Forest Lakes News for December 6, 2010

Upcoming Events:

• Dec. 17 Children’s Night Out “Holiday Crafts”
• Dec. 20 Pre-k Holiday Program 11:00am
• Dec. 21-22 Holiday Parties (See classroom sign-up sheets)
• Dec. 23-31 Closed Completely for Holiday

Financial Memo

Please remember to sign your child in/out on the netbook in the lobby when dropping off and picking up your child.

Get your holiday grocery shopping done and your table set while your child enjoys an evening at our Children’s Night Out on Friday, December 17th.  See the front desk for more information.

Automatic credit card payments will be charged on Tuesday, December 22rd. When the 27th falls on a holiday or weekend, payments should be made the closest day PRIOR to the 27th.
January payments are due Tuesday, December 22rd. When the 27th falls on a holiday or weekend, payments should be made the closest day PRIOR to the 27th.

 

Experienced Quality Child Care Since 1984

www.brightbeginningsva.com

 

 

 

Bright Beginnings Preschool

 

Babble

October 11, 2010

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upcoming Events:

 

October 22 Children’s Night Out “Boo, its Halloween!”

5:30 - 8:30

 

October 28 & 29 Halloween Celebrations (see signup sheets in classrooms)

 

November 5 Children’s Night Out “Pilgrim Times”

5:30 - 9:00

 

November 10 Staff Appreciation Day

 

 

 

We are always looking for new or gently used toys for our classrooms!! If you have any and would either like to donate them or sell them for “yard sale” prices, please let us know!

 

 

 

Financial Memo:

 

For Children’s Night Out we require a minimum of eight children.  We ask that you give us 24 hours’ notice if you will be canceling for the evening, otherwise you will be charged for the night.  We secure our staff based on the number of children that have signed up in addition to other costs such as food and supplies.  

 

"Tell a Friend" and earn a FREE week!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I would like to thank the Bright Beginnings staff, families, and children for your visits, cards, gifts and flowers. This sure brightened my days; I will be working my way back to school very soon!! I have missed all of you and thanks again!!

 

Love Ms. Teena

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monkey:

This week in the Monkey room we are still practicing our emotions. We are singing the Polar Bear song daily and reading books on emotions. We have been working with counting and color a lot this week! We are spending time doing puzzles, building with Legos and playing with play dough. For Art we are painting with foam blocks to make a rectangle. We will also be coloring number fours, making pumpkin seed art, painting with pipe cleaners and painting with leaves! Congratulations to Gabriel’s family for the birth of their new baby boy Jacob! Also congratulations to Andrew’s family for finding out they will be having a baby girl!!

 

Giraffe:

This week the Giraffe class continued learning about apples and color changes of the trees. We will sort leaves by color, shape and size. The Giraffes also went emotions, what makes them happy, sad and mad. We will also start singing the autumn leaves song (you can find songs on our class board). We continued learning our shapes, colors, numbers, and letters. We will try to identify the number four, a rectangle, K and the color orange by the end of the month. Please look for the October Pumpkin Patch sign-up sheet and information letter.

 

Tiger:

Since Monday was Columbus Day we learned all about Christopher Columbus! We made our own ships just like his. We are continuing to do fun fall activities including acorn marble painting, leave art and different activities with pumpkins. Be sure to check out the sign-up sheet outside of the Tiger classroom for this month’s Field Trip and Halloween Parties.

 

 

 

 

Lion:

This week the Lions are roaring about fall and Halloween. We have had lots of fun observing leaves, acorns, chestnuts and walnuts! We really enjoyed carving a pumpkin and putting the insides in Ziploc bags to feel, count, and observe seeds for Project Green. For Art this week, we made pumpkins, pumpkins sitting on a gate and Jack-O-Lanterns. During community meeting with the Elephants, we sang songs about sailing (Christopher Columbus Day) and learned some new festive songs (posted at circle carpet). We continue to talk about the letter Kk and work in our journals.  Our Fall Festival is coming up soon; please see the door to sign-up.

Elephant:

This week the leaves have been falling in the Elephant room. The letter K was talked about and what words start with K, including Kaleigh! We counted acorns in the sand. We went on a hunt for different color leaves and made our own fall trees. We sang songs during our community meeting. We read a lot of new stories this week! Our new favorite books are “Room on the Broom” and “Speedy Little Race Cars.” We loved talking about what happens in the fall and making our own Jack-o-Lanterns. Counting is going well! We can count along with each other. This week we loved counting the acorns Ms. Maggie brought in! We are all looking forward to next week!

