The Early Learning Academy will be hosting preschool graduation at Ewing Street Gym for all of the preschoolers (going on to K and returning for 2nd year).  We will have a morning graduation at 9am-10am for both AM preschool classrooms and an afternoon graduation at 12:30pm-1:30pm for both PM preschool classrooms.  We will be providing cap and gowns for the students to wear during the ceremony and we will take an individual picture of each graduate.  We will also have light refreshments after the ceremony.

We would love to have some parent volunteers to help with set up, clean up, and getting students dressed for the ceremony.  Please let me know if you can help by contacting Cara Doyle at 875-8661.

 

 

The Franklin County Community Early Childhood Council is hosting their third of three Parent Enrichment Camps.

Paul Sawyier Public Library

6:00-7:00 pm

All About Literacy

 

This workshop offers parents the ability to spark their child’s literacy through developmentally appropriate explorations with meaningful materials. Because the most powerful learning experiences have value in being repeated, both parent and child will create and learn games to take home to play again and again. Families will receive an abundance of materials that will reinforce literacy skills.

 

Each family will receive “FREE” literacy materials to take home.

Bring your preschool age child (3, 4, 5 year old) and enjoy a fun filled hour.

All children must be accompanied by an adult.

Questions??? Call Kelley McMichael at 502-227-1511 or

Sunny Hardin at 502-875-8658 .

The Frankfort Independent Schools will be offering free preschool screenings! Contact us to see if your child may be eligible for free public preschool services or other enrollment options.  Screenings are for children three to four years old.  The screening is completed by a preschool teacher and takes approximately 45 minutes.  After the screening, teachers will meet with parents to share the results about the child’s development in language, cognitive, social, and motor skills.

 

Please contact Cara Doyle at 502-875-8661 to make your appointment.

Hello Everyone,

I have very exciting news for you!  They have released an update for the Footsteps2Brilliance program, and it is ready for your devices.  This is an update in your app store (if you are using Smart Devices), so all you have to do is go to your app store and click on the update button for Footsteps2Brilliance (you should be updating to 5.1.6 now).  If you use a PC or laptop, you will be brought to our current version, once you type in our address www.myf2b.com .  They have added many new features, including some new games—Sequencing and Pattern Play, as well as instructional videos, and a new writing feature called, ‘My Journal’.

We hope you have been enjoying this app and using it with your child to enhance their literacy skills.

I can’t believe it is getting to be that time of year again!  We are starting to plan for the new school year and we are now accepting enrollment for the 2016-2017 school year.  We will have many preschoolers returning to preschool for the new year, but we also have many of our students going on to Kindergarten.

We are a public preschool and take qualifying students based on income or disability.  We also take in-district and out-of-district families that pay preschool tuition as space allows.  We have a Wraparound Daycare that takes 2-5 year olds as they have space.  All of the 3-5 years olds enrolled in daycare attend one of the preschool sessions as part of their day.  Please see the tabs at the top of the page for fees.

We look forward to helping your child develop to his/her potential. The Early Learning Academy provides a warm, caring and safe atmosphere for children to learn through creative activities and free exploration. Here, every child is given time to socialize, create, discover, and build self-confidence as they master new skills. Our curriculum is developmentally balanced to ensure your child blossoms in an atmosphere where they are challenged intellectually, socially and physically.

To inquire about preschool and daycare, please contact Cara Doyle at 502-875-8661 or email at cara.doyle@frankfort.kyschools.us

We look forward to hearing from you and preparing your child for a lifelong career of learning.

Preschool Team

The Franklin County Community Early Childhood Council will be hosting a Parent Enrichment Camp for preschool age children this coming Tuesday at Blue Grass Head Start.

This workshop offers parents the ability to spark their child’s mathematical learning through developmentally appropriate explorations with meaningful materials.  Because the most powerful learning experiences have value in being repeated, both parent and child will create and learn games to take home to play again and again.  Families will receive an abundance of materials that will reinforce such skills as counting, comparing and building visual images to make learning number concepts effective in the real world.  Each parent will receive FREE math projects to take home!

Call Kelley McMichael with any questions at 502-227-1511

All About Math

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Blue Grass Head Start

955 Leestown Lane, Frankfort

6:00-7:30pm

Just a reminder that we will be making up a snow day on Monday March 22nd.  The preschool day will run normal hours and schedule.  For Tuesday, March 23rd, we will have AM preschool class, but NO PM preschool class.  The 23rd make up day is for a Friday that we were out of school and we do not have preschool on Fridays.  We will be having AM preschool since we had a delay school day that cancelled AM preschool.  The daycare will continue to run normal hours on that Tuesday and will be open for spring break.  Please contact your preschool teacher with any questions.

Preschool Family Night

March 9, 2016

5:30-6:30pm

At the Paul Sawyier Public Library

Community Room

319 Wapping Street

The Frankfort Early Learning Academy invites families to find out more about an exciting initiative for early literacy. Footsteps2Brilliance® is a transformative pre-K through 3rd grade literacy solution that utilizes mobile technology to connect school, home, and the community for academic success.  We will show you how to use this tool in your home with your technology tools (smart phones, tablets, and computers).  Please bring your devices with you so that we can assist you with accessing the app.

Click on the link below to see more information about the program.

Footsteps2brilliance

The dentist will be coming to the Early Learning Academy on March 10th!

Dental care remains the greatest unmet health need among U.S. children.  Over 50% of children have a cavity, resulting in lost school days.  Dental problems negatively affect school attendance and performance.  That is why we have partnered with our Family Resource and Youth Services Center to bring this service to our preschoolers.

The School Smiles mobile dentist office will be visiting the Early Learning Academy on March 10th.  If your child was seen by them on the September visit, he or she is already on the patient list and will NOT need a new form.  If your child enrolled in school after September or was not seen then, you will need to fill out the form that is coming home.  These forms need to be returned by March 3rd.

 

A recent article from the Early Years explores the research about the importance of teaching patterns to preschoolers.  Repeating patterns such as circle/circle/square/circle/circle/square help children understand the idea of structure and the rules governing the pattern.  This gears their brain to start looking for rules and patterns which is helpful throughout their math learning.

One study the article highlighted was in Australia.  They provided preschoolers with an intervention focused on sophisticated patterning.  They found that a year later, these same kids entered kindergarten with better numeracy knowledge than their peers who had not participated in the intervention.

So what is sophisticated patterning?

It’s this idea of getting kids to make use of and look for structure. You are trying to think about “What’s the rule? What’s going on here? What’s happening?” Looking for rules and regularities and figuring out things that are happening—that’s what most of math is.

In preschool we provide models of simple patterns such as triangle/square/triangle/square/ and then have them either show what shape is next in the pattern or repeat the pattern with the same shapes.  Then the patterns get more complicated using longer patterns with three variables as they progress.  Sophisticated patterning has them use that same pattern model but with new variables.  Having them repeat the pattern with different variables, pushes them to think about rules and regulations which is a key part of their math foundation.

The article concludes with encouraging parents to do sophisticated patterning at home. Make a pattern with one set of materials and ask kids to make the same kind of pattern, but using new materials so that they have to really be thinking about that rule.  Families can use common household items to do this like the picture below.