May Newsletter
2018-2019 Academic Year
Of all the special joys in life, The big ones and the small, A mother's love and tenderness Is the greatest of them all.
Mother's Day Tea
On Friday, May 10th, The Cottages will be hosting a Mother's Day Tea for all the loving Mommies we have at The Cottages. Moms are invited to spend time with your child in their cottage at 3:30pm for a special tea to honor this holiday. A sign-up sheet is posted in the office to RSVP if you are able to attend this event. We wish all of the wonderful Moms and Grandmothers a very special Mother’s Day!
Teacher Appreciation Week
Teacher Appreciation Week is scheduled for the week of May 6th - May 10th. We feel so incredibly blessed to have such an amazing teaching team at The Cottages. They truly go above and beyond to ensure our kids have the best care and education. Please join us in celebrating our teachers for all their hard work and dedication. The Cottages teachers are the BEST!!! Thank you to all our families who will help make this week extra special and amazing for our wonderful teachers.
Summer Camp Is On It's Way!
As the academic year comes to a close, preparations are underway for Summer Camp. The summer calendar is almost completed and it’s looking like it’ll be another fun-filled summer at The Cottages! Keep an eye out as a Summer Camp Info Packet will be coming home later this month sent via email. You will want to keep it handy throughout the summer as it will outline special in-house field trip days, water play days, theme days, and much more!
Memorial Day - School Closed
Just a friendly reminder that The Cottages will be closed on Monday, May 27th in observance of the Memorial Day holiday. We will reopen on Tuesday, May 28th. We wish you a fun and safe holiday weekend!
VPK Graduation - School Closes Early @ 3pm
Our Dragonfly Cottage students will be graduating on Friday, May 31st! This is a reminder to all families that The Cottages will be closing at 3:00pm this day in preparation for the big event.
Mark Your Calendars
- 5/6-5/10- Teacher Appreciation Week
- 5/10 - Mother's Day Tea at 3:30pm
- 5/28 - The Cottages closed for Memorial Day
- 5/31 - Graduation Day. School Closes Early at 3:00pm
- 6/10 - Summer Camp Begins!!!
- 6/14 - Man of My Life Celebration at 3:30pm
May Birthdays!
” Wishing you a day filled with happiness and a year filled with joy.”
- 5/4 - Easton I.
- 5/13 - Cameron C.
- 5/15 - Savannah N.
- 5/20- Karter B.
- 5/20- Charlie H.
- 5/23 - Christopher H.
Happy Birthday to our friends born in May!
Cricket Cottage News
May
We are introducing a new toy this month called the Hide and Seek Beehive. This toy helps the infants understand object permanence by placing the bees in the beehive then retrieving them by reaching in and pulling them out. They are there and always return. We will also do basic counting skills while chanting: Inside the beehive I hear a bee buzzing inside Where no one can see Here it comes flying out the door! How many are thereon or more?
Happy Mother's Day
Happy Mother’s Day to all of our amazing Cottage Moms! We appreciate and value what you do each and every day. We plan to work with your child on a top secret project from them to you. Please join us for our Mother's Day Tea on Friday, May 10th at 3:30pm.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
This month we will be reading all about The Hungry Caterpillar and how it transforms into a beautiful butterfly. We will read and sing about The Itsy Bitsy Spider and 5 Green and Speckled Frogs. Our infants love to hear songs with interactions and listen to stories. They will be crawling through our colorful tunnel and play with the musical egg shakers and bells.
It Feels like Spring!
While we have this beautiful weather we will be enjoying our mornings outdoors getting plenty of fresh air while going on our nature stroller rides. We hope to have fun indoors too by introducing some water play for the older infants. For the younger ones who can sit in the high chair they will play with water in the high chair trays.
Hide and Seek Beehive
We are introducing a new toy this month called the Hide and Seek Beehive. This toy helps the infants understand object permanence by placing the bees in the beehive then retrieving them by reaching in and pulling them out. They are there and always return We will also do basic counting skills while chanting this poem:
Inside the beehive
I hear a bee buzzing inside
Where no one can see
Here it comes flying out the door!
How many are there?
One or more?
Friendly Reminders
Just a reminder as the warmer weather is upon us, to be sure your child’s extra clothes are weather appropriate.
Bottles must have your child’s first and last name on them.
Child's initials on bottle tops and pacifiers .
Diaper creams and medication will need to have medication forms filled out and signed.
