Welcome to another academic year at The Elevon. We had such a great summer with fun water activities, playing outside, going for walks, coloring with chalk on the sidewalks, and so much more. We are very excited to begin our 2019-2020 School Year with the expansion of our School Age program as well as the addition of two more Infant classrooms. Our School Age program now serves Quarterfield, Oakwood, Severn, and Van Bokkelen Elementary Schools.

The expansion of our Infant program will allow our youngest children the opportunity to interact with more children at similar developmental levels on a daily basis. This summer, we were also lucky to welcome many new teachers to our team: Ms. Khadijah, Ms. Ebony, Ms. Jacquese, Ms. Jonteya, and most recently – Ms. Nakiya. They have been wonderful additions and we are very lucky to have them helping our children learn and grow each day.

As with every Fall, we have gone through all your children’s files and are in the process of updating all paperwork. Thank you so much for your patience, cooperation, and understanding during this (sometimes hectic) process. While we may only need small updates here and there throughout the year, we only do this one big update in September.

As you know from our new Acknowledgement of Policies, we have made a few changes to our policies. There are so many awesome and innovative things that we are doing at The Elevon, that we want to make sure that our focus is always on your children and their safety and education. Please know that anytime we make a change, it is for your overall benefit and that of your child.  A lot of consideration goes into every decision we make and changes that we make. As these new policies come into place, please feel free to reach out to us and express any concerns or ask any questions.

With the start of Fall, we look towards our upcoming Family Engagement Events. This year we will have the Trunk-or-Treat event on October 31st at 4:30 pm. This is a fun afternoon where parent volunteers decorate their car trunks in a theme and children dress up in costumes and parade from trunk to trunk to receive tricks…or treats! In November, we look forward to our annual Family Thanksgiving Luncheon. Keep an eye out for more information about this event coming soon!
There are many new and exciting things coming our way in the near future. Thank you, as always, for your continued support and partnership in your child’s early education.

As we move into this school year, our updated curriculum is now being implemented in all of our classrooms. Each day, we focus on teaching our children the foundations of Math and English. The skills and concepts that we teach are taken directly from the Maryland Common Core Standards and will serve as the building blocks for their later education. Our days are balanced with Science, Art, Sensory, and Student choice centers.

This month our theme is Fall and we are exploring all fall-related things. Such as; nature walks, pumpkin dissection, leaf rubbings, exploring acorns and other Fall-related items in the sensory table. The children will also discuss a lot about change. Autumn is a great time to discuss how and why our environment changes because the changes we see are quite apparent.

Let’s look at our curriculum by age groups:

Infants – Our students are busy working on their individual goals like rolling over, sitting up, and tummy time. They are listening to stories, songs, and how to interact with others.

Toddlers – They are busily engaged with identifying letters, numbers, sounds, and even words! They are exploring art and science concepts along with reading and math. They are even starting to trace letters and numbers.

Two Years – The two-year-old children are already hard at work with their literacy and math skills. They are tracing and printing letters and numbers, counting sets, making rhymes, and identifying many things in their environment. They also have daily art projects and weekly homework.

Preschool and Pre-K – Our oldest friends are working on reading small text, adding and subtracting, and identifying sight words. They also spend time working with sounds and learning how to blend sounds together to make words. They also work to improve their classroom by creating many wonderful things out of recycled materials. So, stop by and check them out!

As always, if you have any academic related questions, please feel free to reach out to Ms. Gwen or any member of our Administrative Team.

Fall is already upon us and with winter not too far behind we would like to go over a few important reminders:

• Fall’s arrival means it is officially sweater weather. Please label your child’s jackets and sweaters with their full name. This not only helps to make the teacher’s day run more smoothly, but it makes it easier to find missing and or lost articles of clothing.

• With severe food allergies on the rise, it is extremely important that your child’s food and drink containers are labeled. It is not only a requirement by the state of Maryland’s Office of Childcare, it also helps ensure that lunchtime runs as smoothly as possible. The following must be included on food containers:
• Child’s first and last name
• Contents in the container
• Full date that the item is brought in

Lastly, if you haven’t already turned in your updated policies with your signature, please do so by Friday, November 18^th