Early Childhood Club T-Shirt Party A Huge Success

Workshop room V118 was transformed this past week with the giggles and smiling faces of the children from the KCC Child Development Center, who joined us for our first ever "Club T-shirt Party" held on March 29.

After some pizza, juice, hot chocolate and other treats, everybody got busy designing their t-shirt. Multi-colored squiggles, dots, lines and swirls quickly adorned the shirts of the pre-schoolers, who grinned from ear-to-ear as they discovered what they could do with our fun fabric markers. And the best part? They got to wear their artwork home! In fact, many of the children wore their t-shirts to school the very next day, and proudly showed them off to visitors of the child care center.

The adults were just as creative, and as children's music played in the background, our club members and guests developed wonderful captions and child-related designs for their shirts. One read, "Practice what you teach!" and another boldly proclaimed, "My girlfriend is a proud member of the Early Childhood Club." Prof. Barbara Frawley attended the event with her two daughters, and created a fun t-shirt with a play-dough recipe written on the front. She promised to wear it in her EDC 30 class when her students make play-dough!

A reporter from "Scepter," KCC's school newspaper, also attended the event. He interviewed the officers and members for an upcoming article about our club. Abe Ginsberg, Scepter's photographer, took some gorgeous pictures, which we hope to have posted on this website (in our new photo gallery) by next week. In the meantime, anyone who attended the party can have a few photos e-mailed to them by contacting us at profnleggio@aol.com

Our event would not have been such a great success without the hard work and dedication of our officers: Reyna, Doreen, Maria, Dawn, Rocio, and Anna. They put in many hours publicizing and preparing for this event. We had such a huge turnout that we had to carry in lots of chairs from other classrooms to accomodate everyone!

We hope you had a good time and that you will join us at our next meeting, to be held on Tuesday, May 3 in room V118 at 3 P.M. We will be hosting a workshop on resume writing and job seeking strategies, after a brief business meeting. See you then!

Early Childhood Club Meeting And T-shirt Party To Be Held on Tuesday, March 29

The KCC Early Childhood Club welcomes all members of the Early Childhood Program to our special spring event this Tuesday, March 29, at 3 P.M. in Room V118.

In addition to our regular members, we will have some special guests in attendance that day. Several faculty from the ECE Program will be there with their children, as well as staff and families from the KCC Child Development Center.

Everyone in attendance will be given a plain white t-shirt, which they can decorate themselves, using non-toxic fabric markers. All materials, including the adult and child-size t-shirts, will be provided by the club. In keeping with our program's philosophy, all the children's t-shirts will be ORIGINAL designs, with no restrictions except they must include the words "Early Childhood Club" somewhere on the t-shirt. (Adults can assist younger children who are not yet able to print on their own, and invented spelling from beginning writers is encouraged!)

The adults are free to create their own designs, too, as long as the theme of their t-shirt is child-related. The words "Early Childhood Club" also must appear somewhere on the shirt. We hope everyone will wear their t-shirt on campus, to show their support for the Early Childhood Club!

There will be free pizza and beverages, music, and free resources about the ECE profession and parenting. A short business meeting for club members will follow the t-shirt party. We hope to see you there!

Scholarships Available for ECE Students

The Annette Urso Rickel Foundation, Inc. is trying to attract dedicated students, particularly of color, to careers in teaching. The foundation is seeking to identify qualified students interested in becoming teachers, and will award scholarships of up to $3,00 per student annually. They are currently aiming to award up to 20 scholarships in the NYC area for the fall 2005 semester, and the deadline for submitting all paperwork is May 1.

The Early Childhood Club's faculty advisor, Nancy Leggio, has applications and blank letter-of-recommendation forms for any students with a high G.P.A. who might be interested in applying for this scholarship. Please contact her at profnleggio@aol.com, or visit her office in room V115. Additional information can also be found on the foundation's website, www.teachingscholars.org

Updated Children's Literature Library Available for All Early Childhood Students

As part of our ongoing efforts to provide important resources for members of the Early Childhood Club, as well as all students who are either Early Childhood or Educational Studies majors, we are pleased to announce that a large collection of children's books is available for students to use in Room V117.

A number of courses require students to use quality children's literature in their assignments, such as HUM 81, EDC 28, EDC 30, EDC 91, and EDC 93. We have over 100 children's books, many of them award-winners, in our library. Students must check in with Cecilia in room V116 before visiting the library. Once you have checked in, you will be permitted to peruse the entire collection for as long as you would like. You may then choose up to five books to check out, and books may be borrowed for up to two weeks.

The Early Childhood Club donated a substantial number of these books to the ECE Program several years ago, after hosting a Scholastic Book Fair at KCC. Cecilia has organized the books alphabetically by title, to make it easy for you to make your selections.

If you have any questions or would like to provide any feedback, please contact us at the following e-mail address: profnleggio@aol.com

Early Childhood Professional Resource Library Open for Students

The Early Childhood Club is pleased to announce that our new collection of NAEYC books for future teachers has arrived, and is available for students to borrow in Room V117.

There are many titles to choose from, on a wide range of topics, attractively displayed on our new literature rack. Books on curriculum planning, classroom management, and starting a day care program are just a few of the choices you'll find there. A special thank-you goes out to our Co-Vice presidents, Maria Capitummino and Doreen Brittingham, for all of their hard work putting the book rack together!

The new books are a wonderful addition to our growing collection of professional resources for early childhood and educational studies majors. They are a nice complement to the free NAEYC brochures which are currently available in V116.

All books must be signed out, and can be kept for up to two weeks. If you would like to borrow a book, please see the club's faculty advisor, Nancy Leggio, in Room V115.