The Lunchbox Press October 2017

Teaching Social Skills to Prevent Bullying in Young Children By:  Ingrid Donato and Ron Slaby, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services

Administration

Bullying among young children is not uncommon. When young children–who often differ in physical size, skill level, and family experience–get together, patterns of hurtful behavior often emerge.Children may be mean to each other by making mean faces, saying threatening things, grabbing objects, pushing others aside, or refusing to play with others. Some young children may engage in actual bullying behaviors by deliberately and repeatedly dominating a vulnerable child by name-calling, physical attacks, and excluding others from playing with them.To prevent bullying from escalating, adults can prepare effective strategies to deal with bullying incidents—before, during, and after they occur. They can also take steps to create an environment that supports respect, where bullying is not accepted or tolerated.Adults can also help children learn the social skills they need to deal with bullying when it occurs. To gain and maintain friends, and avoid becoming involved in bullying, young children need to develop three types of social skills.

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THE LUNCHBOX PRESS NASA Goddard Child Development Center

GCDC’s philosophy is to meet children’s developmental and individual needs and to create a stimulating environment in which children learn through exploration and discovery.

Upcoming Events

Oct 9: Federal Holiday (GCDC Closed)

Oct 16: Hearing and Vision Screenings (Kindergarten Only)

Oct 17: Echo Adventures Visit (Shooting Stars)

Oct 18: Quarterly Program Tour

Oct 18: Parent Advisory Committee (PAC) MeetingGEWA/GSFC Rec Center

Oct 20: Preschool 3 Field Trip

Oct 23: Preschool 4 Field Trip

Oct 30: Harvest Hunting

Nov 9: Parent Advisory Committee (PAC) MeetingGEWA/GSFC Rec Center

Nov 10: Federal Holiday (GCDC Closed)

The Lunchbox Press October 2017

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The three types of social skills children need to avoid being involved in bullying are: 1) Social problem-solving skills:

• Find concrete ways to teach children the skills they need to solve problems.

• Teach social problem-solving skills directly related to various forms of bullying—verbal, physical, and indirect.

• Help children understand and deal with their feelings.• Encourage impulse control and self-calming.• Help children practice listening skills.• Practice coming up with solutions, anticipating consequences, and

evaluating the harmfulness of violent solutions. • Help children understand that everyone is different and that this is

something to be respected, not made fun of or simply tolerated.

2) Empathy skills:

• Encourage children to label their feelings and tell each other how they feel about bullying.

• Discuss how children who are bullied might feel.• Explain that despite differences between people, everyone

experiences certain basic feelings.• Remind children how they felt in situations like those faced by

others in distress.• Model empathy by talking about how you identify another’s distress

and think of ways to help.

3) Assertiveness skills: Teach Children To:

• Ask for and offer things to each other in a polite and open-ended way.

• Use assertiveness skills to avoid submitting to bullying tactics, bossiness, or discriminatory acts.

• Ignore routine provocative peer behaviors.• Use assertiveness skills to meet their goals.

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Parents can extend the anti-bully lesson by reading and discussing the concepts in the following recommended books:

Chrysanthemum: a story about teasing, self-esteem, and acceptance.

The Recess Queen: Mean Jean is the recess queen, and it isn’t until a new girl becomes her friend that recess dynamics change for the better. This book is ideal for modeling how bullying can be resolved without adult intervention.

The Juice Box Bully: One of the best things kids can do to combat bullying is to stand up for one another.

Enemy Pie: Readers will learn about the benefits of making new friends in this book.

The Berenstain Bears and The Bully: When Sister Bear gets beaten up by Tuffy, the new cub in town, Brother huffs off to set this bully straight.  But he's in for a surprise--Tuffy's a little girl, and Brother just can't bring himself to fight her.

Llama Llama and the Bully Goat: Llama Llama isn't sure what to do. And then he remembers what his teacher told him—walk away and tell someone. 

Anti-Bully Curriculum At NASA-GCDC, our September curriculum includes an

anti-bully curriculum. Using children’s literature, the Teachers introduce the children to concepts such as

friendship, acceptance of others, discriminating between respectful and disrespectful behavior, saying stop, walking

away and telling an adult

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Harvest HuntingEach year, NASA Goddard Child Development Center (GCDC) engages in one of our favorite activities—Harvest Hunting across GSFC.  Our students, wearing their favorite costumes and a smile on their faces, go from office to office collecting treats in designated buildings.  We are looking for volunteers to purchase and pass out treats.  Designated buildings are 1, 6, 8, 18, 21, 26, 28 and 97. If your office is located in one of our designated buildings, please sign up here http://www.nasagcdc.org/2017-harvest-hunting.html

Office Participation Guidance: • Individually Wrapped Items Only:  Our chaperones and

Teachers will only allow students to accept individually wrapped items.  Please, no open potato chip bags or the like.

• No Homemade items: For the safety of our students, homemade items (of any kind) are not allowed.

• Plan To Have Enough:  Please see the estimates on on website to ensure you have enough treats.

