Concept: Identifying Money
Shape: Star
Letter(s): Q, R, S
Number(s):
Ages(1-2): 7
Ages (3-4): 13, 14
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March 2
Happy Birthday
Dr. Seuss
March 7
Pre-K closed
Daycare Open
March 11
Don't forget to move your clocks ahead
one hour!
March 17
Welcome spring!
March 23
June 18
SAVE THE DATE
Pre-k Stepping-Up Ceremony
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March is here and we are looking forward to the arrival of Spring, as well as a month full of special events, holidays, monthly themes and activities. Spring begins with the Vernal Equinox at 12:15 p.m., on Tuesday, March 20th 2018 in the Northern Hemisphere.
T
his season brings increasing daylight, warming temperatures and the rebirth of nature. The word equinox is derived from Latin meaning "equal night." Days and nights are approximately equal everywhere and the sun rises and sets due east and west.
We had a fun February, here at CTK. We had an amazing transportation parade on Tuesday Feb.27th. Every class represented a different mode of transportation from the traditional to the creative. We had everything from race cars, taxi's, trains, hot air ballons....to cruiseships, rocket ships, bat mobiles, MTA bus, ambulance's, police cars, ice cream trucks, a safari jeep, plus many more.
Our Pre-K students enjoyed a visit from one of our favorite CTK school bus drivers, Miss Cheryl. They learned about school bus safety and got to take a fun ride around the CK campus. Of course they sang the wheels on the bus; and screamed with excitement when they hit the speed bumps.
This March promises to be an especially busy month at our school. We begin by celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday and making Green Eggs and Ham on Friday March 2nd.
We will continue with an author study of Theodore Geisel as we continue to read many of Dr. Seuss' books.
During the second week, we will celebrate Music and Dance Appreciation. The week will end with our St. Patrick's Day parade and dancing on Friday, March 16th. Preschoolers love to sing, make music, and move to the beat. They feel competent when they learn a new song, powerful when they pound a drum or shake a tambourine, and proud when they invent a new dance. As children explore and enjoy music, they can develop skills in other learning areas at the same time. Teachers and families can relate music to subjects as diverse as math, science, literacy and social studies.
During the 3rd and 4th weeks of March, we will learn about community helpers and end with our CTK shops on Friday March 23rd. We also welcome parents, guardians and grandparents to visit and tell us about their jobs as we learn about community helpers and what they do. Preschoolers love to have "jobs at school and home too!" They love to help out and learn so much, such as problem solving, compromising and contributing to the class or family group.
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- Please remember to make sure your child's cubby contains weather-appropriate clothing. In addition, please remember to label all coats and clothing. We also appreciate all of our parents continuing to bring in diapers and a box of wipes twice each month on the 1st and the 15th.
- When calling the facility, please keep in mind that calls should be ideally made between 12-2pm while the children are napping.
- We ask that you do not allow your child(ren) to run ahead of you when entering and leaving the facility, it is a safety issue. Especially when exiting the building, children should never open the security door.
- Strollers that are left in our storage area must be closed.
We thank you for your cooperation with these matters.
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Science with the Kitties
The Kitties have so much fun with science! This month we concentrated on identifying which items in our room would sink or float. We conducted a fun experiment to find out. We filled a bucket with water and each Kitty picked an item to drop into the bucket. Before they'd drop their selected item in, we would ask them if it would sink or float. No matter if it sank, like the toy car or tissue paper, or if it floated like the pom pom or cup, the Kitties would clap and cheer once the item was dropped in! Sometimes they would clap and cheer before it was dropped in, in anticipation of the water splashing! What a great time all of us had together!
Science with the Monkeys
The Monkeys really enjoy going to the Science center and learning all about science. In February, the Monkey's created an experiment to generate a rainbow. Using milk in a shallow dish, the children one at a time placed drops of food coloring in the milk. After that, the Monkey's place one drop of dish soap in the middle and found out what happens to the food coloring. The food coloring split into a rainbow. The children were laughing and said it was magic. Miss Diane asked the children what would happen if we put paint into the milk with the soap. "Will it have the same reaction? Will it still change colors, like the food coloring?" The Monkey's said, "Yes." We tried it, however, nothing happened. It just made a mess; but that's when the Monkey's have fun, after we make a mess.
