The Wintonbury Peeper

Important Dates

Principal's Message

Meet our New Social Worker

Medication Return

PTO

Safety Day

Sunny Train Concert

Auerfarm: Pollinators and Ice Cream

Art!

Parent Resources for Art at Home

Summer Reading!

June 4 Early Dismissal 1:00 Teacher Professional Development

June 12 Last Day of School and Early Dismissal 1:00

A HUGE congratulations to Marissa Mancini who is very deserving of the recognition of the "2025 Teacher of the Year for Wintonbury Early Childhood Magnet School"!!! She is the classroom teacher in room 206.

Way to go Marissa, we are so very proud of you (and lucky to have you)!

Marissa has dedicated herself to teaching young children in ways that are fun, engaging, relational and supportive of all learners in her classroom. Her positive relationships with children, families and colleagues shines! Something that stands out when I think about her classroom is “structure meets laughter”! She keeps things clear and consistent with a whole lot of joy.

Marissa has been a teacher at Wintonbury for 14 years. She has a Bachelor Degree in Early Childhood Education and a Master Degree focused on Autism & Applied Behavior Analysis. She is an advocate for children, families and staff. Marissa is a member of the school wide “Leadership Team” (a group of staff who charges school improvement initiatives), a member of the “PK Special Education Task Force” (a team who looks closely at preschool programming for special education) and the Chair of the school based “Cheer Committee” (a sub group under the School Climate Committee that strives to connect staff encouraging a positive workplace). She is also the Vice President of the BEA Teachers Union.

If you didn’t know…Marissa loves pink, hydrangeas, diet coke, sour gummies and jelly beans. She also loves to shop at Marshalls, TJ Maxx and HomeGoods. More than anything though, Marissa loves being with her family (her Husband, Frank and almost 2 year old son, Rocco).

Congratulations Marissa!

We are currently beginning our nominations for the Instructional Assistant of the Year. We will excitedly share this news with you as soon as we know!

Meet our 2024-25 staff HERE.

Thanks to your generosity, we raised $514 for the Muscular Dystrophy Association! The entire school had fun hopping and dancing to Meghan Trainor's Better When I'm Dancin'.

This spring, Charlene became part of the Wintonbury team as the school social worker. She has nearly 20 years of experience working with children and families in various settings, including in the mental health field as a clinical supervisor and consultant for the state of Massachusetts. Prior to working at Wintonbury, she was a school social worker in an elementary school in Connecticut for the past 11 years. She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of the Connecticut and a Masters of Social Work (MSW) degree from the University at Albany. She has been licensed as an independent clinical social worker since 2012 and has had training in numerous practices including: child-development, mental health and the educational system, restorative practices, parent-teacher home visits, trauma-informed work and various social-emotional (SEL) curriculums including the Zones of Regulation and Second-Step.

Charlene was born in Maine but has also lived in New York, Massachusetts and Arizona. She now resides in South Windsor with her husband (Jason), three children (Landon, Layla and Bryce) and three dogs (Sophia, Chewy and Merlin). When she is not working, you will find her most frequently watching her children at all of their activities including a variety of sports, cub scouts and even a music class for the baby! In her free-time, Charlene enjoys traveling, shopping, exploring new places, going to fairs and festivals, reading, listening to music, going to the beach, volunteering with animals and expanding her 2nd language skills (she is trying to become more fluent in Spanish). Some of her favorite things include the color teal, chocolate, coffee and tacos.

Charlene is very excited to become part of the team at Wintonbury and have the opportunity to continue her career in Early Childhood Education. As the Wintonbury school social worker, Charlene will be involved in multiple capacities throughout the school but as we transition to the next 2025-2026 school year, she will be primarily focusing on student counseling, family and student engagement (including attendance and community agency referrals), safe school climate initiatives, SEL work both inside and outside of the classrooms and of course, being helping hand and support as a member of the Wintonbury community.

If you have any questions, or would like to connect with Charlene, she can be reached by phone at (860) 769-5510 ext. 2813 or by email at chsmith@blmfld.org.

Charlene also wants to wish everyone a happy and restful summer and for the students entering Kindergarten a successful transition to their new schools in the fall. She is also very eager to get to continue to get know and work with the returning Wintonbury students during the next school year!

Medication Pick Up

The last day of school at Wintonbury is Thursday, June 12th. If your child has medication/ lotion at school, you, or another responsible adult designated by you, must pick up and sign for this medication from the school Nurse.

A table will be set up outside by the side door entrance at pick up and drop off the last two days of school and I will be there to hand you your child’s medication(s.)

If your child is attending Extension, please still come and pick up your medication. Check to make sure the doctor’s order and medication are both up to date before dropping back off for the Summer Extension Program.

