BRIGHT BEGINNINGS PRESCHOOL
Experienced Quality Child Care Since 1984
www.brightbeginningsva.com
Crozet Newsletter
January 22, 2010
Experienced Quality Child Care Since 1984
www.brightbeginningsva.com
Crozet Newsletter
January 22, 2010
School News and Notes:
This week started off wonderfully with the refreshing blast of warm air that came through! It’s too bad that it didn’t last but, at least next week we have the Chili Cook Off to warm us up! Reminder: Students in the Rooster and Walrus classes use paper cups during snacks and lunch. Due to space limitations, multiple Sippy cups are not able to be stored in these classrooms.
Health Policy: If your child has one or more of the following symptoms: fever above 100 degrees, diarrhea, or vomiting, please make arrangements to pick your child up within one hour. During the cold and flu season we do everything we can to prevent the spread of germs including sanitizing all common surfaces (like door knobs). However, the best way to stop the spread of disease is to limit person to person contact. Your child may return to school when they have been fever free, without medication, for 24 hours. There are no exceptions to this rule. Please refer to the parent handbook for our full health policy.
Upcoming Events:
Friday, January 22nd – Children’s Night Out
“Winter Solstice” with Ms. Whitney and Ms. Erin
Tuesday, January 26th – Chili Cook Off!
Friday, February 5th – Children’s Night Out
“Sweethearts Ball”
Wednesday, February 10th – Grandparent’s and Special Friends Day/Sweetheart Brunch
Thursday and Friday February 11th and 12th – Valentine’s Day Parties (See sign up sheets)
Monday February 15th – Closed completely for Staff Development and Training
Friday, February 19th – Children’s Night Out
“Celebrate Diversity”
Thursday, February 25th – Staff Appreciation Day
“Winter Solstice” with Ms. Whitney and Ms. Erin
Tuesday, January 26th – Chili Cook Off!
Friday, February 5th – Children’s Night Out
“Sweethearts Ball”
Wednesday, February 10th – Grandparent’s and Special Friends Day/Sweetheart Brunch
Thursday and Friday February 11th and 12th – Valentine’s Day Parties (See sign up sheets)
Monday February 15th – Closed completely for Staff Development and Training
Friday, February 19th – Children’s Night Out
“Celebrate Diversity”
Thursday, February 25th – Staff Appreciation Day
Financial Memo:
Year end statements for 2009 have been printed and placed in your child's cubby. Please note that the Federal Tax ID # is located at the bottom of the page.Payments for lunch, drop in, and late pick up are due at the time of service.
Specials:
Tell-A-Friend- Did you know that if you refer a family to our program you will receive a free week of tuition?!?!Bright Beginnings partners with several corporations and institutions including UVA and PRA, providing employees with a 5% discount off of tuition! We are currently working on a partnership with Sperry Marine and PVCC. Please let us know if your company would be interested as well!
Speech Weekly Notes from Stacy Torrence:
1.22.10
The following are skills we worked on this week. The children had a great time and I was very pleased to see the children progressing with their language skills. I was also impressed to enter several classrooms and the teachers discussing the language skills they were addressing from our last language session. Toddlers and young 2’s
We began by working with manipulatives to focus on simple prepositions (in, on, under, in front). The children were asked to place an object in the correct position as well as tell me where the object was placed. We then read “The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly” and worked with our Velcro pieces to help tell the story. Finally Becca Bunny came to visit and we discussed feelings and made happy, angry, sad, surprised, proud, etc. faces.
Older 2’s
We reviewed prepositions, “in, “on”, “under” and “in front”, “behind”, and “between” using manipulative. The children did a great job! We also read “The Old Who Swallowed a Fly” with the flannel board. The children had a help tell the story when it was their turn. Becca Bunny was used to address feelings. We also began simple sequencing (first, second, last). We will continue sequencing in upcoming weeks.
3’s and 4’s
We utilized our alphabet books and focused on phonemic awareness skills. We reviewed several prepositions this week. We reviewed “in, “on”, “under”, “in front”, “behind”, “between”, “above”, “below”, and “beneath” while following multi-step directions. We also read “The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly” and the children helped tell the story by placing the Velcro pieces on the board as well as telling their friends their part of the story. Sequencing was also addressed. We will do more sequencing in the upcoming weeks. The phonics ladder was also used to find words that began with specific sounds.
