Bright Spots

By Chloe Learey, Executive Director

The term “languishing” has cropped up to describe how some of us may be feeling the affects of the pandemic that seems to have no end. Languishing includes feeling a lack of motivation, stuck, emptiness, lack of focus, blah – an overall absence of feeling good. We thought we would be beyond the pandemic by now, maybe not back to the old normal, but certainly in a more “open” new normal. Instead, we continue to wear masks and worry about getting sick, even if we have been vaccinated. Small bright spots can bring some light into the languishing, even if only for a brief respite. Some of these highlights from the past month include: Everyone Eats!; surveillance testing on site; and vaccinations getting approved for younger children.

Resources & Events for families

Free Everyone Eats dinners on Wednesdays

Reminder that on Wednesdays between 3 and 4 pm, you can pick-up free meals outside our main entrance. The Everyone Eats program serves free, locally made meals. There is no sign-up or registration, just stop by!

Food and winter gear collection

The Winston Prouty Center is a collection site for two very important efforts to support our local community: Project Feed the Thousands and the Kids in Coats program. Project Feed the Thousands is a community-wide food drive that collects cash and non-perishable food items through the end of the year. The goal this year is $100,000 in cash and 300,000 meals to assist those in our communities who would otherwise go without. More about Project Feed

Access to warm winter gear is critical for our children both in and out of school during the long cold winter months. The Winter Gear Drive is a component of United Way of Windham County’s Kids in Coats program and seeks to help close the gap for Windham County Children who are not currently enrolled in local elementary schools. The gear collected will live at Village Community Closet located on The Winston Prouty Campus, 60 Austine Drive, Brattleboro VT, where it can be accessed by parents, caregivers, and local support services working with children of all ages in Windham County. Donations of winter gear sizes 0-12 in new or “Like new” condition, capable of withstanding rugged outdoor play for the winter season are now being accepted through November 19th.

You can contribute to the food or winter gear drive by leaving your donations in the bins in our lobby (coming soon!)

Better Life Partners offers convenient substance use treatment

Better Life Partners is a team of doctors, counselors and support staff offering high-quality medical and behavioral care for opioid use disorder, in person and online. Treatment can start same-day and includes supportive counseling, medication to prevent withdrawal and care coordination. Medicare, Medicaid, Green Mountain Care and other insurances are accepted. Learn more

Deadline for Child Tax Credit coming up

Some families who have not yet signed up for the monthly advance child tax credit payment still have a chance to get all the money they were due this year — up to $1,800 per child — in time for the holidays. But there’s a deadline coming up that they can’t miss. Many families got the monthly child tax credit payments automatically since it was based on their 2020 tax returns. But some families, mostly those with incomes so low that they aren’t required to file taxes, may not have received the money yet. The deadline is Monday, Nov. 15 for eligible people who haven’t received the payments to sign up at IRS.gov. Learn more

Early Learning Center News

School photos & ELC Family Directory

In your child’s mailbox are school photos and a family directory to help you connect with other ELC family and friends. If you would like an electronic copy of either of this, please stop by the front desk and let us know!

Acorn Room

October flew by very fast for us! Full of sickness and busy times. The children are all starting to roll over, engage with toys, and enjoying our circle times filled with fall themed songs! We were able to still enjoy some walks on warmer days seeing all the truck action going on and cranes.

For the month of November, we will be focusing on families and keep establishing relationships with the teachers and children. Being able to be very thankful for who we have in our daily lives is important! We will be making fun sensory bottles filled with different items and bags too!

Willow Room

October was a super fun month that flew by! As we completed parent teacher conferences, we updated and rearranged the classroom a little. This month we also did many campus walks and enjoyed looking at all the different colors the leaves were changing into. Some of our favorite fall activities and experiences we did included pumpkin painting and pumpkin carving. Some classmates were a little unsure about the feeling of the slimy pumpkin guts! We look forward to roasting the seeds and taste testing them. For the month of November, we look forward to doing more cooking experiences in the class!

Elm Room

We were so excited to see the workers fixing the roof of Holton Hall. We watched the big crane coming off the trailer and watched as they moved around, so high!

We love exploring nature—both inside and out. October saw the last crops from our garden, including carrots, turnips, and huge sunflowers, which we examined closely, finding the seeds, and discovering ways to remove them from the flower.

Molly brought in some pumpkins, which we also explored up close. We collected and washed the seeds, then roasted them with special flavors— some spicy, some sweet, and some salty. Surprisingly, the spicy ones were a hit!

Birch Room

This month in the Birch Room was dedicated to All Things Fall as well as a week spent discussing Halloween happenings! Our morning circle time for Fall activities consisted of comparing apples/pumpkins and being able to notice the differences in both, we also worked on identifying different parts of a pumpkin and labeling them accurately. On our Halloween theme week, we completed activities such as “Pass the Pumpkin” which is played just like Hot Potato, and cards filled with Halloween words that with a few clues the children had to try and guess what the right answer was. During our small groups, we continued to focus on number and letter recognition with various activities for identifying both. We also had a couple of different art projects such as an apple stained glass craft as well as a ghost outline painting project done with Halloween colors and q-tips! We will be starting to branch out from those a bit more as the weeks progress and focusing on patterns, rhyming, and learning how to write our names with handmade tracing whiteboard type sheets so we can practice as many times as we want!

We continued to explore the outdoors by visiting the Rock Garden, the “Swimming Pool” which will soon be filled up with many leaves we can “swim” in, and we also continued our Monday/Thursday visits with Alfred where we ventured off into the woods to visit Barry the Flamingo as well as found a stream deep in the woods where we too many “Nature Lullabies.” In the month of November, we will be talking about fairy tales! We will look into books such as Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and many others! This is a theme we have yet to work on in the classroom so we are all quite excited!

Celebrations

Nov 2 – Richy is 1!
Nov 6 – Vena is 2!
Nov 17 – Happy Birthday Lisa A, Family Support Worker
Nov 17 – Happy Birthday Nancy – CIS Consultation and Behavior Support Specialist
Nov 20 – Happy Birthday Wyatt – Supervised Visitation Program
Nov 22 – Fern is 4!
Nov 24 – Shawn is 3!
Nov 25 – Happy Birthday Molly – Elm Room Assistant Teacher

Dates to Remember

Friday, November 12 – Center closes at 12:00 for all-staff in-service
Thursday, November 25 & Friday, November 26 – Center closed for Thanksgiving holiday
Friday, December 10 – Center closes at 12:00 for all-staff in-service
Thursday, December 23 – Friday, December 12 – Center closed for winter break

The Prouty Voice: November 2021