May Newsletter

Dear Families,

This month is full of loads of fun holidays and events that call for celebrations! Cinco de Mayo, Mother’s Day, and Memorial Day are just a few. Stay posted for family projects and wonderful celebratory events, like our Muffins for Mom Morning! Our toddlers will have fun exploring the month of May with lots of crafts, songs, stories, activities, and new sensory/science adventures.  We will also be having Parent/Teacher Conferences this month, and sign-up sheets will be available before hand. Enjoy your month of May!                                

Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo is a wonderful Mexican holiday that will be this coming Sunday, May 5th. The children will be doing lots to help prepare for our own little Fiesta Friday! This will be our class Cinco de Mayo Party. Please feel free to join us (from 10-11) and/or send in something related to the holiday that your child can share with the class. This can be anything from decorations and snacks (cheese and crackers, peppers, fruit salad, etc), to an outfit, picture, or stuffed animal that is related to Cinco de Mayo or Mexico.


Song of the Week:


Five Little Tortillas
Five tortillas, cooking in a pan.
One jumped out and ran, ran, ran!
Four tortillas, brown on each side.
One fell out and ran to hide.
Three tortillas, flat and round.
One ran away without a wound.
Two tortillas, not a lot.
One ran away--it was too hot!
One tortilla, looking pretty neat,
Until it heard the words "Let's  eat!"

Shape of the week: Oval

Color of the week: Yellow

Family Project: Poncho Project

This Past Week...

Our Spring Trees: art sand, glitter, and glue

Rock "Marble" Painting:

The kids collected rocks, and then...
..scooped them out of blue and green paint (for the colors of our Earth)
..and then they had to SHAKE it as hard as possible, their favorite part!

They loved seeing their messy end product!

We Planted Onions in the garden boxes on the small playground...

This is our class globe

The children colored the rice on their own and then as a whole group put on lots of glue and spread out all of the rice.

How to color rice:

Materials: rice, rubbing alcohol, food coloring, container

1. Place the rice into a container
2. Mix in some rubbing alcohol (you want it to be wet enough so that it will mix with the food coloring, but not too wet)
3. Add food coloring (a couple of drops--more or less depending on amount of rice)
4. Stir and place on a paper plate or towel to dry.

Once dry, your children would love to play with it. You can see it here in our sensory bin!

Earth Day: At Home Activities

There are so many things you could do with your children to help them understand how to keep our environment clean and safe! You can click on the picture below to take you to a great list of fantastic activities, crafts, and snacks for you and your children to do together! 

(You may have to pick and choose what is age appropriate, but you can always modify things so that you can all join in the fun!)

Here is another great source for Earth Day activities that includes more craft and activity ideas! 

(Again, you may have to pick and choose or modify for it to be age appropriate)

Earth Week!

This week we will be taking advantage of two amazing days, Earth Day and Arbors Day. The toddlers will be focusing on understanding what it means to keep our earth looking beautiful! We will be making globes, planting flowers, and crafting with parts of trees that we can find.

Song of the Week:

Litter Bugs "Frere Jacques"
We're not litterbugs
We're not litterbugs,
No siree, no siree!
We pick up our trash,
We pick up our trash,
Yes siree, yes siree!

Shape of the week: Diamond

Color of the week: Purple
Family Project: Make a family tree with your toddlers

This Past Week... the Art Show!

Thank you to everyone that came out to the art show this past Wednesday! There were quite a few parents that showed up, and every child was more than excited to show off all of their hard work! For those that want to take a peak at what was there, here are some pictures...

Room 1 

Infants (6 weeks-15 months)

Rooms 3A and 3B 

Wobblers (15 months-2 years) and Toddlers (2 - 2.9 years)

Room 2

Preschool (3-4 years)

Room 4 

Preschool (3-4 years)

Rooms 5

Preschool (4-5 years)

Bugs and Flowers

First of all, I'd like to again invite all of our families to our First Annual Art Show! It is this Wednesday, April 17th, from 6-8 pm. Please join us for a chance to see all of your children's hard work and beautiful art pieces! They are very proud of what they have down so far, and would love to show you their great art work!

This week we will continue our exploration through spring by taking a peak at bugs and flowers. There will be a combination of different art activities, including "worm painting" (cooked spaghetti and paint), and maybe even a little toddler flower planting.

Song for the week:

Insect Song  ("The Wheels on the Bus")

The firefly at night goes blink blink blink

Blink blink blink blink blink blink

The firefly at night goes blink blink blink

All around the town

The bees in the flowers go buzz buzz buzz....