IF you are unable to pick up your child’s medication, it will be disposed of by the end of this month.

Thank you for your cooperation and may you and your child have a happy and safe summer!

Sincerely,

Ashley Schwitter, RN, BSN

Wintonbury Early Childhood Magnet School

Health Office- 860-769-5521

aschwitter@blmfld.org

Thank you once again for a successful year! We were able to raise funds to provide gifts for teachers, food for the Literacy and Art Nights, and hold our Fall Festival and our upcoming End of the Year Celebration! We had record sales at both Book Fairs that helped provide books for those in need. We also, introduced two new fundraisers, Hartford Wolf Pack and Yard Goats, both of which sold out!

Our End of the Year Celebration at Auer Farm will be on Thursday, June 5th from 4:30-6:30 (with a rain date of Friday, June 6th)! We’ll have food, activities, and tractor rides! If you’re interested in volunteering or donating fruit, please contact us at wintonburypto@gmail.com. Please be sure to RSVP using the link: https://forms.gle/x2NN6f8jeGHyAHaS9.

We will NOT be having a meeting in June. Have a wonderful summer, we can’t wait to see you in the fall!

We were thrilled to coordinate a safety day with community service officer, Officer Moise of the Bloomfield Police Department. Students were able to go in a fire truck, an ambulance and a police cruiser. Children pressed buttons inside the police car to create a variety of horns and siren sounds.

Officer Moise also arranged for a service dog, K9 Banner, to visit Wintonbury, with Doug from the Forever in my Heart Foundation. Students had the chance to meet and pet a very friendly ESA (Emotional Support Animal) dog. With guidance, the children learned the proper and respectful ways to approach and interact with animals. Moments like these help build confidence, compassion, and lifelong lessons in empathy and kindness. See the video below of Officer Moise explaining the safe way to approach a dog.

The entire Wintonbury community was thrilled to welcome Sunny Train on May 23. The four piece band was comprised of drums, guitar, bass and ukulele. The experience for the children was playful and interactive. PTO fundraising and your generosity made this PTO sponsored event possible. Students loved making a train to this song, Sunny Train, and playing freeze dance to this song, Let's Dance. Everyone also got to play the gathering drums together.

On this field trip, students students explored the role of pollinators in a plant’s lifecycle. Students walked around the farm looking for pollinators at work. Bees, butterflies, birds and even wind help plants move pollen from flower to flower so they can make seeds. Bees and pollinators need to visit the blossoms so the flowers can turn into fruit and vegetables. On the hayride, students held pretend pollen on a paintbrush, to experience the way wind carries pollen. And all students got to don wings and helped to move pollen from flower to flower. The pictures below are from Rooms 301, 302 and 305.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! Students participated in making ice cream using an a manual "hand crank" ice cream maker. They learned about the ingredients needed to make ice cream: milk, heavy cream, sugar, salt and vanilla. And where does milk and cream come from? Students learned that milk comes from cows (goats and sheep too) and discovered that many foods we eat are made with milk (yogurt, cheese, butter). Students observed and talked about the parts of a cow and children got to try on costume pieces of cow parts (tail, udder, hooves, ears). Here is a video about where milk comes from: Where Does Milk Come From? Did you know you can make ice cream in a plastic bag? Click on this recipe for a fun summer experience: Ice Cream in a Bag Recipe. Below are pictures from Room 101's visit to the farm.

For the past few weeks, classrooms have been learning about visual artists and creating art inspired by these artists. Each classroom displayed their creations in preparation for family art night. Families were invited to take a museum walk to view the art and to participate in some art experiences, such as painting, sculpting, and movement. Below are a few representations of the art making process. Look for a video of the whole art night being published soon!

Piet Mondrian

Claude Monet

Pablo Picasso

Resources/Publications/Teaching Young Children/Winter 2023Message in a Backpack™Encouraging Process Art at Home: Reaping the Benefits of Joy and Making

People often think about art as creating something beautiful—a replica Starry Night collage or a seasonal craft to serve as a gift. But when children engage in process art, they explore and experience materials without working toward a particular end product. In this case, going through the process of making art is more important than the results or outcomes.

There are many benefits to be gained from process art. It can be playful and joyful, and it nurtures having an open mind, trying new things, and building curiosity and resilience. It also requires minimal adult preparation.

