April 2024

Hello! Thank you for taking a moment to read through this month's Early Childhood Community Liaison Newsletter, with a big emphasis on COMMUNITY! Each month, you'll find great information from several entities in Cody that work directly with young children. (Please note that this newsletter works best using the Chrome web browser. If you have difficulties downloading any of the documents found below, please reach out to me directly and I'll send them to you. My contact information can be found at the bottom of this newsletter.)

All programs are FREE and open to children of ALL ages!! Attending any of these programs is a great way to support and extend the learning your child is already doing at his/her preschool or at home. Please note that parents must remain in the classroom for the duration of each program and are expected to be active participants with their child(ren). Be sure to download the April schedule below!

Sign up for Kindergarten Readiness Camp (KRC) when you register for kindergarten.

• Parent Orientation will be held the evening of June 6 at Sunset from 6:00-7:00 Meet the KRC teachers and see the classrooms! (Parents and students are encouraged to attend.)
• Camp will take place at Sunset from June 10-20 (Only 2 weeks this year.)
• Camp will be in session Monday-Thursday, 8-Noon.

As you may be aware, PCSD 6 has hosted a virtual meeting these last few years for families who have an incoming kindergartener. Those present at the meeting include Preschool Liaison, kindergarten teachers, transportation director, KinderBoost teacher, Kindergarten Camp director, and administrators to speak about:

• Basic overview of kindergarten at the beginning, middle, and end of the school year (academics and social/emotional)
• Transportation (during KRC and during the school year)
• Kindergarten Readiness Camp (KRC)
• Petitioning process and KinderBoost
• "Welcome to Kindergarten" Family Night- Scheduled for May 9

To register, contact Brooke Sieg, Preschool Liaison, so she can send you the Zoom link! (See Brooke's contact info below.)

Getting a child ready for kindergarten can sometimes feel overwhelming. What do they need to know? How can I prepare them? It's with those questions in mind that PSCD 6 created a readiness list in an effort to best prepare students (and parents!). Be sure to download the full document, which can be found directly below the list.

April is always an exciting month, full of promise of longer and warmer days ahead!

• Join Miss Nan at the library every Monday morning at 10:00 for Toddler Time – short stories, music and movement for ages 12-36 months, all to develop comfort in the library and a love for books. It’s also a great networking time for adults!
• For slightly older kids, ages 3-6, you’re welcome to attend Story Time every Tuesday and Wednesday mornings at 10:00. Stories are based on a theme each week, accompanied by games, songs and crafts, all the promote early literacy skills plus a love for the library.
• Sleepy Time Stories, a story time for the whole family, will be held Monday evening, April 1st at 6:00. Kids are welcome to come in pajamas and bring a blanket and stuffed animal. Hear great new books, and stay for milk and cookies!
• Children’s Resource Center’s popular Toddler Playgroup will be Thursday morning, April 11th at 10:00, especially for ages 1-3. It’s an hour full of age-appropriate and wonderfully engaging activities that everyone absolutely loves!
• If you haven’t yet started “1,000 Books Before Kindergarten”, we’d love to help! Just ask at the desk for your super-simple chart so you can begin.

Consider choosing a day of the week to be your “Library Day”! There are always lots of good reasons to put a visit to the library on your regular schedule.

In the new PBS KIDS series “Tiny Time Travel,” best friends Tyler and Tony use a time machine to help them solve problems. As they go back and forth in time, they help friends and neighbors fix misunderstandings and communication mix-ups. The series aims to help kids learn social language skills — knowing how to use different forms of language and communication based on the situation.

Have you ever experienced a moment you told a friend something and they reacted in a way you didn’t expect? By practicing social language skills, we learn to understand the intentions, motivations, feelings, and beliefs of the people we communicate with.

“Social language skills involve communication, understanding social cues, and building relationships,” said Uchikoshi Tonkovich, a professor in the School of Education at the University of California-Davis. Tonkovich is an advisor to the show. These skills are building blocks for healthy connections and strong relationships.

Here are some ways to support your child’s social language skills:

Play together. Tonkovich suggests grown-ups and kids play together to build communication skills. Pretend you are going to a restaurant, library, or birthday party - how would you talk to other people in each of those different situations? Practice non-verbal communication using gestures and body language by playing charades. Read books together and talk about the characters’ feelings, behaviors, and interactions with others.

Make time for social interaction. Kids need the chance to practice real-life social scenarios. They also need lots of examples from the adults in their lives. Make time for conversation and play with your child each day. Try setting a regular “screen-free” time of day to encourage face-to-face interaction. For example, you can watch “Tiny Time Travel” with your child and then shut off the video and discuss what you watched. Bring up what you talked about later when your child needs support in facing a communication challenge.