Ladybug Cottage News
Ladybug Cottage- Blossoming Like Spring Flowers
April Recap
This past month the Ladybugs really got into their messy play, whether it was water in bins or shredded confetti and glue paint. One experience that seemed to truly stimulate them was indoor/outdoor water play with an added twist – as a treasure box item, each todfant was given his or her own personal bucket to explore with! We switched up scenarios each time we used these to keep the kids interested, one day adding plastic animals and sponges to the buckets of water, another day leaving them around the outdoor lanai to be “found” and done with as the ‘bugs pleased.
So much of what the ‘Bugs did decide to do with the buckets was not only creative and adorable, but also so, so educational. When carrying around balls or stuffies in the buckets, the todfants were engaged in comparing and measuring, as well as when pouring water in and out of them. When they played with water and sponges, they were learning about the properties of physical objects and using tools appropriately. Understanding that each child could have one bucket and not take buckets from friends encouraged positive interactions with peers . . . and so on and so forth.
Art
In the realm of art, the todfants have continued using finger paints and have added shredded paper and glue to their creations. We know sometimes your little ones come home with streaks of paint on them, no matter how hard we’ve tried to clean them up! Rest assured that by acting as artists and creating during their work-as-play day, each child’s self-confidence is blooming like a spring bouquet. When we display their works on our walls or comment upon them – “Look at this WONDERFUL picture Tommy made!” we are validating their ability to act upon their environment, create, and also celebrating their individuality. We can tell they are so, so proud of themselves when they have made anything that is truly all their own! Remember - creation equals self-worth.
Our Leading Babies - Little Lords & Ladies & Socio-dramatic Play
This May, we will be focusing more on an aspect of the creative curriculum that is always present, yet sometimes undervalued in importance – imitation and socio-dramatic play. The Ladybugs love pretending and imitating adults and, in fact, have several games they play amongst themselves and with us that replicate regular home and social routines. For example, one of our “older” Ladybugs has taught the others how to pretend to go to sleep – to lie on the floor, close their eyes and pretend to snore! Then they sit up and stretch and “wake up.” Other pretend games they enjoy is “cooking” (washing play food in the sink and then serving it) and “picnic potluck” – sitting in small groups and pretending to eat different foods. They offer the toy foods to each other and even act as if those foods are yummy!
Like almost all play (we might argue all), these games serve educational purposes. They reinforce your youngsters’ understanding of how people live and of the routines that make us unique as humans. They also promote the social graces that todfants and toddlers are trying very hard to understand. Adding to these games are one way Ms. Jessica and Ms. Joanne can help your babies learn some simple rules of friendship – at this age, sharing and turn taking. What we plan to do is construct a few new pretend games wherein we model sharing behavior. For example, we teachers will pass a (popular and coveted) toy back and forth several times, playing with it in between and then play with it together. The todfants – who at this age aren’t yet skilled in sharing (especially of toys) – will, of course, watch what we are doing and then imitate our “game.” The creative curriculum uses play as its primary learning process, and your tiny students notice, absorb and eventually mimic all that we – or any of their peers – do. Nothing escapes their notice; their processing methods (and eventual conclusions) just vary.
We also have found some simple costumes in our resource room and are looking for any kinds of dress-up clothes (hats, vests, etc.) we can use to liven things up. Please continue to donate your old paper towel rolls and cardboard insets … There is no shortage of what we can use these for between art and imitation play! If you’d like to see some of these adorable games in action at home, ask your youngster if they are “eating pretend food” or “going to the store” during your own playtimes and see what they do!
Singing Makes Us Happy – and Smart, Too
Those songs and nursery rhymes that have been around since our parent’s parents were children are still relevant – and brilliant – today. We’re focusing on two songs this month, each one with its own objectives. The first, “If You’re Happy and You Know It” is one the ‘Bugs know and have been practicing in the classroom for awhile now. The beauty of this song is that it serves as a fun, musical way to practice gross motor skills – exactly the kinds of skills that one-year-olds will need throughout their toddler and early childhood education. It is also potentially endless – we add skills as the group masters each previous one. The todfants can clap their hands, stomp their feet and shout “Hooray!” … but also flap their arms, touch their toes, spin around, etc. With each new skill, your Ladybug refines their physical graces, learns more about what their body can do, grows in self-assurance, learns to follow simple directions – and most importantly has a whole lot of fun. No one knows who wrote this catchy children’s song, but some claim it is a (very old) reworked Latvian folk song! Who knew?
