January Newsletter
2017-2018 Academic Year
Welcome Back & Happy New Year!
We hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season and enjoyed the extra time spent with your loved ones over winter break. All of the staff here at The Cottages took pleasure in having quality time with our family as well as a little extra time to relax and rejuvenate for the new year. We want to extend our sincerest gratitude to all of our families from the bottom of hearts for your continued support of our staff and your genuine appreciation for all of the work we do each and every day to ensure we are providing a high quality early education program for our children. The Cottages wouldn’t be the special little gem it is without the support of our families. May this new year continue to bless us all!!
Winter Assessments - Teaching Strategies GOLD
During the month of January, the children at The Cottages will be assessed using the Teaching Strategies GOLD assessment system. This will be the second assessment on your child for the 2017- 2018 academic year and will be marked down during the winter timeframe. Please note, the assessment will be kept in your child’s portfolio throughout the year as the assessments will be documented in each child’s personal assessment booklet. Parent/Teacher conferences will begin in February to review your child’s assessment.
January Birthdays!
Celebrate your being born on your birthday but celebrate happiness every single day of your life.
- Willow W. - 1/6
- Arianna C- 1/16
- Lilah N. - 1/17
- Ania W.- 1/20
- Ava M. - 1/28
- Cole H.- 1/28
Happy Birthday to all of our friends born in January!
Cricket Cottage News
New Beginnings
Happy New Year! We are excited for the New Year ahead in the Cricket Cottage. Though we are saying goodbye to Joey, we know that he is going to have a wonderful year full of growing and exploring ahead of him. Thank you for allowing us to take part in your child’s journey.
Sensory Exploration
We will be making snowflake footprints using white and blue paint. We will talk to our Cricket friends about the feel of the paint on their foot as well as the color paint we are using. We will also be having fun with watercolor ice cube exploration and be talking to our friends about wet and cold.
Sign Language
This month we will be reviewing the sign language signs we have been learning since August. We will be focusing on the signs “eat’ and “more”. Please try using these signs at home with your child as well. We have more sign language resources in the Cricket Cottage for reference if you’d like to learn more.
Stretching & Growing
This month we will concentrate on fine and gross motor skills. Our older friends will work on rolling over, sitting up, standing, and holding/grabbing toys. Our younger friends will focus on grasping and reaching for toys. The Crickets are growing and changing on a daily basis and our goal is to continue to promote and encourage their independence.
Ladybug Cottage News
December Recap
The children’s senses were delighted last month by different sights, sounds, and smells! It was a magical time of year! We discovered light and reflection through hands on experiences by using a variety of materials through light table exploration. We also incorporated light and reflection into a winter wonderland masterpiece by painting on a mirror and transferring it to paper.
January
Moving forward into January our classroom will warmly welcoming Joey and Willow! The ladybugs will be starting out the new year learning about patterns and shapes. During the patterns and shapes unit we will be using math, music, and language to explore these concepts. Also, Miss Kate and Miss Kendelynn will be introducing a new felt board game at circle time that ties into the patterns and shapes theme.
Patterns in Math
The focus on math this month will be incorporated with shapes, colors, and patterns. We will build with soft and wooden blocks to demonstrate patterns and discuss the different shapes of the blocks. The children will also count and sort different objects such as feathers, Legos, and shells in the sensory bin.
Rhythm and Movement
As we continue our topic about patterns, we will move into beats in music. We will dance and move to different types of music with slow and fast beats. We will be using our musical instruments in the classroom as well making our own. If any parents have c.d.’s or musical instruments from home that you think the children would enjoy, please feel free to bring them in to share with the class.
Language
Throughout the month we will be focusing on building our vocabulary by identifying shapes, colors, and counting. By pointing out colors, shapes and counting objects to the children, this will help them recognize and recall the mentioned patterns. We will also be playing felt board games that help us identify these concepts as well.
Items Needed
If you have any children's board books at home about shapes, patterns, or colors and would like them to be read to the classroom, please bring them in. These books will be kept separate from our class books and returned at the end of the month. Please make sure your child's name is written inside. Thank you for your continued support and partnership and we are looking forward to starting the new year with all of you.
Caterpillar Cottage News
December in Review
December was a month filled with light and reflection. The children enjoyed collaborating with us on our reflective light project, painting CDs, and exploring the light table. Our class enjoyed creating on mirrored card stock with the color blue and also explored movement through air by using straws to move watercolors across paper. This past month was filled with nature walks, snow slime, and treasure filled jolly snowman baskets.
What to look for in January
Our class has demonstrated a special interest in the local community vehicles that pass by our windows such as UPS trucks, Mail trucks, School Buses, Garbage Trucks and more. Therefore, during the month of January, we will transition our focus more toward community helpers. Dramatic play will include props that support this theme and we will be discussing roles our community helper play during circle time.
Gross Motor and Team Building Activities
Outside time, interactive games, and transitions provide the children with many social and emotional learning opportunities. This month the Caterpillar Cottage team will be paying special attention and learning how we can enhance this time to make them more meaningful. For example, group games likes rolling the ball to each other can help guide the children to take turns. Helping and checking on friends in need on the playground helps to reveal empathy and waiting for others during transitions helps to encourage the consideration of others. To meet our goals, we will be singing songs and working with the children one-on-one as often as possible.
