October Newsletter
2017 - 2018 Academic Year
Welcome October!
Fall Assessments
During the months of October and November, we will conduct our Fall assessments for the 2017-2018 academic year. We will be using the Teaching Strategies GOLD assessment throughout the school as the age range is from birth - Kindergarten. Each year, this assessment is completed in the Fall, Winter, and Spring. It is kept at school throughout the year and sent home at the end of the academic year. We also keep a record in your child's personal file in the front office. We will be using the Child Assessment Portfolio Summary Form by Teaching Strategies GOLD. Parents are always welcome to check out their child's assessment booklet, however they cannot leave the school property. We are also always happy to schedule a conference either in person or over the phone to touch base should you wish. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.
Pumpkin Parties & Parade
On Friday, October 27th, The Cottages will be having our Annual Pumpkin Parties & Parade. The festivities will begin at 3:30 pm with a school parade around the pond in front of Church of Motion and Impact Basketball. Please meet around the pond first as the whole school will be leaving directly from their cottages for the parade. Families are invited to watch the school parade and then follow your child’s class to their cottage for the Pumpkin Party. There will be a sign-up sheet posted in your child’s cottage if you would like to contribute an item for the party. If you would like to help out with the party, please let your child’s teacher know. Please remember, we kindly ask that children do not wear costumes to school that day. You'll want to be on the lookout for more information from your child's Teacher and the Room Parent. We hope to see you there!
Pumpkin Palooza
A la Carte Enrichment Classes
Tis' the Season for Colds and Flu
Thieves essential oil blend was inspired by the legend of four 15th-century French thieves who formulated a special aromatic combination composed of clove, rosemary, and other botanicals they used while robbing the dead and dying. Young Living's one-of-a-kind Thieves blend, crafted in the spirit of that legendary combination, can be found in all of the Thieves products and is a safe alternative to commercial cleaners.
We use the cleaner daily in each of the classrooms and any time there is an outbreak we diffuse Thieves essential oil at night and on the weekend. Thieves essential oil is a strong anti-germ blend that smells lovely this time of year! However, Thieves essential oil should be avoided diffusing and applying topically to young children under 10. Both Rosemary and Clove contain a chemical constituent called cineole 1, 8 and menthol. Menthol and cineole stimulate cold receptors in the lungs, and this triggers a reflex in young children which slows breathing significantly. Clove should not be used topically on children under 2 years of age, cInnamon bark essential oil should be avoided topically as well as it is too irritating to the skin, however cinnamon leaf can be used instead.
As long as precautions are made around young children, the Thieves line of versatile products offers you a non-toxic option to clean your home effectively and to support your family's wellness.
For more information on the Thieves line of products, stop by the front office to pick up a Thieves booklet or feel free to email me at michelle@thecottagespreschool.com with any questions or if you would like to place an order.
Clean Hands Save Lives!
Join the Clean Hands Campaign to stop disease at your fingertips! Hand washing is one of the most effective ways to avoid colds, flu and spreading germs to other people. In vulnerable groups, some kinds of flu can have severe complications and even cause death.
Even if you think you know all there is to know about hand washing, you may be surprised. We encourage you to browse the Clean Hands Campaign website to learn more. You can join the Clean Hands Campaign as an individual, business or school. When you do, you will receive a specialized toolkit with hand washing information. Practice Clean Hands to keep yourself and those around you healthy! Clean hands save lives!
HOW TO WASH HANDS... the right way
You think you are washing your hands correctly, but is your hand washing technique really getting the job done? To effectively remove flu and cold causing germs, follow all of the steps below:
- Wet your hands with clean running water and apply soap. Use warm water if available.
- Rub hands together to make a lather and scrub all surfaces.
- Continue rubbing hands for 20 seconds. Need a timer? Imagine singing "Happy Birthday" twice through to a friend!
- Rinse hands well under running water.
- Dry your hands using a paper towel or air dryer. If possible, use your paper towel to turn off the faucet.
October Birthdays!
A birthday in October can be a special treat,
the harvest has begun of pumpkins, gourds and wheat.
So on your happy day here's a birthday wish for you -
May you gather joy and laughter,
love and friendships too.
Happy Birthday to all of our friends born in October!
