As many of you may know, traditionally, Morningside School sends home a super-cute basket of wheat grass with each child the week before Easter.  This year the kids planted, watered and lovingly tended to their little greenhouse, and some how, I must have completely botched the instructions.  EPIC FAIL!  My  mother always says, “No use crying over spilt milk”, but holy cow, I doubt she’s ever smelled moldy wheat grass…THAT aroma would bring a tear to the eye of the most stalwart parent…lol.

So we implemented “Plan B” and turned it into a unbelievably gross science experience about moisture, heat and mold.  In science, failure just means new information, right? The wisdom that says perseverance, not perfection is the recipe for success might just be a nugget of truth we all could be reminded of from time to time. 🙂

We adapted and sent home our freshly dyed easter eggs in very sweet little decorated cups — not the original plan but it worked out fine!

So, back to embracing “Plan B”… I was looking at the enrollment for our summer program and it became apparent that we need to do a little tweaking in order to fill the needs of our families at Morningside School and the Cache Valley community as a whole.  Voila, “Sensational Kids Club” (click link for a description) was born!  Plan B, but a plan who’s time has come.  You will be receiving flyers about this new program in the coming days.  We will still be offering Summer Camp for the AM session.  Please pass the information on to any family in the valley that has a child that could benefit from either of these programs.

Several of my favorite early childhood education bloggers got together to make a list of 10 fantastic things to do with eggs and I just had to share. Click this image to be transported to some of the coolest egg activities I’ve seen in a long time!

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Every once in a while  parents express concern that their child is not coming home from Morningside School with more evidence of academic work,  i.e. worksheets.  Truly, when I am approached about this, it is almost always because parents are wondering how their children are “progressing” in preschool.   I love that these parents are interested in their child’s development!  I want to assure you, we are working daily on a wide variety of  learning objectives.   Letter and number identification, phonemic awareness, counting, colors, shapes, patterns, sequencing and passage of time have a high priority in our preschool classroom (and play yard)  but much of the work product is ephemeral in nature.  Learning takes place in one to one conversations between teachers and students.  It takes place  in shaving cream and paint, in the process of constructing, tinkering, discovering and problem solving in a social context.  The concrete results of the work and play are evidenced by things like, a desire to understand things more fully, fine motor coordination that makes it easy to learn to write when it’s time, and an excitement for learning to read.

This year we are reworking our evaluation tools to incorporate “whole child” developmental goals and objectives.  This evaluation will be administered by USU Senior Practicum Students and Morningside School teachers twice each academic year.

The kindergarten program has been evaluating students throughout the year and are unaffected by the changes in our preschool curriculum.   In fall, due to the many transitional issues, we did not evaluate the incoming preschoolers, but we will complete an evaluation of  each preschool student before the end of the academic year. We always welcome parent visits to discuss questions or concerns at any time.

This morning I was gearing up to write a blog post about play-based learning when I found Imagination Soup had posted this guest blog written by Amy Webb, Ph.D., (Human Development and Family Sciences) and author of thoughtfulparent.com.  I am including this link for those of you who are curious about why we do the things the way we do at Morningside School.  Enjoy!

Morningside School loves LOGAN UTAH’S “HEROES IN WAITING”!  We are so glad this story turned out the way it did and we can’t wait to give Baylor a great big hug when he gets back to school! Click the image to start the video to see Baylor on the Ellen Show!

By the end of this week you will have received your newly minted Morningside Drop Off/Pick-Up ID Cards!  Each family is being given two cards, but if you need more we are happy to provide them.  Please flash the card as you pull into the drive.  This will help our staff quickly identify the child needing to be brought out and it makes the pick-up process more efficient and safer! Please remember that it is our policy to greet the child in the car and walk them into the building.  For safety sake, we ask that parents please stay in their cars during these transition times.  If you want to come into school,  you are always welcome to park at the Senior Citizen’s Center! Thanks so much for your cooperation!