The Prouty Voice: May 2019

Child care is necessary infrastructure

By Chloe Learey, Executive Director

Offering $10,000 to entice people to come to Vermont and work remotely, or the “Stay to Stay” weekends are interesting, innovative ways to promote economic development by attracting people to come to Vermont. Our state is aging faster than the rest of the United States and we are the third oldest state behind Maine and New Hampshire. It is imperative to find ways to make our region a real option for young people to live and raise families if we want thriving communities. It is not about growth for the sake of growth but rather growth for the sake of remaining a viable place to put down roots. Continue Reading

Circus Minimus Show

On Sunday, May 5, families enjoyed a performance of Circus Minimus: One Man Circus in a Suitcase. Thanks to Kevin O’Keefe for his time and energy in this fun show!

“50 for 50” Campaign

In honor of our 50th anniversary, we are launching our $50,000 for 50 Years Campaign. Our goal is to raise $50,000 to establish designated funds that acknowledge people who have been important to the building of Prouty’s strong foundation. Click here to learn more or make a contribution to the campaign.

Early Learning Center News

Acorn Room

Spring is finally here!  What an exciting time on campus!  Each day as we go for our walks the landscape seems a bit brighter with color.  The front hill is greening up nicely as the trees around are pushing up buds, blossoms and leaves.  The birds have been very busy as we have witnessed, on our bird watching walks with Alfred.  Our acorn children have seemed to sprout over their week long spring breaks with their parents and came back looking older, and more awakened!  They are all working on so many skills and seem to be blooming like the trees and the daffodils.

In April we offered a Family Circle in both infant rooms (Acorn and Willow).  The event was well attended and was such a nice event bringing our families together to form community, get to know each other better and watch their children interact with their friends!  Family Circle was an idea that started 3 years ago.  A group of educators from a Native American reservation in Arizona came for an exchange here at Winston Prouty.  These wonderful women shared a week of their culture and practices in early education and life on a reservation. They also participated and observed our programs here at Winston Prouty.  At the end we all exchanged thoughts and ideas and wisdom.  One of the ideas was the thought of a family circle which is practiced at their school.  A grant was given to us last year by Vermont Children’s Trust Foundation.  The hypothesis was if we brought a class of parents together could we build a community support system, similar to the clan system that supports the culture and integrity of the reservation school.  Last year’s infant program was our first group and at the end of the year felt it was a good thing and should continue. We have begun to offer these get-togethers to encourage a network that will hopefully sustain a support and kinship group within the next 4 years here at Prouty, and who knows maybe longer!  Either way the evening was wonderful.  The children were entertaining and engaging, the parent involvement was lovely and the food delicious!! We hope to do it again in June!!!

Willow Room

Hello from the Willow Room! This month we had so much fun welcoming spring! Outside, we have been enjoying our morning and afternoon walks around campus and our Tuesday walks with Alfred. With Alfred, we are exploring the world through our senses; watching and listening to the cars and trucks on the highway, listening to and watching the Chickadees in the trees, stopping to look at and listen to the streams, smelling the daffodils, and playing in the grass and leaves in the “pool” on the lower part of campus.

We took our first few trips of the year to the playground and had fun exploring all the new things we can do down there now that we are mobile. On a few nice days we took our afternoon snack to the playground for a picnic. On the upper campus, our favorite stop is the “Heimer Bus;” we like to climb on it, pretend to drive it, and sing “The Wheels on the Bus.”

Inside, we have been enjoying welcoming spring by exploring soil and seeds; we even helped to plant seeds that will eventually grow in our school garden. We watched Nancy plant wheat grass and have loved watching it grow, playing with it, carrying it around the classroom, and even trying a few bites!

This month, our favorite indoor pastimes have been listening to music, playing with giant sensory beads, painting, taking care of our baby dolls, and working on big motor skills in the big room. Everyone loves to practice jumping on the trampoline.

In May, we will continue learning about spring and spend even more time outside discovering the world around us as the weather keeps getting nicer. We are excited to find new places to explore!