 

 

Zebra:

We had so much fun this week reading The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything! It’s a funny story about a lady who, on her way home, meets shoes, pants, a shirt, two gloves, a hat, and a scary pumpkin head trying to scare her. This book has a lot of repetition, allowing the children to join in reading each page. We easily acted out the book by making real shoes “clomp”, pants “wiggle”, and a pumpkin head “booing”. Some of our other activities for the week included a math graph asking if we’d feel scared if we saw the pumpkin head. Although a few of us said yes, the majority graphed “no”. On Friday, we wrote what we’re afraid of and made a list of things that don’t scare us at all! For Art, we painted pictures of pumpkins. We also made construction paper pumpkins and a class book about the Little Old Lady. We used real pumpkins to estimate size and had a lot of fun hammering golf tees into pumpkins for a neat sensory center.

 

Chameleon:

This week we are continuing to discuss leaves and seasons. We began the week by graphing whether or not we would jump in a leaf pile. We also made leaf patterns and began the Ready Reader “Stop!” In our journals this week, we are continuing our work with the letter K, and in our math journals, we are working on rectangles. We have been sorting nuts, leaves, and gourds, as well as playing autumn bingo. For Language Arts, we wrote about why we like fall, the great things about trees, and what we know about the four seasons. We also practiced writing color words. On Friday, we used the book “Why Do Leaves Change Color?” to do a LEA about what we know and want to learn about leaves. For Art, we made leaf prints, acorn marble painting, tie-dye leaf mobiles, a leaf wreath, and a season’s class book.

 

 

BABBLE

May 7, 2010

 

Upcoming Events

May 10 Parent/Teacher Conferences

May 16 Family Picnic/Art Show

May 31 Closed for Memorial Day

 

 

 

Kids Rummage Sale!

June 9^th-10^th

3:00pm – 6:30pm

Donate gently used KIDS items like toys, books, shoes, and clothes! Nothing will be priced over $5. Any leftover items will be donated to the Goodwill.

 

                                                                                                         

 

Speech with Ms. Stacy

                                                             5.07.10

These are the skills that were addressed this week.  I’m seeing improvements with speech and language skills in all of the classrooms. 

Toddlers and young 2’s

We began by reading several noisy stories working on a variety of speech sounds.  We also used a ball toy to request a hammer and a ball while using as many words as possible.  We worked on sign language throughout the entire session.

Older 2’s

We began by reading a noisy story and used our ball toy as well.  The children did a great job of requesting the color of their choice by stating “May I have the yellow ball please”.  We then focused on things that go together.  The children had to look at four pictures and name the pictures that go together.  For example a bird and a nest, a toothbrush and toothpaste, and crayons and paper, etc.  We also worked on opposites such as up/down, big/little, on/off, top/bottom etc.

 

3’s and 4’s

  We used our light up toy and sat in a circle and answered several “wh” questions.  We then focused on opposites as a group.  We worked on almost 50 opposites together; A few examples were few/many, thin/thin, simple/fancy, top/bottom, long/short, clean/dirty etc.  We also addressed things that go together. Each child had to pick two items that went together and explain why the two items went together.  Explaining why was a little challenging at times, but those are higher order language skills that are great to work on and challenge the kids. 

Have a great weekend. 

 

 

                                                                        Stacy Torrence M.S. CCC-SLP

 

 

Reading with Ms. Fischer

On Tuesday, May 4th, a lesson on friendship was presented through a read a-loud of the book, A Rainbow of Friends, by P. K. Hallinan and a “Find a Friend” matching game.  The book prompted a time of talking and listening to discuss what it means to be a good friend.  Such interactive and fun language activities will encourage early literacy skills for reading and writing success during the elementary school years.

 

                                   

 

 

Weekly Financial Reminders

Weekly and bi-weekly payments are due by the close of business on Mondays.  Late charges will be applied to accounts on Tuesday if payment is not received.

 

On your child's last day, please return your security card.  We are able to recycle these.  If we do not receive your card back, a $20.00 charge per card will be applied to your account and deducted from the deposit that was paid upon enrollment.

 

 

Monkey

This week in the Monkey room we will be doing many activities! For art, we will be making flower faces, rainbows, lions, ladybugs, and very special Mothers Day cards! We will be enjoying a cooking project on Thursday. Throughout the week, we will make a road for a taxi, build a car out of chairs, have puzzle time and time for free building! We are still practicing daily for the upcoming family picnic on May 15^th @ 4:00. Be sure to mark your calendars!

Giraffe

This week the children will be learning about “May 5^th”. This is a great way to celebrate with our Mexican friends. We are also getting ready for  Mother’s Day. We will continue to practice for the Family Picnic. Most of the Giraffes are doing great potty training. Please let them keep up the work at home during the weekend. Please keep in mind, children cannot move up if they are not potty trained. I’m also asking parents to make sure the kids are dressed for the weather. We are also asking parents to make sure there are ice packs in the lunch boxes, with the warmer weather approaching we want to make sure yogurt and other items are cold for children.