Science with the Lions
February was all about love and our focus this month was science so we decided to combine the two for a super fun and interesting science project that truly had us dancing in our seats. We took some water, Alka seltzer and conversation hearts and the fun began! We started with crushing up the Alka seltzer and putting it into a glass and then had each child pick out a conversation heart candy and place it in the glass. Finally we added the water and waited to see what happened. Within seconds the hearts started to bounce, twirl and bob around like they were "dancing". The children had a blast watching their hearts dance around. They even made a game out of it. Once the hearts were dropped in they waited to see who's would jump first and who's would jump the longest. It was a very fun experiment that got the children thinking about things like: "What made them jump?" "Isn't the candy too heavy?" "Why did some of them jump longer than the others?" Albert Einstein said, "The important thing is to never stop questioning."
Science with the Pandas
In the month of February, the children learned all about Transportation. In the Science Center the children talked about how cars get cleaned. After talking about a car wash and after discussion the different objects used in a car wash, the panda's made their own car wash! They used tooth brushes, water, soap and shaving cream. They took toy cars from the block center and clean them with their tooth brushes and sent them in the car wash! The panda's had so much fun learning about a car wash and getting to make their own!
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Math with the Angels
Whether it is through music, flashcards or books, the Angels truly love to learn! One thing in particular that the Angels really enjoy doing is counting and doing math. This past month the Angels practiced their math skills in a fun and creative way. We placed six different color, large hearts on a table and six different colored, smaller hearts in a separate pile. The Angels then sorted the smaller hearts according to the color of the bigger sized heart. As the Angels sorted the hearts according to color, they practiced counting as well. The Angels had a blast while doing this project, and it truly did make learning fun!
Math with the Bumblebees
The Bumblebees practice math concepts in various ways each day. We count how many friends are in school each day, and the numbers on the calendar. At circle time, we also review our shapes. In the spirit of Valentine's Day the Bumblebees learned about the heart and its shape! We learned about its color, how it helps pump blood through our bodies, and that it is a symbol of love! We cut out many hearts of all different sizes and counted them. Since our number of the month was 6, Miss. Karolina asked each child to count 6 hearts and put them in a pile. They all did very well!
Math with the Bears
This month theme, 'transportation' was explored throughout all of the centers in the classroom. The students were able to engage in many multisensory activities. During small group, the students explored with the smart board as we discussed about different modes of transportation. The children discussed how we travel by air, water and land. The children then went into the math center and either made A-B or A-B-C patterns. The children had the opportunity to pick from different modes of transportation that we find in the air, land or water. The children had a good time picking different pictures to create their patterns.
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Art with the Bunnies
The Bunnies always have fun painting and making art projects!
Since Valentine's Day was right around the corner, we made cards with hands prints to form a heart and a foot print. The Bunnies also started using paintbrushes. We showed them how to hold the paint brushes and paint paper to make flowers, which eventually turned into finger painting. We hope the parents loved their gifts! The Bunnies also celebrated Chinese New Year. Since it is the year of the dog, they colored dogs' faces with red crayon
s. Keep up the good work Bunnies!
Art with the Dolphins
During the month of February, students explored the theme of "Transportation." In the art center, students used toy cars as paint brushes and painted tire tracks! It was awesome to see the various tracks left by different sized tires. Students also created steering wheels using paper plates, scissors, and paint. The Dolphins then created trains by gluing together different shaped papers to form a locomotive.
During the month of February students also celebrated Valentine's Day. After reading the story "Love Monster" students created their own Love Monster paper bag puppets. Students used red tissue paper, construction paper hearts, googley eyes, glue and scissors to create their love monsters! The students also had the option to create heart people using paper bags, glue and construction paper hearts. They were showing their creativity all month long!
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Music with the Snugglie II
Just like the past few months, February was very eventful for the babies of Snugglies II. We said goodbye to our old friends as they move up to the Puppy room, but we also say hello to some new friends!
This month, the babies of Snugglies II have been bonding with one another by joining together during music time! We have been having a great time singing songs with Mr. Kenny. We sing our songs, clap our hands, and smile throughout our whole music session! We look forward to spending more time with Mr. Kenny and learning more new songs.