Elm Room

April flew by as we had spring break for a week and the real spring like weather has arrived.  Our Maples have enjoyed inside activities and winter play for several months and now they are so excited to be outside in the warmth, even if it is wet. We have been enjoying our extra outside time in the morning and now our afternoon outside time. Playing on the playground is so much fun and we love the sand, dirt and mud. We have noticed the daffodils blooming and the lower field is green as green can be.

Our woods walks are amazing and our Maples are amazing too. I can’t believe how quickly our “older toddlers” have turned into truly capable and independent people. We walked with Alfred up to the ropes course, an accomplishment all by itself, as it is a good distance for our legs to carry us. We found a stick that looked like the letter Y, and stopped to salute to the sun, given thanks for the warmth it shared with us. We then continued on and listened to the chick-a-dees sing to us, stomped through mud, and sat listening to the wood fairies water fall created by an enormous root ball from a fallen tree. Then our wondrously strong legs carried us back to the campus, and passed the frog pond, yurt, and finally down the big hill to the soccer field. We were tired but we were so proud of ourselves!

This month we sang happy birthday to our friends Holly and Rylan who turned three years old. We also had to say goodbye to our snail as he is no long living in his shell.

Birch Room

The Birch Room has had some exciting changes in the month of April. We are having circle each day with music and dancing and a learning activity. In April we started discussing changes happening in the Spring. We studied birds, flowers, and bugs. We put a bean sprout in a bag and watched it sprout in the window and we planted marigolds. We are watching them closely and waiting for the flowers to appear. We have also been having small group with exciting and fun learning activities, taking walks in the woods and listening for birds and spending lots of time outside. In May, we plan to continue talking about bugs and butterflies. We will learn about the butterfly life cycle and watch a caterpillar turn into a butterfly.

We have been loving the change of warm weather we have enjoyed in the month of April. Our classroom has spent countless hours outside enjoying the sunshine on the hills, in the woods, and we are back on our playground enjoying time with friends from other classrooms. We have started planting seeds for vegetables and flowers for our community gardens and have loved watching them grow and caring for them each day. Recently, our dramatic play center has been transformed to a doctor’s office. We have enjoyed learning about some tools used in a doctor’s office and have started to use this play opportunity to learn about our bodies and systems within our bodies. Children have begun to inquire about the digestive system and parts of the respiratory systems as well. In the art area we have been enjoying creating collages, practicing our cutting skills, and making spring inspired art creations such as flower pictures. We have been working on recognizing and writing our names in the writing center. Some children have begun to practice writing lower case letters and some are learning the difference in upper- and lower-case letters in their environment.  

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Dates to Remember

• May 6-10 – Teacher Appreciation Week
• May 7 – TODAY – Birch Room Open House 4:30-6:00pm
• May 27 – Center closed for Memorial Day
• June 5 – ELC Closes at 3:30 for ELC Staff meeting
• June 27 – ELC Graduation
• June 28 – ELC Closed for First Aid/CPR training
• Saturday, Aug 3 – Prouty’s 50th Birthday Party

View the full school year calendar

Celebrations & Recognitions

Happy Birthday!

5/3 – Cora is 4!

5/6 – Parker is 5!

5/15 – Happy birthday, Kellyn!

5/19 – Olivia is 5!

5/31 – Hadley is 1!

Resources & Events for Families

Early Learning Express at Touch a Truck

Our bookmobile will be at BMH’s Touch a Truck event this Saturday, 9-1. If you’re at the event, be sure to stop by to see us and enjoy a book onboard!

Film Screening & Panel Discussion – Resilience: The Biology of Stress & the Science of Hope

May is National Foster Care Month. On May 18, the screening of this award-winning movie will play at the Latchis Theater. There will be a resource fair and a Q & A panel discussion to follow. More info

Prouty Podcast & Family Matters TV Show

Be sure to catch the latest episodes of our new podcast, which you can find on your favorite podcast platform, and TV show on BCTV:

Family Support Wish List

Bunk bed

2 twin mattresses

2 twin sheet sets and comforters

1 full sheet set and comforter

Pillows and pillow cases

If you have an item to donate, please email evon@winstonprouty.org