Lion

This week the Lion class has had a lot of fun preparing for Mother’s Day! We have been working on some very top secret gifts for Mommy! For Art this week the Lion class has enjoyed finger painting, decorating wrapping paper, making a Mother’s Day cards, and painting a paper plate flower. Our letter of the week is Ii. We have been practicing singing our letter Ii song and reviewing our LEA chart. We also enjoyed reading our letter of the week book My Ii Book. On Wednesday we enjoyed talking about Cinco de Mayo and eating a special snack. We have enjoyed playing in kitchen this week and pretending to have a picnic! Yay! All of my Lion friends are potty trained! Thank you to everyone for your hard work!

Elephant

This week we have begun learning some Spanish words – colors! We are still practicing writing our letters and our letter of the week, I. We did lots of Spring and summer art as well as gifts for Mother’s day this weekend! We made flowers, picnic art, rainbows, and did a cooking project: tortilla chips and dip while we learned about Cinco de Mayo. We are writing in our journals and getting used to writing our names, letters, and cutting with scissors, as well as recognizing more numbers and seeing how high we can count.

Tigers

The Tigers had a great time this week!  For Math and Science, the Tigers worked on estimation with marbles and discussed the different types of pets people may have, and what pets the Tigers have at home. For Language Arts, the Tigers discussed the new month (May), worked with the letter of the week – “Ii”, project green, and completed a cooking project and created a Mother’s Day card for the upcoming holiday. For Art, the Tigers made flowers, rainbows, lions out of their hands, and pancakes! For Social Awareness the Tigers learned about the Spanish culture, and learned some Spanish songs! The Tigers would like to say Congratulations to Gabby Tenia on her new baby sister!!

Zebra

Our week was spent observing the weather around us. On Monday, we read Eric Carle’s Little Cloud and talked about how and why it rains. We learned “cloud-words” like cirrus, stratus, and cumulus and did a little cloud watching during outside play. On Thursday, we studied some extreme weather like tornadoes and thunderstorms. We read  and baked a cake just like in the story! We also made a tornado in our classroom! For art, we painted clouds, sketched the weather during outside cloud walk, and made a paper plate weather chart. We took the time to make some special art projects for the special ladies in our lives – our moms! We began working more and more on our “Down by the Bay” Family Picnic Performance.

Chameleon

This week in the Chameleon class we are discussing Mother’s Day and learning about baby animals. We are reading the book, “Are you my Mother?” We also made a Mother’s Day class book and practiced writing about things we like to do with our moms. We have also been busy working on Mother’s day gifts this week. We are finishing up our kindergarten assessments and reviewing some skills to prepare for Kindergarten. We are reviewing lower case letters, numbers 10-20, and working on counting. For Science, we are learning about flowers and baby animals with sunflower measuring, a pollination activity, and a “born or hatched” file folder game. In our Dramatic play and block center, we went on a spring picnic and pretended we were farmers taking care of animals on a farm this week. For Humanities this month, we are learning about art history. This week we are talking about the many different mediums used to create art and experimenting with a few of them, such as paint and chalk. For Social Studies, we are learning and reviewing our colors in Spanish, and we are beginning circle time each morning by greeting each other in Spanish. The Chameleons were in the kitchen on Thursday making quesadillas for our cooking project. For Project Green this week the Chameleons planted sunflower seeds, which we will plant to create a sunflower garden for the school.

 

BABBLE

April 16, 2010

 

 

Sunscreen Reminder:

Understand that Bright Beginnings does not provide or apply sunscreen. It is recommended that sunscreen is applied liberally in the morning before arrival.  If you would like to have sunscreen added after nap, before going out to play please sign the sunscreen permission form.  Make sure the sunscreen has a current expiration date that is visible.

 

Some classroom reminders:

·       All children need top and bottom sheet for nap time.

·       If your child is under the age of 3 please be sure that when packing lunch that apples, grapes, and hotdogs are pre-sliced.

·       Items must be labeled with your child’s name.  If the items are not labeled staff members will do it for you.

 

What’s happening at Preschool (lots of fun)

We had a special guest reader today.  Do you remember Madeline?  I bet your child can tell lots about her!  She came by today and read several books to the children.  They loved it! 

 

We are working on our Pizza Garden.  The soil is ready for planting.  We’ve started some tomatoes in the classroom. We are looking for more donations of green peppers, onions, mixed flowers, oregano, basil and tomatoes. 

 

Come join in the fun April 23 Children’s Night Out with Ms. Ashley and Ms. Kristin T.  They will be Singing in the Rain!