Stacy Torrence M.S. CCC-SLP
Child Development Notes from Ms. Brittany Veith:
Playing Games While Waiting with your Young Children
Playing Games While Waiting with your Young Children
Waiting can be hard for children and adults. What can you and your child do to have fun and learn while waiting for your food to arrive in a restaurant, for the bus to come, or in a long line at the store? Try playing one of these word games. It can make the time pass more pleasantly and help your preschooler build valuable skills. Your child can learn how to focus on and describe objects, make decisions, solve word problems, persist at a task, and recognize colors, shapes, numbers, and letters. They will also learn that different people can see things in different ways.
http://www.naeyc.org/files/tyc/file/MessageV2N4.pdf
What’s Cooking?
Chocolate Chunk Pizza Cookie
Ingredients:
1 cup flour
¼ cup graham cracker crumbs
½ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup sugar
½ cup light brown sugar
1 large egg
16 pieces (or more if you’d like!) of chocolate (Hershey kisses work well)
3 tbsp. walnut pieces (optional)
Parchment Paper
Ingredients:
1 cup flour
¼ cup graham cracker crumbs
½ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup sugar
½ cup light brown sugar
1 large egg
16 pieces (or more if you’d like!) of chocolate (Hershey kisses work well)
3 tbsp. walnut pieces (optional)
Parchment Paper
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit on a 12 inch pizza pan and place on pan.
2. Combine flour, graham cracker, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
3. Place butter and sugars in medium bowl and beat with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add egg. Beat well. Gradually add the flour mixture and beat until just blended.
4. Transfer dough to pan and pat into 6 inch circle. Press chocolate pieces and nuts into dough
5. Bake until golden brown and firm to the touch, 15-18 minutes. Transfer to wire rack and cool. Cut into slices like a pizza and enjoy.
Class Notes:
The Pelican Class
The Pelican’s started off the week by saying goodbye to Berkeley and Maegan who moved up to the Kangaroo room! We will miss them but we know they are ready and prepared to start working in our toddler exploration unit! Jackson is also starting to visit that room so that he can gain some familiarity with the room and teachers. Reading is one of our special times and, Listen to My ABC Book is one of our favorite books. The pictures make the children laugh! Squeezing sponges with water on the big blue table is so much fun! Sami and Ashlyn splash the water everywhere! Keaton bounces up and down and likes to be around the toys that make the most noise, our musical instruments! Dancing and playing musical instruments are great. The children love playing with the keys and banging on the drum. Ashlyn has taken a couple of steps this week! Gray is also walking up a storm! And Sami will now walk a few steps at a time! It’s been a great week!
Ms. Sue
The Kangaroo Class
The Kangaroos have had a wonderful week! We have two new friends, Berkeley and Maegan in our toddler explorer group. They have made themselves right at home. We have had fun sorting by size, shape, and color. We made a classroom hand tree. We also did rainbow art! We made a wintry wonder land picture as well. We played in the dress ups and pretended to be mom and dad feeding and dressing the babies. We have been working on using our words and our sign language. Have a great weekend!
Ms. Jen
The Peacock Class
Hello and welcome new (and old!) Peacock families and friends, this week we have had four new friends join our classroom! Welcome Elisabeth, Ava, Amanda, and Carter, they add to our two other fabulous friends Connor and Lucas who have been with Ms. Lee for a couple of months already! I know that Connor and Lucas will be great leaders and will help our new friends “learn the ropes!” We’ve had lots of fun this week exploring new toys, books, blocks, and arts and crafts in the classroom! This week we worked on getting to know each other and learning or re-learning or schedules and routines. Please make sure your child has the following:
- Change of clothes – labeled in a plastic bag
- Sheet and blanket for rest time
- Family photos – one for our family board and one for the birthday board!
- Sippy cups, labeled and dated (if needed)
I look forward to a great learning experience with this group of Peacocks! If you ever have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to stop by or schedule a time to meet with me.
Thanks!
