In June 2023, Jennifer found herself unemployed from her General Manager position. She had to apply for Unemployment Compensation for the first time in 13 years. She was selected for the Re-Employment Services and Eligibility Assessments (RESEA) Program, a mandatory...
Spring started out with guessing whether the groundhog would see his shadow or not. We encouraged the children to vote on whether or not we were going to have six more weeks of winter and created a graph to display our data! Those who said we were going to have an...
The Private Industry Council of Westmoreland / Fayette Inc. (PIC) is celebrating 40 years of offering youth programs in Westmoreland/Fayette counties. To celebrate this milestone, PIC is welcoming all youth to their Youth Open House events to learn more about all PIC...
For the past two years, Head Start / Early Head Start have been participating in a Local March for Babies fundraising walk. Each year our donations to the March of Dimes have grown. This year, as in the past two years, we will meet at Hutchinson Park on Saturday,...
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Head Start / Early Head Start FAQs The Private Industry Council discusses frequently asked questions for Head Start and Early Head Start students. Private Industry Council operates the Head Start / Early Head Start program for Beaver and Fayette Counties in the...
With the end of the PIC Pre-K Counts second year at Latrobe Elementary School, we reflect on last years goal to have more community visitors come to the classroom. We were able to find different programs to visit the classroom this year and we have also expanded the list for next year.
We were excited to have Bunnykith return with four, six-week-old bunnies for the kids to take turns holding if they wanted to. Mrs. McCormick and Mrs. Hesse get just as excited as the kids do when they come to our classroom. It’s amazing to watch the children’s demeanors start to calm as a bunny is placed onto their lap. The bunnies also calm with the children as they enjoy taking in all the petting and affection. This year one of our students said she would name one of the bunnies Sweetie Pie. As these bunnies did not have names yet, Bunnykith’s loved the name and kept the pie theme as they named the others. They now have: Sweetie Pie, Pumpkin Pie, Oatmeal Cream Pie, and Marshmallow Fluff Pie.
The visits didn’t stop at bunnies this year. We were excited to have Max, an emotional support dog come with his owner Mr. Henry. Max visits cancer patients every week at a local clinic. Max had never come to a classroom before so he was very eager to meet the students and a bit overwhelmed on his first time. Max has since visited a few times since and he is more relaxed to see the children and show them his tricks. This has been a great way for the children to learn about taking care of pets and how some animals have jobs.
Sometimes we don’t have to look very far to have special guests for our classroom. Some of our most special story time guests were the student’s fellow classmates this year. Many of our children felt very confident and comfortable in front of their fellow peers. We had a few students that would read to the class while others would picture walk the story from memory. They not only would read to the class but ask their classmates to participate in acting or trying out activities from from the story. They asked questions and redirected classmates that were easily distracted. It was heartwarming to watch these students that may have been quiet, shy, or even unable to write their name just months ago, sitting in the teacher’s spot taking over the class, as one day they will be taking over the world!
We expect to have more great and special guests next year! If you know of any groups in the community that would be interested in visiting our classroom, please reach out and let us know!
PIC Pre-K Program at Latrobe Elementary School, Mrs. Hesse and Mrs. McCormick
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