December 2018
Hard to believe 2018 is coming to an end. It has been such an exciting year for your families with amazing bursts of child development unfolding right in front of you.
We have watched Colin come so far in the short time he has been with us. Scooting and rolling around the room, standing, and using his left arm more and more. He is always so happy when each of his friends comes in the mornings. Shay went from frustrated at watching Amaya crawl around to so happy being able to crawl around after her. In true Shay fashion she is now not content to crawl but wants to walk. After a love/hate relationship with being on his tummy, Cal is our newest crawler. He immediately went over to the cave and crawled inside, even before going through the tunnel. Andy had been perfectly happy playing on the floor mat or in an infant seat. Not anymore, now he can sit up by himself and play with a wider variety of toys…. There is a little tipping over but not for long. Jasper has gone from happy to just chill and watch what was going on around him, to being so actively engaged in playing with toys. Sometimes he tries so hard to reach the hanging toys he flips himself over. Nyx is our little gymnast! rolling around the room and holding her head up as high as possible. She is actually working on moving herself forward and backward, and we have even found her inside the toy shelf. Our new friend Kai is very active, too. He likes to kick the infant seat toys as well as reaching for them, His legs are always moving. Fasten your seat belts 2019 will be a year of developmental magic!
It was so nice for our families to learn about each other through our All About Us bulletin board. Despite their young ages we do a lot of socialization with our babies, having them get to know and recognize each other.
December’s theme will be Snow and Snowmen. The children will be painting snow themes, listening to snow/winter music, playing with a tub of gloves and mittens, plus a huge incredibly soft “snowball” will be a texture experience. Snowman shakers (some shaped like snowmen) will round out our theme.
We will be singing Happy Birthday to Colin this month!
********* December closing schedule is as follows:
We are closed Mon Dec 24th, Tues Dec 25th, Mon Dec 31st, and Tues Jan 1st
Coming Soon
April 2019
Spring
Finally, after what seems like an extraordinarily long winter (though I know it was not), we are seeing signs of spring. During playground exploration and play, our ever-observant Ladybugs have discovered insects making an appearance. They are intrigued and squeal with excitement in sharing their discoveries. Our outdoor time is warmer, albeit windy some days, and it is often with some mild disappointment that we head inside. This month, we will focus our literature and classroom activities on Spring.
Tidbits:
*Warmer weather is FINALLY here (hopefully to stay). We will be sending home snow pants and boots. Being a native New Englander, I know we are not completely in the clear yet, but we are definitely hopeful!
*We are so impressed with the learning that happens here every day. Over the past couple weeks during circle time, we have been investigating numbers and counting. The toddlers love being called up to help teachers count objects on our counting poster. They are becoming experts at using number words in the proper order, and some of them can even count with one to one correspondence pretty reliably. We also spend some of circle time working on color recognition, naming simple shapes, and discussing feelings and facial expressions/body language. We focus on only four common feelings: happy, sad, angry/mad, and scared/frightened (we use words interchangeably). Our Ladybugs are so eager to learn!
Activities (to include):
Spring stampers Cooperative sun collage
Puffy clouds Puffy cloud paint
Flower painting Planting seeds
Ladybug project Kite creation
Face flowers Umbrellas
Music (to include):
Five Green and Speckled Frogs
Rain, Rain, Go Away
Five Little Ladybugs
Mary Had a Little Lamb
Bluebird, Bluebird
Books (selections from):
Five Green and Speckled Frogs ill. By Constanza Basaluzzo Flower Garden by Eve Bunting
Bugs! Bugs! Bugs! By Bob Barner Rain Talk by Mary Serfozo
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle The Wind Blew by Pat Hutchins
Mud by Wendy Cheyette Lewison I See Spring by Charles Ghigna
Wake Up, It’s Spring! By Lisa Campbell Ernst Splish, Splash, Spring by Jan Carr
Mouse’s First Spring by Lauren Thompson
In the Small, Small Pond by Denise Fleming