- 10/8 William M. (Dragonfly Cottage)
- 10/9 Madilyn H. (ButterflyCottage)
- 10/11 Jack J. (Ladybug Cottage)
- 10/11 Avery B. (Caterpillar Cottage)
- 10/14 Ms. Ashley (Caterpillar Cottage)
- 10/18 Tommy K. (Bumblebee Cottage)
- 10/19 Ziva S. (Butterfly Cottage)
- 10/21 Aaliyah W. (Dragonfly Cottage)
- 10/22 Charlotte T. (Butterfly Cottage)
- 10/31 Ms. Michelle (Office)
Cricket Cottage News
Welcome New Friends!
We would like to welcome Scarlett to the Cricket Cottage! We are so glad that you are here!
Tickling Our Senses
This month we will explore different textures. The Fall season gives us so many opportunities to explore items such as pumpkins, leaves, pinecones, and acorn shakers. We will also explore our senses by smell by using scented jars of vanilla, cinnamon and pumpkin spice.
Fall Song
(To the tune of The Farmer in the Dell)
The leaves are falling down
The leaves are falling down
Red, yellow, green and brown
The leaves are falling down
Sign Language
During the month of October, we will be working on learning the signs for “milk” and “eat”. It is so exciting to communicate with your infant using signs, especially when they use the signs to communicate their needs with us!
Donations
We are asking our Cricket Cottage families for donations this month to help enhance our activities planned for October. Below please find a list of items that we could use.
- 6 tiny Pumpkins
- several variety Gourds
- One size fits all Pumpkin costume (to borrow)
- Plastic bags
If you would like to donate an item there will be a sign up sheet near the attendance sheet. Thank you so very much!
Ladybug Cottage News
September Recap
During the month of September, our topic was "All About Me." We helped the children label their emotions as they felt them throughout the day. Our friends experienced a tickling sensation from fingers to toes when creating hand and foot prints. We worked on modeling and practicing gentle hands with friends.
October
During the month of October, we will be exploring the Fall season such as weather changing, colors associated with fall, and pumpkins! The children will experience a fun finger painting activity using homemade finger paints that are inspired by fall colors and scents. We will read new fall books and enjoy fall songs and finger plays. As the weather begins to cool, we will go on buggy rides to breathe in the fresh fall air!
Pumpkin Exploration
The children will be exploring a pumpkin this month! We will talk about the textures and colors on the outside and inside of the pumpkin. The children will be introduced to new words such as stem, leaves, pulp, and seeds.
Pumpkin Bowling
Pumpkin bowling is a fun, exciting way to work on gross motor skills and eye hand coordination. It also gives us a chance to incorporate some outdoor exploration as well. We will set up bowling pins and the let the children roll the pumpkins to knock the pins over.
Literacy: Fall-Themed Books
- You Are My Pumpkin
- Pumpkin Time
- Biscuit's Pet and Play Halloween
- Duck and Goose Find a Pumpkin
- Boo!
- Llama Llama Trick or Treat
- It's Pumpkin Day, Mouse!
Painting Pumpkins
The Ladybugs will have the opportunity to work on fine motor development as we paint pumpkins using paintbrushes and our fingers! We will work on color recognition as we talk about the different paint colors. Also, we will begin practicing size recognition as we compare big pumpkins to small pumpkins. We are asking parents to please bring in one pie pumpkin (medium size) for their child to paint by Monday, October 16th.
Donations Needed to Enhance Our Environment
- Small pumpkins
- Variety of gourds
Caterpillar Cottage News
September Recap
In the month of September, we welcomed our new friend Sloane to our classroom! During centers, we spent a lot of time working on social and emotional development by giving the children words to use when they were frustrated or upset. The Caterpillars are doing an excellent job communicating with their classmates and although there is always room for improvement, we couldn’t be prouder of them. The children loved doing sensory and art activities such as outdoor art projects, coloring on paper taped underneath the table, water play, clay creations and much more! Also, the volcano investigation was a tremendous success.
October at a Glance
In the month of October, we will be shifting our focus to how living things grow. The children will spend time planting and taking care of seeds and plants in the garden. We will also spend time enjoying fun fall sensory activities such as playing in the pulp and seeds from a pumpkin and exploring homemade fall scented play dough.
Literacy
This month we will be reading the book “Little Boo.” A short story that follows the growth of a pumpkin seed, who can’t wait to grow up. We have also updated our reading area with more fall inspired books!
