August 2021 - Dickinson College
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Dickinson College Children’s Center
August 2021
FROM THE DIRECTOR’S DESK
(office, classroom, playground, hallway—wherever she is at the time!)
August is here! I am so surprised how fast this summer has gone by. We managed to keep Dates to
the children excited and busy throughout the last few weeks of summer. Thank goodness for
all our playground areas so that we can all take turns outside. This summer we were able to Remember:
rent some additional outdoor games for the preschool and summer camp children from 3
Monkeys. We had a misting tent and a variety of other entertaining games available for the
children on several occasions. The weather has been great with lots of sunshine and only a August 16—First
handful of ‘too hot’ days! day of new clas-
The center will be closed on Friday, August 13th. The teachers will be preparing for your ses AND first day
child to be a part of their new classroom. The preschool rooms will be moved back to their of Kindergarten!
original locations. Each room will be sure to do a 3:30 ZOOM or TEAMS session for all
new and current children.
On Monday August 16th, we will resume normal operating hours of 7:15—5:30. Please be
patient as we adjust back to our regular hours and teacher schedules. Continue to enter
through the main Center door wearing face coverings, sign your child in and out of the build-
ing using the tablets in the entry hallway, use hand sanitizer, and drop your child off at the
door of the classroom. Pick-up time is a little different as some classrooms will be outside. In
that case, please pick up your child’s belongings and then retrieve them from their play area.
This fall we are excited to welcome Christa Benton to our Blue Bear Room. She will be
teaching with Kendra. We will also welcome Ashley Heberlig to our Preschool area. Ashley
will be floating around to the preschool and Kindergarten rooms to assist with break and
planning coverage for our teachers. Additional information about these two teachers will be
available about them in the coming weeks. We are SO excited to have them join our amazing
team of teachers here at DCCC.
Please keep in mind that the first few weeks in the new classrooms consist of reviewing ex-
pectations and getting to know your child. We are excited to once again kick off our Center
Wide Expectations (Be Kind, Be Safe and Be Responsible). Be on the look out for center
wide bulletin boards as we start the new school year! We will share more of this at our Fami-
ly Meeting in October as well as more specifically in our fall Conferences. More infor-
mation will be coming out soon.
We wish all our school age children who will be moving on from DCCC a wonderful school
year.
Gina VanKirk, Director
Our First Fundraiser is in the Books!
Chicken BBQ was quite successful bringing in, $1212.33 for the Center.
Thank you to these area businesses:
CHIPOTLE NIGHT OUT!!!
Monday, August 30th! Mark your calendars!
August means the beginning of our No-Effort Fundraising
You can link your Rite-Aid Card to DCCC!
EASY PEASY, just grab the QR code hanging on the Fundraising Bulle-
tin Board, or click this link:
https://support.rxfundraising.com/DickinsonCollegeChildrensCenter.
Please share with your friends and family too!
Be sure to check out our Fundraising Bulletin Board in the hallway for
all the 2021-2022 fundraising efforts.
As always, if your family would choose rather to just donate to the fundrais-
ing efforts of DCCC, you can drop a check with “fundraising” on the memo
line at the DCCC office!
Ducklings
July was a busy month in our classroom. We
spent a lot of time outside enjoying the summer Reminders:
sunshine! We’ve spent time exploring tents,
beach balls, the children’s garden, and the
beautiful Dickinson campus. We took walks and looked at flowers, Reminders:
searched for wildlife, and pretended to be trains going through a tunnel.
We’ve also been busy preparing for our transitions to our new class-
August 13th-DCCC
rooms. We’ve been practicing with our spoons and forks; drinking from closed for in-service
cups, sitting in big toddler chairs, helping to clean up, and practicing
walking together in line on the “bug rope”. training
August 16th-First
day in our new
classrooms
August was a short month together for us, but it was still packed full of
fun! The transition to our new classroom looks a little different this
year! We are spending some time visiting with our teachers while we
are socially distant. While the yellow puppies are on the playground we
are able to open our classroom door and talk to the teachers. We have
enjoyed this so far, and it’s nice to be able to meet them while we are in
the familiar setting of our classroom. Ms Cathryn talks to us over the
door between our classrooms, and we periodically peek over the door to
see what the “big kids” are doing! The transition to a new room may
seem a bit overwhelming at first, but is an exciting time of discovery,
and increased independence! If you have any questions or concerns,
please do not hesitate to let us know. We have loved sharing this year of
growth, exploration, and development with you and your baby. Please
stop in and say “hi” from time to time!
