ELP Open House

1. ELP Open House 2012-2013

2. Who is in our classroom? • Kristin Iorio, Classroom Teacher • Donna Bruno, Vivian Kyek, Alexis Coleman and Corie White, Paraprofessionals • Lauren Pakkala, Speech and Language Pathologist • Brooke Clark, Occupational Therapist • Karen Kraus, Physical Therapist • Mary Stone, School Psychologist • Jacalyn Papstein, BCBA • Sophie Kozlowski, Music Teacher

3. School Hours • Arrival: 8:30 • Students’ start time is promptly at 8:30 a.m. Please drive your car through the parent drop off loop and a paraprofessional will walk your child to his/her classroom. • Arrival: 9:30 • Please park your car in the parking lot and walk your child into his/her classroom. Parents, please be cognizant that in the first hour, 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., students are in session. Teachers will open their doors at 9:30 a.m. to meet and greet your children and begin their morning routine. The kindergarten playground door will automatically unlock between 9:20 a.m. and 9:40 a.m. Please do not park in the front loop or Fire Lane. • Dismissal: 1:30 • Dismissal will occur in the common room. The students will be walked to the common room tables. If you arrive before your child is in the common room, please wait for them at the tables so that the staff can more easily see that all students connect with their parents. The teachers are working on walking the children to the tables safely. Once you have your child please leave the common room. There are often activities that go on right after ELP dismissal. Since school is still in session during ELP dismissal, the kindergarten playground is closed to parents and children during the school hours. Please do not park in the front loop or Fire Lane.

4. School Closings/Delayed Openings/Early Dismissals • Delayed Openings: all students attend school from 10:00- 1:30. • Scheduled Early Dismissals: 8:30/9:30 – 11:30 or 12:00, see ELP calendar • Emergency Early Dismissals: follow the Tokeneke School dismissal • Register for EdAlert on the Darien Public Schools website for notifications via e-mail, text message, or phone. The direct link is: http://www.myschoolpages.com/schools/darienps/

5. School Lunch • Students may buy Tokeneke school lunch. All the information about setting up a lunch account can be found on my blog at the following site: http://kiorio.wordpress.com/210-2/ • Lunch menus are available on the Tokeneke School and Darien Public Schools websites at http://www.darienps.org/current/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=87&Itemid=372

6. Snack • In an effort to provide nutritiously sound snacks for our students, parents will be helping by providing snacks for a given week. • When it is your turn to provide snack, please keep in mind that we are aiming for healthy snacks. All snacks should be peanut-free and nut-free, regardless of whether or not there is an allergy present in the classroom. • Snacks should also be delivered ready to be eaten (e.g. apples should be sliced, grapes cut in half, etc). We are requesting that snacks be delivered on Monday (or the first day of the school week) for the entire week. We have plenty of refrigerator space available to store them. The ELP program will provide paper goods. • Each classroom’s room mothers have organized a schedule so you will know when you are expected to provide snack and beverage. Please see more information about this on my blog: http://kiorio.wordpress.com/snack-recommendations-2/

7. Health & Safety • Please call the Health Office at Tokeneke by 8:15 a.m. every day your child is absent. Your message should include: your child’s name, date & time, child’s teacher, and reason for absence. • It’s helpful if you can call or e-mail the teacher as well. • See the ELP Handbook for further information about medication, physicals and returning to school after an illness.

8. Conferences • Conferences are held in December, March and end of May. In December, conferences are scheduled with parents of all students. In March, conferences are held for special needs students and for typically developing peers by request. At the end of May, conferences are again scheduled with parents of all students. Please see the ELP Calendar for conference weeks.

9. Daily & Weekly Communication • Due to a district-wide effort to “go green,” daily and/or weekly communication sheets will be sent from teachers via electronic communication. • Each day, I will send an email briefly describing the day’s activities and upcoming events. • Communication from therapists will arrive regularly via e-mail for those to which it applies.

10. Observations • Consistent with Darien Public School policies, all observations MUST be scheduled in advance through the Assistant Principal of ELP. This policy is available for reference on the last page of the ELP Handbook.

11. Room Mothers/Volunteering/etc… • Our room mothers are Mary Jo Miller and Melinda Stewart. • They will email reminders to scheduled snack providers and volunteers for the classroom. Please see my blog for more information at http://kiorio.wordpress.com/classroom-volunteers/ • Classroom parties and events will be held throughout the school year, with more information to follow. So far, the following have been scheduled: • Monday, November 19th: Thanksgiving • Thursday, December 13th: Holiday Party

12. Curriculum • We are currently using Toni Linder’s Trans-Disciplinary Play-Based Curriculum called Read, Play, and Learn. This program is literature-based, with play center activities related to storybook modules. Each module lasts approximately 2-3 weeks. Parents will be informed at the onset of every new unit of study. • The Early Learning Program has adapted the CT Preschool Assessment Framework (PAF) as a means of measuring growth in the personal-social, cognitive, creative and physical domains. The PAF was developed as a companion to the CT Preschool Curriculum Framework and Benchmarks for Children in Preschool Programs and is directly aligned with this document. The PAF enables teachers to plan and implement curriculum, activities that address specific learning standards, and to observe and assess children’s progress on these same standards. • One of the primary purposes of the CT PAF is to organize and mutually share information between families and program staff, as well as to share information with receiving teachers and to support effective transitions. The CT PAF is administered in the fall and spring of each school year and will be discussed with you during conferences.

13. We are also adopting a literacy curriculum. While the curriculum is still in draft form, all ELP classrooms are implementing the Literate Days program in conjunction with Read, Play, and Learn. The following are the district goals for literacy: • Through the implementation of balanced literacy in preschool, it is the districts goal that students will: • Establish literacy habits, including the ability to sustain attention and interest in reading and writing texts and the structure of the workshop model; • Develop oral language skills through conversation and vocabulary development; • Develop language/story comprehension skills through read-alouds; • Develop awareness of print concepts through interactions with texts in print-rich environments, shared reading and writing, and interactive reading and writing; • Develop phonetic and phonemic awareness skills such as rhyming, alliteration, blending and segmenting sounds/words, and letter-sound correspondence; • Understand the role of various text media as it exists in real world experiences. • More information can be found via links under “Curriculum” on my blog.

14. Our Class Schedule