A Reminder About MCA's Health/Illness Policy:

The season for colds and flu is upon us. Please take a moment to review our Health/Illness policies below!

Ill children need to stay at home to prevent exposure to other children and adults at school and to let children rest.  Micah Children’s Academy illness policy is based on the Model Health Care Policies developed by the American Academy of Pediatrics. If the symptoms below are noted, we will call you to come and get your child.  Children will be excluded from attending preschool for the following reasons (this list covers the most common illnesses, but is not inclusive of all reasons for exclusion):

  • Illness that prevents the child from participating comfortably in preschool activities, including lethargy, behavioral changes, irritability and/or difficulty breathing.
  • Illness that results in a greater need for care than our staff can provide.
  • Respiratory Illnesses & Colds: If mucus is profuse and cannot be controlled by normal wiping, the child will be excluded at MCA’s discretion. A child will also be excluded if the runny nose is associated with a fever, an infected throat, persistent cough or general irritability.
  • Fever of 100.4 (axillary)
  • Persistent Cough, with or without fever.
  • Vomiting
  • Diarrhea (more than two loose stools).
  • Mouth Sores not associated with drooling.
  • Rash, unless a physician has determined it is not a communicable disease.
  • Purulent Conjunctivitis (defined as pink or red conjunctiva with white or yellow eye discharge) until the child has been on antibiotics for 24 hours.
  • Impetigo until 24 hours after treatment.
  • Strep Throat until 24 hours after treatment.
  • Head Lice until after treatment and all nits are removed. Must have receipt of treatment in order to return.
  • Chickenpox, until all lesions have dried and crusted (usually 6 days).
  • Pertussis (whooping cough) until 5 days of appropriate antibiotics.
  • Hepatitis A virus until one week after onset of illness, after immune globulin has been administered.

In order to assure your child’s comfort and reduce risk of contagion, we ask that sick children be picked up as soon as possible. Children must remain home for 24 hours without the above symptoms before returning to school. In the case of a suspected or confirmed contagious disease, rash or continuing symptoms, a doctor’s note is required before your child is permitted to return to school. We will ALWAYS err on the side of children and call you when anything unusual is detected.

Excluded children may return when:

  • They are free of fever, vomiting and diarrhea for a full 24 hours.
  • They have been treated with an antibiotic for a full 24 hours.
  • They are able to participate comfortably in all usual preschool activities, including outdoor time.
  • The child is free of open, oozing skin conditions and drooling unless:
    • A health-care provider signs a note stating that the child’s condition is not contagious,
    • The involved areas can be covered by a bandage without seepage or drainage through the bandage.

The final decision about whether a child must stay home or whether he/she can return to school is made by the Director.

MCA Scholastic Book Fair

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We are excited to be hosting our first Scholastic Book Fair this week at MCA! Please stop by to check out the seriously impressive array of books to choose from, just in time for Chanukah! Eight nights of books, anyone?

You can also purchase online (hint, hint, grandparents)! Your purchase will be added to our total sales and shipped directly to the school at no charge. To shop online click here!

The book fair will be open each morning from 7:30-9:30am and each afternoon from 2:30-5:30pm.

You are also invited for BLT (Books & Lunch, Together) tomorrow, Tuesday 12/6. Come and have lunch with your child and then shop the book fair afterward! Plus, don't miss Dress Like A Pirate Day, this Friday 12/9. Send your child to school dressed as a pirate and then come see them dance a jig at Tot Shabbat. Stay and shop after the festivities.

You can also sign up to help by visiting our volunteer page. Just an hour of your time would be a huge help to us.

Thanks and see you at the fair!

Spanish News

This Summer in Spanish:

Hace calor!

We talked about how hot it is getting this summer (almost one hundred degrees!) and reviewed our weather terms, seasons, months, and the days of the week as well as numbers and colors.

