November Newsletter
2018 - 2019 Academic Year
Welcome November!
All Faiths Food Bank Food Drive
During the month of November, The Cottages will be holding a food drive for the holiday season. Food that is collected during our drive will be donated to Mayors Feed the Hungry. Donations needed for Mayors Feed the Hungry are non-perishable items, preferably meals such as soups and stews. Peanut Butter is also a great item!
We are asking all Cottage families to donate food for others that are in need during this holiday season if you are able. This is such a great opportunity to talk with your child about how others are less fortunate than we are and to show the importance of giving back and paying it forward. What a great life lesson! We appreciate your support of our community service efforts and are grateful to have such generous families! Please look for the collection boxes that will be located underneath the Parent Information Board outside the office.
Fall Fundraiser
Important Dates
- 11/11- Veteran's Day
- 11/21-11/23- TCMLC Closed in Observance of Thanksgiving Holiday
- 11/27- Fall Portraits with PLPP
Thanksgiving Break
The Cottages will be closed Wednesday, November 21st through Friday, November 23rd in observance of the Thanksgiving Holiday. We wish all of our families a Happy Thanksgiving and are so thankful for you all!
Weather Appropriate Changes of Clothes
Now that weather is starting to get cooler, we ask that you provide us with additional changes of clothing for your child. Because the weather is so unpredictable during this time of year we highly recommend bringing in items that can be layered. We suggest keeping 1 pair of shorts, 1 pair of pants, 1 short sleeved shirt, 1 long sleeved shirt, socks, underwear, and 1 sweatshirt for your child at school. Please remember to bring in additional clothing replacements as your child is sent home in the extra clothes. Thank you!
November Birthdays!
Swirling autumn leaves of orange, red and gold, November has a beauty that's easy to behold. A birthday wish for you of happiness and more, may your days be full of what you're thankful for.
Happy Birthday to all of our friends born in November!
- Ms. Kaitlyn (Caterpilar Cottage)- November 5th
- Charlie F. (Dragonfly Cottage)- November 22nd
- Charlie B. (Bumblebee Cottage)- November 25th
Fall Portraits with Precious Little People
Say Cheeeeeeese! On Tuesday, November 27th, Precious Little People Portraits will be at The Cottages for School Portraits. The Parent Info Board in front of the school will have the backgrounds posted that the photographers will be using.
Story Stretchers - The Giving Tree
'Once there was a tree...and she loved a little boy.'
So begins a story of unforgettable perception, beautifully written and illustrated by the gifted and versatile Shel Silverstein.
Every day the boy would come to the tree to eat her apples, swing from her branches, or slide down her trunk...and the tree was happy. But as the boy grew older he began to want more from the tree, and the tree gave and gave and gave.
This is a tender story, touched with sadness, aglow with consolation. Shel Silverstein has created a moving parable for readers of all ages that offers an affecting interpretation of the gift of giving and a serene acceptance of another's capacity to love in return.
Cricket Cottage News
Recap of October
October was an exciting month of pumpkins, gourds and just a hint of Fall. We enjoyed playing Peek a Boo with scarves and reading Pumpkin books and especially enjoyed the Pumpkin explorations. Our babies experienced their first Pumpkin Parade. We had so much fun leading the parade with our very own baby float/stroller! Special thank you to Kayley and Mike parents of Taylor who provided the apple cider and treats after the parade. They also have a special video of the babies and the parade that our parents will receive via email. Thank you for this wonderful keepsake!
A Time of Thanks
November is a special time of year to pause and give thanks for what we hold dear to our hearts. For those of us in the infant room it’s about family and friends and especially having fun playing with babies everyday. Thankful you have entrusted your children in our care. Please take a moment to write down what you are thankful for on our special “leaves” that we will hang on our fall tree.