~Laci & Steph
Page 3 Dickinson College Children’s Center
Yellow Pups
July was a busy month! We took a week to make some awesome red,
white, and blue art after our break. Then we spent the rest of the month
talking about the beach, water, and things that go. We made sandcastles
in the sandbox, played with toy whales, and sea animals and made car
paintings! We love taking walks and running on the playground while
looking at things that go, bugs, and flowers.
August is always a bittersweet month for us! It’s time for everyone to transition to new classrooms,
and while the transition isn’t always the easiest, it is great fun to spread our wings and learn bigger and
better things! We thank you for allowing us to be a part of your child’s growth and development this
year! Be sure to wave “hi” if you happen to see us!
Before we all transition, we enjoy two weeks of August fun together! We will be doing a lot of our fa-
vorite things from the past year. Bubbles, singing, reading our favorite books, painting, and coloring.
There will be time to get to know the new teachers during the week of 8/9-8/12. Miss Barb and Miss
Michele are Yellow Bees teachers.
Welcome to the Yellow Puppy Room! We are so excited to begin this adventure with your family! The
beginning of the year is a very flexible transition time with our new class as we get to know each other,
and learn the schedule. We welcome you to ask any questions at drop off and pick up time. It’s a great
way for all to get to know each other! We also love to have pictures of each family to hang up in the
room. It helps to be able to look at familiar faces during the day, and we love to talk about everyone in
our family, especially our pets! Remember, anytime you have a question please don’t hesitate to ask.
Alisha & Diana
Dickinson College Children’s Center Page 4
Blue Puppies
We made it! What a crazy year! I can’t believe how much growing has happened here
in the Blue Puppy room. The puppies will be enjoying some of the fun and favorite
activities from our room this past year. We will color a picture, finger paint, and work
those fine motor skill with play-doh! We will have fun catching bubbles, playing with balls, singing our favor-
ite songs such as “Skid-a-ma-rink-a-dink-a-dink”, “Ram Sam, Sam” and “5 Little Monkeys”.
We will have some visits by our new teachers while on the play ground or they may just pop their heads in to
say “HI”!
It is truly amazing how much your child has grown and what they have learned. The puppies are identifying
colors, beginning to count, playing with each other, and singing their “ABC’s” . It will be bitter sweet to see
them leave, but we know that they will have so much fun in their new rooms! Each one is leaving some spe-
cial laughs with us! We’re so happy that we can still see their smiles at they move though out the center. En-
joy the next adventure!
Thank you for all your participation, communication, and understanding.
~Cathryn & Mimi
Yellow Honey Bees
We have enjoyed learning about space, summertime fruits, summertime
safety, and the colors of July. Our days have been filled with fun crafts,
learning to count to 10, reading books, poems, learning new songs,
marching, taking walks around our neighborhood, playing on the play-
ground, and of course, lots of potty training!
The last two weeks in the Yellow Bee Room will allow us to reflect on
“How Much We Have Grown” and now it is “Time to Fly”. During this
time, the children will get a chance to see their new teacher’s and more
discussion about transitioning to their new rooms will occur.
The center will be closed on Friday, August 13th for training and classroom set up.
We have had a wonderful year and are so proud of how much the children have grown emotionally. Thank
you for sharing them with us!
Welcome to our new families! We are excited to begin a new year learning “All About Me”.
~Barb & Michele
Dickinson College Children’s Center Page 5
Blue Busy Bees
As this year quickly comes to an end, Ms. Cassie and Ms. Jody would like to
thank all the families and children of the blue bee room for all the fun we had
this year. We would also like to thank the families and children for being so
flexible and understanding during this very different kind of year. Blue Bees,
you rocked wearing your masks, and all of the extra handwashing.
