March Newsletter
Our Planet Earth
Things are BLOOMING here at The Learning Cottage for the month of March. We are so excited to welcome the beloved butterfly lifecycle lessons into the classrooms. The children will be in awe to watch and document their own classroom caterpillars grow and develop into beautiful butterflies. We are excited to see what Spring brings for our beautiful community.
An exciting visit from Jungle Gardens in Pre-K and Kindergarten classrooms is sure to be a highlight for March! To correlate with our monthly curriculum, they will bring live animals to visit the class for an educational and thrilling lesson on animals and what makes them unique.
There is so much to explore through the world of animals, their homes and their incredible features. We look forward to all the joy animals brings to children's love for discovery and imagination.
In this edition:
- Read Across America (Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss)
- March Birthdays
- Important Dates To Remember
- March Curriculum
- Family and Teacher of The Month
Read Across America
On this day, you are welcome to have your child participate with some ideas listed below to make fun literacy correlations.
- Funny Sock (Fox In Socks)
- Wacky Hat (Cat In The Hat)
- Go Green- WEAR ALL GREEN (Green Eggs and Ham)
- Crazy Hair (Thing One and Thing Two)
Lucky Little Birthdays
- Ms. Melanie 3/1
- Caden 3/5
- Ms. Erica 3/6
- Sydney 3/7
- Ella T. 3/7
- Ms. Kelcey 3/13
- Grant H. 3/15
- Bennett D. 3/16
- Lailah 3/19
- Ms. Andrea 3/20
- Aanika 3/22
- Makenzie Q. 3/25
- Camden 3/29
Important dates to remember
Spring Break
Jungle Gardens Visit
In-Service Staff Training
March Curriculum at a glance
Infant
As the infants begin their journey of color discovery and animal sounds these amazing activities will captivate little and growing minds!
Art: Let's Explore Blue
Under 6 months- Children will have many opportunities such as exploring blue items while enjoying tummy time, poems about the color, and finger paint.
Over 6 Months- will be included in the above activities as well as using toy pets to give them a "bath" with wet rags, making handprint animals and much more!
Literature: While also identifying animals and the sounds they make, our sweet babies will gather to enjoy stories such as: "Baby Pets!" "Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?", "Hello, Ocean Friends" and "Who Am I? Farm Animals".
Sign Language:
The following Sign Language will be practiced through stories and activities . Want to follow along at home? Find your flash cards by using the link below!
"bird", "cat" and "dog" "octopus", "whale" and "ocean"
https://www.babysignlanguage.com/flash-cards/
Motor/ Sensory Development:
Activities such as: Tummy Time, A Game Of "Give & Take", "This Little Piggy" and "Stack The Rings" will have our little ones engaged, active and motoring away!
Toddler I & II
Literacy:
Children in the Toddler programs will be delighted listening to stories such as; "One Dog Canoe", "Brown Bear", "In My Jungle" and many more! Through these fun and engaging stories, students will explore the world of animals and their habitats.Sign Language:
The following ASL signs will be practiced through stories and activities. Want to follow along at home? Find your flash cards by using the link below!
"bird", "cat" and "dog" "octopus", "whale" and "ocean"
https://www.babysignlanguage.com/flash-cards/
Art: Art will be created by utilizing the color and shape of the month to then create animals of each week's theme (pets from home, on the farm and in the ocean!) Children will have the opportunity to create blue birds, cats with whiskers and even a blue horse from our story book, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?". Literature, Math and Science will inspire the art in each young mind!
Science/ Math: Introducing and reviewing the number of the month, 8, will be so much fun as students count animals and their legs! In addition, they will use sign language cards each day (octopus, whale, ocean and circle), students will engage in early language and social studies by talking about the animals, their habitats and homes.
Color: Blue
Shape: Circle
Number: 8
Jr Preschool I & II
Art: Art this month will be comprised of utilizing the color and shape of the month to create animals of each theme! Children may create suncatcher jellyfish to hang in the classroom window, make handprint crabs and even make binoculars while going on an animal hunt in the jungle!
Math/Science: Oh this is going to be fun! Children will first create a large visual chart of "pets at home." Then will work on skills such as size sorting and counting animals in each biome they study. Project based lessons will be at the forefront as children will also compare and create animal x- rays, and identify the number of the month by spotting the cow with 8 white cotton balls!
Literature:
Early language skills will be fostered through stories such as: "Mister Seahorse", "Over in the Ocean" , "Big Red Barn", "Mrs. Wishy Washy's Farm" and "Down in the Jungle"!
Pre- Writing:
Children will use: cheerios as "Cat food" to follow and fill in a circle, tweezers and "worms" to feed the bird, painting with feathers and scoop and pour bird seed in transfer bins!
Color: Blue
Shape: Circle
Number: 8
Preschool
Literacy: Vocabulary and Phonemic awareness
Letters of the week: Xx. Qq & Ee
Students will gain phonemic awareness while studying each week’s letter sound and it’s correlating vocab. Children will create animal books and field documentation of their studies.
Stories:
“Michael Recycle”, “It Happened In a Rainforest”, “Save The Arctic” and “Compost Stew”
Math- Students will explore the number 8 and one to one correspondence. They will learn to see patterns around the world as well as learn to create patterns of their own. They will also place animals in size order.
Science- Ecosystems, lifecycles and camouflage.
Children will study the life cycle of a butterfly and explore all living things in 4 different biomes, while also learning vocabulary such as “predator”, “prey” and “camouflage”.