November Fun
This month we will bring in more natural items to explore such as feathers and pinecones (Teacher directed only). We will continue to set up provocations using our classroom items to peak your infants curiosity and learning experience. We hope to be spending more time outside on stroller rides and on blankets in Jennies House enjoying some different toys to play with. Please include a sweater in your childs' extra clothing as well as some warmer clothes for outside time for our cooler weather.
Sign of the Month
The sign for the month of November is “thank you”.
Use the fingertips of a flat hand, touch lips, hand falls forward towards the person being thanked.
Art
This month we will be working on a special Thanksgiving keepsake to remember your little one's first Thanksgiving!
Ladybug Cottage News
Recap of October
There’s something incredibly enchanting about the combination of the season of Autumn and the ways little minds absorb all the seasonal festivities and décor. Your little ones have been hard at work exploring all things Fall, from the amazing assortment of gourds and pumpkins you have donated (thank you!) to the leaf garlands in our room, to the new and interesting harvest props outside during excursions. Investigating these items engages todfants’ earliest senses of scientific inquiry, curiosity and understanding of the natural world (not to mention delights the senses with textures, colors and new sights). As they’ve begun to grow their senses of natural wonder, the Ladybug’s have also been working on their early social skills, learning about space, routines and safety in their cottage. Yes, they’ve been busy – and they’re just getting started! Parents will be able to check out what your todfant is doing via their end of year personal portfolio which will feature documentation of each individual child enjoying various experiences throughout the year in the cottage.
Teamwork & Guidelines
We plan to continue assisting each Ladybug as they navigate the waters of upcoming toddler-hood this month by engaging them in group activities where they interact with each other in a constructive and fun manner. A few experiences they’ve been practicing are the (seated version of the) “Ring-a-Round-the-Rosie” song where they join hands and faux-fall at the end of the song and clapping for each other as they take turns on our lanai slides. These small games may sound trivial, but for one-year-olds, they teach cooperation, a positive view of their peers and regulation of their own behaviors. In fact, your Ladybugs are pushing the boundaries of what they should be able to accomplish at their age - and continue to surprise us at every turn as they demonstrate skills ahead of their time.
Speaking of guidelines, we have actively listened to your little ones and observed what they value in each other regarding interactions and are now operating off a child-based, loose group of cottage guidelines. In our little group, and in this age group more broadly, the concepts of personal space and sharing (especially of toys) are not necessarily present yet – those ideas have to be patiently, repeatedly and lovingly demonstrated and taught. We are working with all the kids on this (i.e. “Sarah would like some space right now, let’s move over to this corner” or “Tommy, remember, we don’t take toys out of a friend’s hands”). Other guidelines we are instilling in-house are purely safety-based (walking feet inside, sit in your chair while eating) and meant to protect your children. We try to keep you abreast of what your Ladybug is working on specifically during pick up and drop off time, but please be assured that if your child is working hard on one of these guidelines, many others are, too!
What’s a Water Table?
Have you ever noticed how toddlers are drawn to any new thing in any familiar place they go almost immediately? Though not everyone realizes it, the environment young children are in helps educate, stimulate and absorb them as much as their teachers and peers! We plan to keep your children’s incredible young minds busy and questing throughout the whole season and our very next addition – water tables outside – will hopefully fit the bill. A water table is an elevated surface filled with a small amount of water that todfants can explore via hands, cups, objects, etc. The water will be extremely shallow for the Ladybugs due to their age, but we believe – based on fantastic, scholarly research – that access to this new feature will captivate your kids. Please ask us any questions you have (no, we won’t let them drink the water; yes, we will change their clothes if they get wet).
We also have located a light projector we can use to project colors, patterns and pictures onto our wall/ceiling inside. These awesome tools fire up the young neurons in your kids’ heads and lead to the beginning of so much – like learning about Earth’s properties, how to use tools, familiarity with patterns … ad infinitum. We are so excited to see how your todfants reactions and will have our camera ready to capture these moments!
