UCUC Preschool’s Partnerships and Supports
The teachers and I believe in supporting children and families while continuing to grow and learn as educators ourselves. We know that we don’t have to do it all on our own, and we value the knowledge and support we can gain from people and organizations outside of our school community. Here are some of the partnerships you may see at UCUC Preschool. 
YMCA Behavior Consultation: YMCA Behavior Consultants are amazing!  Families reach out and are paired with consultants who will work with the families at home, and the teachers in school to create a behavior plan for children who may be exhibiting unexpected behavior that need a little extra support.  The consultants spend time at school, working with the children and the teachers to provide support and guidance.  Interested in learning more?  You can check them out by searching for YMCA Behavior Consultation.
Healthy Early Years Consultation:  Similarly, SDSU’s HEY Clinic provides classroom level consultation.  Our HEY consultant, Madison, works with the teachers to help provide more tools to address behaviors in the classroom.  For about 12 weeks, our consultant will observe, create a plan, implement and coach, and observe again in the preschool classroom.  You will likely see Madison here on Mondays.
San Diego Quality Preschool Initiative: SDQPI is a County Office of Education program that provides mentorship and coaching to preschool directors, professional development and stipends to teaching staff, incentives and support to whole centers in an effort to ensure high quality early childhood education for children in San Diego County.  Through SDQPI we work as a staff toward a goal which guides our professional learning for the school year.  We will be working toward these goals during our monthly staff meetings and through training sessions on evenings and weekends.

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Sip and Play!
We hope you will join us on Monday, September 28th for “Sip & Play!”  Why should your children have all the fun? This parents-only event will be a time to get to know one another, enjoy some of your children’s favorite activities and learn a bit why we do them and how they benefit your child.  Our wonderful Events Committee will be providing wine, cheese and snacks, and we will spend an hour playing together!
Please use the sign up in brightwheel to let us know you are coming (and if you are coming alone or with your partner) so that we can plan accordingly.

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All Ages at the Table Potlucks!
At UCUC Preschool, we believe children thrive when they are part of a community that extends beyond their immediate families and classrooms. Our children benefit from having regular opportunities to build relationships with people of different ages, experiences, and perspectives. To further this goal Pastor Iona and I are creating an opportunity for gathering across generations: a recurring potluck designed to bring our preschool families, church community, and neighbors together around food, conversation, and shared experiences. Each gathering will include simple, engaging activities that encourage children and adults of all ages to play, create, learn, and connect together.
For young children, these experiences offer something special: the opportunity to know and interact with older children, young adults, parents, grandparents, and other community members as a natural and regular part of their lives. These relationships help children develop empathy, confidence, curiosity, and a sense of belonging—and remind them that they are part of something much larger than themselves.
Being part of UCUC means our preschool is connected to a larger community. Our intergenerational gatherings are one of the ways we make that connection meaningful, creating opportunities for children and adults to share their time, talents, stories, and joy with one another.
Our first potluck will be on Tuesday, September 22nd.  Join us at 5:15 with something to share with the group. Store bought and easy is just fine.  We will plan to eat at 5:30, enjoy an activity with our table mates and be out in time for bedtime.
Come hungry, curious and ready to connect. There’s a place for every generation at the table.
RSVP Here: https://forms.gle/ASPB8C9k2CLQo5sm9

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This week the children were introduced to more centers and materials and were exposed to new expectations and skills.  Among my favorite activities with the Stargazers were introducing Tucker Turtle and playing a game I call “What’s Missing? No Peeking!”  With "Los Tots," I loved singing songs and "clicking sticks" in the outdoor classroom.  We all delight in watching them make thier way to and from the outdoors.
Tucker Turtle is a puppet we use at school to talk about how to stay calm when experiencing big emotions.  The “Tucker Turtle Technique” helps children pause and not act on impulses that might lead to hitting, kicking or yelling, and allows for more pro-social coping strategies.  As an adult, I think through Tucker’s Techniques, too!  Practicing this skill while children are calm helps it be more automatic when they are dysregulated.  
There are 4 steps: 
1- Recognize your feeling. (Name it!) 
2-STOP (at this point we cross our arms in front of our bodies). 
3-Tuck inside your shell and take 3 deep breaths. 
4-Once calm, think of a solution.  
You can help reinforce this by reading the story, and practicing at home!  The link below has a story that is designed to be used at home. If you would like a printed copy to use at home, let us know! https://www.challengingbehavior.org/docs/TuckerTurtle_Story_Home.pdf
We also played, “What’s Missing? No Peeking.” This iteration of the game used our emotion “tree cookies.”  To play, I lay out 5 emotions, recite them in the order in which they are arranged, cover them up with a blanket saying “What’s missing? No peeking!” and as I pull the blanket away, I also remove one of the emotions.  The children have to figure out which one is now missing!  This game builds cognitive capacities like working memory and critical thinking.  By working with the emotions in this case, we are also building emotional literacy.  Children are learning or reinforcing the names of emotions, what they look like on our own and other’s faces, and we also discussed some of the times we have felt these emotions before.  All of this will help with Step 1 of the Tucker Turtle Technique!
Looking to help your child build additional social skills?  Check out the Healthy Early Years Clinic at SDSU. They host a periodic Social skills group, specifically designed for young children. This group will take place on Wednesdays from 4-5pm, starting on October 7th and ending on November 18th (there will be no group taking place on Nov 11th for observance of Veteran’s Day).The group will be open to children ages 3-6 (we will not be able to have any children over 6 join the group this time) and will cost $30 per child. We will be offering a group for parents/caregivers at the same time as the children’s group at no additional cost.

One week in!  In both classrooms, the children are adjusting to new routines, making new friends and getting increasingly comfortable with new and familiar teachers.  Wednesday and Thursday are my days in the classroom with the Preschool group (now officially named “The Stargazers”), and we had a great time!  There were impromptu math lessons led by children, discussions about our families, and who lives in our homes.  We got messy and enjoyed paint, mud, water, playdough and small loose parts.
We all love watching the toddlers (now officially named “The Tots, or Los Tots”) make their way out to the outdoor classroom, and then back inside again later.  They are learning about following a teacher, staying together, washing hands on top of all the fun new materials they are exploring.
I know from the Family Playdate, daily interactions and the Child-Parent-Teacher meetings that we have a loving, invested, engaged group of parents.  Your children are so lucky to have you!  We look forward to our home-school partnership growing over the course of the year and urge you to reach out to myself (email or the “admin only” thread in brightwheel if you want to keep it between us, or your teachers directly in person or via the “all staff and parents” thread in brightwheel.  There is no such thing as too much communication from you!
Thank you to those of you who completed the parent participation google form.  Emails went out today to those who indicated interest in being part of a committee.  If you decide later on you would like to get involved somehow, reach out anytime!