The Wonderful World of Transitioning: Home to Center Virginia Head Start Annual Conference The Wonderful World of Transitioning: Home to Center

Introduction and Warm-up INTRODUCTION &AGENDA LaNeen Sample Education Services Specialist Stephanie Turner Classroom Support Coordinator Introduction and Warm-up Stephanie pass out the agenda.

What does transitioning really mean? Linking schools, families, child care providers, early childhood educators and community based partners in support successful transitions of children into Early Head Start, Early Head Start and public schools.

Assessing the Needs Very few schools/Head Starts have transition plans linking home to Head Start/school Many families don’t feel connected to the school or program prior to the child’s entry. Any ideas on how we as educators and advocates of young children can further bridge this gap? What tools and strategies might we use? Think about how these tools and strategies could be linguistically and culturally relevant? What would your transition assessment and introduction system and process look like?

Outcomes from Assessing Parental School Readiness Needs Parents didn’t know what will be expected of their children Child care providers varied widely in their understanding of Head Start/School expectations Schools were not in contact with child care/Head Start providers or parents prior to kindergarten registration Head Start and Early Head Start Programs offered limited information about Head Start Programming that they provided What happened. Were we “stuffing papers down parent’s throats as a focus to obtain information for recordkeeping and enrollment or were we asking question for the purposes of recordkeeping and enrollment?

Critical Action Attention to community needs Parent involvement with the Head Start/school; improves academic success Building relationships with parents and teachers is key to smooth home to school transitions Nurturing and first years of life shape school readiness at birth A child’s pre-literacy level can indicate school success

Key Goals & Objectives Goal: To improve school readiness and support successful transition of children and their families is to: Objectives: Fostering communication, building relationships among families, caregivers Head Start and schools that promote successful transitions What does this mean? This means taking a more global approach. How’s this done? We have very little effective and affect community and parent involvement.

Key Goals & Objectives 2. Working to align-or match up-children’s learning and development experiences among home, early education and child care and school to boost children’s confidence and learning 3. Implementing strategies to enhance early literacy and reduce nonacademic barriers to early learning (e.g. language and interpretation/translation for families most at risk

School Transition Team Structure Neighborhood representation: the one school leader representative (principal or assistant principal) in addition to a kindergarten teacher (stipend provided) from one of the elementary schools Two early care/education teachers/providers from Head Start or Early Head Start

School Transition Team Structure Two parent “community ambassadors’ representing communities whose children are getting left behind, who will both participate in the Team and serve as a liaison to their community Four representatives from community organizations (public library, family support services, faith-based groups, etc.) and/or informal community leaders

Getting School Ready Neighborhood School Transition Team Results GSR Teams developed a “Getting School Ready Connections” is an outreach model that documents effective ways to reach and communicate with the community’s families, licensed and informal caregivers, community agencies and teachers. We adopted this model for our program as it is research based and a best practice from home to school transitions.

Children with Special Needs Home-School Transition Case Study How might we plan for home to school transitions for children with unique and special needs? How would you partner with parents? What would you learn from parents? Who needs to be involved? Who Needs to be informed? You learn that a child is coming to your center with Spina Bifida. Offer copies of special needs recruitment plan and talk through steps taken and processes.

What We Can Do! Acknowledge the information gap between schools, families, and childcare providers. Increased outreach to families of young children Provide early learning activities for families and childcare providers before services begin Receive insight into incoming student demographics and skill level. Immerse ourselves in each culture of each child served and analyze how to integrate cross cultural awareness into curricula and classroom environment. When parents have the chance to volunteer, use this time to learn more, offer gift certificates and prizes as incentives, this will catch like wildfire with other parents.

What We Can Do! Increased parent’s understanding of early learning and school readiness. Provide a parent/ family friendly connection with school and teachers. Support parents obtaining simple, everyday ways to promote early childhood literacy and help prepare their child for Head Start/school.

How Do We Do This? Training and technical assistance. Collaboration and joint training with schools and Head Starts Collaboration local Interagency Coordinating Councils Anyone interested in early learning and development Partnership even make this a goal for the family partnership plan for family services Staffing for effective and affective coordination by have weekly team meetings with center management staff in each service area. Use home-school transition and enrollment as a standing agenda item for weekly center team meetings Communication Consider what you would do to establish rapport and a relationship with parents before their child begins services, how you would work with the child on these activities, and how you would include the parent. What skills are the children learning and how would you extend or modify these activities for children with special needs?

INTERACTIVE ACTIVITIES Infants Activities Activity: Where is the Sound? Materials: Toys/objects that make different sounds Objective: This activity will help baby develop auditory tracking skills and develop head and neck control. Activity: Handy Clap Materials: Baby in sitting or lying position Objective: This activity will help the baby develop eye/hand coordination while increasing a sense of trust and attachment. These activities are also helpful for the special needs children. These are good learning skilled activities that will help develop eye/hand coordination, motor control and social interaction.

Activity: Color Sorting Materials: Colored Blocks/Cubes, Large Legos Toddlers Activities Activity: Color Sorting Materials: Colored Blocks/Cubes, Large Legos Objective: This activity will help children learn about matching and sorting colors while engaging in positive social interaction. Activity: Building It Materials: Building Blocks, Large Lego Blocks Objective: This activity will help young children learn cooperative play and help them develop compassion, or understanding of how others feel. These activities are also helpful for the special needs children. These activities help with creativity, thinking/classification skills, self-esteem, pre-math skills, gross and fine motor skills.

Activity: Color, Sizes and Shapes Activities and Games Preschool Activities Activity: Color, Sizes and Shapes Activities and Games Materials: Assorted Shapes and Games Objective: This activity will help young children with recognition of color, shape, size and Language Development. Activity: Number and Counting Activity Materials: Assorted Items Objective: This activity will help the young children with creative number usage. These activities are also helpful for the special needs children with developing some math skills in recognition, counting, sorting, and cognitive skills.

Thank You! LaNeen Sample Education Services Specialist Stephanie Turner Classroom Support Coordinator