New Songs for October
I'm a Little Pumpkin (Sung to the tune of "I'm a Little Teapot")
I'm a little pumpkin short and round
I grow on a vine and on the ground
I start as a seed and grow, grow, grow
Soon I'm ready to be carved and glow
Scarecrow, Scarecrow (Sung to the tune of "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear")
Scarecrow, scarecrow, turn around
Scarecrow, scarecrow, touch the ground
Scarecrow, scarecrow, reach up high
Scarecrow, scarecrow, touch the sky
Scarecrow, scarecrow, bend down low
Scarecrow, scarecrow, touch your toes
Five Little Pumpkins
Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate (hold up 5 fingers)
The first one said, "Oh my it's getting late!" (hands on cheeks)
The second one said, "There's a chill in there air." (arms around self)
The third one said, "But we don't care!" (swing pointer finger)
The fourth one said, "We are ready for some fun!" (swing arms in air)
The fifth one said, "Let's run and run and run!"
So "whooooo" went the wind (make a whoooo sound)
And out went the lights (make a loud clap)
And five little pumpkins rolled out of sight! (roll hands)
Reminders
- Be sure to sign your child in and out and check their folders daily for tidbits, art work and memos such as “diapers needed”.
- Children are not permitted to carry snack around inside or outdoors due to the risk of choking and food allergies.
- Please bring in a white t-shirt for your child by Monday, October 16th. These will be used for our Pumpkin Parade.
You all are doing an amazing job, if you have any questions or concerns please feel free to ask us. Thank you!
Butterfly Cottage News
September Recap
September was a little shorter than planned due to Irma, but our Butterflies still managed to have a great month! We focused on healthy eating and learned about how we can keep our bodies healthy! Our friends loved using dramatic play as they pretended to be doctors and bakers and to talk about the food we like and why we need to eat vegetables and fruit. We have also started to do more science experiments with our Butterflies as they are fascinated to see things changing as well as the creation of new things! Our favorite experiment so far has been seeing how apples change over time after being put into different liquids; particularly when they turned blue in the colored water! Thank you for all our parents who helped in bringing in supplies!
October Inquiries
In October, we are going to explore Autumn and Nature with our friends and do a lot of fun Halloween activities! We will be conducting more science experiments and investigations throughout the month. As the weather cools down a bit, we hope to get in touch with nature by going on walks and collecting natural items that can be used to get creative with in our artwork! We really enjoy spending time outside and hope we can take advantage of it more as the weather cools down. As most parents know our Butterflies love their music! Currently we try to have "dance parties" and "music parties" throughout the week as it keeps our little Butterflies active and allows them explore music and dance! Throughout October we hope to keep this up and introduce new songs like the one below to our friends that not only fit with our monthly topic, but help them with learning numbers and letters.
Zoom Zoom Broom
Zoom Zoom Zoom
We're flying past the moon
Zoom Zoom zoom
We're flying on a broom
If you want to take a trip
Climb aboard your broomstick
Zoom Zoom zoom
We're flying to the Moon
In 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1
Zoom
Alphabet
In September we started discussing the alphabet with our Butterflies and since most of our friends now recognize the first letter of their name, we can't wait to start on full name recognition with our friends! Our friends really enjoyed doing name puzzles on the walls and finding their letters at circle time in books. We hope to use the same methods to learn the rest of the letters in our name and eventually be able to tell which name is theirs.
Pumpkin Parade
On Friday, October 27th at 3:30 we will be having our annual Pumpkin Parade & Parties at The Cottages! Each class will dress up in costume and parade around the circle for all the parents to see! It's a really fun event and the children are very excited for it already! The costume for the Butterfly Cottage will be based off our favorite book 'Please Mr.Panda'. All the children will be dressed up like Mr. Panda from the story and will be carrying our donut boxes full of paper donuts that we will be making in class together. For the costume our friends will need a white t-shirt, black shorts or pants and a black long sleeve shirt. We would also like to paint the children's faces to give them a panda nose, please let us know if you do not wish your child's face to be painted.
Reminders
- Please check the parent board when signing your child in/out for any updates.
- For our potty trained/ training friends, we would really appreciate it if parents can be sure that we have at least 3 pairs of extra underwear for the children at school, accidents happen! Likewise, if any parent would like to donate spare boy or girl underwear it is always welcomed!
Bumblebee Cottage News
September Recap
Busy as bees can be, there is much to explore and in September we have barely scratched the surface. A deeper sense of community within our classroom is being instilled with the weekly assignment of classroom jobs by random picking of names. This gives the Bees an understanding of the importance of their contributions to those around them. We began to get to know one another a little better with an All About Me inquiry, including each Bumblebee, one another’s families, families around the world, and how a healthy diet supports a healthy body. In October, we will be moving into a focus on the season of autumn as we continue to explore the world around us.