Music with the Sunflowers
The Sunflowers really love music; whether it's singing nursery rhymes as a class, listening to the radio, or singing and dancing along with Mr. Kenny. The children are always asking Ms. Ally and Ms. Linda about when Mr. Kenny will be coming to the classroom next! They enjoy all of his songs, but their favorite song is called, "Sandpiper." The Sunflowers love this song so much that they started to ask Ms. Ally and Ms. Linda to put it on for them throughout the day so that they could sing along. Recently, when the children sit down for their afternoon snack, we have made it part of our routine to play "Sandpiper" for them! The Sunflowers truly enjoy singing and dancing along to this fun song! Not only do the children delight in the musical aspect of the song, but they also enjoy learning about sandpipers and where they live!
Music With tthe Ducks
In the month of February, we learned about transportation. We spoke about different vehicles and what we use them for. We played sound bingo, using different vehicle sounds such as fire sirens, boat horns, car horns, airplanes, cars, trucks, and motorcycles.
During music and movement time in the classroom, we played a freeze dance game using a traffic cop. We learned about traffic lights and what the colors mean on them. We played music and each child took a turn as the traffic cop, holding a red circle sign for stop, a green circle sign for go, and a yellow sign for slow down. The children would follow the rules of the road and watch which signs the traffic cop was holding. They would stop dancing on the red sign and dance fast on the green sign.
During music time with Mr. Kenny, he taught us a song about driving our car. We pretended to get in our cars, buckle our seat-belts and we sang a song about driving fast and driving slow. We went around the circle and said which color car we were. They had a great time!
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Technology Tots &
Athletes in Training
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Gym time with Puppies
The Puppies are always having a blast playing in the gym. It is a great place for them to play and get some
exercise
, especially during the cold winter days when they can not go outside. They are learning new ways of playing with each other, from playing catch to rolling balls to one another. Even the new babies are interacting and having a great time. They enjoy dancing to music, whether it be from the stereo or me singing "If You're Happy and You Know It". Along with dancing, the Puppies enjoy playing games together, their favorite being "Ring Around the Rosie."
Gym with the Chipmunks
The Chipmunks have so much fun during their Gym time. We do different activities like shooting the balls into the hoops and jumping over and running through the cones. What the Chipmunks like most, however, is riding in the cars. Since they enjoy this so much we have our own "Indy 500" car racing. Two children at a time go into a car. They are told to drive their cars from one end of the gym to the other, turn around and come back. The first one back is the winner. I say, "On your mark, get set, go!" and off they go, as fast as their little feet can take them. Their classmates yell, clap and cheer them on to victory. In doing this activity they learned how to take turns, root for each other, to do and give your best effort, and just have fun! We know they enjoy doing this activity because this is what they want to do first whenever we go to the Gym.
Gym with the Turtles
This month, the Turtles continued learning about cold weather. We also learned some new concepts including what we do for Valentine's Day and transportation. During gym time, we are continuing to play our usual, turn-taking games but we are putting a wintry spin on it! We changed the rules to Duck-Duck-Goose and made it so the person who was "it" was to pick the person they would like to be their Valentine.
When we used the cars, we had the children make a train by "connecting" multiple cars together and moving forward in unison. This not only taught the children how trains work but it also taught them how to work together as a team. We also had the children stand in a long line, holding the shoulder of the child in front of them and walk in an "S" shape around the gym to see the turns and curves a train could make. We practiced our jumping to go as high as airplanes and hot air balloons. We did races to go as fast as race cars. We also played games such as "Red Light, Green Light 123", which helps teach patience as well as what the different colors of a traffic light represent. This is a great link to our transportation theme. We even sat as two groups and worked as a team to "rock" back and forth as a boat would in the ocean. It was great fun for all!
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On March 20th Spring will officially be here! We will be spending more time outdoors, both in the morning and afternoon. For your child's comfort and safety, please have your child wear sneakers or rubber-soled shoes to school. This will enable your child to run, jump, and climb with less falls, bumps and scratches. Additionally, please check your child's cubby and be sure to remove and replace clothing that no longer fits and stock it with weather-appropriate clothing.
