News and Reminders: Please leave toys from home at home. It is difficult for children to bring their own toys into school as it creates trouble with sharing and ownership. We try to minimize the frustrations over materials as much as possible. We ask that those personal items do not come into school. A small stuffed animal or security item may be brought in for nap time. We keep those items on the children's cots or in their cubbies specifically to be used only during napping. Thank you for understanding.
Also, please remember to label your children's containers with their name and date! We have a lot of teachers that help wash dishes and may not know each individual container. To help us make sure that you get everything sent home at the end of each day please make sure things are labeled clearly.
Parent Potluck and Parent Collaboration Committee Meeting this Thursday 6:00 pm.
Helen Day Art Center is hosting the following program:
Classroom Updates
Infant I: Many children in our room have shown a strong interest in books this week, both in handing them to us to read and independently pulling them off the shelf one by one. Two favorites have been Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See? and Babies, which has great photos of all sorts of baby animals. This week we have also been working on supporting children through frustration, especially physical frustrations of wanting to get into a different position or trying to navigate a tight space. When children are feeling that way we generally acknowledge their frustration and provide verbal support while giving them a healthy amount of time to work through it. That is sometimes difficult for us to do as caregivers but it is something we are working on ourselves. We see that children really feel confident and self-satisfied when they work through those challenges by themselves.
Infant II: We've noticed over the last few weeks that the children have really taken an interest in getting their temperature taken. Once the thermometer is in sight, the children wait patiently for their turn to sit on the teacher's lap and take their temperature. Thermometer and temperature are some new vocabulary words we have been practicing. Mud has brought a mix of emotions for us while exploring outside. While some really enjoy stomping and splashing in the sticky mud, others are a little more skeptical when getting their hands dirty and often prefer observing.
Toddlers: This week we were happy to explore the many seasons of Vermont: spring, winter, mud and rain! We are especially happy when it rains as it produces large, exciting puddles that we love ot play in. We stomp and run through the water. We also enjoy gathering up mudding water in our hands, with scoops, and in containers. We continue to work on using polite manners in the classroom. We make sure to use respectful and kind tone when talking with one another. At the table we focus on staying seated and keeping our hands to ourselves. We also continue our work on ballet and learned frappé this week.
Preschool I: What a busy week! The excavator has continued to provide intrigue throughout the week, along with the massive brush fire the workers have been maintaining. One child said, "We have to run away from the fire, it will be too hot to touch." Friday, a tractor joined the excavator on its duties, which was met with much excitement, especially the two-year-olds. Earlier this week, one of the children brought in a lovely bouquet of daffodils. Shannon put them in two different vases and offered some magnifying glasses so that the children could inspect the flowers more closely. Several asked, "What is in there?" This led to a conversation about new vocabulary words, including "stamen," "petal," and "stem." The children enjoy displaying the flowers at the tables during snack as a conversation piece. Finally, the highlight of this week was the group trip to Campfire Forest. The older children did well sharing their special place with the younger ones, some of whom had never been there before. We got muddy and happy!
Preschool II: Early this week we took a walk to the Big Hill near the elementary school. We haven't been there without snow in a long time. The children wanted to hike to the top and sit in the big chair. Everyone made it! We spent a lot of time rolling down and climbing back up. We also spent time at circle this week continuing our letter work. We have been using our lower case sandpaper letters and holding our fingers to trace the letter. This has been helping us begin to understand how each letter is written. The practice of tracing has definitely influenced our writing. We are starting with just the vowels and will continue on with the constants next week. Learning the words vowel and consonant are very new and we are still practicing identifying each. Luckily our set of sandpaper letters are color coded which helps a lot. After we work through the lower case alphabet we will move onto upper case letters.
PreK: This week we made oobleck by mixing water and cornstarch together. It's very interesting stuff that is wet and dry at the same time. We also read a very long Dr. Seuss book called Bartholomew and the Oobleck. We were so interested that we were able to read the entire book in one sitting, very impressive! We've also become interested in games with rules like memory. We are learning that we have to take turns, listen carefully to directions, follow rules and work together. We also moved our block area closer to the circle area to allow for really large structures. It's also near a chalkboard where we can draw plans.
Also, please remember to label your children's containers with their name and date! We have a lot of teachers that help wash dishes and may not know each individual container. To help us make sure that you get everything sent home at the end of each day please make sure things are labeled clearly.
Parent Potluck and Parent Collaboration Committee Meeting this Thursday 6:00 pm.
Helen Day Art Center is hosting the following program:
Art Play!
Saturdays March 11th, April 8th, and May 6th
10:00 am - 12:00 pm
$5 drop-in fee
Although smocks will be provided, please dress your child in clothing that you don't mind getting dirty, including a change of shoes.
Classroom Updates
Infant I: Many children in our room have shown a strong interest in books this week, both in handing them to us to read and independently pulling them off the shelf one by one. Two favorites have been Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See? and Babies, which has great photos of all sorts of baby animals. This week we have also been working on supporting children through frustration, especially physical frustrations of wanting to get into a different position or trying to navigate a tight space. When children are feeling that way we generally acknowledge their frustration and provide verbal support while giving them a healthy amount of time to work through it. That is sometimes difficult for us to do as caregivers but it is something we are working on ourselves. We see that children really feel confident and self-satisfied when they work through those challenges by themselves.
Infant II: We've noticed over the last few weeks that the children have really taken an interest in getting their temperature taken. Once the thermometer is in sight, the children wait patiently for their turn to sit on the teacher's lap and take their temperature. Thermometer and temperature are some new vocabulary words we have been practicing. Mud has brought a mix of emotions for us while exploring outside. While some really enjoy stomping and splashing in the sticky mud, others are a little more skeptical when getting their hands dirty and often prefer observing.
Toddlers: This week we were happy to explore the many seasons of Vermont: spring, winter, mud and rain! We are especially happy when it rains as it produces large, exciting puddles that we love ot play in. We stomp and run through the water. We also enjoy gathering up mudding water in our hands, with scoops, and in containers. We continue to work on using polite manners in the classroom. We make sure to use respectful and kind tone when talking with one another. At the table we focus on staying seated and keeping our hands to ourselves. We also continue our work on ballet and learned frappé this week.
Preschool I: What a busy week! The excavator has continued to provide intrigue throughout the week, along with the massive brush fire the workers have been maintaining. One child said, "We have to run away from the fire, it will be too hot to touch." Friday, a tractor joined the excavator on its duties, which was met with much excitement, especially the two-year-olds. Earlier this week, one of the children brought in a lovely bouquet of daffodils. Shannon put them in two different vases and offered some magnifying glasses so that the children could inspect the flowers more closely. Several asked, "What is in there?" This led to a conversation about new vocabulary words, including "stamen," "petal," and "stem." The children enjoy displaying the flowers at the tables during snack as a conversation piece. Finally, the highlight of this week was the group trip to Campfire Forest. The older children did well sharing their special place with the younger ones, some of whom had never been there before. We got muddy and happy!
PreK: This week we made oobleck by mixing water and cornstarch together. It's very interesting stuff that is wet and dry at the same time. We also read a very long Dr. Seuss book called Bartholomew and the Oobleck. We were so interested that we were able to read the entire book in one sitting, very impressive! We've also become interested in games with rules like memory. We are learning that we have to take turns, listen carefully to directions, follow rules and work together. We also moved our block area closer to the circle area to allow for really large structures. It's also near a chalkboard where we can draw plans.
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