It is a great week here at Our Shepherd!  We are celebrating our youngest learners this week!  It is especially exciting this year as Governor Holcomb has signed the Proclamation declaring April the Month of the Young Child! To read the proclamation click here. Additionally, as advocates for high quality education for our youngest learners, we will celebrate the Week of the Young Child April 10-16!  We thank and praise God for the opportunity to provide high quality experiences for young children here at Our Shepherd.  Please take a minute and read more about Week of the Young Child below.   

What is the Week of the Young Child®?
The Week of the Young Child® is an annual celebration sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the world's largest early childhood education association, with nearly 60,000 members and a network of 51 Affiliates. 

The purpose of the Week of the Young Child® is to focus public attention on the needs of young children and their families and to recognize the early childhood programs and services that meet those needs.

NAEYC first established the Week of the Young Child® in 1971, recognizing that the early childhood years lay the foundation for children's success in school and later life. The Week of the Young Child™ is a time to plan how we—as citizens of a community, of a state, and of a nation—will better meet the needs of all young children and their families.

Why focus on young children and early childhood programs?
Today we know more than ever before about the importance of children's earliest years in shaping their learning and development. Yet, never before have the needs of young children and their families been more pressing. 
 
The Week of the Young Child® is a time to recognize that children's opportunities are our responsibilities, and to recommit ourselves to ensuring that each and every child experiences the type of early environment—at home, at child care, at school, and in the community—that will promote their early learning.

We began our day discussing flowers!  The friends were excited to add questions to our "Wonder Wall."  These questions will guide our study! 

We then went outside.  

What beautiful flowers we found on the hill!  They are blooming! 

During work time we painted pictures of flowers. 

We also drew an initial drawing of flowers and shared what we know about flowers.  We will do this again at the end of our study and compare the two to see how much we learn!