Physicals and Immunizations-
As a reminder, please submit your child's annual physicals and immunizations in a timely manner. We are mandated by the Department of Health to keep records of all physicals and immunizations. Please refer to our Health Policy. Your child will not be allowed to attend Day Care/Pre-School without the appropriate updates and forms submitted.
Medication-
As a reminder, if medication is required for allergies and/or asthma, a medication administration form must be filled out by your pediatrician. You can obtain one from the nurse or print one from our website. For all other medications, a doctor's note must be provided and medication must be in its original box/container. No medication will be administered unless protocol is followed.
Holiday Parties-
Many parents bring in treats for their child's class parties. Please keep in mind that we are a nut-free school when purchasing items or baking goodies. If your child has a food allergy, scan the foods that are available to your child at holiday parties.
Happy Saint Patrick's Day!
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Angels
One day while the Angels were in the gym, Matthew and Markus saw the letter M on one of the floor tiles. Immediately after seeing the letter, Markus shouted out "M is for Markus!" to which Matthew replied "No. M is for Matthew!"
Bears
To celebrate transportation the children had the opportunity to go on the Christ the King school bus. All the children were so excited to ride on a bus. After we finished, the children were all talking about how fun the bus was. Roman and Charlie were talking to each other. Roman told Charlie, "my favorite part was going bumping." Charlie asked, "What is bumping?" Roman said, "You know Charlie those yellow things on the road, the bumps thing." Roman then said, "Mrs. Kerin what are the yellow bumps things?" I said, "Those are called speed bumps and they are used for cars to slow down and not drive so fast." Roman said to Charlie, "My favorite part was the speed bumps," and Charlie said, "Yeah we went high."
Bumblebees
While we were reading a book about Groundhogs Day, we came across a character that was a skunk. Miss. Karolina asked the class if anyone knew what animal the skunk was and Jonah said, "squash!"
Bunnies
One day, at the beginning of nap time, Niles decided to go up to every child that was lying down, rub their back once and say, "Nice baby." Once he was done, he went to his own bed and fell asleep.
Chipmunks
At Circle time James was telling his classmates that on his way to school he jumped into a puddle and got his pants wet. (Rubbing his pants while speaking.) Then he said to me, "It's ok Miss. Nancy, my pants are fine!"
Dolphins
For Chinese New Year Ava brought in chocolate coins in red envelopes as part of a tradition! Jacob opened up his envelope and cheered, "Chocolate!" and broke the coin to share with his friends.
Ducks
The Ducks had so much fun with their freeze dance traffic light game. Mathias said, "I want to dance like a shark." Carlos said, "I want to dance like a big fish.
Kitties
Recently, two children named Ashley have moved into the Kittie room. While learning each other's names, we ask the children to point to the child we name. We have the most fun when we say Ashley or Lucas to see how many kids will point at which Ashley or which Lucas. The funniest is when Lucas L. points at himself! He's so proud when we call his name!
Lions
One afternoon, at snack, Riley was eating a yogurt and singing the "Mommy Finger" song. She wound up getting some yogurt on her fingers. She looked at it, shrugged her shoulders and started singing, "yogurt finger" instead.
Monkeys
After getting his hair done, Miss Sara said, "Steven who did your hair?" Steven said, "The Barber."
Pandas
On February 8th, for our monthly theme Transportation, the Panda's got the chance to go on a school bus! All of the Panda's were super excited and were shouting "We Love School Buses!"
Sunflowers
One day during afternoon snack, Ms. Ally accidentally tripped over one of the chairs in the classroom. Mia turned around and looked at Ms. Ally and said, "Oh my gosh, Ms. Ally! Are you okay? Should we call Nurse Anna!?" Ms. Ally told Mia that there was no need to call the nurse and that she would be just fine!
Turtles
One Friday, Emily approached Miss Samantha and told her that she would like to be the teacher. Miss Samantha said Emily could take a few minutes to pretend to be the teacher right before dismissal. Emily was so excited to know she could be the teacher for a little while. Emily went up to her friends and told them, "I'm going to be the teacher later, but I'm not playing, I'm being real!"
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