“Balancing screen time with meaningful, in-person interactions is important to develop children’s social language skills,” Tonkovich said. PBS KIDS shows like “Tiny Time Travel” can be an additional resource to help build social language skills.

Think about others’ points of view. Tonkovich says learning to understand the intentions, feelings, and beliefs of others is important. Seeing from another person’s viewpoint builds empathy and connection and can help us communicate better.

Talking with a variety of people can help your child think about how others see the world. Ask teachers, friends, neighbors, or grandparents about their day. Discuss “Tiny Time Travel” characters’ feelings and choices. Ask each person at your dinner table to answer a “Would you rather…” question. (For example, would you rather be a dog or a cat?) Then, talk about why they made that choice.

When things aren’t clear, learn to ask for help. In the “Broken Dreams” episode, Tony and Tyler try to fix the broken time machine. But Tony doesn't understand what Tyler is asking him to do, and this leads to frustration for both friends. Show your child that it’s OK to ask for help when they’re confused. Give them phrases to borrow when they’re stuck, like:

• “Will you say that again, please? I didn’t understand.”

• “I think what you’re saying is ______. Is that right?”

• “I’m confused. Can you say that in a different way?”

Be sure to check out the Cody Calendar of Events for information about local happenings in our community.

Vital Statistics Services helps the public file and access vital records. Vital records include birth, death, fetal death, marriage, divorce and other related data. Vital events are filed with the registrar in the county of occurrence and then are recorded with the state.

How to Request a Certified Copy of a Certificate

Our office is only able to issue certified copies of certificates for events that occurred in the state of Wyoming. Please know that Wyoming is a closed record state and only certain parties are allowed to request certificates. For more information on entitlement, please see the specific page for the type of certificate you are requesting.

If your vital event occurred in another state, please visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) “Where to Write” web page to find contact information for other states and territories.

How to Request a Certified Copy of a Wyoming Certificate Online using your Credit Card

• If your event occurred in Wyoming and you are entitled to request this record, please click on this link: Wyoming Vital Records Portal to be directed to our Online Portal. Be sure to allow cookies and pop ups for this webpage. Please know that there will be a 2.4%, $1.00 minimum convenience fee charged for every order placed.
• If you have not used our Portal prior to this visit, you will need to click on Sign Up before you are able to login and place your order. You Must create an Online Profile before you are able to place an order on our website.
• Once you have set up your profile and are logged into our portal, please select the type of certificate you are needing to request. Be sure to enter information in all of the required fields.
• You will be required to attach an image of a Valid Government Issued ID before your order can be processed. If you do not have a Valid Government ID, please contact our office at 307-777-7591 for more information on how you will be able to obtain your certificate.
• If you would like to have your certificate sent back to you by means other than First Class Mail, you may attach a Pre-Paid, label for FedEx or UPS. The label should list your address as both the sender and the addressee.
• If you are unable to use our Online Portal ordering system, you may send your request to us through the mail (see below).

For health and safety around irrigation water and canals, residents should:

1. Never swim or allow children to swim in canals. Canals are dangerous due to slippery banks, diversions, and fluctuating currents.
2. Do not allow children to play near canals. Do not walk along the banks or edges of canals, which can be very slick.
3. Never jump in to rescue pets. Instead, call 911 for help. Do not jump in after toys or other objects.
4. Obey all posted warning signs. If walking, jogging or biking along canals, keep a safe distance from the edges of the flowing water.
5. Never use canal irrigation water to fill swimming pools, “kiddie” pools, hot tubs or for bathing or drinking. Water from canals can contain agricultural runoff, bacteria, protozoans, chemicals, fecal material from animals, or other contaminants that can cause serious illness.
6. Label all standpipes from irrigation piped systems that use canal water with the words “NON-POTABLE – DO NOT DRINK”. Irrigation water for edible crops and/or gardens should not come into direct contact with edible parts of the plant unless the crop will be peeled, skinned, or cooked before eating.
7. Never connect piping using irrigation water with freshwater potable water systems. Canal water is not chlorinated and can pollute drinking water systems.

Irrigation water is essential to Wyoming agriculture, which is its intended purpose. Any other use of irrigation water can be hazardous or pose a serious public health risk. So please, remember to be safe around Wyoming canals and irrigation ditches.

Brooke Sieg, PCSD 6 Early Childhood Community Liaison

Email: brookesieg@park6.org
Website: www.park6.org
Location: 919 Cody Avenue, Cody, WY, USA
Phone: (307) 272-0153
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057666729007