October Newsletter
2015 - 2016 Academic Year
Welcome October!
Fall Assessments
During the months of October and November, we will conduct our Fall assessments for the 2015-2016 academic year. We will be using the Teaching Strategies GOLD assessment throughout the school as the age range is from birth - Kindergarten. This assessment is also now the required assessment tool by the Department of Education for all VPK students. For VPK children only, this assessment must be completed in September and entered into the states system online by October 31st. Each year, this assessment is completed in the Fall, Winter, and Spring. It is kept in your child's portfolio 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. This year we have started 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 23rd, 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
Fall Portraits with Lifetouch Preschool Portraits
Perks for Families
1. Smile Safe Kids ID Card: Lifetouch has partnered with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and has aided in the search and recovery of children nationwide. Two safety ID cards are produced and provided for each student photographed - even if they do not purchase portraits and they are at no cost to the families.
2. Lakeshore Learning Gift: As a Fall promotion, if you pay for your portraits online at mylifetouch.com you will receive a free My Art Portfolio from Lakeshore Learning to store all your little one's artwork and keepsakes.
3. Multi-package Discount: If a family has received more than one portrait package, they may purchase the first complete package at $69 and any additional complete package at $34.50. Additionally, if a family has received more than one portrait package, they may mix and match portraits.
4. No Portrait Sales Event at School: All portrait packages will be sent home for you to review. This will allow you more time to decide on what sheets you would like to purchase.
5. Online reordering of portraits and gifts: Parents have the opportunity of reordering portraits online through a secure online payment website. Plus, you can purchase gifts online too! They have a lot of items to choose from such as mouse pads, mugs, playing cards, phone cases, photo books, etc.
6. Variety of Poses and Backgrounds: Children are photographed using three different poses and two different backgrounds. Parents will receive a portrait flyer that will show you the Holiday Glam background that will be used as well as four solid colored backgrounds to choose from. If siblings are being photographed you will also get to choose what background color you would like them to be photographed with. If you want your child to be photographed with a favorite toy or other item from home, please make note of that on the flyer. Lifetouch also gives you ideas of what to wear based on the background. If this flyer is not returned, the Lifetouch photographer will choose the background based on your child's clothing.
Perks for the School
1. Staff receive a complimentary portrait package.
2. Staff receive a complimentary staff ID badge.
3. Teachers receive 4 sticker portraits of each of their students to use in their classroom.
4. As a Fall promotion, the school will receive 15% of the sale of each portrait package.
Portrait Package Pricing
10 sheets - $69
7 sheets - $64
5 sheets - $55
3 sheets - $37
2 sheets - $25
1 sheet - $13
Portrait Shoot Schedule
Portraits will be taken on Monday, October 26th and Thursday, October 29th from 7am - 11am. Please find your child's portrait day below.
Monday, October 26th:
Crickets
Ladybugs
Dragonflies
M,W,F students
Thursday, October 29th:
Caterpillars
Butterflies
Bumblebees
T,TH students
Siblings
We will have sample portraits displayed in the front office so you can view the backgrounds that will be used in person.
Professional Day
On Friday, October 30th, The Cottages will be closed for a Professional Day. Our teachers and administrators will take part in trainings to learn new ideas and activities to bring back to your children at school. Thank you for supporting our efforts and commitment in staying abreast of the latest and greatest in early childhood education! We sincerely appreciate your understanding of how crucial it is for us to continue increasing our knowledge and education in this field in order to provide the very best for care and education your children.
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!
- 10/1 Sofia L. (Bumblebee Cottage)
- 10/6 Alyson F. (Bumblebee Cottage)
- 10/9 Madilyn H. (Caterpillar Cottage)
- 10/16 Lily D (Dragonfly Cottage)
- 10/18 Tommy K. (Caterpillar Cottage)
- 10/19 Ziva S. (Cricket Cottage)
- 10/22 Charlotte T. (Ladybug Cottage)
- 10/30 Ms. Felicia (Caterpillar Cottage)
- 10/31 Ms. Michelle (Office)
Cricket Cottage News
Welcome New Friends!
