Fellows Children's Academy
A Louisiana Non-Profit Corporation
National Association for the Education of Young Children
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* Children should have a fun filled academic program to prepare them for kindergarten and beyond.
*Our children should exposed to art and music each and every day.
*Children should be given the opportunity to be as independent as possible.
*Our children have physical education opportunities each and every day to help build young bodies.
*Our children should have free health screenings including hearing, speech and vision and parents should be helped keeping up immunization records by our internet technology that determines when shots are due.
*Testing should show how much they've grown in our school, not testing to get children into school.
o Meet children's social, emotional, physical, cognitive, and language development needs
o Become good observers of children
o Assess children's needs, interests, and abilities in order to plan appropriately
o Use a wide range of teaching strategies that call for different levels of teacher involvement
o Create classroom communities where children learn to work together and solve problems
o Establish the structure that has to be in place for teachers to teach and children to learn
o Plan meaningful learning experiences for children that build on children's interests and knowledge
o Integrate the learning of appropriate skills, concepts, and knowledge in literacy, math, science, social studies, the arts, and technology
Currently taking applications for 1, 2, 3 and 4 year old
Call 504 376-8966
Slots available
This school closes for any manditory evacuations issued by the New Orleans Mayor. It will not reopen until the state of emergency is removed. It is important that you remember to view this web site for details about the school or email: admin@fellowschildrensacademy.com
1. Young children deserve careful attention to every aspect of their physical, social, and cognitive development. They are complex individuals worthy of respect and the recognition that they are each unique, valuable, and lovable.
2. Each child comes to the early childhood environment with a unique set of defining characteristics, including family background, abilities, temperament, and learning styles.
3. Positive relationships between children and adults are fundamental to a harmonious enviornemnt that promotes learning and growth.
4. Teachers actively promote positive outcomes for all children through thoughtful assessment, well-implemented curriculum, and effective teaching practice.
5. Children are active participants in the formation of relationships with adults and friends.
6. Children bring their own thoughts and abilities to the learning process. They gain knowledge and skills from activieties, materials, and interactions that are responsive to their interests and needs, are based in play, reflect their lives, are tailored to their development level, and encourage active participation and experimentation.
7. Families matter, both in terms of their influence on their own child or children and as partners with the program's administration and teaching staff working to maximize the quality of children's experiences.
8. High-quality early childhood programs address all aspects of children's development (social-emotional, language, cognitive, and physical) and provide a solid foundation for the development of skills and knowledge that contribute to children's future success in school.
9. Programs are part of a community and have a responsibility to support their community and make the most of its resources.
Receives Grants
Book Relief
Book relief -First Book National Book Bank, Townsend Press, Imagine Nation Books Ltd, and YES Solutions, gave 520 books from the Book Relief distribution in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
New Orleans United Way - Success by Six
Fisher Price Super Sand Castle
Tables and other storage equipment
Washing machine
Books and Mats
Rehoboth Congregational Church UCC
Cash Donation
American Classical League
Cash donation
Childrens
Academy
Fellows Children's Academy subscribes to the National Child Care Association Code of Ethics.
The National Child Care Association acknowledging our responsibility to meet the needs of the whole child now and in the future, we shall strive to provide a safe and healthy environment where children can be loved and nurtured, and where children can learn, play, and grow; and we
SHALL provide an environment that is developmentally appropriate and educationally enriching; and
SHALL provide all children with experiences that will enhance their physical, cognitive, social and emotional development; and
SHALL appreciate and provide for the uniqueness and potential of each child; and
SHALL acknowledge that families are of primary importance in the child's development and constantly strive for exceptional cooperation between the home and our program professionals; and
SHALL diligently support professional development through a commitment to continuous and timely education, training and technical assistance to enhance the growth of our early childhood professionals; and
SHALL commit to the utmost professionalism among ourselves and maintain confidentiality in all aspects of operations, including a practice of respect for private correspondence and conversations; and
SHALL work in collaboration with other advocates, agencies and professions concerned with children's welfare and strive to motivate the larger society to acknowledge their responsibility for all children; and
SHALL not participate in any form of discrimination based on race, religion, age, ses, national origin or special needs; and
SHALL at all times and in all situations demonstrate a concern for the present and future well-being of each child and dedicate ourselves to serve as a voice for children everywhere.
