Busy B’s Preschool

Last week we discussed our teeth. We learned about foods that are good for our teeth and things that are bad for them. We talked about brushing our teeth and why we do. We used terms like baby teeth and grown-up teeth. We even learned a song about brushing our teeth by Raffi. Above all we enjoy the beautiful spring like weather that we had during the week!!!!

This week we are working on our gross motor skills. Some of the skills include: hopping on one foot, walking on a line, kicking a ball, throwing with accuracy, galloping and skipping.

The last two week in February will be a good time to schedule parent-teacher conferences. I would love to meet with each family at a time that works best and discuss your child’s progress at school. I would recommend both parents try attending. This meeting could be a home visit or at school depending on your preference. If you could email/talk to me with three times that would work best for you I can schedule a time.

I look forward to these meetings. Please let me know if you have any problems with this time frame. Thanks!

Just a reminder that we have a field trip on Wednesday to Monkey Joe’s. The cost is $8. We will not be bringing a lunch but will eat pizza there. We will leave around 9:30 and return around 1:15. When you drop off your car seat please make sure it is labeled with your child’s name. If you need us to label it please let us know when leaving it. Thanks.

Thursday is story time from the library. A story teller will visit for about a half hour to tell/read stories to the children.

Have a great week!

This sure is an exciting month in the baby room. Anthony and Vinny turn 1 and Charlie turns two. Happy birthday boys!! 

Charlie has been doing a great job practicing to become a dinosaur. He will officially switch on February 27.

Foster has been busy communicating with his teachers. He is very good at signing for things and answers yes and no questions by nodding his head.

Anthony is very anxious to walk. He is pushing his toys around to help him explore new levels while on his feet.

Vinny, while not as eager to walk, is starting to make many connections cognitively. If you ask him “where is the ball” he will look for it.

We also welcome Clara’s brother Alex this month. He has started his transition and will start three days a week on Feb 27. We are so excited to get to know him. Clara is very excited too!!!

Please look for the parent-teacher conference sign –up this week. We would like to meet with parents the last week in February to let you know how things are going. Thanks!

Also, one last note, Barry will be out February 13-16.

Have a good month!

Greetings, Last week the dinosaurs discussed their teeth and how to keep them healthy. We painted a teeth banner and colored some pictures of toothpaste and brushes. We also worked on counting to ten, the children had so much fun walking around their room counting their toys and singing songs with numbers. We also spent some time outside we turned on dancing music, brought the sensory table out and they had so much fun enjoying the springlike weather in January.

This week we have a field trip to Monkey Joe’s, this is a great place for gross motor activities. There are many activities planned towards gross motor such as sliding, walking on tip toes, balancing, and hula hoops. I have planned art that revolves around movement so you should be noticing some pretty funny art hanging in the classroom this week. For science class this week we will be making raisins dance with club soda and raisins, this should be silly for the children to see raisins dance as they do.

Parents, if there are any questions or concerns I am always happy to chat with you !

“Life must be lived as play” -Plato

We had such a great week last week as we traveled to China. We learned about chopsticks, chinese dragons, made lanterns, played with rice and even had a chinese hopscoptch. The weather even cooperated so we were able to get back outside again by the end of week. Yeah!

Mr. Russ came and played his guitar while we played instruments too. We had a discussion about the kind of instruments we would be interested in playing. We asked the children if they knew anyone who played an instrument and got a pretty good response. If you or a family member has an instrument that you play and would be interested in playing a little for us please let us know. It would be a great learning experience for them. Don’t be shy!

This week we will discuss our teeth as our theme is dental week. Also, on Thursday we will discuss groundhog day.  Hopefully, the groundhog does not see his shadow!! The letter of the week is D. We will also be practicing our counting skills. Counting is something that is easy to incorporate into daily activities. For example, counting steps as you walk up them, counting toys as you put them away, seeing if our child can do something before you count to ten,etc.

Reminder that we will have a field trip to Monkey Joe’s next Wednesday the 8th. I’m not sure of the exact cost yet but am guessing $8. It is worth it though becuase they should sleep well:) We are still looking for at least one more chaporone. Let us know if you are able to join us. Thanks!

We also wanted to let you know that we have applied for and will recieved a grant to help us to become accredited through the National Association of Family Child Care Accreditation (NAFCC). We anticipate this being a year long process. Please feel free to ask if you have any questions. We will keep you updated with progress reports!

Looks like a warm week. Have a good one.

Music man Dave will be here this Wednesday at 9:30.

We have been doing a good job but just a reminder about making sure your child washes his/her hands when entering/exiting the school. This will be really helpful in cutting down on the germs spread at this time of the year. Also, please monitor your child before arriving at school for sickness. If your in doubt don’t hesitate to call and talk to us or your doctor before coming in.

Our next field trip is scheduled for February 8th and will be to Monkey Joes. In cae your unfamiliar with this place, it is a great place to exercise our bodies by jumping on inflatable slides, crawling through tunnels, climbing hills, etc. We hope to really wear them out:) Consider joining us if your schedule allows you to. Let us know if you can.

Thanks so much for taking time to send in the parent surveys. It will really help us to choose our focus for 2012. If you haven’t had a chance yet please take a minute to complete and return. We really appreciate everyone’s feedback!

