BRIGHT BEGINNINGS PRESCHOOL
Experienced Quality Child Care Since 1984
Millcreek Newsletter
March 26, 2010
Upcoming Events:
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” with Miss. Jennifer and Miss. Kimberly.
Thursday and Friday, April 8th and 9th, Closed Completely for Spring Break
Tuesday, April 13th, Cupcake Decorating Contest
Wednesday, April 21st, Staff Appreciation Day
Friday, April 23rd, Children’s Night Out 5:30-8:30
“Singing in the Rain”
School Notes and News
I hope everyone had a fantastic week. We had a great time here at Bright Beginnings, and we are looking forward to starting a new month! Thank you to everyone who brought back their Original Works stuff! The Dolphins Class will be taking over the creativity board in April, so be on the look out!
Financial Memo:
April tuition is due. Please pay by the 30th to avoid late charges.
The cost of lunch is $3.00. Please write your child's full name and date on the lunch envelope. Without this information we are unable to accurately apply charges and payments to your account.
Thank you for your referrals. Several families will be receiving a free week this month and you can too! Refer a family that enrolls and you will receive a free week after they have been enrolled here a month.
Speech Weekly
These are the skills that were addressed this week. It was a great week with speech and language groups! We had a blast!
Toddlers and young 2’s
We began by reading a noisy story, which I feel is really beneficial for the little ones. We read the little snake and focused primarily on the /s/ sound. We also used the ball toy to request a specific ball and hammer and were asked to use sign language as well. Becca Bunny and Buddy Bear books were used to address shapes and answering “wh’ questions. The bubble machine was used at the end of our session.
Older 2’s
We read “Polar Bear Polar Bear” with our Velcro story pieces. Each child pretended to be a specific animal and helped read the story. Be sure to ask your child to ‘Snarl like a leopard, roar like a lion, and whistle like a zookeeper”. It was hilarious! We also used our bear and bunny books to answer “wh” questions. The octopus bubble machine was used and the end of the session to address the /p/ and /b/ sounds.
3’s and 4’s
We began buy reading “Polar Bear Polar Bear and worked on sequencing, first, last, second, third, fourth, fifth, etc. Then we answered specific questions from our oral language box. Each child had to pick a card and answer a specific question in front of the class. Some examples of the questions were:
Name things you would take to the beach?
What special clothes might you wear in the winter?
What does an author do?
Name something that is gigantic?
Talk about a time when you were frightened.
Name several things that live in the ocean.
We also worked on the phonics ladder to address letter sounds if time allowed.
Stacy Torrence M.S. CCC-SLP
Class Notes
Sea Turtles
Welcome back! This week has been so much fun. We have started to go over our shapes, which we played a game called, “what shape is it?” Animals are always fun, and we got to pretend to be them by crawling around and making the same noises as they do. We also had an animal cookie day where each person picked out a cookie and said what animal it was. We used our animal puppets which made it easy for the zoo to come to us, and it was a blast! We saw a zebra, a tiger, an elephant, and a monkey. For art this week, we made dot art, paw prints, a zoo book, painted flowers, and we made potato prints! We have continued to learn about taking turns and sharing. I hope you all have a great weekend, see you on Monday!
Ms. Erin
Penguins
Welcome back for another great week with the Penguins! This week was lots of fun with our colors, shapes, and art. We talked a lot about the weather, nature and animals. It is always exciting to see the weather start to change, a new season starting, and talking about the new animals that we may see outside. For art, we made a zoo animal book, did dot art, tissue paper art, sponge painting, and a lot more! In our zoo animal book, we had all the different animals that we talked about and read about. We also read some books about spring and flowers. One of our favorites was, Mouse’s First Spring. It was about a little mouse’s first spring and he went around with his mom and they saw all the different animals and flowers that come out and grow at spring time. The class really loved all the bright pages in the book. Well that’s about our week. Now here is a few reminders about the upcoming events. We will be closed April 8th and 9th, and our family picnic is coming up as well. Remember pizza Friday’s is every Friday and the money goes to the class to buy new, and cool things. Thank you!
Ms. Danielle
Starfish
Hello from the starfish, we had a fun week. This week we worked ABC’s, listening ears, lining up, colors, numbers shapes, and animals and there sounds. The letter of the week was “S”, so we worked on our fine motor skills by doing sticker art. We had stars, soccer balls, and smiley face stickers. The children used their fine motor skills they peeled of the sticker all by themselves and stuck it to the paper. We also loved making our bear prints, the children dipped their hands and fingers in brown paint and pressed it to the paper. We talked about bears, how they sounds, walk, and where they live. We also read stories animals, and the weather. We talked spring, the weather, flowers, cloths we wear. We also made spring flower art. Miss. Stacy came to visit, she read us Polar bear, Polar bear, What Do You Hear? We love when Miss. Stacy visits. I am doing CNO 4-2-10 with Miss. Kimberly, so please join us. Have a fantastic weekend!