AS A MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL CHILD CARE ASSOCIATION, this early childhood care and education program supports, without reservation, this Code of Ethics.
Field Trip this Week
Be sure to sign the field trip form. We will be taking a short hope to the LASPCA to see the puppies and kittens.
Big Thanks
to all that helped with the fund raiser this week. We made over $75. We will need to do this again Friday since we have a little of this money invested in food now. Please volunteer to help. We need your assistance Friday from 3-5. Please remember your contract requires you to volunteer so much time this year to help your child’s school. We’re working for field trip money so that we can keep our children engaged and keep costs low for our parents.
The Big Green
We have seen some wonderful improvement since purchasing plastic plates, cups and silverware. Besides reducing our expenses we have had much less trash. Going green is something everyone can do. At Fellows we’ll be working on more ways to save our environment and teach our children responsible behavior.
Some of you may have noticed our gardens in the back. Last week we harvested our first very small crop of “Jack in the Beanstalk” beans. We are currently growing beans, pumpkins, watermelons and morning glories. We’ll be doing more planting this week now that the heat and humidity have finally given us a break.
If you have any houseplants that you would like to donate to the classrooms, it would be deeply appreciated.
4-year-old search
Do you know of any 4 year olds that are not in school? It is really important to get them in classes and we have space. Please contact Anne if you know of any families in the neighborhood that have a 4-year-old child not enrolled in school. This is the best thing that you can do for any child.
Vaccination Importance
We are about to send in our report on vaccinations to the New Orleans Health Department. Please keep your child’s vaccinations up to date. Each birthday in the early years means new shots are needed. Also we are about to hit flu season again and flu shots are recommended. There should be plenty of supplies available this year.
We highly recommend that you get your child a flu shot. We do everything possible here to stop the spread of flu in our facility but with flu shots you’re helping not only your child but also helping stop the spread of flu throughout the center.
Notes from the Infant Toddler Room
This week we focused on the nursery rhyme “Rain, Rain, Go Away”. We learned the letter “W”. Our literacy flashcards were walrus, water, and wall. For science we learned about clouds, wind and rain. We used cotton balls for clouds and dipped them in water. When we squeezed out the water we had “rain”. We made wind detectors out of recycled paper towel rolls and tissue paper. When we took these out doors on Thursday and Friday we were able to see “wind”. (How the air currents moved the paper streamers.) The pending tropical storm gave us plenty of clouds to look at on Friday afternoon.
Next weeks nursery Rhyme will be “Jack Be Nimble”. In the evening assist you child with the nursery rhyme by repeating it to them. “Jack be nimble, Jack be quick. Jack jump over the candlestick.”
A Warm Welcome
We would like to warmly welcome Zadie Pinkstaff to our class. Zadie joined us this week.
Tips for Assisting Your Child’s Reading Skills
At Playtime—
Encourage your child to communicate with others through cards. Fold apiece of paper in half like a card. Let your child decorate the front of it and have them dictate a message to someone on the inside. Write the message down for them. Then read it back to them pointing out the words. This also teaches kindness and shows them that kindness and getting along with others is essential.
During Travel Time—
Read aloud some of the signs that you see along the edge of the highway, like store signs or street signs. This lets you child see that reading is helpful.
3 and 4 Year Olds
More work on the alphabet this week. We are intensively working on letter identification. Work will continue in the garden and with the weather station.
Our “animal” time will be spent on pets this week to help our children develop an understanding of the care and treatment of animals along with the LASPCA speaker and field trip.
Last week we made gingerbread in the kitchen. This week we will be working on cookies. Cooking is not only an important life skill but helps students learn measurement and the importance of measurement.
In math we are working on our numbers 1-20. This is not only counting but identification. You child must be able to randomly identify a number.
We are also working on creating geometric shapes including lines, triangles and circles. Part of the difficulty is getting children to use a ruler and compass. Looks easy to us but somewhere we had to start!
