Dilly Days with Beth and Joellyn: Authors of The InvestiGator Club™ for Robert-Leslie Publishing

February 14th is just about here. Is your classroom decorated with bright red hearts for Valentine’s Day? Are you having your preschoolers make heart-shaped cards? Perhaps you are planning a Valentine’s Day party with all kinds of tasty heart-shaped treats. No matter how you celebrate the holiday with your preschoolers, it’s also a great time to talk about the human heart, because February is also American Heart Month.

You can start by sharing with children that the human heart does not look like a Valentine’s heart but more like a pear that’s about the size of your fist. Here are some other facts to know and share:

• The heart is a muscle that looks like red meat. That’s because it is supplied with lots of blood.
• The heart is actually in the center of your chest between the lungs, not on the left side.
• The heart is a two-sided pump—left and right—made up of four parts called chambers (right and left atrium and right and left ventricle). One-way valves keep blood flowing in the correct direction. (The right side of the heart receives blood from the body and sends it to the lungs; the left side receives oxygen-enriched blood from the lungs and pumps it throughout the body.)
• The thumping heart beat sound you hear is made by the valves as they close.
• The heart beats about 100,000 times a day, pumping blood to all parts the body (organs, tissues, and cells) through a network of blood vessels (arteries, veins, capillaries). If the vessels were placed end to end, they’d extend about 60,000 miles. That’s about two and a half times around Earth!
• The heart is designed to last a long time. You can help your heart by exercising and eating healthful foods.

“Inclusion, as a value, supports the right of all children, regardless of their abilities, to participate actively in natural settings within their communities.”
—”Division for Early Childhood position statement, endorsed by NAEYC

Current scientific research outlines the positive effects of including children with special needs in classrooms with their same-age peers. Here are some ideas related to “best practice” in today’s inclusive preschool classrooms:

• All children should be included no matter the type or level of their diverse abilities.
• Families are partners in the educational process and part of the team that works together to meet the needs of their children.
• The curriculum should be challenging, developmentally based, and appropriate for each child, and have proposed outcomes that reflect an understanding of each child’s growth and development.
• Early intervention is essential.
• It is important to focus on a child’s strengths, rather than focusing just on his or her weaknesses.

While few disagree with the research and the conclusions drawn by such researchers as the DEC, the challenge is just how to include children with diverse abilities in our preschool classrooms. Joellyn and I have tried to address this issue through the development of the Adaptive Learning Kit. Please feel to share any valuable advice and techniques that you have collected through the years.

The National Association for the Education of Young Children is holding their 2007 Conference and Expo in Chicago this year. Come visit Beth and Joellyn at The InvestiGator Club/Robert-Leslie Publishing booth #226! They’ll be doing book signings on November 8 and 9 at 1:00. Come by anytime to pick up your free Learning Center Poster.

Joellyn and I are proud that our Adaptive Learning Kit includes tools, manipulatives, and teaching aids that facilitate participation in classroom activities for prekindergarten children with exceptionalities. Some of these include:

• ABC Game Cards (with Sign Language)
• Braille ABC Cards
• Vocabulary cards (in English and Spanish)
• Dilly and Friends Stick Puppets
• Finger Paintbrushes
• Easi-Grip™ Scissors
• Trade Books
• Singing Sounds CD
• Outdoor Play Cards
• Teaching Young Children with Autism professional handbook

As one of the authors for The Investigator Club Prekindergarten Learning System, I travel to classrooms across the county. I frequently hear and see first hand the frustrations that preschool educators experience as they strive to create a learning environment in which all children, including those with special needs, are successful.

In response to this, we have developed The Investigator Club Adaptive Learning Kit with the tools to help you differentiate instruction and meet the needs of every child, no matter where he or she is on the developmental spectrum. The Resource Guide has essential information in an easy-to read format. It covers topics such as:

• “People First” language
• Preparing for all learners
• Working as a team
• The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

The kit also provides specific modifications, adaptations, and accommodations to differentiate instruction for all children.

Openness and honesty are two of the best ways to control head lice. Parents must not be afraid to report head lice to the school or to each other.