It is always so much fun to watch the children each year grow and blossom from the end of
August when they start in the blue bee room till the beginning of August when they move onto be
bears. We will have fun our last two weeks together talking about Babies and Growing Up & Moving
Up. Ms. Kendra our new Blue Bear teacher will visit us a couple of times and we will also visit the
Blue Bear room to see where it is and what it looks like. We will be able to see how much we have
grown since birth to being blue bees and then how tall we are now during babies week; we will also
have fun caring for the babies in our room and talking about the difference between what we can do
now that we could not do as babies. During our last week together, we will read, play, and have fun
being together.
“SEE YOU OVER THE FENCE AND HAVE A GREAT TIME BEING BEARS”
We would also like to take this time to welcome the new blue bees and their families that we
will be getting to know this school year. Cassie and Jody will take the first two weeks with the new
bees getting to know their likes, dislikes, what skills they have mastered and the skills that we can
help them work on this year. WELCOME TO THE BLUE BEE ROOM, IT IS GOING TO BE A
GREAT YEAR!
Family Reminders:
*Please be sure your child has 2 extra changes of clothing
(shirt, pants/shorts, socks)
* If your child needs a fork for their lunch, you will need to
send one in their lunch box
*Please be sure that your child’s outside shoes are close
toed so they can ride a bike and play
on the climber
*Please bring a helmet for your child so they can ride a bike
Jody & Cassie
Page 6 Dickinson College Children’s Center
Preschool Pages...
Yellow Bear Cubs
We look forward to winding down our Teddy Reminders:
Bear year with some Teddy Bear Olympics! We We will be
will be virtually visiting our upcoming Bunny sending a lot of items
and Bear classrooms over the next few weeks! home such as art
We had a great time works, extra clothes
talking like a pirate and so you can refresh
hunting for treasure during the size/season.
pirate week! Beach week
couldn’t have been more
perfect! We enjoyed the To the upcoming bears…
pretend beach fun every day! I am pretty sure Be ready for some virtual fun exploring
our camping week was one of our favorite the new environment and getting to
themes yet this year! know each other! We will also talk “All
It has been a very BUSY year and I have About You” as well as your families as
enjoyed watching all we kick off the new year!
these bears mature and
learn so much through- ~ Mandy
out the year!
Dickinson College Children’s Center Page 7
Blue Teddy Bears
This year was full of more fun than I even imagined. Thank you to my Teddy Bears for
choosing Kind, Safe, and Responsible choices all year. We had so many learning experiences I
don’t even know where to start. We learned our new schedule and made lots of friends in no
time. We all learned how to spell our names at the beginning of the year. We have been practicing every day
and most of the Teddy Bears can even write their name now with no help. We have learned to cut with scis-
sors so well that we can cut out objects by ourselves. The Teddy bears became super problem solvers and
helpful friends. When we see a problem, they come to the teacher or ask a friend for help. One thing about
the Teddy bears is that they love to dance and create amazing Art projects. The month of July was full of
Teamwork using large paper to create Art together. We will end of year with a special Movie Day and two
last Themes Summer Fun and Superheros!
During our Summer fun week, we will be making summer crafts and playing lots of outside games.
Some of the games include Candy Lane, Bean Bag Toss, and Relay Races. For our Superhero Week we will be
playing with Superhero Action Figures and dancing to superhero songs. We will be Creating our own planet to
protect and having a Superhero Dress up Day! We have our Countdown ready and are excited to Blast off To
the Bunny room!!! All our Blue Teddy bears will be moving up together with some new friends from the other
bear rooms. I will be joining Miss Cathryn in the Blue Puppies. I wanted to Thank you for a Fantastic Year!
~Bri
Blue Bears
July has certainly been a fun, action packed month in the Blue Bear room. During our beach
week, we learned some amazing facts about sea animals. We played and built sand castles at our
own beach (sand box on the playground) sorted seashells and made some adora-
ble crafts.