Did you know?
September 25th in national Comic Book Day
September 26th is Johnny Appleseed’s Birthday
September 28th is Ask a Stupid Question Day
September 17
Trip to the LASPCA – Our September field trip will be to the LASPCA on September 26. We need your help this Friday at our fundraiser. We must raise $60 or we will need to have each parent pay for this field trip. We need parent volunteers to make this possible.
Please volunteer for 3 – 4 and 4-5 on Thursday or Friday.
We will have a visit from them on September 25 to prepare for the field trip. This will make our children more aware of their pets.
In the Infant and Toddler Room
In the infant and toddler room we will be using nursery rhymes for the classroom theme for the several weeks. It has been shown that teaching about sounds helps a child build reading skills in later years. Here are some things that you can do at home with your child to help them learn about the sounds of spoken language. Have the child sing or say a familiar nursery rhyme or song. Repeat it several times raising your voice on the words that rhyme.
This week we have been working with the Nursery Rhyme Jack and Jill. With this we focused on the letter “J” and words that have the “ill” sound, i.e. Jill, hill, fill etc.
We added pails and shovels to the block center. We filled the pails and we emptied them. We used the large mat on the floor and learned how to tumble just like Jack and Jill when the came down the hill. Next week we will learn the Nursery Rhyme Rain, Rain, Go Away.
3 and 4 Year Olds
We have a busy week ahead of us. We will be working on making circles this week with a compass and continuing to make geometric shapes such as a triangle, square and rectangle. We are also working hard to get an understanding of the numbers 1-20 and do backward counting from 10 to 1.
We are also working on alphabet recognition. This is a long-term project that will take most of the year. We are also working on letter sounds.
This week we will start doing a little baking again as we are ready to eat some gingerbread.
Notes from Anne
Last week I started to list things that parents can do to assist their child with getting ready to read. Here are some more Tips for helping preschoolers with reading skills:
· When your child drawers a picture, write down what he says about it. Then read the words together.
· Label containers with pictures of the things that are stored in them. Clean up time is easier.
School Activities for the week of September 17th:
On Tuesday, September 18th the Orleans Parish Fire Department will be coming to the school for a presentation. The children will get to see a fireman in full gear. The purpose behind this presentation is to make firemen “less frightening” when a child sees them in an emergency situation.
On September 19th the school will begin the evaluation process as a participant in the ITERS (Infant Toddler Environmental Rating Scale) and ECERS (Early Childhood Environmental Rating
The Environmental Rating Scales were developed at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. As a result of the devastation resulting from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, child-care centers in Louisiana have struggled to rebuild in affected areas. In other parts of the state, the centers have expanded their capacity to serve the many displaced families. In an effort to guide child care centers as they restore critically needed child care services, the Department of Social Services, Office of Family Support has established a quality rating system which uses licensing as the foundation and sets a continuum of quality indicators focused in the social-emotional needs of children.
The Quality Rating System will provide a mechanism by which child-care centers can be assessed regarding the level of quality care given. The QRS will also provide a guide for parents to choose higher settings of child care beyond basic licensure and will offer a structure for child care centers to communicate the level of quality provided in their facility.
Over the next few months we will be sharing information in our newsletter on how Fellows Children’s Academy participation in this program can benefit not only the children but, the children’s families and the staff.
Did You Know?
September 18th is Cheeseburger Day
September 19th is National Butterscotch Pudding Day
Helping Your Child Develop Routines
Your children’s growth and development can be helped if they have routines and know what to expect in their daily lives. Knowing what to expect gives children a sense of security, a feeling of safety, and it helps them to handle their stress better. As a parent, when you provide structure and routines in your
children’s lives, things tend to run smoother for everyone. Providing children with daily structure and routines helps build their self-confidence. And self-confidence is a key ingredient in the ability to handle change.
