By Kim McDarison

Molly Fuller, Flourishing First Steps program coordinator, and Beth Nelson, early childhood special education teacher with the School District of Fort Atkinson, have announced that the preschool-focused programming launched last year is expanding. A new segment, featuring an open-gym format, called “Mini Movers,” will soon become available for area families, the two program facilitators said Wednesday.

Families from the broader region, including Whitewater, are eligible to register for the program. Families may register through use of the following link: https://sites.google.com/fortschools.org/1fort-flourishing-first-steps/home. 

Assembling Wednesday evening in the gym/cafeteria space at Purdy Elementary School, several families with young children, many of whom have participated in the Flourishing First Steps program, were offered an opportunity to experience the new segment.

Fuller said the evening provided the facilitators with an opportunity to pilot the idea in advance of the launch and make any needed programming adjustments.

Nine children, ages 1-5, arrived with their caregivers where they found myriad opportunities to build with blocks, bounce on gym mats, play with hoops, and socialize.

The Mini Movers segment of the Flourishing First Steps program is designed to help children develop gross motor skills, socialize, and give Fuller and Nelson another opportunity to see how preschool-aged children are developing skills that they one day will need when entering a K-12 public school system.

Gross motor skills are those that involve whole body movement, such as standing, walking, running, jumping, and sitting upright.

The new segment joins the two previously offered segments of the Flourishing First Steps program that kicked off last October, including “Mini Pre-K,” designed to accommodate children in a classroom setting, ages 25 months to 4 years, and “Itty Bitty Pre-K,” also operating from a classroom setting and designed to accommodate children ages birth to 24 months.

Both segments are offered at Purdy Elementary School, 719 S. Main St., Fort Atkinson, in the building’s two-room Early Childhood Center.

The new gym-focused segment is open to children ages birth to 5 years old.

Fuller explained that each segment — classroom setting or gym — is available to parents independently of the other, meaning parents can register for as many segments as they like within the appropriate age brackets. One does not need to register for the classroom-oriented programming to register for the gymnasium-oriented program. Conversely, she said, the opportunities complement one another. For children who do participate in both settings, the facilitators have more opportunities to help guide parents as the children develop skills.

As with the classroom-oriented segments, a parent or caregiver is required to stay with the child as they participate in the programming.

Fuller noted that Nelson created the curriculums used within the program’s segments, and while each age-specific section offers different activities, each is designed to develop similar skill sets in a manner that is conducive to a child’s development within that age bracket.

Within the classroom setting, children are exposed to peer interaction, free play, sensory/art activities and literacy. Children have the opportunity to strengthen their skills through exploration, discovery and creative experiences, Fuller noted in an interview conducted last October.

“Parents/Caregivers will have the opportunity to not only learn new and exciting ways to interact with their child/children during these sessions, but will be able to ask questions of our early childhood staff about developmental milestones,” she added.

Mini Movers offers an additional opportunity for the facilitators to look at the “whole child,” Fuller said.

Nelson said she has been noticing with elementary school-aged kids that some students “don’t quite have the same motor skills they once had.” The observation was among inspirations to offer the preschool gym-related programming. 

Fuller noted that other aspects of living in Wisconsin, such as cold-weather months, prompted the facilitators to ask themselves: How do we get kids out and moving?

“With Mini Movers, kids can run, and explore, and get that energy out, all while they are working on those gross motor skills,” she said. 

“We can help them build skills now that they will need later when they arrive at school as kindergarteners,” Nelson said.

Children who participate in the programs get a wide array of experiences,” Nelson continued.

“Mini Movers can be used in several ways: It can serve as a recess, a place where kids come to interact and play with other kids, which makes it a great opportunity for socializing,” Fuller said. 

While the kids play with their parents and each other, Fuller and Nelson can move around the space and watch.

It’s an opportunity to see which skills the children still need to develop, and the program facilitators can gather ideas that will help develop those skills for children who attend programming in the classroom setting as well. In this way, the gym experience and the classroom experience can work in tandem, the two facilitators said.

The Mini Movers, like all of the programs offered under the umbrella of Flourishing First Steps, is free and open to all families with children within the designated age structure.

Since the program’s inception, families from such communities as Fort Atkinson, Whitewater, Jefferson, Johnson Creek and Milton have participated, the facilitators said.