You can encourage process art at home without being an artist yourself. And you don't need to go out and buy expensive art supplies. Instead, you can use materials from your home and from nature. Find a flat, roomy space where your child can work (a table, the floor, or even a grassy area can all be great working spaces), then set it with materials that will encourage open-ended exploration. Be sure to include:

• items that can serve as a base for your child’s work (cardboard,placemats, clay, or playdough)
  
• a variety of objects for your child to explore (paper plates, colored paper, beads, buttons, and natural materials such as sticks and leaves)
  
• something that will help your child connect those objects to their base and to each other (masking tape, glue, pipe cleaners)
• a variety of tools (scissors, various sized brushes, blunt-edged instruments to cut playdough or clay)

While your child creates, consider joining them. You can either work on your own art alongside them or ask to join in whatever they’re making. While you don’t need to talk the whole time, you can ask some key what, how, and why questions to help your child share what’s on their mind as they make art. These could include:

• “What is your plan?”
  
• “How will you make it happen?”
  
• “Tell me more about why you chose this material?”

If your child is not ready to speak yet, you can put words to their actions by narrating what they are doing. (“I noticed that you stuck pipe cleaners into the playdough to make a birthday cake with candles. What a creative idea!”)

Children often encounter challenges during process art. They may become frustrated because their work does not accurately reflect what they’re thinking, or they might struggle with a technical issue, such as attaching a cardboard cylinder securely to a box.When this happens, wait: Give your child space to work through a problem and make mistakes along the way. If they ask for your help, acknowledge what they’ve done, breakdown the problem, then make a plan for some steps they can take to resolve it.

Stay open-minded about what your child is doing. Their creations might not be what you expect, but the real beauty lies in their journey of thought, exploration, and discovery.

By Richard Rende, Ph.D.

Art projects offer children and families many benefits. Child development and pediatrics experts agree that even short spurts of creative time greatly impact social, cognitive, and emotional development of children in their earliest formal years and create long-lasting memories. It’s important to remember that a meaningful art project doesn’t need to take a lot of parent preparation time.

Here are a few tips to help busy families engage in meaningful art projects.

1. Eliminate the pressures that make art projects difficult

Art projects don’t need to take a lot of parent prep time. Use items that you already have around the house – like paper towel rolls or cotton balls – to eliminate time needed to go to the store and purchase special supplies. And keep staple items on-hand that can be used for a variety of art projects - such as paper, paint, tape, crayons, and glue. You can take them out and add in other items you have to the mix.

2. Let children take the creative lead

Parents promote creativity, thinking, planning and other important skills when they let kids take the lead on art projects. The creative spark is lit when kids try to figure out how things work on their own. A number of recent studies have shown that young children display more advanced cognitive skills when adults use less instruction. One of the key reasons is that this allows kids to practice what’s known as “counterfactual” reasoning, the process of mental “trial and error” that is an early emerging aspect of innovative thinking. For example, ‘What happens if I paste this piece of fabric here instead of there?’ or ‘What if I paint this dog green?’ By hanging back and encouraging kids to try out their own ideas versus giving a strict pattern to follow, parents can support the roots of innovation.

3. Allow children to use their hands to create their project

Art projects also offer many ways for children to build their small muscles and improve their fine motor development. When children use scissors, squeeze a glue bottle or mold clay they strengthen the muscles needed to master using a pencil at school later on.

4. Support but don’t take over

The benefits from doing art projects independently are critical for academic readiness.

Parents can support their children by encouraging them, helping with suggestion, and stepping in only when really needed. While it might take your child longer to open a glue bottle or paint tube, these are important ways children can develop the muscles they will need for school.

5. Praise their efforts, not the product itself

It’s clear from research that praising children for their effort, not the quality of the final product, supports the future mindsets that underlie success in academics, sports, and arts.

Art projects offer a perfect platform for encouraging and reinforcing effort rather than focusing on outcome. For example, parents can acknowledge something specific a child spent time on like making a particularly interesting color when mixing paints or acknowledging a specific skill like cutting with scissors instead of focusing on how the final project looks.

6. Remember – you’re creating happy memories

The fact that you’re supporting your child’s creativity and spending time together is important. One of the most important benefits children and parents both reap from arts and crafts is that, years from now, it won’t matter what was created, just that it was created as children and parents spent time together. Interesting materials, smiles, laughs, and some silliness keep kids engaged. Not only will this lead to cognitive benefits, but also bonding time with parents. Kids will form lasting memories that will stay with them for years to come.

Richard Rende, PhD is a developmental psychologist, researcher, author, and educator.

https://www.safekids.org/2024-product-recalls

Be sure to keep reading over the summer. Visit the Bloomfield Public Library to check out books or attend many of the summer offerings available. Additionally, Bloomfield Public Library is partnering with Bloomfield Schools and embracing the Governor's Reading Challenge theme: Level Up at Your Library. Other activities include a family bingo game, end of summer raffles and a StoryWalk at Filley Park on Scott Trail.

Links to Partner Library Programs

East Granby Public Library Calendar

Granby Public Library Calendar

Avon Public Library Calendar

Simsbury Public Library Calendar

West Hartford Public LIbrary

Hartford Public Libraries