“The ABC Song” is also one that several of the Ladybugs recognize and respond to already (probably from you, our excellent children’s excellent parents). This simple masterpiece dates to either 1834 (Charles Bradlee – The Schoolmaster) or 1761 when the tune was first published (sans author). Several songs have borrowed this memorable melody over the years such as “Baa Baa Black Sheep” and “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.” Some even think Mozart adapted the tune himself in 1785 for his own song, “Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman!” Anyway, this rudimentary song is one we plan on singing and playing more often in the classroom to expose your todfant to the sounds of the letters of the English alphabet.
The younger your babies are when they hear these letters in the correct order, the more ingrained they become in their memory. Our brains remember songs and rhymes more easily that simple spoken knowledge which is why this song is a school staple! Singing to the todfants as opposed to lecturing them (ha!) fits in well with the creative curriculum and we are excited to see if they end up singing along with us as they do to other songs they like. We will also be handling letters – literally – in the guise of large foam toys. It doesn’t so much matter right now whether they recognize or name the letters they are playing with, only that they see them and observe their shapes as they play with them.
Question of the Month: What is the Most Important Thing I Can Do at Home to Help My Child Thrive?
This question is near and dear to Miss Jessica’s heart due to her educational and career background in psychology and status as a parent of a pre-schooler. There is ONE thing that is more important than anything else you can do for your little learner that precedes all others (though reading to them daily is a solid second). Plan on taking a set amount of time every single day to give your child your absolute undivided attention. Likely, your day is long and hard, and it is a mad rush when you get home to feed yourselves and your little ones in order to get ready for the next day. We can relate to that! We are all busy surviving and providing for our families and we all want to give our babies everything they need.
For most of us, unfortunately, surviving means we have limited time we can allocate to anything. One thing we can do, however, is put aside a few minutes every day to turn off the distractions of daily living (phones, iPads, the television), look our children in the eyes and simply be with them – it doesn’t matter if it’s playing, cuddling or talking, as long as they are our center of attention. A daily 15 minute investment will make a world of difference to your kids, self-esteem-wise, which will lead to more success in school - and will be a commitment no parent will ever regret.
(Super Cottage parent, Emmalee, gave me this tip and I have used it myself with great results – maybe it will be helpful for you, as well: Use a timer to time out your 1:1 time with your child. This way not only are you ensuring your baby gets your attention daily, but there is a stop and start time you can control – especially since given a choice, your kids will never want that time to end!)
Ms. Jessica Eckhoff, BA & Ms. Joanne Pettit, BA
Caterpillar Cottage News
April Recap
Spring has come and we were engaged on a plant and flower inquiry! Therefore, we were inclined to turn our attentions to new life springing up all around us. We took this opportunity to learn about the plants and flowers all around us. We also introduced to the children the life-cycle and parts of the plants. Our minds bloomed this month!
May Inquiry
We learned about plants and their lifestyles. Next step is we’re going to learn and explore nature’s wildlife that is nurtured by Earth’s elements. This includes birds, squirrels, rabbits, worms, butterflies, frogs, and ducks. The children will be intrigued by the wildlife’s home by exploring sensory experiences. We will be able to witness one of nature’s magical lifecycles by raising and releasing monarch butterflies.
Sensory Exploration
The children will be intrigued by the wildlife’s home by exploring sensory experiences. We will gather sticks outside to build a birds nest. Sensory table will be filled with dirt and some water to create a perfect home for slimy and slippery worms. We will use hay materials for a rabbits home as well as gather leaves and soft nature items for a squirrels nest inside a tree. Water sensory experiences will be enhanced by adding frogs and ducks. The senses, being explorers of the world, open the way to knowledge.
Monarch Butterflies
The life cycle of a butterfly is one of the most magical transformations and it is amazing for children to witness and learn about. We will find, identify, observe, and describe the caterpillars lifestyle each day. We will enhance our butterfly vocabulary such as metamorphosis, chrysalis, and name the parts of the butterfly! Final step we will be releasing the monarch butterflies back to nature.
Art and Fine Motor Experience
When we were learning about the caterpillar stage, we created button caterpillars out of pipe cleaners, buttons, and beads.
Water Feeder
This unique hanging bird feeder attracts thirsty fliers of all species; birds, butterflies and bees will stop and have a drink of fresh water from this easy DIY project. Water feeder materials we will be using: an old pie pan, smooth stones, a grape vine wreath and some twine. We will be hanging the water feeder from the oak trees branch on the toddler playground with a perfect view from our classroom.
Water Play
It's hot outside! The summer weather is starting. Water tables are a great way to cool down in the heat while we play outside on the playground and we love exploring this fun sensory activity. Please make sure your child has short sleeve shirts, shorts, and sunscreen on for our outdoor play this month.