Literacy
Another area we have been working on and plan on continuing to pursue this month and through the year is early literacy. Did you know your children are read to every day at least three times a day while in our care? For a quick look at what they’re reading, check out our daily whiteboard (located behind our door). Don’t worry about any repeating books – todfants love the repetition and most have their own classroom favorites they like to hear over and over. This past month we focused on animals and Old MacDonald’s farm, but we are constantly testing out new books while keeping the favorites handy! Reading to your children helps foster their very early literacy skills, exposes them to language and vocabulary and introduces them to the joys of printed material. We predict some early readers will emerge from this group if their love of books is any indication. Do you have favorite books at home? Recommend them and we’ll see if they become classroom favorites, as well!
A Note About Genuine Connections
As teachers, it is our personal responsibility to genuinely connect with and get to know each child in our care individually. This means cherishing every one of your Ladybugs and finding the unique qualities that make him or her special – not just to the world, but to us. Without this connection, it would be impossible to do our jobs well! Feel free to ask us what it is we adore about your little one (though chances are we have already told you, possibly several times). It’s an honor caring for such an amazing group of little ones and we can’t wait for the rest of the school year to watch them grow and learn and blossom each and every day!
Caterpillar Cottage News
October Recap
We had a ‘Fall’tastic month as we learned all Autumn! We incorporated our autumn inquiry through all skill based activities such as promoting cognitive skills, social and emotional, physical skills, language skills, arts, science, pre-math, and literacy skills. Some of the fun experiences we enjoyed were creating masterpieces with autumn inspired colors of paints and crayons, exploring a sensory bin full of fall leaves, using pumpkins and gourdes to make imprints in play dough, and exploring mini pumpkins and gourds in several areas of the cottage! We also paid close attention to weather changes such as the wind and witnessed some of the children making the connection between the wind’s effect of an outdoor activity that they translated to an indoor activity. If you hear your child saying “it blows away” they learned that after painting outdoors and the wind was blowing their paper. Then indoors we noticed that several children were seeking fine motor input so we had them rip newspaper to which some of the children started to throw the small paper scraps in the air and say “it blows away”! We also loved playing Peek-a-“BOO” as Halloween was approaching!
November at a Glance
The children enjoyed learning about pumpkins last month. We will continue by inquiring about the farm. Farm animals, the foods grown on the farm, jobs required to have a well working farm, and vehicles found on the farm. We will be washing vegetables and fruits, toy farm animals, and farm vehicles. We will use farm items to create artwork; animals hooves prints, hay, and tractor wheels. We will have many farm related books to enjoy in the cottage as well as read the book, Eating the Alphabet, to encourage pre-learning our ABC’s and eating healthy. We will be spending quality time in the garden visiting, planting, and maintaining our crops through the month of November.
The Benefits of Gardening
This time of year provides for beautiful weather to spend extra time outdoors and enjoy our school garden. The children will become familiar with the process of gardening and as they learn about farming, classification of plants, and earth science through these experiences as well as have an improved understanding of where food comes from. Gardening is a delightful sensory experience for children and helping out with tasks is great practice for fine and gross motor skill development not to mention the many other areas of development that they will work on such as science, math, and literacy. Hopefully after the gardening experience, the children will be more open to try and eat fresh fruits and vegetables!
On the Farm
As we learn about the farm this month, we encourage our families to visit a local farm with your child as this will allow them to connect a hands-on experience on the farm to learning in the classroom. We have many local farms such as Fruitville Grove, Hunsader Farms, Dakin Dairy, and Sweetgrass Farms to name a few. Farms are a magical place for young children as large vehicles travel through them, vegetables and fruit grow from them, and animals from large to small inhabit them. Many farms have a petting zoo or allow children to experience feeding the animals which encourages development in areas such as language and science. Prompt your child to really connect with experience and ask them to describe what they feel as well as identify words of different textures (smooth, dry, wet, silky, furry). Sensory learning- there are so many sensory opportunities at a farm from the textures of the animal fur, the dryness of the hay, the wet grass, and the smooth vegetables from the farmer’s market. This increases their appreciation of nature by visiting a farm they can see firsthand where and how they get their favorite foods. Motor skills both fine and gross motor, are also being developed by picking their own fruits and vegetables. Farms are an enchanted place for young children.
