BRIGHT BEGINNINGS PRESCHOOL
Experienced Quality Child Care Since 1984
www.brightbeginningsva.com
Crozet Newsletter
March 12, 2010
Experienced Quality Child Care Since 1984
www.brightbeginningsva.com
Crozet Newsletter
March 12, 2010
Upcoming Events:
Friday, March 19th, Children’s Night Out, 5:30-8:30“Shining Shamrock”
Tuesday, March 23rd, Kindergarten Registration! Registration will take place at the school that you which will be attending. Please see the informational sheets posted on the front Bulletin Boards and Pre-K classroom for details!
Monday, March 29th, Re-registration Fee Charged to Accounts except Rising Kindergartners
Friday, April 2nd, Children’s Night Out, 5:30-8:30
“Hop into Spring”
Thursday and Friday, April 8th and 9th, Closed Completely for Spring Break
Friday, March 19th, Children’s Night Out, 5:30-8:30“Shining Shamrock”
Tuesday, March 23rd, Kindergarten Registration! Registration will take place at the school that you which will be attending. Please see the informational sheets posted on the front Bulletin Boards and Pre-K classroom for details!
Monday, March 29th, Re-registration Fee Charged to Accounts except Rising Kindergartners
Friday, April 2nd, Children’s Night Out, 5:30-8:30
“Hop into Spring”
Thursday and Friday, April 8th and 9th, Closed Completely for Spring Break
What’s Cooking?
Kiwi Lime Pie
Ingredients
* 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
* 3 tbsp. butter, melted
* 1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
* 4 egg yolks
* 1/3 cup lime juice
* Thin chocolate cookie wafers
* 1 kiwi, peeled and sliced
Instructions
1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the graham cracker crumbs and butter in a bowl. Firmly press the crumbs against the bottom and sides of a 9-inch pie pan. Bake for 5 minutes.
2. In another bowl, stir the sweetened condensed milk, egg yolks and lime juice until well mixed. Pour the mixture into the crust and bake for 15 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean.
3. Once the pie cools, push cookie wafers into the filling along the edge. Top with kiwi slices arranged to resemble a shamrock. Serves 8.
Ingredients
* 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
* 3 tbsp. butter, melted
* 1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
* 4 egg yolks
* 1/3 cup lime juice
* Thin chocolate cookie wafers
* 1 kiwi, peeled and sliced
Instructions
1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the graham cracker crumbs and butter in a bowl. Firmly press the crumbs against the bottom and sides of a 9-inch pie pan. Bake for 5 minutes.
2. In another bowl, stir the sweetened condensed milk, egg yolks and lime juice until well mixed. Pour the mixture into the crust and bake for 15 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean.
3. Once the pie cools, push cookie wafers into the filling along the edge. Top with kiwi slices arranged to resemble a shamrock. Serves 8.
Speech Weekly Notes from Stacy Torrence:
3.12.10
We had a great week with language groups. It was exciting to see the toddlers talking more and using sign language while speaking. My octopus bubble machine was a big hit in all of the classrooms.
Toddlers and young 2’s
We began by reading a “Noisy Story” to practice our speech sounds. We read the Noisy Story about a “Baby on the Farm”. We worked on the following sounds /m/, /g/, /b/, /r/, and /n/. Buddy Bear books were used to read books and answer simple “what” questions. We also introduced the story “Elmer” about a very special elephant. The book is filled with great language concepts such as (old, young, tall, short, thin, big, etc. The children had to listen to the story and place their story piece on the flannel board when appropriate. The octopus bubble machine was introduced and the children had to say, “pop bubbles” while the machine was on.
Older 2’s
We also read Elmer and focused on specific opposites and language concepts listed above. We played with our bubble machine and the children had a great time. Buddy Bear books were used to answer specific “what” questions.
3’s and 4’s
We read Elmer and stepped it up a notch with the language concepts. We discussed the meaning of a herd, what it was like to be the same as well as different, answered many “wh” questions while reading the story and again focused on tall/short, thin/big, same/different, old/young, happy/sad, etc. We then continued to work on rhyming words with our rhyming houses and the children did a fantastic job putting their pictures in the appropriate rhyming house.