With Mini Movers, Fuller said, parents can register their children for one day of activity or for a full four-week section. The website is offering three sessions: Session1, which will be held at Purdy Elementary School, Fridays, from 9 to 9:45 a.m., from Feb. 16 to March 8; Session 2, which will be held at Parents Cooperative Preschool, Fridays, 9 to 9:45 a.m., from March 15 to April 12, and Session 3, which will be held at the Fort Atkinson Preschool and Childcare, Fridays, from 9 to 9:45 a.m., from April 19 to May 10.

Registration is open for Session 1, with registration opening for Session 2 on March 9, and Session 3, on April 6, according to the program’s website.

Participation in Mini Movers is limited to 25 children per session.

“Parents can sign their kids up for a full session or just a single day,” Fuller said.

Registrations for all segments of the program are offered on a first come, first served basis, she said.

The program is free and open to all families with preschool aged children as they align with the age-specific brackets.

A few new partnerships

Along with the addition of the Mini Movers segment, the Flourishing First Steps program will see some other changes with upcoming sections, the facilitators said.

The program is partnering with the Jefferson County Birth to Three program, which works with kids who have special needs, Fuller said.

Working with the program seemed like a natural progression, Fuller stated, since kids within the Fort Atkinson School District will, after the age of 3, next be serviced by Nelson in the district’s early childhood classes.

Through the new collaboration with Flourishing First Steps, if a child is enrolled in the Birth to Three program, those teachers can come and service their students while they are participating in the Flourishing First Steps programming, Fuller noted. 

“So an advantage is that if a child is working with a Birth to Three speech therapist, where they get a lot of one-on-one time, here they can see how they utilize their skills when they are amongst their peers. It’s just another way for those teachers to gain information,” Fuller said. 

“The same holds true for Mini Movers. Here Birth to Three teachers can see how their students are using their motor skills as they interact with other children,” Fuller added. 

Also new is the addition of two students from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater who are pursuing teacher licensure in early childhood education and early childhood special education, information provided by the facilitators noted.

The field placement students will be participating in the classroom-oriented segments of the Flourishing First Steps program, and are anticipated to remain with the program at least through April, Nelson said.

The university students will join the classrooms sections, with one aiding in the classroom on Mondays and the other on Wednesdays, she said.

A concept that is growing

Since its October launch, Fuller said, the program has been growing, and it has gained notice from area educators, both facilitators said.

Among its more unique ideas, Flourishing First Steps makes use of educational space that is already operational within the school building as part of a school day, but is not being used.

“We are using space within the school during the school day at times when other students are not using the space,” Fuller said, adding that the Mini Movers segment will be offered in between Purdy’s scheduled breakfast and lunch period, “so the space is already operational and available,” she said. 

The program was begun using a modest stipend with funds remaining available until the end of this school year. The program stays economical by using space within the school that is already operational, but not otherwise being used, and any materials used are donated or they are items that the school already owns and can easily be shared, Nelson said.

Any other materials the program has needed have been supplied out of pocket by Fuller, she said.

Nelson said that the program provides her with an opportunity to engage with children that will one day be her students. 

She hopes that families participating in the preschool opportunities from outside of the district will one day consider enrolling in the district when their children became school-aged, she said.   

Looking to the future, and as the program grows, the facilitators said plans call for the funding of Flourishing First Steps through the exploration of grant opportunities, stipends, donations and sponsorships.

Fuller said that she believed the program would be successful when she conceived it.

“I knew this year would be a growing year, once we showed families how they could interact with their kids in different ways,” she said, but, she added, she was pleasantly surprised by how well the program has been received. 

Representatives from the Milton School District have already scheduled an opportunity visit and observe a program section.

“They want to see how we are developing our curriculum and programs,” Nelson said. 

“We have also been invited to a speaking engagement at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Early Childhood Conference in April,” Fuller said.

Additionally, Nelson said: “I was networking at a meeting last week with other early childhood providers and a lot of people were asking about our program. They had heard of it and it has brought them inspiration,” she said, adding: “It has put our name on the map.”

While the program has been making “a positive splash in the community,” Fuller said, for the two facilitators, she noted, “it’s all about the kids.”

An earlier story about the Flourishing First Steps program is here: https://fortatkinsononline.com/flourishing-first-steps-preschool-program-provides-learning-opportunities-for-regional-families/.