We would like to welcome our new friends Myla and Caleb to the Cricket Cottage! Myla has an older brother in our program who's in the Dragonfly Cottage and Caleb's family is new to our program. We are so glad that you’re here!
Topics
This month we will continue to explore textures in the Cricket Cottage. The Fall season gives us many opportunities to explore items such as pumpkins, leaves, pinecones, and acorn shakers. We will also explore our sense of smell using "smelly jars" with 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
Halloween Fingerplay
I saw a little ghost (hold hands over eyes)
And he saw me too! (Point to self)
When I said, "hi" (wave hand)
He said, "Boo!"
Art Experience
We are going to get messy while working on gross motor skills with younger infants and
fine motor skills with the older infants. We will be adding paint in Fall colors on a piece of wax paper and encourage our friends to paint with either their feet or hands. We will use the artwork to create leaves that will hang inour window to catch the sunlight.
Sign Language
During the month of October, we will be learning the signs for "bottle" and "eat".
Ladybug Cottage News
September Recap
September was a great month in the Ladybugs! We welcomed Kailee to our class and will soon be joined by Charlotte and Ziva from the Cricket Cottage. The children enjoyed discovering themselves during our mirror painting project as well as our wall mirrors. They love giving kisses to their reflection! We also introduced our treasure basket this month where the children explored a cow bell, wooden rings, fabric strips, wooden spoons, whisks, and metal scoopers. October is sure to be just as much fun if not more!
Exploring Our Senses
This month, we will be focusing on our senses of touch and smell. Throughout the
Ladybug Cottage during the month of October, you will see pumpkins and gourds
for the children to explore as well as smelly jars in our Science Area. For art, we will be making homemade scented fingerpaints. The Todfants will also use their sense of touch this month when we explore the inside of a large pumpkin. We can't wait to see what they think about the texture!
Homemade Fingerpaint Recipe
• 2 Cups Cornstarch
• 1 Cup Cold Water
• 4.5 Cups Boiling Water
• Liquid Food Color
• Mix Cornstarch and cold water together. Add boiling water one cup at a time stirring well until combined. Keep stirring until mixture reaches a custard like consistency. If it seems too thin, add cornstarch a little at a time until desired consistency. Separate into containers and add liquid food color to make desired colors.
Family Photos
Please bring in an updated family photo to share with the class or you can email it to Liz at liztcmlc@yahoo.com to be printed. We would love to add it to our family photo basket! This can include pets, grandparents, or anyone else who is special
to your child. The children have really been enjoying looking through the family
photos and being able to pick them up and touch them as opposed to just seeing them on the wall.
At Home Connection
We will continue practicing and introducing spoons at mealtimes with the Todfants. By practicing this skill at home and at school, the children will pick up on it much faster. Don't be surprised if they play with, bang, or chew on the spoon at first. This is a normal behavior until they become more familiar with how this "tool" works. The first skill they are learning is how to grasp and manipulate the spoon. Next they will be gaining the muscle control and hand-eye coordination of how to scoop with the spoon and then bring it to their mouth. These are big skills to learn but we know with continued practice and exposure they will catch on quickly.
Room Parent Needed
We are still in need of a Room Parent in the Ladybug Cottage. If you would like to help out with this position please let Ms. Christina know or send an email to michelle@thecottagespreschool.com. Thanks so much!
Caterpillar Cottage News
September Recap
The children had a blast with our shoe theme! We painted with shoes, socks, and our feet. We also continued with other self-help skills such as using a regular cup to drink out of and practicing putting our clothes on independently. Flubber was a big hit as well during sensory play. Please see Ms. Jamie for the recipe if you would like to play at home as well.
Topics
During the month of October, our main focus will be nature. The children will take nature walks and buggy rides to explore outside. Leaves, sticks, berries, and other items we discover will be collected to create sensory and art projects. Also, we will be studying squirrels such as what they eat and where they live.
Donations
We are in need of the following for the month of October:
- Bird seed for our furry friend Sammy the Squirrel
- Plastic snow globes at Michaels
- Pine Cones
- Small pumpkin gourds for Dramatic Play center
Art Boards
Every child has their own individual art board to display their works of art. The children love coloring, painting, and creating collages. Please be sure to check out your child’s art work every week and discuss with them how it was created. Example, ‘I see you used red paint”, “You made lines with your blue crayon”. By doing this, the children associate their actions with the spoken word and it helps develop a child’s vocabulary.