Another exciting week as we explored different countries. We touched on such topics as France, the Eiffel tower, pasta, artist, Italy (the boot), gondolas, gladiators (classroom favorite), leaning tower of pisa, Egypt, pyramids, mummies, deserts, camels, Russia, russian alphabet, russian dolls and siberian tigers. Wow! all in a weeks time. Ask your child what they remember.

There has been much discussion about milk in our classroom. For awhile we were giving the children a choice between milk and water. For now, we are going back to serving milk at lunch and breakfast. We still offer a choice at snack between milk and water. We just want to make sure that the children are meeting their requirement for dairy. If you have any questions or concerns please don’t hesitate to ask.

Last week we discussed the letter R. The highlight was making R’s in shaving cream. Such an enjoyable experience for most of them! This week we will introduce the letter B. Take some time to point out letters in your child’s environment. They are becoming more and more aware of letters in our classroom. We frequently go on letter hunts in our books. We try to find words that start with the letter of the week.

The children are enjoying our housekeeping area immensly! It is a great area for them to replay life experiences and try to make sense of them. This week we are looking for Chinese props. If you have anything kid friendly you would be willing to let us borrow for the week please bring in. Thanks!

Lastly Molina is getting very lonely here on the weekends and is ready to come visit your home:) If you are interested in having this experience let us know!

Have a good week!

Last weeks adventure around the world was so exciting for myself and the children. They enjoyed their imaginary travels to France, Spain, Italy and Ireland. The best part of multicultural week was putting together passports filled with flags of each country studied, they are hanging up in the classroom please feel free to take them home and enjoy the beautiful artwork.

This week we are celebrating the Chinese New Year “Gung Hay Fat Choy.” The dinosaurs will learn this is the year of the dragon by participating in many art, science, and music activities. There will also be a counting game with red and gold paper coins and ribbon dancing to celebrate this new year. We will also be learning some facts about China for instance their flag color and some nursery rhymes.

Here is an example of a Chinese Nursery Rhyme

Fire-fly, fire-fly,
Come from the hill,
Your father and mother
Are waiting here still.
They’ve brought you some sugar,
Some candy, and meat,
For baby to eat.”

Baby Room January 16-20

Just a reminder to check the weekly goals sheet for your child. The teachers have come up with a weekly goal for each child, but if there is something that you are working on at home let us know, and we would love to work on that with them as well! Thanks.

Charlie is getting closer to turning two! He is learning to become independent with small tasks. The other day, Charlie tried putting on his own shoes, and with a little assistance, did it. Way to go Charlie! Conversations with him have been fun, as his vocabulary is growing. What a fun time!

Foster was out sick part of the week last week. Poor guy L but when he is here, he really enjoys watching and playing with the bigger kids. When they are outside at the same time as the Baby Room, Foster runs with them with a big smile! He sure does love his outside time!

Anthony has been learning how to make new sounds with his mouth, and loving it. He finds it very funny, and so do we! We brought snow in from outside last week, and Anthony loved playing in it! He was fascinated with the temperature of the cold snow, and the texture. He played with it for a long time!

Vinny was awake when the story teller came for the Dinosaur and Butterfly room, and he was very interested in the story teller, and would intently watch her, and the other children’s reactions.  Vinny is becoming more and more confidant while crawling and pulling up on things. He is learning how to sit down after standing, and starting to cruise around. Way to go Vinny!

It’s been a while, but we finally got some new pictures up in the baby room, so take a minute to stop and look at those silly babies hard at play!

Last week’s discussion started with reptiles. We talked about different types of snakes, the difference between crocodiles and alligators, sea turtles and frogs. We learned a new song called “oh I’m being eaten by a boa constrictor”. By late week the focus shifted to snow. The kids were so excited to see snow on the ground. Unfortunately it was too cold to go outside. We were able to bring it inside though. We colored it too! What a blasts!

We welcomed a new friend to our classroom last week. His name is Elias. He is three and will come to school on Monday and Tuesday. We are so excited to get to know him and his family!

Also, A new storyteller came last week from the library. She was very energetic and the kids were very involved in her stories. One story, in particular, was about a dog that made different animal sounds. Finally he went to the vet to get it checked out. The vet told him to say AHHH and one by one the vet pulled different animals out of his stomach. The kids were amazed to see those animals come out. You’ll have to ask your child about it!

just a reminder…show-n-share is now on Thursday.

This week we are discussing a multicultural theme. The goal of this week is to introduce children to the differences among people and cultures around them. We will also discuss the letter R. The skill of the week is learning our age and birthday and be able to hold up the correct number of fingers for their age.

Have a great week!

The dinosaurs have had and exciting week learning about reptiles and amphibians. The animals focused on were sea turtles, frogs, alligators, and dinosaurs.  Their favorite part of the week was when they danced around the room to ” We are the Dinosaurs” by The Laurie Berkner Band. The song provided great exercise and educational facts about dinosaurs.

A new week is ahead of us and I am particularly enthusiastic because the theme is multicultural week. The children will learn of the cultures in different countries such as France, Italy, Spain, and Ireland while making passports to record our journeys.

Along with our adventure around the world we will be focusing on our goal to show how old we are with our fingers. If there are any goals that you are working on at home I will be happy to help out with your particular goals at school the best I can.

Learning never exhausts the mind.
Leonardo da Vinci