 

Weekly Financial Reminders

Spring cleaning? Children’s Night Out is a great way to have some extra hours to yourself to get things done around the house. Check out the yearly calendar for upcoming dates and sign up at the front desk!

 

Simply your life with Automatic Credit Card payments for tuition.  Complete an authorization form and we'll take care of the rest!

 

Monkey

This week in the Monkey Room, we are very excited for the nature walks that we are going to be taking! We will be going out to the playground to look for bugs, birds, sticks, leaves, and anything else we can find! For art this week we will be making tissue butterflies, beehives, ants, coffee filter butterflies and bees! We are practicing our flashcards daily and everyone is improving! We are also going to be using the sensory table and doing some water play!

 

Giraffe

I hope everyone enjoyed Spring Break. This week the Giraffes will be learning about butterflies. They will study what they eat, colors, and where to find them. We will also continue to talk about the Spring Season. Observing plants and insects outdoors and enjoying watching our windmills spin in the wind. We will also have a cooking project on Friday. Yum Yum!

 

Lion

This week the Lions having been talking about spring. We have been talking about the insects we see outdoors. Our Art this week included a beehive, tissue paper butterflies, squish art, umbrellas and an ant hill. We have also enjoyed observing our vegetable sprouts and can’t wait until we can plant them outdoors in our pizza garden. We have been working on writing the letter E in our journals, practicing letter recognition, and shape recognition. For Math this week we have been using flowers with numbers to count the butterflies and bumblebees.

 

Elephant

This week is all about butterflies, bees, and other insects that fly. We talked about how they can fly and how they are different from crawling bugs. We are still working on writing our names and cutting with scissors, writing our letters, and some math skills. The letter of the week is E and we have came up with lots of E words, and are recognizing more letters!

 

Tigers

This week the Tigers read books about butterflies and honey bees. We are starting to see a few of our creepy crawly friends now that spring is in the air. Math we used our number flash cards to review numbers 1-10. We played the quick number game, 1-2-3 Bingo. The seeds we planted a few days ago are now turning into green plants, can’t wait for the flower to bloom.  We have been talking about recycling and how important it is to our environment. It has been fun looking out our window and sees the many changes all around us. Hope you enjoyed our butterfly and honey bee art. Ask your child who Cookie is in the Tiger class.

 

Zebra

Our theme for the week was centered around The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. On Monday we read the book and laughed at all the silly food he ate – do caterpillars really eat salami and chocolate cake?! On Tuesday, we discussed the life cycle of a butterfly and learned caterpillars eat leaves. Some of our other circle activities included extending the book’s story by talking about where the butterfly may have flown off to. We also categorized reality/fantasy which encouraged some critical thinking skills and answering open-ended questions. During Math, we graphed whether or not we’d let a caterpillar crawl on our hands. We calculated the data and used simple addition to tally up the votes. We sorted butterfly cards (starting with one and going all the way to twenty five!). We also made patterns and one-to-one correspondence with a file folder game. For Science, we discovered the difference between a cocoon and a chrysalis and tried to figure out how a sponge holds water at the sensory tub. Art was super fun! We made art inspired by Eric Carle’s illustrations. Projects included tissue paper butterflies, coffee filter butterflies in a chrysalis, painting the hungry caterpillar, and drawing the food we’d eat if we were hungry caterpillars. We’ve been working extra hard with our writing skills – some of us are beginning to write our full names and a lot of us are identifying sight words!

 

Chameleon

For the month of April, the Chameleons will be talking about bugs, and we will focus on Eric Carle books each week dealing with bugs. This week, we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar. With this story, we discussed the repetitive language found in the book. We talked about the life cycle of a butterfly, and we practiced our days of the week. We also worked on our math skills by graphing our favorite healthy foods and whether or not we would let a caterpillar crawl on our hand – most Chameleons said they would. We also retold the story using a felt board to practice our sequencing skills. For art, we made tissue butterflies, coffee filter butterflies, beehive collages, and ant art. Don’t forget to ask a Chameleon the difference between spiders, worms, and insects. I bet you’ll be surprised! We also worked on the letter of the week, which is Ee in our journals this week. We also practiced phonemic awareness by writing how we thought the word butterfly is spelled with inventive spelling. We also were the authors and illustrators of our own bug book this week. We were also busy in the kitchen this week. We made Very Hungry Caterpillar fruit pizza, yum! With Earth Day coming up this month, we also discussed recycling, caring for the environment, and protecting nature for Project Green. For Humanities, we played cooperative games outside and indoors and acted out The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We also celebrated Ryan Delp’s birthday and April as Poetry Month by reading poems from “Where the Sidewalk Ends”. We are also going to work on writing and remembering some poems of our own.