Art-By following each week’s continents, students will learn to recycle and use such recycled materials to create art. During the last week children will use their art time to plan out and create their very own class garden using “Compost Stew” and “Planting a Rainbow” as their guides. Artist of the month will continue to take it’s break as our children are inspired by the sounds of the rainforest, dolphins in the ocean and the African savannah while creating their upcycled projects
Pre-K
Literacy: Phonemic Awareness and Syllables
Letters of the week: Xx. Qq & Ee
Students will gain phonemic awareness while studying each week’s letter sound and it’s correlating vocab. By using the weekly vocab, students will learn to count syllables; helping them to become better future readers and writers! In addition, students will become field journalists by creating a book of their own, documenting their studies of the seven continents and the living ecosystems on them!
Stories:
“Michael Recycle”, “A Northern Alphabet”, “The Tree-Mendous Rainforest" and “Shark Lady”
Science- Ecosystems and Lifecycles
Children will study the life cycles of frogs and butterflies. They will also learn vocab such as “Predator/ Prey” , “Niche” and “camouflage”.
Math- Students will explore the number 8 through Montessori lessons. In small groups, children will work on identifying, creating and finishing patterns in addition to their continued work on simple math sentences.
Art: 7 Continents, Recycling and Sounds of the Earth
Weekly, students will be introduced to the 7 continents. While listening to “Sounds of the Earth”, children will create weekly continent portraits, sort recycling materials; and work together to create giant recycled pieces of artwork inspired by artist, Willie Cole, who turns “water to light” by creating chandeliers from recycled water bottles. Children will also have the opportunity to engage in photography inspired by “Kids National Geographic”, creating biome sets and working on still life art.
Kindergarten
Math I can:
Students will explore the mathematical concept of: Number names and the count sequence, understand subtraction as taking apart and taking from.
“I can read and write numerals from 0 to 20.”
“I can represent number of objects with a written numeral.”
“I can fluently subtract within 5.”
“I can use subtraction within 10 to solve word problems.”
Literacy I can:
Students will explore the concept of: Phonics and word recognition, demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes).
“I can count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words.”
“I can read common high-frequency words by sight.”
“I can distinguish between similarity spelled words by identifying the sounds of the letters that differ.”
“I can add or substitute individual sounds to make new words.”
Science and Cultural Studies I Can:
Students will explore the concept of: Historical Knowledge, compare then and now.
"I can Identify animal habitats and their ecosystem."
"I can gain understanding of different plant or animal life cycles"
"I can identify ways to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle"
Character Development
Children will play games that encourage them to work together to complete tasks or problem solve, sharing ideas.
Kindergarten:
In comes “The Team Of Unthinkables”!
Children will review and identify the cast of Unthinkable Characters who tend to sidetrack our brains in social thinking situations. Parents will be provided with a list of these fun characters to discuss at home as well. Students will be asked to self-reflect and identify which of these characters may invade their brain and then brainstorm with the teacher how to use superflex to help!
Life Skills
“A Green Environment”
In correlation with their study of our home planet, children will learn to sort recycling, conserve water, plant trees and gardens and keep our air clean.
Kindergarten:
Story Time Soccer
Spanish
Through One Third Stories (Pre-K) :
“Mr Logan wants to be a successful inventor. His newest invention, the time machine, will wow everyone at the Great Exhibition of 1851. But how can he prove that it works to the Victorian visitors? Mr Logan must travel to the future to bring back something amazing that will show off the power of his machine! ”
Kindergarten:
Lesson 9 - Foods & “I Like”
Children will navigate spanish words for common foods all month long, we will play grocery store, restaurant, sing songs in spanish about foods and so much more!
Try it at home: “Me gusta _______.”
Employee Of The Month
Ms. Liah
Ms. Liah is excited to be on our team here at The Learning Cottage! She has been with The Learning Cottage for almost a year and we are so happy to she took the leap into Early Childhood Education.
Thanks for all you do Ms. Liah!
Family Of The Month
The DiFiore Family
The DiFiore Family started Cade at The Learning Cottage in early 2021, in our Toddler program. It has been a joy watching his confidence grow as he confidently enters Pre-K each day. As their family grew and Carter joined our school, we have the honor of witnessing their coy smiles each morning and playfulness inside the classroom with their peers. DiFiore Family is thank you for being supporters of The Learning Cottage staff and early childhood education for over three years and many more to come!
When asked why they chose The Learning Cottage, they had this to say: "We never thought that the transition into a daycare setting would have been so easy and simple for us and for our oldest at 18 months. He went with no issues and the teachers that he had back then took him with open arms. When it came time for us to bring our youngest into The Learning Cottage family we didn’t even blink an eye. We knew we would wait for an opening for him. The Learning Cottage has helped and taught both our boys many things we couldn’t have done ourselves and watching them change right in front of our eyes due to the enormous support from all the staff that we have met and they have had along the way has been the key to their successes.
We can’t wait for Cade to carry on at The Learning Cottage in the Private Kindergarten class and watch Carter move through his next chapters with the leaps and bounds he has been making. The Learning Cottage truly has been the biggest blessing to us and we thank them everyday for taking care and making sure our little guys are always on the right path to success!"
The Learning Cottage
Peace. Love. Learning.
Education. Character. Community.Email: info@sarasotalearningcottage.com
Website: www.SarasotaLearningCottage.com
Phone: 941-343-2102