Butterfly Cottage News
April
April was full of baby animals and bright colors! The butterflies impressed us so much with their knowledge, memory and empathy of nature and they were so passionate about exploring more of it with us! We searched high and low on the playground for caterpillars, birds nests and even centipedes! We collected something amazing they found outside to bring into our learning centers or art almost every day! Our mini nature books we created so we could document everything that was seen were FILLED with so many drawings that were VERY recognizable animals and bugs. Such impressive work for two and three year olds! We “washed” baby animals in the water table and sang, "Five Little Birds". We made our very own nest with play dough eggs in it and even experimented with REAL eggs! We strung Easter colored beads on string instead of pipe cleaners this time! The letter B was so easy for us to learn and we were pointing it out everywhere. “Caterpillar” and “grow” were our favorite ASL words to learn last month!
Social/Emotional
Some social issues we wanted to touch base on, as our butterflies are getting older, we might hear more often, "you’re not my friend," or "you’re not coming over”. This sometimes may even result in pushing, hitting or crying because feelings are hurt. We are always trying to encourage nice words and tell the students we are all best friends and hands are for hugging not hurting. We often talk about emotions and how to handle them like moving away from a child who is having a hard time or just coming to tell the teacher if someone said something that hurt your feelings instead of retaliating. Please remind children as often at home to use kind words and hands and ways to cope like squeezing a pillow or stuffed animal or walking away to read a book or listen to music.
Year in Review
We're going to go out with a BANG! This month! We decided to do a “recap” of the whole school year for the month of May! A little bit of our favorite subjects we covered through the whole year such as All About Me and going over our favorite activities like drawing and compare them to the beginning of the years drawings. We will bring back some light and shadow activities like dancing and tracing shadows and light table activities with magnets with more vibrant colors than the ones we did back in December! Nursery rhymes on felt boards at circle time and silly songs we've forgotten. We absolutely loved such as, "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear" and "Ants go Marching"! We will go over our ASL words we learned back in February like "friendship" and "I love you" and even introduce the whole ABCS! We will introduce more cutting with scissors on play dough and finally some paper to ensure they are ready for the next classroom!
Additional Fun Activities
To help them identify numbers, we will make a booklet called
“Little Book of Numbers” where they can glue, write and count assorted items into the booklet. We will continue learning to spell and write their names in different exciting ways like a rain cloud and add rain drops with their letters hanging from string. We will be planning some fun days this month too, so look out for some dates posted in our classroom like crazy hair day and silly sock day!
Thank You
Our little butterflies will soon turn into BIG bumblebees and it all happened so fast! We literally watched them sprout from being toddlers to “preschoolers” with more unique and brilliant personalities everyday! We want to truly thank all the amazing parents, we could not of done it without your support and happy faces in the morning and more importantly at the end of the day! A BIG piece of them will forever be in our hearts!
Bumblebee Cottage News
April Recap
In April, we visited our solar system as we learned about how the earth's rotation affects where it's day and night in the world. We tracked the moon through its phases and noted how it moved from waning crescent to new, full, and back to waning crescent in order to understand what a "month" looks like. We discussed different planets in our solar system, what makes craters on the moon, and the fact that our very own sun is a star. Then, we turned our focus back to our planet Earth in plenty of time for Earth Day and talked of ways to be good stewards of our home. These ways included being sure to throw trash away and/or recycle, saving paper by using both sides, turning out the lights when not in use, as well as the faucet. The Bees have been taking an active interest in the living creatures here on Earth. Impressive structures have been created in the block center, delight taken in the scientific exploration of mixing paint to create art as well as a means to express what we value, the animal replica figures have been a wonderful way to process what we are learning every day.
May Alphabet Review
We have reached the end of the alphabet, yet many of the children are showing much alphabet knowledge. We had taken a brief hiatus with a themed word as the sign-in, yet will be resuming this for the last academic month of the school year. This helps to extend their understanding of the alphabet and give them ample opportunity not only to practice spelling both old and new vocabulary. Even for our younger Bees, spelling a variety of words helps them to gain a deeper appreciation for the uses of the alphabet in the context of writing beyond their own names. Therefore, we will continue to give opportunities to experience how text is meaningful and can be read, as well as with increasing familiarity with letters and their sounds as we review the alphabet as a whole.
