Thank you all so much! You were good company with the noodles :)
Between the Mod Pizza Fundraiser and the Noodles and Company Fundraiser, our families earned $218.29 for the center! We are so glad that we got to “eat dinner” with you, even apart. Did anyone in your family try something new? Is there a restaurant you would love to see featured this way? Let us know in the comments!
We have Family Fundraiser Nights each month! Check out our calendar and find your new local favorite dinner place! How can you help make these succeed? Share our Facebook Events and Flyers with all your local friends and family! Who doesn’t like a ready-made, delicious family dinner?
We have a few posts from the last couple of days to share with you.
One is about the Persian New Year’s Celebration Nowruz! Ms. Gitti taught our four-year-old classes all about it last week. The holiday occurs on the first day of Spring each year!
Read more about it Here.
We also have written a post about how to talk to help out the Ukraine. One of the main ways we suggest is encouraging them to think about how to be helpful and comforting to those in need.
Read more about it Here.
If you like these posts, you should subscribe to our blog! We write posts about holidays, recommended books, issues children face, and family friendly activities! We love sharing our world and thoughts with you, so if there is ever anything you’d like to see OR share, let us know.
That’s all our news for today! Stay tuned to find out how we are celebrating St. Patrick’s Day later this week!
Love,
Your CG Family
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.
Thank you for trusting us to help keep your kids safe!
We will make it through this latest challenge together.
Love,
The CG Team
