Friday, January 22nd – Children’s Night Out
“Winter Solstice”
Tuesday, January 26th – Chili Cook Off!

Friday, February 5^th- Children’s Night out

“Sweethearts Ball”

Wednesday, February 10^th- Grandparent’s and Special Friends Day!

Thursday and Friday, February 11^th & 12^th- Valentine’s Day Parties!

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.

Laura Tomaine

Executive Director/CFO

Speech Weekly Notes from Stacy Torrence:

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

Penguin

This was a wonderful week. We had lots of fun talking about cold weather and snow. We also did some sorting of big and small things. For art, we made snowflakes, dot art, a big and small circle collage, free art, a shapes collage, and lots more! We played lots of cool games, as well as a lot of singing and dancing. We learned how to dance to the music then freeze when it stopped. This helps the children with their listening skills and body control. The children really enjoyed playing doctor this week, and we let everyone have a turn wearing the doctor’s coat! We had a lot of fun this week and everyone is doing a great job!

Sea Turtle

Hello again! This week we have learned more about winter. We have learned about animals that hibernate and winter weather. We enjoyed making a snow storm out of cotton balls. We also learned about the letter “Nn.” Their favorite word was “no.” We read, A Winter Day, which is one of my favorite books. For art this week, we made BIG and small art, dot art, painted the letter “Nn,” and we made masks! Have a wonderful weekend and see you on Monday!

Ms. Erin

Starfish

The Starfish have had another great week. The fun culminated with the making of pinecone birdfeeders on Thursday. It was fun to get messy and we all loved to watch the birds eat our creations! In math, we have been focusing on two things: 1) counting and; 2) size. Counting bears and our calendar stickers helped us this week to practice the former and sorting blocks by big and small with the latter. In literature, we have been reading the books that we chose from the book mobile. We made illustrations to go along with "Ladybug at Orchard Avenue" -- paper plate ladybug puppets. This book was chosen to help teach us about hibernation--ladybugs, like other animals we have been learning about, i.e., bears, go to sleep when the weather gets cold. All of our science lessons this week had the overarching theme of cold weather animal adaptations. Orchard Avenue taught us that ladybugs sleep and our birdfeeders were accompanied by a lesson on migration--birds that do choose to stay in cold weather climates can have a difficult time finding food and our efforts to feed them contribute to their overall survival. The Starfish love art and highlights from this week include the dot paintings we made as well as the feather masks. As we work towards finally (!) finishing our alphabet books, we paper-matched the letter "N" for newspaper and learned the order of colors in the rainbow for "R". Please look for our banner of flags from different African countries as we celebrate diversity! The book the "New Girl" has helped us to understand that we are all different and learning about another's differences enriches our being. Ask your child about the book with the iguana and what they learned. A final note from this week, we have perfected the fire-drill line! We are ready to go in an emergent situation or a walk down the hall--we have become great liner-uppers! Cheers from the Starfish.

Ms. Victoria

 Seals

Hello again from the Seals. I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend! This week we did a lot of fun activities and learned some cool things. We talked about our dreams and when we dream. I wrote down their thoughts on the subject. We learned about the differences between something big and something that is small. We practiced making an educated guess as what as under the blanket. The children also reviewed and practice their colors, numbers, shapes, rules, and abc’s . We also learned about what things start with N. We also had a visit from the book mobile and had a fire drill.  For art we used the skills of fine motor, listening, following directions and colors. In art we tried to make a dot picture using Q-tip, but the children had other ideas. The children had fun that was the main thing. We also made cookie cutter snowmen, by dipping the cookie cutter in white paint. The children made snowflakes again but this time they put sequence on them to make them sparkle. Towards the end of the week we made two different kinds of masks. This week we also pretended we were towing a boat and sang songs. The children went outside and played. We practiced throwing and catching a ball. In addition to the children played in pretended snow and made snow angels. Outside the children played in the real snow. We also danced and played follow the leader. I hope everyone had fun this week. Have a great weekend! I will see you next week for more fun activities.

Ms. Cheri

Dolphin

This week, the Dolphin Class slipped and zipped in to all sorts of fun activities! We did everything from talking about dreams, making headdress masks, talking about the letter “N,” and discussing Martin Luther King Jr.! We had loads of fun! Coming up in a few weeks, we will be having our Valentine’s celebrations! In order for kids to be able to collect, we are going to make mail boxes! Please bring a shoebox for your child by February 5^th so we can decorate them! Thanks so much! This time of year is a sniffly, sneezy, coughy time! Kids use a lot of tissues, which is why we have run out! It would be great if you could bring in a box to be shared by the classroom! Thanks! In math, we did big vs. small, made our dreams for next week, talking about energy efficiency in the bathroom for Project Green, talking about same vs. different, and compared different things by more or less and longer or shorter. In letter’s time, we did read alouds and talking about sounds, made a list of “N” words, had speech class with Ms. Stacy, and read our “N” book. In art, we mad headdress masks, used Q-tips to make dot art, decorated drums, had music class with Ms. Melissa, and painted with water colors. In social studies, we talked about Martin Luther King Jr, went on a freedom march, read a book about MLK’s life, listened to part of his “I Have a Dream” speech, and looked at his picture. It has been a crazy, fun-filled week, and we are looking forward to next week!

Ms. Kimberly

Walrus

This week was jammed pack with activities and we had our usual visitors, Ms. Stacey, Ms. Melissa, and the amazing book mobile friends that visited us! The children were able to practice prepositions, sing fun new songs, and pick out any book they wanted. We started off the week learning about Martin Luther King Jr. and what his dream was which brought up a discussion about our dreams. There were dreams of going to kindergarten, seeing little ponies, bears, and an upside down helicopter! It was important for the kids to recognize that all of the dreams were different but they were all good ones! The students are able to locate four of the seven continents on our world map- North America, South America, Africa, and Europe! The children are able to find them by looking at the first letter of the continent, the color of it, or the shape.   Our letter this week was “Nn.” We made a list of “Nn” words and chose a word off the list to write in our journals. The title of our Ready Reader was “Rabbit Can Knit.” Please practice reading it and have them point to the words as they read them aloud. The Walrus’ have made their own musical instruments before, but this week we focused on the African Drum. We looked at pictures and the steps it takes to make a drum. Masks were another big hit this week. After looking at photos of some of the elaborate headdresses they have in Africa, we decided to make our own. I am so impressed with the children each day, and I am looking forward to the weeks to come!

Ms. Ryland

Discussion Questions and Answers from the Walrus Class

What are African Drums made of?

Wood- Quin

Plastic- Jennifer

Sticks- Vivi

Little balls on the stick so they can boom!- Virginia

There are zig zags around the sides- Zach

Cardboard- Ryan L.

A pan- Tiana