Fort Meadow Principal Joanne Hentnick
WESTFIELD – Fort Meadow Early Childhood Center has posted its remote learning plan, “Cub Learning Adventures,” on its website at fm.schoolsofwestfield.org.
“We are going on an adventure together,” invites the cub, the preschool’s mascot. Underneath the invitation is a note to parents: “Your kids are going to be fine. You don’t have to re-create school at home. Love your kids. Be their safe place. Read, create, play, sing, and talk together.”
Fort Meadow Principal Joanne Hentnick said she posted the plan after all of the teachers had a chance to review it.
“My main goal is to explain to families what to expect, and to provide additional resources,” Hentnick said, adding she mostly wants to check in with families.
“We want to make sure they know that we care for them, and whatever support they need we are there for them,” she said.
The Cub Adventures are divided into physical hands-on activities and fun short exercise clips; language promoting interactive activities such as reading, cooking, construction toys and puppets, and preschool curriculum exercises. There is an art and music section with a link to the popular “Lunch doodles with Mo Willams.”
There is also a section on social emotional resources, including a short video on how to talk to kids about the coronavirus.
Hentnick acknowledges that there is a wealth of resources available online. She said she wanted to take the best of them and put them all in one place for the three and four-year-olds from Fort Meadow.
“It’s easy to navigate. We took the stress away from parents, so people didn’t feel pressured,” she said, adding that parents shouldn’t feel pressured to provide a certain number of hours of teaching to preschoolers, in addition to the pressure of taking care of meeting the needs of the family during this time.
“Having fun, reading, cuddling, are the most important things. Anything else is if you choose to do it,” Hentnick said.
Long before putting up the website, teachers and staff from Fort Meadow had been reaching out to the students.
“The second week we were all home starting our learning plan, I asked all the staff to contact each family by a phone call,“ Hentnick said.
She said she also made a few phone calls and what she got back was encouraging.
“Families were so appreciative that I called. One dad called me back to thank me for taking the time,“ she said. She also heard stories about people enjoying the time with their children, baking, and playing with them.
“The staff was so happy to hear how well everybody was doing,“ she said.
The staff, including Hentnick have also been posting video clips of themselves on their Facebook page and inviting video clips back. “I want the ability for those kiddos to check in,“ she said.
There are 201 preschool students enrolled in Fort Meadow, and every year half continue on to kindergarten.
About 50% of the students are on individualized education plans (IEP). Hentnick said when a child turns three and has an IEP, they become a student at Fort Meadow.
Service providers and therapists will be contacting the families and students on IEP‘s, a process which took a little longer to set up. Hentnick said teachers are doing zoom calls one on one with parents and children and the school adjustment counselor is also checking in.
“It’s not the best situation, but it’s the best we can do in this situation,“Hentnick said.