In daily life activities, children appreciate knowing they can expect certain things to take place at certain times. Consistency is a key to children’s healthy development. Specific examples of consistent routines for children are:
• Being held and sung to after feeding or at naptime;
• Washing and dressing before eating breakfast;
• Helping choose the clothes
they will wear each morning;
• Taking a nap at specific times;
and
• Reading a book with a parent
September 10
Field Trips
We have the possibility of going to several plays in the coming months here’s the schedule. There is one thing lacking however….money! We need your support and help with our fundraisers. We need parent volunteers to help THIS Friday with our Nacho Fundraiser. We need only 2 persons 1 for 3-4 and 1 for 4-5. Please sign up with Anne this week. These activities are vital to the education of your child.
Plays
Little Mermaid – October 26, 2007
Christmas Carol November 26, 2007
Wizard of Oz February 27
Beauty and the Beast May 9
Mix It Up at Lunch Day — to be held on November 13, 2007 — is a simple call to action: take a new seat in the cafeteria. By making the move, students can cross the lines of division, meet new people and make new friends.
We will be working to make this a special event at our school. Hopefully we can have parents attend this lunch and meet the other parents in the school. Keep this date on your calendar.
September is National Sickle Cell Awareness Month. Because it is "back to school" month for most children, the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America wants the public to reflect on the children and the adults whose lives, education and careers have been affected by this disease. The observance originated in 1975 when the Association and its Member Organizations began conducting month long events to call attention to sickle cell disease and the need to address the problem at national and local levels.
The effort to have Sickle Cell Month officially recognized at all levels succeeded in 1983 when the House of Representatives unanimously passed the resolution, introduced by the Congressional Black Caucus, asking President Reagan to designate September as "National Sickle Cell Anemia Awareness Month." The President signed the resolution in August of 1983.
While sickle cell is often thought of as a "black" disease, it is not exclusively so. Yes, it is concentrated in Americans of African origin. But it also occurs in many other groups of people including those whose ancestors were Greeks, Italians, Arabs, Latin Americans, Native Americans, etc. And not just in the U.S. Whether you are affected or not please help us raise awareness. This is a global disease!!!
We are asking everyone to help raise public awareness of this deadly genetic disorder. See http://www.sicklecelldisease.org/index.phtml
Tips for helping you child with reading skills
No, your child should not be reading at the age of one or two or three; but this is when parents and teachers working together help a child get ready to read. The PNC Grow Up Great initiative, Family Communications and Sesame Workshop has designed a set of “101 Great Tips” for helping young children with reading skills. Over the next few weeks I will be listing some of their specific activities families can use to help children of all ages with reading readiness. Here is this week’s suggestion:
Mealtime: Pick one letter of the alphabet to focus on at dinner- time. Discuss foods that start with that letter with your child. For example, for the letter B, serve red beans and rice one night for dinner. Serve broccoli or green beans as a vegetable or blueberries for dessert. Point our food items that start with the letter B. Ask the older children at the table if they can think of other foods that start with the letter B (i.e. butter, bread). Or, are there items on the table that start with the letter B—i.e. bowl.
Did you know that September 12th is Chocolate Milk Shake Day and September 14th is National Cream-Filled Donut Day?
Dental Screenings—The Tooth Bus is up and running again and providing free dental care to qualifying children on the West Bank. For more information, or to make an appointment call 342-7874.
Upcoming events for the fall:
Fire Prevention Presentation in conjunction with Fire Prevention Month: On September 18th the New Orleans Fire Department Education Division will be visiting the school to make a presentation.
Christmas is coming-- Discovery Toys will be hosting a fundraiser for the school in October. Have your child start to make a list for Santa.
Save the Date: Saturday December 1, 2007. We will be holding our annual Christmas Program at Mardi Gras World.
2 and 3 Year Olds
This week coming up we will continue to discuss the farm and farm animals. We also will continue to work on alphabet recognition and counting. The books of the week are “Frank the Farmer,” “A Day at
the Farm,” and “Down on the Farm Pigs.” This past week we discussed sheep and cows and we did an art sheep project with cotton balls. The kids loved it.
4 and 5 Year Olds
We had a great week last week with three sets of drawings. The first was a morning glory. The second drawing was a collection of geometry designs that we used to build a house with the sun, trees and bushes. These are currently displayed in the room. Your child should have brought home a drawing of a rainbow on Friday.
