Relationships

1.A Building Positive Relationships among Teachers and Families

1.A.01
Teachers work in partnership with families, establishing and maintaining regular, ongoing, two-way communication.

The Tree House is paperless! The majority of our communications are through The Tree House Blog. Here, parents have a continuous window into the classroom. The Blog is updated regularly with pictures, special events, and reminders. Parents are encouraged to post comments on the Blog posts as well. Our Blog can be accessed by clicking here.
Emails are exchanged with families on a regular basis. Emails are a source of communication for special events, calls to action, parent concerns, recommendations from parents for activities/books, and general comments and conversation. Phone calls are also a means of communication utilized in the Tree House.

Most importantly parents are able to speak in person to a teacher upon drop off as well as pick up. This provides a consistent opportunity for two-way communication.

Our Communication Policy as stated in The Welcome Packet is linked here.

1.A.03
Teachers communicate with family members on an ongoing basis to
a.learn about children's individual needs and
b.ensure a smooth transition between home and program.

(a) Each family is given the opportunity for an intake upon entering a new classroom. The intake involves observation of the child as well as an extensive conversation about the child. This provides teachers with a first look into who the child is as well as how the family views their child. Parents also are invited to sign-up for conferences two times during the year.
As mentioned above, each day the parents have two opportunities to chat with teachers about their child. Parents utilize this time to provide the staff with information that may effect the child's day at school (ie: scary dreams, lack of sleep, exciting events, changes within the family.)

(b) Additionally, The Tree House staff is sensitive to any concerns families may have about leaving their children in non-family care. We have developed a guide to a "drop-off" routine in order to support parents and children who may be having difficulty with separation. This routine is included on The Tree House Blog under "Routines and Reminders" and can be viewed by clicking here.

Furthermore, The Tree House has an open door policy. Families are invited to drop by anytime to play or observe. Some families begin or end their day by spending some time reading to or playing with the children.

1.A.05
Teachers share information with families about classroom rules, expectations, and routines not only at enrollment but also as needed throughout the year.

At the beginning of each school year parents are provided with a welcome packet. This packet contains our daily schedule, a short biography of each staff member, and a breakdown of our routines and policies. The welcome packet can be viewed here.

In addition to the welcome packet information is shared with parents year-round through emails and blog entries. Reminders are also posted near the sign-in sheet.

1.C Helping Children Make Friends

1.C.03
Teaching staff support children as they practice social skills and build friendships by helping them

a.enter into (play),
b.sustain (play), and
c.enhance play.

The Tree House staff is dedicated to the facilitation of children's social interactions. Staff continuously take advantage of teachable moments by being an active part of children's play. In being immersed in the play, staff are better able to extend, expand, and question the children's play ideas. Staff model social skills such as commenting, questioning, entering into play, and inviting others into play. Children are provided with the tools to problem solve, negotiate, and compromise in their daily interactions with peers.

(a) Teachers modeling free style dancing to help get children on board

(b) Checking in on play, reminding children to take turns using their peers idea and highlighting the tools that are available to them

1.D Creating a Predictable, Consistant, and Harmonious Classroom

1.D.01

Teaching staff counter potential bias and discrimination by
a.treating all children with equal respect and consideration.
b.initiating activities and discussions that build positive self-identity and teach the valuing of differences.
c.intervening when children tease or reject others.
d.providing models and visual images of adult roles, differing abilities, and ethnic or cultural backgrounds that counter stereotypical limitations.
e.avoiding stereotypes in language references.

(a & b)The inclusion model of the Center's classrooms provides a wonderful opportunity for children to learn about respect and valuing differences. In the Tree House equal does not always mean the same. Children understand that others may need to sit on a teacher's lap during activities, a fidget to play with, or more time to complete transitions. If a child sees something happening and does not understand, they ask and we tell them the truth. For example, one little girl made a comment about never getting to go to the gym in the morning. We let her know that the child who went to the gym needed to wake his body up in morning while her body was already awake, she could speak and play, but it was really hard for him to do those things without some time in the gym first.

(c)If teasing occurs in the classroom, it is dealt with immediately by staff members. Children are encouraged to express emotions and talk about their feelings. We remind them that teasing can hurt and as friends, we should not try to hurt each other. We have many books about "teasing" and" how to be a good friend" that we will read to both children after the incident occurs. Usually, we encourage the teaser make the victim feel better-by a hug, high five, draw a picture or verbal apology.

(d)Throughout their day the children in the Tree House encounter many different professionals such as administrators, specialist, teachers, teaching assistants, and student assistants.

(d) We are going to participate in a dance class with a professor on campus.

(d)Parents also engage the children in discussions about their fields of work (professors, yoga instructors, graphic designers) as well as their cultural traditions.

(d)This parent was blowing the Shofar for Rosh Hashanah

(d)This mom is of Native American decent and she came in to tell the children about the Cherokee Indian Festival of Strawberries.

(d)This dad came in to talk about Hanukkah during the holidays.

(d) Children at the Tree House are visited from professionals on campus such as geologists and experts on frogs.

(d)The classroom contains culturally diverse materials such as puzzles, dolls, music, food, clothing and books

1.D.02
Teachers provide children opportunities to develop the classroom community through participation in decision making about classroom
a.rules,
b.plans, and
c.activities.

(a) Children in the Tree House participate in the creation of classroom rules. For example during an investigation on friendship a small group of children came up with a list of "How to be a Good Friend."

Staff also facilitates the creation of a fire safety plan on a yearly basis, as well as rules specific to field trips.

(a) Fire Safety Plan

(a) Holding hands with partners during a field trip

The Children's Center follows an emergent curriculum. Therefore classroom decisions are centered around the child. The Tree House children make many choices on a daily basis. They choose the topic of investigation for the curriculum, as well as determining in what direction the investigation goes. For example a group time discussion about what we know about food led to several activities surrounding chocolate making.

(b) A plan for our food investigation

(b & c) Children choose the activities they want to participate in and the centers they want to visit. Children are given the opportunity to vote on books read at group time and take turns choosing what songs the group will sing.

(b) voting on which book to read

1.D.04
Teachers help children talk about
a.their own and
b.others' emotions.
They provide opportunities for children to
c.explore a wide range of feelings and the different ways that those feelings can be expressed.

Children are provided with the tools to discover their feelings through group discussions, materials (emotion stencils and stamps) and books. For example, the children worked several days on a feelings chart. We began by naming any feelings we could think of and any new ones we learned from books we read. Over the next few days children were able to draw pictures of these feelings and act them out for the camera. Finally, we put all the pictures together onto our feelings chart to display in the classroom.

(a) What do you look like when you are sad?

(a)What do you look like when you are happy?

(b) How do you think your friend feels in this picture?


(b) How do you think your friend feels in this picture?