Community Vehicles
To integrate our focus, the children will help us create a road way filled with community vehicles with red fire engines, brown USP trucks, green garbage trucks and yellow school buses. We will guide the children to take turns as they paint the poster board for each vehicle. This art project will also serve as an area of interest to build vocabulary with the class.
Reminders
Please label all your children’s sippy cups with first and last names. We also request jackets have your child's name on them as well now that the weather is getting cooler. Thank you!
Butterfly Cottage News
December Recap
Last month our Butterflies got in the festive spirit learning all about the holidays! We created a lot of delicious food projects. Our Butterflies loved making frozen bananas and decorating gingerbread houses! We worked on our names at circle time and almost all of our friends can recognize their names! We are so proud of them! We have had a great first half of our school year so far!
January
Our Butterflies will be working on their fine motor skills this month. We are going to be doing activities using tools such as straws, tweezers, and scissors. We will be working a lot with mastering the skill of scissor usage during this month.
Fine Motor Fun
As you know all of our Butterfly friends love playing with slime! We will be making slime mazes this month and use a straw and ping pong ball to blow through the straw to get the ball through the maze. We will also be using scissors to cut paper, playdough, and slime. The sensory bin will be brought out so we can work on using our pincher grip to pick up the smaller items and we will be doing a lot of scooping and pouring in the bin as well.
Making Contact with Teacher
Please be sure to touch base with a teacher when you are either dropping off or picking up your child. The morning drop off time and afternoon pick up times are a busy time of day. Teachers may be speaking with another parent or helping a child while you are dropping off or picking up. Touching base with a teacher will ensure that they are aware that you have either dropped off or picked up and will allow them to greet your child as well as sign your child in or out for the day.
Potty Training
Please let teachers know when you are planning on potty training so we can better assist you while your child is at school. We prefer to have a meeting with the families prior to beginning the process here so we are all on the same page and your child is more likely to succeed. We also would like to discuss a list of additional items to be brought to school for your child during the beginning stages of this process.
Reminders
- More diapers and wipes for your child for the new year please
- Additional spare underwear for our potty training friends
Bumblebee Cottage News
December Recap
We did some delving into what makes this time of year so merry. Hanukkah, as well as Christmas traditions, were discussed and read about. The children loved to sing the Dreidel song on their own! The Festival of Lights took center stage as the children began to learn about cold weather beauty such as icicles and snowflakes. Our forest theme allowed for a deeper exploration of sweet-smelling pine clipping which the children would further trim, measure, and decorate. With winter officially beginning towards the end of the month just before school break, we will continue through January with a further inquiry of the many attributes of wintertime.
Letter of the Week
This month we will be focusing on the letters S, T, U and V, both capital, and lowercase. Writing invitations continue, but we will also continue to engage in whole-body movement with the hands and arms. This will set the stage for understanding and execution of the basic lines and shapes involved in writing. A stronger emphasis on the combination of letters into words as a whole will begin at this time.
Color Inquiry: Purple
This month's special focus will be on the color purple. Its tendency to move between warm and cool hues offer much in the way of color expression and inquiry. Additionally, Pantone has recently announced their Color of the Year for 2018 will be Ultra Violet. Therefore we will explore how this color also appears in various textiles and household items, in addition to purples within nature.
Fine Arts: Artist of the Month
December's artist of the month will be Pablo Picasso with a closer look at his painting entitled "Three Musicians". His Cubist style will lend itself well especially to Mathematical topics involving shapes and measurements. This will be in addition to abstraction and representational thinking can be useful for children's Cognitive development and understanding of their feelings in addition to the world around them.
Winter Wonderland
Now that winter has begun in earnest, we will begin exploring a variety of topics from ice and snow, colder weather and places more strongly affected by such changes in temperature. Science and Social Studies will especially flourish with this topic as we learn about animals who can especially thrive in such low temperatures, such as in the North and South Poles. We look forward to this month's educational adventures!
Dragonfly Cottage News
December Recap
December was a month of diving deep into the forest! The Dragonflies learned about bears and how they live. We created a beautiful light project to show our free spirit creativity as a class. We really enjoyed showing it off and celebrating with our friends and family at the Festival of Lights and Winter Holiday Parties!
January Inquiry
Let's get messy! January is going to be a month of mud exploration! We don't have snow so the next best thing is mud! We will be making mud pies, mud playdough, and painting with mud. Please dress your child in play clothes while we explore all the fun ways to play with mud! The mud will wash off but the memories will last a lifetime!
Letter Wall
We will be creating a Letter Wall based off of the children's art and writing. Every child will get a letter and we will draw pictures to showcase that letter. Each letter/word/drawing will be laminated and create a beautiful presentation for our Letter Wall display.
Measurements
We will be learning and exploring our measurement skills this month. Comparisons will be used for quantities using length, weight, and height of objects. We will also increase vocabulary by using comparative terms such as more, less, taller, shorter.
Storytime- Parents Requested
We would like to invite any mommies or daddies to come in and read a story to the class during circle time. We are looking for parents to come in to be a mystery reader to the students. Please see Ms. Amanda for a time to come in or if you have any questions.