• Please Be Flexible: We cannot guarantee a specific time that children will arrive at any stop.  Children may visit anytime between the hours of 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. 

• Office Decorations and Costumes are Welcome and Exciting to the Children.  However, please remember that our students are ages 2-5; try not to make your decorations too scary.

• No Photos Please.  We have parent volunteers traveling with the group to take photos.  We do not have permission to post children's pictures on social media outlets other than those managed by our school and/or GSFC. 

Student Costume Rules Because they stimulate aggressive behaviors, the following are prohibited:

• Superhero costumes (e.g. spider man, bat man)• Characters that are known for fighting (e.g.

Power Rangers, Teen Age Mutant Ninja Turtles, etc.)

• Scary figures (e.g. Dracula, Vampires, Monsters)• Weapons (e.g. Swords, light sabers, etc)

NASA GCDC uses a variety of methods to

embrace Science, Technology, Engineering

and Mathematics (STEM). In addition to direct teaching

methods and open-ended exploration, we invite parents to share more about their STEM careers with the

children.

If you would like to sign up to be a guest speaker, email us at info@gcdc-nasa.org. Tell us about your topic of

interest, and we will recommend a date, age group, and classroom that would benefit most from your expertise.

Parents will earn volunteer credit for these talks.

Ideas For Parent STEM Talks

• Weather• Insects• Clouds• Living/Non-Living• Tools• Push/Pull• Buoyancy• Chemistry• Ocean Life

• Hibernation• Life Cycles (Butterly,

Bumble Bee or Pumpkins)

• Technology• Engineering• Chemical Reactions• Chemistry:

Dissolving

The Lunchbox Press October 2017

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GCDC’s Parent Advisory Committee (PAC) is equivalent to what many may refer to as a school’s PTA. GCDC’s PAC is an excellent way to become involved in activities that support our school. Every GCDC Member (enrolled or wait listed) can attend and support GCDC’s PAC. The more support provided, the better for our school. PAC meetings are held monthly and are lead by the Parent Association’s Vice President. Bring your lunch and join in the conversation.

GCDC Parent Advisory Committee (PAC) Meetings Noon-1 p.m.

Open to all Members GSFC/GEWA Recreation Center

POC: Jolena Crawford • October 19—Spring Fling Discussion/Planning

• November 9--Who’s in charge in our house? This is a great and helpful question to consider as a family.  If it feels like the child is in charge in your house, you are not alone!  The issue of authority in a household can become a challenge.  Often, children want things to go their way and when they do not, look out for a struggle!  In this workshop, we will talk about strategies for keeping the adults in charge in your household and why this is important for children.  Speaker: Angie Antoniak, LCSW-C, The Parenting Center and the BEST program, Anne Arundel Community College

• January 11--Defiance, Tantrums, Aggression, Oh My! Effectively Coping with Challenging Behaviors. Defiance, opposition, tantrums, and other challenging behaviors are a natural part of the development process as children learn to cope with difficult feelings and learn to accept limits.  This workshop will focus on how to tune in to the underlying meaning of your child’s behavior and how to respond in ways that help your child learn to cope in positive, pro-social ways. Speaker: Clair Lerner, LICSW 

• February 8—General Meeting: Staff and Teacher Appreciation Week (STAW) Planning: Kick-Off for this year’s planning.   Review 2017 feedback.  Recruit 2018 planning committee and Kindergarten Overview by Ms. Elycia Chew, GCDC Kindergarten Teacher

• March 8-- Early Math Matters. This presentation will highlight the critical role of early mathematics for children’s long-term mathematics achievement and beyond.  We will discuss what foundational math knowledge is important for young children.  We will also discuss ideas for fun and engaging mathematics games and activities that can be incorporated at home. Speaker: Dr. Ramani, Associate Professor in the Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology at the University of Maryland, College Park

• April 12--STAW Planning and GEWA Spring Fling Planning. GEWA would like to partner with GCDC to host a Spring Fling at the Rec Center

• May1-4 Staff and Teacher Appreciation Week (STAW)

• May 10—GEWA GCDC Spring Fling (Tentative)

2017-2018 GCDC Association’s Board of Directors

Pam Guzzone GEWA Operations Manager

Gale Fleming President

Jolena Crawford Vice-President

Sean Douglas Registrar

Charisse Dorrell Treasurer

Raquel Marshal Education Advisor

Jeff Steir Facilities Advisor

Juana Sosa Secretary

Sara Winfield Member At Large

Ted Ying Member At Large

GCDC Association Board Meetings

4th Thursday of each Month11:45 a.m.-12:45 p.m.

Open to Members 12:00-12:10

POC: Gale Fleming, Association President

The Lunchbox Press October 2017

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• All enrolled families are required to volunteer 10 hours per school year in the following increments:

• Four hours between August and December

• Four hours between January and June.

• Two hours between June and July.

• GCDC utilizes VolunteerSpot to advertise volunteer opportunities http://signup.com/go/YJgDjws

• Families will be charged $25 for each unmet volunteer hour requirement at the end of each reporting period.