Stacy Torrence M.S. CCC-SLP
Class Notes:
The Pelican Class
We were lucky to have some warm weather this week and got to go on a buggy ride! We talked about the changing of weather from cold to worm and looked to see if any birds were flying or tweeting yet! We love squeezing toys to hear the sound; this is one of Sami’s favorite things to do! She laughs very loud when she can make it squeak. Gray is really having fun stacking the nesting cups or mixing bowls while I count to him. Finding the cereal on the table while having snack is all of the children’s favorite activities! This week we tore different color paper up and threw it all over the floor to watch it fall, Ashlyn loved this game (sometimes she would even try to eat it!) Keaton loves to watch bubbles as they fall on him! We like listening to music a lot! To enhance our creativity we like opening and shutting our hands to the music! Sami and Gray love to repeat words that we say in the classroom, especially “baby.” So, we point to the baby and say it over and over again! The letter of the week is “D” and I have shown the children pictures and said “D” words over and over. We have tried to say, “Doll, Dog, and Dad!” It is so much fun just to see how our children are growing up and doing different things.
Have a wonderful weekend and be safe!
Ms. Sue
The Kangaroo Class
This week in our Gross Motor unit we played “Jack in the Box.” We had a lot of fun pretending to pop out of the box! We also played with a bean bag toss game! In our Fine Motor development unit we made several art projects. We made clown faces and talked about the circus. We also made a nature collage with materials that we collected from our playground. We also used sponges that were cut out in different shapes at our water table. And, we borrowed some legos from another class and tried to build a big tower! During our Practical Living/Self Help time, we pretended we were at the beach, which wasn’t too hard earlier this week! We also pretended to build a sandcastle with our blocks! We really enjoyed knocking it down!
Ms. Jen
The Bunny Class
Hello Bunny families! What a beautiful week we have had. It’s been so nice to get some fresh air and run around outside! This week during math we worked really hard on number recognition. We focused on numbers 1,2,3. I would write the number on the white board along with the corresponding dots and have the children make a guess as to which number it is. This is a concept that has just been introduced this week so we will continue to work on it! For science we continued to talk about circus animals. Emily and Nathan loved pretending to be their favorite circus animals, and Addie and Elara really enjoyed the stories we read about the circus! For language arts this week we focused on two themes. This week we often read rhyming books. Connor and Jake worked really hard to come up with great rhyming words! Our other literary theme this week was the circus, which we all loved reading about! During social awareness we were introduced to the concept of cooperation. We discovered that it is very important to have cooperation in order to have a happy classroom! Martin and Makayla did a great job demonstrating that this week by sharing and taking turns! We also had a birthday this week, happy 3rd birthday Makayla!
Have a great weekend!
Ms. Whitney
The Peacock Class
Hello Peacock families and friends! What a beautiful week we had! We were lucky to be able to enjoy some outside play time. This week we took advantage of Mr. Sun and did a lot of outdoor activities. We went bird watching with our classroom binoculars, took a nature walk, colored beautiful pictures outside, and of course just playing on our fun playground! This week we also learned about the circus. We talked about the types of animals in the circus as well as the differences between animals that live on a farm and wild animals that live in jungles/rainforests.
We had a lot of fun learning through some manipulative games this week like M&M matching colors game, bean sorting, as well as noodle and rice play too! In language arts this week we have been practicing our ABC recognition with flash cards. This seems to be going very well. We are all doing a great job of participating. We also used our puppets several times this week to help tell stories and sing songs.
We still are very busy working on decorations for our classroom for St. Patrick’s Day! We are talking a lot about green! We learned what two colors make green (blue and yellow!) We colored, painted, and drew with green colored pencils, chalk, and markers! What a fun and exciting week it’s been in the Peacock classroom!
