BRIGHT BEGINNINGS PRESCHOOL
Experienced Quality Child Care Since 1984
www.brightbeginningsva.com

Crozet Newsletter
July 2nd, 2010

Upcoming Events:

*Monday, July 5th, We are closed in observance of Fourth of July!
*Friday July 9th, USA Night themed Children’s Night Out!
*Wednesday, July 21st, Staff Appreciation Day
*Friday, July 23rd, Aloha from Hawaii themed Children’s Night Out

Weekly Financial Memo:

Please include your child's last name when signing up for lunch. We have several children with the same name and also need to apply the charges to the correct account.

Re-registration fees are due by August.
Re-registration fees will be charged to automatic credit card payments on the August billing.

School News and Notes:
We had another WONDERFUL week! We welcomed some new friends this week and played with the old! This week’s theme was animals. The Rooster class went on a Safari looking for all the zebras and lions! The three year olds loved reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear! The Walrus class made up a neat story about “6 Little Froggies”. It is posted outside their door- Check it out! They first learned about the parts of a story and took turns creating their own story!

We will have another Children’s Night Out- USA Night! If you would like to go out to eat, go to Friday’s after Five, get some shopping time, or have a little YOU time sign you child(ren) up!
We will have a wonderful time making neat art projects, playing fun USA games, and eating great nutritious food!! SIGN YOUR CHILD UP TODAY! :)

FIELD TRIP REMINDER!
We are having a field trip on July 6th when we get back from the 4th of July! This is for the Bunny, Rooster, and Walrus classes!
We will be leaving at 9:30 to get there by 10:00. We will be back by 11:30! Please let us know if you plan to go on the trip. We need to make sure we have enough drivers! If we don’t have enough drivers we will have to cancel the trip!

The cost is $4.00 per child. That should be paid ASAP at the front desk. (This signs your child up! Please sign up to drive on your child’s door!)

For Fourth of July here is a great recipe for a picnic or potluck!

Fourth of July Fruit Plate:
Ingredients:
2 cups frozen whipped topping, thawed
2 cups natural low-fat yogurt
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 watermelon, sliced
6 cups blueberries

Directions:
Combine whipped topping, yogurt, nutmeg, and vanilla. Chill until serving time. cut watermelon slices into triangular wedges. Place the bowl of topping in the middle of a large plate. Arrange the blueberries around the bowl. Finally, place the watermelon wedges, tips out, on edge of plate to form a star effect. To serve, dip fruit into topping and enjoy. Yield: 6-8 servings.

Tip of the Day:
Ants are allergic to white chalk! To keep them away from food on your 4th of July picnic, draw lines along the edges of the picnic table with white chalk!

Class Notes:

The Pelican Class

 We started the week off with a lot of friends coming back from vacation and some going off to have fun with their families. To have more fun we played with animals in the backyard making several sounds like a cow, horse, chicken, pigs, and all of the others too. We read Baby Animal Book and Baby Zebra so we could learn all about how a baby animal is born and how it’s mother takes care of the baby animal, all about how he or she can tell who his or her mama is by her zebra stripes. We have been looking at pictures of mommies, daddies, boys, and girls and reading the name out to them. Silly songs like 10 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed always makes them laugh and so does splashing their feet in the water to cool them off. Finn and Sage love lying on the floor together while hitting their feet together, smiling at each other and playing peek-a-boo. Exercising on the floor rolling back and forth, lifting and their legs up is also one of their favorite things to do.
We hope everyone has a great 4th of July! Be safe! See you on Tuesday, the 6th of July.
-Ms. Sue

