Minutes Of Our April Meeting

The Early Childhood Club met on Tuesday, April 25 in our new room, V122, from 3 to 4 pm. Our President, Reyna Richman, chaired the meeting.

After some pizza and refreshments, we discussed old and new business. We reflected on the success of our two big spring events: the T-Shirt Party, and the celebration of the "Week of the Young Child" in the breezeway. We are still awaiting photos of the kids in their t-shirts, so if anyone has pictures, please e-mail them to us at profnleggio@aol.com . They will then be posted on this website. Reyna asked that everyone give a special thanks to our Co-Secretary, Theresa Maresco, for her hard work in planning and preparing for these events.

The next item on the agenda was a discussion of our upcoming field trip. On Saturday, May 20, the club is going to "A Child's Place," a day care program founded and directed by KCC Early Childhood instructor Joan Gallagher. This is the club's first trip in many years, and we are very excited about it!

Some students are going individually by public transportation, and will meet us at the site (which is located in Queens) at 1 pm. Other club members will be traveling by car with the faculty advisor and other students, and will leave from KCC. This group will meet at 12 noon sharp on May 20 in room V122, to sign trip release forms and form car pools. This is an adults-only trip and space is limited, so if you are interested in signing up to join us, please do so as soon as possible! You can leave us a message in our club mailbox in room C123, or see the faculty advisor, Nancy Leggio, in room V115.

The next item was the election of another Co-Secretary to work with Theresa. Helianne Duke has been an active member of our club this past year, and she has participated in many meetings and events. She has also begun creating flyers for our club. Helianne was elected unanimously, and we welcomed her aboard!

Our meeting concluded with a fun game of "Education Wheel of Fortune." Reyna created the puzzles and turned the letters as students made their guesses. The grand prize winner was Theresa, who correctly solved two of out of the three puzzles: "Developmentally Appropriate Practice," "Playdough," and "Open-Ended Materials." Theresa received a tote bag of goodies from the NAEYC: a calendar, a copy of the journal "Young Children," a pin, and a book. Congratulations to Theresa and all of our players!

After the general meeting there was an officer's meeting to discuss plans for the remainder of the term. The club's final meeting of the semester will be held on Tuesday, May 30 at 3pm in room V122. This is the last date of day classes at KCC. (Evening classes end the following day, May 31.) We are planning a special end-of-the-year party for this meeting, which will include a pot-luck multicultural foods celebration. Please join us, and bring a special COLD dish from your culture to share! (KCC does not allow homemade hot dishes at events, for health reasons.) The club will provide beverages, plates, and utensils. We will also be giving out "Certificates of Appreciation" to our officers, and there will be a drawing for a very special prize: a beautiful back-pack and an apron from the NAEYC, both engraved with the slogan "Early Years Are Learning Years". Students who have participated in at least five club meetings this past year will be eligible to enter the drawing to win this "good attendance" award.

On May 30 we will be saying good-bye to many departing members and officers, who are graduating from KCC this June. We hope you can join us at this very special meeting!

An Exciting Spring

The Early Childhood Club has had a busy and exciting spring! We recently hosted two back-to-back events which were highly successful: our second annual "T-Shirt Party," and our first annual celebration of the NAEYC "Week of the Young Child."

On Tuesday, March 28 we welcomed many guests, as well as regular club members, to room V118 for the T-Shirt Party, and once again a wonderful time was had by all. Many children from the KCC "Family College" attended this year, and after they had some pizza and grape juice, everyone got busy designing their shirts.

As children's music played in the background, the adults created colorful designs of school buses and other early childhood themes. Some of the children decorated their shirts with favorite storybook characters, while others drew the smiling faces of their friends and family members. At the conclusion of the party all the children posed for photographs, and then wore their artwork home! We plan to post the photos as soon as we receive them (via e-mail), so you can see for yourselves what a terrific time they had.

All of the refreshments, decorations, music, T-shirts, fabric markers, and supplies were provided by the Early Childhood Club. Our officers and members worked very hard to plan and organize this event, and we wish to thank them for their dedication. We were also grateful to receive $200 towards our expenses from the Public & Health Council.

Soon after the T-Shirt Party, the club enjoyed a wonderful experience celebrating the NAEYC's "Week of the Young Child" for the very first time on Wednesday, April 5 in the breezeway. Many KCC students stopped by our table, which was laden with free resources from the NAEYC. Catalogs, brochures, pamphlets, and fact sheets were gratefully picked up by students from a variety of backgrounds and majors. A video about the NAEYC's history and mission played in the background as our club members greeted passersby. The table was beautifully decorated with NAEYC kites and other materials, and our lovely club banner was hung in the backround. This event was a terrific way to promote awareness of the need for quality early childhood education services for young children.

A hearfelt thank-you goes out to our Co-Secretary, Theresa Maresco, who was the coordinator for the WOTYC event. She did a terrific job planning and organizing it over a period of several months.

The Early Childhood Club will meet on Tuesday, April 25 from 3 to 4 pm in our new meeting room, V122. We will play a game of "Education Wheel of Fortune," and we will finalize our plans for our May field trip. We hope to see you there!