August 2010 Newsletter
From The Director:
Summer is sailing right along! In spite of the heat and humidity, we are trying to get in as much water play as possible. Please remember to bring in sunscreen, a bathing suit and a towel for these occasions. For our littlest ones, please remember a hat for those walks in the bye-bye buggy!
We have something new for our staff and families to check out! We have established a resource bulletin board that will feature various topics concerning children and their behavior. Have you found yourself scratching your head and wondering why your child is suddenly behaving differently? We hope that our resource board will help! We will post articles of interest as well as websites to access that nugget of wisdom you seek when it comes to your child. The resource board can be found in the front hallway, just steps from my office. If there is a topic you are particularly interested in, please feel free to let me know. This month's topic is all about biting and what to do about it. Enjoy!
Miss Karen
HAPPY BIRTHDAY THIS MONTH TO -
1st -Ma'Kayla (Toddler 2)
31st - Karen (Preschool)
NURSERY 1
As the summer draws to a close, we will spend our last "hot" month focusing on "Sunny Breezes". We will do art activities that focus on the sun, the clouds and the wind. During the month of August, we'll make a class sun out of our footprints, cotton ball clouds, and gusts of glittery winds! These art projects will also allow us to feel out new textures such as soft cotton and gritty glitter!
Our "Book Nook" is now filled with plenty of new stories! We have soft books to cuddle with and chew on as well as some great stories to read! During August we will spend time reading a lot of Eric Carle books such as "Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother Too?" and "The Tiny Seed". We will explore the many colors of the illustrations and learn about all of the new objects in the books.
As our year progresses, each of our friends continue to grow! We will continue to focus on group and individual goals so that our developmental milestones are met! Lukas is doing a great job pulling up on his own! Olivia is now a natural at crawling…she's all over the place! Henry is doing great with rolling over and is starting to move…he'll be crawling in no time at all! We look forward to reaching more milestones this month!
Miss Jen, Miss Ashley & Miss Cherelle
NURSERY 2
"All Kinds of Animals" is the theme for this month. We will be decorating our room to look like a forest and on each wall we will find different animals that we will point out and make the sounds they make. Our first week is all about puppies and kittens! We will be learning the sign for dog and cat and reading books about pets, like "My Friend Puppy". I'm also going to be sending a letter home asking for photos of your pets at home so we can talk about them and add them to our family wall! Our second and third weeks are all about the sounds animals make and barnyard animals. We will be looking at different kinds of barnyard animals and imitating their talk. Lots of singing will take place these weeks, with "Old MacDonald", "How Much is That Doggie?" and "The Animals on the Farm Go…". Activities that we will be doing include having our own animal parade, making animal print murals, and playing "What's Under the Sand?" with pictures of animals. The last week of August is dedicated to fish! We will read "Rainbow Fish", learn the sign for fish, and have lots of water play! We will also be "fishing" with our own poles, and creating a giant group painting of the ocean!
I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer and still enjoying the beautiful sunshine!
Miss Val
TODDLER 1
Our Toddler 1 class has moved up to Toddler 2 and our Waddler Room is currently enrolling!
TODDLER 2
The summer is nearing the end as we move into August. During the month of July, we had fun experiencing bugs. During the month of August, we will experience amphibians! The first week will be all about leapfrog! We will sing "Three Green and Speckled Frogs". We will play with plasti frogs in the sand and water play. We will paint with green paint and make green grogs! Week #2, we will encounter "Ali the Alligator". We will read "Three Little Monkeys Hanging From a Tree" and we will make gator hats! We will experience making homemade banana bread. The children will also paint with sand on an alligator shape! Week #3 is "S is for Snake". The children will use their fine motor skills to roll playdoh into snakes, paint with string and glue string to look like snakes. We will play "What's Inside?" We will also start to learn to draw letter, like the letter S. Week #4 is "Tons of Turtles"! We will crawl like turtles. The children and I will make turtle food to enjoy and much more! We will continue to work on mastering our gross and fine motor skills. The children will have plenty of outside time. We look forward to an exciting month!!
Miss Renee
TODDLER 3
Wow! How time flies! It's hard to believe we are starting a new month filled with fun learning activities. As you know, July was all about bugs. We discussed colors, spots, movements, wings, etc. We also spent much time using our color book to practice our colors and find them in the classroom or outside. We are practicing sign language every day and starting to learn and recognize our circle shape.
August comes with more challenges as we will be learning about alligators, turtles, snakes, and frogs. A lot of jumping, crawling, slithering and snapping will be going on with our toddlers! I also would like to encourage you to go over colors with your child and continue to practice counting from 1-10,as we do every day. I would be happy for any parent or caregiver who is interested in learning the signs I have been teaching your children and gladly make a copy of them for you to practice with your child at home. Let me know if you are interested and I will give you a copy.
Thank you for letting me have the opportunity to work with your child. Have a wonderful August!!
Miss Dawn
PRESCHOOL
August will bring us into the creepy-crawly world of insects! We will learn and talk about ants, bees, butterflies, and ladybugs! We will read about insects, create insects, learn insect songs and dances, play games, and make some tasty treats. Some of the skills we will be working on with these activities are teamwork, listening, observational, fine motor, and gross motor.
Aside from our insects, we will continue working on our letters one week at a time. Our preschoolers are really improving with their letter skills! We will also begin working on number recognition as well!
We will also be starting a "Show and Tell" schedule. This allows the children to practice their communication skills as they share something from home and ask each other questions. Keep a lookout for a schedule to be coming your way soon!
Miss Sabrina & Miss Nicole