Finger play
Five Little Farmers
Five little farmers woke up in the sun, (Hold up five fingers.) For it was early morning and chores must be done. The first little farmer went to milk the cow. (Hold up thumb.) The second little farmer thought he'd better plow. (Hold up first finger.) The third little farmer fed the hungry hen. (Hold up next finger.) The fourth little farmer mended broken pens. (Hold up last finger.) Baskets filled with cabbages, and sweet potatoes brown. When the work was finished and the western sky was red, Five little farmers tumbled into bed! (Hold up 5 fingers.)
Poem
The Little Plant
In the heart of a seed,
Buried deep so deep,
A tiny plant
Lay fast asleep.
"Wake," said the sunshine,
"And creep to the light."
"Wake," said the voice
Of the raindrops bright.
The little plant heard
And it rose to see,
What the wonderful,
Outside world might be.
Friendly Reminders
- Please label all personal items with your child's first and last name on sippy cups, lunch boxes, AM and PM snacks, diapers, wipes, and bedding.
- Please place all non-perishable AM snacks in our snack basket with your child’s name
Family Resources
The links below are for 2 great articles that promote positive approaches to confidence and independence for toddlers. Many of these ideas are used here at school to assist with boosting the children's self confidence and independence.
Butterfly Cottage News
October Festivities
First, we want to thank you all for donating food, supplies, and of course your time to come see us during our Fall festivities! It means a lot to us and your children as well! It doesn’t go unnoticed! The month of October was so exciting! We were super interested in our farm week and our sensory play that came along with it like sand and beans with our farm animals and fences. We definitely know all our animal noises and which are farm animals by now! We skipped the week where we were going to focus on birds because we were so intrigued by all the fall decor and pumpkins coming in daily that we went right into pumpkin exploration and learning about gourds using our science tools. Our biggest discovery was “what’s in the pumpkin” because it wasn’t “candy” or “horsies” like we thought! We counted pumpkin seeds and acorns; we can sort them by color and size, took red and yellow to make orange, and used our light table to explore more pumpkin guts. We classified Halloween props and characters by which were real and fake. For instance, bats are actually real! We personalized our own pumpkins with pride. The decorating lasted for days for some because they kept on adding more glitter and puffy paint!
Now for November
Since we loved our pumpkins and corn so much, we decided to slide into learning about food groups! We will learn about fruit, vegetables, meat, etc! We can focus on color, shapes and counting with this also. During class we often remind our butterflies about table manners. Like please and thank you's. We also use the phrase, “Tummy’s to the table,” to make sure our butterflies aren't spilling food or falling out of their seats. We will become chefs and bakers and even cashiers during this month. We will finish up the month of November by talking about how thankful we are, what that actually means, and of course talk about how important family and friends are!
Taste Test
During the month of November we will use our senses to see, smell and taste some new foods. There will be a sign up sheet posted inviting you to bring in a raw fruit or vegetable for us all to try- the more exotic the better. We will learn and use descriptor words like smooth, rough , crunchy, soft, sweet and salty to describe the new tastes and textures we encounter. We will discuss which foods we liked and disliked graphing our choices. We're looking forward to exercising our taste buds during this unique sensory experience.
Food Science
Continuing with our food theme, we will be exploring the scientific properties of the food we eat. Apples, bananas and avocados will be shown to oxide and change color. We will explore density by dropping fruit in water to see if the fruit floats or sinks. Speed, shape and velocity will be demonstrated as we create ramps and explore which fruits roll well and fastest and why.
