In 2018 I joined the Lacey Township Preschool team and began teaching PSD -Preschool Disabled and Inclusion. Once again I fell in love with preschool as well as my new district and my amazing new team. I immediately signed up at Kean University to complete my masters in Special Education and in May 2021 I will finally graduate. My aim is to hang my hat at the Lacey School District and be a foundational part of a growing early childhood program is a community oriented district.
In 2018 I joined the Lacey Township Preschool team and began teaching PSD -Preschool Disabled and Inclusion. Once again I fell in love with preschool as well as my new district and my amazing new team. I immediately signed up at Kean University to complete my masters in Special Education and in May 2021 I will finally graduate. My aim is to hang my hat at the Lacey School District and be a foundational part of a growing early childhood program is a community oriented district.
In 2018 I joined the Lacey Township Preschool team and began teaching PSD -Preschool Disabled and Inclusion. Once again I fell in love with preschool as well as my new district and my amazing new team. I immediately signed up at Kean University to complete my masters in Special Education and in May 2021 I will finally graduate. My aim is to hang my hat at the Lacey School District and be a foundational part of a growing early childhood program is a community oriented district.
Inspired by my overwhelming love for Books, Books and more Books along with the need for some funding in the Preschool Program where I taught, I helped to coordinate a book fair to raise money and help get us BOOKS!!
The theme of the book fair was Circus. My class kicked off the decorating for this event by creating a hallway filled with clowns. The Book fair was a HUGE success.
AMERICAN ART
AMERICAN ART
AMERICAN ART
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B.A.G.S. PROGRAM
BOOKS AND GREAT STUFF
The B.A.G.S. program began as part of a graduate course I was taking at Kean University while teaching preschool. The task was to create a project that connected your education philosophy to literacy learning. As a parent of 4 children I recognize first hand the importance of a strong connection between the home and the classroom and the impact that relationship has on successful learning. That is why I chose to create a project that focused on enhancing that relationship. In my classroom I try to offer as many opportunities to involve parents in my classroom as I can. I supply weekly newsletters, update my website on a daily basis, and try to have non-stop communication between the home and the classroom.
The B.A.G.S. program was designed to develop and strengthen student's literacy skills, inspire a lifelong love of reading and strengthen the home/school connection. It was a great way to share what we were learning in the classroom, strengthen necessary skills, and encourage learning at home. Another goal of the programs was to increase understanding of what literacy is. Often we think of literacy as just reading, but I wanted families to understand that literacy is so much more. Literacy encompasses listening, storytelling and retelling, speaking, recalling information, imagination, writing and more. Literacy is in everything we do, it is a part of all subjects and necessary for success in all areas of our life. The B.A.G.S. program was a 2 part program that included Story Letters and Take Home Bags.
STORY LETTERS
Story letters were sent home throughout the school year to reinforce and share a story we were loving in the classroom. It was a simple letter sharing the summary of the story we had been exploring in class and offered ideas for discussing the book at home with the student. These letters were designed to help sharpen students recall skills, encouraging storytelling, increase language acquisition and inspire imagination.
It was an opportunity for parents and caregivers to listen to and communicate with their child. Each letter included additional extension activities to follow up on the book and a special bulletin board in the classroom was dedicated to any work that was sent in as a result of a story letter. It was a huge success and parents raved about how much this helped them have meaningful discussions on what was going on in the classroom.
TAKE HOME BAGS
The Take Home Book Bags part of this program required a promise and commitment from the student, the parent and the teacher. In order to participate in the program parents and students signed a learning pact that encouraged career and use of the materials. Once the program was introduced it was a HUGE success and I had to continue to create more bags to keep up with the demand in the classroom. The amount of learning, excitement and interest in this program is more then I ever could have wished for! Each bag had a particular theme and they contained books, props and a variety of exciting hands on activities to build upon what we were learning in class and improve necessary skills.
An example of some of the bags in rotation were: a math bag, color bag, scissor suitcase, a visiting friend, the box bag, a birthday bag, Author Exploration Bag and more! Please check out some of the sample bags below:
