Kiddie Kollege Early Learning Center

This week we were back at it. We jumped into the new year with morning sign ins, classroom jobs, questions of the day, and a variety of small groups. As we learned about different types of fabrics,styles, and the purposes of clothing.We imitated becoming fashion designers. All while creating and savoring memories with our friends to cherish as we all transition into new environments. We also, enjoyed Ms. Jan the librarian stopping by to read us some really cool books about winter. We ended the week with a clothing project. The teacher asked us to recreate our class picture featuring functional play clothes for the classroom and that’s exactly what they did!

You may have heard rumors that Kiddie Kollege ELC will be closing its doors after more than 25 years of service. Yes, this is true. January 30th, 2026 will be our last official day of operation. This decision was not made easily the owner, director, and staff have worked hard and tirelessly in hopes of avoiding this outcome. While we understand the notice to parents and staff was short it was done in the best interest of all involved, especially for our families. You see eight years ago the current owner purchased the center. She did so for many reasons. While, this is not her field of expertise (childcare), she’s always had a heart for the youth. Her goal was to reach children at an early age in hopes of helping them to become productive citizens, community leaders, and overall well rounded individuals that would contribute to a better society. To do this she chose to invest in childcare/children by offering working parents an affordable place they could T.R.U.S.T. to meet the needs of their little scholars and that’s exactly what she’s done. However, her heart for doing right extends beyond the youth. She carries that same passion for her employees. When given the ultimatum to relieve great teachers from their position due to lack of education or lose some funding. She chose to keep the staff she believed in. Those same staff committed to staying with the company, enrolled in colleges, and immediately began pursuing their bachelors degrees. As a family of individuals bond by our passion to educate and support the families we serve; we agreed to continue to press and work hard to make it through this difficult time. Staff old and new work to step up the standards. We stayed late, worked on our days off, and worked together to become more proficient educators. Not because we were asked, but because we wanted to give the parents, director, and owner a fighting chance at making it through this rough patch. However, with a heavy heart she informed us that despite all our best efforts she would have to close the center. As a member of the Kiddie Kollege ELC staff, I understand and respect that she’s choosing to close the five star center due to economical difficulties leaving us in good standing with the state and community. I’m thankful she refused to raise prices beyond what parent can comfortably afford. It shows that it’s always been about serving the community and providing for the children. Thank you to all who have crossed our threshold and chose to T.R.U.S.T us with your children, careers, and future. We look forward to hearing great things.

End of the year photo dump and kindness update!
Thanks to everyone who donated toys for our toy drive! It was a great success. I chose not to take pictures of families receiving the toys because the moment was about kindness and following through for the children. Helping them to understand it wasn’t about the person receiving the gifts but how giving to others make us feel and how it builds the community. However, they thoroughly enjoy sorting the toys by age and bagging them up to be given out. They focused on not only the toy but what skill the toys would help other children learn. For instance, given someone a blanket helps them meet their personal needs and provide comfort. Therefore, emotionally they made feel relaxed, secure, and happy. We learned that the toys we chose for one and two year olds had to be big enough not to go through a paper towel tube for safety. Toys too small are choking hazards. This lead to several children recalling events and making connections to their own personal experiences. We then continued our activity. The hardest part of sorting was choosing what to give teens and adults. “Because they don’t play, they just work,” one child stated. Another said,” they can share cause they not good at sharing their stuff.” After much discussion they decided to give adults and teens small things that they can “carry or hide to play with at work, they said.” They then chose small pop-its, palm size soft toys, candy and blankets. However, they made sure to tell the teacher to give blankets to old people because “they be cold like you, Ms. Joy.” Which then lead to a discussion on why the teacher is old?? Because she plays and does all the things she asks of them. The high light of our activity was when a child said,” You look like you need a hug can I hug you?”They then all proceeded to make a line to hug the teacher. Who was then crying. After everyone was done hugging she asked,” do you know why I’m crying?” They gave several responses but she answered,” because you notice my nonverbal communication and decided I was sad, you then responded by asking to give me a hug. Not just one of you but everyone. That’s a big deal for lots of reasons but mostly because you chose to freely give me the gift of kindness and that’s what we’ve been working to learn!” Thanks to everyone who took the time to show up in anyway for the TK classroom during this holiday season! We are truly grateful for the love and support shown to us🥰. We wish you all a very Happy New Year!

What an amazing day we had making sugar cookies from scratch with Ms. Elaine. It all started when the children came up with the idea to turn our Dramatic Play center into a bakery shop. As they engaged in discussions the teacher quickly realized that only a few students had made actual cookies from scratch. So she reached out to Ms. Elaine, a grandmother, friend, and excellent cookie maker. Who without hesitation agreed to come in and volunteer her time to make our bakery shop experience come to life. When Ms. Elaine entered the room the children jumped with joy and quickly made their way to the carpet. Where she greeted everyone with a lovely smile and reminded them that good cooks must wash their hands first. Next she began pulling out cooking utensils and ingredients. Then with a gentle voice she began explaining what she was going to do and what they’d be able to help her with. As they engaged she talked about recipes, measurements, techniques, time, temperature, and kitchen safety. The children listened attentively, followed directions, took turns, and tried their best. While playing in centers they waited for the cookies to come out of the oven. Finally, the cookies were done and Ms. Elaine served them on a silver platter of love and kindness. The children stated,” these are the best cookies we ever made” and asked Ms. Elaine if they could give her a hug while thanking her for making cookies with them. Later during lunch a student said” I knew I know her, that’s Santa Clause wife. I seen her on T.V.! They then giggled and looked at our kindness elves and said,” thanks Santa Clause.”

Today we continued our study of holidays around the world. This week we’re in Germany where we learned they popularized the concept of the gingerbread house through the story “Hansel and Gretel ” making the gingerbread man a holiday staple.During morning meeting we reviewed compound words with a focus on the term gingerbread. The children were then surprised with a special guess, Principal Shadrach Martin of Success Institute Charter School. Principal Martin stop by to read the book “The Gingerbread Man,”by Jim Ayles and Barbara McClintock. As the story was read the children listened intensely. Principal Martin, used this opportunity to bring the story alive. He encouraged the children to move their feet swiftly up and down while swinging their arms back and forth. Thus, allowing the children to create a running sound as he read,” run, run as fast you can. You can’t catch me I’m the gingerbread man!” The children laughed excitedly as they engaged . Once the story was over the children eagerly answered questions about what order the story was read in. Who the main character of the story was and what happened to the gingerbread man at the end. Before Principal Martin, left the children ran to give him high fives and told him he did a good job! We then extended the storybook discussion by engaging in open ended dialogue as the children recreated the main character of the story as their small group activity.

The view was amazing!!

Around 8:20am two students walk up to the teacher holding a small dry erase board. “Ms.Joy, we sent you an email on our laptop,” here read it. The teacher takes the pretend laptop and reads. She then hands it back. The same student looks at her and said,” did you read it?” She responded,” yes.” He said,” So, you know you have to the end of the day to finish the bakery Shop!” She said,” did you just give me a deadline?” The other student interjects,” yes, cause it’s taking you too long and we been did our part,” she said while looking at her friend in agreement. Ms. Joy looks at them and said, “ I can’t believe this!” While walking away the student looks back and said, “ it’s okay, you just need to problem solve!!” 🤣🤣🤣 Teacher thinks to herself, it’s to early for all this! While being flabbergasted I had to take a moment and acknowledge these two students independently came together during their free choice time and discussed a topic that concerned them both. (They’re ready to play in the bakery shop ).They then thought up a creative way to express their needs to the teacher by asking her to read the email. By choosing to approach the teacher together they were offering each other emotional and peer support.They didn’t stop there. Next they followed up with the teacher by asking if she knew what it said. With effective communication they skillfully repeated the information. Using their nonverbal communication such as making eye contact with each other while speaking and standing in close proximity to each other continuously they drew confidence from one another. Gathering from the teachers response and nonverbal movements they concluded she felt unsure of her ability to get the job done. So, they confidently reminded her all she needs to do was think of a way to get it done. This moment made me realize that
building a sense of community within our classroom setting fosters the ability to produce something that teamwork can’t teach. In my opinion, it plants seeds in the heart and mind of children that everyone is someone of value. We’re better Together !

Today we had the opportunity to fly with Kiddie Kollege Airlines! After meeting our flight attendants and receiving our safety instructions it was finally time to take off. What an amazing experience! We learned that on airplanes the window seats provide a very unique view. For instance, we were able to see cumulus clouds up close by simply looking through the window/ screen onto the YouTube video. We noticed that up close clouds appear to be,”very fat but not like a big back cause that not nice’”stated one friend, “are they’re stacked on top of each other, said another friend”or sitting like a leaning pizza,” shouted someone else. Suddenly we noticed that we were flying through some thin clouds. However, it was pointed out that they weren’t nimbostratus clouds also known as rain clouds. When asked,” how do you know?” A friend stated,” cause they weren’t gray clouds!” We were also able to see part of the wing of our airplane.Which we discussed is used to help move the plane through the air and helps provide balance. But, that wasn’t the best thing about the flight. With eagerness we learned that the best part about flying is “you can walk down the middle aisle to go to the bathroom! While in the air and the flight attendance brings you water and snacks to make it better.”While one child answered they all shouted,”yeah! In agreement.

After two days of creating suitcases and making passports we were finally ready to board the plane.