Bumblebee Cottage News
October Recap
Exploring the start of our harvest season took center stage in October as we learned of the people and vehicles, both past and present, involved in the process of getting healthy and providing farm fresh foods to our local grocery stores. The changing of leaves was explored in a frozen leaves experiment as we melted the ice with droppers and warm water versus water with pink Himalayan sea salt added. The Bees began their journey of cultures around the world through an exploration of music and movement. November provides the continued potential to observe changes in our surroundings with shorter days and longer nights, guiding our next month's inquiries.
Letter of the Week
Moving along through our ABCs, we slowly begin to expand on the focus of letters not simply being in our and our friends' names, but in other words around us. This month we will be focusing on the letters K, L, M, and N, both capital, and lowercase, with regular recaps of our alphabet to date. We introduced the “Special Helper” stick figure to help familiarize the children with different strokes needed to create each letter of the alphabet. Utilizing both whole body movement and tracing are different ways we invite children to practice and play with budding writing skills at all levels.
Color Inquiry: Red
The Bees have buzzed through yellow, orange, and now we arrive at red! With juicy apples, leaves, and flowers, to stop signs and fire engines, inspiration abounds for a closer look at this primary color. Many will be tickled "pink" when they mix red and white. Undoubtedly, browns may be detected with red and black, supporting language and communication skills as we continue to develop our inner artists.
Fine Arts: Artist of the Month
Exploration of artistic media is welcomed and free expression is encouraged. However, did you know that some children become frustrated, even discouraged from exploring the arts when they are not granted enough guidance? For this reason, we will be introducing an artist of the month. We will begin by discussing their artistic style which will be modeled for the children with an invitation to play with this new style. However, this will add another gateway into social studies as we learn about some of the places where each artist was born. Problem-solving skills, another skill integral to later school success, will be nourished through these inquiries. November's artist of the month will be Claude Monet, with a closer look at his utilization of red swatches in his painting Poppy Field in Argenteuil.
Autumn Changes
Continuing to observe autumn changes in our environment will guide many of this month's invitations. Changes can be seen in the migration of birds, the longer and earlier evenings, and even in science-based experiments! Use of fall-inspired natural loose parts to create and to explore, such as leaves and acorns, will provide a world of mathematical and scientific explorations. Home and harvest will be a topic to center upon as our Bees will note the excited and growing bustle of delicious foods prepared and families and friends visiting around this time of year. This is only the beginning!
Apple Pie Recipe
We look forward to continued development of math and scientific inquiry skills, not to mention healthful eating habits, through a monthly culinary experience. This month, our focus will be on a vegan apple pie, which should satisfy all our Bees' palettes. This is, in addition, to carefully including ingredients that should be good for all dietary needs. When we make our own food, we get to learn not only how ingredients and the heating process changes our food, but we are in control of the amount of added sugars, making it possible for even sweet treats to be good for us! Our donations request list will be posted next to the sign-in sheet. Happy Autumn, indeed!
Dragonfly Cottage News
October Recap
What a great month we had together. We really enjoyed all the autumn inspired materials everyone donated. We had so many beautiful items. It really added a fall feel to our classroom. We really had a great time dressing up as dragons for our Pumpkin Parade! All of the dragons looked amazing! We really have some pretty creative families at The Cottages. Thanks again for all the support, donations and effort from all of the families, we couldn't do it without you all!!!!
During the month of October we learned all about how pumpkins grow, labeled the parts of a pumpkin and dictated pumpkin stories from our own drawings. We took a cool virtual field trip to a pumpkin patch in North Carolina and visited a farmers market. The dragonflies took a nature walk around campus to collect various natural items for autumn inspired art pieces that came out so beautiful. During small groups we weeded and planted in our school garden . The children planted beans, squash , wildflowers, watermelons and peas. We also participated in a STEAM Challenge to build a bridge for our extra large pumpkin. We learned all about how bridges are made and different types of bridges. We made a beam bridge that was study enough to hold the pumpkin successfully after only a few short tries. The dragonflies are learning problem solving skills, building their creativity, life skills and resourcefulness all in one challenge. So cool to watch the children work together and complete a challenge.