• All volunteer hours must be approved in advance by a member of the GCDC staff. All jobs listed on VolunteerSpot are considered approved

• Parents must document the completion of hours by submitting a completed volunteer receipt. Completed receipts should be placed in the bin on the wall outside the office.

• Families can check their volunteer record on our website at any time.

Presidential Volunteer Service AwardAlthough we only require ten volunteer hours per school year, GCDC seeks to recognize those parents that go well above this requirement. GCDC is a President’s Volunteer Service Award certifying organization. GCDC will honor parents that earn 100 hours during any period of their child’s enrollment at GCDC with this prestigious honor from the President of the United States.

So, we ask that parents submit volunteer service receipts for all volunteer acts performed at GCDC-- even after completion of the ten-hour minimum requirement. Hours will be totaled at the end of each school year to determine which volunteers have earned enough hours to be considered for this award.

Volunteer Requirements

October Volunteer Opportunities

• Weeding Around Green House: Listed on Oct 17th but can be done any day/time

• Chaperone PS4/Kindergarten Field trip. Listed Oct 23rd. Will not open until permission slips are distributed.

• Chaperone Preschool 3 Field Trip. Listed on Oct 20th. Will not open until permission slips are distributed.

NASA GCDC has utilized Teaching Strategies Gold (TSG) as the platform for the childcare’s portfolios. Sometime over the course of the summer, TSG rolled out a system upgrade. This upgrade has resulted in numerous glitches. While we have been working hard to try and work around these errors, it has proven to be impossible. At this point, we are unable to share documentation with families. These technical issues mean that parents cannot see their child’s assessment data. Some parents have also told us that the old data for continuing students is no longer visible. After consultation with other early childhood programs, we have learned that we are not an anomaly. We are

working with TSG to determine whether any solutions is in sight. We appreciate your patience. We are doing everything we can on our end to resolve the issue.

The Lunchbox Press October 2017

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Families on the waiting list are encouraged to participate in one of our scheduled quarterly tours. Because families are required to respond to an enrollment offer within 48 hours, taking a tour is the best way to learn more about our school before you receive an enrollment offer.

2017-2018 Tour Dates October 18, 2017January 25, 2018

April 4, 2018June 12, 2018

All tours begin at 10:00 .m. To sign up for a tour, visit www.nasagcdc.org/tour-our-school.html

All participants over the age of sixteen must have either a GSFC employee badge or visitor badge. NASA GCDC will request badges for participants if sign up information is received at least four days in advance of the scheduled tour. This information is provided on the aforementioned website.

Quarterly Program Tours Character Trait of The Month

For the next six month, GCDC students will study the six pillars of character: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship. We will focus on one pillar per month beginning with trustworthiness.

Teachers present character concepts in developmentally appropriate ways—primarily through the use of children’s literature. The graphic below includes the concepts the students will learn.

We want our students not only to be smart but to be good people and strong leaders.

Preschool 2 Comets

Little Discoveries

Preschool 3 The Milky Way

Little Dipers

Preschool 4Shooting Stars

Pre-Kindergarten Constellations

Satellites

Language Arts Letters: I, K, F, H. L Alphabet Assessment

Sequencing Story Events Letters

N, K, I, L, T

Syllables Letters: V, W, X, Y, Z, C, O, Q, G,

S Sight Words:

Blue, Down, We, Not, Look

Syllables Sight Words: Blue, Down, We, Not,

Look Letters: V, W, X, Y, Z, C, O, Q, G,

S

MathShapes

Counting Strategies

Board Game Math Counting Strategies

Sets

Ten Frame Estimation

Board GamesThree Dimensional Shapes

ScienceChange: What happens when mixing

colors, oil/wanter, etc. Pets

Fall Mixing and Exploring Colors

Weather

Fall Dissolving

Food Groups

Astronauts Lifecycle of a Pumpkin

Social StudiesFire Fighters & Veternarians

Families

Fire Fighters Land, Air, Water

Near/Far

Fire Fighters/Safety Animals

Fighter Fighters/Safety

Scope and Sequence For The Month

The Lunchbox Press October 2017

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September Reflections

2017-2018 Activity Fee

All families are required to pay an activity fee of $50 per child. This will be billed to your account

on October 1st and deducted from your bank account along with that week’s regularly

scheduled that tuition. For questions about activity fees, please see the Business Manager.

Preschool 2: Comets Outdoor Play With Friends

Preschool 2: Little Discoveries Puzzles With Friends

Preschool 3: LittleDippers Reading With Friends

Preschool 3: The Milky Way Exploring Colors With Friends

The Lunchbox Press October 2017

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September Reflections

Pre-K: Constellations Painting With Friends

Preschool 4: Shooting Stars Learning With Friends

Pre-K: Satellites Building With Friends

Kindergarten: Rockets Engineering With Friends

Hearing and Vision Screenings For Kindergarten Students

October 16, 2017

9:30 a.m.