This week we will be opening a new science center outside. Children will be able to tell information about the weather. We are adding a rain gauge and thermometer. This gives us three science centers: our aquarium, our plant center and now our weather station. Each one of these stations help your child grow not only in science but math, reading and art. When our ants arrive we’ll have our 4th science station.
September 4, 2007
Fundraiser Rocks
Last Thursday and Friday was our second and third fundraiser of the year. We did a menu of Nachos, drinks, pickles and a few hot dogs. We cleared around $60 that paid for our field trip to the fire station and started on the cost of the next field trip.
This Thursday and Friday we will do two more fundraisers with the Nachos, hot dogs, etc.; but we need your help! Remember in your contract you signed up to volunteer to help the school. We could use your help this week. We need at least two people outside to help with the sell.
We have also found out that our fundraisers are great recruiters for new students. We gained at least one student and probably three from the fundraiser. We start at 3 and go to 5 outside both days. Please help your school raise money for your child’s activities and equipment.
Things to Remember
· We have shirts for sale. Please make sure that you buy at least one shirt for your child. On field trips these shirts help us easily and quickly recognize your child. You can however send your child to school in our unofficial uniform every day…shirt with kaki pants.
· Please remember to bring extra clothes for your child. Accidents happen and they are so much easier to take care of if the child has extra clothes immediately on hand.
· Please make sure that we have an up-to-date emergency number. When we need someone for your child it is essential to have a working number to call. We will test these numbers regularly but please help us out by keeping us updated as soon as possible.
First Book
Since we started Fellows children’s Academy we have worked with a wonderful institution called “First Book.” This is the group that has donated hundreds of books to our school and others throughout the New Orleans and Gulf Coast area. If your child has been attending since last year, they should have a collection of books numbering at least 20. The cost of these books range from $5 to 20. The cost to you has been $0 and your child has gained a great head start in reading.
If you have a computer, you can find more information about first book and maybe get involved by looking at www.firstbook.org.
First Field Trip
Children enjoyed their first fall field trip to the Algiers Point Fire Station last week. They received a tour of the station, got to play on the fire truck and each student got to shoot the fire hose.
We’re not done with fire prevention by any means. Each month we practice a fire drill at Fellows. Children learn to be orderly in leaving the center as quickly as possible. Over the year we did different types of fire drills including one during naptime. This past week we did a “blocked” exit fire drill. The usual path of exit was blocked and a new exit had to be found. Children did great!
This month we will have a visit from the firemen to show their equipment to the children. Part of the effort of the fire department is to make sure that children are not afraid of a fireman especially when they are trying to rescue them.
Walk to School Day
On October 3rd, communities around the country will join nearly 40 countries to celebrate walking and bicycling to school. Participating in a Walk to School Day event is a great way for parents to spend time with their children while adding a physical activity to your day.
We have signed up to participate in this event. Your school does attract people from different areas of New Orleans but we are for the most part a neighborhood school.
We have a chance to win prizes for students and gain access to a variety of downloadable items, including certificates, printable sticker templates, media materials and more.
4-Year-Old Program
September means that we kick it up a notch. We will spend more time working on alphabet activities and sounds of letters. It is not enough for students to be able to say the alphabet; they must know the letters by sight.
The same is true of numbers. We are currently working on the numbers 1-20. They may be able to count the numbers but they must know what the numbers stand for. This past week we did an exercise where students were asked to count out different number of chips. It took a while for them to figure out the relationship of a number with the amount of chips needed.
You may have noticed some of their technical drawings in the lunchroom area. We are working on observation and hand eye coordination to complete these drawings. Each drawing is then labeled with the appropriate information and children practice their names.
We have also been working with rulers. Children are working on drawing a straight line, triangle and rectangle. Children learn the figures and reinforce that learning by drawing them.
First Aid
Every worker at Fellows Children’s Academy is certified in first aid. However our first aid is extremely limited at Fellows. We do ice and clean wounds with soap and water with a band-aid is added. We do not place anything on wounds other than soap and water. Why? Worries about children being allergic to different treatments overrides further treatment by us.
August 2007 News
Fellows Children's Academy Bookstore