 

Animales

We read “¿El canguro tiene mamá?” (“Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother, Too?”) by Eric Carle. We learned that the following animals have mothers who love them as much as our mothers love us: león, jirafa, pingüino, cisne, zorro, delfín, oveja, oso, elefante, mono (Lion, giraffe, penguin, swan, fox, dolphin, sheep, bear, elephant, monkey).

We sang “Cinco Patitos” about the five little ducks which went out for a swim and didn’t come back.

 

Cinco Patitos

Cinco patitos salieron a nadar

por la colina y más allá

La mamá pata dijo: “Cua, cua, cua”

y solo a cuatro vio regresar

 

La pobre mamá pata salió a nadar

por la colina y más allá

La pobre mamá pata dijo: “Cua, cua, cua”

¡Y a sus patitos vio regresar!

 

Our araña, spider, has eight eyes and eight legs, each of which is a different color. We sang “La Itzi Bitzi Araña” (The Itsy Bitsy Spider), and Minis and Pre-K all got turns, if they wanted one, to make the spider climb up, weave, and get washed out…as long as they said or sang the lyrics.

We read, “La Araña Muy Ocupada” which has a lot of animals which are in the other books we have been reading: “¿Tu mamá es una llama?” and “¿El canguro tiene mamá?” (“Is Your Mama a Llama?” and “Does the Kangaroo Have a Mom?”)

Animal vocabulary:

Perro, cerdo, gato, foca, caballo, murciélago, oveja, cabra, pato, gallina, and cisne which are- dog, pig, cat, seal, horse, bat, sheep, goat, duck, hen and swan

 

La Itzi Bitzi Araña (The Itsy Bitsy Spider)

La itzi bitzi araña

Tejió su telaraña.

Bajó la lluvia

Y se la llevó.

Salió el sol

Y secó la lluvia.

Y itzi bitzi araña

Otra vez subió.

 

 

Nature News

Weeding our gardens before we can plant vegetables and herbs.

Weeding our gardens before we can plant vegetables and herbs.

As former UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld said, “He who wants to keep his garden tidy does not reserve a plot for weeds.” And so weed and water we must, as Nature teaches us a lot: plants are as thirsty as we are and weeds grow even faster than we do. While tugging on some strong, thick weeds, we talked about why we need to remove them. First, we thought about what would happen if two friends tried to drink out of a very small cup with two straws. Then we huddled together and tried to spread out our arms (roots) which we agreed was hard to do.

We also talked about the first commandment mentioned in the Bible which was God’s direction to Adam (whose name in Hebrew means man of the earth) to take care of the earth. The Bible also forbids us from destroying the fields or fruit trees of an enemy. 

We are working diligently this summer to maintain our crops planted over the last two months, each tending our own tiny plots and helping out with others. As we work to keep our herbs and vegetables healthy in the summer heat, we learn about what plants need to grow, the changes they go through, and the challenges they face. We also learn about commitment and teamwork! A worthy effort indeed.

A More In Depth Look at WotYC at MCA

This post will provide a more in-depth look at the Week of the YOUNG CHILD at MCA as well as provide parent resource articles with information, tips, and ideas.

As you know, the Week of the YOUNG CHILD at MCA is April 11-15 and each day will celebrate our early learners and demonstrate our project based learning curriculum.

These are our themes:

Matzah Monday

Tinkering Tuesday

Whimsical Wednesday

Theatrical Thursday

Family Friday

 

HOW DOES PROJECT BASED LEARNING WORK?