Hello again from the seals! This week we had another birthday. Logan Farmer had a birthday on Saturday. I hope you have a great day! This week we reviewed opposites, colors, sign language, and shapes. The children learned a new sign and few more opposites. They also played a game using shape cards. The children practiced their shapes and using complete sentences in their speech. They held up a card and asked what shape is this? Then the other children respond. We also reviewed fire safety and how to do a fire drill. I also introduced them to ordinal numbers. We also talked about what we think is funny. Some of the skills we practiced this week were; listening ears, walking feet, walking in a line, following directions, using words and sharing.
In art this week we did many interesting projects. We painted with sand paint and regular paint using marbles and hands. We also pretended animals walked all over our papers. Using paint and a stamp the children made animal tracks. We made zoo books. The children helped make this by telling me what animals to include. Then they decorated the book. We also made noodle necklaces and potato prints. The children practiced fine motor skills, following directions and listening skills.
During gross motor activity we practiced the skills of jumping and hand eye coordination. We practiced the skills of jumping by having the children pop bubbles and by doing jumping jacks. The children practiced hand eye coordination by catching the petals when they fell, catching the bubbles and by catching the rain drops. We pretended some of the bubbles were rain drops. The children also played follow the leader, pretended they were alligators and playing in the puddles. The children had a lot of fun doing these activities.
I hope everyone had a great week! Have a great weekend! I will see you next week for more fun! Here are some upcoming dates to remember:
· We will be closed April 8, 9 (Thursday, Friday) for spring break.
· Next CNO (Children’s Night Out) April 23, 2010.
Ms. Cheri
This week, the Dolphin Class is revved for spring! We are doing everything from migration to scavenger hunts, to potato prints to learning about Hungary, to making noodle necklaces. It’s been loads of fun!
Next week, we will be gearing up for some egg hunting and dying to get in the festive mood. In order to make both of these events possible, we need some help from you! We will be having an egg dying party on Thursday as our art project, so we are going to need some eggs! If it is possible, please bring them to school. We will be using the carton to let them dry. Also, we will need sandwich bags in order to take our eggs home. The very next day, Friday, we will be having our egg hunt! In order for this to happen, we need something to put our eggs in. Each child will receive six eggs, so please bring a small bag or basket to put their eggs in and label it with their name. Thanks so much!
In math/science, we learned about shapes, continued with one-to-one correspondence (counting one thing at a time), talked about pollution for Project Green, made a chart of funny things, and talked about standard tools.
In letter’s, we learned, “There Was an Old Woman,” had reading class with Mrs. Fisher, wrote “S” in our journals, broke into our letter groups, and had an “S” scavenger hunt.
In art, we colored popcorn, made animal tracks, created a zoo book, made splatter paintings, and painted with potatoes.
In social studies, we talked about Hungary, found it on the map, learned some Hungarian, looked up the flag, and got to see some stuff I brought back from Hungary in high school.
In humanities, we had some free play, made an animal cracker parade, created noodle necklaces, and played “Who Took My Nose?!”
This week has been fantastic! We can’t wait for our egg hunt and dying this coming Thursday and Friday!
Ms. Kimberly
The Walrus group is really moving along. Everyone has grown so much already in so many ways! This week we went back to shapes. The students drew them, and a friend guessed what shape they drew. We also went over the letter sounds of each shape, and got tricked with the word “circle.” Animal tracks were another really fun activity this week. I had pictures of a dog, a black bear, a fox, a human, and their foot prints. They matched the animal with the correct foot print. Pollution is always a great discussion, and this week we focused on water pollution. Ms. Jennifer gave us a great idea for an experiment for project green. We took two empty water bottles and filled one with water and dirt. Then we took a cotton ball and placed it over the dirty water as a filter. We held the two bottles on top of each other so the water could filter through and become clean again in the other bottle.
Art was also really fun this week. We started off with popcorn art, making our own popcorn buckets and eating the leftovers! The students also did some free painting outside on the easel during our outside time, which helped them get inspiration in a different environment. Animals were a big theme this week. We made pictures of our favorite zoo animals. There were pictures of lions, tigers, snakes, gorillas, and giraffes floating around!
In language arts, we continued practicing our writing, had a scavenger hunt looking for “S” words that were hidden in the room.
There was a great discussion this week about things that are funny and things that are not funny. Sometimes we accidently laugh at things that we shouldn’t and could end up hurting someone’s feelings. The Walrus group did a great job this week and we have many more projects and events coming up soon! Have a wonderful weekend.
Ms. Ryland
434-823-7129
1645 Park Ridge Drive