Dear Angie,

GREAT HALLOWEEN PARTY!

It was so great to see so many of you at our Halloween Party. We thank you for your participation and your support! Please watch for pictures to be sent out in the upcoming week or so.

CENTER HAPPENINGS

FIELD TRIP

Stages Theater—“Beauty and the Beast Jr. on Thursday, December 14, for the 10:00 am show. The tickets are being sponsored by one of our preschool families as they have a cousin in the show and all participants will be charged an additional $10.00 to cover the bussing fee. All preschoolers will attend. There are a limited number of tickets for parents, so please let Cathie or Jamie know if you would like to attend.

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COSTUME KIM—CRAZY COLORS WITH BLUEY

Kim Maxwell will be here on Thursday, November 2, at 9:00 am telling stories about colors. This program is for toddlers through preschoolers.

HOLIDAY PROGRAM

It has been a long tradition to host a holiday singing program each year at our center. The show will be on Tuesday, December 5, at 6:00 pm. All ages participate. Watch for more information…

CONFERENCES

Conferences will be held this year during the month of November in person. If you need a google meet or phone call conference, please let your child’s teacher know. The conferences will be 20 minutes in length, and we will be sharing goals for the year based upon your child’s age group. This is a great time to learn more about our curriculum and about the programming in our classrooms.

FAMILY REMINDERS

DRESSING FOR WINTER

Outside play has always been an important part of our curriculum for young children.

In order to be successful with this portion of our curriculum, we need help from our families. We will need the following items here each day for winter play…

1) Snowpants/snow suit

2) Boots

3) Winter Coat

4) Hat

5) 2 pairs of gloves/mittens

6) Possibly a neckwarmer (no scarves please)

Socks are also a necessity in keep our toes warm—so please keep that in mind each day when your child gets dressed. A back-up pair is always nice if we do have a very snowy day and get wet feet.

LABEL—LABEL—LABEL---this is so helpful to our teachers in keeping track of your child’s items!! We do not have very many things to loan to your child so please keep that in mind when you come to school. As you know, the weather can change very quickly and we want to do our best to keep giving your child the outside play that is so valuable and healthy.

WINTER HOLIDAY DATES:

Monday, December 25, 2023—EFC Closed

Monday, January 1, 2024—EFC Closed for New Years Day

DEVELOPMENTAL SCREENING

Early childhood developmental screening is a check of a child’s development, vision, hearing, growth, health history, and immunizations. Screening takes approximately 1-hour and a parent or legal guardian stays with the child during the process. You can contact Minnetonka public schools at the following phone number (952-401-6840) or connect through this link--https://www.minnetonkaschools.org/district/mcec/early-childhood/screening,

Eden Prairie’s contact information is (952) 975-6940 and their link is https://www.edenpr.org/community-education/ecfe-preschool/early-childhood-screening

ESPECIALLY FOR PARENTS

SUPPORTING A GROWTH MINDSET

by Angie Williams

A growth mindset is one characterized by the view that intelligence and skill can be obtained and increased through effort. In a growth mindset, the brain is rightly understood to be malleable, and mistakes and challenges are a natural and healthy part of learning. A fixed mindset, on the other hand, views intelligence as predetermined and set. Someone with a fixed mindset sees little value in practice and effort because he or she does not think it will change outcomes. A fixed mindset can be detrimental both to the individual who does not believe he or she can be successful in a given area as well as for the one who develops an inflated view of his or her intelligence.

Because having a growth mindset is an important predictor of future success in many areas of life, it is important that adults help to foster a growth mindset in children. Psychologist and researcher Carol Dweck has studied the growth mindset in children and states,

“If parents want to give their children a gift, the best thing they can do is to teach their children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning.”

While much research and literature about the growth mindset focuses on elementary-aged and older children, adults can encourage even young children to value effort over outcomes in service of deep and lifelong learning as well as in building resiliency.

For example, these are ways to stimulate a growth mindset:

• Praising Effort

• Accepting Failures

• Ask for Explanations

• Express the Amount of work put in

• “Your Brain is Growing”

• Praise the PROCESS!

These actions, in contrast, may discourage a growth mindset:

• Praising Outcomes

• Criticizing Failures

• Telling children the answers

• Labeling or Judging student/work

• Telling them they “tried their best”

• Praising the PERSON

We can also share stories with children of characters (real or imagined) who failed and persevered:

Young children may have a natural propensity for a growth mindset and less developed definitions of success and failure than older children and adults. Caregivers can thus encourage participation in varied activities and experiences that engage all of their senses, deepening children’s understanding of the world, capitalizing on these assets of their developmental stage, and expanding children’s belief in their own potential.

Resources:

https://extension.unl.edu/statewide/knox/growth-mindset-in-early-learners/

https://imaginationsoup.net/help-child-unmotivated-growth-fixed-mindset

https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1431&context=etd