Let's use Matzah Monday as an example of how our teachers break down our monthly themes and build a project from it:

 

MATZAH MONDAY

Project: Making Matzah

Early Literacy Objectives:

  • Read books about matzah
  • Understand connection between books & personal experiences
  • Engage in word play
  • Predict Endings
  • Engage in dialogue
  • Beginning sounds

List of Books:

  • Matzah Ball: A Passover Story - Pre-K
  • The Matzo Ball Boy - 3 & up
  • The Little Red Hen and the Passover Matzah - 3 & up
  • This is the Matzah - 3 & up
  • Matzo Ball Moon - Infant/Toddler & up
  • No Matzah for Me - Infant/Toddler & up
  • Lotsa Matzah - Infant/Toddler

Social Studies objectives:

  • Discuss why we eat matzah during Passover
  • Talk about Passover and its significance

Science objectives: Cooking

  • Predictions of what will happen to the matzah once baked
    • Will it be hard or soft?
    • How will it taste?
  • Discuss cause and effect
  • Discuss chemical reactions
  • Conduct experiments with fermentation, oil and water, etc.
  • Make homemade play dough using flour

Math objectives:

  • Measure the matzah ingredients
  • Compare and contrast measurement tools and increments
  • Discuss size, geometric shape, and attributes of matzah
  • Compare dry ingredients and wet ingredients
  • Talk about the significance of the number 18
  • Count to 18 (Pre-K count by 2s)
  • Graph
    • Who does and doesn’t like matzah
    • Who knows matzah’s shape
  • Sorting pieces by size
  • Guess / estimate the number of holes in a piece of matzah

Art Objectives: Make a matzah cover

Use a white handkerchief and decorate:

  • Paint with watercolors
  • Paint stripes for handwriting practice
  • Cut small pieces of tissue paper, spray with water and let dry on handkerchief, then scrape away the tissue
  • Decorate with markers and spray with alcohol and watch the colors bleed
  • Glue fabric scraps to create a design

Resource for families:

     Article: Children Learn So Much From Cooking!

 

Here’s a glimpse of the rest of the week and how you can incorporate activities at home...

 

Tinkering Tuesday: Build together, work together

When children build together they explore math and science concepts and develop their social and early literacy skills. Children can use any building material--from a fort of branches on the playground to a block city in the classroom, or a hideaway made from couch pillows at home.

Try this: Practice organizing blocks by size! Try building a block tower with large blocks on the bottom and little blocks on top! OR build a fort in the living room!

Resource for families:

     Article: 10 Things Every Parent Should Know about Play

 

Whimsical Wednesday: Let’s be silly together!

Young children have a special preference for silliness! Experts believe that silliness has important developmental benefits for building social skills, cognitive thinking and creativity.  Laughter creates a bond between people.  Stretching the imagination, thinking outside the box, and learning to look at a situation from different angles are other long-term benefits of developing a sense of humor.  Dr. Seuss is the best example of taking silly words and creating meaning with his message!

Try this: Reading Dr. Seuss books, Singing silly songs while in the car, play rhyming game using names

Resource for families:

     Article: Encouraging Your Child's Sense of Humor 

     Book: Pre-School Parenting Secrets: Talking with the Sky by Brian Caswell

 

Theatrical Thursday: Think, problem solve, create

Children develop creativity, social skills and fine motor skills with open-ended art projects where they can make choices, use their imaginations, and create with their hands. On Theatrical Thursday celebrate the joy and learning children experience when engaged in creative thinking and art making. Use any materials - from your imaginations to crayons to paint, clay to crafts!

Try this: Take art projects outside!  Offer light and dark paper! Act out scenarios. Create fantastical tales with words randomly chosen by the children and then make a picture book of the story!

Resource for families:

     Article: How Dramatic Play Can Enhance Learning

     Article: Meaningful Art Projects Parents Can Fit Into a Busy Day

 

Family Friday:

Engaging and celebrating families is at the heart of supporting our youngest learners. We would like to invite parents to come celebrate a special Tot Shabbat dedicated to family!  Stay after Tot Shabbat and have lunch with your child. 

We would love to end the week with a special Kabbalat K’tan with Ms. Lisa Silver at 6:00 in the sanctuary.  Afterwards, meet us on the playscape for a night at the movies under the stars! 

Try this: Over the weekend, head to the library and check out some books! Make a Cozy Corner at home! Have an indoor picnic!

Resource for families:

     Article: Books Plus Time Equals Happiness