Pirate week was amazing! We dressed as pirates and followed a map to find a real
buried treasure. The treasure was buried in our sand box and it was full of Pirate
Booty. We also enjoyed some refreshing ice pops, a great treat for a hot summer
day.
During our camp week, we set up tents, had pretend campfires and made s’mores.
We will spend a week doing some fun games outside. We will
play ring toss, do relays and more.
We will do a Superhero theme. We will pretend we are superheroes and talk
about what our powers would be and how we would use them to help people. Of
course, as always, we will dress up and do fun games and crafts.
We will also spend the beginning of the month of August transitioning into the
new classrooms. I will certainly miss our current Blue Bears. We had a wonderful year and wish
them well as they head off to the Bunny Room and Kindergarten! Miss Christa and I look forward
to meeting our new Blue Bears. We have lots of amazing things planned.
~Kendra
Bunnies
In a million words or less, it’s hard to believe the bun-
ny classroom is closing a door to a very unusual but
unforgettable year! Nevertheless, when one door clos-
es, another opens!
There aren’t words to adequately describe the nature
of the relationship between a teacher and a student,
but as this year comes to an end, we would like to con-
vey just how much we appreciate being your child’s
teacher!
Day in and day out, we shared space, knowledge,
hopes, disappointments, joys, and many parts of our-
selves. Their brilliant smiles brought light to our
days, and their selfless nature warmed our hearts. We wont ever forget
seeing their face each morning as we began our daily routine.
All that said, we are proud of the bunnies and their achievements and we
marvel at the confidence everyone has gained
this year, both academically and socially! We
are certain that this confidence will continue to
prepare your children for whatever path they
choose for their future.
We want to thank you from the bottom of our
hearts for entrusting us with a piece of yours. It
is not easy to place your son or daughters care in
the hands of another, considering what the past year has shown us. To that
end, it has been an absolute privilege for us to play such an important role
in their lives this year.
As the days, weeks, and months, and years continue to pass, we will never
forget the time with your children and hope that they continue to thrive! If
there is ever anything we can do to help them in the future, please don’t
hesitate to contact us!
Humble and grateful,
Ms. Sarah and Ms. Carly (Miss Katy Fair, too!)
Page 9 Dickinson College Children’s Center
Dragons 1 The Dragons I class had an amazing summer under the fearless leading of Mati Wimer, Sophie Moffatt, and Madison Frick. We thank them so much for all of the wonderful care they gave to the children! They created such an amazing newsletter but I cannot figure out how to merge it in- to this document soooo….if you are a parent of a child in this class, you would have seen the newsletter on ClassTag. If you are a parent in the Center and are interested in seeing the Dragons I news, please e-mail Mary Beth (hellerm@dickinson.edu) and I will be happy to send it to you. Have a great school year! Page 10 Dickinson College Children’s Center
Dragons 2—our favorite things
We cannot believe that summer camp is coming to an end. We have had some
AMAZING times and have made memories. We asked the kids that are at camp
what their favorite things were and here is the list.
AA: I loved going to Valley Meadows Park
CA: Jordan being the "Boss" of everyone
CH: Playing games
BG: Getting to create my own puzzle
MC: Loved going swimming
MJ: Seeing my teachers and all my friends
PS: Everything! I liked the crafts
JK: Teaching everyone to play trash then beating them all.
TH: My amazing teachers
ZG: Melty beads
SM: Friends
LM: Going outside
ZR: Being an introvert without being an introvert
CF: Seeing my friends
JB: Bayblades and the corn hole tournament
JM: Kona Ice
DB: The inflatable Gaga Ball Pit
AC: Kona Ice
JH: Going to Massey’s
GG: Music and dance parties
OC: Inflatable mini golf
JM: Gaga Ball games
KK: When the teachers played Gaga ball with us
We hope to see most of you back next year to have even more fun and adven-
tures. Thank you for sharing all of your kids with us! We hope you all have a great
school year. See you next year!
Ms. Brittney, Ms. Carly, Ms. Bree, Ms. Sarah, and Ms. Andrea
Page 11 Dickinson College Children’s CenterYou can also read