Ms. Lee
The Bunny Class
Hello Bunny families! The Bunnies had a wonderful week this week! For math we discovered the difference between large and small objects. Riley and Nathan really enjoyed finding objects in the room, and then finding something bigger or smaller! For science this week we continued studying winter weather. We also discovered the meaning of same and different. Emily and Martin enjoyed finding things throughout the classroom to compare. During language arts this week, we looked at nursery rhymes. We enjoyed reading many different rhymes out of our Discovery Quest book series. Elara and Jake really enjoyed reading Humpty dumpty. For social awareness, we continued working on learning how to “use our words” to resolve a problem. Makayla and Addie have done a wonderful job with this during the week. Learning how to effectively use our words will be an ongoing process for us, but every week we get better and better!
Thank you for a wonderful week! Have a great weekend!
Ms. Whitney
The Walrus Class
January is in full swing and the Walrus class is continuing to grow and learn! We want to give a warm Walrus welcome to our friends who have moved into our class from across the hall! We have been working hard on our curriculum and enjoying our daily lessons. In math we have been focusing on size and visual/spatial skills. We’ve discussed “too big” and “too small” as well as behind, in front of, and between. We’re now working on big vs. small. In order to understand the concept of size we each had an opportunity to come up in front of the class and distinguish the big object from the small object and, determine if something was too tall or too short to fit under a doorway we created with blocks. In science we whipped up a batch of hot cocoa! We studied measurements as we portioned out our milk, cocoa powder, salt, and vanilla extract to make the delicious warm treat! We then topped it off with marshmallows that we counted and enjoyed our comforting cup of hot cocoa! Bree, Lucy, and Sarah, especially liked the yummy drink and we even made a second batch! We also discussed ways to stay warm in winter. We all had great ideas of ways to keep our bodies toasty in the frigid winter air. In language arts, we wrote the letter “H” on our own. We all came up to the easel, chose a color, and made our “H’s!” They were excellent and Ms. Erin was super proud of our writing skills! In art, we all worked together to create a class snowman! Ms. Erin made the outline of our snowman and we painted him! Then we added pom pom buttons, a carrot nose, and a great big smile! We also made candle sticks and snowy window panes! We shaved crayons and put our shavings in wax paper. Then we helped Ms. Erin iron over the crayon and watched as the wax melted together. As a finishing touch we glued on our panes and strung them with yarn! As a language arts and art project we read a story called When Winter Comes and made snow hats out of paper plates, felt, and pom poms. In social studies we talked about Martin Luther King Jr. We listened to his famous “I Have a Dream” speech on Encarta, we learned a song about him, and we discussed our own dreams! Take a look below for what the Walrus class dreams about! In our children’s humanities unit we made winter snowflakes and winter drawings. We’re glad the snow is melting and have enjoyed some quality outside time warming up in the sun! Have a great weekend!
“My dream is…”
Bree – “To get a baby doll in the future!”
Cate – “About a princess and unicorns!”
Caitlin – “About a baby duck!”
Ava Jordan – “About a dog!”
Sam – “About Lightening McQueen!”
Lucy – “About a baby doll!”
Riyanna – “A baby doll!”
Reminders and Info: If your student’s lunch needs to stay cold please send an ice pack in their lunch box as we do not have an easily accessible refrigerator. The canned food collecting bin is still open for donations and any/all are appreciated!
Ms. Erin
The Rooster Class
This week the Rooster class has been hard at work! We did a lot of fun work in math: practicing counting to 100, counting by 2’s, and counting by 5’s. We also worked on the concepts of big and small and sequencing by size. We worked on the concepts of same versus different, sorting, and classifying.
In language arts, we worked with a new letter of the week, “Nn!” We brainstormed words starting with “N” and practiced writing both the upper and lower case “N’s.” We brainstormed words starting with “Nn” and practiced writing “Nn.” We also learned some new sight words: like, and, is.
This week in art, the Roosters made multicultural hand print art in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. We also laced drums, created paper bag “masks,” and painted giant letter “N’s!”
In social studies/awareness this week, we read a book about Martin Luther King Jr. and discussed his message. We continued this discussion by learning about African American inventions, such as peanut butter – yum! Finally, we read, We Are All Special and Everyone Is Special and discussed how we are all different, but special!
Ms. Sherri and I wish you a restful weekend!
“I Have a Dream…”
Alex – “For everyone to be nice”
Braden – “To share”
Maya – “To make everybody happy”
Ina – “To make new friends”
Marcus – “To be nice to each other”
Jaden – “For everyone to be nice, everyday!”
Ms. Amanda
434-823-7129
1645 Park Ridge Drive