District-Wide Child Safety Parent Presentation

Friday, September 12th from 10:00am-Noon

Darien Board of Education Conference Hall, 35 Leroy Ave

Dear Parents,

Over the course of this school year, all Darien elementary schools will participate in the following child safety programs conducted by Kids in Crisis & The Center for Sexual Assault Crisis Counseling & Education:   

SafeTalk (1^st, 3^rd, & 5^th grades)

• Comprehensive, child-friendly workshop designed to help keep children safe. 

• Uses the curriculum of the Child Assault Prevention Project.
• Focuses on empowerment & encourages children to be “safe, strong, & free”.
• Combines guided discussion with role-plays that focus on situations children frequently encounter, like bullies, strangers & known adults who may behave inappropriately.
• Teaches children how to recognize & respond to a potentially harmful situation & how to express their concerns to a trusted adult. 
  Feeling Safe (Kindergarten)
• The program promotes personal safety, teaching children how to be assertive & the importance of not keeping secrets that are scary, harmful &/or painful.
• The program is developmentally appropriate & conducted by Certified Sexual Assault Crisis Counselors.
• The workshops are completely confidential & respectful of the privacy of each child.
• “Feeling Safe” is safety education, not sex education. 
  Parents & teachers are partners in the process & we welcome your involvement.  To find out more about these programs, you are invited to attend a district-wide parent orientation meeting on Friday, September 12^th at 10:00 AM (Darien Board of Education Conference Hall, 35 Leroy Ave).
  The Parent Presentation will include:

• Introductions to Kids in Crisis & The Center for Sexual Assault Crisis Counseling & Education
• Overviews of the children’s classroom workshops
• Role of the parent/family in prevention
• Suggestions for introducing & reinforcing prevention skills in the home
• Discuss warning signs & behaviors of child sexual assault & what to do if a child discloses to them
• & plenty of time for questions
   
  In an effort to promote the safety of all our children, we look forward to your participation in this very important event.
  Sincerely,
  Paula Bleakley
  Principal
  For more information, please contact:

Kristen M. Tomasiewicz Director, Community Services    www.kidsincrisis.org Kids in Crisis | One Salem Street | Cos Cob, CT 06807 phone:  203-622-6556 | cell: 203-274-1210 | fax: 203-622-8332 email: ktomasiewicz@kidsincrisis.org	Jessica Buchanan, Community Educator The Center for Sexual Assault Crisis Counseling & Education 733 Summer Street, Suite 503, Stamford, CT  06901 203-348-9346     www.thecenter-ct.org Direct line: 203-487-0663    j.buchanan@thecenter-ct.org
Lavi Ben-Zvi, Coordinator for Student & Family Social Services Darien Elementary Schools       lben-zvi@darienps.org

 

Week 2!

We continued to practice classroom and school routines!  We begin each day with morning meeting where we greet one another.




During Reading Workshop we...

• Read from books in bins at our tables.
• Practiced taking care of our books.
• Turned and talked with our new reading buddies about the story.
• Worked on our independent reading stamina!
• Started practicing sight words - everyone will receive their own individualized sight word ring.

Shared reading is 10 minutes in our day when the whole class reads together. Quite often, the reading is a familiar Nursery Rhyme or poem, or memorable text. We read the same piece each day, and by the end of the week the students are “reading” it on their own!  Our shared reading this week was Jack be Nimble.  A copy of the nursery rhyme should be in your child's Holmes School folder.  Feel free to practice it at home!


During Writing Workshop we...

• Learned how to use our Yellow writing folders - red dot vs. green dot.
• Wrote a story through illustrations.
• Shared our story.

During Math Workshop we...

• Practiced our math centers routine.
• Learned how to use math manipulatives - (cubes, pattern blocks, 3-D blocks).
• Shared how we used the math manipulatives - (patterning, counting, constructing).
• Learned counting games like POP/TENS and counting cubes to make a rod.

During our Second Steps lesson we learned the we listen with....

• Voice quiet, body still, ears listening, eyes watching!
• We also learned about "body bubbles" and giving one another space.

We continued to build our classroom community through name chants, games and activities!


REMINDERS:

• Please send in $7.00 for Let's Find Out.
• Please send a note if your child's departure is changing.
• Everyone needs a smock for Art and a change of clothes.
• Picture Day is Wednesday!!!  Send in your order forms.