Ms. Lee
The Walrus Class
Spring is right around the corner and the Walrus kids are continuing to blossom! We've had a fun week full of laughs and learning. In Math we played "clown lotto" which gave us practice recognizing and identifying shapes. Specifically, we focused on the triangle and circle as those are the shapes we found on a clown's face! After we identified the shapes we then put them on a paper plate to make our very own clown face! We added a hat and a smile to complete our silly clowns. We also played an M&M color matching game. We identified which M&M colors we had and then matched them to the corresponding construction paper M&M. In Science learned all about elephants, tigers and monkeys! We love learning new things about animals and use Encarta for Kids in order to conduct our research. We are fascinated with watching animals in their natural habitat and enjoy learning fun facts about all different types of animals. We learned that monkeys have very flexible hands and feet and that they use their tails to hang from trees! Our Project Green lesson focused on the concept of shrinking habitats. We used an area in our classroom to demonstrate an actual shrinking habitat. We first discussed different species that lived in our habitat and what things were vital to their existence. Then we began taking those important things away to illustrate how certain ecosystems are gradually shrinking. After the demonstration we discussed ways to protect ecosystems and prevent shrinking habitats. In Language Arts we drew pictures of things that start with the letter D and did BIG DOT tracing of the letter D. We also practiced writing D all on our own! Lucy, Bree, Cate and Ava Jordan all enjoy writing letters and are doing a fantastic job of it! In Art we made clown face collages which tied in with our Math lesson on shape recognition. We also did marble painting and discussed color mixing! Finally in Art, we made heart shaped shamrocks using sponged tip paint bottles! These allow us to use our fine motor skills as they are small squeezable bottles that need lots of fine direction when being used to paint! In Dramatic Play we pretended to be a band! We learned how to use different instruments and played them in a music parade! We also pretended to walk on a tightrope which helped us develop our balancing skills! In Social Awareness we focused on learning to work cooperatively in teams! We did puzzle and peg races as well as worked in two separate teams in order to complete our giant class puzzles! In Children's Humanities we are using literature in order to learn about building our character! We learned about being courageous as well as what it means to be a good friend! We are enjoying being outdoors and every day are seeing new signs of Spring! Have a great weekend!
Reminders and Information: Please do not send toys or sippy cups to school with your student! If you have to send in medication with your child please drop it off with Ms. Sue rather than with Ms. Erin as she is MAT certified and will be the one to administer the medicine. If your student will be eating breakfast at school please remember to have them wash their hands before they sit at the breakfast table! If you have not done so, please send in a writing journal for your student.
Ms. Erin
The Rooster Class
This week the Roosters were busy with math! We worked with shapes, sorting and patterning with them! We also worked with colors and color recognition. We played “I spy…” using color hints and sorted M&M’s by color. They were also a nice little treat for our hard work!
In language arts, we continued working with letter of the week, “Dd.” We brainstormed “D” words and practiced writing “Dd” without tracing! We also worked with our names, writing our first and last names and decorating them with tissue paper. Finally, we reviewed our sight words daily and played a fun sight word game, matching sight words! This is a fun game that can easily be recreated at home for sight word practice: simply write the sight words on two index cards and place them face down. Have your child play “memory” and match the pairs!
For art, the Roosters continued with the circus theme. We painted a big top tent mural as a class and made monkey puppets. We also drew our own pictures of a clown using a rhyme for directions and guidance. This was also a great language arts activity!
In social studies/awareness this week, we worked on character building. We discussed manners and brainstormed polite words. We also read books about listening and showing respect to others. We are working hard on being good and polite friends!
Finally, you may have noticed a bin in the room today (Friday) labeled “Weekend Skill Building.” Each Friday I will put this bin out with one or two activities that will reinforce a language arts or math activity we worked on in class. Your participation is completely voluntary! I will not collect or grade these activities. They are simply to help build and reinforce the skills we are working on in class. They are also helpful because they are an easy way to prepare your child (and you!) for homework! If you have any questions feel free to speak with me!
Ms. Amanda
434-823-7129
1645 Park Ridge Drive