The ants in the grass go march march march...

The crickets in the leaves go chirp chirp chirp...

The caterpillar in the field goes creep creep creep....

Shape of the week: square

Color of the week: green
Family Project: Art Show! April 17th (6-8 pm)

Week 1 *(subject to change)*

	Breakfast	Lunch	Afternoon Snack
Monday	Cereal Juice Milk	Mac & Cheese Peaches Peas Milk	Animal Crackers Juice
Tuesday	Waffles Fruit Salad Milk	Eggs Potato Puffs Pears Bread Milk	Oyster Crackers Juice
Wednesday	Oatmeal Bananas Milk	Chicken Sandwich Apple Sauce Corn Milk	Graham Crackers Juice
Thursday	Croissant Mandarin Oranges Milk	Rotini w/ Meat Sauce Salad Milk	Crackers Juice
Friday	Cereal Juice Milk	Ham & Cheese Sandwich Carrots Pineapple Milk	Cookies Milk

This past week...

This past week we had lots of fun as spring began to finally show up! We made kites, birds, experimented with colors, and even had a guest come and speak to us about fire safety!

This was one of our spring science experiments this week! 

Spread a thin layer of baking soda onto a flat surface (wide containers or flat plates work best) and put a drop of food coloring in a little vinegar. Supply the children with eyedroppers or small spoons and viola--instant sensory exploration! The children can mix colors, see the "fuzzy bubbles" and can hear the vinegar and baking soda fizz as it combines!

A definite hit for all of our twos! They loved it and we will be sure to revisit this experiment again.
Try it at home!

Just some cute tissue paper kites to display in the classroom. They love being able to get sticky and dirty with glue...

Firefighter Joe came to visit and while talking to us about fires and how to stay safe, shared some nifty stickers with the kids. The toddlers loved them, especially because they smelled like chocolate! Yes, they had nothing to do with fire safety, but the kids still loved Firefighter Joe and his stickers. 

Almost forgot about our little bug friends that the children found this week!
They had a chance to watch a caterpillar crawl across the picnic table. They were so excited and lived watching it wiggle!

The caterpillar then led to other great buggy explorations, like this roly poly. Not in the photos are the other worms and a beetle that the children also found over the week. They had a great time looking at them under magnifying glasses and gently placing them back in their habitats!

Kites and Birds

This week will will be talking a lot about more spring things, like flying kites and seeing birds. Our toddlers will have a chance to make their own kites and build bird nests.

We would love to see some of your spring butterflies come into the classroom. The children love to talk about their family projects, so keep up the great work! We can't wait to see all of the wonderful things you and your toddler love about spring time.

Lesson Plan for Week of 4/8-4/12

One of our songs for the week:

I’M A LITTLE KITE - “I’m a Little Teapot”

I’m a little kite up in the sky.

See me flying, oh, so high.

When the wind begins to blow and blow,

I twirl and swirl, just watch me go

Shape of the week: triangle
Color of the week: pink
Family Project: Spring Time Butterfly

Week 5 *(SUBJECT TO CHANGE)*

	Breakfast	Lunch	Afternoon Snack
Monday	Cereal Juice Milk	Fettuccine Alfredo Broccoli Pears Milk	Crackers Cheese Water
Tuesday	Pancakes Pineapple Milk	Fish Nuggets Potatoes Peaches Bread Milk	Fig Newtons Juice
Wednesday	Cinnamon Bread Bananas Milk	Chicken Dippers Baked Beans Applesauce Bread Milk	Teddy Grahams Juice
Thursday	Bagel Mandarin Oranges Milk	Ziti w/ Meatballs & Meat Sauce Peas Milk	White Cheddar Rice Cakes
Friday	Cereal Juice Milk	Turkey & Cheese Sandwhich Carrots Fruit Salad Milk	Cookies Milk

April Newsletter

Dear Families,

We gladly welcome spring as we move into the month of April! We will be focusing on a lot of spring themes, giving the children a chance to experience this season with all of their senses. We will also have a special shape and color that will be focused on each week. To add to the concepts, you can always send your children in wearing our color of the week, and practicing some extra activities at home.

Click the image below to access our April Newsletter.

I also wanted to give you some of the songs that we will be singing throughout the month of April. These are just a handful of songs and finger plays that will be introduced to your children. Our toddlers love singing, finger plays, dancing, and pretty much any movement that can be incorporated throughout the day!

These April songs can be seen by going to the image below.

Wishing you all a happy spring!

~Miss Lauren