Letter of the Week
We continue our journey in exploring the alphabet in personally meaningful ways. This includes people, places, and things encountered in the children’s daily lives. Of course, nothing helps a child learn letters of the alphabet better than to recognize those first in their own, and then in their friends’ names. This month we will be focusing on the letters G, H, I, and J, both capital, and lowercase. We will also learn to draw the “Special Helper”, which is a stick figure that allows each child to become better familiarized with the different strokes needed to create each letter of the alphabet, setting a strong foundation for later writing skills. This will be explored in both whole body movement, as well as with invitations to write.
Color Inquiry: Orange
There is much to learn about colors between their tints and shades. With this in mind, we find that a full appreciation of them can be gained more fully with a special focus on each separately, even while we explore the color wheel as a whole. In September, we placed special emphasis on the color yellow. October, then, begs an exploration of the color orange! The Bees will first mix their own orange, and gain inspiration from their surroundings to artistically express various objects from food to objects in nature. They will see how adding more or less of their primary components affects the end hue, adding to their vocabulary as we discuss their findings.
Movin’ & Groovin’
Using the universal language of music, we recognize that 21st-century children are members of a global community. As such, we are excited to continue to expand their horizons with an approach where music and movement come together while introducing a different style of “world beats” music each week. In so doing, we will introduce them to diverse cultures and ethnicities.
Harvest
There is much to explore within the realm of harvest time beginning with the pumpkins and gourds that abound in the stores and in imagery all around us. This will be encouraged with hands-on exploration of such food, as well as opportunities to blend science, math, and healthful eating habits with a special monthly cooking project. Please look by the sign-in sheet as we will be posting requests for donations to aid us in our culinary adventures. As an appreciation of nature is both enriching and stress relieving, in addition to being full of educational delights, we will undertake science experiments where we can learn about how and why leaves lose their color in places where the weather grows considerably cooler. There’s no doubt about it - there is so much to learn about fall!
Pumpkin Parade
Our little scientists go “mad” with discovery. Therefore, this year’s Pumpkin Parade costume theme will be “mad scientists”. We will be asking that each child bring in an oversized white t-shirt which will be transformed into “lab coats”. Additional requests for supplies will be posted next to the sign-in sheet as the date nears, so please keep an eye out. We are thrilled by the discoveries the Bumblebees will be making in the upcoming school year!
Dragonfly Cottage News
Recap of September
September flew by!! We had a great month of learning new skills such as creating sets, sorting objects and making compound words. We have also been working hard to learn the letters in our names and writing out different letters with letter sounds. We started our Cottage job chart and the Dragonflies have taken their jobs’ to heart. The Dragonflies are so eager to learn!
October Fall Inquiry
During the month of October the Dragonflies will inquire about Autumn through inspired provocations! We will learn how and where pumpkins grow, discuss and investigate the different parts of a pumpkin, measure and weigh pumpkins, and conduct a pumpkin eruption experiment. We will read books that bring a fall feel to our classroom! We want our cottage to burst with Autumn this month! We are looking for donations of pumpkins (a variety of sizes), gourds, acorns, pinecones, sticks and leaves. We would greatly appreciate your help in enhancing the children's fall experience in the classroom and through our intentional fall provocations. These items provide so many opportunities for learning in a variety of domains such as math, science, language, physical development, and more!
Pumpkin Parade!
In a world where you can be anything, do anything-- what do you want to be when you grow up? How do you want to change the world? October is certainly a month where our imaginations soar and dressing up in costumes is at the forefront of our minds. We are asking our families to embrace this and with your child create their costume for the parade based on what your child wants to be when they grow up. Let me know if you have any questions or feedback. We love to get festive, so let’s make this pumpkin parade one to be remembered! After the parade please join us for our party in the classroom! Everyone is welcome! We will have a sign up sheet in our room so that you can sign up for our party donations.
Hopes and Dreams
What are your hopes and dreams for your child? Not only for VPK, but for life? Write them down on a ribbon while leaving room to tie it to a branch in our classroom. We will have a basket in the kitchen with ribbon and sharpie markers available for you on the kitchen countertop. These ribbons we hang will be our aspirations for our children for this year and beyond!