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Message from Leadership

Hello Clark Little Cat families,

Welcome to our Spring Edition of the Preschool Newsletter! As the weather warms up and the season of new beginnings arrives, we are excited to celebrate the joys of Spring with your children. The classrooms are buzzing with creativity as we explore nature, growth, and renewal. It’s truly a wonderful time to watch your little ones learn and bloom!

As we prepare for Spring Break, please remember that our break will begin on Monday, March 24th. We hope your family enjoys a well-deserved rest, and we look forward to seeing everyone back and ready for more fun-filled learning after the break.

Thank you for your continued support, and as always, if you have any questions or concerns, feel free to reach out. Wishing you a wonderful Spring season!

Warmly,

Caitlin Smith + Kerry Lindstrom

🪻Upcoming Dates:

March 21st- Community Resource Fair at Clark (10 AM- PM)

March 24- Spring Conference Balance Day - No Classes

March 25-28- Spring Break - No Classes

April 4-5 Enrollment Fair at Clark

April 18 -Good Friday - District Closed

⭐ Staff Spotlight

Tara Bodey- Intervention Specialist

How many years have you been in education?

14 years

What did you want to be when you grew up?

Broadway Star / Teacher

What is your greatest accomplishment?

Becoming a musical director, mother, and teacher

What makes you smile?

When I see my students do something that we have been working on it makes me smile! Music and my family also make me smile.

What is your favorite thing about Clark Early Learning Center?

Clark Early Learning Center is my 2nd family. I view the staff and children there like my own family. It is such a blessing that I get to work with such an accepting, dedicated, fun group each and every day!

Little Cat News

🐾 Join us March 21st for the Grand Opening of Clark's Care Closet! From 10 AM to 2 PM, we will debut a resource pantry for our preschool families. We want to build a bridge between our Clark families and the Springfield community.

Little Cat Learning ✏️

Family Drawings- Math-Algebra

Children draw pictures of members in their families to explore how their family members increase or decrease along a dimension (such as age or size).

Materials:

Drawing materials- crayons, markers, colored pencils
Sheets of paper in different sizes
Sticky notes or masking tape for labeling drawings
Small animal or human figures in graduated sizes for children who cannot draw but want to represent families

Steps:

Tell your child that today they are going to draw their family. "There are __ people in our family, and you can draw them from the smallest to the biggest. I wonder how you will draw our family." Model how to draw a member of the family, using correct information about them. Choose a large or a small sheet of paper depending on family size, and pick any attribute that varies along a continuum, such as age or size.
Give your child drawing materials, and tell them to pick a sheet of paper to draw their families- encourage them to think about what size paper to use and the reason for their choice.
Comment on your child's drawing- encourage them to describe the increasing or decreasing characteristics as they draw (i.e. age, size, hair length). Comment on whether something gets bigger (or older or longer) or smaller (or younger or shorter).
Use ordinal number words to describe what and how the children draw. "You drew your baby brother first because he is the youngest and your grandpa last because he's the oldest."
If your child is interested, help them label their drawings. Encourage them to name each figure and describe how they vary along the attribute they are representing.
With your child, sort and put away the materials. Display the drawing in a place where other family members can see the picture or place the drawing next to a real photo of your family.

Extension:

Counting how many family members are in their family (i.e. Dad and Mom, me and the baby- that makes four!)
Ask your child why a person or a thing is not in their drawing (i.e. Our fish is not in the picture because it can't walk.)

📋 Attendance Corner

Important Health Reminder from the Clark Clinic

In order to maintain a healthy and safe environment for all students, please remember that if your child has a fever over 100°F or is vomiting, they should stay home until they are symptom-free for at least 24 hours without medication. This will help to prevent the spread of illness and to ensure that your child is feeling their best when they return.

Please remember, anytime you have a change in contact information it should be updated as soon as possible with our secretary in the front office. This will ensure that in cases of illness or emergency that we can easily contact you. Please consider adding other contacts who are cleared to pick your child up from school in the event that you are unable to at that time.

Leader in Me 🌳

Habit 6: Synergize

Together is Better

“Synergy is not just teamwork or cooperation. Synergy is creative teamwork, creative cooperation.

Something new is created that was not there before.”

—Stephen R. Covey

Pick a date this month to Synergize as a family. Ask your family to think about a certain issue and bring their ideas to a family meeting. At the meeting, creatively work together using the “Family Synergy Action Plan.”

WHAT IS SYNERGY?

Synergy is:

1. Celebrating differences.

2. Working together.

3. Being open-minded.

4. Finding new and better ways.

Synergy is not:

1. Being intolerant.

2. Working independently.

3. Thinking you are always right.

4. Being selfish.

STEPS- Follow these steps to create synergy in your family-

1. Define: Clarify the problem or issue.
2. Their way: Seek first to understand the other person’s needs.
3. My way: Seek to be understood by sharing you needs and ideas.
4. Brainstorm: Create new options and ideas together.
5. Synergize: Find the best solution—the 3rd Alternative.
Real family example:
• Problem: How to spend Saturdays.
• Dad wants to spend time as a family outside. Mom wants to get all the housework done.
• Can we do both and not compromise?
• Mom makes a reasonable list of housework that needs to be done sometime during the day.
The family can do an activity together either before or after housework, depending on the weather.
Family Activity:
HOW CAN YOU CREATE SYNERGY IN YOUR FAMILY?
Synergy—creative family teamwork—occurs when you follow two simple rules:
1. Value one another.
2. Recognize strengths.
How can you value your family members? Choose any family member and finish the following sentences keeping them in mind.
1. What I admire most about you is…
2. One of my favorite memories is…
3. I’m glad you are
and I’m not.
4. One of the funniest things you have ever done is…
5. One of my proudest memories of you is…
6. I like it when you…
Share your answers with that family member. How did they respond? Did they learn something new about themself?

The Little Cat Ledger 🐾