The Kangaroo Class

This week in gross motor we danced to pow-wow music with drums and tambourines, we ran in a circle as a group, and jumped high and low.  We pretended to be shakers and were shaking all around the room. We set up a tent and had red blocks as our fire. We danced and played drums at our own powwow.
 In fine motor, art, and sensory we made powwow hats with strips of brown paper and colorful feathers. We made noise maker with plastic bottles. We painted on our easel our side with water and finger painted with read, white, and blue, paint. In sensory we enjoyed playing with colored noodles, water, and our smell bottles. We enjoyed hiding a toy under the blanket and guessing what it is. We also really liked blowing bubbles and catching them before they hit the ground. We had so much fun this week. Have a fun and safe holiday weekend! See you Tuesday.
-Ms. Jen

The Peacock Class

Hello Peacock families and friends, this week in class we have had lots of fun learning about animals; animals that live on the farm, in the ocean, at the zoo, in the jungle, and in the desert. Lots and lots of animals! We practiced singing Old McDonald had a Farm and other animal songs. Some of the groups’ favorites were 5 Speckled Frogs, Baby Bumble Bee, and Brown Bear! We were able to read all sorts of animal books during our circle time, as well as talking about animals that we have seen in person or in books. We also had fun pretending to be different animals like dogs, cats, fish, birds, and many more. We are continuing to have fun in the sprinklers and we invite you to come and have a fun water day with us when you have some time off. We go out to the water park between the times of 10:15-10:45. We’d love for you to come!
Happy Summer Time!!
-Ms. Lee

The Bunny Class

Hello Bunny Class Families! What a great week in the Bunny Class. We have been working really hard on our letter recognition skills. We practice with flashcards, the magnets on the doors and other things around the room. The Bunnies do a great job finding their “special letters” throughout the class room. We’ve also started to practice to write the fist letters of our name. Emily did a wonderful job writing an “A” for Addie! She was so excited that she made an “A”. For math we’ve been working on counting in English and Spanish and number recognition. This week we talked about the 4th of July and what that day means. Elisabeth was very excited to tell us that it is America’s Birthday! We really enjoyed talking about fire works! Don’t forget we are going on a field trip Tuesday, July 6th, and we are closed on July 5th. Please be sure to sign up!
Hope everyone has a safe holiday weekend!
-Ms. Whitney

The Walrus Class

Hello Walrus Families!
 This week, the Walrus Class worked with animals in our “animal planet” theme. We learned about the zoo and the rain forest. We made our own patterns on colorful zebras and made tree frogs totally out of hearts! We even had a cooking project where we made “frogs on a log” using celery and peanut butter as the log and raisins as the frogs. It was fun to make, as well as delicious and nutritious! The highlight of our week was playing a game called “Going on a Jaguar Hunt” where we pretended to explore the jungle in search of jaguars. The children really enjoyed pretending to find a jaguar in a cave and running back to the explorer jeep for safety!
 A few reminders: bike day is every Tuesday and sprinkler day is everyday! Remember a swim suit and towel. Also, please put sunscreen on your child in the morning before coming to school. The sun is so strong this time of year and we don’t want any burns!
-Ms. Amanda and Ms. Stephanie

The Rooster Class

This week the Roosters happily welcome a new friend to our room, Caleb, he will surly make a great addition to our fun group! This week will we learning all about various animals; farm animals, zoo animals, safari animals, animals that live on land, animals that live in the water all different kinds of animals!  We plan to continue working on our letters and numbers with practice traceable letters, animal number cards used for working on order from one to ten, and more activities to help our little minds learn.  We have lots of fun crafts planed for the week including Old Macdonald farm animal masks, cotton ball sheep, cut out zebra figures, paper plate lions, a panda craft involving various circle shapes, and a cooking craft and snack.  Our cooking activity will be “eating like the birds eat” we will make dirt and pudding cup bowls with gummy worms in them, when we eat them the we will have our hands behind our backs and attempt to eat the worms with just our mouths like a bird would do, then we will use a spoon for the remaining treat.  We will continue to enjoy our summer fun with sprinkler days, bike day, and outside time, weather permitting.  We are looking forward to another week learning and having fun with our friends!
-Ms. Tracy