Pumpkins
Pumpkins will be incorporated into our nature theme this month. The children will discover what is inside pumpkins as well as create pumpkins to display in our Reading Garden. Picture books of pumpkins and other nature items will be added to our reading collection. Pumpkin ice cream will be a special treat we will enjoy during this month as well.
Family Photos Needed
Each child needs a family photo to add to our family display in the Reading Garden. Please send in a family photo (or two) that you don’t mind getting laminated. Thank you!
Butterfly Cottage News
Fall, Fall Everywhere!
To incorporate our knowledge about the Fall season, we will be going on an outdoor nature walk. We will collect various items from leaves to twigs and whatever we may come across. You can join the fun at home and send in your collection to add to our group collage. We will also be adding some of our own collection to our Science Center so that we can investigate our findings.
Leaf Song
(to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell)
The leaves are falling down
The leaves are falling down
Hi Ho the Derry-Oh
The leaves are falling down
So we pick the leaves back up
So we pick the leaves back up
Hi Ho the Derry-Oh
We pick the leaves back up
We throw the leaves back up
We throw the leaves back up
Hi Ho the Derry-Oh
We throw the leaves back up
We will be singing this song during circle times.
We will be using paper and fabric leaves to pick up
and throw around. Fun times!
Seek and Find
As we focus on the colors orange and black, we will also be observing the spaces and places around us. To do this, we will go on color hunts in our classroom as well as outdoors. Our friends will go on a search to find Mr. Pumpkin and our new friend, Sénor Bat! These two new friends will be visiting various locations in and around our cottage, so keep on the watch. You never know where they might turn up next!
Children will learn spatial awareness and positional terms such as above or over, under, and beside or next to.
Donations
• Cinnamon
• Pumpkin Pie Spice
• 1 Roll of heavy duty tin foil or parchments
paper
• 1 can cooking spray (vegetable or canola)
• Small bag of sugar
• Small container of salt
Thank you for your help!
It’s Pumpkin Time
Everyone is looking forward to our Pumpkin Parade at the end of this month and the Butterfly Cottage will be going pumpkin crazy! We will create pumpkin artwork, decorate our very own tiny pumpkin for the parade, and even get to explore all of the different parts of a pumpkin. For a super cool snack, we will make roasted pumpkin seeds. Yummy!
Fall is in the Air!
As we say goodbye to the hot days of summer, we are welcoming the cozy cooler days of Fall. During the month of October, the Butterfly class will be discussing lots of fun topics. We will focus on the colors black and orange and have a super fun time creating artwork with these two colors. To celebrate our Fall topic, we will also be learning about things we observe in nature during the change of seasons. And let's not forget the exciting Pumpkin Parade at the end of this month we will be preparing for!
Bumblebee Cottage News
September Recap
We have had a great start to the 2015-2016 Bumblebee academic year! We have had lots of fun meeting new friends and families. Everyone seems to be adjusting well and the class is settling in. We are a very happy and entertaining class and looking forward to our year together!
Plant Smiles~ Grow Giggles~ Harvest Love
During the month of October, we will be doing in depth studies of Fall inspired topics. We will have studies on apples, pumpkins, and corn. We will discuss each in detail by talking about how each one grows and do different math, science, and art activities to expand our knowledge. We will also be working with natural items such as sticks, leaves, and pinecones and would love families to share these items if you have some at home.
Pumpkin Parties and Parade
It's that time of year again! Please keep a look out for our donation and party list for our celebration. We would love to have a packed cottage full of our families and friends. Hope to see everyone on our parade route cheering us on!
Seasonal Still Life Art
We may not experience a total Fall change outside here in Florida, but inside the classroom we would like to bring Fall provocations to life! We will engage in different still life paintings using seasonal items such as apples, pumpkins, Fall colors, and flowers. We will use different materials such as paint, pastel crayons, and colored pencils. The final products are simply beautiful.