Administrators can do a lot to set an open, trusting tone so families will feel comfortable in their reporting. The following comes as part of a parent letter from a principal in Illinois:

“I’m passing along to you some basic information about head lice with a few reminders:

1. Head lice are inconvenient and even troublesome. It is not life threatening, and there is no need for panic.
2. A case of head lice says absolutely nothing about the student’s hygiene, home life or anything else despite the connotations often associated with this condition. Lice are non-discriminating in their choice of hosts.
3. Parents and students who have reported head lice are deserving of our understanding and compassion. They should not have to deal with teasing or whispers or unkind remarks of any kind. Please refrain from this type of behavior, and please make it clear that you expect the same from your children.”

If families are not ashamed of head lice, then they can help one another to move full steam ahead to do away with it. Families must be encouraged to talk about lice as if it’s another part of life. Hiding the problem is why it spreads. If you don’t know it’s there, you don’t know to check.

One important means to control a head lice outbreak is communication with families and staff. The bottom line is this: staff and families must know when head lice are present in the school community so they can check their children and begin the eradication process if they find it.

Here are ideas for communicating with families:

• Each time a case of head lice is found, send home a note to that class, and to siblings’ classes.
• E-mail or send a weekly bulletin telling how many cases have been reported as well as “closed.”
• Invite a health-care professional to be a guest speaker at a special event.
• Respectfully ask all parents to notify you if their child or children are found to have head lice—even if it’s during a break or weekend and children have already been treated.

It’s important for administrators to have a Head Check and Lice Prevention Plan, preferably before a case of head lice is reported or discovered at school. Record your plan in writing and share it with families at the beginning of the school year. Keep these questions in mind as you craft a plan:

1. Will you require a “summer’s end” head check before school starts or before entering school—to minimize the number of students entering your building with lice? If so, consider setting up a special “head check” day where you bring in nurses or volunteers to check heads. Conduct the checks at least one week before school starts so families have time to treat heads before coming to school. Set up a policy for how to guide those who are found to have head lice.
2. Who will check heads during the school year? How will you check them? If you don’t have a nurse or healthcare personnel, consider forming a volunteer group who is trained by a local doctor or nurse to check heads.
3. What will be your “return to class” policy? Proof of treatment? Head check by a trained staff member to show there are “no nits”? Letter from home?
4. Will you check heads on a regular basis throughout the school year? Decide the best way to check heads so as not to disrupt class or scare the children. Decide how parents will be informed if a child is diagnosed. Decide what children will do before parents pick them up (if you require it).
5. Will you check heads only when a case is reported or found at school? If so, whom will you check: children in that class, classes with siblings, the whole school? Once reported or detected, be sure to have a trained staff member confirm the diagnosis, and later provide children with clearance to return to class.
   

Okay, so the topic of head lice isn’t fun to write about. It is, however, an increasingly important one for families and schools around the country. If you’ve ever had to get rid of them, you know what a huge pain it is. Wherever children come in contact with heads or hair, or with items that are on or near heads, the passing of head lice is possible.

The Internet is full of information about head lice and how it is detected, passed, and eradicated. Anyone who thinks his or her child might have head lice should visit these sites and do what they can to stop the cycle at home. After all, if children don’t come to school with head lice, it is less likely that head lice be passed during the school day.

While other grades and classes may have standard programs and procedures, preschools often do not have a school nurse or the healthcare staff needed to implement a head lice prevention system.

Over the next few days, we will post more information and suggestions about this ongoing problem. The intent of this blog series is to provide preschool administrators and staff with prevention and management ideas to minimize the spread of head lice and to keep schools free of the yucky little creatures.

Being a preschool teacher is the best job in the world—just ask anyone who does it! To welcome you back, Beth and I have come up with the following list:

1. You spend time with the most caring and honest people in the world.
2. You are never bored—everything is constantly changing (and you do at least ten things at once all day long).
3. You get to sing and dance for an appreciative audience.
4. You are surrounded by toys.
5. The books you read are far more interesting and entertaining than most adult fare.
6. You are immediately informed when your hair looks bad or you have a run in your stocking.
7. You get hugs instead of e-mails.
8. A good night’s sleep is had every night (due to exhaustion!).
9. You get to enjoy the great outdoors every day as you guide walks and supervise the playground.
10. You are making the world a better place, one child at a time.

Feel free to write back and add your own reasons. There are soooo many!