News from the CDC
The Cub Chronicle
June 2024
CDC Garden
The children in Preschool 1 & 2 have been learning about plant life and what they need to grow and thrive. They have planted seedlings, observed them growing, and have begun caring for them in the classroom. They have even planted seeds in our CDC garden on our community playground! (THANKS, Preschool 1 & 2!!) The children will be responsible for weeding, watering, and harvesting the garden. All of the children at the facility will be caring for the plants. Teachers will plan cooking and other activities based on what grows (or doesn’t grow) in the garden. Look on lesson plans, in newsletters, and in classroom documentation for how your children are getting involved.
Loose Parts Play; Parts Needed!
PLAY is the single most powerful learning experience we
can provide for young children. Play is intrinsically motivated and creates opportunities for problem solving, creative thinking, repetition/practice of difficult tasks/new situations, and resolving social conflicts. The brain works differently in play than it does in almost any other task! Open-ended materials, “loose parts,” are important to play because they give each child the ability to use loose parts for a personally meaningful purpose because they engage with the materials in ways that are individually important. (Think about watching young children with wooden blocks...infants may bang them together, toddlers may stack them and knock them down, two-year-olds might use the blocks as a telephone or microphone, preschoolers might build a barn and enclosure for their farm animals.) Each child is learning about concepts that are important to them at their unique stage of development. (It’s why all babies and toddlers play with the boxes, ribbons, and packaging of their toys while their new item sits on the ground beside them!) Loose parts play is why you often see “messy” spaces at the CDC. It doesn’t fit neatly onto a shelf or into an expectation but the experiences it provides are foundational to the learning philosophy at the CDC. Here’s what you might expect to see as children are engaged in loose parts play:
If you have extra items laying about, the CDC would gladly accept them to incorporate in loose parts play!
Examples of loose parts include:
- Fabric
- Tile, carpet, and counter top samples
- PVC pipe
- Wooden scrap pieces
- Caps (lids) of all shapes and sizes
- Paver bricks
- Large, smooth stones
- Pine cones
- Shells
- Pool noodles
- Pots and pans
- Baskets (plastic, fabric, straw…)
- Plastic crates
- Cups, bowls, serving dishes, etc.
- Thread spools, large and small
- Bells
- Silicone tubing
- Containers
FYI and reminders
Missouri State Alert
Missouri State Alert: Severe Weather Notifications, Emergency Notifications, etc.
Missouri State Alert is the mass notification system used in the event of an emergency or school closing.
Contact information
As always, you can contact us at:
jamiecornelsen@missouristate.edu or shawnajones@missouristate.edu with questions or concerns!
Happy June!!
Jamie and Shawna