Sharing is Caring
In order to be ready to truly learn, the development of social-emotional skills (such as in self-regulation) continues to be a primary focus. One way we have been supporting this is by been honing our skills in taking turns and sharing with our "Yellow Puppy" stuffed classroom pet. A popular item such as this is a great opportunity to allow children to "see" turn-taking take place. A small list of names of children who are interested in the beloved mascot is posted and referred to often. Each child takes a 5-minute turn with the puppy before being given the reminder of when the next friend gets to have a turn. This relatively quick exchange of turns with this toy allows for all children to see how sharing and turn-taking happens. Seeing their names on the list gives a visual reminder of whose turn is next and allows all children the opportunity to see and practice this important skill.
Creepy Crawlies
The children have become increasingly fascinated with the insects, bugs, and caterpillars which visit our playground. From earthworms making the soil soft for plants to grow, to busy pollinators such as bees and butterflies, many of our Bees are enchanted by these little creatures. This provides a great opportunity for a closer look at metamorphosis as seen in the Eric Carle book, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." With this as a springboard for our inquiry, we will begin to consider ladybugs that have also been seen in varying stages of metamorphosis on our playground. The Tussock Moth, another regular visitor, will be a topic of inquiry, as will be the variety of pollinators we love to observe at a distance such as wasps and bees, in addition to how to telling the difference between each. As always, safety will be the primary concern while we begin to learn about these helpful garden buddies!
It's Warming Up!
A reminder to families that with the rising temperatures, the mornings may still be a bit chilly, but the afternoons can scorch. Therefore, this may require a change of cooler clothes, if you have not done so already. It also helps to have a dry set of clothing handy as, in addition to getting messy, water activities may result in soaked garments. Finally, please be sure to apply sunscreen and leave a bottle with your child's name for re-application later in the day, as needed. Medication authorization forms for this can be found in the office with Ms. Liz. We thank you for your attention to these details as we continue to provide fun and inviting learning experiences for our little Bees.
Dragonfly Cottage News
Graduation
We have been practicing very hard for graduation! I’m sure many parents have been asked to play the “dragon song” at home. This is one of our graduation songs and if your child would like to practice at home the song is, "Into a Fantasy", by Alexander Rybak. Please keep an eye out for graduation Information on out parent bulletin. We are so excited and so are all the dragons. Please feel free to ask us if you have any questions or concerns.
End of the Year Farewell
Wow! We can’t believe it’s our last month together! Time surely does fly! We’ve had one of the best years together! So many memories were made! We are so grateful of all our Dragon families! So much love and support all year long! We just can't put into words how wonderful this year has been! Thank you for trusting your little Dragon's with us! We will miss them all!
- Ms. Manda
Thank You
My heart is so full writing my part of the last newsletter for 2018-2019 VPK school year. This year has been extraordinary! I was definitely blessed to have such a wonderful dragonfly family this year. The students made me step up my teaching game and I am so grateful for everyone of them. This is a group of funny, intelligent, outgoing children and all of their futures are full of endless possibilities! I have no doubt in my mind that each child is ready to move onto kindergarten. I would like to thank the parents for making this year amazing! From all the donations, support, and teamwork you all helped make the VPK experience the best it could be. The dragonfly families this year made me feel comfortable and confident in my teaching and for that I am beyond grateful. This year also wouldn’t have been possible without my miraculous co- teacher Ms. Amanda. She is a teaching Goddess! She has helped me grow so much as a teacher and a person. Any child she comes in contact with is going to have a positive experience and take away so much from the experience. She inspired me, taught me everything I know, and most importantly made our classroom a magical and thriving environment. I know every parent saw first hand this year just what a wonderful gift Ms. Manda is to the felid of Early Childhood Education. Ms. Amanda, I am so fortunate to be able to have you as a mentor and friend! Thank you dragonfly class of 2019 for the unforgettable year and great memories!
Love,
Ms. Gabriella
Dear Dragonflies
We will miss your smiles, your laughter, and your hugs. We will miss your stories of weekend adventures and your bright happy eyes when you talk about something that makes you happy. Always remember to go into anything BRAVE! With your heart open and full of confidence. All of our Dragon's are going to do something to make this world a better place! This class was filled with children that had big hearts of magic, empathy, and love! Kindergarten classrooms will be so lucky to have such wonderful, mindful children! You all are ready to let your wings fly!
Much love,
Ms. Manda & Ms. Gabriella
To Ms. Gabriella
Your natural teacher light is a gift to have in our classroom! Thank you for supporting me, helping me, and being a perfect co-teacher. The children and myself are lucky to share this year with you! I couldn't have done it without you!
Love,
Ms. Amanda
BE BRAVE- BE CREATIVE- BE KIND- BE THANKFUL- BE HAPPY- BE YOU!