Creatures of the Night
During this month, we will take an in depth look at some of nature's most intriguing animals. These animals are our nocturnal friends and we will learn the difference between the terms diurnal and nocturnal. We will also graph and tally using these animals. We are anticipating a spooky time throughout this lesson!
Community Helpers
By participating in dramatic play with costumes and acting out behaviors of community helpers, children develop important social/emotional skills and are more comfortable with uniforms. Teaching children about strangers who have a concern for their safety is very important. We will take a look at the different types of uniforms worn by various officers and discuss their job duties. We may have future community helpers in our mist!
Dragonfly Cottage News
September Recap
September flew by fast for us Dragonflies. We were busy with VPK assessment period 1. We also completed a general skills assessment. The assessments were what we needed to divide the students into group levels according to their skill level. We learned all about ourselves in September. We started by learning about our feelings, friends and families. We made self portraits, and family pictures. We moved on to learning about our human bodies. During our human body unit we made brains, hearts, and lungs. It was really interesting learning all about our insides. Looking forward to next month!
Everything About Farms
This month we are going to start a farm project unit. We are going to learn about different types of farms; dairy, meat, fruits, vegetables, grains, and animal farms. We are going to learn about where our food comes from. We are tying the lessons we have learned about ourselves and our bodies from the previous months into this month by learning about where the food that nourishes us comes from. We will discuss healthy choices and healthy foods at the beginning of the month to bridge the topics.
Skill Based Small Group Time
In last month’s newsletter, we stated that we would be covering certain letters for the whole class. After reviewing assessment results and dividing the class into skill based groups, we have decided it will be best to teach letters based upon group. This will also be the case for math skills. Rather than writing the monthly class goals in each newsletter we will write the groups goals.
Pumpkin Party & Parade
We are looking forward to another year celebrating pumpkin fun during our pumpkin party & parade. Please bring in a black t-shirt for your child to decorate so they can wear it for the pumpkin parade. We will keep the finished t-shirts at school until the parade and then send them home after. The shirts must be in no later than the 12th of October. We will also need orange, red, white, and green fabric paint. If you are able to donate any of these supplies it would be greatly appreciated. Please let Ms. Gail know as soon as possible. Please also bring in a small pumpkin by 10/12 for your child to decorate for the parade. Thank you!
Reading Goals for the Month
Green Group- We will try to master all of the lower case letters and sounds. We will take apart compound words, combine syllables, and possibly begin to separate syllables.
Yellow Group- We will continue to learn all upper case letters as well as the majority of lowercase letters. We will continue to work on sounds of letters. We will continue to put compound words together, as well as take them apart. We will also be combining syllables.
Red Group- We will continue with letters D, J, I, L. When learning these letters we will be learning both upper and lowercase letters at the same time. We will also be learning the sound. (When talking about the sound we write /s/ for the “sssss” that the S makes). We will continue to put compound words together, as well as take them apart.
Blue Group- The blue group will also continue with letters D, J, I, L. When learning these letters we will be learning both upper and lowercase letters at the same time. We will also be learning the sound. (When talking about the sound we write /s/ for the “sssss” that the S makes). We will continue to put compound words together, as well as take them apart.
Math Goals for the Month
Green group- Continuing with one to one correspondence the green group will be seeing if sets are equal. We will be counting and constructing sets of 10-15. We will also be sorting, naming, and constructing 2D shapes. We will also be recognizing patterns and duplicating patterns with 2 elements.
Yellow Group- We will be continuing with one to one correspondence and seeing if sets are equal. We will be counting and begin constructing sets of 10-15. We will also be sorting, naming, and begin constructing 2D shapes. We will also be recognizing patterns and duplicating patterns with 2 elements.
Red Group- We will be continue to construct sets of 10-15 as well as seeing if they are equal. We will also be comparing sets to see if one has more or less. We will be sorting, naming, constructing and identifying the number of sides of 2D shapes. We will also be patterning with 2 elements and recognizing pattern units.
Blue Group- Continuing with one to one correspondence and seeing if sets are equal. We will be counting and constructing sets of 10-15. We will also be sorting, naming, and begin constructing 2D shapes. We will also be recognizing patterns and duplicating patterns with 2 elements.