November's Studies of Interest will be Harvest
We will learn about harvest topics like apples, corn, turkey facts and the importance of being grateful and giving thanks . We would love to add a family-thankful tree to our classroom during this time. Please email your family pictures to Ms. Liz for printing or feel free to drop one off in the classroom.
November Community Outreach
We have noticed that our dragonflies have shown a great deal of interest in the world we live in. We would love to make some community connections and have the children help with a warm clothing drive for people in our community. We as a class will be collecting new and gently used scarves, socks (all sizes both children, woman's and men's) and warm beanie hats for the colder nights that do sneak up on some . The children can help with collecting the items, picking the items out if you choose to purchase and we will make the donation boxes. We want the children to feel a connection to their community and instill a passion to make this world a better place. I f you have any questions don't hesitate to ask.
Apple Crisp Cooking
We would love to make homemade apple crisp with the class. The recipe seems pretty easy and the class will all get a job to help prepare and create the yummy treat. If that goes smooth maybe we can try our baking skills at making a homemade apple pie or bread next! Here is the recipe if you want to try it home too!
Ingredients:
1 cup of brown sugar
1 cup of rolled oats
1 cup of all- purpose flour
1/2 cup of butter melted
3 cups of apples
1/2 cup of sugar
2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
Directions:
1. preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. lightly grease pan
3. combine brown sugar, oats ,flour and butter to a crumbly mix
4. spread apples and add mix to the bottom and top
5. sprinkle cinnamon and sugar over and any leftover crumb mixture
6. bake for 40-45 mins.
Math, Science, & Literacy
The dragonflies are all very bright. We have been working so hard in all areas. Math, science and literacy have been favorites among most. We are working on sorting, pattern making, counting number recognition , one on one correspondence and now slowly introducing adding numbers. Science is lots of thinking skills and questions. Creating hypothesis, engaging them with cause and effect experiments. We want them to grow up to be master problem solvers, scientists and inventors. Literacy focus has been on letter recognition, letter sounds and blending words . We love writing and creating books. Some make books weekly. Donations of white paper is always needed. The dragonflies love to learn and we are all doing so well. We are so proud of these kiddo's!
American Sign Language
The Dragonflies are doing fantastic with learning American Sign Language (ASL)! To start each day, we have been signing “good morning”, as well as, asking one another “how are you?” All of the Dragonflies can also sign a response to the question “how are you?” Almost all of our Dragonflies can sign the entire alphabet, and have even learned some autumn themed signs such as pumpkin, witch, candy, ghost, black cat, and Happy Halloween. For the month of November we will continue to learn animal signs and learn some new signs that come to mind when thinking about Thanksgiving such as thankful, family, food, friends, etc. We look forward to the month of November and continuing to learn and practice ASL.
Friendly Reminders
- The first reminder is to remember to sign your child in and out everyday on the clipboard located in the classroom. Please remember this needs to be done everyday at drop off and pickup. At the end of every month you also need to sign the VPK Attendance sheet for that month, this sheet is located in the same basket as the regular attendance sheet. Please check and make sure you signed for the month of October.
- The next reminder is to ensure the children are keeping their cubbies nice and tidy with everything fitting inside the bin. Children should have one sheet, a blanket if they wish, and only ONE stuffy. Sheets and blankets need to be brought home every Friday and washed. Also, the children should have a change of clothes in the cubbies.
- The weather is changing and children are growing, please make sure to provide a mix of clothing for warmer days as well as chilly days and be sure that the clothing that is here fits.
- Lastly, the staff is not responsible for lost jewelry, toys, or other accessories. Please leave them at home or talk with your child about how they will need to be responsible for their own personal items. If you have any questions or concerns, please ask a teacher and we will be happy to assist you the best we can. Thank you for your help!